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Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas

Judge calls [DeBeers mine] blockade an act of extortion – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 21, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The ongoing blockade outside the Victor diamond mine is not an Aboriginal protest but an act of extortion, a Timmins Superior Court judge declared Wednesday.

Judge Robert Riopelle said the men who are spearheading the blockade are not fighting for constitutional rights, land claims, treaty issues or anything that would benefit the community of Attawapiskat.

These are “individuals with private financial interests, holding a large multinational corporation to ransom,” Judge Robert Riopelle. “It smells of coercion.” Riopelle felt there was sufficient basis for the Ontario Provincial Police to lay criminal charges against the six demonstrators who have prevented access to the mine site since Feb. 11.

The hearing on Wednesday was hastily called late Tuesday, at the request of De Beers Canada, as a followup the injunction order that was made on Friday. Its purpose was to provide direction on enforcing the order.

Riopelle had issued the order, demanding the barricades be removed from the ice road and prohibiting any further obstruction of access to the mine site by the demonstrators.

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Blockade protesters seek new agreement – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 20, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

ATTAWAPISKAT – The people behind the latest blockade on the ice road to Victor diamond mine are demanding Tony Guthrie, president of De Beers Canada, sign an agreement with the demonstrators.

However, a company spokesman said that is unlikely to happen. Tom Ormsby, director of external and corporate affairs, told The Daily Press the company already has dispute-settlement procedures in place and agreed to review with community members the benefit agreement package signed with the First Nation as recent as this past summer.

Ormsby said latest demand runs “contrary” to previous agreements they have made with the community. “This is a new set of requests that doesn’t align with what we’ve agreed to.”

The demonstrators are demanding the creation of a “joint dispute resolution committee” that would address issues such as employment and training, housing, and compensation for community members whose traplines are located near the mine site.

The demands were faxed to the company. The blockade, located at a turnoff about 100 kilometres from the Victor mine, remains in place despite the fact De Beers won a court injunction in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday prohibiting anyone from obstructing access to the south winter ice road leading to the mine site.

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Clement won’t allow Ring of Fire to be ‘mired in uncertainty’ – CBC News Thunder Bay (February 19, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Tony Clement calls mineral-rich Ring of Fire project a ‘complex, generational opportunity’

Tony Clement, Canada’s Treasury Board president and FedNor minister, has officially taken on federal responsibility for the massive Ring of Fire mineral discovery in northern Ontario.

Speaking Tuesday afternoon to members of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, Clement said he would be co-ordinating the government’s engagement with stakeholders, in conjunction with several federal ministries such as Aboriginal Affairs, Industry, Natural Resources, Environment, Health, and Infrastructure.

Clement said he is very familiar with the development because he is also responsible for FedNor, the regional development agency for northern Ontario. The minister told reporters he planned to meet soon with first nations’ leaders to discuss issues concerning the Ring of Fire.

Project will be ‘complex’

Clement said he didn’t expect his new job to be “easy-peasy,” but he added he is looking forward to moving the project ahead. Clement called the mineral-rich area in northwestern Ontario “a generational opportunity,” offering the prospect of several decades of mining and thousands of jobs.

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Attawapiskat blockade may force De Beers to close mine – CBC News Thunder Bay (February 19, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Diamond miner says it is still waiting for action on court-ordered injunction

Despite what was called a “successful” meeting with protestors and a court injunction issued Friday, a road block on the winter road to the De Beers diamond mine near Attawapiskat continues. De Beers said if it continues, it may consider temporarily shutting down the operation.

Mine access has been blocked intermittently by a handful of protesters — members of the Attawapiskat band — at several points this month. Some of those people say they have concerns about the community not benefitting enough from the mine.

“These have not been … community initiatives,” De Beers spokesperson Tom Ormsby said. “They’ve been individually driven by individual agendas or individual concerns or claims.”

Because the winter road has a limited lifespan and it’s not possible to ship some supplies by air, De Beers might have to simply lock the front gate. “If we do not get our supplies in, all things are on the table, including a possible closure,” Ormsby added.

Ormsby said the company is still waiting on the court injunction to be acted upon to disband protesters and re-open the road to the Victor Mine.

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Tony Clement takes on responsibility for controversial Ring of Fire – by Peter Koven (National Post – February 20, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — The federal government is winning accolades for finally naming a point man on the Ring of Fire, a massive mining development in Northern Ontario with many complex issues to unravel.

Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board and head of a federal development organization for Northern Ontario, announced Tuesday that he will take the lead role on the file. He said he was asked to do so by the prime minister.

“There is a lot at stake and we cannot afford to allow this development to stall and become mired in paralysis and uncertainty,” he said in a speech in Thunder Bay.

The Ring of Fire, located in the James Bay Lowlands, is thought to contain $30-billion to $50-billion worth of minerals and is poised to be North America’s first significant source of chromite. A large mining company, Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., is prepared to spend more than US$3-billion to build a mine and key infrastructure in the region.

The discovery of the Ring of Fire created a brief euphoria in 2007 and 2008 as the potential economic benefits of the region sunk in. But development has been extremely slow since then. Cliffs, along with the federal and provincial governments, have struggled to manage very challenging issues around First Nations involvement, environmental management and infrastructure.

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Feds coy on plan for Ring – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 20, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

It would be putting “the cart before the horse” to draw con-c lusions about how much money the federal government would spend to develop infrastructure for the Ring of Fire, or its dialogue with aboriginal people about the development, says Tony Clement.

