VALE NEWS RELEASE: 25th Anniversary of the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive Collects 100 tons of Food


(L to R): Announcing 100 tons of food collected at the 25th anniversary of the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive wrap-up are: Kayla Richardson, Student, Marymount Academy; Lise Callahan, Teacher, Marymount Academy; Claude Gravelle, MP, Nickel Belt; France Gelinas, MPP, Nickel Belt; Sharon Burton, Jennifer Burton, Noah Burton; Glenn Thibeault, MP, Sudbury; Rick Bartolucci, MPP, Sudbury and Minister of Northern Development & Mines; Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk; Mellaney Dahl, Honorary Chair, Sudbury Food Bank; Rick Bertrand, President, United Steelworkers, Local 6500; and Bruce Bichel, General Manager, Smelting & Refining, Vale.

SUDBURY, December 20, 2012 – The 25th anniversary of the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive was the most successful food drive ever in Sudbury, and one of the largest Christmas food drives in all of Canada, with approximately 100 tons of food collected by Vale, the United Steelworkers, schools and local businesses in Greater Sudbury.

“The spirit of Edgar Burton continues to guide the success of this campaign,” said Geoffrey Lougheed, Chair of the Sudbury Food Bank. “We achieved his goal of ‘one more can’ because of the generosity and care of our community. Thank you to everyone who has donated and continues Edgar’s legacy of sharing.”

Edgar Burton, a Vale Divisional Shops employee for 36 years, started the annual food drive 25 years ago when Edgar’s daughters asked him if they could start collecting food for the less fortunate. Since then, the campaign has grown to include hundreds of businesses and schools in Greater Sudbury. It is the largest food drive per capita in Ontario and one of the largest in all of Canada.

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Ring of Fire mining prospects empower Canada’s most disenfranchised natives – by Heather Scoffield (Canadian Press/Global News -December 20, 2012)

http://www.globalnews.ca/

MARTEN FALLS, Ont. – For Christmas, Chief Eli Moonias received a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey autographed by Wendel Clark. His remote northern Ontario community of Marten Falls got 50 turkeys and a visit from Santa, laden with children’s gifts.

And in March, the 61-year-old chief will be granted his wish of travelling to China ­– if he can get his passport in time. They’re all gifts from mining companies who need the chief’s support to develop what could be a world-class base-metal discovery.

Moonias’s community sits next to what has become known as the Ring of Fire. Marten Falls is a small, fly-in reserve — just three streets of houses for about 300 people at the junction of the Albany and Ogoki rivers. It’s in the middle of one of the only forests in the world that has never been touched by industry, an area that hosts six of Canada’s biggest rivers.

When trapping for furs lost its lustre several decades ago, nothing replaced it in Marten Falls. Unless the residents are working for the band office or a government-run social service, they’re almost certainly unemployed — and more often than not, addicted to prescription painkillers at the expense of putting food on the table for their families. Never have they felt more empowered.

“If you don’t reassure me, that’s when I say No,” Moonias says in an interview at the band’s resource office, wallpapered with maps and surveys. About 130 kilometres to the north of the reserve, multinational miner Cliffs Natural Resources wants to develop a huge chromite mine to make a key ingredient in stainless steel. The firm brought Marten Falls the Christmas turkeys.

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Russia’s Klondike? Not yet – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters.com – December 20, 2012)

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – It looks like any one of remote eastern Siberia’s low-lying, peat-colored hills: only the thin trenches that scar Sukhoi Log hint at the work of generations of geologists to measure the riches beneath.

This bleak expanse, uninviting against a steel grey sky, is probably the world’s largest virgin gold deposit, with mineral wealth to rival the world’s largest, at Grasberg in Indonesia.

Yet it has remained untapped for half a century, held back by its remoteness, state restrictions and, in recent years, a lack of interest on the part of a Moscow government riding the wave of energy profits and holding out for higher gold prices.

