Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for March, 2009

Do Not Buy Kodak

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 8, 2009 | 4 Comments »

A personal rant and consumer warning:  I am to a mine tomorrow.  I will take pictures.  But I seem to have lost the cable that connects the Kodak digital camera to my computer.  The cable is the only way to chargeh the camera and the only way to download the pictures. 

Three shops later I have not been able to find a replacement cable.  The young fellows at the shop where I bought the camera said: “We only sell the camera, not spares.”  At Future Shop they told me: “We won’t even carry Kodak; everybody has troubles with them.”  And at the third shop in the middle of the mall the kids said: “Try ordering on the web; Kodak makes it different so that it is incompatible with standard stuff.” 

Thus my warning: DO NOT BUY A KODAK DIGITAL CAMERA.  There is no way to get a new cable if you loose it. 

I bought a new Cannon and a spare cable at the same time.  So tomorrow I will take pictures of the mine and consult on technical issues.

Read Full Post »

PDAC wraps up Canadian Chinese Aboriginal mining

Posted in About the news, First Nations, Investing & Finance, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

tibet mining protest hunter dickinson

Here is a rare and unique mining investment opportunity.  Perfect for the current times.  I quote from a report on PDAC activities:

A Canadian asset manager announced the launch of two Aboriginal-themed mining funds on Tuesday that hope to raise $1-billion each, in a very innovative effort to get Aboriginal communities invested directly in the mining sector.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

2008 Salaries on US metal and industrial mines

Posted in Jobs and Salaries, North America, tagged , , , , , on March 5, 2009 | 5 Comments »

  

Now for the salaries of miners and engineers and secretaries and everybody inbetween on industrial mineral and metal mines in the United States in 2008.  No major surprises if you discount what seems to me to be low salaries for all, and particularly for geologists.  Seems to me that folk working on the mines are way underpaid by comparison with what comparable folk working for consultants to the mining industry earn.  I have no figures for the consultants’ salaries, but base this conclusion on what I know of what people I know earn working for consultants in BC and California.  Most could not afford to live decently on what the average mine pays salaried staff. 

(more…)

Read Full Post »

PDAC Key Note Address

Posted in About the news, tagged , , , , on March 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Stan Sudol alerted me to the text of the key note speech that Donald Coxe could not deliver at PDAC.  I recommend reading it in full.  It is on that fine mining-related blog, Republic of Mining. 

How I wish I could always be as optimistic as they are.  But my early days pouring over the old British magazine Punch and over countless Afrikaans newspapers gave me other perspectives of humor and cynicism that still color my thinking and writing.  So read both of us for a “balanced” perspective of modern mining.

Read Full Post »

2008 Metal and Aggregate Mine Wages

Posted in About the news, Copper, drilling, Gold, Jobs and Salaries, North America, tagged , , , , , , , on March 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »

   

From CostMine is the U.S. Metal & Industrial Mineral Mine Salaries, Wages & Benefits 2008 Survey.  Here are some averages for metal and industrial mineral mines in the United States. (the first number is the hourly base wage for small surface mines; the second number is that hourly base wage for large mines.)

 

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Avoid McDonalds: A sustainable mining guide for Indians and Bushmen

Posted in About the news, Africa, Church, Coal, First Nations, Human relations and mining, Jobs and Salaries, North America, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Bushmen women.

A long-time friend sent me a paper on sustainable tailings management.  I read the paper and replied thus:

“I confess, I am no more convinced by you than by anybody else about the need for a term like sustainable in the context of what you are doing—i.e., designing, building, and closing mine tailings dams.

Why not just say you are doing the right thing by people and the environment?

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Another angry mining story

Posted in About the news, First Nations, Latin America, Law (Mining), tagged , , , , , on March 3, 2009 | 2 Comments »

    Here is a link to The Tyee, a very liberal Vancouver e-newspaper.  The link takes you directly to an article about a Canadian mining firm, Copper Mesa Mining, that is being sued by lawyer Murray Klippenstein of Toronto, over an incident in Ecuador in 2006.  This is the gist of the story:

(more…)

Read Full Post »

PDAC Live Report on Investing In African Mining

Posted in About the news, tagged , , , on March 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

The following from Graham Baldwin, a friend reportign form the PDAC in Toronto.

This morning, the 7th annual Investing in African Mining Seminar was held in Toronto ON Canada, as a supplementary event to the ever-popular PDAC annual convention currently underway. (more…)

Read Full Post »

PDAC Government of Canada extends mineral exploration tax credit

Posted in About the news, tagged , , , on March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

This news release just recieved from my contact at PDAC in Toronto;

The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, today outlined measures that the Government of Canada is taking to support the Canadian mining industry. In particular, she noted that Budget 2009 included the extension of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC) for flow-through share investors by another year. This measure will help junior mining companies access the venture capital they need to finance their exploration activities.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

PDAC mining opportunities in Tibet, Cuba, Afganistan, and Africa

Posted in About the news, tagged , , , , , on March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

US President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet in Ottawa on February 19, 2009

This report on a typically polite Canadian adventure played out at PDAC:

It was peaceful, loud and attention-grabbing.   Seven pro-Tibetan activists posed as delegates to a downtown Toronto mining convention yesterday morning, then unfurled a six-metre red banner that read “HDI – STOP MINING TIBET.”    Some chanted “Tibet is our land” and “stop mining in Tibet,”while two others laid motionless on the floor under the banner, in what they called a “mock die-in” to protest Canadian mining in Tibet.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 223 other followers