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Day: February 6, 2013

Attawapiskat members blockade Debeers – by Lenny Carpenter (Wawatay News – February 6, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

A small group of Attawapiskat community members have blockaded a road leading from the Debeers Canada diamond mine site to the community, citing issues with the community’s agreement with the diamond company.

Attawapiskat’s Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) coordinator Danny Metatawabin said the blockaders’ issues pertain to either employment rates among community members at the site or the use of their traditional territory. The blockade began on Feb. 4.

“It started with four individuals,” Metatawabin said, adding that more community members have since joined. “When I went there this morning, there were not even 20.” Metatawabin said the chief and council do not support the blockade, saying the IBA the community signed with Debeers is a “done deal.”

“The current IBA is a done deal, an endorsed document, which states everything is approved and ratified,” he said. “Including allowing Debeers to set up the Victor Mine, the winter road, and ensure that fuel trucks are transported to the site for fuel purposes.”

However, he said the leadership is not taking action against the members who have blockaded the road. A meeting with the leadership and community members is expected to take place in the evening on Feb. 6 while Chief Theresa Spence called for a band council meeting on Feb. 7 regarding the matter.

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Does reality TV’s gold boom suggest an end to soaring prices? – by Colin Campbell (Maclean’s Magazine – February 5, 2013)

http://www2.macleans.ca/

Gold Rush fans may not want to change the channel just yet

Reality television’s latest obsession is gold. Jungle Gold, Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold and Gold Fever are all shows documenting miners’ efforts to dig up flakes of the precious metal worth $1,700 an ounce. The last time TV was so caught up in a trend it was in the house-flipping genre (Flip This House, Flip That House), which seemed to hit its peak just before the U.S. housing market crashed. Is there a similar warning sign in the TV gold boom? Does all the mainstream fascination with gold suggest an overinflated interest and price?

Some analysts on Wall Street, at least, seem to think gold’s wild ride may be nearing its end. This week, Morgan Stanley lowered its gold-price forecast for the year by four per cent, to $1,773. Late last year, Goldman Sachs cut its target price for 2013 to $1,800 an ounce from $1,940, citing an improving U.S. economy. “The risk-reward of holding a long gold position is diminishing,” it said.

Gold is the ultimate safe-haven investment and has enjoyed an incredible rise in recent years. A decade ago, gold was worth little more than $300 an ounce. Since 2000, it has gone up every year for 12 years (a record) and in each of the three years after the 2008 crash, gold prices peaked to hit record highs. That gold might be finally losing some of its shine suggests fear of riskier investments may be ebbing. The S&P 500 index last week, for instance, cracked the 1,500 mark for the first time since 2007.

Not everyone is convinced the gold rush is finished just yet. Morgan Stanley said that despite its price cut, it still remains “bullish on the gold-price outlook,” citing an ongoing commitment in the U.S. to low interest rates and government stimulus spending in the face of “a below-par recovery.” Many central banks are also still buying gold. As Goldman admits, “calling the peak in gold prices is a difficult exercise.”

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Live from Mining Indaba 2013: Cynthia Carroll, outgoing Anglo American CEO with Geoff Candy – by Moneyweb.co.za (February 6, 2012)

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-home

Carroll talks mining prospects, Anglo projects and the Plat Review.

GEOFF CANDY: Hello and welcome to this Mineweb.com Newsmaker podcast. Joining me here live at the Cape Town Convention Centre is Cynthia Carroll, the outgoing CEO at Anglo American. Cynthia, you took over the reins at Anglo American in March 2007. It’s been an exceptionally eventful five years, not just for Anglo American but for the sector as a whole. What do you think is the most significant change you’ve seen in the mining sector in those five years?

CYNTHIA CARROLL: Well, first of all we have clearly gone through two significant economic downturns that I don’t think anybody anticipated, and at the same time Anglo American had two record years – 2008 and 2011. I think that there has been a developing disconnect between the expectation of investors and what the mining companies have been able to deliver in the short term. And during the peak of the cycle when everything was going gangbusters, everybody was saying you have to invest and you have to spend and we want to see growth and we want to see production.

But we’re in a period right now, again that nobody would have predicted when there has been much more contraction, starting with Europe in terms of demand and then a slowing down in Asia. So some investors are walking away completely from the industry, others are putting greater demands on industry heads to say, we want to be assured of our returns first and foremost before you spend any money, and we want you to cut back significantly.

