October 29, 2012 – Republic of Mining

B.C. jobs plan abandons local benefits and exploits workers – by Jim Sinclair (The [Vancouver] Province – October 29, 2012)

October 29, 2012

http://www.theprovince.com/index.html

Jim Sinclair is president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

News that a company backed by Chinese state-owned steelmakers plans to bring more than 200 Chinese miners to work temporarily in its coal mines in northern B.C. has put a much-needed spotlight on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, as has news that recruiters in China are charging $12,500 a head for access to these mining jobs in Canada.

That these are the first jobs directly associated with Christy Clark’s jobs plan ups the politics and has embarrassed the premier and her government. However, the issue is much bigger than the current electoral cycle.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program was, in theory, designed to ensure that short-term skills shortages would not stifle economic growth by holding up major projects. But the theory doesn’t match the reality. Whether in coal mining, fast food or construction, the TFW program has proven to be less about solving a labour shortage and much more about keeping wages low.

The program claims to require employers to search for local workers at the going pay rate, and come up empty before looking outside Canada.

Cliffs criticized for[native] hiring practices – CBC Radio Thunder Bay (October 26, 2012)

October 29, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Mining company responds to First Nations man’s concern about criminal record checks

A First Nations man in Thunder Bay says he is concerned that Cliffs Natural Resources is shutting out a large number of Aborginal workers from getting mining jobs in the Ring of Fire in Ontario because of criminal records.

Chris Towegishig is originally from Ginoogaming First Nation. Earlier this month Towegishig was told he wouldn’t have a job at Cliffs, despite receiving a written offer of employment from the company just days earlier. The offer had been for a field assistant position at the site.

“And she told me ‘no’ we’re not going to have you out there due to your criminal record,” Towegishig said, describing his interaction with a Cliffs human resources representative. Towegishig said he was told the other workers would be “scared for their safety.”

According to Towegishig, he had been honest about his criminal record from the start, and had been told by the company his history shouldn’t be a problem.

Why some state-owned firms do not belong in Canadian boardrooms – by Diane Francis (October 27, 2012)

October 29, 2012

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

Sovereign-owned or controlled enterprises from questionable countries have no business in the boardrooms of Canada or other free enterprise nations.

Indications are the Prime Minister and his government understand this and are devising nuanced “net benefit” criteria regarding foreign takeovers that would allow desirable companies into our economy and keep out the rest.

Undesirable SOEs are those that serve political not commercial agendas; do not offer reciprocal investment privileges to Canadians in their countries and believe they enjoy sovereign immunity from Canadian laws.

For instance, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering’s Canadian subsidiary last month belatedly pleaded guilty to several counts of negligence in the deaths and injuries of six workers in Alberta. This was after years of China’s refusal to let it be served Alberta court documents then after the Supreme Court of Canada this summer refused to hear its sovereign immunity defense.

But this concern about SOEs is not just about China. Russia is another questionable regime with companies investing here and all over the world that are owned by the Kremlin or by oligarchs who answer to it. The following case involving Russian government companies is another example why SOEs should be banned from controlling anything in Canada.

Thousands sign parks petition – by Benjamin Aubé (Timmins Daily Press – October 26, 2012)

October 29, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The surprise decision by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to shut down camping at a number of provincial parks in northeastern Ontario has not gone unnoticed.

In fact, it’s government officials who are now being surprised by the massive swell of support offered by groups such as Friends of Ivanhoe, urging the province to re-consider the ban.

On Friday, members of Friends of Ivanhoe met with the media at MPP Gilles Bisson’s (NDP – Timmins-James Bay) office on Wilson St. with more than 6,300 signatures in hand. The petitions were circulated and posted in various locations, from Timmins to Hearst, since the government’s decision was announced in September by Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle.

“I spoke to Mr. Gravelle on Monday,” said Bisson. “One of the things he talked about was that he couldn’t believe how many people have been really worked up over this, so I think he’s been taken a bit aback. I think it puts us in the position to hopefully change his mind.”

Bisson said that, while he was surprised by the sheer number of signatures, the swift reaction of Northerners didn’t come as a shock.

Toll road to the Ring of Fire? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 2012)

November 3, 2015October 29, 2012

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A provincial toll road may be in the offing for mining companies hauling ore out of the Ring of Fire. Noront Resources said in its discussions with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, among the options on the table with Queen’s Park are a toll charge being assessed based on each company’s “proportional usage.”

That’s just fine with Noront since its concentrate shipments will be less than seven per cent of the road’s entire haul. The province has committed to financing a north-south haul ore road out of the James Bay lowlands’ mining camp, and has further assured Noront that the road will be open to all mining companies, not just Cliffs Natural Resources.

The other option under government consideration involves the companies ponying up money for the road corridor. The cash-strapped Ontario government has also appealed to Ottawa for infrastructure capital.

Noront president and CEO Wes Hanson said a final decision on how the road will be built and financed has yet to be decided.

Agnico surprises with third straight quarterly profit – Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – October 29, 2012)

October 29, 2012

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

A year ago Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.’s Meadowbank mine in Nunavut was producing more bad news than gold. But after ending 2011 with a loss, Agnico just reported its third consecutive quarter of profits, surprising analysts with higher-than-expected production from its large, open-pit operation.

