Republic of Mining

INVEST NORTH: Ontario and Canada Needs Full Inclusion of First Nations to Kick Start the Economy – by Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day (Metro Toronto Convention Centre – March 7, 2016)

March 8, 2016

PDAC Mining Convention Opening Remarks

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“Great Father – My territory extends to [Michissiwton] there already have they found my rich things, but I know nothing of what is going on; I see the people pass and I hear what is said but I have no certain knowledge. I want always to live and plant at Garden River, and as my people are poor, to derive a share of what is found on my lands […] Already has the white man licked clean up from our lands the whole means of our subsistence, and now they commence to make us worse off, they take every thing away from us father […] Now my father, I called God to witness in the beginning and do so now again and say that it is false that the land is not ours, it is ours.” – Chief Shingwauk

FN colleagues, Chiefs (bosses), federal and provincial officials and friends – good morning. I bring greetings from my bosses, the Chiefs across Ontario as well as my friends and colleagues, the AFN National Executive and NC Perry Bellgarde who could not be hear.

Since the last PDAC convention, the relationship between Ontario, Canada and First Nations has improved dramatically. At the same time, the Canadian economy has continued to worsen and cause worry!

Companies already jockeying for first dibs on Ring of Fire infrastructure money – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – March 7, 2016)

March 8, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

There could be battle shaping up on who gets first dibs on the government infrastructure money that has been promised for the Ring Of Fire mining development in far Northern Ontario.

Speaking out the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) now on in Toronto, Alan Coutts said his company is ready to move ahead with an all-season road for the project.

Coutts is the president and CEO of Noront Resources Ltd., one of the major players in the Ring Of Fire venture a large mining development located about 600 kilometres northwest of Timmins, in the remote McFaulds Lake area. The prospect is identified mainly as a chromite project, valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

Monday’s announcement by Coutts is at odds with an announcement made earlier this year by KWG Resources Inc, the other big player at the Ring Of Fire.

PM can save Ring of Fire – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2016)

March 8, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury Star columnist calls for a Trudeau ‘Marshall Plan’ for Ontario’s Ring of Fire

Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral belt, located in the province’s remote James Bay Lowlands, is thought to hold more than $60 billion of geological riches. When it was discovered in 2007, it was supposed to usher in a new era of prosperity for Northern Ontario, especially for the impoverished First Nations communities in the region.

Almost a decade later, the ore remains in the ground and doesn’t appear to be coming out anytime soon. Thanks to the Ontario government’s ineptitude, dysfunctional mining policy, lack of promised infrastructure spending and (to a much lesser extent) a broader commodity slump, American miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. left the province in frustration in 2013, permanently halting its proposed US$3.3-billion chromite project.

The ultimate indignity for Ontario came last year, when Cliffs sold its US$550-million investment in the Ring of Fire to junior miner Noront Resources Ltd. — the only significant player left in the area — for a bargain-basement price of US$27.5 million.

At the present time, Noront is focused primarily on its bankable Eagles Nest nickel/copper/PGM property, valued at about $10 billion, which can be developed only if a proposed east-west road is built into the mining camp and has put its world-class chromite deposits on the backburner for the foreseeable future.

[Plan Nord] Québec’s Incentive – by Brian Burton (Lexpert Special Edition – Mining – March 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://lexpert.ca/

Québec is investing in mining infrastructure as part of its “Plan Nord” but the payoff is not immediate

Québec’s Plan Nord reads a lot like the recipe for stone soup. Like the hungry travellers of legend, who offer up a “magic” stone to cajole villagers into providing the ingredients for a community meal, Premier Philippe Couillard has tossed iron ore, assorted other minerals and $2.7 billion worth of infrastructure funding into the pot. Now he’s waiting to see whether the private sector will thicken the broth with mining and energy projects worth $50 billion.

If it works, Plan Nord will deliver electricity, roads, rail lines, ports, airports, schools, hospitals and thousands of mining jobs to the vast area north of Québec’s 49th parallel, while generating billions in royalties and taxes for government coffers. The 20-year plan covers a sparsely developed area of 1.2 million square kilometres, twice the size of France, that’s laden with iron, gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, zinc, uranium and rare earth minerals.

In Couillard’s favour, lower energy prices and a weaker Canadian dollar help to reduce project costs, and Northern Québec also contains enormous hydro-electric potential. Importantly, the monopoly provincial electric utility, Hydro Québec, is owned by the provincial government.

