Twitter

Canada Mining

Yukon miners fear ‘uncertainty’ following Peel decision (CBC News North – December 03, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

 People in the mining industry are questioning Yukon’s land use planning process in the wake of yesterday’s Peel court decision.

“The way it’s currently being undertaken is creating uncertainty for industry,” says Samson Hartland, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines.

Yukon Supreme Court Judge Ron Veale ruled yesterday that the government must return to the planning process for the Peel watershed, a wilderness the size of Nova Scotia and home to four First Nations.

In 2011, the Yukon government rejected the final recommendations from the Peel Watershed Planning Commission, which called for 80 per cent of the area to be protected from development, in favour of its own plan, which provided protection for less than 30 per cent of the area.

But if the government’s aim was to create certainty for industry, it’s not working. Marc Blythe is the president of Tarsis Resources, which has more than a dozen properties in Yukon, including some claims in the Peel. He says the Peel process raises concern for those who’ve invested in the territory about what’s going to happen next.

Read more

Peel watershed: Yukon court strikes down government land use plan (CBC News North – December 01, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

‘A great victory for First Nations, environmental organizations, and all Yukoners,’ says Thomas Berger

In a historic ruling this morning, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale found that the Yukon government’s modifications to the Peel land use plan did not respect the land use planning process set out in the territory’s final agreements with First Nations.

In a written judgment, he says the remedy is for the Yukon government to return to consultations on the final recommended land use plan. The decision also scolds the Yukon government for pursuing a “flawed process” for two years, instead of revealing more detail about its proposed modifications in February 2011.

“I think it’s a total victory,” says Jeff Langlois, who represented the Northwest Territories’ Gwich’in Tribal Council, an intervener in the case. “It’s what Tom Berger was seeking entirely.”

Langlois says the ruling essentially orders the Yukon government to return to the final plan as recommended by the planning commission, and make modifications from there.

“I still don’t understand in this case whether Yukon still has the ability to reject that final recommended plan but if they do not, and that was certainly an argument Tom Berger made, then I believe the land use plan for the Peel is going to closely resemble the final recommended plan.”

Read more

Alaskans fear environmental, industrial threats from B.C. mines – by Dirk Meissner (Canadian Press – December 3, 2014)

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/news/

Alaskan environmental, aboriginal groups say unchecked development threatens salmon and tourism industries

VICTORIA—British Columbia’s ambition of opening new mines in the province’s north has raised fears in neighbouring Alaska where environmental and aboriginal groups say the unchecked development threatens their salmon and tourism industries.

Tribal leaders and salmon-protection advocates gathered at a Bureau of Indian Affairs conference in Anchorage, and high on the agenda was the impact of B.C. mineral developments on the multi-billion-dollar Alaskan industries.

Conference delegates called on the United States State Department to use the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to activate the International Joint Commission, hold boundary dispute hearings and discuss the important salmon waterways, the communities they support and the risks they face from potential mine contamination.

“We’re asking the U.S. federal government to elevate this issue to the International Joint Commission,” said Guy Archibald, a spokesperson for the southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

Archibald said conservation and aboriginal groups have formed the Salmon Beyond Borders coalition to lobby their government to pressure Canada and B.C.

Read more

Vale eyes possible return of ‘Inco’ to Canadian market as it mulls IPO for part of base metals unit – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 3, 2014)

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

TORONTO – Eight years after it disappeared, Inco Ltd. could be poised to return to the public markets in some form.

Brazilian mining giant Vale SA, which paid nearly $20-billion for Inco in 2006, said Tuesday it may sell part of its base metals unit in an initial public offering, likely on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That confirmed an earlier report from Reuters, and follows years of speculation that Vale could divest the business.

There are two logical reasons to consider it now. First, Vale wants liquidity as it plans a huge capital spending program next year amid low iron ore prices. More important, these assets are completely lost inside the huge Brazilian company.

“We believe there’s hidden value there,” chief executive Murilo Ferreira said in a press conference in New York. “We believe this value has to be better expressed.”

Vale calls itself a diversified mining company, but the vast majority of its profits come from iron ore. Even with iron ore prices plunging this year, that one commodity made up 80% of the company’s adjusted pre-tax earnings in the third quarter. It accounted for 97% of adjusted earnings in the same quarter a year ago, when prices were much higher.

