March 8, 2013 – Republic of Mining

HudBay bets big with Constancia project as rivals pull back – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 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.

Toronto-based HudBay Minerals Inc. is a rare breed these days. In an industry reluctant to spend on anything beyond operating costs, the base metals miner is plowing ahead with a copper project in Peru called Constancia that will cost it nearly as much to build as the company’s entire market capitalization.

Even as global miners report billion-dollar cost overruns and asset writedowns and the industry is buffeted by demand headwinds in commodity markets – HudBay is spending $75-million a month on Constancia, where thousands of workers are already on site.

“It’s a relatively small company with a big project in development in Constancia and that’s got the market a little bit concerned,” said John Hughes, an analyst with Desjardins Securities in Toronto, who nevertheless has a “buy” on the stock and a target price that is 30 per cent higher than where it’s currently trading.

Others share not only his concerns, but also his enthusiasm about potential growth at the company, and 80 per cent of analysts polled by Bloomberg News have a “buy” rating on HudBay, which closed at $10.12 a share on Thursday.

“They’re basically betting their market cap on one mine,” said George Topping, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus in Toronto, who also has a “buy” on the stock, with a target price of $13.75 a share.

Tech titans crucial to next wave of space exploration – by Ivan Semeniuk (Globe and Mail – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 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.

The O’Neilleans are coming. In the 1970s, fed up with government bureaucracy, the Princeton University physicist and space advocate Gerard K. O’Neill became convinced that free enterprise was the key to extending humanity’s presence beyond Earth.

Now, as a flurry of newly formed companies unveil plans to mine the moon and asteroids, and a non-profit foundation seeks to launch humans to Mars, Dr. O’Neill’s entrepreneurial vision as well as a big dose of Silicon Valley wealth looms large behind it all.

“It’s the expansion of the economic sphere outward to where the resources are,” said Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, a Bay Area company that seeks to place the first privately financed lander on the moon.

Mr. Richards left Canada in 2009, discouraged by a lack of momentum in a space industry reliant on government contracts, but still dreaming about the Apollo moon landings that inspired his interest in space. After spending time among California’s venture capitalists, he realized he had arrived at the right place at the right time.

“I found the tribe that can do this and I never left,” said Mr. Richards, who spoke in Toronto on Thursday at a conference on commercial space development.

No, Minister Oliver, the oil sands have not become ‘green’ – by Tzeporah Berman (Globe and Mail – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 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.

Many Canadians must have wondered if George Orwell was alive and well this week as they read that the Alberta oil sands were being pitched to U.S. officials as “green” by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.

“Canada is the environmentally responsible choice for the U.S. to meet its energy needs in oil for years to come,” the minister told an audience in Chicago – a message he repeated over and over in his U.S. tour, part of a calculated mission to associate Alberta bitumen with ecological benefits.

At a time when climate scientists are urgently telling us to significantly scale back the burning of fossil fuels, having a minister promote exactly the opposite really does feel like being told that two plus two equals five.

Yet this is what we’ve come to expect from our federal government, which, as documents released this week through an Access to Information request revealed, has “aligned” its interests with the pipeline industry instead of with the voters who elected it. And Joe Oliver has emerged as the most prominent spokesman for this alignment.

It was Mr. Oliver who, a year ago, opened an offensive by trying to label those opposed to the Enbridge Gateway pipeline proposal as “radicals,” ignoring the deep public opposition to the project.

Mining for gold in deep space? – by Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew (Toronto Star – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 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.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, it’s already here says a growing list of mining and aerospace companies.

Mining in space? It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, it’s already here. A growing roster of Canadian aerospace and mining companies is setting its sights on asteroids as the next frontier for precious metals and reserves of water on the moon that could make it an ideal pit stop on the way to the deeper reaches of space.

That’s what brought several dozen representatives from aerospace and mining companies, as well as geologists, academics and legal experts to the 6th annual conference put on by the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Thursday.

