Charles Sousa hopes to be the compromise candidate in Ontario Liberal leadership – by Keith Leslie (Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – January 22, 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.

There’s lots of opportunities in northern Ontario if the province would provide
transportation links to help convince companies to process and refine minerals
found in the huge Ring of Fire deposit, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder
Bay, which would create badly needed jobs in the area, said Mr. Sousa.

“We need to establish a rail or transportation system, a spine to the north,
providing access to isolated communities,” he said.“The ripple effect that’s
going to happen will be tremendous providing we harness it and we do the smelting
and the processing of the chromite and we produce stainless steel in Ontario.”

Former labour minister Charles Sousa sees himself as the compromise candidate in the race to become Ontario Liberal leader, the one who can come up the middle and grab the brass ring just as then little-known backbencher Dalton McGuinty did in 1996.

“It’s anybody’s game” said Mr. Sousa after he placed fifth in delegate selection for the upcoming leadership convention with about 11 per cent support, compared with 27.4 per cent for front-runner Sandra Pupatello and 25.2 for second-place Kathleen Wynne.

“I want to impress upon all the delegates to look at me as a third alternative.”

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NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN NAMES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOODMAN SCHOOL OF MINES


(L to R) David Harquail, Chief Executive Officer and President of Franco-Nevada Corporation; Tracy MacLeod, Director of Development and Campaign Director; Bruce Jago, Executive Director, Goodman School of Mines, Laurentian University; Dominic Giroux, President and Vice-Chancellor of Laurentian University

Franco-Nevada invests $500,000 to support executive directorship

SUDBURY, ON (January 16, 2013) – Franco-Nevada President and CEO David Harquail today announced a donation of $500,000 to fund the Franco-Nevada Executive Director’s position of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines. At the same time, University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux announced the appointment of Dr. Bruce C. Jago as the School’s Founding Executive Director.

Dr. Jago is a Professional Geologist and experienced mining executive who has worked with such companies as Wallbridge Mining (Vice-President, Exploration), Inco Limited (Applied Mineralogist, Exploration Manager), Temex Resources (Project Manager, Diamonds) and Harry Winston Inc (Project Geologist). Most recently, Jago has been President, CEO and Director of Miocene Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver. His appointment follows an extensive global search.

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More strife in South Africa’s troubled mines – by Margaret Evans (CBC New.ca – January 21, 2013)

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Labour unrest ripping through the country

Picture a site not far from the town of Rustenburg in the broad expanse of South Africa’s North West “platinum province,” along the border with Botswana. To one side stands the industrial hulk of the Lonmin mine, symbol of industry and (until recently) South Africa’s booming resource economy. It’s grey concrete shafts rise up out of the ground to tower over a maze of power lines.

Sprawled at its feet, the muddy shantytown that serves as home to the miners who fuel the industry, and scratch out their meagre living. In the distance you can see the red kopi, the hill where 34 miners met their end, shot dead by police in the midst of a wildcat strike in August. A crooked cluster of white wooden crosses, their memorial.

This is the stage where the most seminal event in South Africa’s recent history was played out, where the raw elements of a fractured society collided with deadly effect.

“They were killed right in front of me,” says miner Teboho Hlakentso. “And some of the people who got killed, they were not just shot, they were stabbed with spears by the police.

“So the people would be shot and they would be laying there wounded and dying and the police would take their spears and the police would finish them off with spears.”

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Timmins Gold producer St Andrew Goldfields puts a shine on OMA high school video competition

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 St Andrew Goldfields (SAS) is once again offering tangible encouragement to the children of its employees to enter the high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining. However, this year it is expanding its support with incentives for teachers and schools.

SAS is increasing the stakes in SYTYKM. Any Ontario high school student of any SAS employee who produces a film and enters SYTYKM is eligible for a $250 cash prize from a random draw. The company is making the same offer with a second $250 prize for the children of Quebec-based employees even though they are not eligible for SYTYKM, which is only for Ontario students.

On top of this, which is what SAS offered last year, there is an opportunity for schools which support SYTYKM to earn a $1,000 grant. They are limited to one per school. “Our goal is to make equipment, resources, software or whatever tools you require available to you to assist with your submission. And your school can keep it,” said SAS in its promotional materials. Mentors – one per student film maker – will also be awarded a one-eight ounce gold coin.

