November 1, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Cliffs says it will include Neskantaga feedback in environmental assessment – by Rick Garrick (Wawatay News – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 2012

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Cliffs Natural Resources is looking to include Neskantaga’s concerns about an important gathering place on the Attawapiskat River in the environmental assessment process for its Ring of Fire chromite mine.

“In terms of Neskantaga’s interest in the river, that is one of many aspects that has to be incorporated into the environmental assessment,” said Jason Aagenes, director of environmental affairs at Cliffs, during an Oct. 24 media briefing prior to a Cliffs open house in Thunder Bay. “We’re looking for feedback and input, not just from Neskantaga but all of the area First Nation communities, into the environmental assessment. The purpose of the environmental assessment is to take into account areas of cultural or archeological sensitivities and make sure that the project will not adversely impact those areas.”

A Lakehead University professor recently confirmed Neskantaga’s concerns about the gathering place after conducting a surface examination at the location where Ring of Fire companies are planning to build a bridge across the Attawapiskat River.

“It is a place of high archeological potential,” said Scott Hamilton, a professor in Lakehead University’s department of anthropology. Hamilton found evidence of occupation at the gathering place, including log tent frames, five gallon barrels cut into stoves, hide stretching racks and a metal pipe that he speculated could be the remnants of a musket dating back to the days of northern Ontario’s fur trade.

Ring of Fire on the backburner for Cliffs? – by Northern Ontario Business staff (November 1, 2012)

November 1, 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

Volatile commodity prices and cost pressures have Cliffs Natural Resources pushing back the start of chromite production at its Black Thor project in the James Bay lowlands Ring of Fire camp to 2017, or even beyond.

In the Cleveland miner’s Oct. 25 third-quarter conference call, Cliffs chairman and CEO Joseph Carrabba said the company is curbing capital spending and is holding off on early site construction at the remote location in the James Bay lowlands until a feasibility study is finished next summer.

It’s the second time in recent months that Cliffs has pushed back the start date at Black Thor by an additional year after steadfastly maintaining it was sticking to its original project startup date of 2015.

While Black Thor has great long-term potential, Carrabba said the sharp decline in prices of iron ore – Cliffs’ bread and butter commodity — has the company taking a serious re-evaluation of the massive $3.3-billion mine and processing development project.

“This includes delaying the major capital spending outlays and could push the production target date beyond 2017,” Carrabba told analysts.

Potash Corp. eyes Israeli rival by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 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.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., facing sharply lower demand in India and China, is setting the stage for a possible takeover of Israel Chemicals Ltd., in a politically sensitive move aimed at securing new markets for the world’s biggest producer of the crop nutrient.

Potash Corp., the world’s largest fertilizer maker, is looking to buy either all or a part of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL), a $16.4-billion company in which it already owns a 14-per-cent stake.

“Discussions have occurred with Israeli government officials around potential options to increase our ownership stake in Israel Chemical Ltd.,” Potash Corp. said in a brief statement, in response to news out of Israel that it was in merger discussions.

The politically charged talks have involved state officials including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscoring the importance of ICL – which holds mining rights to the Dead Sea – to the government, which has a golden share in the company.

A merger would put key state assets into the hands of the fertilizer giant at a time when its production capacity is growing but it needs to find new markets. A merger would put key state assets into the hands of the Canadian fertilizer giant at a time when it is already targeting large organic capacity growth.

Foreign workers shouldn’t get jobs Canadians can do: Kenney – by Kristy Kirkup (Toronto Sun – October 31, 2012)

November 1, 2012

http://www.torontosun.com/

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday he wants to ensure the temporary foreign work program operates “on the basis of Canadians first” in light of concerns raised about permits granted to Chinese miners at a B.C. coal mine.

“Companies cannot access foreign workers unless or until they have demonstrated to the government that they have advertised the job in Canada, offering it to any qualified Canadians,” Kenney told QMI Agency.

“We never want to give jobs away to foreign workers if qualified Canadians are available and applying for them.”

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is now investigating why the work permits were granted to about 200 mine workers at HD Mining International Ltd., located west of Grand Prairie, Alta.

Employers who wish to hire temporary foreign workers must apply for a “labour market opinion” from Service Canada that assesses “the impact the foreign worker would have on Canada’s labour market.”

“Concerns have come to light, subsequent to these labour market opinions being approved for that particular mine, that Mandarin was listed as a work requirement,” Kenney said.

Striking South African miners killed at Canadian coal mine: reports – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Two striking miners have been killed by security guards at a Toronto-based company’s coal mine in South Africa, local reports say.

The deaths, confirmed by the company Thursday, are the latest in a year of sporadic violence that has killed more than 60 people at mines across South Africa, including 34 who were killed by police at the Marikana platinum mine in August.

In the clash on Wednesday, about 100 striking workers tried to storm a locked mine-explosives armoury at a coal mine owned by Toronto-based Forbes & Manhattan Coal, but were dispersed by security guards, police said.