“(The government) would love more gold, but they have no time to think about these issues at the top level,” said Sergei Guriev, rector of the New Economic School in Moscow.

“At the lower level, people are happy with the status quo.” Soviet geologists surveyed Sukhoi Log intensively in the 1970s yet little came of it. But now the Russian government has stirred long-dormant interest, suggesting it might invite bids to mine the gold. While such talk has come and gone in the past – and no details of any tender have been given – there is new debate on how, and at what cost, the ore might be exploited.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Helping make communities better: Noront brings Santa to Ring of Fire First Nations

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.

Ontario Mining Association member Noront Resources’ Ring of Fire Christmas Fund is once again helping ensure Santa visits three First Nations in the vicinity of its Eagle’s Nest project. Noront’s Christmas Fund will be providing approximately 700 wrapped gifts to every child under the age of 13 in Webequie, Marten Falls and Neskantaga First Nations.

This will be the fourth year the Ring of Fire Christmas Fund, with the involvement of Noront employees and supplier volunteers, has assisted Santa’s transportation. Along with visits to each of the communities, the Christmas Fund takes Santa to Thunder Bay for celebrations and gift giving to people from the Webequie, Marten Falls and Neskantaga First Nations living off reserve in that larger community.

“Every year our volunteers enjoy going above and beyond their tasks to spread the Christmas cheer to the youth of the communities we work with,” said Kaityln Ferris, Manager Corporate Responsibility for Noront. “Judging by their smiling faces, we think providing a wrapped gift for each child at Christmas and providing individual recognition is very important.”

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Steelworkers suggest B.C. coal mines controlled by Chinese government – by Dirk Meissner (iPolitics – December 19, 2012)

 http://www.ipolitics.ca/

The Canadian Press – VICTORIA – The United Steelworkers says it has dug up what it calls close ties between the Chinese government and the reportedly privately-run coal mine in northeastern British Columbia embroiled in a foreign-worker controversy.

The union released a report Wednesday that suggests HD Mining International Ltd. — the firm developing the proposed Murray River mine near Tumbler Ridge — has ownership links to the government in China, where workers receive low wages in unsafe conditions.

A union report titled “Who Owns Huiyong Holdings and other Questions on Planned Chinese-Owned Coal Mines in B.C. ” examines the ownership of Huiyong Holdings Group, which owns Huiyong Holdings (BC) Ltd., and holds 55 per cent of HD Mining.

Steve Hunt, Western Canada director for the Steelworkers’ union, said Wednesday the union found little evidence of the company’s mining operations in China.

“We employed an investigator in China who has some knowledge of what goes on in China and we just searched the best we could possibly search and we couldn’t find very much detail on the company at all, other than some of the players,” he said. “We’re trying to find out something about the mines that they have. . .What are they experts in? It’s hard to do because we can’t find anything about them.”

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Why First Quantum’s bid for Inmet likely won’t be its last – Bloomberg News (National Post – December 18, 2012)

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

The cheapest copper mining deal in five years has traders convinced that First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s latest bid for Inmet Mining Corp. won’t be its last.

The C$5.1 billion ($5.2 billion) offer values Inmet, owner of the second-biggest copper mine under construction, at the lowest multiple of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for a deal of its size in the industry since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Inmet shares climbed yesterday 1.2 percent above the C$72-a-share proposal — First Quantum’s third offer for the Toronto-based company since October — indicating arbitrageurs who bet on acquisitions expect another boost, the data show.

After Inmet last week raised estimates for the amount of copper contained at its Cobre Panama mine, Canaccord Financial Inc. said it would take a bid of at least C$80 a share to win over investors, particularly with the top shareholders controlling a majority of the stock. While Inmet could draw other suitors, Vancouver-based First Quantum’s desire for a friendly deal suggests it may be willing to pay more whether or not there are rival bidders, according to Bank of Montreal.

“The market is clearly saying that we are going to need a higher price to push this through,” Barry Schwartz, a Toronto-based fund manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc., which oversees about C$450 million including Inmet shares, said in a telephone interview.

