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 Harper government weathered a storm when it cut funding to long-standing foreign-aid groups, but is now facing more controversy over its decision to launch development projects in partnership with mining firms.

The Canadian International Development Agency has established three foreign-aid pilot projects in Africa and South America with large mining corporations, as part of a plan to ensure that foreign aid also fuels economic growth and international trade at home.

Critics argue that Canada is needlessly subsidizing the foreign operations of profitable corporations, but the government is encouraging non-governmental organizations to come up with more projects with the private sector. 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.

Playing favourites

Backed by a driving soundtrack, the commercial starts with a swooping aerial shot of the Cana­dian wilderness, the narrative alternating slow-motion shots of young people hard at work with massive machines biting chunks out of the rugged Canadian landscape.

And then comes the voiceover: “Canada: a country rich in natural resources. Rio Tinto: a global leader with over a century of experience in transforming these resources for the products we all need.”

It’s slick, it’s seductive, and it’s modern: this is recruitment in 2011.

Rio Tinto is currently undergoing a nationwide recruitment campaign to fill the hundreds of positions available with its company. Aside from the TV spot, which recently reached more than 5,000 views on YouTube, the company is using social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, along with a dedicated recruitment website, to attract the right applicants. Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Mills is host of www.aheadoftheherd.com and invests in the junior resource sector.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information 

Miners are looking to enter the potash business, or expand existing operations, as they look for increased demand from developing nations such as China, India and Brazil. 

BHP Billiton – In the spring of 1869 a German Chemist named Charles Rasp immigrated to Australia for his health. Unable to find work in his chosen trade Charles learned to ride a horse and began wrangling sheep. One day, while out riding his horse at Broken Hill, he discovered mineralized rock. He took out a mining lease, punched holes in the ground and eventually found rich veins of silver. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company – BHP – was incorporated in 1885 while mining silver and lead at Broken Hill in western New South Wales. 

Billiton was a mining company that got its start in September 1860 when the articles of association were approved by a meeting of shareholders in the Groot Keizerhof Hotel in The Hague, Netherlands. Shortly afterwards the company acquired the mineral rights to the tin-rich islands of Banka and Billiton off the eastern coast of Sumatra.  Read the rest of this entry »

Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/

Part 2 of 2

Critics — and even a key state agency — say the state isn’t getting enough in exchange for the wealth of minerals about to be extracted from the Upper Peninsula.

The state has no severance tax on minerals, as it does on oil, gas and iron mines. The tax is a way to repay Michigan citizens for the value of underground resources removed forever from the state. The state also doesn’t auction mineral leases, as it does for oil and gas.

And finally, the state is getting only paltry sums from its future mines in fees and bonds for permits, potential cleanup costs and oversight.

Financial loopholes in mining are costing the state, some say

When Kennecott Eagle Minerals applied for a permit for its new mine near Big Bay, it paid what state law requires for its application fee: $5,000. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

MONTREAL - A couple of years after it laid off 14,000 workers around the world, global mining giant Rio Tinto has launched a mini hiring spree in Canada, mainly due to its modernization projects.

The Anglo-Australian company is actively searching to hire more than 210 workers for mining and manufacturing in alumina, aluminum, iron ore, diamonds and titanium dioxide.

“We launched the campaign to help our ongoing recruitment efforts for our modernization and expansion projects,” Rio Tinto spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email. Rio Tinto employs more than 13,000 people at 35 sites in Canada.

The company has turned to Facebook and YouTube, posting a four-minute promotional video showing operations such as the Diavik Diamond Mine, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane, and Rio Tinto Alcan.

Daniel Jaeb is an Underground Miner at Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories. Local, northern and Aboriginal, he received training and certification in underground mining through the North’s Mine Training Society. He enjoys the many pastimes that come with living in Canada’s North.

Read the rest of this entry »

Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/

Part 1 of 2

BIG BAY — In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it’s drill, baby, drill. The drilling that began there in September is not for oil, but for gold, silver, copper and nickel. In a resurgence of mining in the region whose mineral heyday was more than a century ago, foreign companies are finding rich bodies of ore they hope to mine for billions of dollars.