“Big beat on Q3 production and costs,” Credit Suisse analyst Anita Soni wrote in a report after Agnico-Eagle results were published. “Meadowbank drives the beat, mine optimizations working.” According to chief executive officer Sean Boyd, it may not be the last surprise from the mine, which is Agnico’s largest producer.

“We began the year with this plan that on paper looked good,” Mr. Boyd said after the company reported record production of 110,988 ounces of gold at Meadowbank in the third quarter. The figure beat second-quarter production by 10 per cent and came after it mined higher grade pockets with greater success.

A secondary crushing unit at the mine helped it process about 11,000 tonnes of ore per day, the company said, compared with almost 10,000 tonnes per day put through the mill in the previous quarter.

Ottawa needs smart rules on state-owned companies – Toronto Star Editorial (October 29, 2012)

October 29, 2012

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

The Harper government has been ragging the puck for more than two years on a crucial issue — how it decides whether a major takeover of a Canadian company by a foreign one should be given the green light. Now time is running out, and Canadians will be looking for reassurance that we won’t be played for fools in these transactions, especially when giant state-owned companies come shopping for our resources.

That issue is pressing because the biggest deal Ottawa must rule on involves a giant Chinese company, the China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, which is fully owned and controlled by Beijing and its ruling party. CNOOC has bid $15.1 billion for Calgary-based Nexen Inc. That would be China’s biggest ever move into the oilsands, and indeed the biggest ever foreign acquisition by a Chinese company. The implications are enormous.

Ever since Ottawa nixed the takeover of Potash Corp. by an Australian company in 2010, it has been promising to clarify the rules on whether such a deal provides a “net benefit” to Canada. The new wrinkle is that companies on the hunt for our oil and other resources aren’t just free-market players; increasingly they are instruments of foreign governments.

China’s state-owned enterprises not the villains we’ve been told they are – by Andrew Coyne (National Post – October 27, 2012)

October 29, 2012

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

Like many of you I am eagerly awaiting the new James Bond film Skyfall, especially Javier Bardem’s star turn as Raoul Silva, the classic Bond villain with his outlandish plot to pay 60% over market price for a Canadian oil company.

No, wait, that’s from the business pages, isn’t it? You’ll forgive me: the stories sound so similar — or at any rate they’ve been made to sound similar. The casual reader would be convinced the $15.2-billion bid from China’s CNOOC for Canada’s Nexen, far from enriching Nexen’s shareholders and indirectly other Canadians, posed some dire threat to the country, if not the planet: part of some fiendish Chinese plan for world domination, possibly involving lasers.

Indeed, one of the oddities of the controversy is to see opposition to foreign takeovers, traditionally a hobbyhorse of the left, being taken up with such enthusiasm by the right. The reason: not just foreign-owned, CNOOC is also government-owned, one of a growing number of such “state-owned enterprises” (SOEs) around the world, particularly in the natural resources sector. (Malaysia’s Petronas, whose bid for Calgary’s Progress Energy was recently put on hold, is another.)

Wary of the potential these imply for government meddling in the economy, free marketers have responded by demanding … government meddling in the economy.

An invitation to attend 7th annual “Mining For a Heart of Gold” charity event

October 29, 2012

On Thursday November 1st, Canada’s most influential mining and junior resource stakeholders will play a leadership role in celebrating and supporting an outstanding charity at the Mining For a Heart of Gold event (www.mfahog.com). Some of the biggest names and companies in the mining and resource industry have helped Mining For a Heart of Gold raise more than $40, 000 per event.

The 7th Annual Mining For a Heart of Gold event at the Strathcona Hotel in Toronto will celebrate The Jean Tweed Centre for Women & Their Families (www.jeantweed.com) for the third year in a row.

Understanding commodity super-cycles – by Van’t Veld (Troy Media – May 15, 2012)

October 29, 2012

http://www.troymedia.com/

Will Van’t Veld is an economist with ATB Financial.

Why they start and why they end

EDMONTON, AB, May. 15, 2012/ Troy Media/ – Canada’s political and business leaders obviously think we’re at the front-end of a commodity super-cycle and they’re trying to put in place policies and infrastructure so that Canada can take full advantage. But what exactly is a commodity super-cycle?

Capitalism is incredibly efficient at producing wealth, but unfortunately society hasn’t figured out how to keep every expansion phase from ending in an unpleasant contraction phase. This is the business cycle and there may be multiple business cycles that occur within each commodity super-cycle.

How does a super-cycle begin . . . and end? A commodity super-cycle occurs over multiple decades during which the rise in commodity prices is observed across the board, before declining for a long period. This is the definition given by economists Bilge Erten and Jose Ocampo, who wrote an interesting working paper on the topic for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs entitled, Super-cycles of commodity prices since the mid-19th century.

Of interest here is what gets the commodity super-cycle going and why it ends. According to Erten and Ocampo, it’s a rapid shock to demand that starts the cycle.

