Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 307

U.S. coal firm launches NAFTA suit against Alberta over coal phase-out – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2018)

November 20, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A U.S. coal miner is launching a NAFTA suit against Alberta over its policy to phase out coal in the electricity system by 2030, saying it is entitled to the same compensation for losses at mines in the province as Canadian firms received.

Denver-based Westmoreland Coal Co. served a statement of claim to the Canadian and Alberta governments on Monday, arguing the provincial New Democrats violated the North American free-trade agreement by compensating Canadian-owned utilities but not the U.S. mining company for losses related to its 2015 coal phase-out plan. Under NAFTA, the federal government is the formal respondent in such claims and ultimately responsible for any arbitration award.

The company has seven mines in Canada – five in Alberta and two in Saskatchewan – which it bought in 2013 from Sherritt International Corp. for $465-million. It has invested $98-million in its Canadian operations, and assumed more than $100-million in liabilities, including reclamation obligations, the company’s chief legal officer, Jennifer Grafton, said in an interview on Monday. It is demanding $500-million in compensation for losses at its Alberta mines.

Alberta oil price collapse raises fears of economic contagion – by David Berman (Globe and Mail – November 17, 2018)

November 20, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It isn’t just Alberta’s problem now. The plummeting price of Canadian heavy crude oil has been a source of of rising anxiety in Calgary and misery for investors in the energy sector. But it is more than that. As the downturn deepens, it’s becoming a cause of worry for the entire domestic economy, and for government finances that haven’t fully recovered yet from the oil crash of 2014 to 2016.

The numbers are extraordinary. This week, the country’s heavy-oil benchmark, Western Canadian Select (WCS), fell to US$13.46 per barrel, lower than at any point during the oil recession of several years ago.

Jim Gray, a veteran of Canada’s energy sector and chairman of the energy group at Brookfield Asset Management Inc., offers another eye-popping figure to describe the potential damage: By some calculations, total government revenue from royalties and taxable income related to heavy oil could fall by $10-billion. That works out to about $700 per Canadian household. But that’s only one fairly narrow measure of the costs.

Winning Teck’s Copper Mine Prize May Come Down to More Than Cash – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg – November 19, 2018)

November 19, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

With the second round of bids to secure a piece of Teck Resources Ltd.’s $4.7 billion copper expansion expected in the coming weeks, victory may come down to more than price.

Teck, which owns 90 percent of Quebrada Blanca in northern Chile, would like to sell a 30 to 40 percent stake to an outside investor. With the copper market widely forecast to go into deficit as soon as this year and the number of attractive new mine projects limited worldwide, interest in the sale is expected to be high, especially among Asian trading houses and existing mining companies.

“You either want someone with mining experience or potential off-take agreements,” Jeremy Sussman, an analyst at Clarksons Platou Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “I think the good news for Teck is they’ll have both of those types heavily involved in bidding.”

Barrick Gold eyes assets, exploration as it plots new phase – by Susan Taylor and Zandi Shabalala (Reuters/Yahoo – November 16, 2018)

November 19, 2018

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp, soon to become the world’s largest bullion miner, is interested in adding more copper assets as long as the red metal is accompanied by bullion, executives said on Friday.

Barrick, which expects to complete its $6.1 billion takeover of Randgold Resources Jan. 1, outlined plans for exploration, expansion, streamlining and asset sales at an investor presentation in London.

Structured under regions in North America, South America and Africa and the Middle East, Barrick spent the last four days focusing on where to take the merged company, said Randgold Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow, who will be Barrick’s new CEO.

Barrick Gold in talks to sell Lagunas Norte mine in Peru – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 17, 2018)

November 19, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is in talks to sell its Lagunas Norte gold mine in Peru with a sale announcement possible before the end of the year.

Mark Hill, chief operating officer, Latin America and Australia Pacific, with Barrick, made the comments about Lagunas on Friday during a webcast alongside executives from Randgold Resources Ltd., which Barrick is in the process of acquiring.

Earlier this year, Barrick’s executive chairman, John Thornton, said the Toronto-based gold miner intended to sell assets that weren’t strategic or tier-one and included Lagunas as an example. He defined tier-one as a property that produces at least half a million ounces of gold a year, has a life of more than 10 years and is low cost.