“It is further alleged that the security officers chased some of the workers into an informal settlement near the mine and shots were fired, injuring two men,” police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said in a statement.

He said the two men died from their injuries in hospital, and police are investigating two counts of murder. The company confirmed Thursday that two of its employees were killed in the clash.

The company said it has suspended operations at its Magdalena and Aviemore underground coal mines in South Africa, where strikes have been continuing since Oct. 17.

Ontario Mining moves into Queen’s Park for a day

November 1, 2012

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The message that modern mining is a significant contributor to Ontario’s economy and society and a helpful partner in improving the province’s financial condition was well received at Queen’s Park. On Tuesday, October 30, the Ontario Mining Association and its member companies held their annual Meet the Miners event in the Legislature.

Although Ontario’s seat of government is a major international mining finance and services centre, this strength of the provincial economy is sometimes lost amidst the other activities in the city and the visible absence of mine headframes. It is important for the industry to constructively show its presence and its attributes from time to time in the province’s main political arena.

And the message is getting through. Mining has earned mention in recent provincial budgets and throne speeches and is gaining a larger presence in the business and mainstream media. CBC Radio recently included mining in a segment of the series “Toronto Juggernauts,” which featured strong and integral parts of the city’s economy.

There were several components to Meet the Miners Day this year. While the remnants of tropical storm Sandy may have left some mining participants awash with their travel plans and the prorogation of the Legislature found some MPPs in their home ridings, the participation rate was extremely high.

Athabasca Oil foreign joint venture hits roadblock – by Nathan VAnderklippe and Jacquie McNish (Globe and Mail – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 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.

CALGARY AND TORONTO — Athabasca Oil Corp. faces new obstacles in completing a long-promised multibillion-dollar joint venture with partners from Kuwait and Spain, months after it said such a deal was imminent.

The company has said it is merely awaiting government approval to allow one of its buyers to sign the transaction, which markets expect to be worth roughly $2-billion. In August, Ali al-Sammak, Kuwait’s ambassador to Canada, confirmed that senior Kuwait Petroleum Corp. officials had signed a memorandum of understanding, with a final agreement expected in October, toward buying an interest in two Athabasca properties in Alberta.

However, that agreement has yet to be finalized, and people close to the deal say part of the delay stems from difficulties with one of the buyers. Kuwait is not the only acquirer: Spanish company Repsol YPF SA is also involved.

The trouble landing a major foreign joint venture comes during a moment of broader uncertainty for a Canadian energy sector increasingly reliant on overseas capital. Two major transactions – deals to buy Progress Energy Resources Corp. and Nexen Inc., worth over $20-billion in aggregate – remain in limbo as Ottawa scrambles to compile new foreign investment guidelines.

The Chinese are coming, the Chinese are coming – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 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.

It’s a scary time in Canada these days, and not because of Halloween. A mysterious new investment treaty with China has people spooked. On top of that, the government is about to decide whether CNOOC, a Chinese state-owned oil company, can plant its big red boots in our oil patch. Watch out! We’re signing our sovereignty away. Before you can say boo, the rapacious foreigners will turn us into global coolies.

Does all of this seem eerily familiar? Why, yes. Good old-fashioned Canadian nationalism has come back to haunt us. Back in the 1980s, the people who fought the trade deal with the U.S. said the very same things about the Americans. It didn’t turn out that way, of course. Free trade made us prosperous and rich.

There’s a load of irony in all this. The people who used to be anti-American and pro-Chinese seem to have changed sides. But now that Barack Obama is in office (for the moment, at any rate), anti-Americanism isn’t quite as fashionable as it used to be. The Chinese are now the bad guys. And the more they act like capitalists, the more they’re demonized for being Communists. “We’re not dealing on an even playing field with Communist China,” the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair warns. “Why in heaven’s name would we give up our own resources that way to another country?” The one thing that never goes out of fashion in this country is moral superiority.

The disappointing truth about this investment deal is that it’s an incremental step ahead. It won’t allow the Chinese to rampage through the land.

Oil producers eye Arctic backup plan as pipelines face uncertain future – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 2012

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

Oil producers worried about pipeline bottlenecks and the future of proposed pipelines to the U.S. Gulf Coast and Canada’s West Coast are taking a serious look at an Arctic backup — the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba — to get their oil to tidal water.

Discussions are quietly underway between Calgary’s oil community, Canada’s only Arctic seaport, railway companies, and refiners on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, as well as in Europe, to collect unrefined oil by rail from fields across Western Canada, get it to the port on the west coast of Hudson Bay and load it on Panamax-class tankers.

“We think we can provide them with a competitive cost advantage to position [oil] to multiple destinations for a short period of time each year,” said Jeff McEachern, the Winnipeg-based executive director of Churchill Gateway Development Corp. who has been making frequent trips to Calgary during the past six months to fine-tune the strategy.

