Massive project extended to 2016: Vale – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – October 13, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale’s $2-billion environmental project in Copper Cliff remains a go, but its completion date is being extended into 2016, the company said Friday.

“To mitigate risks associated with the (Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction) project, we now intend to take some additional time to complete the project, both to better position ourselves for success and to address short-term cash-flow constraints in light of current market conditions,” Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said Friday.

“The end result of this approach is a change in schedule for some of the gas capture components of the project to align with our scheduled planned maintenance period in September, 2015.

“The (planned maintenance period) is the available window to complete the final tie-in work, so that all of the new systems will be ready for start-up and commissioning once the September 2015 (planned maintenance period) ends. The end result will mean the project will be completed in 2016 instead of the end of 2015.”

The massive project will modernize Vale’s Copper Cliff smelting complex and result in a significant reduction in sulphur-dioxide emissions.

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Timmins citizens grill Goldcorp over plans for Hollinger open pit mine – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – October 12, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Uncertainty and mistrust were two of the overriding issues that seemed to dominate a public meeting held Thursday night in Timmins to discuss the plan by Goldcorp to turn the old Hollinger Mine property into a massive open pit operation.

The meeting was almost confrontational with at least one citizen pledging to become an outspoken “pain in the ass” to protest Goldcorp’s mining plan.

The meeting was hosted by the Hollinger Project Community Advisory Committee (HPCAC) as an 11th hour attempt to gather more public input on the project that Goldcorp is hoping to have up and running before Christmas.

Although the meeting at the McIntyre Ballroom lasted nearly three hours, there were less than 100 residents at the meeting. Those that did attend managed to pepper the Goldcorp and City of Timmins employees with a barrage of questions. One Goldcorp employee agreed the meeting was intense, but suggested it was “only a vocal minority.”

The uncertainty at the meeting appeared to come from the fact that many residents asked pointed questions about how the project might affect them, but Goldcorp staffers were unable to provide specific or absolute answers because there are many issues and studies not yet completed.

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Gold: The new asset class for the confused – by Diane Francis (National Post – October 13, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Pierre Lassonde, one of the world’s foremost experts on gold, says the only way is up for the shiny stuff.

He should know as he has made his fortune in the gold game. This week he spoke at a mining seminar in Toronto organized by mining consultant Terry Ortsland, chair of the Mineral Resource Analyst Group.

As a director of a gold company, I am fascinated with the shiny stuff. It’s a barometer of fear and a replacement for paper currencies. Its price moves up or down on bad news and good news and drives the value of gold stocks, but only to a certain extent. And in a tumultuous world of financial, stock market and sovereign meltdowns, gold has been a rising star. Investors have branched out from real estate, equities, bonds and art into gold. I call it the new asset class for the confused.

Lassonde is still a believer, but deconstructed shifts in its market. “There’s been a decoupling of equities from gold prices,” he said. The supply-demand situation is clearly pointing to ever-increasing prices but not necessarily for gold producers.

Lassonde ran Newmont Mining Corp for five years (“it nearly killed me”) and is currently chair of Franco-Nevada, a company he co-founded with Seymour Schulich in 1982.

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Rick George Book Excerpt: Hannah’s hyperbole and Cameron’s hypocrisy – (National Post – October 13, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

 In his new book, Rick George, chief executive of energy giant Suncor Energy Inc. for 21 years, takes aim at some of the oil sands higher profile critics who he says often fudge the facts and don’t practice what they preach.

The following is an exclusive excerpt from his book Sun Rise, which goes on sale Saturday

Actor Daryl Hannah managed to get herself arrested in front of the White House in the summer of 2011 for protesting against construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. assume that many people who neither knew nor cared about either the pipeline or the oil sands were drawn to the story of her arrest based on recognition of her name. If that was the case and they read beyond the headlines to absorb some of her reasons for protesting, they were unknowingly being fed a litany of exaggerated claims and questionable “facts.” Here are the statements she delivered to U.S. media sources, followed by accurate responses that no one in the United States, to my knowledge, employed to repudiate her claims:

“It’s well documented that the tar sands itself is one of the world’s largest ecological atrocities and disasters.”

If she meant the existence of a trillion barrels or so of bitumen within a wilderness setting, she may have had a point — but an empty one. The sands have been there for a few million years, after all. I suspect, however, that she was referring to the development of the oil sands by Suncor and other firms as a means of providing North Americans with petroleum-based energy.

