Mining industry needs to look in the mirror, says Cutifani – by Allan Seccombe (South Africa Business Day – August 27, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

THE entire South African mining industry needs to “look in a mirror” and take accountability for the sector, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani said at the Mining Lekgotla on Monday.

Mr Cutifani, who is also president of the Chamber of Mines, said the mining sector had faced a “tumultuous” year in 2012 and it remained the industry’s intention to “face with brutal honesty” what needed to be done to improve situations that had led to the unsettled sector.

“The Marikana tragedy was a stark reminder that we as an industry need to do more,” Mr Cutifani said at the second Mining Lekgotla, which draws together participants from labour, the government and the mining sector, as well as community and youth representatives.

The mining companies had looked in the mirror and taken full accountability for the state of the industry, Mr Cutifani said. “We ask our partners to also look in the mirror,” he said. “It remains our absolute intention to address the issues we have faced with brutal honesty and as a sector confronted with myriad challenges, we need to chart a path towards future growth and prosperity.

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NEWS RELEASE: Teachers benefit from their time in mining classrooms

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.

Forty six educators expanded their mineral industry knowledge through active participation in an enhanced Teachers Mining Tour. This was the fourth year for this program and the first year the week-long program had been held twice to help accommodate increased demand for the course.

Elementary and secondary school science and social studies teachers from across Ontario and parts of Quebec were exposed to all facets of mining from exploration and geology through to production and mine site reclamation and environmental activities. Twenty four teachers were in the first workshop from July 29 to August 2 and 22 teachers were in the second program from August 19 to 23, 2013. The base camp for the programs was the Canadian Ecology Centre, near Mattawa.

“The schedule is jam packed with classroom time, site visits and presentations,” said Lesley Hymers, Ontario Mining Association Environment and Education Specialist. “The teachers are a dedicated group of educators who have donated a portion of their summer holidays to gain a first-hand glimpse of one of Ontario’s most important industries and a better understanding of the broad range of career opportunities mining offers.”

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Fracking misinformation on tap – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 27, 2013)

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

There are no examples of chasms, or even cracks, opening as a result of fracking

From Binghamton, New York to the village of Balcombe in England’s rural West Sussex, holding up fracking has joined halting the oil sands as the great cause for anti-development radicals and their celebrity supporters.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water with a tiny proportion of chemicals under high pressure into deep subterranean shale formations to release natural gas.

Last Friday, when President Obama gave a speech in Binghamton, protestors and supporters of fracking jousted outside. In recent weeks, there has been an even mightier ruckus at Balcombe over drilling by a company called Quadrilla, whose activities were brought to a halt by up to 1,200 protestors. The stand-off ended last week after hundreds of police were brought in.

In fact, President Obama has embraced the shale gas boom, but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been hemming and hawing on state approval, concerned both about the power of environmental NGOs and the good opinion of anti-frackistas such as Yoko Ono and Lady Gaga. Nevertheless, the shale gas train has left the station in the U.S., which is the reason why radicals are keen to pull the wheels off before the industry can establish itself in Europe.

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Uralkali CEO’s ‘bizarre’ arrest in Belarus will heighten potash tensions, analysts say – by Peter Koven (August 27, 2013)

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

TORONTO – The potash industry has become engulfed in political intrigue, as a Russian executive at the centre of a cartel-busting plan has been detained by the autocratic government he used to do business with.

OAO Uralkali confirmed on Monday that CEO Vladislav Baumgertner was detained by authorities in Belarus. He is accused of abuse of power, according to reports. The timing is not coincidental.

Just three weeks ago, Uralkali threw the potash market into chaos by dismantling Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), a cartel-like marketing company controlled by Uralkali and Belaruskali, its state-owned Belarusian counterpart. Uralkali vowed to end its practice of withholding production to prop up prices, prompting speculation that potash prices will fall dramatically. They are already under pressure.

Belarus is very unhappy with this development, but industry experts suggested that this arrest will only push the two sides further apart. It is the most dramatic political intervention in the potash business since Canada rejected the takeover bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. in 2010. “It is certainly a bizarre development. You’ve got to think Russia and [President] Vladimir Putin will respond,” said Joel Jackson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

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Honourable Joe Oliver: Minister of Natural Resources Canada – Speech at the 2013 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference (August 26, 2013 – Yellowknife, Northwest Territories)

This speech was given by the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, at the 2013 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories on August 16, 2013.

Thank you Minister Ramsay, and good afternoon everyone. Thank you Premier McLeod and the people of Yellowknife for your hospitality and welcome. It’s wonderful for me to be back. “Spectacular” is an apt description of the Northwest Territories – and this city – and I am delighted that we are here for our important meetings.

Let me take this opportunity to recognize the great work of Premier McLeod’s government in developing a land use and sustainability framework that will guide planning in the Territories. I am pleased that my Department, Natural Resources Canada, was able to contribute to this initiative.

Le Nord est un élément fondamental du patrimoine, de l’identité et de l’avenir du Canada. En effet, le Nord s’avère l’endroit idéal pour tenir nos discussions en raison de tout ce qui entoure ses possibilités de développement économique et pour l’importance qu’on y accorde au respect de l’environnement.

The North is fundamental to Canada’s heritage, identity and future. Indeed, the North is the perfect setting for our discussions because of its history in both pursuing economic opportunity and respecting the environment. And its people know more than most about taking the long view. Honouring and preserving their inheritance. And building a vibrant economy for their children and grandchildren.

