[Ring of Fire] Resource development could help peel away ‘layers and layers of trauma’ – by Heather Scoffield (The Canadian Press/Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal – December 27, 2012)

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

The people at Cliffs Natural Resources have been around, and know the challenges of mining in difficult conditions.
But this is a first: the multinational has had to extend deadlines on its environmental assessment process in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire because of a suicide crisis.

Another young man took his life a couple of weeks ago, prompting a spiral of despair in Neskantaga First Nation. Twenty young people in the small community of about 300 were put on suicide watch. The chief and council went to ground.
And the chances of them completing their feedback on time for Cliff’s environmental assessment terms of reference faded to zero.

“Neskantaga asked for some extra time on that, and given the circumstances, we figured that was right to do,” Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been clear with people that we’re going to be the operator of this project long-term, assuming it goes forward. We plan to be there for a long, long time.”

“We kind of balance our interest in holding to a schedule with a very high level of interest in making sure we’re doing it right. And it’s not to our benefit to be solely schedule driven.”

It’s a small delay, but it comes at a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it a priority to ramp up the pace of mining and energy extraction.

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The challenge of our time [First Nations Poverty] – Thunder Bay Chronicle Editorial (December 23, 2012)

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

ANOTHER protest by First Nations has led to another round of accusations and counter-accusations. Chiefs and band members say government is ignoring treaty obligations and violating traditional lands. The federal government insists it is acting on a number of fronts to improve the lot of First Nations. Canadians from all walks of life share a variety of opinions, some of them valid while others repeat old misconceptions.

The Idle No More movement follows other native protests rooted in similar claims and counter-claims. Some of these protests have led to violent confrontations; others have simmered for years.

In general, the efforts of reasonable First Nation leaders has led reasonable Canadian and provincial government leaders to act on legitimate grievances and legislate improvements. And yet, conditions on many First Nations remain impoverished and relations with most governments remain strained.

This situation has endured for decades and is both a stain on Canada’s name and a sign that something isn’t working. In this modern country with a solid Charter of Rights and Freedoms, how can there not have been a solution to this by now? Either the First Nations are right and governments are failing them badly, or governments are doing their best but cannot have the conversation that First Nations want to hear.

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India continuing to drive steel production – by Shivom Seth (December 24, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

If all planned capacity expansion projects become operational in India, the country could become the world’s second largest steel producer by 2015

MUMBAI (MINEWEB) – Demand for steel in India is rising. Global steel production grew by 5.1% in November to 121.6 million tonnes. India’s contribution was 6.4 million tonnes, with most experts insisting that the country’s steel demand is set to rise in the new year.

Though China tends to be the focus of the steel market given its status as the world’s largest producer, India could soon take over the mantle as the fastest growing producer of the metal within the next few years, if one goes by the opinion of its steel producers.

Somdeb Banerjee, Tata Steel’s executive for South Africa said India’s steel capacity could almost triple between 2010 and 2020 to reach 179 million tonnes a year. He was speaking at the Coaltrans Mozambique conference in Maputo.

In 2011, India became the fourth largest steel producing nation in the world with production of over 74 million tonnes. However, the country has a very low per capita consumption of steel of around 59 kilos as against an average of 215 kilos in the world. This wide gap in relative steel consumption indicates the potential ahead for India to raise its steel consumption, maintain experts.

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Wooing shareholders back to gold mining [AuRico Gold] – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – December 27, 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.

Barely four months into his job, AuRico Gold Inc. chief executive officer Scott Perry has had one message to investors: It’s time to get boring. Odd as that may sound, especially from a youthful CEO such as Mr. Perry, it echoes the new mantra of a gold industry that is recovering from a massive shareholder exodus that slashed values at companies large and small.

It is still more understandable given AuRico’s checkered past performances as Gammon Gold Inc. – it changed its name in June – and a stock market that is punishing gold producers who pursue growth for growth’s sake, and at the expense of shareholder value.

“The big thing I keep talking about with shareholders is we just want a portfolio that is deemed reliable, stable, consistent,” Mr. Perry said in an interview last week from offices in downtown Toronto. “So, if I was to speak crudely, it’s ‘let’s just get boring.”

AuRico’s stock price has oscillated like a yo-yo over the past four years, from lows of $2.95 a share in November, 2008, to highs of nearly $14 a share in August, 2011. These days, its shares are trading in the $7 to $8 range (they closed Dec. 24 at $7.67 a share), stabilizing after the company embarked on a radical redesign over the past year or so, from changing its name to stripping itself of underperforming assets.

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Year in Ideas: How vital oil infrastructure became a villain in Canada – by Jen Gerson (National Post – December 27, 2012)

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

In the first of a series on the most interesting ideas to emerge over the past year, the National Post’s Jen Gerson explores how pipelines became politically toxic.

For decades, pipelines were the invisible infrastructure, the veins that stretched across the continent to feed a North America ever-hungrier for energy and growth. Oil companies pulled crude from the ground and shipped it between refineries and wells with little comment.

A small leak was rarely noticed in the media, much less reported on. Then came Keystone XL, and the massive environmental campaign to stop the line from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. Then, everything changed.

Now opposition to pipelines has grown so intense that the completion of Northern Gateway, a line that would ship Alberta bitumen to the B.C. coast at Kitimat, is looking increasingly unlikely.

Some politicians — including B.C. premier Christy Clark and little-known Liberal leadership candidate Joyce Murray, a B.C. MP — have scored points with the public by playing to pipeline hysteria.