New technology and higher prices for metals are making mining profitable again, spurred by increases in demand for high-tech gadgets such as smartphones, kitchens full of stainless steel appliances and hybrid cars — all of which use the metals that can be found in the U.P.

Three new mines are either under way or planned, with more possible. Also, an abandoned mill to process ore is expected to reopen. Mineral rights on more than 1 million of the U.P.’s 7 million acres have been leased by companies prospecting for metals. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: Australian Institute of Company Directors – Sydney, Australia

Jan du Plessis – Rio Tinto Chairman

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It is a real pleasure to be with you today. 

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to elders past and present.

I first visited Sydney in November 1991 and, over the course of several subsequent visits, fell in love with the place.  Twenty years later, having travelled around the world more than I care to remember, I still believe this is the most beautiful city in the world. 

Now, before anybody says Sydney is not Australia, let me assure you that over the last two-and-a-half years since becoming Chairman of Rio Tinto, I have seen quite a lot of your country.  And my visits have not been confined to stopping over in most of your major cities.  I have visited several coal mines and (I confess) vineyards in the Hunter Valley;  more coal mines in Queensland; and paid visits to our alumina refineries, aluminium smelters and other facilities in and around Gladstone.  Read the rest of this entry »

Published by New Vanguard Media, The Global Commodities Report is a digital magazine about the benefits of resource business.

The Kitimat aluminum smelter was built smack in the middle of the claimed traditional territory of the Haisla First Nation back in the oblivious 1950s. With a $2.5 billion upgrade in the works, it was time to re-engineer the social relationship as well.

A long overdue formal agreement, called the “Haisla Nation – Rio Tinto Alcan Legacy Agreement”, has been achieved between Rio Tinto Alcan, the owner and operator of the aluminum smelter at Kitimat, British Columbia, and the Haisla First Nation, both of whom reside at the headwaters of the Douglas Channel in northwestern BC.

While the first relationship protocol and series of meetings between the parties began just over a decade ago, the current relationship took work, but both parties ratified the 30-year renewable agreement in support of the aluminum operations at Kitimat. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Iron ore was the one commodity left largely unscathed in the recent market rout, until now. The price of the key industrial commodity, which is used to make steel, has slumped in recent weeks and is expected to keep dropping as demand falls on a weakening Chinese economy and fallout from the European debt crisis.

Steel mills have been cutting iron ore purchases as they curb production, while major iron ore producers such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto PLC move forward with plans to ramp up output of the mineral.

The combination of lower demand and increased supply is putting pressure on iron ore prices, which had held steady even as other key industrial metals such as copper and aluminum were in freefall. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Brenda Bouw is the Globe and Mail mining reporter.

A battle is shaping up between global mining giant Rio Tinto PLC and Canada’s Cameco Corp. over a promising uranium explorer in Saskatchewan, with Cameco under pressure to win as it seeks to double production of its single resource.

London-based Rio has struck a friendly deal to buy Hathor Exploration Ltd. for $578-million or $4.15 a share, topping Cameco’s hostile offer of $3.75 a share made in late August.

The companies are vying for control of Hathor’s assets in the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, where about 20 per cent of the world’s uranium is produced. Both bids come as the price of uranium, used to fuel nuclear power plants, struggles to recover from a slump since the nuclear crisis in Japan last March caused many countries to re-examine their nuclear power programs.

With the long-range belief that nuclear energy will expand in key growth countries such as China and India, Rio is looking to expand its existing uranium operations in Australia and Africa. Its offer for Hathor is the first Rio has made for a Canadian company since its ill-timed purchase of Montreal-based aluminum producer Alcan in 2007, on the eve of the global recession. Read the rest of this entry »

19 October 2011

• Rio Tinto to make an all-cash offer for all the common shares of Hathor for C$4.15 per common share, representing a premium of more than 55 per cent to Hathor’s unaffected closing price on 25 August 2011.

• Hathor’s board unanimously recommends shareholders accept the Rio Tinto offer.

• Hathor directors and senior management have entered into lock-up agreements with Rio Tinto and have agreed to tender all of their common shares to the Rio Tinto offer.

