[Sudbury’s] Laurentian University to meet mining industry’s needs – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – January 30, 2013)

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.

Discovering a business’s competitive advantage, global marketing, export education, expanding market access: they’re the goals of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA), but they could easily be the founding principles of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, according to its president.

Dominic Giroux was the guest speaker at SAMSSA’s annual general meeting Dec. 4, and he outlined the scope and aims of the new mining school, which was announced last year and is expected to get underway in 2013.

According to industry statistics, 40 per cent of mining-industry workers are expected to retire over the next few years, leaving a deficit of 60,000 to 100,000 workers across the country. Laurentian aims to close that gap by offering education in mining-related programs that will bolster Northern Ontario’s existing mining cluster and boost the number of skilled workers in Canada.

Canvassing SAMSSA members, Laurentian found business owners appreciated the technical skills of engineering and earth sciences grads, of which there is a current demand, but they also voiced a need for executive programs in the areas of project management, business acumen, and international business.

Read more

Ottawa ready to cede new powers to Northwest Territories – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – January 30, 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.

OTTAWA — The Harper government is on the brink of making the Northwest Territories a province in all but name by ceding federal control over land, resources and water.

Much of the territorial government has arrived in Ottawa. Premier Bob McLeod, his cabinet, deputy ministers and aboriginal and business leaders begin two days of talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and officials.

The people and government of the territory stand to benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in new resource revenues under the agreement, which will see the territorial and not the federal government primarily responsible for approving resource developments.

Mining output in NWT is expected to almost double in this decade. And the move fits with the Conservative government’s determination to retreat from federal environmental oversight in most jurisdictions.

The principal aim is to finalize devolution, as it’s called, of control over natural resources from Ottawa to Yellowknife. “It seems like everything is coming together,” Mr. McLeod said Tuesday in an interview. The territory is “on the verge of achieving devolution. … We are advancing on many fronts,” he said.

Read more

Vale Pledges to Deliver Growth After Losing Title to Rio Tinto – by Juan Pablo Spinetto (Bloomberg.com – January 29, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Vale SA (VALE3) pledged to deliver on its growth projects after losing to Rio Tinto Group the title of the world’s second-largest mining company and failing to boost production of the steelmaking ingredient.

Vale is “confident” it can deliver on its expansion plans and that will eventually be reflected in its share price, Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani told investors yesterday at an event in Rio de Janeiro, where the company is based. Doubts may still remain among investors about Vale’s capacity to fulfill its promises, he said.

“Why Rio Tinto has today a higher market value than Vale if its iron-ore production is much lower? Because Rio Tinto has delivered iron-ore growth and we haven’t,” Siani, 42, said. “Vale has an incredible latent value and its management is absolutely committed to deliver and reveal that value.”

Vale, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, in October was surpassed by London-based Rio Tinto, which is currently valued $5.6 billion more than its rival, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Brazilian company is cutting investments, seeking partners and writing off nickel and aluminum assets after shares slumped to the lowest in almost three years in September amid weaker demand from China and Europe.

Read more

UPDATE 2-Vale sees iron ore at $110-$180/Tonne – CFO – by Jeb Blount and Leila Coimbra

http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Emerging-market demand for iron ore, which accounts for 90 percent of the profit at Brazilian miner Vale, will keep prices between $110 and $180 per tonne over the long term, Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani said Tuesday.

Vale has struggled with falling iron ore prices , which touched three-year lows in September of 2012 and forced it and other big miners to reassess the costs of holding on to unprofitable operations.

Earlier on Tuesday, miner Anglo American announced it would take a $4 billion writedown on its Minas Rio iron ore project in Brazil.

Mining giant Rio Tinto ousted its chief executive, Tom Albanese, on Jan. 17 after it took $14 billion in impairments tied to its underperforming Mozambican coal and Canadian aluminum operations.

Analysts say Vale has had its share of problem investments ranging from its Rio Colorado potash project in Argentina to its massive Simandou iron ore project in Guinea. When asked about those projects, Siani said Vale was “not afraid to write off non-performing assets.”

