Argex Announces Purchase Agreement with PPG

Montreal, Quebec – June 27, 2013 – Argex Titanium Inc. (TSX-V: RGX) announced today that it has entered into a long-term supply agreement with PPG Industries Inc. (NYSE: PPG) relating to titanium dioxide (TiO₂) pigment suitable for various end-use applications by PPG.

PPG is the world’s leading coatings and specialty products company, serving customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets.  PPG operates in nearly 70 countries around the world, with sales in 2012 of US$15.2 billion.

The supply agreement and a concurrently executed research services agreement between PPG and Argex, whereby PPG will provide continued research and development support to both optimize Argex pigment grade TiO2 for paints and coatings and combine PPG’s coatings technology and expertise with Argex’s TiO2 proprietary processing technology, replace the collaboration agreement signed by the two parties that was announced in April, 2012.

Roy Bonnell, Argex President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The agreements with PPG are a significant milestone for our Company.  Our relationship with PPG has greatly assisted with our stated goal to move towards production. We are very pleased that PPG will be our first customer for TiO₂ pigment suitable for use in its architectural paint production. We are also pleased that we will continue our collaboration with PPG to optimize our product for other various end-use applications.”

“These agreements and our ongoing collaboration with Argex are demonstrative of PPG’s stated intent to leverage our expertise to secure an enhanced supply of critical raw materials,” said Charles F. Kahle II, PPG Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Research and Development, Coatings.

PPG previously manufactured titanium dioxide using the chloride process at its former Natrium, W.Va., chemicals plant and sold titanium dioxide pigment for coatings and other end-use applications. Titanium dioxide is a raw material widely used in the paint and coatings industry as pigment for its hiding, durability and whiteness characteristics.

About Argex Titanium Inc.

ARGEX Titanium Inc. is a near-term producer of Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂).  With a primary goal of advancing rapidly towards production, Argex has adopted a simple and low-risk strategy for the scale-up of its proprietary process that allows it to produce high quality TiO₂ pigment directly from run-of-mine material. The closed-loop process is environmentally friendly and produces minimal inert tailings.

The Argex R&D Centre and its first industrial sized production module will be situated in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec.The location of the site can be viewed at Argex Valleyfield.

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Stop taking yourself so seriously, says tycoon Frank Giustra

Yesterday I had another opportunity to hear Frank Giustra speak — this time at BCBusiness Magazine‘s Top 100 event at Hotel Vancouver. In front of a crowd of 1,200, he was interviewed on stage by BCBusiness chairman Peter Legge.

Frank Giustra became a millionaire in his early 20s financing small mining and energy companies. As Chairman and CEO, he went on to build Yorkton Securities into an industry dominator. But at the height of the mid-90s gold bull market, Giustra quit, only to quickly re-emerge as the founder of Lionsgate Entertainment, which is the world’s largest independent film studio today. In 2001, Giustra returned to the commodities world– this time as Chairman of Endeavour Financial. From here, he launched countless resource companies, including what is now Goldcorp, Silver Wheaton, Uranium One, Pacific Rubiales Energy, and others. In 2010, he got into the food sector with Domenica Fiore, now recognized as the world’s best medium blend olive oil.

To say Giustra has the Midas touch is an understatement.

Giustra frequently travels the world with philanthropy pal Bill Clinton aboard his massive luxury jet (sleeps 18). The two men established what is now the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Initiative with over $100 million of Giustra’s own money in 2007, and another $100 million coming in from Carlos Slim, who is literally the world’s richest man.

We have been fortunate enough to travel with Mr. Giustra, and consider him a friend. He invited us to sit in the second row at BCBusiness’s event yesterday. Here we had the privilege of watching Peter Legge try to wrestle unique insights out of Guistra for over an hour. It turned out to be pretty damn good.

“If you have nothing to lose, go for it,” Guistra told the audience. Before deciding to work in the stock market, Frank wanted to be a grocery store manager. But he quickly expanded his ambitions, and soon after, graduated from making $600 a month as a clerk at Super Value to earning $80,000 in his first year as a broker. “I’ll be the best broker you ever had,” he said during his first job interview —  which he landed at age 20.