Iron Ore Jumps Most on Record as Market Goes ‘Berserk’ – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore soared the most ever after Chinese policy makers signaled their willingness to buttress economic growth, boosting the outlook for steel consumption in the top user and igniting speculation that some investors who’d bet against the market had been caught out.

Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao jumped 19 percent to $63.74 a dry metric ton, Metal Bulletin Ltd. data show. That’s the biggest gain in daily data going back to 2009 and the highest price since June.

The surge was preceded in Asia by a rally in futures, with the most-active contract on Singapore Exchange Ltd. climbing 21 percent to $60 and prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rising by the daily limit.

Mining and First Nations collaboration thriving in Saskatchewan – by Ravina Bains and Taylor Jackson (Troy Media – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

Ravina Bains is the associate director of the Centre for Aboriginal Policy Studies and Taylor Jackson is a policy analyst in the Centre for Natural Resources at the Fraser Institute.

Land certainty and positive partnerships with First Nations make the province one of the most attractive jurisdictions in the world for mining investment

VANCOUVER, B.C./ Troy Media/ – We often hear about First Nation communities in Canada opposing natural resource projects. Whether it’s an LNG plant in British Columbia or mining projects in eastern Canada, the news is full of First Nation opposition to resource development. However, the one jurisdiction that may be the exception to that rule is the land of living skies, Saskatchewan.

In Saskatchewan there are countless examples of First Nations communities working in partnership with mining companies to bring projects to fruition. In fact, there are more than 45 mining partnerships between First Nations and resource companies in Saskatchewan.

For miners, a sense of optimism returns – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The mining industry’s annual bash roared into life on Sunday against an unfamiliar backdrop – a market where metal prices are no longer falling and share values in the sector are actually climbing.

After four years of brutal, grinding decline, the beleaguered industry is finally enjoying a spurt of good news. Gold prices have sprinted to their best start to a year since 1980, while even grimy industrial laggards such as copper and iron ore have displayed twitches of life in recent weeks.

There is, to be sure, a contradiction in these trends – gold tends to be most popular during times of economic stress, while base metals thrive when growth is strong and sure – but nobody at the opening day of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto was in a mood to question the spate of upbeat developments.

Iron ore rally won’t last: HSBC tips $US39 by 2017 – by Stephen Cauchi (Sydney Morning Post – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.smh.com.au/

HSBC is the latest to join a chorus of voices warning that the rally in iron ore prices may be soon be curtailed, with global oversupply and waning demand from China about to kick in. However, oil’s future is looking a bit brighter, with both HSBC and the Royal Bank of Canada tipping higher prices.

Australia’s biggest mineral export was trading at $US53.75 on Monday, up 40.3 per cent from December’s lows of $US38.30 per tonne, and back at levels the mineral was trading at in October. But it remains far below 2011’s levels, which were over $US180.

Investors have been piling back into mining stocks as a result, with pureplay iron ore miner Fortescue more than doubling its price from the year’s lows to close at $3.08 on Monday. It has rocketed 36.9 per cent in the last three trading days alone.

Chile will not block foreign sale of lithium producer SQM: minister – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – Chile would not block a foreign takeover of lithium and potash producer SQM SQMa.SN, Mining Minister Aurora Williams said on Sunday.

A stake in Chile-based SQM is up for grabs after an indirect shareholder, Oro Blanco ORO.SN, invited buyers in December to make an offer for its entire holding in Pampa Calichera CALa.SN.

Oro Blanco holds a little over 88 percent of Pampa Calichera, which in turn owns around 20 percent of SQM, a major producer of battery ingredient lithium and an important supplier of iodine and potash.

“Those are decisions to be made specifically by the company,” Williams said in an interview through an interpreter in Toronto during the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention.

Sentiment muted at PDAC conference despite signs of life in mining industry – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Some optimism is starting to creep back into the mining sector — but not much. Sentiment is fairly muted so far at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference, which kicked off Sunday in Toronto. The conference, which is the world’s biggest gathering of mining professionals, serves as a good barometer for the state of the industry, and this year’s show is a reminder that things are pretty grim.

he commodity boom is long over, and metal prices as a whole remain extremely weak due to oversupply and concerns about China’s economy. Most junior miners can’t raise a penny of capital, and share prices are, in many cases, lower than they were before metal prices started to rise in the early 2000s.

