Despite the hand wringing and crocodile tears from the Canadian Mining industry about Bolivia's planned nationalizations of oil and mining, there is nothing to fear from it.
TORONTO
Bolivia's plan to nationalize its natural-gas industry and exert greater state control over all of its natural resources has North American mining companies fretting over their future prospects extracting the nation's rich resources of gold, silver and tin.
The chairman of one of the world's largest gold-mining firms told shareholders he would now "put my buck" on exploration in Pakistan, rather than the South American countries that are erecting more roadblocks to foreign investors.
Patricia Dillon, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, said plans by Bolivia to raise taxes and royalties on foreign mining firms are disconcerting.
Cuba is a excellent example of cooperation between a Canadian Mining Giant and a state-capitalist regime. I am speaking of Sherritt Gordon. Which has revived the nickel mines, coal production and oil production in Cuba based on an unheard of 50/50 deal.
China, Canada seek crude off Cuba, but not US
HAVANA (AFP) - China will send 12 hi-tech rigs to drill for oil in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico, officials have confirmed, irking US lawmakers that US firms cannot prospect in nearby US waters. Cuba has stepped up work on a total of 36 new oil wells with Chinese companies and Canada's Sherritt, about four kilometers (2.5 miles) off the north coast, officials said privately.
Ian Delaney's Cuban adventure laid the groundwork for his latest contrarian project: Canada and its coal, WENDY STUECK writes
At the time, the only two places in the world with a surplus of nickel and a shortage of refining capacity were Russia and Cuba. Talks with Russian interests went nowhere. But by 1991, Sherritt had struck a deal to buy metal from Cuba, an arrangement it cemented through a joint venture in 1994.
The Canadian-Cuban partnership made sense for both parties: Sherritt was hungry for metal and Cuba, reeling from the disappearance of billions in financial aid after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was desperate for hard currency.
One party, however, was mightily displeased. The United States, which imposed a sweeping trade embargo on communist Cuba in 1961, watched with consternation as foreign investors, including Sherritt, moved into the country.
Slammed by U.S. critics for daring to do business with a communist dictator, Mr. Delaney launched a company to do just that. In 1995, the former Sherritt was split in two, with one arm holding the fertilizer business and the other set up to focus solely on Cuba.
In 1996, the Helms-Burton Act came into effect. The legislation opened the door to lawsuits against companies that "traffic" in property confiscated in the Cuban revolution of 1959, and to this day prohibits Mr. Delaney and other Sherritt executives from setting foot in the United States.
Through it all, Mr. Delaney chomped on Cuban cigars, trumpeted the potential of the Cuban business scene and said one should never back down from a fight.
It's a trait that he's still known for.
"Ian is very much a 'screw you' kind of guy," says long-time acquaintance Jeff Green, chairman of Toronto-based Paradigm Capital Inc.
Something the Canadian Miners in Bolivia should consider. Instead of whining about how they intend to invest in Pakistan, home of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden Inc., instead of Bolivia.
A capital strike by the Canadian Miners against the people of Bolivia will not result in harm to Bolivia, but will give another black eye to a Canadian industry that already has a poor international reputation for pollution, expolitation and environmental disasters.
Suck it up and make a fair deal with Bolivia. After all Canadians pride themselves in being fair.
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