November 25, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Canada’s last asbestos mine may have future as Mars stand-in – by Peter Rakobowchuk (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2012)

November 25, 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.

MONTREAL — The Canadian Press – Canada’s last asbestos mine, now winding down its operations, may have a new celestial calling — as a stand-in for planet Mars. Quebec’s Jeffrey Mine hosted nearly two-dozen scientists recently for a simulated Mars mission initiated by Canada’s space agency.

The scientists from four universities made a pair of trips to the Asbestos region, this year and last year, accompanied by a micro-rover. “There are definitely areas (on Mars) that are much more like what we have at Jeffrey Mine,” said Ed Cloutis, a University of Winnipeg professor who participated in the project. The new vocation won’t exactly replace the once-mighty asbestos industry as an economic lifeblood for the region.

The mine had been counting on a $58-million government loan to renovate and keep operating. The simulated Mars mission, on the whole, cost $800,000 — and some local officials, including an alderman and the town’s director general, didn’t even appear to be aware of the project when contacted by The Canadian Press.

The goal of the project was to simulate as closely as possible a Mars rover mission to detect the presence of, and determine the source of, methane on Mars.

Speaking notes for the Honourable Julian Fantino Minister of International Cooperation for the Economic Club of Canada ‘Reducing Poverty – Building Tomorrow’s Markets’

November 25, 2012

November 23, 2012, Toronto, Ontario

Good morning.

It has now been a few months since Prime Minister Harper asked me to be the Minister of International Cooperation, and I am enjoying the job immensely. It is a great honour and a privilege.

As you can imagine, it has been a busy time for me and a fascinating experience seeing international development work first-hand, as Canada continues to respond to situations around the world.

In my brief experience, it is clear that Canada is respected on the world stage for the work the Canadian International Development Agency does. You may know that my previous professional life was in law enforcement, spending the latter part of my career as an executive within various police departments.

However, as the Ontario Commissioner of Emergency Management and more recently, as Associate Minister of National Defence, I have had the opportunity to see CIDA’s work with my own eyes.

On a trip to Afghanistan as Associate Minister of Defence, I saw young Afghan girls heading to school, wearing their backpacks. And it reminded me of my own grandchildren. I was impressed then, and I remain so, knowing that these girls were going to school because of the assistance Canada provided.

NEWS RELEASE: UBC, SFU to further global sustainable mining practices through $25M Institute

November 25, 2012

Media Release | Nov. 23, 2012

The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University will lead an international coalition to help developing countries benefit from their natural resources in environmentally and socially responsible ways.

The establishment of the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development (CIIEID), funded by a $25-million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), was announced last October with an aim to sharing Canadian expertise in extractive industries. The selection of UBC and SFU to operate the Institute was announced today by the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation.

In 2008 alone, exports of oil and minerals from Africa, Asia, and Central America were valued at $1-trillion. Canadian companies, many headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., dominate the world’s mineral exploration and Canada relies heavily on its resource industries.

UBC’s research and education in the extractive sector spans nearly a century, with a strong emphasis over the past decade placed on sustainable development and corporate social responsibility through its Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering. SFU’s Beedie School of Business offers Canada’s longest-standing Executive MBA program for sustainable mining, and houses the Responsible Minerals Sector Initiative, fostering global dialogue for the extractive sector.

MINING WATCH CANADA NEWS RELEASE: Poor Mining Companies? Parliamentary Committee Report Calls for CIDA Giveaway to Canadian Corporations

November 25, 2012

http://www.miningwatch.ca/

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Mining critics are calling yesterday’s parliamentary committee report on the use of Canadian aid money to support mining companies’ interests in developing countries “a wholesale handover of CIDA to the private sector.”

The report, by the Conservative majority House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, proposes to reconfigure CIDA to better serve Canadian corporations as they go abroad, starting with the mining sector.

The report prioritizes public-private partnerships, such as controversial projects with multi-million dollar mining companies that are already being piloted in countries such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Peru, as an “important tool of [CIDA’s] development programming.”

“This committee report doesn’t just tie Canadian aid to mining interests, it would actually restructure CIDA to better serve the interests of the corporate sector,” says MiningWatch spokesperson Catherine Coumans. “Aid money is meant to address poverty, not to promote the commercial interests of Canadian mining companies. Nor should it subsidize the obligations of mining companies to provide benefits to affected residents and rehabilitate damaged environments.”

In addition to CIDA partnerships with mining companies, the committee recommends:

Rights group investigates Canadian-owned mine in Mexico – by CBC News (November 25, 2012)

November 25, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/

Anti-mine activist’s death tied to local divisions over project

A gold and silver mine in Mexico that’s owned by the Vancouver-based company Fortuna Silver — and the death of a prominent activist opposed to the operation — were the focus of a three-day interational observation mission this past week.

