NEWS RELEASE: IMII, Mitacs and U of S Partner to Lead Minerals Industry Innovation in Canada

SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN–(Marketwired – April 11, 2014) – Saskatchewan’s International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII), the national research and training organization Mitacs, and University of Saskatchewan are partnering on a novel research and training initiative through an investment valued at more than $600,000.

The Mitacs Industry Executive in Residence-Minerals (MIER-Minerals) will identify and create new research initiatives that will lead to innovation in the minerals sector, strengthening companies and enhancing Canada’s economy.

The MIER-Minerals is the first of several such positions Mitacs will support nationally across various industry sectors. The goal is to support innovation, research and training to enhance the global competitiveness of these industries and encourage collaboration between companies and universities across Canada.

Engin Özberk, IMII Executive Director and Senior Technical Advisor, will assume the role of the MIER-Minerals at the U of S.

“With more than 40 years of experience and national leadership in the minerals research and innovation sector and strong relationships with Saskatchewan’s leading potash, uranium and other minerals companies, Özberk is ideally positioned to catalyze industry-researcher collaborations for a world-class minerals industry,” said Karen Chad, U of S Vice-President Research.

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UPDATE 4-Osisko takeover battle heats up as Goldcorp raises offer – by Allison Martell and Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – April 10, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

Osisko Mining Corp on Thursday, squeaking above a white knight bid by Yamana Gold Inc and heightening a bidding war that has helped inject life into a depressed gold mining sector.

Vancouver-based Goldcorp, the world’s second-biggest gold miner by market value, said early on Thursday it increased its offer for Osisko by some 38 percent to about C$3.6 billion ($3.3 billion), or C$7.65 a share.

Osisko is a smaller Canadian gold miner with one producing mine, Canadian Malartic in Quebec. The mine is an attractive asset as it is large and low-cost and located in a stable political jurisdiction.

Goldcorp shares fell nearly 4 percent following the news, reducing the value of its cash-and-stock bid to around C$7.47 a share. Still, the offer remained around 4 percent higher than Yamana’s cash-and-shares offer, based on analysts’ estimates.

Yamana, another Canadian gold miner, launched a complex offer for 50 percent of Osisko’s assets last week. It said at the time that its offer was valued at C$7.60 a share although analysts have pegged it lower than that. Some Osisko shareholders said the new Goldcorp bid was no blockbuster.

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Women in SA fare best at top level of mining companies – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day Live – April 11, 2014)

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

WOMEN are better represented in executive management and board committees in the biggest South African mining companies than in any other country’s mining companies, according to a PwC survey released on Thursday.

Women made up 23.8%, or almost a quarter, of executive management among South African mining companies in the world’s top 100, compared with the next-highest country, Canada at 14.8%. South Africa had the highest proportion of women on board committees in the top 500 mining companies, at 21.3%, showing they are actively involved. The US was next highest at 8.7%.

It is a positive indicator for an industry that is still criticised by the government and unions for failing to make much progress in changing its apartheid legacy.

The Mining Charter, which mining companies must meet to acquire and retain mining licences, requires that 10% of employees be women this year.

PwC director for human resources services in Southern Africa Gerald Seegers said the enforcement of the charter was probably the main reason South Africa was ahead in this respect.

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Stornoway lands $944M financing agreement to build Renard diamond mine – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – April 10, 2014)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

Stornoway Diamond (TSX: SWY) has lined up a $944-million financing deal to build its Renard diamond mine in Quebec. The binding agreement signed with three parties constitutes the largest ever project financing package for a publicly listed diamond company.

The complex deal involves debt, equity and streaming components, and involves funding from the Quebec government, a private equity firm, an institutional fund, and an equipment manufacturer. The company expects to start construction in June, plant commissioning in the third quarter of 2016, and commercial production in the second quarter of 2017.

Private equity firm Orion Co-Investments will provide US$360 million (C$396 million): US$110-million in equity financing; US$200 million for a 16% streaming interest; and US$50 million in a 7-year, unsecured convertible loan with an interest rate of 6.25%.

Resources Quebec, a subsidiary of provincial agency Investissement Québec, will provide $220 million: $100 million in equity financing; $100 million in a 10-year senior secured loan at an interest rate of prime plus 4.75%; and another $20 million in a senior secured loan for credit overrun facilities.

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Holcim-Lafarge cement mega-merger to be felt in Canada – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – April 8, 2014)

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

MONTREAL – Holcim Ltd. and Lafarge SA confirmed they will merge to form the world’s biggest cement maker in a deal with significant market concentration implications in Canada and other countries.

The two companies are already among the world’s largest suppliers of cement, crushed stone and sand and gravel. In combining into a new producer with annual revenue of US$40-billion, management of the two companies believe they will be required to sell assets representing about 18% of that revenue to satisfy competition regulators.

