Iron Ore’s 18% Rally Bucks Bears’ Forecasts as BHP, Rio Jump – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – March 3, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore isn’t sticking to the script, at least for the bears. The commodity that was supposed to be weighed down again this year by rising low-cost supply and poor demand has soared 18 percent, establishing a foothold above $50 a metric ton.

The rebound, which means that iron ore has outperformed all the members in the Bloomberg Commodity Index in 2016, has probably been powered by restocking by Chinese mills and some weather-related disruption to shipments from Australia, according to Capital Economics Ltd. These supportive factors may prove temporary, it said.

Iron ore’s upswing has accompanied a revival in the price of other commodities including oil and industrial metals. Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg said on Tuesday that raw materials have bottomed, and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said in a report on Thursday that commodity sentiment has turned in the last fortnight, citing gains in both crude and iron ore. Steel prices in China have also climbed.

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Oban Mining aiming to be next Canadian mining house – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2016)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Oban Mining wants to become Canada’s next great mining house.

Like the 14-year-old Scotch whiskey it’s named for, the executives at Oban Mining hope the company will only get better with age, satisfying even the most finicky of investor palates.

Launched by the same team that brought the Canadian Malartic gold mine online, Oban wants to be the next great Canadian mining house, and president-CEO John Burzynski doesn’t shy away from making bold statements about its plans.

“We intend to be the next Osisko Mining Corporation,” he said during a January presentation to the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association.

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‘Canada failed terribly, the provinces failed terribly,’ Chiefs disappointed after climate talks with PM, Premiers – by Brandi Morin (APTN National News – March 3, 2016)

http://aptn.ca/news/

VANCOUVER — Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adams stormed out of the meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s premiers and Indigenous leaders on climate change in Vancouver Wednesday because he said it fell to shambles.

“I think Canada’s in a crisis and it ain’t going to get any better now. Canada failed terribly, the provinces failed terribly in regards to addressing this issue,” said an infuriated Adam.

According to Adam the meeting didn’t include any talks of taking care of mother earth, instead the focus was placed on economic development and transitioning to a green economy.

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Sustainable solutions needed for remote mining – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2016)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The most significant mineral discoveries in Canada the last two decades are the base-metal deposits found in the Ring of Fire.

The discoveries were made five years ago in the midst of a global economic crisis from which no economy has completely recovered. It is unreasonable to expect that any mineral deposit in a very remote region could be in production by 2016.

No one, not government, not industry, not Aboriginal communities, are to blame for the current hiatus in developing new mines in the Far North. Starting a new mine anywhere in Canada is very difficult.

For the last decade, Canada has been making major changes to the political relationships with Aboriginal communities.

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Khan Resources asks Ottawa to stop Mongolian aid pending settlement for mine given to Russians – by Lee Berthiaume (Financial Post – March 3, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

OTTAWA — A Canadian mining company wants the federal government to suspend millions of dollars in foreign aid to Mongolia until the Asian country pays for taking the firm’s uranium mine and giving it to the Russians.

The request, made Tuesday, comes exactly one year after a trade tribunal told Mongolia to give Toronto-based Khan Resources Inc. more than $100 million in compensation for the lost uranium mine, and is the latest gambit in a long-running dispute sparked by Cold War-era geopolitics.

It also coincides with a major mining convention in Toronto next week, where Mongolian officials plan to pitch their country as a great place for mining companies from Canada and the rest of the world to invest.

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High life, low coal price sends Australian mining baron bankrupt – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – March 3, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – Rags-to-riches coal baron Nathan Tinkler, who rode the mining boom to become Australia’s youngest billionaire before losing it all when coal prices collapsed, has been declared legally bankrupt after failing to pay off a private jet.

The bankruptcy order comes 10 years after the 40-year-old scraped together a A$1 million ($728,700) deposit for a rundown coal mine that returned a profit of A$442 million 18 months later. At that time, coal was at the forefront of a boom in Australian mining, with rising orders from fast-industrializing Asia creating a rush of development and consolidation.

Tinkler quickly parlayed a series of audacious deals into a fortune, far removed from his days as an apprentice at one of BHP’s coal mines, where he is said to have spent much of his free time scouring share prices in newspapers.

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Glencore joins the mining world’s gruppetto – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 2, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg is said to be pretty passionate about cycling and its Grand Tours. So he would be well aware of the term “gruppetto”. It is the pack of riders that sits at the back of mountain stages with that aim of just finishing the day inside the time limit. They are sprinters looking just to survive until conditions better suit their skills.

Consolidation before and during the long mining boom crafted five diversified global miners: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore and Anglo American. By the end of a sectoral recession of rare severity, even in this most cyclical of industries, this group of five could be permanently trimmed to two giants and the rest.

The question right now is whether or not Glencore has the wherewithal or the will to join BHP and Rio Tinto in their break away from big mining’s rapidly withering peloton.

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Talking climate is cheap. Action is expensive – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – March 3, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the premiers gather on March 3 in Vancouver, they need to get their heads around some inconvenient truths.

They understand, correctly, one inconvenient truth: that global warming is happening and needs, over the long-term, to be combatted. The other inconvenient truths they have yet to acknowledge freely, let alone confront.

Greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change have risen in Canada since the 2008-2009 recession. They are rising with sufficient speed that to keep them level will require a huge effort, to say nothing of what would be required to reduce them drastically to meet the emission-reduction goal the Trudeau government set for Canada at the Paris climate conference in December.