A stand-out moment of the interview described Giustra detailing how humbled he became as the new CEO of Lionsgate Entertainment; several times in the late 90s, the film company nearly went bankrupt. One winter’s day in Toronto, Guistra explained, he accidentally dropped a stack of Lionsgate brochures into the snow. Looking down, he was suddenly struck by a “Holy shit, what the hell am I doing with my life?” moment. He had been a somebody at Yorkton — people would come to him to get their business plans financed. But here he was, digging a stack of brochures for a fledgling company out of a pile of dirty snow. But Giustra eventually managed to secure the management team that helped grow the company to what it is today. “I couldn’t let it go bust,” Giustra said, betraying to his own pride in the endeavour. Since then, his determination has paid off for Lionsgate. It’s now worth approximately $4 billion.

“On several occasions I’ve felt that I’ve deprived some village out there of an idiot,” Guistra told the audience to laughter, describing the first of his three rules for hiring senior executives: hire individuals smarter than you are. The second trait he makes heavy trade-offs for is personality and a winning attitude. Finally, a sense of humor. “If you have a sense of humor you can get through almost any situation,” he told us.

Giustra practicing his sense of humor during the filming of Juice in April, 2013.

Giustra described his meetings with famed Spaghetti Western film producer Sergio Leone during the late 1980s, attempting to get Leone to make a movie with him. During their final meeting in Rome, Leone agreed to make the film, only to die the next day of a heart attack.

Giustra has come a long way from his modest beginnings in Aldergrove, BC. To everyone’s surprise, he pointed out his father Joe in the audience. Joe was a humble miner, and taught his son to never to borrow money, which Giustra swears he never does. He quickly  apologized to Great Western Bank for the comment, the event’s sponsor.

“He’s a man, he has his moods, but his heart is in the right place,” he said of former President Bill Clinton. Giustra went on to describe what it’s like to travel with the former president. “It’s a lot of ribbon cutting,” Giustra said, “but conversations with Bill are fabulous.” Clearly, Guistra is fond of the man.

“I have trouble saying no,” Giustra complained, praising billionaire Jimmy Pattison’s effectiveness in politely turning down requests for time or money. But his trouble saying no may actually be a blessing in disguise; many of his his venture investments that he least expected to become successful ultimately were.

A great Giustra story that he didn’t tell at yesterday’s conference was that of his experience financing now billionaire Robert Friedland’s first big score, Diamond Fields, in 1995. An irate Friedland insisted to Giustra to “lock up” all $.10 shareholders in an early Diamond Fields financing round. Shares in the exploration company surged past $100 following an afterthought exploration effort in Newfoundland that turned up one of the world’s largest nickel deposits. “I would have sold too soon,” Giustra told me last year, thanking Friedland. Being prevented to sell his shares added substantially to Giustra’s wealth.

Interviewer Legge teased Giustra about a pledge he made to the Globe and Mail earlier this year, saying that he would sing Patsy Cline’s “I’m so wrong” in public wearing women’s underwear if the gold price wouldn’t eventually go up. “I was practicing a few notes from that song on the car ride here today,” Giustra joked with the audience about gold’s recent tragic performance. Giustra will not sell his gold until governments around the world stop printing money, which he doesn’t see happening in the near term.

Legge pressured Giustra to reveal things about himself that the audience wouldn’t otherwise know. He writes songs and poetry, he told everyone, and also just made a short film with his friends, to try out his acting skills. Your author was lucky enough to have a brief part in the movie, taking a bullet from the gun of Giustra (15 seconds into the video below). Fun is one of Frank’s halmarks.

Despite Turkish protests, it is ‘business as usual’ for Aldridge

Despite the ongoing civil protests that had rocked various Turkish cities during the past month, the country remained an attractive investment destination, and the protests had not altered the development path for project developer Aldridge Minerals’ flagship Yenipazar polymetallic project.

Aldridge president and CEO Mario Caron told Mining Weekly Online on Thursday that despite localised ongoing protests in the country’s largest city Istanbul and elsewhere in the country, the investment community was relatively indifferent to any potential threats to the long-term sustainability to the country’s mining industry.

“That is not to say that we are not concerned about the general malaise in the market, but development of Yenipazar has certainly not been affected,” he said in a telephonic interview.