“We are going outside our walls this year to offer up to $1,000 to Ontario schools supporting SYTYKM that our employee’s children attend. As well, a one-eighth ounce Canadian minted gold coin will be given to any teacher, staff or administrator who mentor one of our employee’s students through to the end and a video is submitted,” said Geoff Ramey, Vice President Human Resources at St Andrew Goldfields.

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Former mining exec gets 6 years in jail for faking test results – (CBC News.ca – Janary 18, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

John Paterson motivated by wishful thinking, crippling fear of failure, lawyers say

The former head of a major Vancouver mining firm has been sentenced to six years in prison for faking data from a prospective gold mine and costing investors more than $260 million.

A Vancouver provincial court judge ruled that John Paterson, former CEO and president of Southwestern Resources, abused his authority to fake test results from a Chinese mine.

Judge Harbans Dhillon convicted Paterson on four counts of fraud. Paterson, 62, pumped out positive press releases and then paid a subordinate in China half a million dollars to block an independent assessment.

The company’s stock soared to more than $40 from 15 cents after 2002 press releases announced the mine’s results, now known to have been fraudulent.

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NEWS RELEASE: RESPONSE FROM MISSANABIE CREE FIRST NATION CHIEF REGARDING NATIONAL POST COLUMN

 Tuesday, January 22, 2013

GARDEN RIVER, ON — Regarding an article published in the National Post January 8, 2013 where Glenn Nolan, a former Chief of the Missanabie Cree First Nation made comments regarding key First Nations issues and resource revenue sharing, current Chief Kim Rainville issues the following statement:

Let it be known that the support from the Missanabie Cree First Nation council and community have been instrumental in Mr. Nolan achieving his professional goals. Being the president of the Prospector’s and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) as well as an executive of a junior mining company embroiled in the Ring of Fire development, it would make it very difficult for Mr. Nolan to express support for such a significant movement as “Idle No More”. Mr. Nolan’s opinions do not reflect the belief of the Missanabie Cree First Nation regarding the actions taken by Attawapiskat’s Chief Spence or support of the Idle No More movement.

“I believe the agenda of the government smearing a courageous leader such as Chief Spence is reprehensible,” said Chief Kim Rainville. “To have it seemingly come from a former Chief undermines the changes which are being called for by the “Idle No More” movement and a denial of the realities faced by many first Nations citizens.”

The list of issues is long; inadequate housing, health care, education economic opportunities, youth suicide, family violence, policing and the list goes on. These are immediate issues which need to be addressed. Recognition of First Nation autonomy, sovereignty, changes to the Indian Act driven by a First Nations process are paramount to achieving our rightful place in society, resource revenue sharing but a component of righting the many injustices.

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Inmet urges shareholders to reject First Quantum bid – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – January 22, 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.

Inmet Mining Corp. has recommended that shareholders reject a hostile takeover bid from First Quantum Minerals, saying the $5.1-billion cash-and-stock offer fails to reflect the value of its massive Cobre Panama project.

Citing the conclusions of a special committee of independent directors as well as input from financial and legal advisers, the Inmet board says the offer is below precedent for recent deals in the mining sector. It says it has approached a number of third parties who have expressed interest in considering strategic alternatives to the First Quantum bid, going so far as to sign confidentiality and standstill agreements with “a number” of those.

Cobre Panama will be one of the world’s largest new copper mines when construction is complete in 2016. The mine will cost some $6.2-billion to build and will produce about 300,000 tonnes of the vital industrial metal annually and is a bet that copper prices will continue to rise as demand strengthens further in China and the economies of Europe and the United States recover.

“The Inmet Board has concluded that the First Quantum Offer fails to adequately compensate shareholders for Inmet’s low risk asset base and its strong prospects for growth and value creation at Cobre Panama, which has the potential to become one of the world’s largest copper mines,” Inmet board chairman David Beatty said in a statement that marks Inmet’s first official response to the First Quantum bid since it was made in mid-December.

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Environmental assessment of Cliffs Chromite project is off the rails – by Ramsey Hart (rabble.ca – January 18, 2013)

http://rabble.ca/

Rabble.ca is a left-wing news website and Ramsey Hart is the Canada Program Coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.

If you follow mining in Canada you’ve certainly heard about the much hyped “Ring of Fire” or McFauld’s Lake area of northern Ontario. This area on the boundary of the Hudson Bay lowlands and boreal shield is Oji-cree and Cree territory. It is also where Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront Resources are proposing the first of what could be many mining projects in the remote and relatively pristine area.

