Editor’s picks: top stories of week 17

Apart from the predictable shrieks from the eco-doom crowd, reaction from the public and industry was muted, as it will take months to digest what the new regulations, if passed, would require Canadians to do, particularly in carbon-intensive industries such as oil and gas, and coal. No mining associations have publicly commented on the plan.

We’ve never bought into the hysteria of the global-warming theory, and are disturbed by its proponents’ increasing bullying of non-adherents, as if scientific conclusions were products of political consensus.

The theory that we’re in trouble because of carbon emissions has gaps in basic logic, dismisses sea-level measurements at the world’s ports, doesn’t consider the sun’s cycles, fails to factor in carbon precipitating out of seawater, and willfully ignores the planet’s ancient geological record, which shows that ice ages like the one we’re coming out of now are extremely rare, and that life on Earth adapts to change and thrives when temperatures are warmer than today’s.

We’re tired of hearing about another “hottest day on record,” as if the record was 120 or 5,000 years and not 4.55 billion. It’s time for a geologist’s perspective in this so-called “climate debate.”

A pampered, self-absorbed enviro-fanatic’s focus on a non-existent problem like global warming, if not a cynical money grab, is an elaborate act of cowardice designed to avoid involvement in the bigger, messier, real battles of this life: helping the poor, the sick and the weak; fighting the global jihad; resisting resurgent authoritarianism around the world; and reversing the broad decline and coarsening of Western culture since the 1960s.

The court held that Buyat Bay is not polluted and the company was in compliance with all regulations and permits during its years of operations from 1996 to 2004.

However, the country still has high risk, as seen in Africo Resources’ wild ride this week. Spun off from Rubicon Minerals in December 2006 and headed by ex-Placer Dome exec Tony Harwood, Africo had been moving quickly to develop its Kalukundi project in Katanga, where there are 7.8 million tonnes in reserve grading 2.37% copper and 0.69% cobalt.

Things were going swimmingly mid-month: On April 13, Africo announced it had raised $100 million in an all-share placement priced at $13.70 per share. By the afternoon, that figure was bumped to $130 million. Africo’s stake in the project was then seemingly raised to 75%, with Gecamines holding the carried remainder.

Well, it came crashing down on April 27, with the DRC courts having declared that Akam Mining, and not Africo, owned the 75% stake in Kalukundi. Africo had to can its $130-million financing but says the ruling is based on an illegal sale, and it is appealing.