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Day: May 14, 2013

B.C. mining matters to everyone – by Karina Brino (Vancouver Sun – May 14, 2013)

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

Karina Briño is the president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia.

Province is Canada’s largest producer of copper, largest exporter of coal, only producer of molybdenum

From the family fair in Princeton, to the Hudson Bay Lodge luncheon in Smithers, and the fundraising event for BC Children’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver, it was another successful BC Mining Week across the province.

As the president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia, I had the privilege of attending a number of BC Mining Week events (April 28 to May 4) in towns and cities across the province, celebrating with communities the spirit and achievements of the province’s mining industry.

B.C.’s mining sector has much to be proud of. People who work in and with the industry do so with the satisfaction that they are making a difference in people’s lives, both in the province and around the world. As Canada’s largest producer of copper, its largest exporter of coal and its only producer of molybdenum, B.C.’s mining industry helps to provide the global community with a number of well-used and necessary products — from cars and cellphones to power lines and medical equipment.

Mining also creates wealth and opportunity at home here in B.C., through investment and job creation. In 2012, the industry generated $9.2 billion in revenues and directly employed more than 10,400 people.

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NEWS RELEASE: OMA-CLRA symposium explores new science to reclaim historic mine sites

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 sixth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium will be applying modern science to the rehabilitation of historic mine sites. This environmental event, which is organized by the Ontario Mining Association in collaboration with the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA), is being held June 18 and 19, 2013 in Cobalt – one of the oldest mining regions in Canada.

The program for June 18 explores both the geology and history of mining in the cobalt camp and the environmental legacy of this activity. “Challenges with Developing Closure Plans for Historical Mining Areas like Cobalt-Coleman” is the title of a paper being presented by Michel Julien and Jean-Francois Doyon from Agnico-Eagle Mines, which maintains a large landholding in the area.

Another presentation, “From Tailings Basin to Aquatic Ecosystem: The ecological recovery of two waterbodies” is on the agenda. There are also talks dealing with water quality monitoring, improvements in water treatment and engineering wetland systems to manage tailings areas.

At the banquet in the evening of June 18, the Tom Peters Memorial Reclamation Award will be presented. Mr. Peters was a pioneer in the field of mine reclamation and a founding member of the CLRA, which was established in 1975. There are two components to this award – one for industry and a $5,000 bursary, which is sponsored by Vale, for a graduate student pursuing a degree in this discipline.

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Platinum market records 375 000 oz deficit in 2012 – by Idéle Esterhuizen (MiningWeekly.com – May 13, 2013)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The global platinum market experienced a deficit of 375 000 oz in 2012, owing to a steep decline in output from South Africa, platinum group metals authority Johnson Matthey’s ‘Platinum 2013’ report has revealed.

Published on Monday, the report found that primary platinum supply fell by 13% to 5.64-million ounces, its lowest level in twelve years. Total platinum demand for the year was down by 0.6% to 8.05-million ounces, while recycled platinum came to 2.03-million ounces, marginally less than in 2011.

Platinum recycling from end-of-life autocatalysts fell in Europe and North America, while the price of platinum averaged $1 552/oz in 2012, $169 lower than in 2011, prompting collectors to hoard stock, while awaiting better price opportunities.

However, the decline in recovery from this source was partly offset by greater recycling of platinum jewellery scrap in China. Platinum shipments by South African producers slumped by 16% to 4.1-million ounces during the year under review, with at least 750 000 oz of production lost to strikes, safety stoppages and the closure of some marginal mining operations.

Meanwhile, gross demand for platinum in autocatalysts rose by 1.7% to 3.24-million ounces.

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Platinum 2013 Report – by Johnson Matthey

http://www.platinum.matthey.com/

For the full report, click here: http://www.platinum.matthey.com/media/1614079/platinum_2013.pdf

Summary

An unprecedented fall in supplies from South Africa arising from a series of illegal strikes put the platinum market into a deficit in 2012. Through industrial action, safety stoppages and mine closures, producers in South Africa altogether lost at least 750,000 oz of platinum production. Industrial demand in 2012 was hit by a downturn in purchasing by the glass and electrical sectors, while investment demand was steady. Growth in demand for platinum autocatalysts in Asia and North America offset lower requirements from the weak European vehicle market.

Only the jewellery trade in China bought significantly more platinum, in order to supply an expanding jewellery retail network. The platinum price in 2012 was on average 10% weaker than in 2011, causing secondary recovery of platinum to decline as collectors of spent autocatalysts hoarded stock, waiting for better price opportunities to arrive.

A series of illegal work stoppages took place during the year at the mines on the western Bushveld operated by Impala Platinum, Lonmin and Anglo American Platinum. The first stoppage of the year started at Impala’s Rustenburg lease area in January and resulted ultimately in the loss of a third of the mine’s annual output. There was significant disruption in August at Lonmin’s Marikana operations, where the strike became violent and led to the loss of many lives, and between September and November at Anglo’s Union, Rustenburg and Amandelbult operations.

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Kearney mine gets the go-ahead to reopen – by Jeff Green (Toronto Star – May 14, 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.

