Northern Gateway vs. Crowd science – by Peter Foster (National Post – June 13, 2014)

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

Novice Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, while expressing the Federal Cabinet’s infinite concern for a balanced appraisal of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which is due by next Tuesday, managed to leave the impression in New York this week that the decision might be delayed, even as he was also quoted as saying that it was “relatively straightforward.” Officials were left to unfuzzify his remarks.

This is hardly the time for communications cock-ups, particularly given that the Harper government is coming under predictable pressure as it prepares — presumably — to approve the proposed $6.5-billion pipeline from the oil sands to the coast of B.C. Why would the Cabinet want any delay? Is Stephen Harper aspiring to look like President Odithers on Keystone XL?

Northern Gateway is at least as politically fraught for Mr. Harper as Keystone XL is for Mr. Obama, but in economic terms the Enbridge proposal is of far greater economic significance for Canada than Keystone XL is to the U.S.

Liberal Opposition leader Justin Trudeau called upon the Prime Minister this week to “do the right thing and just say no” to the pipeline, which in turn gave Mr. Harper the opportunity to conjure up the ghost of Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre, perpetrator of the 1980 National Energy Program, and suggest that opposition to the oil industry might be in the Liberals’ DNA.

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Comment: How to break the resource deadlock – by Bill Gallagher (Financial Post – June 13, 2014)

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

Aboriginal communities right across the country will have likely won 200 legal rulings in the resources sector by the end of this year. This unprecedented winning streak has become the central plank in the native empowerment ‘toolbox’ and it outclasses the toolboxes of governments and industry, both of whom now seem to accept resource project delays as an economic fact of life.

Indeed the cumulative negative impact on our resources future is the biggest under-reported business story of the decade. Over the past year, I have been promoting a series of recommendations at resource symposiums to reverse this unhappy trend.

Before delving into my suggestions however, it is important to note that the Federal Government is pretty well out of the resources business. The provinces rule that roost, the northern Territories have been sufficiently devolved in order to run their affairs, and even offshore energy plays are managed under joint boards. The Feds are left with mandates in (some) environmental approvals, climate change protocols, species-at-risk, marine transportation and national infrastructure. None of these drive resource projects.

It’s precisely because Ottawa is out of the resources business that it needs to get into it. And the mechanism for returning to the fore requires the creation of an entirely new federal ministry that will act as a clearing-house. Nothing on this scale exists.

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Aroland First Nation rejects proposed open pit mine near Geraldton, Ontario – by Rick Garrick (Wawatay News – June 12, 2014)

http://wawataynews.ca/

Aroland has rejected the open pit mine proposed by Premier Gold Mines Limited near Geraldton over environmental concerns, including destruction of a 16-acre lake.

“My First Nation is generally supportive of sustainable mining development,” said Aroland Chief Sonny Gagnon. “Premier Gold wants to destroy Begooch Zaagaigan, a lake that supports our Aboriginal fishery. They just put a number on this lake – A-322 – and tell us they’re going to fill it in with mine waste. This is one of the worst project proposals I’ve ever seen. They’re going to seriously impact our lands and resources. Such a large and destructive project should receive the maximum examination possible – but instead, very little is being done under provincial or federal environment assessment laws. And virtually nothing has been done to consult with and accommodate the many serious concerns of Aroland First Nation.”

Aroland called on the federal government to hold a Panel Study Environmental Assessment on the project and the provincial government to hold a full Individual Environmental Assessment.

“It is shocking to me how much damage Premier Gold intends to cause and what it seems to want to get away with by avoiding scrutiny from environmental laws and Aboriginal consultation,” Gagnon said. “It is unclear whether Ontario will require more. We urge the Ontario government to use its laws to protect the environment, the water and our rights.”

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Opinion: First Nations, mining for change – by Russell Hallbauer (Vancouver Sun – June 9, 2014)

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

Agreement would give new meaning to New Prosperity mine’s name

Russell Hallbauer is president and CEO of Taseko Mines

Many readers likely will have read that the British Columbia government has now signed 14 economic development agreements with First Nations across the province. These agreements commit the provincial government to share up to 37 per cent of the B.C. mineral tax from B.C. mining operations collected within First Nations’ traditional territories.