MiningWatch recently had an opportunity to comment on an important document that will guide Cliffs in drafting the environmental assessment for their project, the latest draft of the Terms of Reference. As reported in the Wawatay News Cliffs initially gave First nations and “interested parties” like MiningWatch only 15 days to comment on hundreds of pages of documents.

While the company justified this by saying it was a revision of a previously released document and the revisions were minor — a careful read of the documents showed this was not the case. In response to several requests Cliffs conceded to extend the deadline on comments until January 11. Joining MiningWatch in submitting comments were the Wildlands League, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Vermillion River Stewardship.

Unlike the joint review processes we are involved with there is no public registry of submissions for this project so it’s hard to know who else may well have submitted comments. Certainly we expect some of the affected First Nations will have. Neskantaga First Nation has an outstanding request with the Ontario Government for mediation over the terms of reference.

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Oil price shocks, 40 years on – by Peter Tertzakian (Globe and Mail – January 22, 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.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1973 oil price shock. Rifling through an old Life magazine sparked memories of the Middle Eastern drama. Looking at some of the contrasting photos – a room full of jovial Arab leaders enjoying the 250-per-cent rise in the price of oil; a western freeway void of cars due to widespread gasoline shortages – the disco-era reminiscence gave pause for thought about vulnerable oil markets.

Running some numbers on the flashback was thought-provoking, too: in real dollar terms a barrel of light oil (world price) is 40-per-cent more expensive today than it was during the second, 1979 price shock (see accompanying chart Real Price). Should oil producers be concerned about a price fall from today’s lofty high?

At a time when global oil demand was growing by 9 per cent per year, the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and resulting embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) drove the price of a barrel of oil up nominally from $3.00 (U.S.) to $8.00. Figure 1 shows that the elevated prices lingered for seven years, until after 1979, when the second blow of the one-two punch was thrown. The vicious Iran-Iraq war took 7 million barrels per day (MMB/d) off the world market, resulting in a fourfold, average $32a barrel jump in oil prices. Adjusted to today’s dollar terms, Figure 1 shows that prices in the late ‘70s climbed to $80 a barrel.

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Franco-Nevada confident in Inmet despite First Quantum’s $5.1B takeover bid – by Peter Koven (National Post – January 22, 2013)

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

TORONTO – Inmet Mining Corp. has received a vote of confidence from royalty firm Franco-Nevada Corp., which is not convinced that First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is the best company to build the Cobre Panama project.

Franco-Nevada has committed US$1-billion to Inmet for the development of Cobre Panama, so it has a unique interest in First Quantum’s $5.1-billion hostile bid for the company. Franco chief executive David Harquail said he has been very impressed with Inmet’s handling of the project so far, and has some ongoing questions about First Quantum’s proposal to build the mine for significantly less money. First Quantum has not approached him yet, he said.

“Our worry is what messages [First Quantum] is sending to Panama and the community when they say they have a different plan or scenario going forward and they expect to spend that much less money. Our preference is to have a more steady-state approach,” Mr. Harquail said in an interview.

“Right now, we’re supporting the folks who have brought us to the table and we have to reserve judgment on the new plans.”

That has to be music to Inmet’s ears. The Toronto-based miner is about to formally reject First Quantum’s bid, and will try to argue that it is the better caretaker of the US$6.2-billion mega-project. First Quantum has talked about reducing capital costs at Cobre Panama, but has not offered up firm numbers.

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Landlocked Alberta facing budgetary ‘perfect storm’ as oil price gap stings: Horner – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 22, 2013)

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

With world oil prices staying comfortably above US$100 a barrel, Alberta should be living large and cashing in on the boom. Instead, Albertans have been robbed of their windfall by a shortage of pipeline space and by competing new oil production in the United States.

The mix has depressed Canadian oil prices so much that the provincial government warned Monday its March 7 budget for 2013/2014 will make a big course correction from big spending to big belt-tightening.

The province is facing a “perfect storm” because Canadian oil sold in the U.S. is selling at a deep discount, world markets seem increasingly out of reach and resource revenues have plummeted, Doug Horner, Alberta’s Finance Minister, said in Calgary.

“No storm is good and this one is going to be severe,” Mr. Horner told reporters after addressing the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Horner said the gravity of the problem hit home just in the past few months and it was only before Christmas that Alberta, the federal government and industry realized the magnitude of the North American oil glut.

“Our biggest problem is that Alberta is landlocked,” Mr. Horner said. “In fact, of the world’s major oil-producing jurisdictions, Alberta is the only one with no direct access to the ocean.

