www.bloomberg.com

For all the acquisitions being struck in the mining industry, no company in North America is a cheaper takeover candidate than Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

The biggest North American iron-ore producer yesterday sold for 6.4 times its cash from operations, after deducting capital expenses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was less than every other metals or mining company in the U.S. or Canada exceeding $5 billion in market value, and a 70 percent discount to the median. Cleveland-based Cliffs, which analysts say will generate record sales in 2012, was also the least expensive relative to its estimated net income this year and next.

Mining takeovers accelerated to a four-year high in 2011 as companies sought to replace deposits and industrial growth in China and the developing world fueled demand for raw materials. With Glencore International Plc and Xstrata Plc (XTA) agreeing to merge to create a $90 billion global mining company, Cliffs may attract interest from BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) or Rio Tinto Group, Lutetia Capital said. An acquirer could pay a 30 percent premium and still get Cliffs for less than any comparable publicly traded mining company versus its free cash flow, the data show. Read the rest of this entry »

Mining Weekly is South Africa’s premier source of weekly news on mining developments in Africa’s most important industry. Mining Weekly provides in-depth coverage of mining projects and the personalities reshaping the mining industry.

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Natural Resources Canada minister Joe Oliver on Tuesday continued his crusade to cut down on environmental approval timelines for major projects, to encourage the potential C$92-billion in mining investment the government sees over the next ten years.

Oliver made specific mention of the chromite and nickel projects underway in Ontario’s Ring of Fire district, saying he hoped Cliffs Natural Resources’ Black Thor deposit and Noront Resources’ Eagle’s Nest project make their way through the regulatory processes without hitches.

Cleveland-based Cliffs said earlier this month that it could cost nearly $1-billion to build a mine and a concentrator at Black Thor, where it is carrying out a prefeasibility study, to produce one-million tons of export chromite ore concentrate and 600 000 t of ferrochrome. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Mining Innovation Council Signature Event 2012″ brings together industry, academic and government decision-makers to discuss the need for innovation in mining in Canada. 

“…so I’d like to take a moment to talk about the Ring of Fire, a
relatively new mining region in the James Bay lowlands….For Ontario, this area is of strategic importance since it could open up the entire region to greater prosperity.  It has significant potential to create wealth, and provide taxes and royalties for government.”  (Joe Oliver, Minister Natural Resources Canada)

The Hon. Joe Oliver: 

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.  Thank you also for all your good work and your leadership of this important council. 

Et sincère remerciement au Conseil canadien d’innovation minière pour l’occasion de prendre part à la discussion de ce matin. 

Thank you very much to the Canadian Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) for the opportunity to be part of the discussion this morning.  It’s an honour to be here on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  As Canada’s Minister responsible for mining, I take pride in being part of this network of industry, government and academic leaders who are working together to strengthen Canada’s role as a global leader in mining innovation.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Cliffs Natural Resources said Friday it still plans to open a chromite mine and plant by 2015, despite claims by a Conser vative MPP that development of the so-called Ring of Fire area has been pushed back to 2016.

“There has been no changes for the Ring of Fire chromite project timeline established by Cliffs,” said Patricia Persico, a Cliffs Natural Resources spokeswoman, when contacted by The Star.

Earlier Friday, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli accused the McGuinty government of mismanaging the Ring of Fire, a huge, mineral-rich tract of land in Northern Ontario.

Fedeli said development of the Ring of fire has been delayed to 2016 from 2015, and he blamed the provincial government and its Ring of Fire coordinator, Christine Kaszycki. Read the rest of this entry »

This article originaly came from India media: http://www.orissadiary.com/

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded a complete ban on its exports with immediate effect. In a letter to Union Minister of Mines Dinsha Patel, the Chief Minister on Wednesday urged him to stop chrome ore export in order to provide raw material security to the end-user industries in the country.

Patnaik has warned that the country may soon run out of the costly steelmaking input if its export is not stopped. CM in his letter mentioned about the Dang Committee report. He said the Dang Committee , set up by the Union Ministry of Steel in 2005, had also, in its report, favoured a total curb on exports of the mineral citing the country’s paltry reserve base, which is mostly confined to the Sukinda Valley and Baula regions in Odisha. If the exports continue, the mineral reserves may not last more than 20 years.