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How the Idle No More movement started and where it might go from here – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – December 27, 2012)

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

In this occasional feature, the National Post tells you everything you need to know about a complicated issue. Today, Tristin Hopper gets to the bottom of the Aboriginal protest movement Idle No More.

What exactly is Idle No More?

Conceived in November by four Saskatchewan women frustrated with the Tories’ latest omnibus budget bill, Idle No More is a First Nations protest movement looking to obtain renewed government guarantees for treaty agreements and halt what organizers see as a legislative erosion of First Nations rights. The movement’s most visible spokeswoman is Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation, the Northern Ontario reserve struck by an emergency housing crisis last year.

Since Dec. 11, Ms. Spence has been on a hunger strike while camped on an Ottawa River island only a few hundred metres from Parliament Hill, vowing not to eat until she has secured a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Since early December, protests spurred by Idle No More have included a 1,000-person demonstration on Parliament Hill last week, a blockade of a CN rail spur near Sarnia that continued for a sixth day on Wednesday and a variety of brief demonstrations and blockades across Canada and parts of the United States.

Although Idle No More trended on social media over the holidays, has there been much non-virtual movement of late?

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As protests swell, Attawapiskat chief stands firm on hunger strike – by Gloria Galloway (Globe and Mail – December 27, 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.

OTTAWA — The aboriginal interpretive centre on an island in the middle of the Ottawa River where Theresa Spence is living out her hunger strike is not an unhappy place. There are fires and drumming and even the occasional round of song.

Native leaders have come from disparate parts of Canada to meet with the Attawapiskat chief who has said she will fast until the federal government gives in to her demand for a meeting among first nations, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a representative of the Crown.

Ms. Spence wants to discuss the treaty that was signed in the first decade of the last century that covered a broad swath of Northern Ontario, including her own impoverished reserve. It promised money, education and health care in exchange for sharing the land.

Ms. Spence, like the descendants of the signatories of similar treaties across the country, says Canada is no longer living up to its part of the bargain.

So, two weeks ago, after listening to other chiefs at a national gathering complain about the problems affecting their people, the 49-year-old mother of five girls embarked on a hunger strike, consuming only water, fish broth and medicinal tea.

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Crown has to respect treaty rights: Wabauskang Chief Leslie Cameron – by Jon Thompson (Kenora Daily Miner & News – December 24, 2012)

http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/

Facing a lawsuit that could threaten its Phoenix Mine at Red Lake, Rubicon Minerals is not only vowing to fight back in court but to work with Wabauskang First Nation, who launched the suit on Thursday.

Based on an Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision that could redefine harvesting rights in the province, Wabauskang has asked a provincial court to either suspend or entirely cancel the approval of Rubicon’s closure plan, the primary authorization that will allow the company to begin production. The case, known as the Grassy Narrows Trappers’ Decision, found only the federal government can alter treaty agreements. The province has appealed that decision.

“We would rather not go to court, but until Canada and Ontario fulfill their responsibilities to us, we have no choice,” said Wabauskang Chief Leslie Cameron, arguing the province has unlawfully delegated its consultation responsibilities to the company. “Rubicon talks about their consultation, but where’s the government’s consultation? Ontario relied on Rubicon. That’s not right.”

Cameron compared her community’s case to that of Wahogshig First Nation’s case against Solid Gold Resources, which that First Nation argued in court on the same day Wabauskang filed its suit. She said Wabauskang will be closely watching the decision on Wahogshig, which is expected in mid-January 2013.

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[New Caledonia] Koniambo nickel commissioning support – control infrastructure – by International Mining (December 27, 2012)

http://www.im-mining.com/

Xstrata Nickel’s Koniambo project in New Caledonia is commissioning as it prepares for first ore by the end of 2012. The project design relies heavily on the use of Profibus DP, a digital communications bus, to link field instrumentation and electrical motor controls to the ABB Distributed Control System that is used for control and monitoring of the facilities. Ian Pearce, Chief Executive of Xstrata Nickel, said in November: “We are very excited about the progress being made at Koniambo, including the successful delivery of Line 1.

It is a testament to our dedicated project and operation teams at Koniambo Nickel that we can now focus on moving to first production. “With the completion of Line 1, the majority of our construction resources will now be devoted to the second production line, which is forecast to be complete in the second quarter of 2013. Koniambo Nickel will ramp up to a steady state annual production run rate of 60,000 t of nickel in ferronickel within two years, by the end of 2014.

“Koniambo Nickel’s mine is already operating with the geological integrity of our resource forecasts intact. The ore-preparation plant and overland conveyer are in operation and the team is working to ensure we have 30,000 t of on-spec ore ready for the metallurgical plant by the end of the year.”

Gary O’Connell, Project Technical Director, along with Thierry Bonnet de Larbogne, KNS Process Control Manager, requested XPS Process Control group to assist in troubleshooting of the Profibus installations when problems were experienced during pre-operations testing. The Process Control group has two certified Profibus professionals (Alan Hyde & Phil Nelson) within the group.

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The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world – by Michael Coulson

 

To order a copy of The History of Mining please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

THE INDUSTRY THAT FORGED THE MODERN WORLD

Throughout history metals and raw materials have underpinned human activity. So it is that the industry responsible for extracting these materials from the ground – mining – has been ever present throughout the history of civilisation, from the ancient world of the Egyptians and Romans, to the industrial revolution and the British Empire, and through to the present day, with mining firms well represented on the world’s most important stock indexes including the FTSE100.

This book traces the history of mining from those early moments when man first started using tools to the present day where metals continue to underpin economic activity in the post industrial age. In doing so, the history of mining methods, important events, technological developments, the important firms and the sparkling personalities that built the industry are examined in detail.

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