Protests started in Turkey on May 28. The protests were sparked by outrage at a brutal eviction of a sit-in at Istanbul's Taksim Gezi park, protesting the park's demolition. Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey protesting a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the government's perceived encroachment on Turkey's secularism, which was one of the fundamental pillarsMustafa Kemal Atatürk established the modern Republic of Turkey on, in 1923.

Caron pointed to the Aldridge’s most recent milestone, when it earlier this month exercised its option to earn a 100% working interest in the Yenipazar project, after it delivered a feasibility study to Alacer Gold.

He said the company was now focused on permitting the project. The company was aiming at completing and submitting an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on the Yenipazar project to the Turkish authorities at the end of July, after which the review process was expected to take about three to four months.

Caron added that the company was now working on completing a detailed land acquisition plan, which would study the potential impact on current landowners and income restoration strategies. This social-impact assessment report was expected to be complete in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, the company also planned to apply for the appropriate operating, construction and other required permits over the next few months.

Another critical step in advancing the Yenipazar project, Caron said, would be to apply for the tax incentives the Turkish government offered to the project developer, which would account for a reduction of 40% in the project’s total capital expenditures. The company planned to submit this application before year-end.

Further, Aldridge had appointed global specialist mining corporate finance firm Cutfield Freeman & Co (CF&Co) to act as its financial advisor. CF&Co would assist Aldridge in evaluating all of its financing and strategic options to finance the Yenipazar project. This included considering all financing alternatives including debt, equity, metals streaming and concentrate off-take-related financing that could be available to Aldridge.

Caron pointed out that despite the declining precious- and base metals prices, it had not yet affected the debt-carrying capacity of the Yenipazar project.

The feasibility study, which was published in April, had placed an after-tax net present value of $323-million on the project, using a 7% discount. This included a 1.6% net profit royalty to the Turkish government and Alacer’s NPI.

The after-tax and after-NPI internal rate of return was estimated to be 22.5%, which would result in the $382-million project being paid back in 2.9 years. Alacer would retain a 6% net profit interest (NPI) in the Yenipazar property until operational revenues had reached $165-million, after which the NPI would increase to 10%.

Caron said he believed the global mining industry is on the cusp of seeing construction and equipment costs declining, owing to the significantly reduced demand. “In hindsight, I think we would see that we were fortunate to be able to construct a mine during this time, as we are certain to benefit from reduced costs,” he said.

Each year, the operation was expected to produce 62 642 oz of gold, 1.9-million ounces of silver, 11.2-million pounds of copper, 33.8-million pounds of lead and 56.3-million pounds of zinc. Over the life of the project, it was expected to produce about 696 482 oz of gold, 21.2-million ounces of silver, 120.1-million pounds of copper, 368-million pounds of lead and 563.8-million pounds of zinc.

The mineral reserves for the Yenipazar project comprised three different mineralisation types to be mined and processed in four phases, including oxide mineralisation, which represents 11% of total, copper-enriched mineralisation, which represents 9% of the total and sulphide mineralisation, which represents 80% of the total.

A November resource update estimated the Yenipazar resource to hold 29.69-million tons grading 0.95 g/t gold, 31.3 g/t silver, 0.31% copper, 1.01% lead and 1.47% zinc in the National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated category. At these gradings, the project is expected to hold about 900 000 oz of gold, 29.85-million ounces of silver, 204.8-million pounds of copper, 660.2-million pounds of lead and 961.2-million pounds of zinc in the indicated category.

Once started, construction was expected to take about 21 months, followed by a two-month period of plant commissioning and production ramp-up, which would take about six months.

The Yenipazar project is located about 220 km east-southeast of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, 60 km south of Yozgat, the provincial centre, and about 120 km north-west of Kayseri, a city of one-million people. The project is well served by existing infrastructure, including paved roads and a railroad, and will be connected to the national power grid through the construction of a 17 km 154 kV power line.

The Port of Iskenderun was identified as the preferred port for the shipping of containerised concentrates and is located about 500 km to the south on the Mediterranean Sea. The concentrates would be containerised and trucked on existing roads about 75 km south-west of the project to a railhead in Himmetdede, where it would then be transported by rail the remaining distance to the port.

World Gold Council releases new gold-mining cost metrics

The World Gold Council (WGC) on Thursday released two new methods of calculating and reporting gold-mining costs to improve clarity and provide greater investor understanding of the complete costs associated with the mining of gold.