Patnaik said since India has barely 1 per cent of the world’s total medium and high-grade chrome ore reserves, it cannot afford to lose the mineral. According to available data, India had roughly 66 million tonnes of chromite reserve and nearly 95 per cent of these reserves are located in Odisha.

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli said the provincially-appointed Ring of Fire coordinator admitted to him that she has never set foot on the burgeoning mineral exploration camp in the James Bay lowlands.

He is accusing the McGuinty government of mismanaging the Ring of Fire mining development in the James Bay lowlands. Kaszycki was a guest speaker at a professional engineers luncheon in North Bay, Jan. 27.

Fedeli, who attended the event as the Ontario Progressive Conservative Energy Critic, introduced himself to Kaszycki and spoke of his experience in the exploration camp last year. He flew up to the region with Muskoka MPP Norm Miller last August for one day to tour the area.

The Ring of Fire is roughly 530 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay and is the site of a cluster of world class, multi-generational chromite deposits. Chromite is processed into ferrochrome which is used in the making of stainless steel. Read the rest of this entry »

This news release was issued by Ontario Conservative Vic Fedeli who is the MPP for Nipissing.

January 27, 2012

Government Coordinator Never Been to Site

NORTH BAY – Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli chastised the McGuinty government Friday for mismanaging the vital Ring of Fire mining development in Northern Ontario and causing unnecessary delays.

The development schedule for the major companies has already been pushed back a year to 2016. Today, Dalton McGuinty’s Ring of Fire coordinator, Dr. Christine Kaszycki, admitted to Fedeli at a conference in North Bay that she has NEVER stepped foot on the site.

“I was shocked to learn that she has never set foot in the Ring of Fire. No wonder this project is stalled!” exclaimed Fedeli, who toured the site himself last summer and is working to arrange a sales trip for local firms there this spring. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Cliffs Natural Resources expects public and private investment in a transportation corridor to process and export Ring of Fire chromite.

After additional pre-feasibility of its chromite projects in the James Bay lowlands, the Ohio-based international miner said it intends to produce 1 million annual tons of chromite ore concentration for export, on top of its original 600,000 tons of ferrochrome.

Cliffs owns three properties in the Ring of Fire, including its flagship Black Thor project, which it expects to have in production by 2015. The company released its 2012 capital expenditure plan, Jan. 19.

Preliminary project estimates peg the mine development at US $150 million, a nearby concentrating plant at $800 million, with a ferrochrome processing facility of a whopping $1.8 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

Ontario Government Far North Act Coloring Book

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

Click Here for the: Far North Act Colouring Book

The Far North of Ontario and in particular, the Far North Act, has generated a contentious set of policy issues for Ontario’s government.  For the uninformed, the Far North Act is a process for community-based land use planning and development, that is also setting aside from development an interconnected area of conservation lands of at least 225,000 square kilometres — an area that is about 20 per cent of the landmass of Ontario.

To put it into context, it is an area about twice the size of southern Ontario — which represents only about 10 per cent of Ontario’s land mass.  There is concern about its impact on the long-term development prospects of Northern Ontario and the First Nations in the Region.  A response of the provincial government is that the Act has been misunderstood and needs to be better explained.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Cliffs Natural Resources is looking to spend close to $3 billion to get its chromite project in Northern Ontario into production, with $1.8 billion of that going to build a ferrochrome processing plant, the company said this week.

Cleveland-based Cliffs released its 2012 capital expenditure plan Thursday.

The company said it will spend $150 million to develop the Black Thor mine site, one of three sites it controls in the Ring of Fire, and $800 million to construct a near-mine concentrating plant.

Not included in those estimates is $600 million to build an all-weather road it says will benefit remote northern communities and other Ring of Fire mining projects.