“We, as an industry, wasted the opportunity offered by the largest and biggest boom in commodity prices,” Mark Bristow, the chief executive of Randgold Resources Ltd., told the audience, citing the industry’s very poor spending decisions and billions of dollars of writedowns.

Oregon becomes first state to pass law to completely eliminate coal-fired power – by Oliver Milman (The Guardian – March 3, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/

Oregon has become the first US state to pass laws to rid itself of coal, committing to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035 and to double the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2040.

Legislation passed by the state’s assembly, which will need to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, will transition Oregon away from coal, which currently provides around a third of the state’s electricity supply.

At the same time, the state will also require its two largest utilities to increase their share of clean energy, such as solar and wind, to 50% by 2040. Combined with Oregon’s current hydroelectric output, the state will be overwhelmingly powered by low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels.

Unexpected headwinds keep commodity prices lower for longer – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A faster-than-expected slowdown in demand for commodities in 2015 has placed a damper on broad-based commodity price recoveries in 2016, compounded by lacklustre global economic growth and record inventories, which will take time to work down as production cutbacks and mine closures take effect.

Analysts representing the world’s top market intelligence firms were talking about commodities and the market outlook in Toronto on Sunday, on the first day of the yearly Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s convention – the largest mining show on earth.

Kicking off the afternoon session was Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow, who outlined future strategic paths for mining companies in today’s new environment. He examined the challenges inherent in reconciling the industry’s essentially long-term nature with the market’s short-term demands and explained that the definition of growth was not immutable but changed from stakeholder to stakeholder and at different points in the price cycle.

Paying with gold possible again – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – March 5, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://www.thestar.com/

Toronto company BitGold makes it possible for you to pay for anything from coffee to a movie with gold on prepaid Mastercard.

Gold is on a tear lately, and that’s been nice for a new Toronto company that has figured out a way for people to store bullion bars in their savings, or even spend it to make purchases.

BitGold (not to be confused with digital currency bitcoin) offers international savings and payment services that allow customers and businesses to make payments and hold savings with the precious metal, which was used as currency as far back as 5,000 years ago.

At the moment, the upstart Adelaide St. firm offers the only gold-backed, prepaid Mastercard in the world when you open an account, which is free. Payments are converted into local funds when they are made.

NEWS RELEASE: BC mineral explorers highlight decreasing land base during PDAC convention Groundbreaking report from AME BC highlights need to clarify land access and use policies

March 7, 2016

Toronto — March 7, 2016 — This week, the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) is highlighting how restrictive land access and use regulations and policies are putting the future mineral exploration and development industry at risk. The AME BC report, Framing the Future of Mineral Exploration in British Columbia, presents a troubling overview about the decreasing land base, lack of clarity in land access and use rules, as well as the overlapping nature of government regulations.

In 1977, 4% of the land base in British Columbia was closed to mineral exploration; today over 18% is closed. In addition, access to another 33% of the land base is severely limited. Discovering hidden mineral deposits requires access to large tracts of land to explore, but the actual land used for mining purposes is only 0.05% of British Columbia, of which more than 40% is under reclamation.

AME BC is bringing this critical issue to light at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual convention in Toronto. This follows the Vancouver release of the AME BC report in January showing the shrinking land base available for the exploration of hidden and valuable minerals in British Columbia, as well as the increasingly complex government policies that exploration companies are forced to navigate.

[Pipelines] The problem with Quebec’s injunction – by Jen Gerson (National Post – March 7, 2016)

March 7, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Write about pipeline politics for long enough and it’s easy to come to dislike everybody. Especially among those who dislike oil and the oilsands on principle, TransCanada, which wants to build a pipeline from Alberta to Saint John, N.B., makes an easy villain.

According to the government of Quebec, the company was asked to submit its plans for the pipeline, dubbed Energy East. Since it failed to do so, according to Quebec Environment Minister David Heurtel, the province was obliged to threaten an injunction to force the company to follow its environmental laws.

TransCanada said it was totally taken aback by the threat. Especially considering the company hasn’t even submitted the paperwork for Energy East to the National Energy Board yet. A spokesman for the company told The Canadian Press that it thought the issue had been resolved back in early 2015, with both sides agreeing to an alternative process.