January 12, 2015 – Republic of Mining

Obituary for John Patrick Sheridan (Toronto, Canada)

January 14, 2015January 12, 2015

Toronto – John Patrick Sheridan passed away on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at Sunnybrook Hospital after a lengthy battle.

He leaves behind his wife of 57 years Marjorie (Gilchrist), 81; his three sons, Michael (and his wife Grace), Patrick (and his wife Christa), David (and his wife Jeanine), and his daughter Susan (and her husband Nicholas): seven grandchildren Ryan, Sydney, Taylor, Cole, Seumas, Charlie and Humboldt.

He was born and raised in West Toronto to Susan Alberta and Charles Edward Sheridan with his two sisters, Marjorie and Mary (predeceased).

In his early days he played basketball and football at Runnymede Collegiate class of 1951. He spoke often of taking the street car to High Park to go fishing. Upon graduation from high school, he joined the 411 Fighter Squadron of the RCAF reserve program in 1952 to pay for his studies at U of T in Geophysical Engineering (class of 1955). He remained in the RCAF reserves until 1959 during which time he made many of his closest friends.

He met his wife, Marjorie, on a blind date in Toronto and they were married in 1958 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. They had four children and lived in North Toronto.

He has been described as a “maverick” in the mining business, having staked mining claims all over Northern Ontario and Quebec in the 1950s.

Media Release: David Robinson Wants to Create Jobs by Making Sudbury a Centre for Mining Excellence

January 12, 2015

Green Party Candidate Dr. David Robinson will continue pushing to make Sudbury Ontario’s global centre for mining excellence.

WireService.ca Media Release (01/12/2015) Sudbury, ON – “I will advocate for local job creation by pushing to consolidate mining research and innovation in Sudbury,” says Robinson. “The Liberals have scattered Ontario’s mining assets all over with no real plan. My plan helps everyone in the mining sector by building on Sudbury’s mining supply cluster to create a global centre for mining research, innovation and best practices.”

Robinson’s strategy includes consolidating public sector research in Sudbury. This will attract more mining supply companies and increase investment and job creation in the mining sector. Robinson’s plan will also provide the expertise needed to support new projects such as the Ring of Fire with cutting edge innovation and sustainable practices.

“The three old parties have no vision for how the Ring of Fire can establish Ontario as a centre for excellence in sustainable and innovative mining practices,” says Robinson. “Sudbury is the obvious choice to be the centre for mining research and supply.”

Robinson’s plan also includes research and development to cut energy costs for mining. By utilizing underground waste heat, for example, mining companies could reduce their energy costs and even save millions in energy costs for businesses and households in Sudbury.

[Sudbury region] Transportation pioneer recognized for industry achievements – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – January 12, 2015)

May 4, 2015January 12, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

In the Smith family, the “r” word is verboten. Patriarch Doug Smith, founder of Manitoulin Transport, is in his 80s, but retirement is nowhere near his radar. After devoting 54 years to building the company up from scratch, Smith maintains the same values and customs that have guided him through more than a half-century of success: modesty, hard work, attention to detail, and a nap every afternoon.

“To this day, his administrative assistant is required to sharpen about a half a dozen number 6 pencils each morning to be at the ready,” said his son, Jeff Smith, describing his father’s daily routine. “His other secret weapon is a bag of Oreos.”

For his contributions to the mining sector through his innovative solutions in the trucking industry, Doug Smith was inducted into the Sudbury and Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA) Hall of Fame on Dec. 4, along with the late Paul Marcotte, founder of Marcotte Mining.

Born in Gore Bay in 1933, Doug has remained a humble, hardworking Northerner, never straying far from his roots. After a brief stint in Toronto working in banking following high school, Doug returned to his hometown to help with the family business, Smith’s Wholesale, which serviced general stores, grocery stores and service stations across Manitoulin Island.

PRESS RELEASE: First Nickel Restructures the Lockerby Mine, Reducing Costs and Ensuring Continued Economic Viability

January 12, 2015

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jan 12, 2015 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — First Nickel Inc. (“First Nickel”, “FNI” or the “Company”) (FNI) has announced that the Lockerby nickel/copper mine, located in the Sudbury basin in Ontario, is being restructured in order to reduce costs, increase exploration and extend mine life.

Background

The Lockerby Mine Project Technical Report dated August 2, 2012, available on SEDAR.com, envisaged mining from the 6,500-foot level to the 7,000-foot level. In 2013, the Company disclosed that, as a result of low nickel prices, ramp development below the 6800 level would be suspended. The Company has also said that if a decision was not made to restart ramp development, Lockerby would cease mining operations in 2015.

