Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and strategist who writes extensively on the mining sector. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

What a difference a decade makes! Ten years ago, according to many in the Toronto-media, mining was a sunset industry and any modern industrial country/province should not be in such a supposedly “low tech” sector. Some even thought we should let the industry die and allow lesser developed and some politically unstable countries be the primary suppliers of mineral commodities.

At that time, Ontario budgets were only a billion or two in the red, and its manufacturing sector was the cornerstone of a strong economy. Today, emerging markets like China, India are competing with the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other developed nations for access to mineral resources around the world, the basic building blocks of any modern industrialized society. The mining sector has become one of the most strategic sectors of the global economy. And Ontario is a “have-not” province.

Currently, Ontario faces a number of key economic problems including an aging workforce, crumbling infrastructure and provincial budget deficits that will not be able to sustain existing social programs. In addition, the south’s manufacturing might, which supported Ontario’s high standard of living since the 1950s, is under extreme stress due to globalization, a weak U.S. market – the destination of almost 90% of our manufactured goods – and high electricity costs. Read the rest of this entry »

Laurentian University

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

The Sudbury Basin itself, is the third most strategic and richest hardrock
mining centre in the world. The four combined mining clusters found in
Sudbury – mineral operations, education, research and supply and
services – are globally unique. (Stan Sudol-April 6, 2011)

Ontario’s mining industry is facing a perfect storm of skills shortages – mining engineers and geologists – at a time of severe provincial budget constraints. These fiscal problems will only diminish the mineral sector’s post-secondary education programs at a time when global economies are experiencing the most extraordinary demands for metal products in the history of mankind – a commodity super cycle.

According to the Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s (MiHR) 2010 Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecast report, under the baseline scenario the Canadian mining industry will need to hire 100,000 new workers by the end of 2020. This is the number of workers required to fill newly created positions and also to meet replacement demand as workers retire or leave the mining industry.

That forecast represents MiHR’s baseline scenario, if commodity prices perform better than expected (the expansionary scenario), the cumulative hiring requirements could reach nearly 135,000 workers by 2020.

Last month in a speech in Calgary, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada remarked, “Commodity markets are in the midst of a supercycle. …Rapid urbanization underpins this growth. Since 1990, the number of people living in cities in China and India has risen by nearly 500 million, the equivalent of housing the entire population of Canada 15 times over. …Even though history teaches that all booms are finite, this one could go on for some time.” Read the rest of this entry »

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

The Royal Canadian Mint last spring introduced the Victory Anniversary Nickel to commemorate the sacrifices and achievements of our fighting forces in the Second World War. In Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ont., that victory coin has many additional memories, especially for Inco Ltd and its work force. 

During the war years, International Nickel Company of Canada, as it was known back then, and its employees in Sudbury and Port Colborne, supplied 95% of all Allied demands for nickel — a vital raw material critical for our final victory.

In fact, for much of the past century the leading source of this essential metal was the legendary Sudbury Basin; the South Pacific island of New Caledonia came a distant second. Until the mid-seventies, Sudbury supplied up to 90% of world demand during some periods. Read the rest of this entry »

Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway at the turn of the last century

This column was published in the March 17, 2011 issue of Northern Life.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“In the next 25 years, demand for metals could meet or exceed what we have used
since the beginning of the industrial revolution. By way of illustration, China needs to
build three cities larger than Sydney or Toronto every year until 2030 to accommodate
rural to urban growth.” (John McGagh, Rio Tinto – Head of Innovation)

Commodity Super Cycle is Back

The commodity super cycle is back, and with a vengeance. China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and many other developing economies are continuing their rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization. In 2010, China overtook Japan to become the world’s second largest economy and surpassed the United States to become the biggest producer of cars.

During a recent speech in Calgary, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada remarked, “Commodity markets are in the midst of a supercycle. …Rapid urbanization underpins this growth. Since 1990, the number of people living in cities in China and India has risen by nearly 500 million, the equivalent of housing the entire population of Canada 15 times over. …Even though history teaches that all booms are finite, this one could go on for some time.”

