CNOOC and Petronas takeovers approved, but future deals face new restrictions – by James Munson (iPolitics.ca – December 7, 2012)

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

The federal government is severely limiting any future investment by foreign state-owned enterprises in the Canadian energy sector despite approving two long-awaited takeovers Friday evening.

The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, better known as CNOOC, will be allowed to buy Calgary-based Nexen after agreeing to a strict set of requirements demanded by Ottawa exclusively by this bid.

CNOOC, which offered to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion, will have to keep certain parts of its operations in Canada and agree to rules on employing Canadian.

The Chinese oil giant will swear to work by “free market principles” as well as file an annual compliance report to Industry Canada, the department responsible for handling foreign takeovers.

“Under existing guidelines, (CNOOC’s) proposed transaction to acquire control of Nexen is likely to be of net benefit to Canada,” said Industry Minister Christian Paradis in a statement issued Friday.

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Business-backed website defends HD Mining – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – December 7, 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.

Vancouver — HD Mining supporters have launched a website to support the company, which has come under fire for its plans to develop a coal mine with the help of Chinese miners brought to Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

A website entitled Friends of HD Mining lists member companies in businesses including trucking, construction and restaurant services and says the initiative is funded by donations from those members.

It includes a bulletin headlined “HD Mining is under attack.”

“As fellow service providers to HD Mining, we feel the need to stand up for a company that has been supportive of all of us,” it says. “Certain organizations in B.C. have targeted HD Mining in an effort to succeed in their own selfish agenda. This website has been developed to provide a voice for the many Canadian-owned companies providing services to HD Mining and to set the record straight about our friend and client, HD Mining Ltd.”

The recent furor over foreign workers has overshadowed the positive impact of HD Mining’s project, says one of the business people involved in the campaign.

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Miner output is six times Ontario’s industrial average – OMA – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 12, 2012)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The output per worker in Ontario’s mining industry is $680 000/y, or is six times the province’s industrial average, and mining in the province has an expanding workforce in which the average weekly wage is about 60% higher than the average for all industry in Ontario, a report published by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA) has found.

The OMA’s mineral sector economic impact study ‘Mining: Dynamic and Dependable for Ontario’s Future’, prepared by University of Toronto (UoT) economists Peter Dungan and Steve Murphy was released on Thursday at the UoT’s Rotman School of Management.

“Mining is an expanding component of the Ontario economy. The world wants Ontario’s mineral products and if the province provides necessary infrastructure support and maintains an atmosphere conducive to investment, it will continue to be pulled ahead by a strong mining industry,” OMA president Chris Hodgson said.

Mining companies in Ontario contribute more than $800-million in taxes a year and personal income taxes paid by mining sector employees reach at least half-a-billion-dollars more each year. Capital investments in new projects are also increasing and so are investments in mineral exploration.

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NEWS RELEASE: VALE INVESTS IN LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY’S CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

Company commits $125,000 towards a Health and Safety Research Chair at Laurentian

SUDBURY, ON (DECEMBER 7th, 2012) – Vale representatives presented Dr. Tammy Eger, associate professor at the School of Human Kinetics and current CROSH director, with a cheque for $125,000 at the 3rd Annual Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) Community Symposium. The funds will be used to aid in the establishment of a permanent Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety, a key priority in the Centre’s growth plan.

“This is a proud day for CROSH,” said Dr. Eger. “We’ve come a long way in the past four years, and this donation will bring us closer to achieving one of our most important objectives. The creation of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will provide the leadership needed to build upon CROSH’s successes and expand its vision and influence.”

Officially approved by Laurentian University’s Senate in 2008, CROSH is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, guided by an advisory board comprised of representatives from labour, industry and local health and safety organizations, who engage in innovative studies aimed at identifying health and safety concerns and eliminating hazards and occupational disease from workplaces around the North.

Once full-funding for the position has been secured, the Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will drive innovative research that will establish the Centre as a national and international trendsetter in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices.

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When the big just keeps getting bigger – Duluth releases new metals resource – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com -December 7, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

A significant increase in the enormous Twin Metals polymetallic resource in Minnesota, and identified higher grade zones, means the project economics just look like getting better and better

LONDON (MINEWEB) – With the release of an updated NI 43-101 compliant resource, Duluth Metals is just confirming the massive scale, and strategic mineral content, of the ground which falls under its Twin Metals jv with Antofagasta on the Duluth Metals complex in eastern Minnesota.

What is perhaps most impressive with regard to the future potential of the resource is that it only relates to around 11% of the ground controlled by the jv.

And from Duluth’s own viewpoint it is a resource which does not form part of its additional wholly-controlled ground holdings in the area where it has just started an exploration drilling programme, with four drill rigs turning.

But, coming back to the Twin Metals jv resource, the latest Indicated resource figures come out as containing an enormously impressive 13.7 billion lbs of copper, 4.4 billion lbs of nickel, and 21.2 million ounces of palladium+platinum+gold (TPM).

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