November 2, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Historical photos make mining career a tough sell: critics – CBC Radio Sudbury (November 2, 2012)

November 2, 2012

Miners drilling a cross-cut on a ramp with jackleg drills, 1750 foot level, Kerr Mine, Virginiatown, Ontario. From the book Cage Call: Life and Death in the Hard Rock Mining Belt by photographer Louie Palu. An in-depth project spanning over 12-years examining communities in one of the richest mining regions in the world located in Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Quebec in Canada.

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

Click here for a selection of Canadian photographer Louie Palu’s mining photography: CAGE CALL: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE HARD ROCK MINING BELT

Sudbury art gallery exhibit explores roots of mining, but some find images troubling

Some say a photo exhibit on mining in Sudbury is perpetuating stereotypes about the industry and keeping young people from choosing mining as a career.

The exhibit Cage Call — currently on display at the Art Gallery of Sudbury — features underground photos from across northern Ontario. Thursday night, the gallery hosted a panel discussion on the image of the modern miner.

Mine Mill union president Richard Paquin said he knows a lot of the people in the photos hanging on the art gallery walls, as do his members — some of whom were not crazy about what they saw. “Some of them didn’t like [it] because it reminded them of the injuries we used to have,” he said.

“A lot of the pictures you see people missing things — missing an arm, one of them’s missing a foot.” There are also photos of miners in dirty coveralls, another, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

Amnesty International Film Festival: Canadian conquistadores exposed in Under Rich Earth – by Martin Dunphy (Georgia Straight – November 1, 2012)

November 2, 2012

http://www.straight.com/

Villagers in a remote Ecuadorian valley band together to repulse rapacious Canucks

The documentary Under Rich Earth, screening at this year’s Vancouver Amnesty International Film Festival, has been in release for a couple of years now, but don’t let that stop you from checking it out if you haven’t already done so.

Popular docs such as Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Big Boys Gone Bananas!*, both of which are also part of this latest installment of Amnesty’s local exposition, do a good job of uncovering government and corporate malfeascence.

The appeal of Under Rich Earth—which details the struggle in Ecuador, a putative democracy, of poor farmers against police, politicians, and paramilitaries in the employ of a Canadian mining company—is how it fits into the part of Amnesty’s mandate that commits the volunteer-activist organization to fight against political killings and disappearances.

Neither of those outrages are inflicted on those portrayed here, but the film details the myriad small steps—including corporate spin-doctoring, police co-optation, economic suasion, the division of communities, and, finally, threats, bogus legal charges, and physical intimidation and harm—that often lead to those ultimate violations of human rights.

Production, labour, cost issues weigh down the world’s top gold miners – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – November 2, 2012)

November 2, 2012

http://www.mineweb.com/

With the exception of Goldcorp, third quarter results from the big five global gold miners are looking pretty dire.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – This doesn’t look like being a good quarter for the world’s top five gold miners, with only Goldcorp the exception. Both Barrick and Newmont have published figures for the quarter which will have seriously disappointed analysts, while South Africa’s two top producers have of course been suffering badly from the wave of worker dissent in their main country of production which followed on from the platinum mine strikes and the Marikana massacre.

Let’s consider the major miners individually:

Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, not only saw third quarter earnings fall by 55% compared with a year ago – but also had to report yet another increased capital cost estimate for its massive Pascua Lama project straddling the Argentinean/Chilean border. The project cost now stands at an enormous $8-$8.5 billion, effectively $1billion more than the previous figures only re-estimated a quarter earlier, and getting on for three times the original cost estimate of only three years ago.

This does not bode well for the final project capital cost – indeed the company intimated in its quarterly announcement that even these figures were not necessarily final – and the history of cost pressures suggests that any further adjustments are more likely to be up than down.

Costs rise again for Barrick’s Andes mine – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – November 2, 2012)

November 2, 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 Andean gold project that is key to driving future growth at Barrick Gold Corp. just got more expensive to build, and the company is still not done looking at costs.

The Toronto-based miner said the Pascua-Lama project, set in the mountains between Chile and Argentina, will now cost as much as $8.5-billion (U.S.) to develop. That’s higher than the shocking $8-billion price tag Barrick issued for the project in July, and more than double a $3-billion forecast when a construction decision was reached in 2009.

“You would expect that when they increased it by such a large amount a few months ago they would have been cautious so that they wouldn’t need to come back and disappoint us once again,” said George Topping, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus who described the rise as “galling.”

Investors seemed to agree, driving the stock down more than 8 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Barrick announced the further cost overrun and said third-quarter profit fell by more than 50 per cent. Cash costs edged higher and the company sold less gold at lower prices. Shares of other gold miners also fell, dragged down by falling prices for the metal.