At the annual economics conference in Davos, Switzerland, held last January – where the most respected world leaders in politics, economics and academia gather – the consensus was one of enormous global prosperity predicting that, “For only the third time since the Industrial Revolution, the world may be entering a long-term growth cycle that will lift all economies simultaneously…”

John McGagh, head of innovation, at Rio Tinto – the world’s third largest mining company – has said, “In the next 25 years, demand for metals could meet or exceed what we have used since the beginning of the industrial revolution. By way of illustration, China needs to build three cities larger than Sydney or Toronto every year until 2030 to accommodate rural to urban growth. This equates to the largest migration of population from rural to urban living in the history of mankind.”

The isolated Ring of Fire mining camp, located in the James Bay lowlands of Ontario’s far north, is one of the most exciting and possibly the richest new Canadian mineral discovery made in over a generation. It has been compared to both the Sudbury Basin and the Abitibi Greenstone belt, which includes Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Noranda and Val d’Or.

Read the rest of this entry »

This column was originally published in the August 3, 2007 issue of Northern Life.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Emerging economies are growing at record levels

Sometimes when it looks, sounds and walks like a duck…then it is duck! The continuing decline in the price of some metals including nickel has many analysts clucking that this mining boom is over.

That is definitely not the case according to Europe’s top-ranked natural resources investor BlackRock Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Blackrock is one of the world’s largest publicly traded investment management firms with assets of about $1.23 trillion (US). Let me emphasis that the figure is trillion not billion!

Evy Hambro, who manages Blackrock’s World Mining Fund, recently said in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, “We find it astonishing that, six years into a cycle, the analysts are still getting it wrong. They have been too pessimistic for six years in a row and seem to be behaving like desperate gamblers, always betting on the same number.”

According to Hambro, the four emerging giant economies – the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries – will need more oil, aluminum and copper by 2015 than the entire planet used last year. According to current projections, the BRIC countries alone will need 121 percent of oil, 140 percent of aluminum and 105 percent of copper produced globally last year. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was originally published in the June 25, 2006 issue of Northern Life.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Due to pollution concerns, the recent announcement to keep coal-power plants open was not easy for the provincial Liberals, but Ontario is facing power shortages. They had no choice. It was a tough but pragmatic and responsible decision.

The government still plans to replace coal-fired generation as soon as possible without compromising electricity production. Unfortunately, one of the biggest drawbacks is mercury contamination.

Before the GTA’s Lakeview plant closed last year, Ontario’s five coal-fired stations produced about 527 kilograms of mercury which was almost one-third of all mercury emissions in the province.

The McGuinty government has been severely criticized for backing out of its commitment to the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment to reduce toxic mercury discharges by 50 percent – now an unattainable goal. However, there is a solution for mercury pollution. Peat fuel – a biomass energy source-is abundant in Northern Ontario. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was originally published in the March 26, 2006 issue of Northern Life.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

The Ontario government is committed to closing the province’s four coal-fired generating plants by 2009 due to pollution concerns. This will eliminate 6,500 megawatts of power generating capacity, about 20 percent of production. These four power stations cost billions of tax dollars to build, and with regular maintenance, could continue running for decades. As a consequence, Ontario taxpayers will have to needlessly spend billions more to construct new gas-fired generating plants – powered with a very expensive source of energy that is in short supply.

We are entering uncertain times in a new globalized economy where reasonably priced energy is a key factor for investment decisions. Ontario’s manufacturing might is being put at risk with policies that don’t accommodate sensible and sustainable development of local energy sources.

Concerns about high sulphur and mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants are being cost effectively addressed around the world. Many jurisdictions significantly reduce these pollutants by co-firing coal with a variety of locally-derived biomass fuels. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was originally published in the March 3, 2006 issue of Northern Life.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Ireland, well known as the “Celtic Tiger,” has become an industrial showcase for economists around the world. In the early 1970s, one of the most backward regions of Europe began a series of policy initiatives that transformed the country into a knowledge-based economy with a standard of
living higher than the United Kingdom and Canada.

One Irish initiative that could apply to Ontario was an energy policy committed to using indigenous fuel to help offset expensive imports of oil. That local energy source was peat fuel, and surprisingly the largest accessible deposits in the world are in Ontario.