The first method is an extension of the existing “cash cost” metrics and incorporates costs that are related to sustaining production, which the council refers to as the “all-in sustaining cost”.

The second method takes into account additional costs and reflects the varying costs of producing gold over the life cycle of a mine, which the WGC dubs the “all-in cost”.

WGC director Terry Heymann told Mining Weekly Online from London that the new metrics had been developed to help provide greater clarity and consistency to improve investor understanding.

WGC has worked closely with its member companies and beyond to develop the non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) measures and expects them to be helpful to investors, governments, local communities and other stakeholders.

Companies, including non-WGC members, are free to use the metrics from January 1.

“Individual companies have responsibility for their own reporting, but we expect that many will use these new metrics, which provide further consistency for investors and other stakeholders,” Heymann told Mining Weekly Online.

The metrics are not formally regulated accounting measures and are intended to complement the existing accounts that companies already provide.

“It’s something I believe will be well received by the market and we hope that a wide range of gold-mining companies, including companies that are not WGC members, use it,” Heymann added.

WGC’s publication of the guidance note recognises the greater degree of scrutiny of the gold-mining industry and the need for a better understanding of gold mining’s complex economics.

They serve to make the costs more accessible at a time of plunging gold price and collapsing gold equities.

While they are not directly about making the potential gold-mining investment opportunity more attractive, they do provide a further degree of consistency for the making of investment decisions.

The gold institutes of old, which advocated the reporting of cash costs as a measure, have ceased to operate and with that has been less consistency in the way that cash costs have been applied.

The methodology incorporates costs additional to historic cash costs in response to the need for a full understanding of gold mining’s complete set of associated outlays.

Despite current market turmoil, the council remains positive in the long-term outlook for gold, against the background of ongoing central bank buying and the remaining lure of gold in China, India and much of Asia.

Indian iron ore miners may face 50% royalty increase

The Indian government is looking at increasing royalty fees on iron ore companies by 50%, Bloomberg reports.

This would require miners to give provinces 15% of their sales revenue, rather than 10%.

The Indian mining industry has responded to the proposal with claims that the measure would hit states' revenues. The Federation of Indian Mineral industries suggested that the royalty be lowered to 7.5% in order to promote growth at a time when iron ore companies are facing decreased demand and lower prices.

Miners and steelmakers could also lose some competitiveness on the international market if the proposal is adopted, industry representatives said.

The cabinet will deliberate the panel's recommendation later this month.

Meanwhile, iron ore prices are looking weak with China hinting that it might buy less of the metal in the coming months.

The Ralated Article: Iron ore price can't escape metals sell-off

The iron ore price declined 1.7% to back below $120 on Friday, ending an almost 7% rally that began last week.

The benchmark import price of 62% iron ore fines at China's Tianjin port shed $2.00 to trade at $118.60 a tonne according to data supplied by The Steelindex.

While the looming end to US central bank stimulus sent precious and base metals prices plummeting yesterday, the iron ore price is primarily driven by events in China.

Yesterday, the country's closely watched purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed a decline in manufacturing activity due to decreases in both production and demand.

Most analysts predict a steady decline in the price of iron ore towards the end of this year and into 2014 on the back of a slowdown in China which consumes more than 60% of the 1.1 billion tonne a year seaborne trade.

While waning Chinese demand is behind the latest retreat, the price of the steelmaking raw material in unlikely to hold up against vast new supplies coming on stream.

Despite the softer price – iron ore is off 25% from 2013 highs hit in February – just yesterday BHP Billiton, world number three iron ore producer, announced a $1.5 billion deal to expand its Jimblebar mining hub.

Jimblebar will produce 35 million tonnes at full tilt upping BHP's Australian export capacity to 220 million tonnes.

In May Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) CEO Sam Walsh said the company's board is likely to approve a further $5 billion expansion of its Pilbara operations in the fourth quarter taking its annual capacity to 360 million tonnes from this year's target of 290 million tonnes and 237 million tonnes at the moment.

COMMENT: Gold drops to three-year low

For years I was optimistic about the price of gold. It rose steadily as investors welcomed the 21^st Century. I watched as it continued to creep upwards despite the financial meltdown of 2008. In September 2011 when the price was pushing US$1,900 an ounce, I breezily predicted it would reach US$2,000 by the end of that year. It didn't.