• The acquisition of Hathor bolsters Rio Tinto’s global uranium strategy and complements its current exploration programmes in Saskatchewan and its uranium operations elsewhere in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

The Winnipeg Free Press is the oldest newspaper in western Canada and has the largest readership in the province of Manitoba.

MONTREAL - A couple of years after it laid off 14,000 workers around the world, global mining giant Rio Tinto has launched a mini hiring spree in Canada, mainly due to its modernization projects.

The Anglo-Australian company is actively searching to hire more than 210 workers for mining and manufacturing in alumina, aluminum, iron ore, diamonds and titanium dioxide.

“We launched the campaign to help our ongoing recruitment efforts for our modernization and expansion projects,” Rio Tinto spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email. Rio Tinto employs more than 13,000 people at 35 sites in Canada.

The company has turned to Facebook and YouTube, posting a four-minute promotional video showing operations such as the Diavik Diamond Mine, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane, and Rio Tinto Alcan. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

MINING REPORTER- Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.is battling back against moves by the Mongolian government to secure a larger chunk of the promising Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project, but investors are bailing out.

The Vancouver-based miner said it expects Mongolia to honour a 2009 investment agreement giving the country a 34-per-cent stake in Oyu Tolgoi for 30 years. Ivanhoe holds the remaining 66-per-cent interest. The company’s stock lost about one-fifth of its value on Monday before recovering about half that loss to close.

Ivanhoe shares were already under pressure, falling nearly 20 per cent last week as Mongolia started to signal its interest in upping its stake to as much as 50 per cent.

Ivanhoe said the existing ownership agreement of Oyu Tolgoi is legally binding and “deserves and requires the unqualified support of all parties.” It also warned that revising the deal, signed after six years of negotiations, could harm Mongolia’s reputation as a desirable place to invest. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, we formed a key strategic partnership with world leading researchers to    create the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction in Sudbury, Ontario. This $10 million initiative will focus on innovative, rapid mine construction, and ground control for mining at depth. The centre has become a key part in our set of five long-term Rio Tinto research centres around the world. (Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese – April 7, 2011)

Location: Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, Montreal (April 7, 2011)

Introduction

Bonjour. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Michel, for your kind introduction.

What I would like to do today is share with you my view of Rio Tinto’s world. It is a world of strong markets – today with China, tomorrow with India and other parts of the world – and constrained mineral supply. I also want to talk about what it all means for Canada.

Before proceeding though, I must confess that as today’s luncheon drew near, it occurred to me there might be some connection between my scheduled appearances at your functions, and the onset of global turmoil.

I last had the privilege of addressing this audience in late October 2008 when, as I’m sure you recall, we were in the midst of the global financial crisis. To make matters even more challenging, Rio Tinto was also the target of a hostile takeover bid. Notwithstanding my optimism about longer-term trends, the past three years have confirmed we continue to live in an uncertain and volatile world.

Rio Tinto has been through some challenging times. So has the team that I lead. But the challenges met have made for a stronger company, a stronger team, and stronger individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

This speech was given by Sam Walsh – Rio Tinto Chief Executive, Iron Ore & Australia – at the Metal Bulletin Conference, Beijing, China on March 24, 2011.

Thank you Mr Li.

Before I start, I would like to acknowledge the recent tragic events in Japan, as a result of the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami.

The unfolding story has been most graphic and the human, business and social costs just extraordinary.  Many of you here today will have close links with Japan and our sympathies go out to them at this difficult time.

The past year has been a remarkable one, notable not only for the steady emergence from the global financial crisis but also the domestic challenges thrown up by government taxation issues and greenhouse gas schemes. In our business, it is difficult enough to manage the manageable, and with such huge investments of risk capital at stake, it is important to get the policy settings right and then stick to them.

The global scene has also shifted, with several major producers altering their marketing arrangements such that pricing of iron ore moved away from the annual benchmark negotiations we had relied on for many years to a new, not altogether settled quarterly pricing system we have now.

Time will tell if it remains the preferred means of matching buyers with producers while also incentivising sufficient new supply to meet global needs. Read the rest of this entry »