Peat fuel has been a source of heat in Ireland for centuries. Its use for electricity started in the 1950s and supplied just under 40 percent of total power generation by the mid-1960s. Currently, peat fuel supplies about 12 percent of the country’s power needs. Last year, two new peat-fired power plants were opened at a cost of $570 million (US). Read the rest of this entry »

Map Courtsey KWG

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively about the mining industry. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“In the next 25 years, demand for metals could meet or exceed what we have used
since the beginning of the industrial revolution. By way of illustration, China needs to
build three cities larger than Sydney or Toronto every year until 2030 to accommodate
rural to urban growth. This equates to the largest migration of population from rural to
urban living in the history of mankind.” (John McGagh, Rio Tinto – Head of Innovation)

Mining Watch Reputation 

Mining Watch was established in 1999 in response to the actions of Canadian exploration companies operating in Latin America and other jurisdictions in the developing world.

As stated on their website, “MiningWatch Canada … addresses the urgent need for a co-ordinated public interest response to the threats to public health, water and air quality, fish and wildlife habitat and community interests posed by irresponsible mineral policies and practices in Canada and around the world.”

In contrast to many in the mining sector I find a few of Mining Watch’s criticism’s legitimate and they have worked cooperatively with the industry in Ontario. In 2008, Mining Watch in conjunction with the Ontario Mining Association supported the amendment of the Ontario Mining Act that enabled companies to voluntarly rehabilitation mine sites even thought they had no legal requirments to do so. 

Recently, Mining Watch has issued a report titled, “Economic analysis of the Ring of Fire chromite mining play”. It was written by former Sudbury resident and well-known social activist Joan Kuyek. While the report covers a wide range of topics, I would like to focus on some important issues that have been downplayed or omitted, primarily the current state of mining, geo-politics and a history of enormous wealth creation from the mineral sector due to government infrastructure support.  Read the rest of this entry »

(L to R) PIERRE LASSONDE, M.C. and Chairman, Franco-Nevada Corporation; JANET CARDING, Director & CEO, Royal Ontario Museum; KEVIN MACLEAN, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager, Sentry Investments; IAN TELFER, Chairman, Goldcorp Inc.; WILLIAM PUGLIESE, Chairman, IAMGOLD Corporation; PAMELA STRAND, President & CEO, Shear Minerals Ltd.; MICHAEL KENYON, Executive Chairman, Detour Gold Corporation; FEROZ ASHRAF, Executive Vice President, Office of the President, SNC-Lavalin; CLINTON NAUMAN, President & CEO, Alexco Resource Corp. - Keith Houghton Photography

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

2011 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame – Innovation and Wealth Creation

Like the commodity supercycle, he was back again to the delight of a “star-studded” mining crowd at the 23rd Mining Hall of Fame’s annual dinner and induction ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, held recently in Toronto. I am referring to that perennial funny man, Pierre Lassande, Chairman of Franco-Nevada Corporation, who kept the 800-plus guests in stitches with his master of ceremonies commentary.

“I don’t want you to think of yourself as an audience,” Mr. Lassande began. “Think of yourselves as trapped Chilean miners! I promise we’ll get you out of here by Easter.”

He was joined at the head table by some of the top CEOs of Canada’s mining sector including, Don Lindsay of Teck Resources, Aaron Regent of Barrick Gold, Tye Burt of Kinross Gold, Pamela Strand of Shear Mineral and Michael White of IBK Capital Corp., just to mention a few.

Mr. Lassonde continued about the top mining story of the year, if not decade, “For three months they captured a worldwide audience who learned more about mining than we could ever teach them in their life time. … One of them got into a bit of a pickle when both his wife and his mistress showed up on top. He was the only one who was glad to be half a mile underground!”