In Canada, Lafarge and Holcim together employ about 9,000 people and hold about half of the cement market, according to a 2008 estimate published by the Cement Association of Canada. The industry is centered in Ontario and Quebec.

Rivals such as Bolton, Ont.-based James Dick Construction Ltd. said they were surprised by the announcement, but added it could create an opportunity to grow their own businesses by buying what Lafarge and Holcim are forced to discard. Dick specializes in so-called aggregates, which are granular construction materials such as gravel and sand.

“I don’t think it’s bad news. It’ll open it up a bit for us,” company president Jim Dick said Monday. “We would expand if it makes sense.”

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Conflict Minerals in the DRC: Why Western Legislation Isn’t the Only Answer – by Marie Lamensch (Open Canada.org – April 10, 2014)

http://opencanada.org/

At a recent conference titled, “A Conflict of Interests: Canadian Mining in the Congo” organized by STAND McGill, the most debated topic of the day was the role and impact of U.S. and Canadian legislation in curbing violence caused by so-called conflict minerals in the Great Lakes Region of sub-Saharan Africa. These sentiments beg the questions of whether national legislation is actually having an effect on Congolese people or whether it is simply making companies and consumers feel better about their behaviour.

One common misconception about the cycle of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is that it is caused, in part at least, by conflict minerals. However, it is important to understand that the illegal exploitation minerals is an effect of the war. This misunderstanding about the roots of long-standing conflict threatens to lead to flawed responses as to whether action in the United States or Canada can affect the situation on the ground.
So let’s start with the basics.

What has been coined by French historian Gerard Prunier as “Africa’s World War” finds its roots in two successive wars—not to mention its colonial past as a particularly brutal example of heavy-handed Belgian colonialism. In 1996, Rwanda invaded the eastern DRC to oppose extremist Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide who had fled there. Aided by Rwanda, Congolese rebels led by Laurent Kabila took the opportunity to end the reign of Joseph Mobutu—who had been in power since 1965.

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BHP polishes up nickel unit as demerger talk swirls – by James Regan (Reuters India – April 11, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, April 11 (Reuters) – Breakthroughs in the way BHP Billiton processes nickel ores could help the world’s biggest miner find a buyer for its ailing Nickel West division in Australia.

Nickel West is among businesses that also include aluminium and manganese which BHP has grouped into a single division set aside in 2012 for underperforming assets deemed non-core to its portfolio. BHP has said it is actively studying the “next phase of simplification” of the company but declined to comment on media reports that senior executives favoured a demerger.

Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie has said BHP will focus on its large iron ore, copper, coal and petroleum businesses, while selling off smaller, less profitable operations. Macquarie Bank last month in a research note put a value of $4.6 billion on the nickel assets.

Improvements in the way BHP mines nickel together with better market dynamics and exploration successes could save Nickel West from closure.

A programme at Nickel West to extract full value from ore that would otherwise be uneconomic to treat due to high contents of talc is opening up more of BHP’s rich Mount Keith and Yakabindie deposits in Western Australia for mining, enhancing the potential appeal to outside investors.

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Platinum strike could be godsend for South African pgm miners – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – April 11, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

South Africa’s platinum strike could be a blessing in disguise for mining companies making the case for closures of unprofitable operations.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – One doesn’t have to be too much of a cynic to feel that the 11 week platinum miners strike primarily affecting the underground mines around Rustenburg may prove to be be a long term positive game changer for the main platinum mining companies – and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) in particular. The world’s largest platinum miner was already struggling with the profitability of its highly labour intensive Rustenburg area platinum mines and had already proposed a mine and shaft closure programme to try and rationalise its operations and bring them into decent profitability.

Indeed its proposals of a little over a year ago involved the potential rationalisation of its Rustenburg operations into three mines – Thembelani, Siphumelele and Bathopele which between them have five shaft systems primarily working the narrow highish grade Merensky reef systems.

This would mean putting two more mines – Khuseleka and Khomanani – with four shaft systems, on long term care and maintenance with the possible loss of up to 14,000 jobs, although the company said it would have hoped to replace most of these over time with initiatives to generate new non-mining business opportunities in the area.

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Goldcorp Inc hikes hostile bid by $1-billion, but Osisko Mining Corp. still favours Yamana – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 11, 2014)

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

TORONTO – The shareholders of Osisko Mining Corp. face a tricky choice: take the clean takeover bid and walk away, or take a more complex deal with a disputed value that management firmly believes is better.

Goldcorp Inc. hiked its hostile bid for Montreal-based Osisko on Thursday to $3.6-billion, or $7.65 a share in cash and stock. The dollar value is roughly $1-billion more than Goldcorp offered in January, when its own share price was significantly lower.

That bid is going up against the multi-faceted transaction Osisko unveiled last week with Yamana Gold Inc., in which Yamana will buy 50% of Osisko’s assets and Osisko will receive funding from two pension funds. The result is that Osisko would distribute about $1-billion to shareholders while continuing to operate its flagship Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec.