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Rio Tinto drops $4-billion plan for new plant in Bécancour – by Jan Ravensbergen (Montreal Gazette – February 5, 2013)

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

Low titanium prices, belt-tightening torpedo 400-job facility

MONTREAL – Rio Tinto Fer et Titane, a wholly owned subsidiary of global giant Rio Tinto Group, has abandoned plans for a large new plant in Bécancour, the company said Tuesday.

Rio Tinto had been developing a plan to double the capacity of its Sorel-Tracy metallurgical plant, between Montreal and Quebec City, with a “greenfields” project in Bécancour Industrial Park.

The project would have cost in the ballpark of $4 billion. Up to 400 jobs would have been created by 2016. A collapse in titanium prices is one of the prime elements of the decision.

In a statement, Jean-François Turgeon, the unit’s managing director, cited two factors: “a background of weaker market conditions for our products and the need to manage and reduce our costs.” The project would have expanded the company’s mining and smelting capacities in Canada, Madagascar, South Africa and Mozambique, Turgeon said.

“We were conducting pre-feasibility studies on this project here in Canada and in Africa and this work has been suspended,” company spokesperson Bryan Tucker said.

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Canada’s environmental protection must keep pace with economic development – by John Ivison (National Post – February 6, 2013)

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

If two weeks in China teaches you anything, it is the perils of growth-at-all-cost. Lack of environmental protection there has left much of the country facing what Internet users are calling “airpocalypse.”

The latest report by the environment commissioner does not suggest Canada is anywhere close to China’s level of ecological degradation, but Scott Vaughan said he is concerned environmental protection is failing to keep pace with economic development.

“It’s clear there is a natural resources boom … Maybe it’s time for a boom in terms of environmental protection to protect Canadians’ health and to protect the Canadian economy,” he said.

Specifically, he pointed to gaps in environmental safeguards such as the low level of inspections in major resource projects; continuing government tax incentives that support fossil fuel extraction; slow progress in establishing marine protection areas; and, a lack of co-ordination between East Coast petroleum boards and the federal government if they had to respond to a major oil spill. In that case, the Canadian Coast Guard has no mandate to respond to a major oil spill, he 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/

SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER (1880-1957)

It is impossible when considering mining in the 20th century not to place the Oppenheimer family at the centre of the development of the South African industry, one that is pre-eminent in the production of precious metals. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer played a crucial role in establishing the Anglo American group and, as Chairman of De Beers, in organising the modern diamond-trading cartel, the Central Selling Organisation, now much reformed.

Sir Ernest was born in 1880 in Freidberg, Germany, where his father Edward was a cigar merchant. The Oppenheimers were a large German Jewish family with excellent connections, particularly in the diamond business in England. When he was 16 he went to England and started work as a clerk in the London office of diamond merchant A. Dunkelsbuhler, who was his cousin, and became a naturalised Briton.

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[Canadian energy] Superpower challenges – by Peter Foster (National Post – February 6, 2013)

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

The energy superpower field becomes more crowded as U.S. output grows

Seven years ago, Stephen Harper declared Canada an “emerging energy superpower.” This week, the American Petroleum Institute suggested that the U.S., too, was turning into an “energy superpower.” Whether that represents national brand infringement, it certainly reflects challenges on the policy front.

“Superpower” status used to be measured exclusively in terms of destructive potential, so we should perhaps be grateful that the term is now as often linked to resource development. This reflects two quite different meanings of “power.” Economic power means the ability to offer inducements to provide goods and services.

Political power means the potential or actual use of coercive force. Mr. Harper in fact noted the difference when taking a dig at Vladimir Putin on his way to a G8 meeting in Russian in July, 2006. “We believe in the free exchange of energy products based on competitive market principles,” he said, “not self-serving monopolistic political strategies.” The Russian government had recently shut off gas supplies to Ukraine to exert political pressure.

When it comes to the U.S., it is already both a political and resource superpower, but technical advances have opened vast new petroleum potential. This promises to achieve the elusive — although often misguided — goal of energy independence (for North America).

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Alberta stands firm on Keystone – by Josh Wingrove and Nathan VAnderklippe (Globe and Mail – February 6, 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.

EDMONTON and CALGARY – It was a notion some say was a long time coming: Alberta should sweeten the pot for U.S. lawmakers weighing approval of the Keystone XL pipeline by boosting environmental performance in the oil sands.

But one day after a suggestion from an Alberta envoy to Washington that the province would do just that, officials backed away from the idea. Instead, Alberta will continue to “tell its story,” as Premier Alison Redford put it, leaving the Keystone approval up to the U.S. State Department and TransCanada Corp., the company behind Keystone XL.