Supreme Court to hear latest challenge in dispute between Innu and Rio Tinto (Canadian Press/CBC News – November 15, 2018)

November 16, 2018

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Innu launched the lawsuit in 2013, seeking $900 million in compensation

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear an appeal over jurisdiction in the latest stage of a long-running effort by Innu First Nations to sue mining giant Rio Tinto.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador launched the appeal after Quebec’s highest court ruled that the Innu of Uashat and of Mani-Utenam and others could sue the company and its Iron Ore Co. of Canada subsidiary through Quebec courts.

The attorney general of Newfoundland and Labrador has argued that Quebec courts are without jurisdiction in the matter because the mining operations are in Labrador.

Boom times ahead for Yukon and Nunavut, but not N.W.T., report says (CBC News Canada North – November 15, 2018)

November 16, 2018

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

New mines will mean strong economies in Yukon and Nunavut until 2025, Conference Board of Canada says

Good times are in store for Yukon and Nunavut in the coming years, according to a new economic analysis by the Conference Board of Canada. N.W.T., not so much.

The board’s economic forecast for the territories, released Thursday, predicts strong growth in Yukon and Nunavut between now and 2025, saying the two territories will outpace much of the country in terms of growth. The N.W.T.’s economy, however, is expected to contract over that period, making that territory one of the weakest economic performers in the country, the board says.

The territorial forecast is based on a number of factors, including government spending, consumer behaviour, and population trends, but the main determinant for northern economies is still mining activity.

Abandoned Canadian silver mines could boom again as battery demand prompts gold rush in cobalt – by Peter Armstrong (CBC News Business – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Cobalt, Ont., could could be sitting on a gold mine — of cobalt — to help power electric cars, phones

The flooded bottom of an abandoned silver mine is an unlikely source of hope. But down there in the flickering light, a once worthless metal known as cobalt has sat idle for decades. Now it’s one of the most sought after metals in the world and that has many in this town in northern Ontario dreaming of boom times once again.

A century ago, prospectors came to Cobalt, Ont., in search of silver. They found it, and the town boomed. Amid all the silver, miners also found cobalt. So much that they named the town after it. Back then though, it was a mere indicator, a sign that something of actual value was nearby.

Now, all that ignored and discarded cobalt is the town’s best hope. “The potential here is huge,” says Frank Basa, chief executive officer of Canada Cobalt Works. Cobalt the metal has had a spectacular run over the past few years. And now Cobalt the town is poised to cash in.

‘They were just tired’: Embattled Tahoe Resources sells out to create world’s biggest silver miner – by Garbriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018

https://business.financialpost.com/

In a deal that highlights the importance of social licence in mining, Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. announced Wednesday it will purchase Tahoe Resources Inc., seizing the moment to buy a company whose stock has been in freefall amid ongoing controversies in the communities in which it operates.

Under the terms of the US$1.1 billion deal, Pan American will pay up to US$275 million in cash and an additional US$800 million in shares. That values Tahoe shares at US$3.40 — a 35 per cent premium on its 20-day volume-weighted average price — or 0.2403 of a Pan American share per Tahoe share.

Pan American said in a press release that the acquisition would create the largest silver company in the world, and pointed to its own track record of building mines and operating in Latin America — an area where Tahoe has been beset by violent conflict and legal challenges.

Sherritt International sees jump in nickel production and profit – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – November 12, 2018)

November 15, 2018

http://www.mining.com/

Sherritt International, (TSE: S) has released its 2018 Q3 report, and the numbers are up, thanks to the success of the company’s Moa joint venture (JV) with the Cuban Government.

Sherritt specializes in mining and refining of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ores, and the company also has projects and operations in Canada and Madagascar.

Pathe says the jump in numbers was largely due to higher realized nickel and cobalt prices. Cobalt is mined as a by-product of nickel, and acts as a stabilizing component in the lithium-ion battery cell structure. The average-reference price for nickel improved 26% from last year to $6.01/lb while the average-reference price for cobalt increased 22% to reach $35.21/lb.