Ontario’s Power Trip: Dalton McGuinty, power puppeteer – by Parker Gallant (National Post – November 2, 2012)

November 3, 2012November 2, 2012

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

Premier’s Office overwhelmed bureaucrats on gas-plant scandal

The 56,000 pages of documents associated with the Ontario government’s decision to kill two gas plants originally planned for Mississauga and Oakville show clearly the top-down role of politicians, both in the decisions made and in the attempts to hide the costs. They show, in numerous instances, how Premier Dalton McGuinty was in absolute control through his cabinet ministers to the officials he had appointed to the agencies involved.

As I read the documents so far, including board briefings and emails among the many players, it’s the Liberal strategists attached to the Premier’s Office and Ministry offices who are invested in hiding the mess the gas plants created. As energy consultant Tom Adams suggests in his review of the documents, the evidence suggests the total cost of plant cancellations is likely greater than $1.3-billion, the burden to be borne by electricity consumers.

The documents show that McGuinty strategists managed the gas files to benefit the Liberal party rather than taxpayers and ratepayers. Once the plants were cancelled, in October 2010 and September 2011, the top-down political influence is very noticeable. Post-cancellation negotiations to cover the costs of breaking contracts fell to Liberal party officials who tried to cover up the mess, not to energy experts.

Superstorm vs. teacup tempest – by Peter Foster(National Post – November 2, 2012)

November 3, 2012November 2, 2012

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

TransCanada issue is nothing compared with Sandy-sized McGuinty scandal

The commentaries in this paper on Wednesday by Terence Corcoran and Tom Adams about the horrendous waste, foot-dragging and dodgy political meddling attached to the cancellation of two Ontario gas plants, and to Ontario energy policy in general, make for infuriating reading. The cancellation of the plants, in Oakville and Mississauga, could cost $1.3-billion or more. The costs of the Green Energy Act will be multiples of that amount.

Those commentaries provide ample support for suspicions that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature in an attempt to stonewall further investigation, even if the price was throwing himself out of office.

This case meanwhile throws up the issue of the enormously different standards to which the public and private sectors adhere, and are held.

The final figure for which Queen’s Park had to settle with TransCanada Energy, the company with the contract to build the Oakville plant, is not known, but could be up to $900-million. This sum is outrageous if you are an Ontario taxpayer, but certainly cannot be blamed on TransCanada, which has come under vicious — and unjustified — attack from other directions.

Oil giants impress with hefty $3.1B profit haul despite economic gloom – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – November 2, 2012)

November 2, 2012

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

Hate it or love it, when the going gets tough in Canada’s economy, there’s always oil. Collectively, Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc., Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, reported a profit haul on Thursday of more than $3.1-billion for the third quarter.

The three companies’ results were so good against a backdrop of general economic gloom, oil and gas price volatility, pipeline bottlenecks, rising costs, assorted controversies, that analysts were surprised and even ecstatic.

“Financials blow away The Street,” CIBC World Markets Inc.’s Andrew Potter said of Imperial’s $1.040-billion income, up from $859-million in the same period last year.

Mr. Potter also praised Suncor for reducing oil sands cash costs to the lowest level since 2009, leading to a profit of $1.555-billion, up from $1.287-billion last year, and record cash flow of $2.740-billion, up from $2.721 billion.

Nexen-CNOOC deal: Eight questions – by Tim Armstrong (Toronto Star – November 2, 2012)

November 2, 2012

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Tim Armstrong, a lawyer and formerly Ontario’s deputy minister of industry, trade and technology, was the province’s agent-general for the Asia-Pacific region from 1986 to 1990.

The proposed takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by the China National Overseas Oil Corp. (CNOOC) would be the biggest Chinese acquisition of a Canadian company, and possibly just the start of an expanding Chinese stake in Canada’s energy sector.

The deal is now under review, but is the Harper government genuinely contemplating a rejection of the CNOOC bid, or is it just tweaking its rationale for acceptance — as most commentators speculate?

Those who raise concerns are accused by supporters of the deal of being either chauvinistic or anti-free market. However, there can be little doubt that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are intensifying efforts to dramatically increase their ownership of our oilsands sector.

Cliffs eyes more delays [Ring of Fire chromite project] – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – November 2, 2012)

November 2, 2012

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

Cliffs Natural Resources admits it may have to delay production at its Black Thor project in the Ring of Fire to 2017. The news came out during a recent quarterly report conference call, nearly a month after Cliffs announced it was pushing back production in the Ring of Fire to 2016.

Cliffs director of global communications Pat Persico said the company is still aiming for 2016, but that could easily change based on the market situation.

“As noted during our earnings call, Cliffs’ CEO Joseph Carrabba had noted that the company has several options and levers we can pull should the market change. One of those levers is capital spending related to our chromite project. Officially, we are working toward the end of 2016, but this could push the production target date beyond 2017,” Persico said.

He said despite the “significant potential” the Black Thor project represents, iron ore prices have caused Cliffs to re-evaluate the project’s timeline.