Read more

Why volatility in commodity prices is still nothing close to a ‘crash’ – by Peter Koven (National Post -December 2, 2014)

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

When looking at commodity prices, investors tend to have short memories.

Words like “crash” and “collapse” have been thrown around with frequency in recent days and weeks. The panic appeared to hit a high point on Monday morning, when commodities fell sharply in the early hours before rebounding through the afternoon.

But experts noted that the current market action does not rate as anything close to a “collapse.” To see what that looks like, one only has to look back six years.

After the global financial crisis unfurled in the fall of 2008, oil prices plunged below US$35 a barrel, copper dropped to about US$1.20 a pound, and gold bottomed out at close to US$700 an ounce. Many of the world’s top producers were struggling to make much (if any) money at those prices.

By comparison, the latest commodity volatility barely qualifies as a blip. US$66 oil, US$2.90 copper and US$1,150 gold are prices that those industries can easily live with. Even iron ore, which has plummeted almost 50% in 2014, is priced at a level that guarantees massive profits for the world’s three major producers.

Read more

The problem isn’t aboriginals as Stephen Harper suggests. It’s us – by Haroon Siddiqui (Toronto Star – November 30, 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.

The Harper government is behaving in colonial ways towards our indigenous peoples.

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with his parents who are savages; he is surrounded by savages and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write.”

That was our first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, speaking in the House of Commons in 1883, rationalizing the residential schools where aboriginal children were consigned to be cleansed of their Indian-ness.

Of the 150,000 who suffered that fate, many were sexually abused. Many were starved to be used as guinea pigs for nutrition experiments. Not until 2003 did Ottawa acknowledge the horror. In 2008 it formally apologized. More than 100,000 former residents have since been compensated from a $1.9-billion fund. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been hearing from survivors and examining 3.5 million documents, earlier withheld by Ottawa.

Thatgenocidal practice was but one element of a vast infrastructure of racism designed to keep “the white people, pink people, at the top,” writes John Ralston Saul, author, philosopher and Canada’s pre-eminent public intellectual.

Read more

When emissions disappear, so do jobs – by Donna Laframboise (National Post – December 2, 2014)

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

This is the dirty little secret lurking behind every new emissions deal: when emissions
disappear, so do jobs, economic opportunities, and human well-being.

The manufacturing jobs found in factories and the auto industry need affordable power –
not the intermittent, stupendously-priced, boutique power generated by wind turbines.
Coal mining feeds families. Oil wells put food on the table.

We used to view the dignity that accompanies a paying job as an important social good.
We used to care that unemployment, substance abuse, and family breakdown are closely
connected.

These days, we’ve convinced ourselves that driving CO2-emitting factories into bankruptcy
is smart. That throwing people out of work makes sense. That plunging families into crisis
is the path to glory. (Donna Laframboise)

Following Barack Obama’s recent visit to China, the White House issued a joint U.S.-China climate announcement that says “China intends to achieve the peaking of C02 emissions around 2030.” But that isn’t news.

Read more

Brazil’s Vale mulling IPO for part of base metals business – sources – by Nicole Mordant and Euan Rocha (Reuters U.S. – December 1, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

VANCOUVER/TORONTO – Dec 1 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA is considering listing part of its global base metals business, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, as the miner looks to fund capital projects amid a collapse in iron ore prices.

The sources, who asked not to be named as they have not been authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the world’s top iron ore producer is likely to retain a majority interest in the new entity if it proceeds with the plan.

Vale could outline the plan to list a new entity in Toronto and London as early as Tuesday at an investor day event being held in New York, said one of the sources.

The event at the New York Stock Exchange will be webcast. The second source said there had been significant discussion inside Vale about listing the base metals assets, which have fared better than its iron ore business due to steadier prices.

A Vale spokeswoman in Brazil could not be reached for comment after hours.

Vale’s iron ore business contributed 62 percent of the company’s gross revenue in the third quarter. Outside of iron ore, Vale’s global asset portfolio includes nickel assets in Canada, Indonesia and New Caledonia, coal mines in Australia and Mozambique as well as copper projects in Canada, Brazil and Zambia.

