January 21, 2013 – Republic of Mining

Stompin Tom Connors Wiki Profile and Mining Songs

February 10, 2016January 21, 2013

Inco Nickel Miners – Sudbury Saturday Night

Charles Thomas “Stompin’ Tom” Connors, OC (born February 9, 1936) is one of Canada’s most prolific and well-known country and folk singers. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, Connors is credited with writing more than 300 songs and has released four dozen albums, with total sales of nearly 4 million copies.[1]

Elliot Lake Uranium Miners – Dam Good Song For A Miner

Early life

He was born Charles Thomas Connors (known as Tommy Messer) in Saint John, New Brunswick to the teenaged Isabel Connors and her boyfriend Thomas Sullivan. He was a cousin of New Brunswick fiddling sensation, Ned Landry. He spent a short time living with his mother in a low-security women’s penitentiary before he was seized by Children’s Aid Society and was later adopted by the Aylward family in Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island.

At the age of 15 he left his adoptive family to hitchhike across Canada, a journey that consumed the next 13 years of his life as he travelled between various part-time jobs while writing songs on his guitar. At his last stop in Timmins, Ontario, which may also have been his big “break”, he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the city’s Maple Leaf Hotel. The bartender, Gaet Lepine, agreed to give Tom a beer if he would play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 13-month contract to play at the hotel, a weekly spot on the CKGB radio station in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.

Will gold’s 12-year continue in 2013 – by Ross Marowits (Toronto Star/Reuters – January 21, 2013)

January 21, 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.

MONTREAL – Gold is expected by many to continue to sparkle as an investment opportunity over the next two years despite a 12-year bull run that briefly took the precious metal as high as US$1,900 an ounce before pulling back.

Investment strategist Gavin Graham says gold should rise from its current price of US$1,689 an ounce to approach the 2011 high price later this year before perhaps hitting US$2,000 in 2014.

“I know a number of people have got US$2,000 an ounce pencilled in at some stage over the next 18 months to two years and that’s not an unreasonable forecast,” the president of Graham Investment Strategy Ltd. said.

Gold saw its smallest price increase since 2008 last year and, adjusting for inflation, it remains below the real all-time peak of US$850 per ounce set in 1980. That’s equivalent to a nominal value of about US$2,500.

Once gold breaks through US$2,000, Graham believes it could attract skeptical buyers. “There’s still more legs in it even though it’s gone up a lot.” Serge Pepin, vice-president Investment Strategy of BMO Global Asset Management, also sees gold rising despite fears that India, the world’s largest buyer of the metal, could slap a bigger tax on gold imports.

‘You gotta know how to do things yourself up here’: For modern reserves, success is in balancing tradition and capitalism – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – January 19, 2013)

January 21, 2013

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

When I talk with Abraham Metatawabin about his life in the bush, there is a communication problem. I do not speak Cree, and the 92-year-old Fort Albany, Ont., elder does not speak English. But even with his son Chris acting as translator, there is another, more basic impediment: The hunting, trapping and fishing methods he learned as a young child in the sprawling riverlands west of James Bay are so basic to his way of thinking that he doesn’t even think of them as activities requiring explanation, and so I have to keep interrupting him for more detail.

Commanding a team of sled dogs, building a shelter out of wood and cured animal hide, catching a pike dinner with nothing but a baitless hook: You either knew how to do these things in the bush, or you became a frozen, emaciated corpse.

I came to talk with Abraham at his home on the Fort Albany reserve not just because he is a link to a bygone era, but also because the Metatawabin family as a whole — of whom I met four generations, in three different communities, during my travels to James Bay this past week — constitutes a sort of living roadmap to the wrenching transformations that First Nations have endured over the last half-century.

Like most members of the Fort Albany First Nation, Abraham was brought up as a Catholic. But he still has strong memories of his grandfather, a traditional 19th-century medicine man whom the RCMP hunted as an outlaw. Abraham’s father was recruited out of the bush into the Canadian army, and fought the Germans in the First World War.

Cashless juniors! Off with their heads! – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – January 21, 2013)

January 21, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Watch out for the coming junior zombieland – for both danger and opportunity as cash-poor juniors are culled, say Kaiser, Coffin and Roulston.

VANCOUVER, BC (MINEWEB) – It’s not a new call, a new argument, a new macabre hope for the end of what some consider a worthless class of underperforming, cashless and asset-poor juniors.

But calls for the culling of a fair chunk of juniors on the TSX Venture Exchange are undoubtedly growing and were especially evident in Vancouver on Sunday in the presentations of newsletter writers to the Cambridge House investment conference.