He said during a meeting of institutional investors in Rio de Janeiro that the company plans to reduce its 50 percent stake in the CSP steel mill project in the northeastern city of Pecem, in which South Korea’s Dungkuk holds 30 percent and Posco the remaining 20 percent.

Read more

Obama casts doubt on Canada’s ambition to be an energy superpower – by Carol Goar (Toronto Star – January 30, 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.

Hopes for a quick U.S. approval of the Keystone XL pipeline fade, forcing Canada to rethink its status as an energy superpower.

Much has changed since Barack Obama threw a spanner into Stephen Harper’s plan to make Canada an energy superpower.
A year ago, the U.S. president rejected an application by TransCanada to run a massive pipeline from Alberta to Texas. Canada’s prime minister assured oilsands producers it was just a hiccup; the project would get the green light after the U.S. election.

Three months ago, Americans re-elected Obama. He still hasn’t approved the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last week he pledged to make climate change a higher priority in his second term. “The path toward sustainable energy sources will be long and difficult,” he said in his Jan. 21 inaugural speech. “But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.”

Two other shifts in the landscape have occurred:

  • The U.S. has moved a long way toward energy self-sufficiency. It produces enough natural gas to meet its own needs thanks to hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).

    Read more

Moral ­sediments [Oil sands] – by Peter Foster (National Post – January 29, 2013)

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

Alarmists exaggerate oil sands lake study

The global environmental movement has used Alberta’s oil sands as a fundraising poster demon for climate activism. That activism continues to focus on stopping the proposed Keystone XL pipeline — on which U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to decide within the next few months — but the villain in this morality play remains the oil sands themselves.

Whatever the state of “the science,” even greatly expanded oil sands development could have no observable impact on the global climate. However, their possible local effects require sound and objective study. The problem is that some of the leading researchers are themselves climate alarmists and political activists.

A recent example of how ideology may be corrupting science — and how eagerly a crusading media regurgitates alarmism — came with the release of a study of the impact of emissions from the oil sands on nearby lakes. The study appeared three weeks ago in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most of its authors were from Environment Canada, but its chief promoter was Queen’s University professor John Smol, Canada Research Chair on Environmental Change.

Queen’s issued a press release on the paper with the headline “Oil sands study shows negative impact on lake systems.” In fact, the study — which analyzed sediments in lakes close to the oil sands for deposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — didn’t show any such thing.

Read more

Alberta’s ‘boom and bust’ plague must end – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – January 30, 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.

How do you change a political culture? Is a crisis required for change, or will honest talk without a crisis suffice? How many times does a jurisdiction have to make the same mistake before people wake up?

These questions relate to Alberta today, just as they have in the past. Alberta is not the only place where an entrenched political culture produces enduring mistakes, but it’s the one in the headlines – again.

Alberta’s political culture is about low taxes and big spending. The province has the lowest taxes in Canada – the so-called Alberta Advantage – and it’s at or near the top in terms of per capita spending on government programs such as health care.

Filling the gap between the low taxes and munificent services are revenues from oil and natural gas. These revenues account on average for 30 per cent of Alberta’s budget. These revenues fluctuate with world prices, North American energy markets and other factors beyond the province’s control. Unsteady prices lie at the heart of the “boom and bust” plague of Alberta’s economy – and its budget.

Read more

Sudbury: Ontario’s mining superstore (Excerpt from Canadian Chamber of Commerce Mining Report)

This is an excerpt from the January 30, 2013 Canadian Chamber of Commerce Mining Report:  Mining Capital: How Canada Transformed Its Resources Endowment Into a Global Competitive Advantage

Sudbury has a century of history as a mining centre and over a dozen mines operating within city limits. Over the past decade, the Northern Ontario city has been subtly shifting its focus from being a producer of metals to a creator of mining know-how and technology. This shift has been marked by the rise of an organized Northern Ontario mining technology cluster focused on underground hardrock mining technologies.

