Quebec shows tougher approach toward mining sector with access road deal – The Canadian Press/CTV News (November 15, 2012)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

QUEBEC — Quebec’s new government is living up to its pledge to take a tougher stance with mining companies after offloading some responsibility for the construction of a controversial access road.

Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau announced Thursday that Quebec has renegotiated a deal that will see Stornoway Diamond Corp. (TSX:SWY) assume a bigger share of the costs to build a route to its proposed mine.

Marceau expects the agreement on the 240-kilometre highway extension to the Renard diamond mine site will save Quebec taxpayers at least $124 million. “We’re not going to build gold-plated roads with huge cost overruns,” Marceau told a new conference.

“The signal we’re sending to mining companies is that we’re ready to make deals with you, but the terms must be reasonable for Quebec taxpayers.”

PQ officials had expressed concern that costs for the Route 167 project had exploded beyond the estimated budget of $260 million in 2009. By August, the price tag had soared to $472 million.

The new deal will drop the maximum cost down to $304 million, the government insists. The PQ has criticized the previous Liberal government’s northern-development plan — known as the Plan Nord — for being too generous to the mining sector.

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Insolvent US coal miner agrees to stop mountaintop-removal mining – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 15, 2012)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Bankrupt US coal miner Patriot Coal on Thursday became the first miner to cease large-scale mountaintop-removal coal mining in central Appalachia in exchange for more time to comply with the Clean Water Act at several of its central Appalachian mines.

As the company is preparing for Chapter 11 litigation, it had reached an agreement with three environmental groups that had sued over water pollution from its West Virginia operations.

The agreement was presented for consideration to Judge Robert Chambers of the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, and had its roots in water pollution lawsuits filed by environmental protection groups the Sierra Club, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

Mountaintop-removal coal mining is an economical but devastating form of strip mining unique to West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Coal companies blast apart mountain ridge tops to expose multiple coal seams and then dump the waste in streams, creating so-called valley fills.

Patriot Coal said it had concluded that continuing and expanding its surface mining, particularly large-scale surface mining of the type common in central Appalachia, was not in its long-term interests.

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NEWS RELEASE: GLEN MURRAY: TIME FOR NORTHERN ONTARIO TO HAVE ITS OWN VOICE

For immediate release 

November 16, 2012

As Ontario Liberal Premier, Murray Wants Northern Regional Government

THUNDER BAY – Ontario Liberal Leadership Candidate Glen Murray says it’s time for Northern Ontario to have its own regional government.

“Ten years from now, I would like to look back and be able to say ‘I was the Premier when we took the steps to make Northern Ontario stronger,'” Murray said today, during a visit to Thunder Bay and other Northern Ontario communities.

“The North should have more authority over energy, infrastructure and natural resources. Northerners would choose by referendum the kind of regional authority they want – a general northern government or a separate regional government in the Northeast and Northwest.”

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Canada remains world’s top destination for mineral exploration investment

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.

An event at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) this week reminded participants that Canada is the world’s preferred destination for mineral exploration investments. In 2011, $3 billion, or 18% of all global mineral exploration expenditures were made in Canada. For 2012, this number is expected to surpass $4 billion.

The Mining Association of Canada in cooperation with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and the Ontario Mining Association organized this industry event. Federal Natural Resources Minister Honourable Joe Oliver, who is the MP for the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, was the featured speaker.

“We all know Canada is a global mining economic powerhouse,” said Minister Oliver. “Mining and mineral exploration play a pivotal role in creating growth and jobs in Canada. The natural resource sector accounts for close to 20% of all economic activity in Canada and contributes to meeting Canada’s social priorities.”

Mr. Oliver spoke about his government’s support in working to open new and to expand existing markets for mineral producers and of its financial assistance to geoscience.

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You’ll have energy, McGuinty tells NWO – (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 16, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Ontario’s premier is reassuring Northwestern Ontario residents that the region will have all the energy it needs, regardless of the eventual Thunder Bay Generating Station outcome.

The station’s conversion to run on natural gas has been put on hold by the Ontario Liberals, because the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) says there are better, and cheaper ways to power the North.

Halting the conversion, the OPA said, will save $400 million, and required power can be generated from other sources, such as southern Ontario via an expanded east-west tie-line. The government has not made a final decision about the conversion, as the OPA is still finalizing its alternative plan.

“The issue for us is not whether we have the power in place to meet those energy needs,” Premier Dalton McGuinty said in Thunder Bay on Thursday. “It’s, what’s the best way to do that? “I think everybody wants us to act responsibly in that regard.”

McGuinty said the conversion project was paused because the “experts are telling us that this is the best way to do it at this point in time.”

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North pays for OPA mess: Hampton – by Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 16, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is trying to solve southern Ontario problems at the expense of the North with its push to halt the Thunder Bay Generating Station’s conversion to natural gas, the former leader of the provincial NDP said Wednesday.