Observers travelled to San José del Progreso in Oaxaca province, where the company began production in September 2011, to investigate the violence that many say appears related to opposition to the mine and its impact on the local water supply.

The mission, led by the Council of Canadians and Blue Planet Project, met with community members for and against the controversial Fortuna Silver mine, as well as representatives from the Canadian company’s local subsidiary, Minera Cuzcatlán.

Two anti-mine activists from the town were killed by gunfire earlier this year year and three others injured. Those killed included the outspoken leader the opposition campaign, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez.

Residents say the mine has polarized the community. There are reports Vásquez had received death threats in the weeks before he was gunned down in his car last March.

Dehua shuts separate [B.C. coal] project over temporary worker concerns – by James Keller (Vancouver Sun – November 24, 2012)

November 25, 2012

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

THE CANADIAN PRESS – VANCOUVER – The legal and political troubles that have overshadowed a plan to bring 201 Chinese workers to a proposed coal mine in northern British Columbia have prompted one of the companies involved to shut down a separate coal project nearby.

Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc. announced Saturday it has decided to wind down work at its Wapiti River coal project, located southeast of Tumbler Ridge.

Dehua owns a minority stake in HD Mining, which has generated headlines in recent months over its plan to bring Chinese miners to another proposed mine at Murray River, also near Tumbler Ridge. Two unions have asked Federal Court to throw out HD Mining’s temporary foreign worker permits, and the case has prompted the federal government to announce a review of the entire temporary foreign worker program, including HD Mining’s permits.

Dehua issued a statement early Saturday morning announcing it had filed a notice to shut down its Wapiti River project. The shut-down order is effective Sunday at midnight, the statement said.

“The decision has been forced upon Dehua following a deluge of calls from investors in Dehua’s mining operations in Canada,” said the statement, distributed by company lawyer Darryl Larson.

With China and India Ravenous for Energy, Coal’s Future Seems Assured – by Peter Galuszka (New York Times – November 12, 2012)

November 25, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/

RICHMOND, Va. — Last summer, nearly half of India’s sweltering population suddenly found the electricity shut off. Air-conditioners whirred to a stop. Refrigerators ceased cooling. The culprits were outmoded power generation stations and a creaky electricity transmission grid.

But another problem stood out. India relies on coal for 55 percent of its electric power and struggles to keep enough on hand.

Coal remains a critical component of the world’s energy supply despite its bad image. In China, demand for coal in 2010 resulted in a traffic jam 75 miles long caused by more than 10,000 trucks carrying supplies from Inner Mongolia. India is increasing coal imports.

So is Europe, as it takes advantage of lower coal prices in the United States. Higher-priced natural gas on the Continent is creating demand for more coal imports from the United States, where coal is taking a drubbing from less expensive natural gas.

Coal may seem an odd contender in a world where promising renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydroelectric power are attracting attention. Anathema to environmentalists because it creates so much pollution, coal still has the undeniable advantages of being widely available and easy to ship and burn.

[Oil] Lessons from Oslo – by Heather Mallik (Toronto Star – November 24, 2012)

November 25, 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.

OSLO—Britain is cool, Denmark is heavenly and Norway is next. Two down and one to go in my three-nation quest to find out why Stephen Harper in 1997 sneered in a speech to Americans that “Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it.”

I can hold a grudge for 15 years, easy, but that isn’t the point. I assumed the innocent Harper simply hadn’t visited these northern nations or he’d have seen how badly we needed to nudge closer to their style, their way of thinking.

Britain and Scandinavia are full of good ideas for a Canada at the crossroads, with a Conservative government trying to take us back to the 1950s while provinces like Alberta and Quebec stare at the future with a wild surmise. We should study the northern nations. We are one of them.

On the other hand, Norway fills me with apprehension. Norwegians are famously rational and courteous, almost as good-looking as the Danes and rich as Croesus.

Teen poet Adrian Mole once saluted the nation in a 1984 novel by Sue Townsend:

Time to monitor Guatemala’s mining sector? – Al Jazeera English (November 24, 2012)

November 25, 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/

Canadian company Goldcorp is accused of violating human rights and damaging the local environment around Marlin mine. A Canadian mining company stands accused of violating human rights and damaging the environment in Guatemala.

As the price of gold has rocketed amidst global economic uncertainty, Goldcorp argues it is sharing its record revenues with an impoverished community by providing jobs and economic development.

The company owns the Marlin mine in Guatemala, which was opened in 2005 despite the objections of indigenous communities.

Guatemala has ratified an international convention requiring local consent for such projects; but this did not stop it from proceeding. Nor did it stop the World Bank from giving GoldCorp a $45m loan for the mine in contravention of its own guidelines on local consulatation.