Canada Mining – Page 243 – Republic of Mining

Taseko seeks to sue Ottawa for damages over B.C. mine rejection – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 22, 2014)

October 23, 2014

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

Taseko Mines Ltd. claims the federal government acted unlawfully in pushing its British Columbia copper project off the rails. Its solution: Try to sue the government for damages and to find out precisely what happened.

On Wednesday, Taseko will appear in a federal court in Vancouver to argue that its two judicial review applications to Ottawa should be combined into one civil lawsuit seeking damages. The move, which appears to be unprecedented, is being fiercely opposed by the government.

“We haven’t found another instance where a company in precisely this position sues the federal government,” said lawyer John Hunter of Hunter Litigation Chambers, which is representing Taseko.

Taseko claims it was the only logical course of action. The Vancouver-based miner says it has evidence of actual malfeasance by federal officials, including secret meetings with opponents of the $1.5-billion New Prosperity project that could have swung Ottawa’s decision.

The project has been controversial for many years. Taseko’s first Prosperity mine proposal was approved by the British Columbia government in 2010, but rejected by Ottawa later that year. It cited environmental concerns over Taseko’s plan to drain the nearby Fish Lake.

Hopes for Ontario’s Ring of Fire doused as mining companies grow wary – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – October 22, 2014)

October 22, 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.

Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral belt was supposed to be a $60-billion natural resources treasure trove that would bring employment and economic prosperity to a remote part of the province’s north. It hasn’t worked out that way.

The project’s key player has given up, leaving the future of the deposit in question and hurting prospects that it will ever reach the lofty expectations of politicians.

Today, not much is happening in the Ring, a 5,000-square-kilometre crescent of mostly chromite in the boggy James Bay lowlands, 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

The region was said to be so rich in resources that it would rival Sudbury’s nickel basin and Alberta’s oil sands. Instead, the area remains undeveloped, a victim of the global slump in commodity prices and bureaucratic red tape.

“I’m disappointed that it hasn’t advanced more. It’s a long time, seven years after discovery,” said Neil Novak, the geologist who made the first discovery in the Ring and is now exploring for other metals as the chief executive officer of Black Widow Resources Inc.

In addition to the complete lack of infrastructure – there are no roads or power in the area – there is no real plan on how to mine the chromite, which is used to harden steel.

[Deltion Innovations] Sudbury company works to develop space drill (CBC News Sudbury – October 20, 2014)

October 21, 2014

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

Deltion Innovations is working to develop drill that would prospect for water and ice on the moon

A Greater Sudbury mining innovation company is getting to literally take some of its equipment out of this world. Deltion Innovations Limited is in the process of developing a drill for the Canadian Space Agency and the goal is to have the drill mine for water and ice on the moon.

CEO Dale Boucher said the drill is being developed in the company’s test facility in Capreol. Testing is being done by using a liquid nitrogen tank that is used to cool down the sample, filled with simulated moon dirt and water, he said.

This test phase involves trying to drill through material at liquid nitrogen temperatures — about minus 180 degrees Celsius. “The moon is a little bit cooler than that,” he said. “The moon is actually about minus 220 Celsius.”

Benefits of space mining

Boucher said the prospecting tool will look for water and ice near the south pole of the moon. “Water is kind of the ore of choice for space mining right now,” he said.

“Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen using a very simple solar cell system. So, if you break it into hydrogen and oxygen you have a couple of things: you have oxygen to breathe, you have hydrogen and oxygen which is the most powerful rocket propellant that we know of.”

How Covergalls [Workwear] inked a $75,000 deal that includes new dragon Michael Wekerle – by Mary Teresa Bitti (National Post – October 20, 2014)

October 21, 2014

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

CBC’s Dragons’ Den is back with two new dragons who are wasting no time making their mark. Each week, Financial Post contributor Mary Teresa Bitti revisits the previous week’s episode. She captures what the cameras didn’t and in the process provides a case study for readers, zeroing in on what pitchers and dragons were thinking and what the challenges for the deal are going forward.

The pitch As sales director for an underground mobile equipment manufacturer, Alicia Woods spends her fair share of time underground, understanding the challenges of customers. She recalls the first time she had to go into a mine 14 years ago. She was handed full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), coveralls, belt, hard hat but nothing was designed for women. “I was given the smallest men’s sizes but nothing fit properly and it wasn’t convenient, especially if I had to use the washroom facilities, which are typically a port-a-potty,” Ms. Woods says.

The only alternative she found online was a shirt and pants. She preferred the coverall which offers better protection. She sketched a few concepts that got put to the side as her career started to grow and she and her husband started a family. For 10 years, she would have nothing to drink if she knew she’d be going down into a mine, to avoid having to use the washroom.

“Three summers ago, I was underground at a potash mine and before I knew it I had consumed three bottles of water because it was so dry and dusty,” Ms. Woods says. “I had to face what I had avoided for a decade. It was not a pleasant experience.”

RB Energy meltdown highlights tough times for lithium, rare earth firms – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 20, 2014)

May 13, 2016October 20, 2014

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

TORONTO — As RB Energy Inc. flamed out and fell into creditor protection during the past couple of weeks, investors were shell-shocked.

