Asian-led group takes $1.1-billion stake in Canadian unit of ArcelorMittal – by Josh O’Kane (Globe and Mail – January 2, 2013)

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.

A consortium that includes South Korea’s biggest steel maker is buying a $1.1-billion (U.S.) stake in Montreal’s ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc., the latest sign of international enthusiasm for Canada’s resource sector.

A person familiar with the deal said South Korea’s Posco is “one of the more important players” in the consortium, which also includes Taiwan’s China Steel Corp. The consortium is taking a 15-per-cent stake in ArcelorMittal Mines – the second time in as many years that Posco has bought into a Canadian mining firm.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper clamped down on foreign acquisition rules in December, it is expected that the minority-stake investment is among the types of transactions he was hoping to encourage in order to fund the expansion of Canadian businesses.

Paul Boothe, a past Industry Canada senior associate deputy minister, said that in the case of a resource-sector portfolio investment such as this, “the administration of the Investment Canada Act appears unchanged,” meaning such a deal should not face any harsh setbacks in the form of an economic review.

ArcelorMittal Mines Canada, among the country’s leading suppliers of iron ore for steel markets, would increase Posco’s access to its essential commodity. The Montreal company, which has two large open-pit mines in Quebec, says it produces about 15 million metric tonnes of iron ore concentrate annually, as well as nine million tons of iron oxide pellets.

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Canada’s pipeline squeeze Joe Oliver’s biggest challenge – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – January 2, 2013)

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 — As the front man for the federal government’s resource development plan, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver enjoyed some key victories in the past year, but the continental battle over proposed pipelines rages on and the economic health of the Canadian oil industry is far from assured.

In the months ahead, Mr. Oliver will need to reassure Canadians that Ottawa’s overhaul of environmental assessment legislation will not undermine the safety of proposed pipelines, and that the sector’s success is a national priority, even as oil companies push ahead with controversial plans to extend their access across British Columbia and deep into Eastern Canada.

Mr. Oliver expressed a sense of vindication with the recent release of three reports illustrating the economic risks confronting Canada’s oil industry with its lack of access to key markets. Fears about a major Canadian industry hobbled by lagging infrastructure is what prompted the federal government’s effort to speed the process for pipeline approval.

The minister launched 2012 with an attack on “radical” environmental groups whose no-holds-barred opposition to new pipeline development threatened to undermine the value of Canada’s most strategic resource. Now, as a new year begins, Alberta heavy oil is selling at a near-record discount to international crudes, and analysts are warning that, without rapid construction of pipelines, the industry faces disaster.

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Idle No More protests beyond control of chiefs – by James Bradshaw and Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – January 2, 2013)

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.

TORONTO and OTTAWA – The Idle No More movement is broadening into a call to shake off apathy, absorbing a range of issues from aboriginal rights and environmental safeguards to the democratic process. And as it swells, organizers are warning first nations leaders that the movement will not be corralled by aboriginal politicians even as the country’s chiefs look to use the protests’ momentum to press Ottawa on treaty rights and improved living standards.

Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday afternoon in Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, many of aboriginal heritage but nearly as many not, joining hands in round dances and lighting candles to honour Chief Theresa Spence, who was on day 22 of her hunger strike demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet with aboriginal leaders.

The gathering attracted aboriginal peoples calling for greater consultation on changes to reservation land management and the Indian Act, but also environmentalists and government critics charging that the federal omnibus budget bill is bypassing vital public debate.

Started by four Saskatchewan women, the grassroots Idle No More movement has gone viral, with supporters across Canada and internationally holding protests, blocking rail lines and launching hunger strikes. While national chiefs support the effort, organizers are resisting any effort to hand over leadership to their elected representatives.

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2012: A year for calling leaders to account – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – January 2, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Tragedy, firings and calls for leadership were at the heart of the mining sector’s big stories of 2012.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – 2012 was a big year for leadership. A host of countries, including France and China elected new leaders, others, like the US, chose more of the same. But, all around the world, leaders were being forced to work a little harder to win votes – unsurprising really, when one considers the parlous state of the global economy.

But, it was not just in the political sphere that leadership was being questioned. Mining leaders, at both a government and a company level were put on the spot. Indeed, one could argue that leadership (or a lack thereof) was at the heart of many of the sector’s largest stories in 2012.

The biggest and most tragic story of the year was the unrest on South Africa’s gold and platinum mines – unrest that led to the massacre at Marikana and a wave of strikes almost unprecedented in the industry.

While the full extent of the changes wrought in that crucible are yet to be seen, it is certain that the sector has undergone profound change and will have to see much more before it can begin to recover.

The judicial commission of inquiry into the massacre being Chaired by former judge Ian Farlam, has yet to reach a verdict but it has already raised a number of questions about leadership on all sides of the issue.

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Brics Fade as Engine of Growth – by Bob Davis (Wall Street Journal – January 2, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

BEIJING—Not too long ago, the Brics nations looked like they might be able to provide a powerful engine of growth for the global economy. Don’t count on it for 2013.

Brics refers to some of the stars of the emerging markets—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—which together represent 40% of the world’s population. But only one of the nations, China, has the economic heft to make a major difference internationally on its own, and it is just now starting to come out of a slowdown. The other four nations face a variety of economic challenges, ranging from inflation to inadequate foreign investment to labor unrest.

