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Day: December 5, 2012

Joint-venture poised to tackle infrastructure, labour shortages – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 4, 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.

Don Wing looks upon Wasaya Dowland Contracting as having a transformational effect in giving Aboriginal people the skills and confidence to tackle a looming labour shortage in the North.

With more than a dozen potential new mines poised to start development within five years, the vice-president of Dowland’s Ontario division calls the new joint venture between the Wasaya Group of companies and Dowland a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way things are done.”

“We’re going to take that venture, we’re going to make it successful, and we’re going to change people’s lives.” Dowland Contracting appeared on the Thunder Bay scene last year when the Wasaya Group introduced the Northwest Territories-based contractor as a strategic development partner.

With 51 per cent of the limited partnership owned by Wasaya, the aim is to position itself to meet the infrastructure challenges in remote First Nation communities as resource development takes hold.

The venture is viewed as a stepping stone to train Aboriginal people in the skills required to build mines, power lines, arenas, hospitals, hotels and schools.

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OMA member Vale helps rocks get centre stage at a national museum

(L-R) Vale Canada representatives Cory McPhee, VP, Corporate Affairs; Audrey Leduc, Corporate Affairs Officer; and John Mullally, Director, Corporate Affairs in front of display with rock sample from Sudbury’s Vale mine. (Photo by: Jamie Kronick, Canadian Museum of Nature)

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.

After residing for almost two billion years in the Sudbury Basin, a 227-plus kilogram piece of nickel ore now has a new home as a centrepiece in the Vale Earth Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The new gallery was officially unveiled recently. It has 8,000 square feet of floor space and it provides a journey through billions of years of geological time and shows how geology and mineralogy connect to everyday life in the 21st century.

In 2009, Vale pledged $1 million to sponsor this gallery. A smaller phase of the Vale Earth Gallery opened in 2010. The new, larger and permanent gallery is the result of two years of planning and three months of extensive renovations. The gallery is also home to a satellite exhibit from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

The giant piece of nickel ore is not alone in the new gallery. Fourteen oversized mineral samples share space with about 1,000 mineral, rock and gem specimens. The gallery also contains numerous interactive educational exhibits.

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SAMSSA ‘a cheerleader’ for [Sudbury Laurentian] mining school – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – December 5, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

LU prez promises to meet industry’s needs

Three years ago, Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux and Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) executive director Dick DeStefano sat down for what was to be a fateful drink together.

“(DeStefano) challenged me,” Giroux said, speaking before about 150 SAMSSA members gathered for the organization’s annual general meeting Dec. 4.

“He said, ‘Dominic, you have great programs, but Laurentian University needs to step up its game. You need to create a school of mines. You need to be more active in the cluster, and allow the cluster to be more vibrant.’

“My answer to Dick was ‘For crying out loud, I have a record deficit. Give me a year or two to settle the place, secure a school of architecture, and then we’ll get talking.’” Since that time, DeStefano has been “very supportive,” he said, but also kept his “feet close to the fire, on occasion.”

Laurentian announced the creation of its school of mines in June. Then in October, it revealed Dundee Corporation CEO Ned Goodman was lending has name to the school of mines and donating a significant amount of money, although the exact amount has been kept confidential.

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[Sudbury] LU poised to supply industry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 5, 2012)

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

Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines will be well-positioned to capitalize on the fact 40% of Canadian mining employees are due to retire in the next few years. The industry will be looking to recruit 60,000 to 100,000 people, many with university degrees, to fill the gap left by retiring Baby Boomers.

Laurentian president Dominic Giroux said the Goodman School of Mines won’t be a mining research institute because those already exist in Sudbury and they’re doing excellent work.

The school will instead educate students in engineering and earth sciences, and provide executive and management training for graduates and people now in the mining workforce.

Giroux spoke to about 140 people in mining and miningrelated businesses and institutions Tuesday morning at the annual general meeting of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Ser vices Association (SAMSSA).