Despite some start-up problems in recent months, Vancouver-based RB seemed to be in an ideal position. It was emerging as North America’s only serious lithium producer, just as demand for the metal is set to soar because of its use in electric vehicle batteries. Its management team was linked to the legendary Lundin Group, a resource conglomerate with a fantastic track record of success. Lundin companies do not just melt down like that.

But RB did. It filed for protection last Monday after its stock price collapsed and it could not raise capital under reasonable terms.

“I can tell you it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the resource capital market crash as quickly as that,” chief executive Rick Clark said. “I would say the last time was back in the ‘90s.”

There was a time when RB, formerly known as Canada Lithium Corp., had a much easier time raising cash. The company has tapped the capital markets for about $268-million since 2009, according to Financial Post data. RB also received $92-million of debt financing from Bank of Nova Scotia and Caterpillar Financial Services that was partially guaranteed by the Quebec government.

RB Energy says TSX statement a key factor in CCAA filing – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 20, 2014)

October 20, 2014

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

TORONTO — The chief executive of RB Energy Inc. believes the lithium miner might have avoided insolvency if not for a two-sentence statement issued by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

CEO Rick Clark said in an interview the company thought it had a $70-million financing package lined up in mid-September that would have resolved its liquidity issues. But then the TSX, following its guidelines, issued a blanket press release saying it was conducting a de-listing review of the stock.

The TSX statement simply repeated what Vancouver-based RB said the day before. But the stock price collapsed as soon as it came out, and Mr. Clark said he could no longer line up financing on reasonable terms.

Instead, he elected to file for creditor protection last Monday. “We got absolutely hit in the side of the head [by the TSX statement],” said Mr. Clark, who was formerly CEO of market darling Red Back Mining Inc. Regardless, he said he does not want to blame the exchange for what happened.

The impact of the TSX announcement on Sept. 16th is undeniable. The stock plunged 25% that day, with 14.4 million shares changing hands. It then fell another 25% during the following five trading days and could not recover.

In Wake of Mount Polley, Union Wants New BC Safety Regime – by David P. Ball (The Tyee.ca – October 14, 2014)

October 20, 2014

http://thetyee.ca/

Ministry defends miners’ exclusion from WorkSafeBC.

It took a spate of deaths in Nanaimo’s coal mines to create a ministry devoted to regulating the industry in 1877. Since that era, the provincial department’s authority over mine health and safety has endured — and subsequent worker protection laws explicitly excluded mines to this day.

But after the near slaughter of workers by the Mount Polley mine tailings dam disaster this summer, the union representing many miners in B.C. is warning about worker safety in the industry.

Thirteen B.C. mine workers have been killed on the job since 2000, according to annual Chief Inspector of Mines reports. The worst year was 2006, when four died from oxygen deprivation at the Sullivan mine near Kimberley, B.C.

Over the same period, a total of 423 people were injured at mine sites, averaging 33 a year. WorkSafeBC’s prevention jurisdiction does not extend to mines to which the Mines Act applies.

All activities conducted in relation to mining within the boundaries of a Mines Act permit area fall within the [occupational health and safety] jurisdiction of [Ministry of Energy and Mines].

Miner Opposition [Canadian Global Mining Sector’s Reputation] – by James Munson (iPolitics.ca – October 1, 2014)

October 20, 2014

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

Where mining and violence meet

James Munson (bitly.com/MinerOpposition) traveled to Guatemala in July to explore the stories of mines caught up in a global debate over the responsibilities of Canadian-owned mining firms in developing countries. With Canada moving toward a new policy for the sector, Munson explores how the Fenix nickel mine in eastern Guatemala became the test case for bringing allegations of murder, rape and assault tied to the mine to an Ontario court room. Meanwhile, Goldcorp Inc.’s Marlin mine in the western part of the country has been the subject of protests and findings that its operations broke human rights standards. The stories of these mines, and the people who live beside them are the starting point for Miner Opposition — http://www.bitly.com/MinerOpposition (Produced with support of the Ford Foundation)

EL ESTOR, GUATEMALA— One night this past April, while poring over legal documents at around four in the morning, Manuel Xo Cu drifted to sleep and had the dream that would save his life.

The dream involved him grabbing onto the roots of two trees to keep from sliding into a dark hole. During a bus ride the next day, he was confronted by three armed men who asked him to move to the back of the bus. He refused, recognizing the back of the bus as the dark hole, and sat beside a woman who he would later use as an excuse to get off at an earlier stop, thinking the would-be assassins could identify him with more certainty if he were to get off at his regular destination.

AUDIO: [Covergalls Workwear] Sudbury’s Alicia Woods seals deal with dragons (CBC News Sudbury – October 16, 2014)

October 20, 2014

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

https://covergallsworkwear.com/

Founder of Covergalls appears on CBC’s Dragons’ Den

A Sudbury entrepreneur is one step closer to expanding her business, after successfully landing a deal on CBC’s Dragons’ Den program. Alicia Woods, the founder of Covergalls, was shown on the show during the premier Wednesday night.