80 jobs will be brought to the “biggest little town” on the western edge of Algonquin Park. Electric car and fears of capped exports by Chinese mines have brought new life into the “biggest little town” of Kearney, Ontario.

On Monday, Ontario Graphite Inc. announced it has final approval to re-commission the Kearney graphite mine, on the western edge of Algonquin Park, which could be up and running by November.

“Everyone’s excited about the growth of the battery industry and specifically, electric vehicles,” said Simon Moores, graphite industry expert and manager at Industrial Minerals Data. “That’s what’s driving the renewed interest in the last two years.”

Roughly 80 jobs — 60 to 65 of which the company says will be sourced locally — will process one million tonnes of ore into 20,000 tonnes of high-grade, large flake graphite. It would make it the largest graphite mine in North America, producing more graphite than the only other Canadian mines, in B.C. and Quebec, combined.

Interest in the mine wasn’t renewed until prices jumped in 2010. Privately-owned Ontario Graphite Inc. applied to re-commission the mine that December, and got the final approval from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment last week.

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Signs emerge that the commodity super-cycle isn’t over – by Martin Mittelstaedt (Globe and Mail – May 14, 2013)

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.

Is it too early to pronounce the so-called commodity super-cycle over?

Just maybe. Two Canadian commodity indexes came out Monday, and they both suggest that raw materials are going through a modest stumble, not the huge blow up being forecast by the commodity doom and gloom crowd.

The indexes are from Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia, whose top commodity analyst gave a relatively sanguine observation on the overall trend, despite April’s swoon for precious metals.

“Financial market concern over the outlook for commodity markets was overblown,” said Patricia Mohr, Scotiabank’s vice-president of economics.

A big worry for commodity bears is that China’s red-hot growth rate is slowing, but Ms. Mohr noted that while the Asian powerhouse’s first-quarter gross domestic product has slowed slightly, “actual demand for raw materials was robust in China. The double-digit growth of China’s passenger car market, up 20 per in [the first quarter], reinforces its importance as a driver of growth in worldwide auto demand and related commodities such as copper.”

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The EU green hell – by Benny Peiser (National Post – May 14, 2013)

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

“Instead of the blooming green economy promised by political leaders and activists, Europe
is facing a competitiveness crisis and an economic nightmare with almost 27 million people
out of work and many countries facing bankruptcy.”

“Instead of investing in the energy-expensive EU, they [Europe’s manufacturers] are pouring
hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. where energy prices have fallen to a third of
those in the EU…” (Benny Peiser)

Benny Peiser is the director of the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Limits to growth ideology a self-fulfilling prophecy

The European Union’s utopian scheme of transforming itself into a green energy powerhouse is faltering as its fantasy plan is colliding with reality. As the EU’s economic and financial crisis deepens and unemployment continues to rise, what used to be an almost all-embracing green consensus is beginning to disintegrate.

The spectre of green stagnation, the loss of competitiveness and economic decline has replaced 20 years of collective wishful thinking. The green folly was founded on two apocalyptic fears: firstly, that global warming was an urgent threat that needed to be prevented at all cost, and secondly, that the world was running out of fossil fuels, which meant that oil and gas would inexorably become ever more expensive. Both conjectures, however, turned out to be bogus.

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Time for power action, mayor insists – (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – May 14, 2013)

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

Ontario’s energy minister is “being irresponsible” by not stepping in and ordering the conversion of the Thunder Bay Generating Station to natural gas, the city’s mayor said Monday.

Northwest leaders are trying to convince the government that the coal-fired plant must be converted to burn natural gas if the region’s energy needs are to be met.

The government put a hold on the project last fall after the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) said there are cheaper ways to meet power needs, including expanding the east-west tieline, which moves power between Northern and southern Ontario.
The province has prohibited the burning of coal for energy in Ontario after Dec. 31, 2014.

However, Mayor Keith Hobbs said, the city’s Energy Task Force (ETF) has done its homework and proven that the OPA and Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) are “out to lunch” with their estimations of the region’s power requirements.

“I believe this is stalling at its best,” Hobbs said of the government’s handling of the generating station matter. “We need to get political and we need to send a message to (Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli) that that plant needs to be kept open and converted, plain and simple.

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A fair [resource] deal for Africans – by Peter Eigen (National Post – May 13, 2013)

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

Peter Eigen is founder and chair of the Advisory Council, Transparency International, founding chairman of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and a member of the Africa Progress Panel.

Across Africa, an extraordinary natural resources boom is underway. Energy and mineral extraction is driving economic growth on the continent. New exploration, new discoveries and no let-up in global demand mean Africa has a unique opportunity to deliver prosperity and opportunity for its citizens.

As you would expect from a country at the centre of the world’s mining industry, Canada is playing a major role. Eight of the countries where Canadian mining assets exceed $1-billion are in Africa. But this also places a special responsibility on Canada to ensure Africa benefits as well.

For while Africa’s economic growth at an average 5% per year for the past decade has been impressive, this success has not been translated into improvements in the lives of its citizens. African countries are not getting a fair share of the revenues from the mining activities within their borders. Weak African governance can mean the money which is paid is not used effectively to improve public services or create employment.

