Editor’s Picks: Feds Unveil Carbon Emissions Caps

The trading week ended April 27, the 17th of 2007, was punctuated by the Canadian government’s unveiling of a potentially far-reaching environmental policy.

* On April 26, the Conservative government presented a plan designed to do three things: reduce Canada’s carbon emissions by an absolute 150 million tonnes by 2020; cut industrial air pollution in half by 2015; and help get the Tories re-elected by reducing environmentalism as a wedge issue.

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 terrorism and extremism; resisting resurgent authoritarianism around the world; and reversing the broad decline and coarsening of Western culture since the 1960s.

* Finally some justice for Newmont Mining at Buyat Bay: After a 21-month trial that should have never happened, on April 24 an Indonesian court ruled that the major’s local subsidiary and its president-director Richard Ness are innocent of all criminal charges of pollution and regulatory violations while mining near Buyat Bay in Sulawesi. 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.

* The Democratic Republic of the Congo has opened up to foreign mining investment in the last two years. Another example was Anvil Mining’s decision on April 23 to go ahead with the US$238-million construction of a 60,000-tonne-per-year solvent extraction and electrowinning copper plant at the 95%-owned Kinsevere project north of Lubumbashi — just a few years after Anvil president Bill Turner told us that it was almost impossible to raise more than US$10 million for any project in the DRC.

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 is appealing the decision.

Send your Letters-to-the-Editor and other op-ed submissions to the Editor at: tnm@northernminer.com, fax: (416) 510-5137, or 12 Concorde Pl., Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2.