(L to R) RUSSELL HALLBAUER, President & CEO, Taseko Mines Limited; MICHAEL WHITE, President, IBK Capital Corp.; JULIE LASSONDE, Executive Chairman, Shear Minerals Ltd.; TYE BURT, President & CEO, Kinross Gold Corporation; Hon. BRIAN TOBIN, Executive Chairman and Acting President & CEO, Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines; SEAN BOYD, Vice-Chairman & CEO, Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited; INGRID HIBBARD, President & CEO, Pelangio Exploration; AARON REGENT, President & CEO, Barrick Gold Corporation; DON LINDSAY, President & CEO, Teck Resources Limited; HOWARD STOCKFORD, Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame - - Keith Houghton Photography

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

Michael Winship is a familiar name in Northern Ontario’s hard-rock fraternity

“It’s all about copper at Quadra FNX,” chief operating officer Michael Winship told a packed audience at a lunch presentation hosted by the CIM Toronto branch January 20th.

The red metal, a key indicator of global economic strength, has soared over the past few months from a low of US$2.85/pound in July 2010 to around US$4.35 in January. (It hit an all time low of about US$1.25 in December 2008 during the last recession.)

Winship provided an overview of future investments that the newly merged company will be making in the next few years to take advantage of the booming demand for copper.

In March of 2010, Vancouver-based Quadra Mining Ltd. and Sudbury-based FNX Mining Company Inc. announced a friendly merger that combined Quadra’s open pit and metallurgical expertise and FNX’s underground mining and exploration prowess.

Quadra FNX operates three open pit copper mines in Nevada, Arizona and northern Chile, while its three underground mines, Podelsky, Levack and McCreedy West, are located in the northern range of the Sudbury Basin. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Henderson is editor of Research Money.

“We are attempting to establish a centre of excellence that can compete in the R&D space and collaborate with centres in Brazil and Chile … Our mandate is to establish R&D and innovation excellence in Ontario and Canada by bringing industry money together with people doing research and who can commercialize the work.” – CEMI President and CEO Dr. Peter Kaiser

Boost to growing mining cluster
 
Sudbury’s quest to become a major centre of mining R&D received a significant boost with a decision by Rio Tinto to invest $10 million in a Centre for Underground Mine Construction (CUMC), the fifth and final centre in its global research network. The centre is part of Rio Tinto’s Mine of the Future program as the British-Australian mining giant banks on innovation to transition from open pit to underground mining by developing deeper underground mines to meet soaring demand for minerals.

To be based at the Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), located at Sudbury’s Laurentian Univ, the Rio Tinto centre marks the first time a foreign-based multinational has committed to funding mining R&D through CEMI.

The decision may signal a reversal in Canada’s flagging reputation as an innovative mining nation — a status that has been threatened by a rash of foreign takeovers of some of Canada’s biggest mining enterprises. For instance, the former Falconbridge was acquired by Xstrata based in Zug Switzerland, while Inco was absorbed by Vale Ltd, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Rio Tinto’s CUMC will be set up as a division of CEMI with a steering committee to direct R&D initiatives. Read the rest of this entry »

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

The Yukon Klondike

I have a small complaint about Canadian mining history or more importantly, our media coverage of past gold rushes. The Yukon Klondike gold rush of 1896-1899 seems to take all the glory – thanks to writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Canadian literary icon, Pierre Berton – while northern Ontario’s four globally significant gold/silver discoveries in the first half of the last century do not get the historical respect they deserve.

The initial Klondike discovery, on August 16, 1896, at a fish camp near the junction of the Yukon and Klondike rivers, is credited to George Carmack and his Tagish Indian brothers-in-law, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson (Tagish) Charlie. Robert Henderson, a Nova Scotia prospector is credited as a cofounder, since it was on his advice that the discovery was made, however he made no money from the find.

At the height of the rush, Dawson City, the main staging town at the mouth of the Klondike River had a booming population of about 30,000 and was known as the most cosmopolitan city west of Winnipeg and north of Vancouver.  Due to its isolation, all the claims had been staked by the time most people finally arrived. Some of the most memorable photographs from the period show a thin line of thousands of people climbing the legendary Chilkoot Pass – the shortest but most difficult route to the goldfields – bringing the required year’s supply of food and living material.