The university president said the idea for the school originated from a conversation with SAMSSA executive director Dick DeStefano, and its focus came from businesses such as those attending the meeting at College Boreal.

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[Ontario] Energy policy unintelligible – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (November 30, 2012)

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

IT is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to understand Ontario’s energy policy. No more so than in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario where the policy is marked by fits and starts instead of a stable program for reliable electricity that grows with demonstrated need.

Ontario is short of revenue and it is at times short of electricity. More electricity can and will lead to more revenue, both in terms of general economic development and through taxation. The recent Ambassadors study by Lakehead University demonstrated clearly that if just the nine most promising mining projects in this region proceed, $135 billion will be spent and $17 billion will be paid in taxes, a third of it to Ontario.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the new Northwestern mining boom can be the economic driver for all of Ontario. But it must have the electrical power on hand to run things.

As this newspaper reported Wednesday, as part of its responsible clean-air goal to phase out coal-burning power plants, Ontario drew up plans to convert the Thunder Bay Generating Station to natural gas.

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Independent policy analysis for Northern Ontario – by David Robinson (Canadian Government Executive – Vol. #18 Issue #9 – November 26, 2012)

http://www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/

Dr. David Robinson, is director of the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University.

We are entering what Neil Bradford calls the third wave of Canadian regional development policy, which recognizes the importance of regions in national-provincial economic growth.

The word “northern” in Ontario means something quite different from northern in the rest of Canada. Northern Ontario is southern Canada. Almost all the population of Northern Ontario lives south of Vancouver, and more than 99 percent live south of Edmonton. It is a region larger than Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba, and larger than the four Atlantic provinces. It would have been a province, in fact, if forward thinking Torontonians had not engaged in a bit of successful colonial expansion.

Northern Ontario provides a striking example of how regional differences complicate provincial policymaking. The south of the province is part of one of the world’s most powerful economies: 56 percent of Canada’s population lives and works in a tiny strip 1,100 kilometers long, just 100 km wide bordering the largest market in the world. The rich, industrial Windsor-Quebec corridor, can go toe-to-toe with the famous “Asian Tigers.” Modesty aside, it is the historic heart of Canada and still the economic engine of the country.

The south is dealing with massive urban growth and immigration. The north is an economically depressed region despite the current mining boom, and Ontario forecasts zero population growth over the next 25 years.

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Three oligarchs better than two? Abramovich gets stake Norilsk Nickel – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – December 5, 2012)

 http://www.mineweb.com/

In an attempt to mediate between the warring Russian oligarchs who have the major stakes in Norilsk Nickel, the Kremlin has apparently enforced a deal giving a third tycoon, Roman Abramovich an effective mediating stake.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – As watchers of the world’s largest nickel and palladium miner will know Russian headquartered Norilsk Nickel has been beset by boardroom strife between the two Russian mining oligarchs who each own around 25% of the company – Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska’s United Company Rusal bought into Norilsk back in 2008 and he and Potanin have been at loggerheads virtually ever since over a number of issues.

Now a third oligarch, Roman Abramovich – perhaps as well known for his control of the UK’s Chelsea football club – is to acquire a 7.3% stake in Norilsk through his holding company, Millhouse, plus a disproportionate board presence – three of the 13 directors – through an escrow deal whereby all three of the major holders put similar 7.3% stakes into an escrow account which Millhouse will control. This will give Abramovich an effective controlling decision-making stake which, it is hoped will act as a mediation between the other two warring oligarchs and bring stability to the major miner

The deal appears to be politically inspired with the Kremlin losing patience on the inter-oligarch rivalries which have beset what is one of Russia’s largest companies and a significant contributor to the economy both in terms of tax take and of raw materials production – Norilsk also being one of the world’s top 10 copper miners.