One of the closest to the subject is John Kaiser, of Kaiser Research, who, since about mid last year, has been putting hard numbers to the otherwise obvious reality that faces or will face juniors that have not been able to replenish their cash piles for some time over the past year or so.

Since climbing Mount Exuberance in 2010 – having fallen off it in 2008 after an equal peaking – investors have refused to fund the exploration plans of many juniors. That of course is a serious problem for an endeavour that is predicated on the pursuit of the big payoff but does not, by and large, generate revenue to get it there.

Bracing for the extinction of 500 juniors or an entire institution? – by John Kaiser (Kaiser Research Online – December 2, 2012)

January 21, 2013

http://www.kaiserbottomfish.com/s/Home.asp

During my travels the past couple months I have been repeatedly surprised by declarations from others that about 500 Canadian listed resource juniors will disappear within the next year unless there is a remarkable turnaround for the resource sector in 2013. These numbers have their origin in my May 23, 2012 Kaiser Blog post Staving off Mass Extinction with the Big Anomaly which provided the grim statistics on which this now widely circulated warning is based. Since then the situation has worsened, as is evident in the figures as of November 30, 2012 which active KRO members can see updated on a regular basis in KRO Key Charts.

Kaiser Research Online tracks all companies listed on the TSX and TSXV who appear to be involved with resource sector exploration, development or mining, as well as a handful of former resource juniors which have shifted their focus to energy or other arenas. We do not track the capital pools until they have made a qualifying transaction involving the resource sector, but we do track resource juniors that have abandoned their projects, reorganized, and are shells looking for a new focus.

Currently we have 1,803 companies that are trading. The Working Capital Distribution chart above shows the percentage trading in each of the 12 price categories, the median working capital for each price range, and the average working capital. It also shows separately compiled figures whose particulars KRO members can peruse using our KRO Search Engine or by clicking the links in the table below.

The latest batch of figures do not yet include the September 30 quarterlies whose filing deadline was November 29 and which KRO will have updated by the end of December. Given that there are more than 900 companies for whom the latest balance sheet is dated June 30, I can guarantee you that the numbers will be worse, especially in light of the weak financing conditions in 2012.

OMA member IAMGOLD donates $1.25 million to Laurentian University

May 7, 2013January 21, 2013

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 IAMGOLD has donated $1.25 million to the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University in Sudbury. This gift is dedicated to establish Canada’s first research chair in open pit mining. The search for this position will begin soon and the aim is have the successful candidate in place by July 2013.

“The future of the mining industry depends of our ability to step up the pace of innovation and this has to start with educational programs and research opportunities specializing in advanced mining techniques,” said Stephen Letwin, IAMGOLD’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Creating Canada’s first research chair in the highly specialized field of open-pit mining positions Laurentian University as a leader in mining research.”

“We are honoured to support this unique and valuable program,” Mr. Letwin added. “With the Cote gold project in Northern Ontario as an open-pit mine, it is gratifying to know that we will be both helping to address the serious shortage of skilled mining professionals in this country and creating job opportunities for our future mining engineers.”

“This investment represents a critically important enhancement of our research capacity at the Bharti School,” said Ramesh Subramanian, Director of Laurentian University’s Bharti School of Engineering. “This new research chair will attract more cutting-edge knowledge to our mining engineering programs and will augment our international reputation in mining.”

Company Returns Assured by Government in [Brazil] Rail Expansion – by Christiana Sciaudone – (Bloomberg.com – January 11, 2013)

January 21, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Brazil’s $45 billion railroad expansion is targeting ALL America Latina Logistica SA (ALLL3) and Vale SA (VALE)’s duopoly by guaranteeing returns for companies that create train lines and transport cargo.

Highway operator TPI-Triunfo Participacoes & Investimentos (TPIS3) SA and logistics group JSL SA (JSLG3) have said they may take part in the April auction for the rights to operate lines or handle cargo on 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of new railways. The government says the nation’s biggest rail expansion since the 1930s will lure 91 billion reais ($45 billion) of investments.

President Dilma Rousseff, seeking to stimulate the economy and upgrade infrastructure after a decade without investment, will auction off ports, airports and roads to ease bottlenecks in Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of iron ore, orange juice and sugar. The government ran the 28,000 kilometers of railways until it privatized the lines in 2007. ALL and Vale now control 84 percent of the network.

“There is a lot of space for this sector to grow,” Roger Oey, an analyst at Bes Securities, said by telephone from Sao Paulo. “If there is any uncertainty, the government will try to diminish this for the projects to be successful, especially in the beginning.”

As part of the plan announced Aug. 15, the government vowed to sign contracts for all of the new capacity, Transportation Minister Paulo Sergio Passos said. Companies will either operate the rail lines or transport cargo, but not both. Additional terms will be released in March.