Because of that, Cliffs says it will be looking to private and “government entities” to share the cost of the road. Read the rest of this entry »

Company Also Provides Preliminary Capital Estimates for Chromite Project Based on Ongoing Prefeasibility Study

CLEVELAND, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) today announced projected full-year 2012 capital expenditures expectations. Cliffs plans to invest approximately $1 billion, comprised of approximately $300 million of sustaining capital and $700 million of growth and productivity-improvement capital. Cliffs’ 2012 capital budget represents an expected 12% increase over the Company’s 2011 capital expenditures of approximately $880 million. Cliffs indicated this amount was less than its previous estimate of $900 million and an original 2011 budget of $1 billion.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101104/CLIFFSLOGO )

While plans will continue to be reviewed and adjusted in response to changes in market conditions and other factors, Cliffs’ 2012 capital budget is primarily intended to fund the organic growth pipeline the Company has acquired through the completion of a number of strategic transactions in recent years. These transactions have meaningfully diversified Cliffs’ business and provided the Company significant exposure to customers outside of its historical North American steelmaking customer base. Read the rest of this entry »

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

Media reports on the visit yesterday by Quebec based consultants who worked on Quebec’s Plan Nord appear to have emphasized their prescription for more planning and discussion.  The Plan Nord is the Quebec government’s parallel to our own Northern Growth Plan and their plan to develop their own north with anticipated investments of 80 billion dollars and the creation of as many as 20,000 jobs. 

The Mayor of Greenstone was quoted as saying the time for talk had passed and some direct action was needed by the province in getting things going.  On the other hand, according to a report on TBNewswatch:

A pair of Quebec-based consultants, however, have suggested what’s needed is more talk.  It’s worked in Quebec, said Yvan Loubier, a senior consultant for National Public Relations in Quebec City, who has worked with both governments and communities in Northern Quebec to help facilitate a 25-year plan for economic salvation in an area hard hit by many of the same concerns afflicting Northern Ontario, particularly First Nations communities. It didn’t come easily, at least not at first. Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper

Tony Clement says high energy costs in Ontario forces industry to take processing elsewhere

As the federal minister for Northern Economic Development, Tony Clement says he would like to see processing of minerals from the Ring of Fire done in Northern Ontario.

However, Clement says it is up to the provincial government to make that happen. Officials with Cliffs Natural Resources, a Cleveland-based company looking to develop a chromite mine within the James Bay lowlands, have publicly expressed interest in doing some of the processing in Asia.

“We’d like to see more of the processing here but one of the major impediments are energy costs,” Clement said during a stopover in Timmins on Monday. “That’s Mr. (Dalton) McGuinty’s bailiwick. He’s got to do his job as premier of this province to get energy costs more in line.” Read the rest of this entry »

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Laying the groundwork

A former provincial energy minister-turned-consultant said First Nations will have the ultimate say on how the Ring of Fire mineral developments will unfold, and that includes the location of a proposed ferrochrome smelter.

George Smitherman is pitching for the furnaces to be located in the northwestern Ontario municipality of Greenstone, and the village of Exton, which is already designated as a future ore transloading junction.

Cliffs Natural Resources has maintained Sudbury is the frontrunner among four Northern Ontario communities to land the processing plant, and its 400-plus jobs, but only if provincial power rates are competitive with neighbouring jurisdictions. The international miner is expected to name the site for the plant sometime this year.

“If the company persists in seeing the decision narrowly on the basis of power, then this has great project risk.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Maureen Arges Nadin is a contributor to The Chronicle-Journal.

Every grade school student in Ontario learns that mining is one of the major industries of Northwestern Ontario. But beyond getting a good grade in social studies, most of us never give it more than a passing thought or fully appreciate its importance to the economy and culture of this region.

The mining industry is a strong and rock-solid presence in this area and regularly hums with activity. But most of that activity flies under the radar of every-day folks, who may not have a direct involvement with the industry.

But developments in the provocatively named Ring of Fire have awakened a new-found interest in the mining sector. People are paying attention, and inspired by the promise of renewed activity and jobs, they are looking to enhance their knowledge of mining in Northwestern Ontario.

Thunder Bay has a strong connection to the mining sector, and since the Hemlo gold discoveries in the 1980s, it has served as the regional service hub for the exploration and mining sectors. Read the rest of this entry »