Sudbury is home to a broad range of mining related activities. The operations of large mining majors— Vale and Xstrata—serve as anchors for the cluster along with other mining firms.(38) Around these firms has grown a network of mining supply and technology firms that, together, contributed almost $4 billion to the local economy and employed 13,800 people—around eight per cent of the population of Greater Sudbury.(39)

The city is also home to a concentration of mining education and research. Sudbury is home to the public-private Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, the Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization, the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology and Mining and Laurentian University’s School of Mining and its eight mining research centres. In addition, industry associations, like the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Organization, and publications, like the Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, seek to share information and strengthen the links among the cluster’s participants.

Read more

CANADIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NEWS RELEASE: Not set in stone: The fight to preserve our competitive edge in mining

Click here for the report: Mining Capital: How Canada Transformed Its Resources Endowment Into a Global Competitive Advantage

Toronto, January 30, 2013 — While Canada has successfully transformed its resource advantage in metals and minerals into a competitive edge across several connected industries, we need to ensure that the factors that made us the global leader in the sector are strengthened, according to a report issued today by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Entitled Mining Capital: How Canada Transformed Its Resources Endowment Into a Global Competitive Advantage, the report details how Canadian mining companies have provided the leverage for finance, insurance, speciality manufacturing and other related industries to succeed in highly competitive sectors.

Employing more than 320,000 Canadians, the core mining industries contributed $36.2 billion to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011. Mining exports in 2011 reached $102 billion (over a fifth of our nation’s total exports).

Toronto is the global capital of mining finance, British Columbia has the largest concentration of mining exploration firms in the world and Sudbury has a century of history as a mining center and over a dozen mines operating within city limits. Moreover, the Canadian mining industry is highly integrated into the global economy and is one of the few sectors where Canada has a strong external investment presence.

Read more

Fort William First Nation, Noront Resources discuss chromite processing plant – by Jeff Labine (tbnewswatch.com – January 25 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Fort William First Nation’s chief says his community is involved in preliminary talks with a mining company to bring a chromite processing plant to this area. Chief Peter Collins has met with officials with Noront Resources Ltd. to discuss the possibility of a processing plant.

Although the project is still in its early stages, the proposed plant is expected to take up 300-megawatt of power, which would put more strain on the Thunder Bay Generating Station. The project’s power needs was brought to the attention of Ontario’s Energy Minister Chris Bentley when he met with the Energy Task Force in Thunder Bay last week.

“We’ve been in early discussions with Noront and right now it is still a work in progress,” Collins said Friday. “If this does come to reality we would like ownership within the plant, and we made no bones about it. Jobs are also part of the discussions.”

He said the processing plant that Noront is looking for will be smaller than a third in size to the one that Cliffs Natural Resources is expected to build.

Fort William First Nation had discussed the possibility of hosting that processing plant, but Collins said that was managed as a joint effort with many communities in the district.

Read more

Fort Severn demands halt to [Ontario MNDM] aerial surveying – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – January 29, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

Fort Severn Cree Nation has demanded that Ontario halt ongoing aerial geologic surveying of Fort Severn’s traditional lands.

The First Nation issued a letter to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) on Jan. 25, requesting that aerial surveying stop immediately. Fort Severn said it was revoking its prior consent to the surveying.

Fort Severn cited Idle No More and the hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence in explaining the need for unity with other First Nations.

“We believe it is imperative to take this step to ensure our community stands in unity with other First Nations and our organization across Ontario and Canada as we struggle to establish meaningful nation-to-nation relationships with all governments interested in working with our traditional lands,” Fort Severn Cree Nation wrote in the letter.

The First Nation also attached a list of the demands made in the declaration signed by Spence and other leaders on Jan. 24.

Aerial surveying is done through the Ontario Geologic Survey, a branch of MNDM. The surveying around Fort Severn is a continuation of last year’s aerial surveying around Weenusk First Nation, as the OGS is attempting to survey the shore of Hudson Bay for the first time since the 1960s.

Read more

Gogama mine golden opportunity for Timmins – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – January 30, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Plans and preparation are falling into place for IAMGOLD’s Coté Lake project. The company is edging closer to the realization of its open-pit gold mine south of Gogama.