The product is clothing for women who work in the mining industry. Woods said it’s the female version of the coverall. She said it has two features, the first being that it fits women properly so no extra material can get caught in equipment.

Woods said the second feature is functionality. “If you can imagine having to use the washroom facility and if you have a one piece coverall, you have to take everything off,” she said.

“So having the hidden rear-trap door just makes it a far more functional garment and easier for those bathroom breaks.” Three dragons took interest and a deal was made during the show between Woods, Arlene Dickinson, Mike Wekerle, and Jim Treliving.

“Having their … knowledge and experience is definitely going to help to grow the brand and get us into industries that we’re currently not in,” she said.

Panic time: As oil goes, so does Canada’s economy – by David Parkinson (Globe and Mail – October 16, 2014)

October 17, 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.

Feel free to panic about oil.

Okay, on a day when the stock market sell-off teetered on the edge of a soul-crushing rout (before bouncing back to merely awful), this might seem like I’m sounding the alarm bell about the wrong market. But it’s not like we’ve never seen an October stock market slump before. ’Tis the season when money managers, eyeing their Oct. 31 fiscal-year-end positions, get nervous and jerky in the knees.

Yes, the Canadian stock market is down 11 per cent since early September, but let’s try to remember that this was after rising 23 per cent in the 12 months prior. This is normal and manageable. A standard-order correction in stocks, even if it’s a sudden and dramatic one, is not likely to undermine Canada’s economic recovery.

But oil just might.

The undisputed champion of fossil fuels is falling like a skydiver with an anvil parachute; down 15 per cent in a little over two weeks, nearly 25 per cent in the past four months. The statement that makes about the spiralling gloom over the global economy is bad enough in itself.

In Alberta, anxiety grows over declining oil prices – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – October 16, 2014)

October 17, 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.

CALGARY — Alberta’s oil patch and government are watching nervously as the slump in world oil markets threatens the province’s economic boom.

The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, a grade used as a benchmark in pricing, fell slightly to $81.78 (U.S) a barrel on Wednesday, extending a recent rout that has taken it down 10 per cent this month alone. Oil prices have tumbled as the demand for crude in major economies has fallen and producing countries have stared each other down, refusing to cut output for fear of losing market share.

For Alberta, the oil plunge is rekindling bitter memories. In the financial crisis of late 2008 and early 2009, skidding oil prices and a credit crunch forced the Canadian industry to cancel or shelve as much as $90-billion (Canadian) worth of energy expansion plans, many in the oil sands. At the time, WTI sank below $40 (U.S.) a barrel.

Suddenly, some high-cost projects in Alberta are again at risk, and sustained weak pricing could hamper the industry’s current forecast for oil sands output to double over the next decade. Any cutbacks will reverberate through the Alberta economy, which has driven economic growth in Canada in recent years.

Energy prices weigh “extremely heavily” on the whole Alberta economy, said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Canada By Design: A plan to develop the ‘Mid-Canada Corridor’ – Anna Maria Tremonti interviews John van Nostrand (CBC The Current – October 15, 2014)

October 16, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

Click here for a 27 minute interview: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/10/15/canada-by-design-a-plan-to-develop-the-mid-canada-corridor/

We Canadians mostly live in the words of humorist Arthur Black, like weather-stripping along the U.S. border. But North of our Southern metropolises and still South of the treeline lurks an economic sweet spot. Our series By Design considers the Mid-Canada Corridor, home to up to 70 per cent of Canada’s wealth but not a lot of its people.

Humourist Stephen Leacock wrote that he’d likely never go to James Bay, but he’d somehow feel lonely if it wasn’t there. Perhaps its the north that should feel lonely since so few Canadians live there. Today, as part of our ongoing project ;By Design, about design and the impact it has in our lives, we’re taking a look at the possibility of design on a national scale. Most of us Canadians live within a couple hours’ drive of the U.S. border. Vast stretches of Canada — full of resources — remain scarcely populated. John van Nostrand thinks that should change.

Mining deals a positive sign, but bankers and lawyers still skeptical – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 15, 2014)

October 15, 2014

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

TORONTO – The past couple of weeks provided a jolt that the Canadian mining industry’s bankers and lawyers have awaited for a long time.

But is it sustainable? Insiders are far from convinced. Since the start of October, there have been two sizeable private equity mining deals announced, plus a US$1.8-billion asset sale and related financing that got a better reception from the market than almost anyone imagined.

While mining M&A has moved along at a decent pace this year, these transactions stood out from the pack. Private equity, for one, has been the talk of the mining business for months. There have been predictions that a wave of private equity investment is set to pour into the cash-needy sector and give it a lift, but those deals simply have not materialized the way the industry expected.

Two transactions this month gave Canadian miners some renewed hope: Magris Resources Inc.’s private equity-backed $500-million acquisition of the Niobec mine in Quebec, and a $73-million takeover of Chaparral Gold Corp. involving private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management LP.

Outside of private equity, the big announcement was Lundin Mining Corp.’s US$1.8-billion purchase of Freeport-Mcmoran Inc’s 80% stake in the Candelaria mining complex in Chile. To get the deal done, Lundin arranged a complex US$2.2-billion financing package.