Early in January 2012, I was forced to backtrack on my prediction. "I had not reckoned what effect the European debt crises would have on the gold price. Nor could I predict the longer term effects of the Japanese earthquake, the wrangling of lawmakers in the United States over that country's ballooning debt, or the effect of world opinion on rapid political change in the Middle East,"  I wrote.

So much for my ability to predict the price of gold. I've not touched on the topic recently. But I must as the yellow metal hit a low of US$1,226 per ounce – lower than it has been since Aug. 10, 2010 when it bottomed out at US$1,192.50.

So what happened? Why are investors fleeing gold?

I don't doubt that the fundamentals of gold investing have changed greatly in the 30-odd years I have been a mining industry observer. In the 1970s investors were told to hold 10% or 15% of their portfolios in physical gold. It was portable and easily sold anywhere in the world. That advice seems to have lived out its usefulness.

The most recent gold price drop is probably related to the increasing strength of the American greenback. That country was severely affected by the 2008 economic problems, but it is finally showing signs of regaining its financial prominence. House prices are ticking upward, and the U.S. unemployment rate despite a fractional rise in May 2013 to 7.6%, is much improved from the 9.1% level that persisted last summer.

I also have to think the speed at which information is available on the internet has something to do with the gold market. Instant communication from the far corners of the world was unavailable 40 years ago. It took a few days for news of unrest in one region to find its way to a broad audience. Likewise, buying or selling gold sometimes took a few days ,,, over a weekend maybe.

Such delays are a thing of the past. Even "day trader" may be shifting to "hour trader" or "minute trader" as people are less tolerant of transaction delays. At that pace, I suspect only well heeled and exceeding sophisticated investors or multi-billion-dollar pension or mutual funds can get in a out of the gold market so quickly that a little rise in price translates into a six-figure or more profit taking.

Lake Shore Gold bounces after optimistic Q2 announcement

Lake Shore Gold (NYSE:LSG) announced on Monday that it anticipates a "significant improvement from the first quarter of 2013" in its Q2 results. Following the announcement, the company jumped 56% on the Toronto stock exchange.

"We decided to update the market at this time, given that we are seeing a disconnect between the excellent progress we are making with our operations and projects and recent movements in our share price," said Tony Makuch, president and CEO of Lake Shore Gold in the press release.

The company expects yield reports of 29,000 ounces at an average grade exceeding 4.0 grams per tonne. Quarter to date, output is averaging about 27,000 ounces of gold.

In 2012, Lake Shore Gold entered into agreement for a credit facility of up to $70 million with Sprott Resource Lending Partnership which it will use to expand production at its Bell Creek project. The expansion will likely be completed by September, the company said in today's announcement.

 The Ralated Article: Alberta floods block potash shipments

Last week's floods have temporarily cut the supply of potash from Saskatchewan to the west coast, Reuters reports.

Saskatchewan potash mines were themselves not affected by flooding, but will have to wait a few days to resume transporting the fertiliser through inundated Alberta.

Agrium (NYSE:AGU), Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) and PotashCorp (NYSE:POT), all major Canadian potash producers, jointly own Canpotex — the company in charge of marketing and exporting the miners' commodities outside of Canada.

The flood will cause a delay similar to that induced by a winter storm, a spokesman for Agrium told Reuters.

The hold up comes days after Canpotex announced it had completed its railcar maintenance facility in Saskatchewan — a $60 million transportation system designed to facilitate transportation of potash to seaports.

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Eastplats puts Crocodile River mine on care and maintenance

TSX-, Aim- and JSE-listed Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) will place its Crocodile River mine (CRM) on care and maintenance, with about 92% of employees to be retrenched or have their employment terminated by mutual agreement, the company announced on Tuesday.

This followed an announcement, in April, that the company would suspend funding for the CRM development plan, owing to the continuing negative outlook in the global economic environment, the sustained weakness in platinum-group metals prices and the current operating environment in South Africa.

“We have been struggling through a perfect storm of increasing costs on all fronts and depressed metal prices. With ongoing labour unrest that continues to negatively impact productivity throughout the South African mining sector, the stagnant commodity market and rising costs, it has become impossible to justify continued production operations at this time,” said Eastplats president and CEO Ian Rozier.