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Whoever wins in BC needs to take early action on environment – by Mark Hume (Globe and Mail – May 13, 2013)

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.

VANCOUVER – Whatever happens in the election this week, it is clear the newly elected premier, whether it is Adrian Dix or Christy Clark, will have to put the environment high on the agenda for early action.

Pipelines and liquefied natural gas development emerged as key, perhaps even defining, issues during the campaign, but there are more problems out there.

No. 1: Withdraw from the Environmental Assessment Equivalency Agreement that the province signed with the federal government. There is an exit clause in the deal, which essentially gives the National Energy Board the power to do environmental assessments for B.C. By opting out, the province will have a lot more say over pipeline proposals, natural gas processing plants and off-shore oil or gas facilities. The NDP has said it will get out within 30 days. A Liberal government should do the same.

No. 2: Scrap Site C. The province shouldn’t drown valuable farm land that can produce food for thousands of years to provide power to LNG plants that will be relatively short-lived.

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The downsides of U.S. energy independence – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – May 13, 2013)

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.

For four decades, U.S. foreign policy has been dictated by the country’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil. What Barack Obama has called an “addiction” to foreign crude is seen as having undermined the ability of the world’s most powerful nation to control its own destiny.

No wonder the suddenly plausible prospect of U.S. energy independence is generating such giddiness. Not only is the boom in domestic oil and gas production boosting an economy in dire need of jobs and investment, it is rekindling Americans’ confidence in their country’s future.

What is more appropriately defined as North American oil independence – since the United States will continue to depend on Canadian and Mexican crude for decades to come – is almost unanimously hailed as a positive development that will enhance American security.

What gets mentioned less are the downsides of energy independence. Rising U.S. and Canadian oil production could well destabilize petro-states in the Middle East, Russia, Africa and beyond, sparking regime changes unfavourable to U.S. interests and creating an even riskier world.

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Mongolia Scolds Rio Tinto on Costs as Mine Riches Replace Yurts – by Michael Kohn & William Mellor (Bloomberg Markets Magazine – April 9, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets-magazine/

Outside, it’s minus 30 degrees Celsius as a February wind blasts across the Central Asian steppe and through the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. Inside Government House, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj delivers a televised speech that simultaneously warms his people and chills foreign investors.

The country’s 76 legislators have convened to debate the future of one of the planet’s richest copper and gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, which is 66 percent owned by London-based Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and 34 percent owned by the state. Elbegdorj tells them Rio Tinto has let the project’s total cost balloon by $10 billion. The higher expenses, which Rio Tinto disputes, would diminish and delay profits the government shares in, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its May issue.

“The time has come for the Mongolian government to take Oyu Tolgoi matters into its own hands,” Elbegdorj says to cheers from the lawmakers. His demands include giving Mongolian employees more management positions on the project, which is scheduled to begin exporting copper concentrate by June.

Few things matter more today in the political and economic life of this landlocked country of 2.8 million people than foreign investment to develop its mineral wealth. Mining money has spawned gleaming office towers, pricey gated communities and luxury-car dealerships in the capital. And yet, half of all Mongolians still live like their nomadic ancestors in circular felt yurts that can be dismantled and moved.

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On ethical oil, blood and Gore (Toronto Sun Editorial – May 11, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

For a man with a carbon footprint the size of a dwarf planet, Al Gore takes the hypocrite’s cake for his ignorant statement that there is “no such thing as ethical oil.” He was in Canada this week to sell his new book, of course, so what better way to get media attention than to insult both the host country and one of its major resources?

If you want to know the name of his book, look it up. We’re not going to shill for him, even if he is a former vice president of the United States as well as an over-hyped, over-compensated mockumentarist who is unfortunately looked upon by millions as a climate-change visionary.

“There is no such thing as ‘ethical’ oil,” he recently told Canada-AM, and others. “There is only dirty oil and dirtier oil.” This was shortly after we took him to task Wednesday for describing Alberta’s oilsands as a “reckless spewing of pollution into the Earth’s atmosphere as if it’s an open sewer.”

While we don’t know precisely what fuels all of Gore’s jet travel, or powers his mega-mansion, we doubt he has concocted a carbon-free superfuel like he supposedly invented that “information superhighway” known as the Internet.

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Mining Week has arrived in Canada – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – May 13, 2013)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

This is National Mining Week, from May 13 to 17. Did it sneak up on our readers? It certainly did on us … and it has been celebrated since 1996 to call attention to Canada’s international leadership and expertise in mining.

The Hon. Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, kicked off the week by sounding the siren to open the Toronto Stock Exchange this morning.

Certainly Minister Oliver supports our industry: “We are committed to attracting investment, supporting innovations, opening new markets and improving the regulatory system for major mining projects. Mining continues to be a cornerstone of the Canadian economy, providing good jobs and benefits to communities across the country.”

But his rhetoric wandered into the political realm when he continued:

“Our government is committed to the continued prosperity of Canada’s mining sector. National Mining Week is an opportunity to highlight how realizing the potential of mining is essential to our government’s goal of jobs, growth and long term prosperity for Canadians.”

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