In December 2014, the Company concluded that, unless costs could be substantially reduced, developing the mine below the 6800 level would be uneconomic based on the current cost structure.

Thomas M. Boehlert, President & Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The employees at Lockerby have done a remarkable job in recent months to improve performance at the mine, with nickel production in the second half of 2014 improving significantly compared to the first half. However, the combination of persistently low nickel prices and our underlying cost structure has had a negative impact on our ability to generate the funds required to continue development of the mine.”

SA-led titans display urge to merge – by Tina Weavind (Business Day Live – January 11, 2015)

January 12, 2015

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

HUNDREDS of billions of dollars will change hands this year if rumours of a spate of megamergers prove to be true. Some of the biggest predicted tie-ups are Glencore and Rio Tinto, SABMiller and its larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, and, further afield, oil giants Shell and BP.

The “GlenTinto” scenario has been around for a few years, but in October, Glencore announced it had finally made the call — and the idea had been rejected. The Swiss-based commodities conglomerate is run by South African Ivan Glasenberg, who owns 8.3% of its shares. Glencore took out a secondary listing on the JSE in 2013.

The company produces and trades about 90 products with a serious stake in agriculture and minerals. But its gaping hole is iron ore, which is Rio’s major cash cow. Glasenberg wants to fill the gap — and he is known for getting what he wants, as those who recall his relentless pursuit of Xstrata will attest.

Although he has been spurned at this point, speculation is that he has approached Rio Tinto’s biggest shareholder, Chinalco (the Aluminium Corporation of China), which has a 9.8% stake. The tie-up would create by far the biggest company in the industry, worth about $150-billion. To put that in context, consider that Anglo American’s market cap stands at about $26-billion.

One potential benefit of the deal would be the estimated cost-saving synergies of about $20-billion.

Don’t wait for Captain Wynne to save Canada – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2015)

January 12, 2015

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.

“A sliding currency can provide a sugar high and Ontario will be feeling its
effects in 2015. That’s welcome news for a hardpressed province. But without
fixing the fundamentals to make Ontario’s economy durably competitive, Captain
Kath can’t save us for long.” (Konrad Yakabuski)

It’s a tale worthy of Marvel. Just as the oil-slathered edifice of the Canadian economy tilts dangerously toward collapse, our superfit superheroine races in her Reeboks to the rescue. With her sidekicks Cheap Gas and Weak Loonie, Captain Kathleen Wynne vows to save the country.

“Ontario’s economy can be a buffer,” says the Premier of Canada’s once-dominant province. “We have a diverse economy and it can be a buffer, in a time like this, against some of that volatility.”

For a decade, Captain Kathleen’s peaceable kingdom had been so pummelled by a soaring petrodollar that it was humbled into taking equalization handouts. But no hard feelings, Alberta. Your pain is Ontario’s gain and Captain Kath is Canada’s new economic superhero.

But can her province really save us? Ontario may lead the country in economic growth this year. But it can’t match the beef-fed growth that Alberta produced for a decade and which ensured that Canada survived a global recession with a few bloody scratches instead of in traction.

Zambia pressed to reverse mining royalty hike – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2015)

January 12, 2015

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.

JOHANNESBURG — Zambia’s government is under mounting pressure to reverse a royalty hike that could trigger thousands of layoffs at a copper mine owned by Barrick Gold Corp., but a rollback is unlikely until after an election this month, analysts say.

Trade unions, business groups and opposition politicians are pressing for a reversal of the sharp increase in the royalty rate on open-pit mining in Zambia. At least 12,000 jobs are in jeopardy across the mining sector in Africa’s second-biggest copper-producing nation, according to the Chamber of Miles of Zambia.

“It has created a lot of anxiety among Zambian workers,” said Nevers Mumba, one of the three leading presidential candidates in the Jan. 20 election. “Other investors could pull out of Zambia,” he said in an interview.

“There’s a risk of a run in that sector. I’m concerned about the ripple effect – it could have a terrible impact.” Under the new tax regime, which took effect on Jan. 1, the royalty on open-pit mining has tripled to 20 per cent, compared to the previous rate of 6 per cent.

Barrick and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. are among the Canadian mining companies that will be heavily affected by Zambia’s higher royalty rates. Barrick and First Quantum are two of the biggest foreign investors and private employers in Zambia.

Rio Tinto to spend at least $500 million to advance diamond project in India – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 12, 2015)

January 12, 2015

http://www.mining.com/

Mining giant Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) plans to invest $500 million in its Bunder diamond mining project in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the firm boss Sam Walsh said Monday.

