Odds ‘n’ sods: Seabee, The little mine that beat the odds
In the late 1980s, veteran northern Saskatchewan bush pilot Bill MacNeill turned resource developer.
Commodities Markets
Editorial: Iron ore market gets anemic
Unto everything there is a season; a time to hustle and sell off your vast, frozen iron ore assets in remote parts of the country to foreigners from the tropics, and a time to throttle back production at actual iron ore mines in Canada’s…
Metals commentary: Constrained copper supply spells trouble, analysts say
There won’t be enough copper to meet Chinese demand by the middle of the next decade, Adrian Day, president of Adrian Asset Management in London, told a group of investors at the Cambridge House conference in Toronto.
Editorial: South Africa on the brink?
Post-apartheid South Africa has provided duelling optimists and pessimists with plenty of fodder to back up their long-standing positions. There have been unabashed triumphs — such as the country’s avoidance of Zimbabwe-style…
Commentary: The new US rules for ‘conflict minerals’ and their impact on miners
On Aug. 22, 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a final rule establishing new disclosure and reporting obligations on companies whose products contain so-called “conflict minerals.” This new disclosure requirement will…
Commentary: The new SEC rules for disclosing payments
New measures requiring public disclosure by U.S. issuers of payments to governments for mineral exploration and development rights were announced on Aug. 22, 2012, by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act….
Commentary: ‘Dutch Disease’ diagnosis oversimplistic and wrong
The following is an edited excerpt of a speech on the so-called “Dutch Disease,” made by Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, at the Spruce Meadows Round Table in Calgary on Sept. 7, 2012. For the full speech, including charts and…
Editorial: MAC pitches transparency, free trade
For Mining Association of Canada (MAC) president and CEO Pierre Gratton, the future of the nation’s mining industry lies in clear-cut regulatory reform, and in cultivating global free-trade arrangements geared towards expediting the flow…
Venture slips slightly in July 30-August 3 period
VANCOUVER — The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index slipped 3.69 points to 1,186.95 points in the July 30 to August 3 period after three days of losses outweighed two days of gains. Volume was up by several million to an average of 62…
U.S. equities gain on late-week surge June 25-29
VANCOUVER — U.S. equities jumped late in the week following news that European leaders had agreed to distribute rescue funding directly to troubled national banks, which marked a key victory for Spain and Italy where borrowing costs where…
LME falling into Chinese hands
In another milestone of Britain’s century-long fading as a global power, the 135-year-old, privately held London Metal Exchange — the world’s premier non-ferrous metals market — looks set to be sold off to interests…
Commentary: Mining execs short-term gloomy, long-term optimistic: MRG survey
The following are findings from the Mining Recruitment Group’s (MRG) latest annual Executive Survey, which was distributed during the first week of June and completed by 140 mining leaders.This has been a year of tremendous volatility for…