Fortunes were made and lost in Dawson City’s “rip-roaring” frontier atmosphere where prostitutes were tolerated and nearly everyone was on the lookout for charlatans and con men. Many became rich just supplying services to the stampeders.  In total, about 12.5 million ounces of gold was produced during this short-lived rush that lasted for less than a decade. Read the rest of this entry »

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

As a child of Polish immigrants who came to Canada after the Second World War and settled in the nickel mining centre of Sudbury, Ontario, I witnessed the stable and prosperous life my parents had due to my father’s life-long employment at Inco Limited. In the mid-seventies, I also had the good fortune to work at Inco’s Clarabell Mill for one year before going to college and spent one summer underground at their Frood-Stobie Mine which help pay for my college education.

So I am always surprised about the bad press and demonization major mining companies receive about their activities in lesser-developed countries and am very concerned about Bill C-300, the proposed federal anti-mining legislation introduced by a Liberal backbencher.

Take for example Barrick Gold’s annual meeting to shareholders in Toronto last April where many protesters gathered to denounce the company’s activities in their home countries. Chairman Peter Munk, is a Hungarian-Jew who escaped his Nazi-occupied homeland in 1944 and immigrated to Canada after the Second World War where he founded Barrick in 1983. During his presentation to shareholders, he had a few choice comments about the anti-mining NGOs.

“By moving into these countries and developing their mines, we provide – way beyond the importance of money – we provide human dignity,” Peter Munk said. “We provide an opportunity for these people to earn their money, rather than hold out their hands and depend on charity.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

Toronto-based Business News Network (BNN) is a Canadian cable television specialty channel owned by CTVglobalmedia. BNN airs business and financial programming and analysis. You can’t go anywhere in Toronto’s financial district without seeing BNN broadcasting on television screens.

On September 17, 2010, BNN Anchor Reporter Andrew Bell, who hosts the very popular Commodities program visited Sudbury and broadcast four separate reports on the city’s globally significant mining sector.

The following description of the Commodities program comes from the BNN website: “From aluminum to zinc and everything in between, join BNN Tuesday through Friday for the latest insight into the hot world of commodities and the companies that produce them, including interviews with mineral and mining entrepreneurs from Canada and around the globe. Whether it’s a gold play in the Andes or a hot offshore oil prospect, BNN has you covered on commodities.”

I must confess that BNN reporter Andrew Bell did a terrific job of explaining the current status of Sudbury’s mining sector. Two key points that were highlighted are that Sudbury’s mining sector is world-class and will still be in operation for a least another hundred years and that the local mining supply and service sector has created thousands of well-paying, highly-skilled jobs that export their expertise throughout Canada and the world. A recent independent study overseen by the local Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) demonstrated that this sector created over 23,000 jobs and generated over $5.6 billion in gross sales in 2008.

Furthermore, many of the interviews were conducted on a beautiful green location overlooking Ramsey Lake which is located about 15 minutes from downtown Sudbury, helping overcome many of the negative images Canadians still have of the Mining Capital of Canada. The lake is the source of drinking water for much of the inner city.

However, it was Andrew Bell’s enthusiasm and excitment about reporting live from Sudbury that carried the four interviews. During his trip underground at the Quadra-FNX mine, he almost came across as a “kid in a candy store.” It’s gratifying to see someone from the Toronto media so excited about Sudbury and mining.

As Andrew Bell said on his BNN blog, “A definite highlight for me was the trip 2,000 feet underground to the Podolsky Mine run by Quadra FNX Mining. There, the walls sparkle with veins of ore so rich in metals, it crumbles in your fingers. …. Sudbury has unbeatable ore and a global-scale mining support sector and expertise perhaps the best anywhere in the world, but it has another important advantage: The ability to process ore using relatively little energy and producing relatively little carbon dioxide.”

After a year of depressing news from the region, his positive reports are greatly appreciated. I hope he comes back to Sudbury soon.

Links to the four reports from Sudbury follow:

BNN looks at Sudbury’s mining history and speaks to Randi Condie, retired Inco miner.

http://watch.bnn.ca/popular-videos/#clip349349

BNN gets a tour of Quadra FNX Mining’s Sudbury operations with the company’s CEO Paul Blythe.

http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip349350

BNN looks at what the mines mean for Sudbury with Mayor John Rodriguez.

http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip349365

BNN looks at how technology will change the future of the mining industry and what the future holds for Sudbury with Greg Baiden, professor, Laurentian University School of Engineering.

http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip349367