Speaking to reporters Walsh added the company is awaiting environmental clearances from Indian authorities to start mining, but didn’t say how soon he expected to receive such permits, Reuters reports.

Rio found the massive deposit in rural India, the most important diamond discovery in the country in the last 40 years, back in 2004. But it wasn’t until 2012 that it got an initial approval to develop the mining project, which is now just waiting for environment and forests clearances.

Rio Tinto Diamonds managing director Jean-Marc Lieberherr said last month the firm wanted to be the main player in the industry in India, driving the sector’s growth in years to come. The touted project is expected to generate about 30,000 jobs and produce up to three million carats a year, Rio has said.

China’s Virtue Dragon to Invest $5b in SE Sulawesi Ferronickel Smelter – by Ridho Syukra (Jakarta Globe – January 12, 2015)

January 12, 2015

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/

Jakarta. A Chinese ferronickel producer, Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry, plans to invest up to $5 billion in Konawe industrial estate in Southeast Sulawesi province to build a nickel smelter and supporting infrastructure including a power plant and a port, its president director said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters at the Industry Ministry’s headquarters in Jakarta, Andrew Zhu, president director of the Chinese company, said the smelter is set to occupy a total of 500 hectares.

Zhu elaborated that the smelter development would involve three phases. First, it will develop a smelter with a maximum production capacity of 600,000 tons per year on an area of 100 hectares. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

In the second phase, Virtue Dragon will expand its land area to 200 hectares and double the production capacity to 1.2 million tons per year. This phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017.

Lastly, it will expand the land area to 500 hectares and ramp production to 3 million tons per year. This phase is expected to be concluded in 2019. Zhu said the ferronickel produced will be sold to both Indonesia and China. Meanwhile Zhu said the smelter would be supported by a 335 megawatt power plant and a port.

The beginning of the end for gold and industrial metals price falls? – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – January 12, 2015)

January 12, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Or the end of the beginning? … Looking at mixed fortunes ahead for gold, iron ore and base metals – positive, flat to negative and slightly upbeat respectively.

The title of this article could be taken two ways, but our meaning in using it – courtesy of London metals and mining commentator David Hargreaves’ Week in Mining newsletter, which used aspects of the famous Winston Churchill wartime quote in its title and conclusions this week – is that are we perhaps actually nearing the bottom of the prices downturn virtually across the board in resources?

As the newsletter points out – the Brent crude oil price has fallen through $50/bbl, iron ore is staring down the abyss, copper has a look of testing $6,000 per tonne on the downside, while gold has picked up to $1,200 plus etc.

In currencies, the US dollar continues its rise against all, or at least most, others, with the Euro testing nine-year lows. The Eurozone has moved into deflation as the forthcoming Greek elections could put in power a political party which could well implement a default on the country’s debts and lead to Grexit – the possible Greek exit from the European Union.

Further on the geopolitical front, Islamic fundamentalist-inspired terrorism has hit the headlines again with the Paris shootings at the Charlie Hebdo offices, the totally unprovoked murder of a policewoman attending a traffic accident and subsequent hostage taking leading to more deaths.

India on brink of “quantum leap”, Modi tells investors – by RUPAM JAIN NAIR and AMAN SHAH (Reuters India – January 11, 2015)

January 12, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

GANDHINAGAR – (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised on Sunday to pursue predictable policies and ensure stable taxes, in a speech that sought to address concerns for foreign investors in Asia’s third-largest economy.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry led a roll call of leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank head Jim Yong Kim, converging on Modi’s home town of Gandhinagar for the Vibrant Gujarat business summit. U.S. President Barack Obama visits India later this month.

Eight months into Modi’s rule, his failure to lift the economy from its longest growth slowdown in a generation has raised questions about how much substance there is behind his promise of “red carpet, not red tape”.

“We’re trying to complete the circle of economic reforms speedily,” Modi told the event that he founded when he was chief minister of the industrial state.

“We are also keen to see that our policies are predictable. We’re clear that our tax regime should be stable,” Modi said, speaking in English but making the occasional aside in Hindi.

China’s slowdown will see commodities falling 10pc in 2015 – by Andrew Critchlow (The Telegraph – January 4, 2015)

January 12, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

IHS forecasts another tough year for commodities prices as China misses economic growth targets

If 2014 goes down as an “annus horribilis” for the commodities industry, few pundits are betting that prices will improve significantly over the next 12 months.