Read more

Wabush woes: Labrador mining town reels from a China slowdown – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – November 29, 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.

WABUSH, LABRADOR — Ron Barron has spent 30 years working in the Wabush mine, one of three generations of Barrons who have toiled in the open pits in what western Labrador bills as the iron ore capital of Canada.

The family’s roots run deep here. Mr. Barron’s father was one of Wabush‘s first settlers, who not only got a job in the mine when it opened in the 1960s but also helped organize a union. Five of Mr. Barron’s brothers have worked in the same pits along with his son and nephew.

But now Mr. Barron’s life has been upended along with the rest of city. The Wabush mine, once the cornerstone of this community, is shutting down along with another iron ore mine called Bloom Lake in neighbouring Quebec. More than 1,000 miners will be out of work, not to mention a slew of other job losses from businesses that service the industry. It’s a crippling blow in an area with a population of about 9,000.

“Oh my god, everybody loses. All the organizations, the schools, everything loses. Everything will suffer because of it,” said Mr. Barron, who will be officially out of a job by mid-December. “We have had shutdowns and layoffs before, but this is different. The mine is closing.”

The reason for the closings is simple: The price of iron ore, a key ingredient in steel, has been in freefall, falling 60 per cent in three years. Where the resource once traded as high as $190 (U.S.) a tonne in 2011, it is now below $70.

Read more

Canada’s unfinished business with First Nations is an economic failure – by Diane Francis (National Post – November 29, 2014)

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

“The great themes of Canada are as follows: Keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear.” – Will Ferguson, humorist and 2012 Giller Prize winner

Ferguson’s acerbic quote also summarizes the great unfinished business of Canada which is to reconcile the rights and create a role for the country’s 614 First Nations and their 700,000 members. The failure to have done this after centuries not only impedes national economic development, but is at the root of much of the misery and squalor on and off reserves.

The United States did not make deals, but conquered its Native Americans and, under international law, has only been required to compensate them. But here, Britain signed sovereign deals with aboriginals, catapulting them under international law to the rights and privileges of nation-states. Thus they call themselves First Nations. Australia has a similar history, but, unlike here, Canberra has fully addressed the issues.

Canada must now do the same. A recent, landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling has fully, and radically, defined “aboriginal rights.” Justices unanimously decided that lands in the British Columbia interior, the size of Greater Vancouver, belonged to the Tsilhqot’in Nation, a band with 400 members. They now own and must manage the lands in perpetuity, rights they can relinquish only if they sign ownership over to a government.

Read more

Ten things junior miners can do to survive the downturn – by David Poynton (Mining Markets Magazine – November 25, 2014)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

“The market turn for junior miners is just around the corner.”  Really? The problem is, that corner just kept moving ahead and three years into the downturn, we all still seem to be in very tough times. With gold now under US$1,200 an oz. and our seniors making drastic cost cuts, what is next? Where are those better days?

Our industry in general — and the junior mining sector specifically — has undergone a fundamental and permanent change. Regular routine financings where all you debated about was a penny here or there, or commission, are long gone. Reasonable M&A deals and fair pricing are difficult to find — if at all — those with money can demand very steep terms. I’m not sure the “good old days” will ever return.

So let’s face it head on. Companies need to accept the new reality in order to adapt and survive. It is time to face some harsh truths — cash is king and it is time to scrimp and save every dollar. Time for some tough decisions and reviews.

Three years into this downturn, investors might be surprised at how many companies have only done the window-dressing and, hoping that elusive turnaround will save them, not even attempted to cut to the bone.

Often, management and boards are unable or uncomfortable dealing with the tough questions — they are often as not human issues: who keeps a job and who doesn’t?

Read more

Barrick Gold considers asset sales – by James Wilson (Financial Times – November  27, 2014)

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

Barrick Gold is open to selling a wide range of assets as the world’s largest gold miner by output tries to cut its debts after a sharp fall in the gold price, according to one of its most senior executives.

However, co-president Kelvin Dushnisky said Barrick would not sell at any cost and made clear the miner was placing faith in a reshuffled management team and the productivity of its largest mines to try to ride out the storm engulfing the sector.

