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Day: September 24, 2013

[Saskatchewan Premier] Wall silent on Cameco tax move – by Murray Mandryk (Regina Leader-Post – September 24, 2013)

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

It’s been six years since Brad Wall was elected Saskatchewan premier, but it was three years ago at this time when he cemented himself as a populist politician.

A proposed takeover of Potash-Corp by multinational South African-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton left Wall on the horns of dilemma: Should he subscribe to his philosophically conservative roots and simply allow the market/shareholders to sort this matter? Or should he act in the best interests of a province whose priority would be PotashCorp’s market share and, thus, royalties?

Compounding matters were BHP Billiton’s eagerness to excuse itself from the marketing cartel Canpotex, which controls offshore potash sales, versus the fact that BHP Billiton was in the early stages of developing what may be the province’s biggest potash mine and one of the first new mines to be built in 40 years.

By setting aside his philosophy and choosing to put the interests of Saskatchewan taxpayers first, Wall established himself as a populist leader voters could look to, to do the right thing … even if that meant sometimes going against his natural inclinations.

However, Wall’s future political and governance success will largely depend on his ability to demonstrate that this wasn’t just a one-off and – when the situation requires – that he is capable of taking on the corporate giants on behalf of the Saskatchewan citizenry.

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NEWS RELEASE: Development and Peace launches campaign calling for an ombudsman for responsible mining

MONTREAL, Sept. 23, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ – Development and Peace is launching a new campaign under the banner A Voice for Justice that is calling on the Government of Canada to establish an independent ombudsman for the Canadian extractive sector that can investigate complaints brought by communities overseas where companies operate.

Development and Peace is launching this campaign in response to reports from mine-affected communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America that are experiencing conflict, pollution, forced displacements and other negative impacts from the presence of Canadian mines.

“There is currently little or no recourse for communities that are facing violations of their rights,” says Michael Casey, Executive Director of Development and Peace. “The laws in their own countries are weak or not enforced. And the mines come at a very high price for these communities, as they are the ones who experience the impacts but gain little from the profits. Having an ombudsman would allow them have their concerns heard by an impartial body who can determine if any violations have taken place.”

Development and Peace has campaigned on this issue before, collecting half a million signatures in support of stronger accountability standards for the Canadian extractive sector, which includes nearly 75 per cent of the world’s mining and exploration companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges.

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PoV: $1-million fine should not be placed in general revenues – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – September 21, 2013)

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

Whatever happens to the $1,050,000 million fine levied against Vale Canada after the deaths of two Sudbury miners in June 2011, it should not go into the city’s general revenues.

That would be an abomination.

Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, died after they were struck by a run of muck that fell from an ore pass on the 3,000-foot level of the mine. Chenier had previously voiced concerns about excess water in the area, which may have loosened the rock.

The company faced nine charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and a supervisor faced six more. On Tuesday, the company pleaded guilty to three charges, admitting it “failed to take reasonable precaution in preventing the movement of material through an ore pass where hazardous conditions existed.” The remaining charges were dropped, as were the charges against the supervisor.

The fine, $350,000 on each count, plus a $250,000 victims surcharge, is believed to be the largest ever of its kind in Ontario. While the $250,000 will go to a provincial fund for victims of crime, the Labour ministry has indicated the $1,050,000 fine goes to the city, which plans to place the money in general revenues.

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Anglo American pulls out; is it because we’re crazy? – by Paul Jenkins (Anchorage Daily News – September 22, 2013)

http://www.adn.com/

British mining giant Anglo American’s abandoning the complicated, expensive and grindingly slow slog to develop the rich Pebble prospect in Southwest Alaska is understandable — but you have to wonder how it must appear to other businesses and industries considering investments in Alaska.

Anglo American, which poured more than $541 million into the Pebble effort, points to its deep backlog of projects waiting for development. It says it is looking at higher-value, lower-risk undertakings, planning to cut by a third the nearly $950 million it spends annually on keeping afloat pre-approval stage, complicated, from-scratch projects such as Pebble.