Across the board, from industrial metals through to soft commodities and oil, prices have dipped sharply over the last year as a combination of weakening demand growth and excess supply became a common theme across the entire sector.

Although lower prices for the basic building blocks of industrial growth should help to boost the broader global economy and ultimately support long term demand it could be a number of years before a new upward cycle in the sector begins to take shape. Until then prices are likely to remain under pressure as the balance of power remains with major consumers and not the producers.

At the top of the list of concerns worrying analysts has been the economic health of China. This anxiety over the world’s biggest consumer of industrial raw materials is expected to continue. The final Purchasing Managers Index – a survey of private and public sector companies – reading for 2014 showed that the world’s second-largest economy is likely to miss its growth target for the first time since the financial crisis.

Most economists now expect China’s economy to have grown just 7.4pc in 2014 – the slowest rate recorded since 1990 and a turning point for the global commodities industry as a whole.

Robert Friedland’s mining showdown in South Africa – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – January 10, 2015)

January 12, 2015

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.

MOKOPANE, SOUTH AFRICA — The two men took the cash from an envelope, counted it carefully and spread it on the table in front of Raesetsa Makgabo in her village home. It was exactly 5,250 South African rand (about $450 U.S.).

She says she remembers vividly what the men said next: They told her to take the money and allow the Canadian mining company to begin drilling on her maize fields – or lose her monthly pension.

Illiterate and unable to read the document in front of her, but fearful of losing the $120 monthly pension that was her main income, the 82-year-old villager took the pen and marked the agreement with a humble X beside her name. The two men, including an official from Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., signed the document dated May 10, 2011. Then the drilling began.

Ivanhoe’s $1.7-billion project, forecast to become the world’s biggest new platinum mine, is crucial to the fate of the Vancouver-based company – and to thousands of impoverished villagers near the site.

Ivanhoe says its Platreef mine will provide 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, along with a minority ownership stake for 150,000 residents and employees under South Africa’s black-empowerment rules.

An ‘emerging market’ at home: Canada’s banks making a big push into aboriginal communities – by Barbara Shecter (National Post – January 10, 2015)

January 12, 2015

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

A few years ago, Chief Darcy Bear and the Whitecap Dakota First Nation in Saskatchewan made a practical decision to cut ties with the handful of financial institutions that were backing their infrastructure loans in favour of a single player: Bank of Montreal.

It was a simple choice, Chief Bear explained during an interview in Toronto this week. Along with its domestic peers, BMO has made a concerted push into aboriginal banking. But the bank went further. While the band had in the past been forced to depend on relatively short-term debt, making it harder to make the case for bigger infrastructure projects with extended lifespans — roads, schools, bridges — BMO was offering longer, more favourable terms. The kind of 20- or 25-year deals common in off-reserve municipal projects, instead of forcing the band into five or 10-year arrangements.

“The relationship has been a good one,” said Chief Bear, smiling as he recounted the story of first meeting Stephen Fay, BMO’s head of Aboriginal Banking five years ago, after patiently waiting around until the very end of a conference in Vancouver conference to make the meeting happen.

Like any banker, Mr. Fay also seems pleased when he recounts the story of having won out over rival financial services institutions by “pushing the envelope” on infrastructure loans for aboriginal communities. But he says he’s “waiting for the other shoe” to drop in the relentless grabs for market share that are characteristic in his competitive industry.

Searching for Burmese Jade, and Finding Misery – by Dan Levin (New York Times – December 1, 2014)

January 12, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

MYITKYINA, Myanmar — At 16, the gem trader’s son set out for the jade mines to seek his fortune in the precious stone that China craves. But a month in, the teenager, Sang Aung Bau Hkum, was feeding his own addiction: heroin, the drug of choice among the men who work the bleak terrain of gouged earthen pits, shared needles and dwindling hope here in the jungles of northern Myanmar.

Three years later he finally found what he had come for — a jade rock “as green as a summer leaf.” He spent some of the $6,000 that a Chinese trader paid him on a motorcycle, a cellphone and gambling.

“The rest disappeared into my veins,” he said, tapping the crook in his left arm as dozens of other gaunt miners in varying states of withdrawal passed the time at a rudimentary rehabilitation clinic here. “The Chinese bosses know we’re addicted to heroin, but they don’t care. Their minds are filled with jade.”

Mr. Sang Aung Bau Hkum, now 24, is just one face of a trade — like blood diamonds in Africa — that is turning good fortune into misery.

Driven by an insatiable demand from the growing Chinese middle class, Myanmar’s jade industry is booming and should be showering the nation, one of the world’s poorest, with unprecedented prosperity.