At the same time, some in Alberta say a new look at green rules is exactly what the province should contemplate if it hopes to persuade others to open their land to pipelines bearing oil sands crude.

The debate was sparked Monday when Alberta’s envoy to Washington, David Manning, suggested in a Reuters interview that Alberta has “much more in our toolbox” to push for a pipeline approval. By Tuesday, senior government leaders were disputing that notion.

Alberta will continue to push for technological improvements and better oil sands monitoring, said Cal Dallas, the province’s Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations. But “is there something that’s imminent that’s directly related to the [Keystone] decision the Secretary of State is weighing in on? No,” he said. Mr. Dallas stressed: “The conversation … doesn’t involve sweetening the pot.”

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Mongolia’s “ninja” miners help sate China lust for gold – by David Stanway (Reuters.com – April 19, 2012)

http://www.reuters.com/

Please note April, 2012 date, but a great read!

(Reuters) – In a hot, concrete hut filled with acetylene fumes, an elderly Mongolian miner struggles to contain her excitement as she plucks a sizzling inch-long nugget of gold from a grubby cooling pot and raises it to the light.

Khorloo, 65, and her sons spent the day scrutinizing half a dozen CCTV screens as workers at the Bornuur gold processing plant whittled 1.2 metric metric tonnes of ore down to 123 grams of pure gold that could earn the family as much as $6,000.

Near the plant, separated from Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, by 100 km of rocky pasture and mostly unpaved road, life has remained largely unchanged since Genghis Khan’s “golden horde” rampaged across Asia nine centuries ago.

But Khorloo is a member of a new horde of at least 60,000 herders, farmers and urban unemployed trying to extract the riches buried in the vast steppe with metal detectors, shovels and home-made smelters.

In the last five years, dwindling legal gold supplies and a spike in black market demand from China have made work much more lucrative for Mongolia’s “ninja miners” – so named because of the large green pans carried on their backs that look like turtle shells. For thousands of dirt-poor herders, the soaring prices alone are enough to justify years of harassment, abuse and hard labor.

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The new oil sheik of Quebec – by Sophie Cousineau (Globe and Mail – February 6, 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.

MONTREAL — To say that I am a football fan is an overstatement as big as New Orleans’ Superdome, though I’ve always had a soft spot for the San Francisco 49ers. But I gave up on “my team” and on the Super Bowl when the Baltimore Ravens’ lead reached 22 points, and switched to Tout le monde en parle, the talk show that normally rules Quebec airwaves on Sundays.

So I missed the power outage and the 49ers’ spectacular comeback. But I did see Quebec’s Natural Resource Minister, Martine Ouellet, throw a couple of Hail Marys.

This may come as a surprise to those who have heard of Quebeckers’ widespread disdain for the oil sands, but the province of cheap, abundant hydroelectricity has some big oil ambitions of its own.

On the Radio-Canada talk show, Ms. Ouellet talked about the revenues that could be extracted from Quebec’s oil reserves. The Gaspé region could generate $35-billion, she said. The Anticosti Island? Between $200-billion and $300-billion. The Old Harry offshore deposit in the Gulf of St.-Lawrence? A whopping $500-billion! (A press officer corrected her Tuesday and said she had meant to say $50-billion, but still.)

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Wynne firm on committee for North – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – February 6, 2013)

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

Ontario premier-designate Kathleen Wynne says she is committed to giving Northern Ontario a strong voice in the decision-making taking place in Queen’s Park. Wynne took questions from northern reporters during a conference call on Tuesday afternoon.

She said her transition team is already working on getting things running when her cabinet is sworn in Monday. The legislature will be back more than a week later, on Feb. 19. During her leadership campaign, Wynne pledged to have a cabinet committee that would focus on Northern Ontario issues and she stuck by that pledge Tuesday.

“I’ll create a cabinet committee from the North. That is important to me because if I have ministers who are aware of the politics and impacts on the North, that is important because we have to realize decisions made here at Queen’s Park have to be correct for the North. “For me, this cabinet committee is a mechanism to reach that goal.”

Wynne also promised during her leadership bid that she would hold a cabinet meeting within a month of swearing in her cabinet. She stuck to that time frame Tuesday.

“I said we would hold it within 30 days of swearing in the cabinet, with the cabinet being sworn in Feb. 11, so before March 11.” Where would it be? she was asked.

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Vale strikes gold deal – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star/Reuters – February 6, 2013)

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

Vale agreed Tuesday to sell 70% of the gold produced at its Sudbury mines over a 20-year period to Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton in a deal worth $570 million.