All that may be a dodge, a way of saying Anglo American could see the handwriting on the wall and grew weary of trying to win anything resembling a fair hearing for Pebble in Alaska. With the Environmental Protection Agency poised, if not panting, to block Pebble ostensibly to protect Bristol Bay salmon — based, mind you, on an assessment that could not even pass muster with its own peer review panel — the $300 billion project’s future must have seemed sketchy.

It is notable that Anglo American did not sell, likely because there were no takers in the current environmental and regulatory atmosphere. It simply folded its cards and opted to eat a $300 million post-tax penalty for pulling out.

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Boom towns could tax resources: municipalities – by Jeff Lee (Vancouver Sun/Canadian Press – September 19, 2013)

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

While the federal and B.C. governments are pushing hard to open up Canada’s liquefied natural gas reserves for export to Asia, local municipalities are raising concerns about the impacts the dramatically rapid developments will have on them.

Whether it is the pressure on local policing, health care and community resources that pop-up boom towns will have on neighbouring cities to the impact on infrastructure such as roads and sewers, municipalities in the northern half of B.C. are tepidly raising a caution flag at this week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention.

“We’re not saying we don’t want the economic investments. We do,” said Oliver Ray, executive director of the North Central Local Government Association. “But with investment in LNG will come some heavy pressures on our municipalities, and we’re worried about the impact that can have on us.”

A third of the association’s 30 resolutions to the UBCM deal with concerns over the impacts caused by rapid resource development. The association represents all local governments in the northern half of B.C., including more than 400,000 residents.

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The gold rush for commodities isn’t over yet, despite claims the super-cycle is dead – by Christopher Silvester (Spear’s.com – September 24 2013)

http://www.spearswms.com/

Demand from governments and private investors for gold and other commodities suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, the latest super-cycle has plenty of life left in it

WE’VE BEEN HERE before, haven’t we? Perhaps the clamour of Cassandra-like voices was not so great in 2011 when Spear’s previously wrote about the supposedly imminent demise of the commodities super-cycle, but it was nonetheless already a clamour. The past nine months or so have heard that clamour amplified several times over.

The Financial Times declared that the super-cycle was dead at the end of June, only to declare about ten days later that rumours of its death were greatly exaggerated. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that the broad consensus of analysts and investors has called the end of the super-cycle.

But super-cycles tend to die slowly. The first identifiable commodities super-cycle in modern times lasted from 1894 to 1932, peaking in 1917, according to academics Bilge Erten and José Antonio Ocampo. The second lasted from 1932 to 1971, peaking in 1951, and the third lasted from 1971 to 1999, peaking almost as soon as it began.

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Canadian uranium sector prepares for rising tide – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Uranium is back on the radar for many in the Canadian investment community. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive: effective September 2, the uranium oxide spot price stood at $34/lb, while short-term market sentiment remains muted.

But uranium marches to a different, longer-term beat. Bullish analysts and commentators highlight wider macro factors that will eventually act as key supports for output, spot prices and fixed-term supply contracts. Canada is poised to reap great rewards as the world’s second-largest producer of uranium, they argue.

However, others urge caution; long-term macro expectations have the nasty habit of falling flat, while the junior spectrum – so critical for broadening the pipeline of available projects – continues to suffer from strong economic headwinds. Then there is the question of the possible effect that Quebec’s moratorium on uranium exploration and exploitation may have.

Canada’s two main uranium producers are Cameco and Areva, and both have significant footprints in the prolific Athabasca basin region of northern Saskatchewan.

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Potash Shake-Up Takes Toll as Agrium Sees Drop in Sales – by Gerrit De Vynck (Bloomberg News – September 24, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Agrium Inc. is the latest North American potash producer to cut its sales forecast as the breakup of the world’s largest marketing bloc for the crop nutrient begins to take its toll.

Agrium, the third-largest North American producer, expects to sell 30 percent less potash in the third quarter and forecast a 64 percent drop in profit from its wholesale fertilizer division, the Calgary-based company said yesterday. U.S.-based Mosaic Co., the second-biggest producer, cut its sales forecast by about 20 percent on Sept. 16.