Gold miners across the world are eyeing more cost-cutting and restructuring after the price of the precious metal sank to four-year lows below $1,200 per ounce this month, leaving some companies haemorrhaging cash and investor support. Barrick’s share price has retreated to levels last seen two decades ago.

The gold price fall – from $1,900/oz in 2011 – has left many miners with lossmaking operations and sparked expectations of consolidation in the sector. This year Barrick and Newmont Mining, the second-largest producer, aborted advanced talks on a potential merger.

While many analysts have speculated that Barrick could return to talks with its US rival, Mr Dushnisky said discussions were “off the table”. He also accepted that Barrick would have little investor backing to try to acquire more mines from struggling rivals.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: YUKON PROSPECTOR TURNED MUSHROOMS INTO GOLD [Shawn Ryan] – “60 Minutes,” SUNDAY ON CBS – by Sara Bibel (October 16th, 2014)

Shawn Ryan Parlayed a Mushroom Business Into a Gold Prospecting Bonanza

Shawn Ryan turned mushroom hunting into gold. In Canada’s Yukon Territory, the scene of a famous Gold Rush more than a hundred years ago, Bob Simon finds a man whose technique for finding mushrooms inspired him to create a method to find gold, making him one of the Yukon’s biggest gold prospectors. Ryan’s story will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, Oct. 19 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Ryan has made millions as a mountain prospector while others, like their 1896 predecessors, look mainly in the rivers. Ryan looks for gold on Yukon slopes by taking soil samples and analyzing them to produce data he can use to find the likeliest places for gold. That process grew out of an analytical and very successful way he used to search the mountains for morels, mushrooms that high-end restaurants will pay dearly for.

Read more

Iron ore prices – Where’s the bottom? (Northern Miner Editorial – Novmeber 26, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

As the daylight hours shorten and winter chill takes hold of the iron ore mines and surrounding communities in the Labrador Trough, it’s as good a symbol as any of the deep freeze that is engulfing the global iron ore market, as spot prices continue to head south.

Back in October, Cliffs Natural Resources said it would permanently close its Wabush iron ore mine on the Labrador side of the Trough, after having laid off some 500 workers in February when it first idled the mine.

And now Cliffs says it has failed in its attempts to find investment partners for the US$1.2-billion expansion of its Bloom Lake iron ore mine on the Quebec side of the Trough — an expansion that the struggling major said was needed to make the Bloom Lake mine financially viable.

While Cliffs had been optimistic about finding such financial partners as recently as a month ago, layoff notices have been sent to some 400 workers at Bloom Lake ahead of the closure of the entire Bloom Lake complex, which will take affect in mid-December. Around 80 workers will be kept for care and maintenance.

Cliffs now states bluntly that it is pursuing its “exit options” for all its Eastern Canadian iron ore assets. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the announcement is the high price tag that Cliffs has put on closing shop and leaving Eastern Canada: up to US$700 million in the next five years.

Read more

Rio Invests $350 Million in Diamond Project After Walsh Backing – by David Stringer (Blomberg News – November 26, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Rio Tinto Group (RIO), the world’s second biggest mining company, approved a $350 million project to expand a diamond mine in northwestern Canada, weeks after Chief Executive Officer Sam Walsh flagged an investment.

Construction of the A21 kimberlite pipe at the Diavik mine, 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, will start next year, London-based Rio Tinto said today in a statement. Rio owns 60 percent of the mine, with Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) holding the remainder.

The investment comes after Walsh said in an interview this month that there were “seriously good” opportunities in diamonds, a unit that had been put up for sale by former CEO Tom Albanese. Demand globally will probably rise 4 percent to 4.5 percent this year with U.S. consumption increasing as much as 6 percent, according to De Beers, the biggest producer.

“I love diamonds,” Walsh said in an interview on Nov. 10 with Bloomberg Television in Beijing, when he flagged an expansion at its Canadian diamond operation. “I think it’s a seriously good business.”

Production from the pipe is expected to start from late 2018. The expansion will ensure output at Diavik continues at existing levels, Rio Tinto said. The mine’s current production plan has output continuing until 2023, it said.

Read more