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver to acquire struggling Tahoe Resources in US$1.1-billion deal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. is buying U.S. competitor Tahoe Resources Inc. in an unusually structured US$1.1-billion deal aimed at resurrecting struggling Tahoe.

Nevada-based Tahoe’s shares soared nearly 50 per cent after the deal was announced Wednesday. The company’s shares had been trading near an all-time low and it has been under severe selling pressure from shareholders since last year when it was forced to stop production at its flagship mine in Guatemala after a legal setback.

In July, 2017, the Supreme Court of Guatemala suspended Tahoe’s licence at its Escobal silver mine after ruling local Indigenous populations weren’t adequately consulted before the licence was issued.

Environmental groups call on federal government to protect caribou in northern Ontario – by Nicole Thompson (Canadian Press/Global News – November 14, 2018)

November 15, 2018

https://globalnews.ca/

TORONTO — Three environmental groups are calling on the federal government to protect boreal caribou in northern Ontario, saying a decade of mismanagement by the province has put the animals increasingly at risk.

The David Suzuki Foundation, Ontario Nature and the Wildlands League issued a petition to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna this week, requesting that she recommend federal cabinet issue what’s known as a “safety net order” under the Species at Risk Act for two boreal caribou populations about 120 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

The move would prevent damage to or destruction of 65 per cent of the caribou populations’ habitats — the amount of undisturbed land that the federal government said in a 2012 report would give the animals a 60 per cent shot at becoming self-sustaining.

Generations Of Miners Face The Future Of Automation Deep Underground – by Mary Katherine Keown (HuffPost Canada/Thet Canada.com – November 13, 2018)

November 14, 2018

https://www.thetcanada.com/

A proud third-generation miner, Mickey O’Brien enjoys the every day grind of taking that deep dive to the centre of the earth. A miner at Vale’s Copper Cliff Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, O’Brien works 10-hour shifts. After suiting up and assembling, he and his coworkers break into a number of crews to start the new and soiled process of gnawing away on the earth greater than 1.5 km underground.

“I am on haulage,” O’Brien says. “Proper now I am driving a grader, however I am being skilled on a picker, so if we’ve massive chunks after a blast, the news will put them apart and I drill holes in them and I blow them up, and the news will come and decide them up. Cool, eh?”

A proud labour rights activist, he considers a lot of his colleagues — most of whom are members of Steelworkers Native 6500 — to be brothers and sisters. “I have been engaged on Inco property since I used to be 18 and I am 38 now,” he says, referencing the title of his firm earlier than it was purchased out by Vale in 2006.

In EV era, Brookfield and Caisse place $13-billion bet on conventional car battery maker – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 14, 2018)

November 14, 2018

https://business.financialpost.com/

Electric vehicles will make up 15 per cent of all auto sales in a decade — that still leaves 85 per cent of the market to traditional cars

The rapid growth of the electric vehicle industry may be drawing headlines, but when it comes to drawing major investments, the internal combustion engine remains on solid footing.

In a deal that highlights the breadth of the traditional automotive industry, two Canadian investment funds on Tuesday announced a US$13.2-billion deal to purchase the leading global manufacturer of lead-acid batteries.

Toronto-based asset manager Brookfield Business Partners and pension manager Caisse de dêpôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) along with other investors will jointly acquire 100 per cent of Ireland-based Johnson Controls’ automotive business — which shipped 154 million automotive lead-acid batteries in 2017.

Amid mining slump, industry veteran Sean Roosen sees light at the end of the tunnel – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2018)

November 13, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sean Roosen’s motto is “SUDS.” It stands for “shut up and drill, stupid!” The mining executive says it’s a message his industry needs to embrace as it battles through another slump.

Environmental protectionism has gone too far, mining permits need to be more easily obtained and there’s too much interference from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which he says “do nothing” for the economy.

The loud, burly career miner is no slick Bay Street executive. He calls himself a “hillbilly.” But he’s someone who people listen to. Mr. Roosen heads up one of a handful of Canadian mining royalty companies, but he’s best known as part of a trio who founded, developed and built Canadian Malartic, Canada’s biggest gold mine. In the process he pioneered a new method of mining that revolutionized the notoriously slow-to-innovate industry.