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No magic shortcuts to getting shovels in the pipeline ground – by Chantal Hébert (Toronto Star – March 3, 2016)

http://www.thestar.com/

MONTREAL—When all is said and done, there is no rational reason for this week’s climate change gathering of first ministers in Vancouver to feature an East-West brawl over pipelines.

Unless the premiers of the energy-producing provinces are irresistibly inclined to lead a charge on windmills, they have no reason to get on their high horses in order to cast themselves as champions of their resources industry.

When it comes to the pipeline agenda, there are no irreconcilable differences between Canada’s first ministers. Remarkably, to a man and a woman, the premiers and the prime minister are all sold on it.

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NEWS RELEASE: Little Growth Expected in Sudbury and Thunder Bay this Year

OTTAWA, March 3, 2016 /CNW/ – Sudbury and Thunder Bay can expect positive but modest growth of around 1 per cent in 2016, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s Metropolitan Outlook: Winter 2016.

“Sudbury and Thunder Bay faced difficult economic conditions in 2015 and weak resources prices will continue to weigh on their economies this year. Though both cities will see positive economic growth this year, it will be modest at best,” said Alan Arcand, Associate Director, Centre for Municipal Studies.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Following two years of declines, Sudbury’s economy is forecast to expand by 1 per cent in 2016.
  • Thunder Bay’s economy will continue to expand in 2016, albeit by a modest 1.1 per cent.
  • Vancouver will be the fastest growing metropolitan economy in Canada in 2016, with growth of 3.3 per cent.

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Barrick announces ‘drastic revision’ of Pascua-Lama, may add partner – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 2, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX), which recently regained its status as the world’s most valuable producer of the precious metal, has began a “drastic revision” of its mothballed Pascua-Lama project in South America.

According to Chilean news outlet El Pulso (in Spanish), the company’s President Kelvin Dushnisky revealed that management is re-evaluating plans for the gold, silver and copper mine straddling the border of Chile and Argentina, adding that Barrick does not rule out a possible partnership to bring the project to completion.

The giant project in the Andes has been shuttered since 2013, when a Chilean court ordered the company to halt construction over environmental concerns. Later that year, Barrick shelved the project citing massive cost overruns and nose-diving bullion prices.

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[Ontario] Finding riches in the rocks – by Susanna McLeod (Kingston Whig-Standard – March 2, 2016)

http://www.thewhig.com/

Looking at the countryside, the geological sage saw more than soil and granite, more than batholiths and schist. Willet Green Miller “read the secrets of the rocks and opened the portal for the outpouring of their wonderful riches.” Joining Queen’s College as professor of geology and petrography in 1893, Miller was later appointed Ontario’s first Provincial Geologist. Earth science wasn’t just a job for Miller, it was his life blood.

When Miller arrived in Kingston at age 27, he was already immersed in geology. Born in Norfolk County in 1866, he was raised on the northern shores of Lake Erie. Receiving a good education, Miller attended high school at Port Rowan, then enrolled in Natural Science at University of Toronto. His initial aim was chemistry.

By graduation in 1890, Miller’s interests had expanded to earth science. “Luckily, the influence of his father, who was interested in all aspects of nature including trees, flowers and rocks, would inspire him to take geology and mineralogy courses,” said Miller Museum of Geology at Queen’s University. The student’s passion was sparked. He wanted to learn more.

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UPDATE 1-Samarco to pay 24 bln reais in damages for dam disaster – by Anthony Boadle (Reuters U.S. – March 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Mining company Samarco and its owners, BHP Billiton and Vale SA, reached a deal with the Brazilian government on Wednesday to pay an estimated 24 billion reais ($6.2 billion) in damages for a deadly dam spill in November.

Of the total, Samarco will pay 4.4 billion reais through 2018 into a fund to cover the cleanup of the spill from the tailings dam. From 2019 to 2021, payments will be between 800 million reais and 1.6 billion reais.

Further investment will be made for a period of 15 years as the company agreed to a lengthy environmental plan to regenerate the impacted area through replanting and dredging.

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Bidders Said to Seek U.S. Steel Canada, Essar Steel Tie-Up – by Scott Deveau and Sandra Mergulhao (Bloomberg News – February 29, 2016)

http://bloombergtv.ca/

Some of the bidders for U.S. Steel Canada Inc., the former unit of U.S. Steel Corp. under creditor protection, are looking at combining its operations with those of Essar Steel Algoma, which is also in creditor protection, according to people familiar with the matter.

Combining the operations of U.S. Steel Canada and Essar Steel Algoma would create the kind of scale and synergies that would allow a new company to compete, the people said.

Those bidders include Bedrock Industries, a New York-based private equity firm focused on mining; the parent company of Essar Steel Algoma, a global fund backed by India’s Essar Capital Ltd.; and ERP Compliant Fuels, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

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Protectionism overstated as threat to China steel exports – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – March 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, AUSTRALIA – One of the big questions surrounding China’s embattled steel sector is whether it can continue to ramp up exports or will protectionism around the globe curb one of the few bright spots for mills in the world’s largest producer.

The current market consensus would seem to be leaning toward the view that China will battle to increase steel exports, and may experience declines as more countries put import taxes and other measures in place to protect their domestic industries from the Chinese juggernaut.

So far, India, the United States and Indonesia have imposed some increased duties on steel imports from China, and measures are under consideration in other jurisdictions, including the European Union (EU) and Australia.

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