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

January 21, 2013

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/

BROKEN HILL, AUSTRALIA – SILVER IS DISCOVERED

The story of Broken Hill began on the NSW state border with South Australia when silver was found at Thackaringa in 1876. Prospectors, excited by the news, pushed west from the copper discoveries at Cobar. The Thackaringa silver deposits, however, did not have a long life and soon petered out.

In due course prospectors found gold in modest amounts at Mount Browne, 200 miles north of Thackaringa, and this started a mini-rush to the new goldfield. Conditions were appalling with temperatures holding steady for weeks at an end at over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Disease was rife and the cost of supplying food and water so high that Mount Browne never really had a chance of measuring up to other gold fields in Australia and around the world. Interest soon switched back south towards Thackaringa, where prospectors had begun to search for silver again.

The first of these new discoveries was the Umberumberka silver and lead mine and this spawned the town of Silverton, which today – though pretty much a ghost town – is a magnet for tourists and film makers. At the time it was the centre for some highly profitable silver mines and a busy stock exchange.

Ontario Government investment in skills training for Ring of Fire is welcome

January 21, 2013

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.

The provincial government’s recent announcement of a $3.1 million investment to provide skills training and community governance and capacity building in six First Nations communities is welcome news. This investment will facilitate the participation of First Nations residents in Ring of Fire developments.

Training and development will include the areas of heavy equipment operation, pre-employment trades training and general educational development preparation. The six First Nations that will benefit from this investment include Webequie, Marten Falls, Eabametoong, Aroland, Neskantaga and Nibinamik.

“The Ontario Mining Association has been a long-time supporter of education and skills training in First Nations communities,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson. “According to a recent economic impact study by the University of Toronto Mining: Dynamic and Dependable for Ontario’s Future, Aboriginals comprise 9.7% of the industry’s workforce. This investment by government will better position First Nations residents to take advantage of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, which will arise as the Ring of Fire is developed.”

“Our government is continuing to invest in Ring of Fire communities to ensure they benefit fully from proposed mineral developments,” said Rick Bartolucci, Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines.

NEWS RELEASE: World interest in Canada’s minerals and metals at record high: Report

January 21, 2013

Mining industry sets new records in exploration spending, production value and exports

Click Here For Report: http://www.mining.ca/www/media_lib/MAC_Documents/Publications/2013/Facts%20and%20Figures/FactsandFigures2012Eng.pdf

OTTAWA, Jan. 21, 2013 /CNW/ – World interest in Canadian minerals and metals reached a record high in 2011 as measured by exploration spending, according to the Mining Association of Canada’s (MAC) new Facts & Figures 2012 report. Exploration investment in Canada reached $3.9 billion in 2011, with spending for 2012 expected to have climbed even higher.

“The growth in exploration spending in Canada over the past decade has been remarkable,” said Pierre Gratton, MAC’s President and CEO. “Despite challenges, such as reduced access to capital for some miners, buoyant mineral prices have increased company willingness to invest significantly in the location and development of certain minerals and metals in Canada.”

The report found that from 2002 to 2011, exploration spending grew by 585%. Worldwide in 2011, Canada was the top destination for exploration spending, hosting 18% of global investment. Canada’s three territories together received 22% of total 2011 exploration spending. This amount, more than three times the territories’ share of production value, reflects growing interest in Canada’s northern mineral potential.

Canadian mineral production value rose 21% to a record $50.3 billion in 2011 as mineral prices went up. While well-established mining provinces continued to dominate in mineral production, with Ontario ($10.6 billion), Saskatchewan ($9.2 billion), British Columbia ($8.5 billion) and Quebec ($7.7 billion) seizing the top four spots, there were notable increases in other regions.

Time to fight back against Hollywood’s [mining and oil/gas industry] misinformation – Gwyn Morgan (Globe and Mail – January 21, 2013)

January 21, 2013

The 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.

Hollywood hates big business. Movies portraying corporate leaders as greedy villains have been common for decades, but the film that inspired today’s movie makers had its roots in British Columbia. That was the 2003 documentary The Corporation, written by a University of British Columbia law professor, Joel Bakan.

It featured a procession of leftist luminaries, including Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, uttering views such as that corporations turn citizens into “mindless consumers of goods that they do not want” and that “the problem comes from the profit motivation.”

Hollywood’s attack has escalated to the point where many films feature an anti-corporate “moral” message, the most popular of which portray industries as uncaring pillagers of the environment. The plot of James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster Avatar featured a greedy mining boss intent on destroying an ancient forest inhabited by native humanoids on the distant planet of Pandora to mine a precious mineral called unobtanium.