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Norman Keevil: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 Pacific Lifetime Achievement Award (National Post – December 2012)

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

Overseeing a $25-billion company doesn’t exactly sound like a very entrepreneurial job, but then Teck Resources wasn’t always so big. It traces its roots back to 1912 and a gold discovery at Kirkland Lake, Ont., but it remained a comparatively small company until the early 1970s when it started on a growth streak. Norman Keevil, who joined Teck in 1962, became CEO and president in 1981 and then chairman in 2000, was at the helm for many of the developments that have made Teck the resources giant it is today. “We did it one small step at a time,” he says.

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY Your philosophy when you started may be different than later on. But I would say now, and maybe it always was, it’s to try to be the best at what you do. For us, that’s been working toward building the best Canadian-based mining or resources company we can. We’ve been all over the place. In the ’60s, we actually had more oil than gold, but then we got out of oil in the ’70s because we realized we didn’t know much about it and then we got back in later on in the oil sands and out of gold. We’ve been willing to be diversified, which is one of our pluses.

In our business, the three keys are people, oil reserves and financial strength, in no particular order. At any given time, there are only so many opportunities out there in the world and if you’re restricted to one commodity, whether it’s gold, coal or copper, if in your mind you’re restricted to one, then by definition there are fewer opportunities. One of our business philosophies is to be opportunistic in the sense that we’re looking for the maximum number of opportunities and size them up to each other, which means being prepared to look at different commodities at different times. We end up being diversified not because we set out to be that way, but because we set out to be opportunistic.

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Thunderous applause as Anglo CEO commits to SA mining solution – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – December 4, 2012)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa had succeeded in extricating itself from its grave political problems in the past and the country would succeed again in finding solutions in the wake of the horrific Marikana tragedy, Cynthia Carroll said on Tuesday.

At the same time, the Anglo American CEO, who is stepping down after six years, warned that South Africa had to restore stable labour relations and foster a business environment attractive to international investors.

Carroll drew thunderous applause from a packed Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) audience when she concluded her 30-minute address by saying that “the naysayers and the doomsdayers constantly forecast disaster, but in response, I say loud and clear, South Africa has done it before and it will do it again”, by arriving at a post-Marikana solution to which her company was also totally committed.

She said that the Constitutional foundation that had been laid when South Africa transitioned from the “dark night of apartheid to the new dawn of democracy” would help the country disentangle itself from its post-Marikana crisis.

She observed that the curse of unemployment had resulted in mineworkers often having a large number of economic dependents, against the background of the migrant labour system loosening the bonds of family life and dislocating communities.

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To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart – by J. Peter Pham (New York Times – November 30, 2012)

http://www.nytimes.com/

J. Peter Pham is director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council.

THE Democratic Republic of Congo, which erupted in violence again earlier this month, ought to be one of the richest countries in the world. Its immense mineral reserves are currently valued by some estimates at more than $24 trillion and include 30 percent of the world’s diamond reserves; vast amounts of cobalt, copper and gold; and 70 percent of the world’s coltan, which is used in electronic devices. Yet the most recent edition of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index ranked Congo last among the 187 countries and territories included in the survey.

Instead of prosperity, Congo’s mineral wealth has brought only an endless procession of unscrupulous rulers eager to exploit its riches, from King Leopold II of Belgium to Mobutu Sese Seko, who was allowed by the logic of the cold war to rule the same area as a private fief. And last year, the current president, Joseph Kabila, who inherited the job from his assassinated father more than a decade ago, awarded himself another five-year term in elections that were criticized by everyone from the European Union to the country’s Roman Catholic bishops.

If some enterprises, public or private, can be said to be “too big to fail,” Congo is the reverse: it is too big to succeed. It is an artificial entity whose constituent parts share the misfortune of having been seized by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley in the name of a rapacious 19th-century Belgian monarch. From the moment Congo was given independence in 1960, it was being torn apart by centrifugal forces, beginning with separatism in the mineral-rich southern province of Katanga.

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