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I’ll be back – juniors, exploration trends, and a major change – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – August 27, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

MinEx’s Richard Schodde discusses the changes to global exploration trends seen over the last few years and why he is not quite as pessimistic as some about the future.

HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) – In this two part series Kip Keen unpacks the trends developing within the exploration sector, with the people that know it intimately.

This is not a tonic for those sick to the stomach as they contemplate the state of exploration spending and discovery trends. But then neither is it poison, exploration hemlock, taking you on the path to oblivion. It’s an interview with Richard Schodde, an academic and the owner of MinEx Consulting. He thinks and presents on exploration trends and recently produced a wide ranging synthesis on the exploration sector in a presentation entitled, “Long Term Outlook for the Global Exploration Industry ‘Gloom or Boom.’” (Outside link to presentation here; and full acknowledgement to the blog incakolanews.com for inspiration.)

Lots will strike you in the presentation. Some of it we show you here: Like China’s expenditures booming from almost next-to-nothing to 14% in the past decade. Or global exploration expenditures reaching near $30 billion in 2012, far up from under $5 billion back during hell days in the early 2000s. And – spoiler alert – Schodde doesn’t see them going back there either.

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Students funded in memory of Sudbury labour icon Homer Seguin – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 27, 2013)

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

A day doesn’t go by that Dan Seguin doesn’t think of his father, Homer Seguin, and the work he did over several decades to improve the health and safety of workers on the job.

Two students at the Centre in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) at Laurentian University will carry on the work of the elder Seguin, in part with bursaries funded by donations pledged after Homer Seguin died April 26.

Seguin, 79, died after years of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and eventually lung cancer, partly due to his early days working in Inco’s storied — and deadly — sintering plant.

During his last days spent at Ramsey Lake Health Centre, Seguin expressed his desire for a new generation to carry on the work that was his passion for 60 years.

His son and four daughters heard that message and asked for donations when their father died, and they will fund bursaries to two students this fall. Dan Seguin, who works in management for Vale, said he and his family are very proud of all their father did “for workers, and the safety and health of people.

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Ex-Im loan request pits Caterpillar against iron ore miners – by John Myers (Prairie Business – August 26, 2013)

http://www.prairiebizmag.com/

DULUTH, Minn. — It’s not that Minnesota’s congressional delegation doesn’t like Australia, mate. But the idea of a U.S. government bank loaning money to an Australian iron ore mine that will compete with Minnesota taconite?

That’s what they don’t like.

U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, all Minnesota Democrats, are on record opposing a plan in front of the U.S. Export-Import Bank to invest in equipment for the giant Roy Hill iron mine in Australia’s northwestern Outback.

The Export-Import Bank is considering a request for $650 million in long-term financing to aid the export of $522 million of U.S.-made mining equipment to mine and process ore at Roy Hill. The rest of the money could be going to install the U.S. equipment on site at the mine.

Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources, with four mines in Minnesota and Michigan, has led the charge to stop the loan, saying it threatens U.S. mining jobs and, with new Asian steel produced from Australian ore, eventually threatens U.S. steel industry jobs.

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CEMI in running for $10 million research grant – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – August 2013)

This article was originally published in the August 2013 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

The Centre for Excellence in Mining I n n o v a t i o n (CEMI) is one of seven finalists vying for four $10 million research grants from the federal government’s Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence program.

The program funds large-scale collaborative research networks that bring a wide range of research expertise to bear on specific challenges identified by industry. CEMI’s proposal is for an Ultra Deep Mining Network that will address challenges impacting resource extraction at depth.

More than 120 applications were whittled down to 54 in the first round of cuts, and then to seven. Matching funds from industry will provide CEMI with $20 million for the proposed four-or five-year research program.

“There are only two places you can go for a new mine,” said CEMI president Doug Morrison. “You can go to a remote location like the Ring of Fire (in northwestern Ontario), or you can go deep. Unfortunately, when you get down to around 2.5 kilometres, the heat and the logistical problems become very significant, so we see a need for changing the way we do things.”

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Attawapiskat election under shadow of controversy – by Teresa Smith (Ottawa Citizen – August 26, 2013)

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

Off-reserve members unable to cast ballots unless they make long, expensive trip north

OTTAWA — With band council elections for the Attawapiskat First Nation set for Tuesday, some off-reserve members are still hoping the chief and council will postpone the vote to deal with widespread concerns the band’s electoral process is unfair.

The current band council and Chief Theresa Spence, who gained national attention for fasting on Victoria Island during the height of the Idle No More protests, are requiring ballots to be cast in person on the reserve Tuesday, making it difficult for band members who live outside the remote northern Cree community to have a say in Attawapiskat’s leadership. Of the First Nation’s 3,351 members, just 1,862 live on the reserve, according to July 2013 numbers from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

“I can’t afford to go all the way there,” said Jocelyn Iahtail, who lives in Ottawa with her daughter. She left the reserve so her son could get the constant medical care he needs for a traumatic brain injury suffered during surgery. “They, of all people, should understand poverty and make it possible for off-reserve members to have a voice.”

On Monday, a return flight from Timmins to Attawapiskat was selling for $1,200. A return from Ottawa was more than $2,000.

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