“It sounds like it’s a new area, but in actual fact, it’s been around for more than a decade, Dale Boucher, director of product design, prototyping and testing at the Northern Centre of Advanced Technologies, a Sudbury-based training and technology development centre for the mining industry.

NORCAT, as the facility is known, has developed rover chassis specifically designed for lunar mining activities. In the last decade, it has developed drills for the Canadian Space Agency and NASA.

Anglo American SA silicosis liability could be largest yet – lawyers – by Natalie Greve (MiningWeekly.com – March 7, 2013)

March 8, 2013

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A silicosis class action application launched on Thursday against mining giant Anglo American South Africa (AASA) could result in the largest-ever silicosis liability of any gold mining company.

So asserted the legal collaboration that filed the application in the Johannesburg High Court and which comprised the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Garratt Mbuyisa Neale attorneys (GMN), London-based lawyers Leigh Day and Legal Aid South Africa.

The application would be served on Thursday on AASA, a company believed to hold assets worth some $15-billion.

The legal team said in a statement that the application was opt-out and, therefore, provided a mechanism through which the interests of the wider class of silicosis sufferers ¬– including those who were unaware that they had the disease – were protected.

The class action application against AASA was a ‘natural progression’ from the President Steyn litigation against AASA, it claimed.

In 2004, 18 claims relating to miners employed at AASA’s President Steyn mine, in the Free State, were filed by the same legal team, alleging that AASA negligently controlled and advised its mines with regard to the prevention of dust exposure and silicosis.

Excerpt from “Haywire My Life in the Mines” – by Doug Hall

March 8, 2013

This autobiographical book describes the Doug Hall’s family through war and depression, and goes on to relate his experiences underground in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s. It is written from the point of view of the average Joe who went underground when he was eighteen and didn’t know what he was getting into. The author considers himself lucky to have survived those years.

Click here to order an e-book of “Haywire My Life in the Mines”:http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/269905

Click here to order an e-book of “Haywire My Life in the Mines”: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/269905

One time I worked overtime taking a scooptram underground. Now this was an ST12 scooptram and very much too large to be taken down in one piece; so they took it apart and took it down in three pieces which were the bucket, the front section and the motor section. Now in order to facilitate this they made a rack with wheels on it to go down the shaft and the section of the scooptram that was being transported was slung underneath this rack by what I recollect were two three-eighths inch cables.

Uncertainty dogs Ring of Fire stocks – by Peter Kennedy (Stockhouse.com – March 7, 2013)

March 8, 2013

http://www.stockhouse.com/

Chromite mines developed by Cliffs and others may feed Ontario’s mining services infrastructure, but transportation remains a big question mark. Who knew that chromite mining in the Ring of Fire region could one day be a major economic driver for Ontario?

“Ring of Fire is one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in Ontario in almost a century,’’ said George Ross, a deputy minister in Ontario’s Northern Development and Mines Ministry, during a speech to a mining conference in Toronto this week.

“Current estimates suggest multi-generational potential for chromite production as well as significant production for nickel, copper and platinum,” Ross said.

Chromite mined from the Ring of Fire, a remote part of northern Ontario, is expected to feed the province’s massive mining services and supply chain for many decades to come.

Extracted and then concentrated at source, it must be shipped by road or rail to processing facilities, likely in Sudbury, where it will be turned into Ferrochrome, a critical ingredient used to manufacture stainless steel.

If it all goes ahead, U.S. giant Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF, Stock Forum) could easily invest up to $3.3 billion in mining, transportation and processing facilities, producing 2.3 million tonnes of chromium in concentrates from its Black Thor project.

Mining bull run to return in the second half of the decade – Mohr – Interviewer: Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

While Scotia Capital commodity expert Patricia Mohr believes that base metal prices are likely to go lower over the course of the next two years, the following five should prove interesting.

GEOFF CANDY: Hello and welcome to this Mineweb.com Newsmaker podcast. Joining me live at the PADC 2013 is Patricia Mohr – she’s the vice president of economics and commodity market specialist at Scotia Capital. Patricia there’s been a lot of talk over the last few months, well indeed over the last few years about the rise of China, the impact of China on the supercycle. More recently there’s been a lot of talk about whether or not the supercycle is coming to an end. There does seem to be a divide – some people saying it is at an end, others saying that this is just a pause or almost a palate cleanser between courses. What is your view, where are we placed in the current cycle?