“We are in pretty close proximity to where the oil is being produced to get it to tidal water. It’s not a full solution, but it has an economic advantage to it and a producer is always looking for any economic advantage they can get.”

The deep-water port is motivated to make it work. It has been a major export point for Western Canadian grain since 1929, but it’s looking to diversify its customer base following this year’s dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board, its dominant customer.

McGuinty’s dark secrets on cancelled power plants revealed – by Terence Corcoran (National Post – November 1, 2012)

November 3, 2012November 1, 2012

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

Documents show cancelling Oakville plant alone will cost $1-billion

As Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the Ontario legislature and announced his retirement last month, he would have known that some of the darker secrets of his government’s handling of energy policy would soon come to light. Today, those secrets — until now buried in 56,000 pages of released but unreadable documents — are appearing in the open.

In sordid and alarming detail, the documents show that the McGuinty government’s cancellation of gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga are likely to cost as much as $1.3-billion, possibly more. Killing the Oakville plant and moving it to Bath will alone burden Ontario ratepayers and taxpayers with costs that exceed $1-billion.

These numbers — openly discussed in documents as part of the government’s legal negotiations with TransCanada Energy and other companies — are a far cry from the $40-million Energy Minister Chris Bentley recently announced as the cost of killing the 900-megawatt Oakville Generating Station.

More than the numbers, the documents — analyzed by Toronto energy consultant Tom Adams in a posting to his website Tuesday and in FP Comment Thursday — also show that the premier’s office played a role in the gas-plant debacle. Under instruction, bureaucrats and government agency staff, especially at the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), were also dragged into litigation negotiations aimed at containing the major liabilities the government had created.

[Northern Ontario] ONR sale concerns resource companies – by CBC Radio Sudbury (October 31, 2012)

November 1, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Georgia Pacific and Detour Gold say they rely on stable freight service

Companies who move their products by rail say they are watching the Ontario Northland divestment closely. The Ontario Northland Railway hauls freight for a number of industrial operations in communities along Highway 11.

The future of what is now the ONR is doubly important for the town of Englehart. The railway is a major employer, as is Georgia Pacific — a company that uses the ONR to ship oriented strand board from its Englehart plant.

“We’ve engaged in conversations with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,” said Georgia Pacific spokesperson Eric Abercrombie.

“We have expressed to them that any change in the ownership of the Northland Railroad would need to continue providing … consistent reliable service level.”

The Atlanta-based company has had “a great relationship with the Ontario Northland Railroad,” Abercrombie said, adding that the Englehart plant “depends on quality rail service that is … safe, reliable and competitive so we [can] continue delivering products to our customers.”

Glencore offers to end Nyrstar deal to land Xstrata – by Foo Yun Chee (Mineweb.com – November 1, 2012)

November 1, 2012

http://www.mineweb.com/

A source close to the deal says Glencore is prepared to end an exclusive zinc sales deal and sell its minority stake in Nyrstar to win EU approval for its $33 billion takeover of Xstrata.

BRUSSELS (REUTERS) – Commodities trader Glencore has offered to end an exclusive zinc sales deal and sell its minority stake in world No. 1 producer Nyrstar to win EU approval for its $33 billion takeover of Xstrata, a source said on Wednesday.

The European Commission – which is examining the merger, one of the largest in the sector to date – is concerned the deal will hand the group an excessive slice of the northern European zinc market, the person familiar with the matter said.

Analysts estimate a combined Glencore-Xstrata, which would be the world’s largest zinc miner, would have 50 percent of the European zinc metal market. Ending Glencore’s agreement with Nyrstar would free up 350,000 tonnes, the person said.

The person said Glencore, the single largest shareholder in Nyrstar, was also willing to sell its stake of just under 8 percent in the company. The EU competition authorities will decide whether the offer is sufficient to allay regulatory worries or more is required.

[Sudbury] Vale exec [John Pollesel] ousted – – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – Novemeber 1, 2012)

November 1, 2012

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

Vale’s corporate spokesman denied 10 days ago that John Pollesel’s head was on the chopping block. But then, on Wednesday, the company confirmed the role of the Sudbury-born director of Vale’s Base Metals North Atlantic Operations was “no longer required.”

Vale spokesman Cory McPhee told The Star on Oct. 21 there was no truth to a widely circulating rumour that Pollesel was being cut by the company.

Wednesday, Vale’s Sudbury spokeswoman, Angie Robson, said base metals at Vale “is in the process of a business-wide review to address some significant short-term challenges.

“Part of that effort involves reshaping and restructuring the business to position ourselves for long-term success and sustainability,” she said.

Vale’s parent company, Vale SA, has said of late, it is determined to ensure all operations are self-sustaining, prompting decisions such as winding down production at the 100-year-old Frood Mine.