Over the past four years, $12 million has been shared with various First Nations. The most recent agreement was the one signed May 21 on the Huckleberry Mine, a few hundred km from Williams Lake.

A similar agreement is being developed between the government and those bands in proximity to our Gibraltar Mine.

These agreements, over the next 25 years of Gibraltar’s life, will allow First Nations communities to benefit directly over and above employment and other opportunities, in the financial success of the Gibraltar Mine.

Taseko personnel were some of the earliest advocates of revenue sharing when the process began with government and the Mining Association of British Columbia a number of years ago.

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Our home and golden land [Ring of Fire] – by Andrew Reeves (This Magazine – June 9, 2014)

http://this.org/

Inside the First Nations’ fight for a piece of north Ontario’s $60 billion mega mines

Deep in Ontario’s north sits the Ring of Fire, an as-yet undeveloped cluster of mineral claims worth an estimated $60 billion—but only if you’re being conservative. Some industry experts, including James Franklin, former chief geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, believe an additional $140–$190 billion in economic value exists there from gold deposits alone. For a region with little economy to speak of, the potential for multi-generational mineral riches has been deemed a godsend. Many in the province have called it Ontario’s oilsands, and meant it as a compliment.

Others have dubbed it the new Klondike, a reference to its hoped-for ability to shape the region. In truth, the Ring of Fire has the potential to be the single largest mineral deposit in Canadian history, and could far outstrip the economic and social impact of both iconic Canadian developments.

Yet, the region is also home to many other things besides precious metal buried miles underground. Tucked into the northern boreal forest, the Ring of Fire is primarily First Nations land, full of bogs and fens, roaming caribou herds, stunted tamarack and black spruce trees, all of it growing among thousands of shallow rivers and lakes dotting the landscape. This is the North, and the North is not a quiet place. As Ontario’s headlong rush to develop the Ring of Fire begins now in earnest, it’s about to get louder—just not in the way many might assume. This time, the region’s First Nations leaders don’t want to halt development: They want to make sure they get their share.

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Igniting the Ring of Fire: no one has a plan – by Robert B. Gibson (Toronto Star – June 9, 2014)

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.

Robert B. Gibson is a professor of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo.

None of the major party leaders in Ontario has assessed the overall opportunities and risks of developing the province’s Ring of Fire.

Last week in the Ontario election campaign, the three major party leaders fell over each other competing for the mining booster award — the ribbon for being the most enthusiastic expediter and/or public funder of Ring of Fire development.

There was plenty of loose talk of superfast approvals and heaps of taxpayer funding for mine-enticing infrastructure, and plenty of starry-eyed anticipation of huge provincial revenue.

But no one has a plan. No one has assessed the overall opportunities and risks of Ring of Fire development. No one has prepared a considered vision of the desirable future for the region or how to get us there. And so far, none of the booster ribbon contestants has promised to try.

Ore bodies are inevitably depleted. They bring lasting benefits only if the mines, associated projects and revenues are used to build foundations for sustainable livelihoods after the mining ends. That does not happen automatically. Lasting benefits depend on far-sighted effort from the outset.

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Quebec backs federal ‘publish-what-you-pay’ plan for resource companies – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – June 7, 2014)

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.

OTTAWA — The newly elected Liberal government in Quebec has endorsed a plan to require resource companies to publish payments they make to governments as part of a national effort to increase transparency and combat corruption.

The Quebec move comes as mining associations warn the Harper government that its insistence on including First Nations bands in a national “publish-what-you-pay” plan will likely mean Ottawa will fail to meet its pledge to have such a system in place by next year.

In his budget this week, Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao said the government would work with the Quebec securities commission to require so-called extractive companies that are based in the province – mainly miners – to reveal payments made on a project by project basis, both domestically and in foreign countries.

Mr. Leitao’s announcement should provide some momentum to get other provinces and the federal government to move on a promise made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year to adopt such rules across Canada.

“We hope this will provide some momentum,” Pierre Gratton, president of the Mining Association of Canada, said in an interview Friday. “We hope that there will be a domino effect” on other provinces and the federal government.