To determine which offer is better, investors must decide what they think the new Osisko would be worth after the Yamana transaction. And that is a source of considerable debate. When Osisko announced the deal with Yamana, it assumed a valuation for the new Osisko (“Osisko 2” or “O2”) of $3.35 a share. That gave the whole transaction a value of $7.60 a share, which is very close to Goldcorp’s bid.

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Exploration suffers as copper miners axe costs, cut debt – by Susan Thomas (Reuters U.S. – April 10, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO- (Reuters) – A weak copper price and tighter financing are forcing mining companies to cut or stall spending on exploring to their lowest levels in four years as they focus instead on axing costs and reducing debt.

Executives who gathered in the Chilean city of Santiago this week acknowledged tougher environmental standards, labor strikes, community resistance and resource nationalism were also making exploration more challenging.

Over the last year to 18 months mining companies have been buckling to shareholder pressure and cost cutting, Vanessa Davidson, consultancy CRU’s copper group manager told the CESCO/CRU copper conference in Santiago.

She said this has included head count reductions and cutting or stalling exploration spending; a trend that is likely to continue.

“We are just seriously focusing on using capital effectively, so exploration would come under the spotlight as well,” Anglo American copper business Chief Executive Officer Hennie Faul told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual CESCO/CRU copper conference in Santiago. “We believe in the fundamentals of copper, but we don’t foresee ourselves expanding our exploration for now.”

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German coal industry underpins renewable push – by Richard Anderson (BBC News – April 9, 2014)

http://www.bbc.com/news/

Germany is an enlightened leader in the global battle to reduce CO2 emissions, a pioneer in renewable energy and community power projects and a champion of energy efficiency. Or so the common narrative goes.

But try telling that to Monika Schulz-Hopfner. She and her husband, along with 250 other residents of Atterwasch, a quiet village near the Polish border, face eviction from their home of 30 years to make way for the Janschwalde-Nord coal mine.

And not just any old coal, but lignite, the dirtiest form of this ancient fossil fuel that is mined in vast opencast pits. If the plans go ahead, the village, parts of which date back more than 700 years, will be demolished.

“Since the plans for the mine were unveiled in 2007, we have lived with this constant threat, which has taken over the lives of every individual and the community as a whole,” says Mrs Schulz-Hopfner. “Every single decision we make is affected by it.” And the residents of Atterwasch are not alone.

In the eastern German region of Lausitz, nine villages are under threat, where up to 3,000 people could lose their homes to make way for five new lignite mines that are fuelling the country’s renewed thirst for coal. Two further mines are under consideration.

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Brian Mulroney’s green gall – by Peter Foster (National Post – April 11, 2014)

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

The former PM’s speech featured a lack of historical context, presumably because it would have been too embarrassing

Brian Mulroney’s speech earlier this week to Canada 2020 – a “progressive” group of PR/government advisory types who pretend to chart the country’s future – presumably involved walking a fine pipeline. Progressives tend not to be great fans of Canada as an “energy superpower,” and no fans at all of Stephen Harper, that notion’s main proponent.

However, energy superpower-dom was essentially what Mr. Mulroney was promoting, so he leavened his recommendations with an attack on Mr. Harper’s leadership on energy and climate issues.

I’m not sure how far that spoonful of vitriol helped the medicine go down, but Mr. Mulroney’s speech, while it contained a great deal of obvious good sense and some inevitable blarney, also featured a lack of historical context, presumably because it would have been too embarrassing.

Mr. Mulroney suggested that Canada lacked a “coherent plan” to harness its vast resources, but shouldn’t the man who dismantled the National Energy Program be a little more skeptical about grand strategies?

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NEWS RELEASE: OMA film competition People’s Choice Award voting is now open

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.

Now is your chance to stand up and be counted for your taste in artistic integrity. The voting for the People’s Choice Award in the Ontario Mining Association’s high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining is now open and runs until May 31, 2014. Why not cast a vote to support the film production of your choice?

In order to view the videos and make your choice, go to the OMA website at www.oma.on.ca. Click on the SYTYKM box at the bottom of the page, then People’s Choice Award and follow the instructions. Voting is done through Facebook. The winner of the People’s Choice Award earns a $2,500 prize.

In past years, students have found many creative ways to attract People’s Choice Awards votes for their productions. Contestants have used Facebook pages to promote their videos and many have contacted local media for a story. We have also seen SYTYKM contestants wearing sandwich boards at busy intersections and launching bring out the vote campaigns at their high schools.

The number of people voting for the SYTYKM People’s Choice Award has been steadily increasing. Sara Johns from Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton gained 491 out of 1,807 votes cast for her film Don’t Mind If I Do and won this SYTYKM award category in its inaugural year.

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