Since 2009, the leaders of the group have held four leaders summits. South Africa, which joined the group at the end of 2010, is hosting the fifth summit in Durban, South Africa, in March 2013. But tThe hope that the Brics countries would help one another through increased trade, investment and political support hasn’t panned out. Officials and analysts from Brics nations say they act as much as rivals as allies, and their lack of cohesion adds to their economic problems.

China complains that other Brics countries increasingly target it in anti-dumping suits. Brazil objects to Moscow’s restrictions on Brazilian agricultural imports. Russia is trying to turn itself into a major farm exporter, which is bound to heighten competition with Brazil. Slower growth in China and India pushes down commodity prices, which hurts South Africa and Russia.

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Aboriginal prosperity must be earned – by Brian Lee Crowley and Ken Coates (Troy Media – December 28, 2012)

http://www.troymedia.com/

Brian Lee Crowley (twitter.com/brianleecrowley) is the Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent non-partisan public policy think tank in Ottawa (http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca). Ken Coates is the Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan.

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 28, 2012/ Troy Media/ – Recent protests organized by the Idle No More movement and angry statements by some Western Canadian Aboriginal leaders reflect real frustration among Indigenous Canadians.

At the same time, several impressive agreements between Aboriginal groups and businesses reveal a burst of job creation, joint ventures and revenue sharing the likes of which Canada has rarely seen.

Which model – anger or cooperation – provides the best window on the future of Indigenous relations with other Canadians?

The answer is “both”. The collaborative arrangements are very real. The recent agreement between Pinehouse First Nation and uranium companies Cameco and Ariva are truly impressive. Cameco, a leader in engagement with First Nations and Metis communities, has a workforce that is 50 per cent Aboriginal and contracts 70 per cent of the supply work to Indigenous firms.

Comparable developments with Syncrude and Suncor in the oil sands have shown great promise. On an even larger scale, Inuit participation with the huge Baffinland (Mary River) mine is truly precedent setting.

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Arctic drill ship runs aground off Alaska – by Mary Pemberton (Toronto Star – January 2, 2013)

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.

The Associated Press – ANCHORAGE, ALASKA— The U.S. Coast Guard was trying to determine Tuesday whether a strong Alaska storm had abated enough to allow for a helicopter to assess the condition of a drilling rig that ran aground in shallow water off a small island.

If conditions are safe, the helicopter would also lower experts to the Kulluk to get a close look at the rig and determine if it is leaking fuel, said Curtis Smith, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC employee speaking for a unified command center set up in an Anchorage hotel.

The Kulluk was built in 1983 and had been slated to be scrapped before Shell bought it in 2005. The company has spent $292 million since then to upgrade the vessel.

About 250 people from the Coast Guard, Shell, state responders and others were involved in a response effort and waiting to know for sure what environmental impact the grounding might have caused.

Storm conditions remained severe Tuesday morning with the grounded rig likely taking a pounding. Winds were reported at up to 112 km/h, with waves 11-metre and 14-metre swells. Some waves overnight reached 15 metres, the National Weather Service said.

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North Dakota Enjoys Oil Boom—But Girds for Slowdown – by Russell Gold (Wall Street Journal – December 23, 2012)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

DICKINSON, N.D.—North Dakota officials have a challenge many states would love to face: figuring out how to manage big permanent investments such as roads and bridges for an energy boom that is drawing hordes of newcomers.

Already home to some of the fastest-growing towns in the country, according to Census Bureau estimates, the oil-rich western half of North Dakota is likely to experience a population jump of more than 50% over the next two decades, a state study predicts. That works out to a rise of about 110,000 in a state that as of last year had just 684,000 residents.

The draw is high-paying jobs, and lots of them—last year, workers in the state’s energy industry made $91,400 on average, more than double the state average of $41,800. And with a state unemployment rate of just 3.1% there is much demand for more workers.

Behind the boom is the extraction of vast amounts of oil from the rock formation called the Bakken Shale, made possible by the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The drilling has created tremendous demand for new roads and housing, law enforcement and sewer lines as oil workers have flooded into North Dakota. The state expects demand for electricity to double by 2017.

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The iron ore lady: Why the world’s richest woman is mired in controversy – by Tim Hume (The Independent – June 16, 2012)

http://www.independent.co.uk/

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart was last month declared the richest woman in the world. But it’s the family feuds, attempts to control the Australian media and bitter public disputes that are keeping her in the headlines, reports Tim Hume.

Two years ago this month, the world’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, climbed on a flatbed truck before a hometown crowd in Perth, Australia, and launched herself into public life. The threat of a proposed mining ‘super tax’, designed to more equitably disperse revenues from Australia’s resources boom, had drawn out the usually reclusive iron and coal magnate to address a rally against the government. Dressed in pearls and heels astride a vehicle once owned by her father, the pioneering prospector Lang Hancock, Rinehart bellowed “Axe the tax!” through a megaphone until she was hoarse.

No one who knew Rinehart would ever doubt her passion for her industry, but such a public performance was uncharacteristic. While she had yet to trouble the global rich lists, Rinehart was none the less, by 2010, Australia’s wealthiest woman. But despite this, she had managed, until then, to maintain a low public profile.

“When I started the book over a year ago, people would ask, ‘Who is Gina Rinehart?’,” says Adele Ferguson, an Australian journalist and author of a forthcoming unauthorised biography on Rinehart. But since grabbing the loudhailer, Rinehart has not let go, rising in power and profile to become one of Australia’s most talked about and polarising figures: an “Iron Lady” who is a source of intrigue and consternation to the media she increasingly owns, and the political classes she seeks to influence.

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