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Converting part of TransCanada’s Mainline could fuel domestic use – by Claudia Cattaneo National Post – October 13, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Canada has been so stuck on the idea that energy development depends on boosting exports to the United States and Asia that the obvious other option, increasing domestic use, has been getting less attention than it deserves.

That option will be thrust to the top of the national agenda if TransCanada Corp. moves ahead with plans to convert parts of its underutilized Canadian Mainline system from gas to oil transportation, which could be ready for takeoff by the end of the year.

The conversion would send a river of Western Canadian oil — up to one million barrels a day — to Central and Eastern Canada, pushing out 700,000 barrels a day of crude imports from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya and Nigeria. It would build on smaller, similar plans by competitor Enbridge Inc.

The Mainline conversion would be so large in scope and bring so many benefits — lower gasoline prices and lower heating bills in the East, more profitable refineries, a secure market for Canadian oil, more jobs and more government revenue — it would truly distribute Canada’s oil wealth.

Why hasn’t it been done sooner? It used to be cheaper to import oil than to move it across the country. But with world prices now exceeding Canadian prices by as much as a third, controversies dogging new projects and the $6-billion Mainline at risk of becoming a stranded asset, recycling existing pipe is making a lot of market sense.

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[Ontario] Come together to break apart – by James Bow (Kitchener Post – October 11, 2012)

http://www.kitchenerpost.ca/

The cancellation of the Ontario Northland train between Toronto and Cochrane has raised whispers in the northern Ontario media about separatism.

It is no secret that northerners are frustrated with Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government. The McGuinty Liberals hold only four seats north of Muskoka. Northerners also haven’t forgotten the treatment they received under Mike Harris, which is why the Progressive Conservatives have only two seats in the north.

But on my ride on the last Northlander to and from Toronto, I heard great cynicism among northerners about politicians of all stripes.

Between this decision, the closure of overnight camping in 10 northern provincial parks, and a host of slights by governments Liberal and PC, northerners seem to be losing confidence that any government in Queen’s Park is capable of responding to northern concerns.

In this environment, it’s not surprising to hear the Northern Ontario Heritage Party starting to beat the drum of northern secession.

They are looking to run candidates in the next election and hope to form a Bloc Northern Ontario in Queen’s Park. If that doesn’t work, they might look to making northern Ontario its own province. If they did this, they wouldn’t be alone.

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Fond farewell to an icon, friend [Hemlo co-founder John Larche] – by Benjamin Aubé (Timmins Daily Press – October 12, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – In the days after his death, he is being described by many as a hero and a legend, as a man of generosity and humility. But up until his final days, John Larche only ever saw himself as a simple prospector.

On Friday, Larche was laid to rest at the Timmins Memorial cemetery after a funeral mass at Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix. “My father’s biggest dream in life was not mining related,” said Larche’s son Paul. “His biggest dream was to raise his family with values that would carry them well through life so that they could realize happiness and the full potential of their aspirations, whatever they may be.

“Values you know my father for; honesty, integrity, humility, and a moral compass that pointed as true North as his prospectors compass.” Larche died peacefully on Thanksgiving Monday, Oct. 8 at the age of 84. Pre-deceased by his first wife, Violet, Larche is survived by his wife Dolores, his five children, Paul, David, Nicole, John and Lise, as well as his 16 grandchildren.

He was known largely for founding the famous Hemlo Gold Mine in the early 1980s near Marathon, Ont. with fellow prospector and business-partner Don McKinnon, who died just two months ago.

In 1983, Larche was named co-recipient of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s Prospector of the Year Award. From 1984-1988, he presided over the Prospectors Association of Canada and became the country’s top spokesperson in exploration.

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Northern lifestyle threatened by tiny budget cut – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – October 12, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – There has been some suggestions Queen’s Park is purposely punishing Northeastern Ontario with its proposed overnight camping ban in six of the region’s provincial parks.

While there is much circumstantial evidence to draw such a conclusion, I believe this is giving southern politicians too much credit. After all, how much do they really know about Northern Ontario, particularly the lifestyles of Northerners?

Sure, our region’s provincial parks are all in ridings currently run by New Democrat MPPs, while the Liberals rule Ontario.

Yes, Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is in the backyard of Kapuskasing Mayor Alan Spacek, who ran under the Progressive Conservative banner in Timmins-James Bay during the last Ontario election.

Then there is the fact that Spacek, Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren (close to Ivanhoe Lake) and Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis (Greenwater) have all been very outspoken against Liberal legislation impacting their residents — the Endangered Species Act, the Far North Act and dumping the Northlander passenger train service, to name a few.

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