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Fallen mining CEOs scapegoats rather than villains – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – January 22, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The idea of a board of directors is one of collective responsibility for major decisions, but it is those unfortunate to be at the head of a company at the wrong time who carry the can.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Among the spate of CEO changes we have already noted, many observers had remarked that Rio Tinto’s CEO, Tom Albanese had effectively been fired as a consequence of the huge write-down of the company’s investment in major aluminium producer Alcan, coupled with the smaller write down of its Mozambique coal assets acquired from the takeover of Riversdale coal last year.

The Riversdale acquisition was obviously down to an extent to Albanese, but a company CEO has to rely on his management executives and board for pursuing, and approval of, major decisions of this type.

It’s not just a case of the CEO pushing through an investment of the type without receiving plenty of advice first. In this case the acquisition appears to have been pushed through on the advice of a technical team led by Doug Ritchie who lost his job at the same time as Albanese.

Now, under normal circumstances, Albanese might have survived the Riversdale debacle on its own but one suspects that the Rio Board, faced with deciding to take the Alcan and Riversdale write downs at the same time, also decided that a high profile head would have to roll –

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Jobs at stake in caribou conflict – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – January 21, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

COCHRANE – While many believe forestry is on the verge of a major comeback, there is a fear Northeastern Ontario won’t benefit from the upturn if provincial legislation remains unchanged. Northern leaders hope, however, Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle will intervene.

The situation was discussed at length by community leaders during last week’s meeting of the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association (NEOMA).

As part of the Endangered Species Act, the provincial government is looking to protect massive amounts of forest to preserve caribou habitat. One of the key areas of discussion is the Abibiti River Forest region. As the legislation sits, 65% of the region would be off limits to wood harvesting.

But an amended agreement reached between representatives of industry, environmental groups and Northern leaders would reduce that to 20%. The problem is the Ministry of Natural Resources doesn’t currently recognize the compromise solution reached.

The compromise agreement allows harvests to continue where there is usable wood and little chance of caribou coming back, while protecting areas where the species is known to be present and little lumber-worthy forest.

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Canada playing a growing role in global mining industry – by Gordon Hamilton (Vancouver Sun – January 21,2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Country now attracting 18 per cent of world’s mineral exploration

Canada’s mining industry broke records in 2011 for exploration spending, production and exports, according to a report released Monday by the Mining Association of Canada.

The report states Canada has emerged as the world’s top destination for mineral exploration, attracting 18 per cent of global investment, well ahead of second-place Australia, which attracted 13 per cent.

Further, Canada has developed world-leading hubs at Vancouver and Toronto for exploration and investment, respectively, said Pierre Gratton, president of the Mining Association of Canada

Vancouver is the top destination for mining exploration, with the world’s leading cluster of exploration companies, while Toronto is the global hub for mining financing, with the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges accounting for $12.5 billion, or 40 per cent of global mining equity capital, according to the report.

The report states there are 1,200 exploration companies in the Greater Vancouver area, while the Toronto Stock Exchange lists 58 per cent of the world’s public mining companies. London is still the global finance centre for mining in terms of large transactions, but Toronto leads in terms of total value, Gratton said.

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Excerpt from “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/

JOHN NORTH (1842-1896) Chile’s Nitrates King

John Thomas North was known as the nitrates king as a result of his dominance of Chile’s nitrates industry in the latter part of the 19th century and his web of listed nitrates companies in London. He was also an active promoter and owner of coal mines in Chile and the UK and gold mines in Australia.

The son of a prosperous coal merchant, North was born in Holbeck, near Leeds in Yorkshire, in the north of England, in 1842. He served an apprenticeship in a local engineering firm, Fowler & Co, and then went out to southern Peru in 1869 where he installed machinery to treat nitrates. At the time nitrates – nitrogen rich salts – were beginning to be the fertiliser of choice for farmers, and Peru and Bolivia had the largest reserves of the mineral.

In 1879 the War of the Pacific broke out between Chile and Peru and Bolivia and as a result there was concern for the nitrate fields in southern Peru. One of the main problems was that the Peruvian government had issued government nitrate bonds in 1875 in an attempt to nationalise the largely British and Chilean owned nitrate deposits in Peru. With the outbreak of war the value of the bonds plunged and North, who had by then established his own nitrate works and invested in a water company which supplied the desert-located nitrate fields, began to purchase these nitrate bonds at less than 15% of face value.

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