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Day: July 1, 2013

Excerpt: From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury – by Oiva W. Saarinen

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

Sudbury: A Union Town? (Part 5 of 5)

Post-Merger Events

In the years following 1967, both unions went their separate ways, each respectful of the other. In 1969, Inco tested the mettle of the Steelworkers, resulting in a 128-day strike. Unlike previous strikes, this one was quiet and orderly. With no nickel stockpile at hand, the Steelworkers outlasted Inco. The strike ended on November 15, 1969, with the union winning major gains in wages and, for the first time, a cost of living allowance (COLA). The union made progress on issues such as the “contracting out” of jobs, training and apprenticeship opportunities, and an evaluation of all job classifications at Inco. The last act resulted in major monetary gains for numerous positions. Falconbridge workers went on strike around the same time and reached a similar settlement, albeit without a contracting out provision.

The signing of the 1969 contract set a positive tone for the next three years because of Inco’s desire to project a revamped company image. The setting was advantageous for the Steelworkers as well, and its membership rose to a peak of 18 224 in July of 1971. Over the next six months, however, the situation changed as Inco announced cutbacks, layoffs, and the closing of the Coniston smelter. Despite this gloomy setting, the union signed a contract that introduced a new clause allowing workers to retain their seniority throughout any of Inco’s operations. Formerly, workers who moved from one department to another lost their seniority. For the first time in mining history, a Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHC) was negotiated. During the 1970s, the Steelworkers promoted the concept of mining as a trade, and in cooperation with company officials and Local 598 at Falconbridge, created a “common core” training program for basic underground hard rock mining.

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The Shield – Riches Beyond Our Rocks (Sudbury History Video) – by Ontario Visual Heritage Project


For part one, go to the TV Ontario website: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162962/shield-riches-beyond-our-rocks-part-1

For part two, go to the TV Ontario website: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162677/shield-riches-beyond-our-rocks-part-2

The Ontario Visual Heritage Project presents films that teach, preserve and promote the history of Ontario. http://www.visualheritage.ca./index.html

News Release: Feature Length Documentary on Greater Sudbury History Available NOW!

SUDBURY, Ontario – Dec. 18, 2008 – After the launch of the City of Greater Sudbury installment of the Ontario Visual Heritage Project in July, the DVD of the production is now available through local museums and libraries. Entitled, ‘Riches Beyond Our Rocks; Stories
from Greater Sudbury,’ the DVD features a two-hour documentary film, which explores the intriguing history of the City of Greater Sudbury and its people through interviews with local historians, archival films and photographs, and re-enactments of historical events. The DVD is packed with additional interviews and stories.

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He has one tough city to sell [Sudbury image] – by Stan Sudol (Globe and Mail – July 15, 1998)

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.

Paul Brokenshire’s message to visitors: look beyond the image

Poor old Sudbury. Nowhere else in the country has been as much maligned. Polluting smokestacks, acid rain, nickel mines, labour unrest and a scarred landscape resembling the backside of the moon, are all indelible images branded into the Canadian psyche, whenever anyone mentions Sudbury. A public relations nightmare.

And yet the city with the bad rep has a convention and visitor’s department, whose mandate is to attract conventions sporting events, trade shows and special events.

According to Paul Brokenshire, its manager: “Absolutely, one of my major hurdles is overcoming the negative views that the national media routinely portray about Sudbury. My job has always been an uphill battle with this city’s negative image.”

He concludes that over the past 20 years, he has heard all the jokes and putdowns; but he soldiers on, while he and the city politicians politely laugh all the way to the bank. The convention and sporting events industry brought in about $38-million for the local community in 1996.

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Sudbury Dumped on the Slag Heap of History – Stan Sudol (Originally Published in the Sudbury Star – February 6 , 2004)

Nickel Tailings #34, Sudbury, Ontario – by Edward Burtynsky

Stan Sudol – “Sudbury Dumped on the Slag Heap of History” was an article I wrote back in February 6, 2004 about Sudbury’s failure at promoting this community in the critically important Toronto media market. It was recently sent out by Dick DeStefano, Director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association, to his extensive email list with a telling question as to whether much has changed on this issue over the past decade.

I have known Dick for many years and have considered him a great friend ever since his tremendous help with a policy document I wrote – Claiming Our Stake! Building a Sustainable Community – for the former Sudbury Mayor David Courtemanche in 2006, which outlined the community’s concerns about the impending loss of Sudbury’s two iconic Canadian miners to foreign ownership.

We have often discussed Sudbury’s negative image in the national media and how is affects the investment decisions of major corporations as well as the perceptions of provincial and federal politicians. Unfortunately,  the article is still very relevant today and most local politicians still fail to grasp the importance of promoting its many unique strengths and mining intelligence – as repeatedly highlighted by DeStefano – in a very competitive Canadian and international market for capital and investment.

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The case for $10,000-an-ounce gold – by Adam Mayers (Toronto Star – July 1, 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.

As gold continues its sell-off, a book by a Toronto bullion fund manager predicts better things lie ahead.

It’s been a dreadful stretch for gold bugs. The past three months have seen a record quarterly drop in gold’s price. In the bigger picture, gold is more than a third below its peak of $1,900 (U.S.) an ounce, reached in 2011. Last week, the spot price tumbled anew, settling near $1,225.