Silver Wheaton will also pay $1.33 billion for 25% of the gold produced at the Salobo mine in Brazil over its mine life, the companies announced. In total, the deal is worth $1.9 billion in cash. The Sudbury gold stream covers six producing mines — the Coleman, Copper Cliff, Creighton, Garson, Stobie and Totten mines — and one development mine, the Victor project.

From 2013 to 2015, the Sudbury mines are expected to average attributable production of approximately 30,000 ounces as the Totten mine gradually reaches full production. Gold production is expected to peak once the high-grade Victor deposit begins production.

The deal will immediately boost Silver Wheaton’s production by adding expected average gold production of 110,000 ounces of gold per year over the next 20 years, or 5.9 million silver equivalent ounces. The move into gold is a departure for Silver Wheaton, which has focused almost exclusively on silver stream financing deals.

“While we have traditionally focused on silver, we have never been averse to strategically adding ‘the right’ gold streams to our portfolio,” said Chief Executive Randy Smallwood in a statement.

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Blockade halts traffic to diamond mine – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 6, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A team of De Beers executives were scrambling late Tuesday afternoon to meet with a small number of protesters in Attawapiskat who had been blockading the winter road into the Victor diamond mine since Monday night.

While the mine was able to continue operating, company officials reported the blockade was preventing supplies from being brought to the mine.

“Currently the operations of the mine are not interrupted but the work on the road is interrupted – so the resupply to the mine is standing down until it is resolved,” Ashley Brown, senior communications specialist with De Beers, told The Daily Press.

Supply trucks stopped on the road by protesters were carrying “non-perishable consumables like fuel and oil and different mechanical parts, and tires and camp items and new equipment and that sort of stuff,” Brown added. “We use the winter road for those sort of things that are too heavy to economically fly into the mine.”

He said the company was sending an “executive team” to hold talks with the protesters in an effort to resolve the conflict. Brown said the protesters had provided no indication of how long they intended to maintain the blockade.

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Taxpayer Twain wreck in Timmins – by Dean Beeby (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – February 1, 2013)

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

TIMMINS, Ont. — A tourist attraction celebrating country superstar Shania Twain has officially become a $10-million money pit of taxpayer’s cash worthy of a hurtin’ song itself.

The Shania Twain Centre in this northern Ontario community permanently closed its doors Friday — barely a dozen years after its grand opening — and will be demolished to become part of an open-pit gold mine.

A sinkhole of taxpayer money, the centre consumed some $10 million in government funds for its construction in 2000-2001, and racked up more than $1 million in operating deficits in the years since.

Grant applications to the Ontario and federal governments in the 1990s projected annual attendance of 50,000 tourists by 2005. Twain, now 47, grew up poor in Timmins, and got her start singing in local bars before striking it rich on the world stage in 1995.

But the sleek, modern structure — featuring displays of Twain memorabilia along with gold-mining artifacts — has drawn no more than 15,000 people in any year. In the end, every resident of this hardscrabble, century-old mining town of 47,000 was shelling out $7 a year just to keep the lights on. And by 2010, each visitor to the centre was being subsidized to the tune of $33.72.

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South Africa Faces Tax Dilemma as Mining Industry Costs Soar – by Mike Cohen & Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg.com – February 5, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa’s government faces a dilemma: how to help mining companies weather surging costs and depressed commodity prices as the ruling African National Congress seeks to wring more revenue from the industry.

Upheaval has plagued platinum and gold producers since August last year, when thousands of workers staged a series of illegal strikes, winning pay increases of as much as 22 percent. Adding to mining costs, Eskom Holdings Ltd., which supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s power, is seeking 16 percent average annual tariff increases until 2018 to fund expansion.

While Mining Minister Susan Shabangu says the government is committed to working with the industry, the ruling ANC wants the country to derive greater benefit from its minerals. At a conference in December, the party said a “resource-rent” tax, or higher royalties, were under consideration.

“I’m quite worried,” Nick Holland, the chief executive officer of Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI), Africa’s No. 2 gold producer, said in an interview yesterday at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, a gathering of more than 7,500 industry executives. “We can ill afford to accept any taxes beyond what we have. It’s just going to increase the speed of the decline of the mining industry.”

Mining output slumped 11 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the three months through November from the prior three months, government data show. Nine loss-making platinum-mine shafts were shut in the second half of 2012, according to the Department of Mineral Resources, while Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), the largest producer, last month announced plans to idle four shafts, which may result in as many as 14,000 job losses.

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