The two companies form an export group, Canpotex Ltd., with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., North America’s biggest producer. Potash Corp. won’t be spared the drop in demand, said Peter Prattas, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Toronto.

“They’re all going to hurt equally given the fact that they’re a collected group,” Prattas said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The potash market has been roiled since OAO Uralkali, the world’s largest producer, announced it had pulled out of an export sales venture with its Belarusian counterpart on July 30.

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Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on Yukon mining to affect entire country – by Ana Komnenic (Mining.com – September 23, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

Last week the Supreme Court of Canada decided that it would not challenge a Yukon court’s ruling that current land-staking practices defy the constitution. The final legal decision has the industry riled up as it assesses what this means for the mining sector. By the looks of it, the ruling could change the way miners operate across Canada.

The Supreme Court last week rejected an appeal by the Yukon government over a lower-court’s ruling that Class 1 mineral exploration programs must “consult with” and “accommodate” the Ross River Dena Council – a First Nation – before allowing exploration to take place. The provision will amend the Territory’s Quartz and Placer mining acts.

Most Canadian jurisdictions operate under a “free entry” system whereby companies can acquire exploration rights by ground-staking – a process which requires no advance government approval.

Last year the Yukon Court of Appeal ruled that “free entry was incompatible with the Crown’s duty to consult aboriginal people before making rights to Crown land available,” explains Barry Barton, an internationally recognized expert in mining law and author of Canadian Law of Mining.

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Sandvik’s Customer Day – From start to Finnish – by Cole Latimer (Mining Australia – September 24, 2013)

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/home

It’s not everyday that a new piece of equipment is launched. But when a company does, it’s unusual, even in these times of a downturn, not to do so without some fanfare. So when a company launches not one, but multiple pieces of equipment it has to make a serious statement.

This is exactly what Sandvik did following the release of not only two new drill rigs, but the world’s largest drifter, new underground drilling equipment, multiple new drilling threads and bits, and the latest developments in its automated and tele-remote mining systems.

It brought together more than 300 people from ten countries to demonstrate its new equipment in the flesh during its massive customer day. The group gathered at its Tampere facility in Finland to see the latest developments.

The facility itself was also on show, asthe visitors tramped across the site which Sandvik claims is the largest mining machinery manufacturing facility in Europe. As we crossed through the gates a little piece of Australiana welcomed the groups, a ‘beware of kangaroos’ sign, greeting visitors. Quickly the group was ushered in, where we were given a first hand demonstration of its AutoMine system.

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COLUMN-Commodity markets sceptical of China PMI boost – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 24, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – What does China’s factory sector growing at its strongest pace in six months have in common with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to keep buying bonds? Both failed to boost commodity prices much.

The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.2 in September from August’s 50.1, the highest level since March and strengthening the view that economic growth in the world’s largest commodity consumer is regaining momentum.

The PMI improvement came days after the Fed surprised market watchers by keeping its bond purchases at $85 billion a month, judging that it is still too early to taper monetary stimulus, given the nascent economic recovery in the United States.

Both developments should be positives for commodity prices, as both point to the likelihood of stronger growth in the next few months in the world’s two largest economies.

While the Fed decision did give a small boost to some commodity prices, it didn’t last, with London benchmark copper CMCU3 having given up more than half of the 2.1 percent rally on Sept. 19, the day after the Fed announcement.

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Ivanhoe Mines Discusses Deal With Chinese Gold Producer – by Alistair MacDonald (Wall Street Journal – September 24, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

China’s largest gold company has talked to Ivanhoe Mines about buying a stake in or operating a part of the Toronto-listed company.

China’s largest gold company, China National Gold Group Corp., has talked to Ivanhoe Mines about buying a stake in or operating a part of the company founded by flamboyant mining magnate Robert Friedland, two people familiar with the matter said.