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Bob Rae calls treaties the “trillion dollar exchange” that created two worlds we must now bridge – by Linda Solomon Wood (Vancouver Observer – June 1, 2014)

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/

“It’s ridiculous to think people would say: I have all this land, millions and millions and millions of acres of land, I’m giving it to you for a piece of land that is 5 miles by 5 miles and a few dollars a year. To put it in terms of a real estate transaction, it’s preposterous, it doesn’t make any sense.”

In Fort McMurray today, Bob Rae called treaties a “trillion dollar exchange” that took place in one of the world’s biggest real estate negotiations between the crown and First Nations as Canada was born.

The former head of the Liberal Party stood at the podium of the “As Long as the Rivers Flow: Coming Back to the Treaty Relationship in our Time” conference and gave a powerful speech on the need for governments to develop a new way of negotiating.

Rae spoke of “two separate narratives” that have evolved between “two separate worlds” and of the need to bridge these worlds.

“Whatever arrangements were worked out a hundred years ago clearly don’t work out today,” the former Ontario premier with piercing blue eyes told the group. “We aren’t getting good governance for First Nations people, getting support, getting revenues…A lot of people say the reserves don’t function. Whose fault is that? Who built that system? It was built as a way of setting First Nations aside. Let’s have the courage to move beyond how history has defined some of these relationships and say this just isn’t working.”

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KWG Resources’ RoF social media campaign garners support – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 4, 2014)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ring of Fire- (RoF-) focused explorer KWG Resources this week launched a social media campaign to promote its proposed RoF bill to Ontario election candidates and voters, drawing more than 240 signatures to a petition it intends to submit to the next Ontario government.

Ontarians will head to the polls on June 12 in the province’s 41st general election, after the Liberal provincial government was dissolved on May 2.

KWG president and CEO Frank Smeenk said that the company had taken a leadership-role in a bid to end the “political gridlock” surrounding development of the region, which is located in the remote northern reaches of the province.

He stressed that KWG’s proposals are “real and achievable solutions”. “The RoF is an economically and socially transformative project that will benefit every citizen and community of Ontario, especially in the North, as well as all Canadians, for many generations.

“I encourage all RoF supporters to participate in this process by having your voices heard and helping spread the message to every corner of this country. Together, we will get the RoF going,” Smeenk said on Monday.

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On the land: Mining and First Nations have not always gotten along, but what if they were one and the same? – by Eavan Moore (CIM Magazine – May 2014)

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

For a long time, Hans Matthews did not connect his mining career to his background as a member of the Wahnapitae First Nation. A childhood mineral enthusiast who dug “gold” out of the road at age seven, he had risen to vice-president of a mining company without thinking much about aboriginal land issues.

But when a violent land-use standoff between the Mohawk and the army in Oka, Quebec in 1990 led mining executives to fear they would lose the ability to mine in Canada, the nightmare visions shared by his colleagues left Matthews skeptical. He quit his job, got up to speed on treaty and land claim issues, and founded an organization to inform and aid aboriginal groups asking the same question he had always had: “Why aren’t more communities involved in mining when mines are in their backyards?”

Since founding the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association (CAMA) and serving as its president for the last 22 years, Matthews says the conversation has changed. Most obviously, the fears of 1990 have turned into awareness among mining companies that genuinely successful mining projects depend on community cooperation. But a handful of aboriginal groups have turned that notion on its head. Why should First Nations, Inuit, or Métis groups not build their own mines?

Self-sufficiency

The Dene Nations of the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) have become the latest to act on that vision and are the most ambitious so far. In 2013, Denen- deh Investments Limited Partnership formed an exploration and mining company and bought up brownfield mineral properties in the N.W.T. with the intent of developing and operating a metal mine.

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NEWS RELEASE: Premier Gold Proposes Mine with Significant Environmental Damage, Minimal Environmental or First Nations Scrutiny

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 30, 2014 – Aroland First Nation, Ontario – Aroland First Nation is rejecting Premier Gold’s Hardrock Mine plans for an open pit mine near Geraldton, Ontario. The proposed mine will cause significant adverse environmental effects, including the destruction of a lake and major alterations to the TransCanada Highway for open pit mines.

Like the controversial Taskeo Mines Prosperity Mine proposed in British Columbia – a project that was twice rejected by the federal Ministry of the Environment – Premier Gold proposes to drain a 16 acre lake that supports important fisheries and fish spawning ground. Premier Gold also proposes a massive waste rock facility next to Kenogamisis Lake, one of Ontario’s most popular fishing lakes.