Zimbabwe: Chrome Ore Ban – Industry Collapses – by Master Mushonga (The Daily Maverick – October 25, 2012)

October 29, 2012

The Daily Maverick is a unique blend of news, information, analysis and opinion delivered from our newsroom in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CMZ), there are over 4 000 registered chromite claims currently of which 46 percent are held by indigenous Zimbabweans while the remainder is held by five large scale mining companies.

ZIMASCO, Zimbabwe Alloys, Maranatha and Monawood as big players do have synergies with small scale operators, have smelting facilities and in most instances enter into tribute agreements for the chrome ore production on claims owned by large operators.

Last year in April, the Government banned the export of raw chrome to encourage the local beneficiation of chrome ore into ferrochrome before exporting.

This change in policy was effected without considering the existing smelting capacity, investment needed to increase capacity, any guarantee to cheap and uninterrupted power supply as well as lack of chrome reserves that can last for 10 to 15 years to justify the establishment of a smelter.

South Africa: Anglo American – a Giant Corporation Between a Big Rock and a Very Hard Place – by J Brooks Spector (The Daily Maverick – October 29, 2012)

October 29, 2012

The Daily Maverick is a unique blend of news, information, analysis and opinion delivered from our newsroom in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ANALYSIS

Stuck between worker demands for a decent living wage and insistence for broader ownership rights (or even nationalisation) and the market’s implacable demands for profits, Anglo American may have to give up its place as an iconic South African institution and be content as one more middling mining company among many.

At one of those archetypal South African dinner parties the other night, the news that Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll had just resigned got more than a mention. One guest recalled that for decades, the hard men ensconced on the top floors of Anglo American’s 44 Main Street headquarters – the one with those magnificent friezes of African animals on the walls – controlled nearly 40% of Africa’s total GDP and that, in turn, meant something like 60% of the share value of the entire the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

It was an empire almost without parallel – as if General Motors, Ford, DuPont, RCA and a half dozen other Fortune 500 stalwarts from America’s industrial Golden Age were one interlocking conglomerate. At its peak, Anglo’s organizational chart looked more like a complete depiction of the chemical relationships of the body’s Krebs metabolic cycle than a tightly structured industrial behemoth.

NEWS RELEASE: BESTECH NAMED A FINALIST IN THE 2012 ONTARIO BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

October 29, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sudbury, October 26, 2012 – BESTECH is proud to announce that the company was selected as a finalist in the 2012 Ontario Business Achievement Awards (OBAA). At the 30th annual OBAA held on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, BESTECH was runner-up in the Desjardins Award for Large Business category. This honour rewarded two large businesses (over 100 employees) who are forward-thinking in their overall business practice from escalating sales and developing new markets to boosting employee morale and skill acquisition to elevating environmental stewardship and corporate citizenship.

The Ontario Business Achievement Awards were created to celebrate Ontario’s rich history of innovative, ethical and profitable business. Launched in 1983, the OBAAs shine a spotlight on innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that are at the heart of business in Ontario.

According to a representative at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, “OBAA is the most prestigious industry gala in the province with a single focus on celebrating business success. BESTECH is now part of an exclusive group of Ontario companies who are recognized for their achievements in innovation, market expansion, exports and governance as well as successes in small and large business categories.”

‘Rail-veyors’ and robots [mining innovation] – by Julie Gordon (Reuters/Sudbury Star – October 29, 2012)

October 29, 2012

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

In an office trailer parked outside a mine shaft in a Copper Cliff Mine, operator Carolyn St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground.

Once filled, the automated train will snake through a series of narrow tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past St-Jean’s window and dump its payload for sorting.

Vale SA, the Brazilian company that owns the mine near this nickel-rich area, has spent nearly $50 million in two years to install and test the “ra i lveyor.” The company believes the transport system will revolutionize how it builds and extracts new mineral deposits.

The equipment is made locally by Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc. It is one of many mining technologies developers hope will allow future production to be run almost entirely by people safely above ground.

Such advances may prove crucial as easy-to-exploit deposits run dry and miners drill deeper in more remote places to supply China, India and other emerging economies. The technology could make mining cheaper and safer, avoiding the need to dig wide tunnels and hire large numbers of expensive, skilled workers.

No cash for new [Ring of Fire railroad] line – province – by PJ Wilson (North Bay Nugget – October 28, 2012)

October 29, 2012

http://www.nugget.ca/

The province doesn’t have the money to build a rail link connecting the Ontario Northland line to the Ring of Fire region, says to a spokeswoman for Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci.

Laura Blondeau said Friday neither she nor Bartolucci have seen anything from the General Chairperson’s Association about its proposal for a “new deal” to revitalize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission which was announced last week.

“We have asked to see the proposal, and they have sent us the press release they issued and communications products, but we don’t really know the plan or how it will be implemented,” Blondeau said.

She said her office is looking to meet with them next week to discuss the proposal that would keep the ONTC alive, but stressed the province does not have the money to extend the track to the Ring of Fire, a remote area without rail lines, all-season roads, electricity or communications networks west of Moosonee.

The proposal was put forward by the GCA, which represents employees of the ONTC, which called for ownership of the Crown corporation to be transferred to a new ports authority which would be operated under the Canada Marine Act.