The company would immediately start scaling down operations at the mine, with production to stop at the end of July. Production would not resume until the company could achieve economic and sustainable production from CRM.

Meanwhile, Eastplats’ subsidiary Barplats Mines had concluded a 60-day consultation process with unions and other representatives, facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, on June 21.

Barplats had, in April, issued Section 189 notices to employees to inform them of the care-and-maintenance restructuring proposal for the mine.

Eastplats said three unions, representing 47% of the total workforce, had concluded a settlement agreement with the company and recommended acceptance of the retrenchment proposal to their members.

However, one union has not recommended acceptance of the proposal.

Employees who do not accept the full and final settlement proposal will receive the company’s retrenchment package as offered at the final facilitated consultation meeting, the company stated.

Eastplats' share price on the JSE fell by 9.09% on Tuesday to a daily low of 70c a share, compared with 77c a share on Monday.

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Congo refutes NGO accusations against Chinese miners

Congolese authorities sprang to defend Chinese miners operating in the country, after a report published last week by Amnesty International singled them as the main cause of human rights abuses in the African country.

The document Profits and Loss: Mining and human rights in Katanga, highlighted serious abuses by local and foreign mining companies, singling out Chinese companies as the ones that have gone as far as violating locals’ basic rights.

However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government has questioned the “underlying reasons” of why the global NGO devoted so much time to scrutinize Chinese firms.

After a media briefing this weekend, Minister Lambert Mende was quoted by AP as saying that mining companies in Katanga, Congo's copper belt province, were are of 30 different nationalities, and none of them offered “their employees and clients different conditions to the Chinese companies.”

He added Asian companies have played a key role in extracting the country’s minerals and acknowledged that China also imports significant amounts of cobalt and copper from the country, much of which continues to be extracted by small-scale miners.

But Amnesty argues that small operations, also known as artisanal miners, tend to use handheld tools, and often working in "terrible" conditions.

“Mining operations in the DRC have resulted in decades of abuse against artisanal miners and the neighbouring communities,” said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Issues at Amnesty International in a statement.

“The DRC authorities have not only failed to prevent mining companies and traders abusing rights, they have themselves violated human rights to facilitate mining operations."

When questioned by Amnesty International, several of the companies included in the report attempted to absolve themselves of any responsibility by highlighting the authorities’ involvement in the abuse.

“The failure of the DRC authorities to protect human rights does not let the companies off the hook for their own actions and omissions. Disturbingly, some companies pointed to police involvement in an attempt to legitimize their own contribution to human rights violations,” said Gaughran.

The DRC was the eighth largest copper producer in 2012, with an output of about 500,000 tonnes per year. The African country was also the largest cobalt producer during the same period, according to data from the US. Geological Survey.

 Slurry pump and Gravel pump,  dredge pump,  sand pump  plan an important roles in dredging.

New East Harbour to Boost Esbjerg Port Growth Potential

The Port of Esbjerg’s new Østhavn (“East Harbour”) was opened on Friday, 21 June.

This 650,000 square metre expansion of the harbour will consolidate Esbjerg’s position as the leading North Sea port for the wind turbine industry and increase its potential to develop and grow other business areas.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Danish Minister for Transport and followed by a harbour festival with fun and entertainment for the entire city of Esbjerg.

This new section of the harbour covers 650,000 square metres, the equivalent of about 100 football pitches. It has taken two years to build and represents an investment of more than DKK 500m.

The Ralated Article:  Mumbai to Host “Dredging in India” Conference

The mission of the conference is to highlight the key trends and opportunities in the dredging sector. The conference will focus on strategies and solutions to meet the future dredging requirements and address the key challenges. It will also showcase some of the noteworthy dredging projects.

The demand for dredging in India continues to remain strong, driven not only by the dredging requirement at ports, but also those of inland waterways, oil and gas, etc.

The Twelfth Plan targets reflect this growing demand. The dredging requirements of Indian ports are assessed at over 1,100 million cubic metres with plans to Increase draught levels at major ports to at least 14 metres. Major ports alone are targeting an investment of over Rs 88 billion in dredging during the plan period. Slurry pump and Gravel pump will plan an important roles in dredging.