IAMGOLD representatives made a presentation at the Porcupine Dante Club on Tuesday as part of the Timmins Chamber of Commerce’s Inside Their Business luncheon series.

“We are a mid-tier mining company with many operations around the world,” said IAM representative Steve Wolfenden. “We have operations in Surinam, west Africa and two projects in Quebec and now we are bringing a major focus to expanding our presence in Ontario.

“The Coté Lake project is exactly how we are going to do just that.” Wolfenden spoke to a full house, which included representation from mining contracting and auxiliary services from Timmins.

“At this point in time we are trying to characterize what is to come,” he said. “We are deeply invested in our preliminary feasibility studies at the moment, working to assess what we have, what we need and what government requires of us.

Read more

Wynne’s election shows promise for the North – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – January 30, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

As far as premiers from Toronto go, Kathleen Wynne was the best choice among the Liberal contenders for the North. We do not know yet what will come of Wynne’s attention to the North during the leadership campaign, but there is promise. Wynne vowed to create a northern cabinet committee — there are four Liberal MPPs in the North — and hold a cabinet meeting in the North in the first 30 days.

She vowed to focus on enhancing roads, bridges and transportation, much of which is aimed at developing the Ring of Fire chromite deposit in the James Bay Lowlands. Cliffs Natural Resources plans to build a smelter north of Capreol to handle material from the Ring of Fire, bringing about 400 permanent jobs to the Sudbury area.

She promised to complete the four-laning of Highway 69, which is vital to Sudburians for economic and safety reasons. And she wants northern mayors to co-operate on the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario.

Her challenges here are significant, though perhaps not as significant as her political challenges. Some expect Wynne to significantly alter her cabinet. What does that mean for the North’s two cabinet ministers, Sudbury MPP and Northern and Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci and Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP and Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle? And if development in the Ring of Fire is delayed, as mining industry observer Stan Sudol suspects, the best opportunity for job growth and economic development in First Nations areas is delayed.

Read more

Don’t forget North, new premier told – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – January 30, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Now that Kathleen Wynne is Ontario’s newest premier, she needs to make good on her promises to Northern Ontario, the president of Sudbury’s chamber of commerce says.

“It’s fine to make promises during an election campaign, where you really want to see the action. Now let’s have the rubber hit the road and put those plans into action,” Debbi Nicholson said, after Wynne made history by becoming Ontario’s first woman — and openly gay — premier.

“She is talking about Northern Ontario as an integral part of the province, she’s talking about Ring of Fire, she’s talking about working with the Aboriginal community, she’s talking about education and health care and economic development. All of those things are very positive news for Northern Ontario.”

Barb Blasutti, president of the Rainbow local Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said she’d like to see Wynne withdraw the collective bargaining agreements forced on teachers by current Education Minister Laurel Broten.

“I do know that (ETFO) President Sam Hammond has reached out to her and has had a conversation, and it’s my understanding that they will be meeting this week. So what I would say to her is thank you for reciprocating that invitation, (and ask) that she listen with an open mind and that she allows us to get back to the bargaining table and negotiate fair and respective collective agreements.

Read more

Mining companies need Ottawa’s help to solve shortage of workers – by Peter O’Neil (Vancouver Sun – January 29, 2013)

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

Report says lack of skilled employees already causing costly mistakes

OTTAWA — Vancouver, Toronto and Sudbury are to Canada what Hollywood and Silicon Valley are to the U.S. — cities with a cluster of businesses built around a major industry that competes globally.

But the world-class industry in those Canadian cities — mining — needs government help, says a report to be released Wednesday.

According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce report, world-competitive industries emerge when they attract a large cluster of related companies to a particular area, such as Metro Vancouver, allowing for increased competition, economies of scale and innovation.

But, the report warns, renewed federal government efforts are needed if mining is to continue to attract and maintain the “clusters” of companies it needs — in finance, insurance, manufacturing and more — to Vancouver, Toronto and Sudbury.

The top challenge for governments is to help the industry resolve the skilled worker shortage “crisis” that, according to the report, is increasingly resulting in costly mistakes in mining operations.

Read more