PATRICIA MOHR: Well I think in the next few years probably we’re going to see a little bit of a slowdown in global exploration activity and of course the junior mining sector is having difficulty getting equity finance at the moment. I think we’re at a point where some new mine capability either has come on stream in the case of commodities such as nickel or is about to come on stream which I think is the case for copper and so probably we’re going to have a number of years – I’m really talking about two years when market prices are a little bit lower than they have been in the past five years.

Vale executive receives honour – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 2013

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

A senior Vale executive in Sudbury has received the second annual Women in Mining Canada National Trailblazer Award. Samantha Espley, Vale’s general manager of mines and mill technical ser vices for its Ontario operations, was honoured during this week’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto.

“I am humbled and honoured to receive this prestigious award from (Women in Mining) Canada,” Espley said in a release. “Mining has allowed me to have a challenging and rewarding career, and I think it’s incumbent on female professionals to promote mining as an attractive career choice to the next generation of young Canadian women.

“I look forward to seeing more women occupy senior management roles in our industry through the work of WIM and other industry partners.”

Espley graduated 25 years ago with an engineering degree. Since then, she has held a number of positions, including for the former Falconbridge Ltd. (now Xstrata) at its Quebec and Sudbury operations. She joined the former Inco (now Vale) in 1990, where she has held roles of increasing responsibility.

Tom started Stompin’ in Timmins – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 2013

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Stompin Tom Connors’ Mining Songs: http://republicofmining.com/2013/01/21/stompin-tom-connors-wiki-profile-and-mining-songs/

TIMMINS – His patriotism, twangy music and storytelling lyrics made him a beloved Canadian icon. But for many Timmins residents, Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was born in New Brunswick, was as much a hometown hero as Shania Twain, Frank Mahovolich or Steve Sullivan.

Connors died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Halton Hills, Ont. He was 77. Connors, who would go on to great fame, got his first break in Timmins.

He signed a contract to perform for 13 months at the Maple Leaf Hotel and recorded his first songs here at CKGB Radio, which was located in the old Thomson building, which was then shared by The Daily Press. He would end up recording 16 tracks at CKGB during his time in Timmins.

One of the first two songs he recorded was Carolyne which opens with the words: “T-I-M-M-I-N-S That’s going to be my new address, ’Cause I just got a new job working in the mine, Hollinger Mine.” Many city residents know it simply as the “Timmins song.”

Stompin’ Tom remembered for Northern roots – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 2013

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

Stompin Tom Connors’ Mining Songs: http://republicofmining.com/2013/01/21/stompin-tom-connors-wiki-profile-and-mining-songs/

The ties Stompin’ Tom Connors formed with Northern Ontario are legendary.

Connors, who was surrounded by his family when he died Wednesday night at age 77, often credited the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins for launching his professional career and the song he penned at the Townehouse Tavern — Sudbury Saturday Night — in 1965 became one of his biggest hits.

Charlie Angus — musician and Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay — says Connors showed Canadians who they were through his writing.

“I think what Tom did that was so important is that he put our experience and our places on the cultural map of Canada. I was talking to a woman who said when she was 11, she memorized Sudbury Saturday Night. She had never been there, but her dad worked at Stelco so she thought Stelco was like Inco and it was.

“My grandfather had been at the McIntyre mine (in Timmins) where the fire had been and Tom wrote the song and it gave chills to hear it. We thought we had that special relationship,” Angus said. Townehouse manager Paul Loewenberg said Connors captured the city very well when he wrote Sudbury Saturday Night in 1965.

National chamber bullish on ‘Ring’- by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2013)

March 8, 2013

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

The Ring of Fire could mean for Northern Ontario what potash does for Saskatchewan, and the oil sands do for Alberta, the president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says.