There have been several positive developments In the past year. New guidelines for granting security clearance to bidders have been released. New types of contracts and funding sources are being explored. The industry profile has changed with a number of foreign players entering the sector. Also, public-private partnerships for dredging projects are being planned.

However, the actual achievement in dredging has not kept pace with demand growth. In the Eleventh Plan, only 50 per cent of the dredging target was met and draught levels continue to be low. 

This is because the dredging capacity is inadequate to meet the demand. The Dredging Corporation of India is operating over the optimal level of capacity utilisation. Both domestic and foreign private players are plugging the gap.

Moreover, there are lingering issues such as slow project implementation, lack of standardised documents, delays in policy formulation, absence of a level playing field, financial constraints, and delays in procuring environmental and security clearances.

That said, the opportunities in the next few years are substantial, driven by a focus on the development of ports, inland waterways, etc. The sector offers significant potential for the introduction of new technologies and equipment.  

Slurry pump and Sand pump will plan an important roles in dredging.

DFO declines interview with scientist on oilsands because it disagrees with media report

OTTAWA — The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has declined an interview request with a scientist to discuss the environmental impacts of oilsands development because it objected to a recent Postmedia News report, a federal government spokesman wrote in an email.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is one of seven federal departments and agencies under investigation by Parliament’s Information Commissioner, Suzanne Legault, over allegations that the government is “muzzling” and restricting access to government scientists.
The Postmedia News report, published on Tuesday, quoted an internal memorandum that said the department had “recently” discovered that in-situ oilsands projects could disturb water sources and harm fish habitat.
Postmedia News also reported in the story that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government introduced changes to environmental laws – one year after receiving the memo – that would allow it to exclude some oilsands projects from reviews.
“We are declining your interview request in light of the fact your article is incorrect in suggesting that the memo was in relation to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012 and Fisheries Act amendments,” wrote Frank Stanek, manager of media relations from the department in an email to Postmedia News on Wednesday evening.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has published the list of proposed projects that would be subject to an automatic federal environmental review, and it has confirmed that in-situ oilsands projects, which require the injection of high-pressure steam, deep underground to extract heavy oil, were not on this list.
Another media outlet, iPolitics, also reported in the past week that in-situ oilsands projects were excluded from the list and that an industry lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, had been lobbying the agency in recent months, according to a federal registry. It is not unusual for industry associations to lobby federal departments and agencies to defend their interests on matters of public policy.
The Postmedia report also included comments from the fisheries department saying that these types of projects did not require federal assessments in the past and that it didn’t anticipate they would require reviews under the amended federal environmental laws.
The report also quoted the agency explaining that the environment minister could still require an environmental assessment because of the “potential for adverse environmental effects on matters of federal jurisdiction or if there are public concerns about those effects.”
In his email from Wednesday evening, Stanek repeated that the memo predated the changes to environmental laws, as Postmedia News had reported.
He also said that the department had not eliminated reviews in higher risk areas.
“The memo clearly states that we would continue to work with Departments, Provinces, proponents and others to assess any of these projects where there may be potential for higher risk to fisheries habitat,” Stanek wrote.
The department also sent out letters to various newspapers in the Postmedia Network with similar comments, attributed to David Balfour, a senior assistant deputy minister.
Erin Filliter, a spokeswoman for federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, later wrote on Twitter that the letter was “correcting” the story on environmental assessments.
goo.gl/SpGkl Letter from DFO ADM correcting story on environmental assessments.
— Erin Filliter (@ErinFilliter) May 30, 2013
Postmedia News emailed a series of questions to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about its statement on Thursday morning:
- Does your department or its minister’s office believe that scientists should only give interviews to journalists that write stories in a certain way?
- Are scientists in the department allowed to speak freely about their research on impacts of in-situ oilsands projects on water and fish habitat?
- What makes the department uncomfortable about a story that compares a memo about impacts on fish habitat to a subsequent decision by the government to change environmental laws?
- In what way does the department believe the memo was not related to the changes to environmental laws?
- What is the difference between continuing to work with departments, provinces, proponents and others to assess projects versus putting in-situ oilsands development on a project list that requires reviews?
The department said Friday that it was planning to respond to these questions later in the day.