Cobre Panama “is going to be one of the greatest mines that’s going to come on stream in the second half of the decade. We’re running out of quality finds of copper, and Inmet has one of them.”

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Keystone protesters pay price for dangling in Texas trees – by David Mildenbery (Bloomberg/Toronto Star – December 20,2012)

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.

AUSTIN, TEXAS—Protesters trying to save the world by sitting in trees or blocking equipment used to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline are learning that environmental activism can be a ticket to lengthy jail time in East Texas.

Matthew Almonte, Glen Collins and Isabel Brooks landed in jail in Tyler on Dec. 3, charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass, resisting arrest and illegal dumping, following efforts to stop work on the TransCanada Corp. pipeline. Each has asked for a reduction in the $65,000 (U.S.) bond that must be posted to get out pending trial, without success.

The trio joined more than 30 others arrested since October near Tyler and Nacogdoches as they tried to halt work on the $7.6 billion (U.S.) pipeline that would bring products of Alberta oilsands to Houston-area refineries. President Barack Obama blocked the northern U.S. leg, citing environmental risks in Nebraska. An updated review of a revised route may be released in days. The southern end runs from Oklahoma through Texas.

“This is the front line where the climate debate comes onto the ground and you can come over and kick it,” said Eddie Scher, a Sierra Club spokesman. The Washington-based group calls itself the largest, most effective U.S. environmental advocate. “There isn’t an inch of space between us and the blockaders.”

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Alberta feels the pinch of slumping commodity prices – by Josh Wingrove, Barrie McKenna and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – December 20, 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.

Edmonton, Ottawa and Calgary — Oil-rich Alberta is dialling back its budget forecasts, saying that slumping commodity prices could mean belt-tightening, bigger deficits, broken election pledges and a slower national economic recovery.

The warning Wednesday from Finance Minister Doug Horner is the latest signal that Canada’s economy will not turn around as swiftly as governments across the country had hoped. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the federal government have pulled back on revenue projections in recent weeks because of sluggish growth and low commodity prices, particularly in oil and gas.

Mr. Horner blamed the gap between the price of Alberta’s oil and the North American benchmark. Alberta’s typically sells at a discount, one that has widened lately. “I’m very, very concerned about where those numbers are headed,” Mr. Horner said, adding the province needs new export pipelines to reach new buyers and fetch the higher price.

Any commodity downturn is felt most strongly in the west, but provincial forecasts across Canada are being revised as the U.S. economy remains sluggish and energy prices slump.

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[Newfoundland] Muskrat folly – by Tom Adams (National Post – December 19, 2012)

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

Tom Adams is a Toronto-based electricity consultant.

Newfoundland pushes project to exact revenge on Quebec

The governments of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Canada have teamed up to deliver what may prove to be the worst hydroelectric project ever in Canada — Muskrat Falls.

The plan involves building a dam and generating station on the Churchill River near Goose Bay, plus transmission lines to deliver power from Labrador to the island of Newfoundland and on to Nova Scotia. In 2010, the price tag was pegged at $6.2-billion with a modest contingency. Today, the price has ballooned to $7.7-billion, a figure that would be higher except that the contingency allowance was slashed by $370-million. Neither figure includes interest during construction that will add over a billion more.

To smooth what would otherwise be a drastic rate impact for Newfoundland consumers if conventional utility finance models were applied, the government plans to use a unique financial structure that shifts the main financial burden of the generator portion of the project up to 57 years into the future.

A joint federal-provincial review in 2011 refused to endorse the project.

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First Nations force their way onto Stephen Harper’s 2013 agenda – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – December 19, 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.

OTTAWA—The movement is known as Idle No More. In the next couple of days we will learn whether this is the latest venting of aboriginal frustration in this country or whether it grows to become a sleeper issue in 2013.

Aboriginal discontent could muscle its way onto Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda very early in the new year.

The protests have been surprisingly robust, although Idle No More, born of opposition to the government’s omnibus budget bill, is only days old.