Animated films for children also follow the lead; consider 1992’s FernGully: The Last Rain Forest, in which fairy folk help stop a logging company from destroying their forest home.

The Real Losers at Rio Tinto – by Dan Denning (The Daily Reckoning Australia – January 21, 2013)

January 21, 2013

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/

A currency war isn’t the same thing as a shooting war, at least not at the beginning. But there are certainly casualties. In today’s Daily Reckoning, we take a look at the winners, losers, and the next stage of the great battle of all against all, in which the sides aren’t really what they appear.

Former Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese is a casualty. But don’t you worry about him. He’ll land on his feet and be just fine. The real losers from Rio’s strategic failure over the last few years are the shareholders. It will be interesting to see if the shareholders put pressure on Rio’s board, which is every bit to blame for the company’s performance as the CEO.

We’re not just trying to assess blame, though. That’s all too easy and all too common. Instead, we reckon Rio’s changing of the guard signals that the easy money – and probably the big money – from the commodity boom is over. Like the whole commodity sector, Rio was able to ride the boom in commodity prices and then export volumes to make easy money.

But record sales aren’t necessarily an indication that directors are doing a good job managing the company’s capital. Rio ran a 33% return on capital in 2011. It was just 16.7% in 2012, according to Goldman Sachs. The company wasn’t able to take shareholder money and generate consistently high rates of return.

NEWS RELEASE: Noront Announces Appointment of Interim Chief Executive Officer

November 3, 2015January 21, 2013

January 21, 2013

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 21, 2013) – Noront Resources Ltd. (“Noront” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:NOT) announced today that its board of directors received the resignation of Wes Hanson as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Noront. The Board has appointed Paul Parisotto to act as interim President and Chief Executive Officer and has begun a search to identify a permanent President and Chief Executive Officer. Ted Bassett has been appointed lead director during the period of Mr. Parisotto’s appointment as interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Wes for his efforts and dedication at Noront over the past three years, and in particular, for leading the completion of a positive feasibility study in September 2012 of our Eagle’s Nest Project in the Ring of Fire. This puts the Company in a good position as it transitions into development with a focus on the financing and development of the Project and related infrastructure. All of us at Noront wish Mr. Hanson the best in his future endeavours” stated Paul Parisotto, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Hanson has agreed to continue to be available as a consultant to Noront.

About Noront: Noront Resources Ltd. is focused on development of the high-grade Eagle’s Nest nickel, copper, platinum and palladium deposit and the high-grade Blackbird chromite deposit, both of which are located in the James Bay lowlands of Ontario in an emerging metals camp known as the Ring of Fire.

Gold mine plan goes to next step – by Northwest Bureau (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – January 21, 2013)

January 21, 2013

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

A federal environmental assessment has begun for Treasury Metals’ proposed Goliath gold project near Dryden. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is looking for public input on any potential environmental impacts the proposed gold mining project might have on the area and what should be examined during the environmental assessment.

The public can review and comment on the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) guidelines, available at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca (registry reference No. 80019). Copies of the guidelines are also available for viewing at the Dryden and Sioux Lookout public libraries.

The report identifies potential environmental effects to be considered, and the information and analysis that needs to be included in the EIS. Treasury Metals wants to develop, construct and operate an open-pit and underground gold mine just east of Dryden.

The mine would process 2,500 tonnes per day of rock containing various concentrations of gold over a mine life of up to 12 years.

Treasury Metals owns the property which is close to infrastructure (electricity, natural gas and highways). Ore would be partially processed on-site and shipped off-site for further refining and upgrading.

Why are we still awaiting [power plant] decision? – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (Globe and Mail – January 20, 2013)

January 21, 2013

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

When it comes to meeting Northwestern Ontario’s growing energy needs, “a few months” has become something of a mantra.
There has been a great deal of uncertainty around how to power the North since November, when the provincial government first hit the pause button on the conversion of the Thunder Bay Generating Station from coal to natural gas. The decision came after the Ontario Power Authority stated the region’s energy needs could be better met in other ways. Halting the conversion, the OPA said, would save $400 million.

That claim was enough to cause Energy Minister Chris Bentley to — temporarily — halt the project and tell the OPA “show me.”

That’s fair, as $400 million is no small sum. However, the OPA has yet to show anyone how that money will be saved.
In addition, the timing was unfortunate. The North is sitting on the cusp of a mining boom. Those mines will need energy; a 500-megawatt bump in regional power demand is expected by 2016.

Time, meanwhile, continues to tick toward Dec. 31, 2014, when all coal-fired power generation in Ontario is to stop. Unless Thunder Bay’s plant can somehow be grandfathered and continue burning coal, it will need to shut down if it’s not burning natural gas.