“My First Nation is generally supportive of sustainable mining development,” says Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon. “Premier Gold wants to destroy Begooch Zaagaigan (pronounced “Be-gosh Zag-A-gan”), a lake that supports our Aboriginal fishery. They just put a number on this lake – A-322 – and tell us they’re going to fill it in with mine waste. This is one of the worst project proposals I’ve ever seen. They’re going to seriously impact our lands and resources. Such a large and destructive project should receive the maximum examination possible – but instead, very little is being done under provincial or federal environment assessment laws. And virtually nothing has been done to consult with and accommodate the many serious concerns of Aroland First Nation.”

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Rio Tinto leader Ray Ahmat cuts a trail for others – by Sarah-Jane Tasker (The Australian – May 31, 2014)

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

RAY Ahmat, the first local Aboriginal superintendent at Rio Tinto Alcan’s bauxite mine in Weipa, has outlined the opportunities to develop local talent after taking out a top award at an industry function.

Mr Ahmat received the Overall Indigenous Award at the Queensland Resources Council’s Indigenous Awards last night for his contribution as a role model in the state’s sector.

He leads a large operational team of more than 170 people at the mine, on the Western Cape of York Peninsula in Queensland, managing pre-mining and post-mining activities.

Mr Ahmat, born and bred in the region, said his parents were strong role models in his life. His father had worked at the mine for 32 years and his mother spent 28 years at the operation.

“I got to where I am to seeing what they did,” he said. Mr Ahmat, who is a Yupungathi traditional owner, joined the miner 15 years ago as a truck driver before moving up the chain to superintendent — a path he hopes he can encourage others in his community to follow.

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Noront’s Environmental Report details innovative underground milling & backfilling plans, wetland road design – by Bryan Phelan (Onotassiniik – Summer 2014)

 http://www.onotassiniik.com/

Noront Resources intends to open the first mine in the Ring of Fire. And in building that mine, it plans to use technological innovation that could guide the development of other mines in the James Bay Lowlands and elsewhere.

When Cliffs Natural Resources late last year suspended activities associated with its proposed Black Thor chromite mine, Noront suddenly found itself the mining company “leading the charge” in the Ring of Fire, as MP Greg Rickford put it shortly before his appointment in March as Canada’s new minister of natural resources.

Alan Coutts, Noront president and CEO, this spring expressed hope construction of his company’s Eagle’s Nest mine for nickel, copper, platinum and palladium could start during next winter road season, and be operating by the end of 2017.

Noront reached an important milestone in that direction, he said, with the completion in December of a draft environmental report. The report is necessary to meet requirements for a provincial environmental assessment (EA) of the Eagle’s Nest project and for a related federal environmental impact statement (EIS). A draft version has been circulated for review and comment by the public and government agencies.

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Ring of Fire Reality Check?: Superior Morning’s Lisa Laco Interview with Mining Watch’s Ramsey Hart (CBC Thunder Bay – May 27, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/ Reality Check? It’s a big issue in the North, and the promises to ignite the Ring of Fire are flying. But Ramsey Hart of Mining Watch Canada says we shouldn’t put the horse before the cart. Click here for the interview: http://www.cbc.ca/superiormorning/episodes/2014/05/27/reality-check/

Developing mines in Northern Saskatchewan requires strong partnerships (Regina Leader-Post – May 24, 2014)

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

In the past several years, more than 315 agreements have been signed across Canada between resource companies and First Nations and Métis people to provide secure benefits to the communities.

According to Sean Willy, the director of corporate responsibility at Cameco, the partnerships in Northern Saskatchewan have been a benchmark for other companies across the country. “Saskatchewan has always been one of the leaders in Aboriginal engagement. Our model is emulated across the country and around the globe,” he said.

The Saskatoon-based company is one of the world’s largest uranium producers. He said that signing an agreement with both the English River First Nation and the northern Village of Pinehouse in Northern Saskatchewan simply helped solidify an already-strong 25-year relationship.

“They asked if we’d be interested in signing an agreement, and we said, ‘Sure, if you think it would be in the best interests of your communities,'” said Willy. “We wanted to recapture everything we were already doing as partners – basically, we just needed to codify the formal relationship.”

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