It has moved beyond the angry flare sparked by the bill and has grown, fuelled by young aboriginals deftly using social media, to represent the latest iteration of the festering conflict that has marked the Harper government — its determination to economically exploit resources over the objections of environmentalists and aboriginals who believe this regime is running roughshod over its ancestral lands.

But there is more, something even more fundamental, because movement leaders count 14 pieces of legislation — dealing with everything from education to water quality to financial accountability — that they believe are the laws of an adversary.

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TSX cracking down on Ring of Fire remote miners – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 18, 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.

The lack of a coherent plan to develop transportation infrastructure in the Ring of Fire is hurting the exploration financing scene in Ontario, says a leading business law firm.

Fasken Martineau issued a Dec. 13 bulletin that the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has taken the position not to list companies with exploration projects in global regions where there is no authoritative plan to move raw and bulk product to market. This pertains to junior miners operating in Ontario’s Far North, the firm said in a statement.

Fasken said, historically, a National Instrument 43-101 technical report establishing “economically interesting grades” of mineral resources on a property was usually good enough to satisfy the TSX.

Not anymore. Faskens said the TSX wants assurances that bulk products, such as concentrate, can be shipped to market by roads, rail or via port facilities.

“We understand that the TSX has recently turned down the listing application of several companies in the Ring of Fire and in Quebec, because of concerns about the availability of infrastructure.”

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[Sudbury] Local 598 starts talks with Xstrata – by Heidi Ulrichsen – Sudbury (Northern Life – December 19, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Negotiations ‘cordial and sincere

Mine Mill Local 598/CAW began negotiating a new contract with Xstrata Nickel on behalf of its 900 members who work for the company Dec. 14. The union’s three-year deal with Xstrata Nickel expires at midnight Jan. 31.

So far, negotiations have been “cordial and sincere,” and the bargaining committee is cautiously optimistic a new contract can be reached without a labour dispute, a press release from the union said.

“We’ve had a good relationship with them over the last three years,” said Local 598 president Richard Paquin. “All indications so far are they want to maintain that.”

Negotiations will continue through the Christmas season as both parties try to come to an agreement, he said. If a deal isn’t reached by mid-January, Local 598 will hold a strike vote, Paquin said. During the last set of negotiations in 2010, a deal wasn’t reached until the early morning hours of Feb. 1, a few hours after the contract expired.

In the end, the union didn’t give up any concessions, and it doesn’t plan to do so this time, either, Paquin said. The 2010 negotiations were difficult, but “all negotiations are difficult,” he said.

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Ring of Fire: Miles to Go Before We Dig – by Stan Sudol

This column was published in the January 5 and 7 editions of the Sudbury Star:

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/05/accent–ring-of-fire—miles-to-go-before-we-dig

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/07/miles-before-we-dig

Intro

It may be a cliché, but over the past six months, how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same in the Ring of Fire. There may be some ongoing activity or discussions behind the scenes, but without a doubt, the declining state of the global economy, First Nations issues and Ontario politics seem to have halted any progress on a varity of issues.

First let’s look at the fragile nature of the world economy. The U.S. is still struggling, Europe is worse, with skyrocketing unemployment rates in many countries and China’s past double-digit expansion is gone. It is estimated that their economy will “only” grow seven per cent this year.

The price of commodities and the value of resource companies have plummeted. Many mining projects are being put on hold or cancelled while layoff notices are being handed out. Funding for junior exploration companies – the source of future discoveries like the Ring of Fire – has become almost imposible to find putting many on life support.

The stock price of Cliffs Natural Resources has plummeted from US$100.00 per share a year and a half ago to a little under US$30.00 recently. Cliffs has publicly stated that they are looking for a partner to help develop their northern Ontario chromite deposits. Recently the company has put their Bloom Lake iron ore expansion project in Quebec’s Labrador Iron Trough on hold and stopped production at two of their U.S. iron ore mines.

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