Goldman Sachs now sees a price of $1,050 by the end of next year. Barrick Gold, one of the world’s biggest gold miners trimmed 100 head office jobs mostly in Toronto. And Australia’s Newcrest Mining wrote down the value of its assets by $5.5 billion. With news like that who’s buying gold now? Nick Barisheff, CEO of Toronto’s Bullion Management Group for one.

Barisheff runs several precious metal mutual funds, so always likes gold’s lustre. His funds have been around since 2002 and own gold, silver and platinum bars, rather than mining stocks. BMG’s holdings are stored in bank vaults and the funds are RRSP and TFSA eligible.

Barisheff is the author of the recently published $10,000 Gold: Why Gold’s Inevitable Rise Is The Investor’s Safe Haven (Wiley, $39.95). As the title boldly predicts, he sees the metal at $10,000 an ounce, and soon — within seven or eight years. The timing of the book’s release couldn’t be worse, but even so Barisheff says bullion is down, but by no means out.

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Barrick faces new setback, more pressure – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – July 1, 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.

VANCOUVER — Barrick Gold Corp. has gained some breathing room with its decision to delay development of its Pascua-Lama project, but the company faces pressure to shrink its global mining operations amid tumbling metal prices.

Barrick says first production from the South American gold and silver venture will be postponed by more than 18 months, as the Canadian company forecasts taking a writedown of up to $5.5-billion (U.S.) on the project.

Toronto-based Barrick said it has opted to vastly scale back capital spending this year and in 2014 on the project, which is located in the Andes mountains and straddles the border between Chile and Argentina. While construction of the $8.5-billion project has suffered another setback, the venture remains strategically important to the world’s largest gold producer, analysts say.

“With all this talk about what Barrick could look like in the future, Pascua-Lama will be key to the company’s future operational performance, especially if Barrick wants to shed high-cost mines,” said Chris Thompson, a Vancouver-based mining analyst at Raymond James Ltd.

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Shale gives Obama elbow room on climate change – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 29, 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.

ROME — Why did U.S. President Barack Obama launch his climate change fighting plans when he did?

The timing of his Climate Action Plan speech, on Tuesday at Georgetown University, was indeed curious. Climate change initiatives have all but died in the post-Lehman Brothers world. The 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference was a bust on a global scale and, since then, tapped-out governments have been obsessed with keeping their sorry treasuries intact, stemming job losses and, in southern Europe, keeping demonstrators from burning the place down. Preserving the environment has always been a rich country’s hobby.

To be sure, the United States is richer than most, but its recovery has been weak. The point being, fighting climate change is still a tough sell in the United States, especially among the Republicans who control the House of Representatives, where flat earth science is alive and well. Fixing climate change costs money. Even if most people suspect that carbon emissions from human activity are to blame for global warming, these same people also suspect that carbon-reducing policies are more likely to kill jobs than create them.

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PRESS RELEASE: (CNW) Gahcho Kué Joint Venture and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Sign Socio Economic Agreement

June 28, 2013, 2:04 p.m. ET

YELLOWKNIFE, TORONTO and NEW YORK, June 28, 2013 /CNW/ – De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX: MPV, NYSE MKT: MDM) are pleased to announce that De Beers as Operator of the Gahcho Kué Project today entered into a Socio Economic Agreement (SEA) with the Government of the Northwest Territories for the proposed Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT).

The agreement formalizes commitments made with respect to employment, training, business opportunities and other related benefits for NWT residents. It also establishes measures to monitor possible socio-economic impacts related to the proposed mine and establishes the mechanism to work with communities close to the mine site to ensure an adaptive management approach to socio-economic performance of the mine.

“In signing this SEA, both parties are affirming their commitment to advancing this Project in a way that not only creates jobs for our residents, but that supports the health and wellness of the region,” said Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, David Ramsay. “This is a significant step forward in opening this mine, a project that will translate into economic opportunities for people throughout the North and South Slave Regions, and across the territory.”

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PRESS RELEASE: Barrick Provides Updates on Pascua-Lama Project

June 28, 2013

All amounts expressed in US dollars unless otherwise indicated

TORONTO — Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) (TSX:ABX) (Barrick or the “company”) is providing the following updates on the Pascua-Lama project in Chile and Argentina with respect to construction re-sequencing, capital expenditures and impairment testing.

Schedule Re-sequencing and Reduction of 2013-2014 Capital Spending

The company has submitted a plan, subject to review by Chilean regulatory authorities, to construct the project’s water management system in compliance with permit conditions for completion by the end of 2014, after which Barrick expects to complete remaining construction works in Chile, including pre-stripping. Under this scenario, ore from Chile is
expected to be available for processing by mid-2016.

In line with this timeframe, and in light of challenging market conditions and materially lower metal prices, the company intends to re-sequence construction of the process plant and other facilities in Argentina in order to target first production by mid-2016 (compared to the previous schedule of the second half of 2014).

Re-sequencing the project primarily entails a reduction in project staffing levels as construction is extended over a longer period of time to coincide with the availability of ore from Chile in mid-2016.

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