“There are enormous opportunities. And if you look at Northern Ontario, for so long they’ve really been treated as second-class citizens in Ontario, with all of the focus being on the south. When you look now at the opportunity there is in the north, it’s just spectacular,” said Perrin Beatty, who spoke to QMI Agency during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto this week.

Located in the James Bay Lowlands, the Ring of Fire is a mineral-rich area in Northern Ontario, which, according to the Ministry of Northern Developments and Mines, is “one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in Ontario in almost a century.”

It has the largest amount of chromite — used to make stainless steel — ever found in North America. Cliffs Natural Resources is in the midst of developing a chromite mine in the Ring, and is in the early stages of the environmental assessment (EA) process. EAs are required for large or complex projects with the possibility of having significant effects on the environment.

Last year, Cliffs selected the Moose Mountain site north of Capreol as the location for its ferrochrome smelter. The smelter will create as many as 500 jobs locally.

GoldCorp pioneers mining-industry wide health & safety study – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 7, 2013)

March 8, 2013

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian miner Goldcorp is spearheading a mining-industry-wide health and safety study with global auditing firm Deloitte & Touche, to deepen the industry’s level of insight into why people do wrong things at work that not only impacts on their colleagues’ safety, but also the outside perception of the company they work for.

Goldcorp senior VP for people and safety Paul Farrow told Mining Weekly Online during this week’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada event that it was of critical importance for all miners to strive to maintain the best possible health and safety records for their operations, owing to the damaging effect it had within the organisation itself, and the knock-on effect it could potentially have on the industry as a whole.

Farrow took on the role of senior VP for people and safety in 2012, a new position at Goldcorp, with the goal of integrating its people and safety strategies.

He explained that a faultless safety record was built on creating a positive culture of responsibility among employees and through continuous education.

“Safety is critically important, but people are more important. Safety can only happen through people, and that is what we are trying to achieve through continuous interaction with our employees,” Farrow said.

Ring of Fire project has staggering hurdles to overcome, but progress on horizon – by Peter Koven (National Post – March 7, 2013)

March 8, 2013

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

TORONTO — When Noront Resources Ltd. blared the Johnny Cash song ‘Ring of Fire’ over and over at its annual meeting in Toronto in 2007, it felt like a giant party.

Only weeks earlier, Noront had made the first key mineral discovery in McFaulds Lake, a remote Northern Ontario region that was quickly nicknamed the Ring of Fire. Excitement about the find was at a fever pitch, and companies were staking land like crazy. No one could wait to find out what came next.

Fast-forward to this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference, and it is a different story. A session on the Ring of Fire drew a huge standing-room-only crowd on Wednesday, but with none of the euphoria of that Noront AGM. The session highlighted the staggering challenges that need to be overcome to get the region going: infrastructure, First Nations agreements, environmental compliance, transportation, and more.

“Our view is this goes beyond traditional mineral development activity,” said George Ross, Ontario’s deputy minister of northern development and mines. “There’s a lot of aspects to it.” The Ring of Fire is thought to hold as much as $50-billion worth of minerals, and is going to be North America’s first major source of chromite, used in the making of stainless steel. It is one of the most important mineral discoveries in Ontario’s history.

NEWS RELEASE: Mayor Matichuk leads Greater Sudbury in mourning Canadian icon Stompin’ Tom Connors

March 8, 2013

For Immediate Release

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Mayor Marianne Matichuk was saddened to learn of the passing of Canadian music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors on Wednesday.

“Stompin’ Tom endeared himself to Canadians because he devoted himself and his music to life in Canada,” Mayor Matichuk said.

“He wrote and sang about the things Canadians hold dear, such as hockey. He cared most about being a Canadian … and he will never be forgotten for that.”

One of his most famous songs, Sudbury Saturday Night, written and first recorded in Canada’s Centennial year of 1967, remains recognizable to all Canadians. Though Greater Sudbury has evolved considerably from the company town immortalized in that song, Connors captured compellingly the spirit of our community 45 years ago.