“I don’t think the OPA is thinking about Northwestern Ontario and what’s good for the Northwest,” Howard Hampton said Wednesday.

“I think they’re thinking about solving some of the problems they’ve created in south and eastern Ontario. They’re thinking more about that, and using Northwestern Ontario as a piece of the puzzle.”

The Ontario government, at the behest of the OPA, has put a hold on plans to convert the Thunder Bay Generating Station from coal-fired power to natural gas. The OPA has said halting the project will save $400 million, and the region’s power needs can be met by other means, such as the to-be-expanded east-west tie-line that moves electricity between Northern and southern Ontario.

And while the government has not cancelled the plant conversion — Energy Minister Chris Bentley is waiting to see the OPA plan before making his decision — the hold has representatives in the region sounding the alarm.

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BP agrees to plead guilty and pay a record $4.5 billion over Gulf spill; 3 employees charged – by Michael Kunzelman (Toronto Star – November 16, 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.

The Associated Press – NEW ORLEANS—A day of reckoning arrived for BP on Thursday as the oil giant agreed to plead guilty to a raft of criminal charges and pay a record $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Three BP employees were also charged, two of them with manslaughter.

The settlement and the indictments came two and a half years after the fiery drilling-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The settlement includes nearly $1.3 billion in fines — the biggest criminal penalty in the United States’ history. As part of the deal, BP will plead guilty to charges involving the 11 deaths and lying to the U.S. Congress about how much oil was spewing from the blown-out well.

“We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. “It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the deaths and the oil spill “resulted from BP’s culture of privileging profit over prudence.”

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Stornoway strikes new deal with Quebec on diamond mine road – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – November 16, 2012)

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

MONTREAL – Stornoway Diamond Corp. has struck a new deal with the Quebec government on a controversial highway leading to its Renard diamond mine that will see it pay a bigger share of the total costs but ensures construction of the mine itself remains on target for 2013.

The renegotiated agreement is the first of several the Parti Québécois government is looking to revamp as it grapples with significant cost overruns on 20 major infrastructure projects inherited from the previous Liberal administration. The new deal saves Quebec taxpayers $124-million and marks the start of new effort to recoup public money that was bargained away to benefit the private sector, PQ ministers said.

“There are other cases where it will be harder to save money, but we’ll do as much as we can on all the projects,” Quebec Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau told reporters. “We will make sure that, in those deals, Quebecers are not paying too much.”

The Stornoway deal involves the Route 167 extension, a 243-kilometre all-season highway leading to the company’s Renard site. The road, championed publicly by former Premier Jean Charest as one of the centrepieces of his Plan Nord development project, had become a political lightning rod after costs ballooned from initial estimates of $260-million to more than $470-million.

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Energy literacy cuts both ways – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – November 16, 2012)

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

The energy industry and Canadians opposed to its plans seem to be speaking in different tongues. One side is focused on economic climate, the other on climate change. One brandishes impressive employment numbers, the other embarrassingly high CO2 emissions. One talks about provincial and federal permits, the other highlights the absence of a ‘social licence’.

A common gripe among industry executives is that the average Canadian doesn’t comprehend the economic benefits and job creation the industry brings to the table, nor does he or she trust the safety of the technologies deployed.

“It’s an image of ships passing in the night, going in opposite directions,” said Michal Moore, professor of economics at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary.

Prof. Moore, together with colleagues André Turcotte and Jennifer Winter, wrote a report aimed at measuring Canadian energy literacy. Released Oct. 31, it surveyed more than 1,500 Canadians to determine their understanding of energy issues.

“The survey revealed that Canadians have a good general knowledge of energy use and relative cost but lack detailed knowledge about sources of energy fuels, as well as sources and linkages with environmental impacts,” the report says.

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Thomas Mulcair offers Alberta an updated version of a bad idea – by John Ivison (National Post – November 15, 2012)

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

Tom Mulcair cast himself as a latter-day Sir John A. Macdonald when he talked in Calgary about his vision of Western Canada oil being shipped by pipeline to central and eastern provinces to be processed and then sold domestically.

It would be a nation-building project on a par with railway construction in the 1800s, “a win-win situation,” he said.

But the net effect of supplying Eastern consumers with cheaper Western oil would be closer to a less celebrated federal initiative — Pierre Trudeau’s late and unlamented National Energy Program.

Mr. Mulcair was not specific and it’s not clear how much government intervention in the process he is proposing. But if he is talking about landlocking Canadian oil and supporting the domestic refining industry with discounted Western crude, it starts to look very much like a back-door transfer from one group of Canadians to another.

The New Democratic Party leader said he is not opposed to exporting Canadian oil, as long as the country’s own energy needs are taken care of first. Ottawa’s command and control of the oil industry didn’t end so well last time out: Albertans still blame the federal government for a 40% drop in house prices in Calgary and Edmonton, and a bankruptcy rate that rose 150%.

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