It is unclear where talks stand, but, if completed, such an investment would mark another step into international markets for the Beijing-based miner and further Chinese investment in African mining. It could also entail Mr. Freidland’s taking on a major international partner not long after he lost control of a major mining company to London-listed giant, Rio Tinto PLC.

On Monday, Toronto-listed Ivanhoe said it is selling $100 million worth of stock at $2 a share, a sharp discount to Friday’s closing price of $2.56. The stock fell 11% as investors digested news of the dilution and analysts said that the total falls short of the money that Ivanhoe needs to raise.

In a release Ivanhoe said that it is in discussions with a number of international, private and state-owned mining companies about raising further funds through investments in its projects and the company.

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Denver Gold Forum Keynote Speaker Calls For ‘Honest Money’ Based On Gold – by Allen Sykora (Kitco News – September 23, 2013)

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Denver – The masses would never consider allowing the size of a kilogram to fluctuate, the founding editor of the New York Sun told the 2013 Denver Gold Forum on Monday. That’s because nobody would know whether they were getting the appropriate quantity of any product they might purchase in kilograms.

Yet, the U.S. dollar is allowed to “float” under a fiat currency system, with the end result that the value of the greenback has fallen sharply in the last half century, said veteran financial journalist Seth Lipsky. Such a move would have dismayed the founding fathers of the U.S., who clearly felt the dollar should be tied to precious metals, he said.

Lipsky gave a keynote speech titled “Mainstreaming the Gold Standard” at the 2013 Denver Gold Forum. He called on the U.S. to return to some kind of gold standard, and urged those attending the Gold Forum not to be shy about entering the political fray.

In an interview ahead of his speech with Kitco News, Lipsky described the New York Sun as an online newspaper standing for limited government, free enterprise, strong foreign policy and “sound and honest money,” carrying more editorials on the gold standard than any other newspaper in the U.S. A book, “It Shines For All,” includes many of the editorials from the Sun for a gold standard and was distributed to those attending the speech.

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NEWS RELEASE: NORONT ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF PRESIDENT AND CEO

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Sept. 24, 2013) – Noront Resources Ltd. (“Noront” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:NOT) the board of directors (“Board”) of Noront announced today that Alan Coutts has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company effective October 1, 2013.

Mr. Coutts is a mining executive with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of exploration, feasibility, construction and production of mineral deposits. He has worked both domestically and abroad in a variety of roles and across multiple commodities. Most recently, he was the Managing Director of Xstrata Nickel Australasia based in Perth, Australia. He was General Manager at the Brunswick Mine, Canada before relocating to Australia. Previous to that, Mr. Coutts occupied roles that included General Manager, Manager of Mining, Chief Geologist and Regional Exploration Manager, mostly with Falconbridge. Mr. Coutts holds an Honours degree in Geology from the University of Alberta and has Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo) status in the province of Ontario.

In announcing the appointment, the Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of Noront, Paul Parisotto, stated “We believe we have found in Alan a Chief Executive Officer who has a wealth of operating experience as well as managerial and strategic talent. He has developed and operated mines in remote regions world-wide, working closely with local stakeholders and governments to ensure positive outcomes. We are confident that Alan will be able to apply his skills to further the development and progression of Noront’s Ring of Fire properties”.

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Province won’t get involved in Stobie Mine deaths – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – September 24, 2013)

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

Despite demands from the Ontario Federation of Labour, unions and others, the provincial government has no plans to reopen a criminal investigation into the deaths of two Sudbury miners in 2011.

The federation, which represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario, has reacted angrily to $1 million fined levied against Vale in a Sudbury courtroom last for the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram on June 8, 2011.

It called on Attorney General John Gerretsen to press the Crown to lay charges and demanded that Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur use her powers under the Police Services Act of Ontario to impose province-wide directives and guidelines requiring criminal investigations of every workplace tragedy to determine whether employer negligence was at fault.

Greater Sudbury Police investigated Fram’s and Chenier’s deaths, but determined no criminal charges were warranted. And in an email statement to The Star, Meilleur gave no indication the provincial government plans to intervene. “This is a tragic incident and my thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased,” she said.

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