The first order of business for the Treasury Board president, appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week to spearhead federal involvement in the massive project, is to listen, Clement told The Sudbury Star on Tuesday.

Clement, who is also the minister responsible for FedNor, spoke at lunch to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, telling the business crowd the Ring of Fire “is no ordinary mine development.”

The chromite deposits, located in the James Bay Lowlands, have the potential to create 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, and be a source of revenue for Northern Ontario and beyond for decades, said Clement.

Cliffs Natural Resources, one of the companies seeking to open a mine in the Ring of Fire, wants to build a chromite smelter in Capreol, creating up to 500 jobs in the Sudbury area. Next to the Alberta tar sands, the Ring of Fire chromite deposits represent the largest natural resource project in Canada. 

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[FedNor Minister] Clement takes charge in Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 19, 2013)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Tony Clement came to Thunder Bay with a take-charge attitude on the Ring of Fire. “It’s time to push the refresh button on this opportunity,” said the FedNor and federal Treasury Board president during a speech to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, Feb. 19.

Calling the Far North exploration camp “a generational opportunity,” Clement said he’s been instructed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to “coordinate and lead our government’s engagement on this file.”

Clement said the potential to mine in this remote region could go on for “several decades” and the ripple effect from the mineral wealth will be felt beyond Ontario. “There is a lot at stake and we cannot afford to allow this development to stall and become mired in paralysis and uncertainty.”

Progress on exploration has been hampered by disagreements with area First Nation on consultation issues and over the environmental assessment process on potentially large-scale mine and infrastructure developments in the James Bay lowlands.

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Clement walking on eggshells as he takes on Ring of Fire responsibilities – by Heather Scoffield (Canadian Press/Brandon Sun – February 19, 2013)

http://www.brandonsun.com/

OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Tony Clement will publicly take on federal responsibility for the massive Ring of Fire mineral discovery today in northern Ontario today.

He’ll be walking on eggshells as he makes his first speech on the chromite and nickel interest in Thunder Bay this afternoon.

That’s because the Ring of Fire file is not only complex, it is also controversial among environmentalists, First Nations and many of the communities who would be affected by the large-scale building of infrastructure and decades of mining.

It’s also a huge test case of the federal government’s “responsible resource development” approach that has influenced major changes in legislation but has also had a rough ride of late. Attempts to build pipelines to the West and to the south have met with a public outcry, and Ottawa’s record on climate change record has been challenged, not just by the federal environment auditor but also by the new Obama administration.

So Clement’s first priority is to avoid upsetting anyone and build a consensus around the best way to develop the region’s newly discovered riches. “The whole purpose of the engagement … is first and foremost to listen to other people,” Clement said in a phone interview the day before his speech.

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Attawapiskat blockaders served injunction: Report (Toronto Sun Video Report – February 17, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

A sheriff presented a group of people blocking the road to a diamond mine in Attawapiskat with a court injunction Sunday, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reported.

The station said the sheriff appears to have flown to the airport at the De Beers Victor mine and then drove 90 km to the blockade site. The ice road from the mine does not cross through reserve land, though the area is Attawapiskat’s claimed traditional territory.

Accompanied by two OPP officers, the sheriff read the injunction to a handful of blockaders before posting it, APTN said on its site.

Last Friday, De Beers diamond mine officials asked a Timmins judge for the injunction to end the illegal blockades that have prevented supplies from entering the company’s mine off and on for nearly two weeks.

Residents say the blockades are about the mine’s environmental impact on their community and about proper compensation.

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Waiting game in Attawapiskat on the diamond mine ice road blockade – by Jorge Barrera (APTN National News – February 17, 2013)

http://aptn.ca/pages/news/

ATTAWAPISKAT–The diamond mine ice road blockade outside Attawapiskat continued into its eight day Sunday despite a sheriff planting an injunction notice in the snow at the site during the early morning hours.

The notice, which was stapled to a wooden stick, was thrown into the trees by Bruce Shisheesh, an evangelical minister who had initially withdrawn from the protest but returned to the site Sunday. De Beers obtained the injunction from an Ontario judge on Friday.

While community members travelled back and forth from the blockade site, bringing food and support, Attawapiskat band officials worked behind the scenes to bring an end to the protest which has severed De Beers’ time-sensitive overland supply route.

The mine relies on the ice road for fuel deliveries and the transport of machinery and replacement parts too heavy to fly in.

Attawapiskat community members have rallied around Rebecca Iahtail, 45, who was the last blockader standing following a band meeting on Friday. Iahtail says she is dying of cancer.

Iahtail’s decision to stay gave renewed life to the blockade which is on an intersection by the ice road leading to the De Beers Victor mine site which sits about 90 kilometres west of the community.

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Cree woman dying of cancer last one standing on Attawapiskat diamond mine blockade – by Jorge Barrera (APTN National News – February 16, 2013)

http://aptn.ca/pages/news/

ATTAWAPISKAT– Inside the wood stove-warmed canvas tent beside the barricades on the ice road leading to the De Beers diamond mine, Rebecca Iahtail says she’s dying from cancer. There are several women sitting around Iahtail, three men, including Iahtail’s partner Noah, at the tent’s entrance. The conversation is almost totally in Cree.

Spruce boughs and canvas are used as ground cover. Inside the tent a single candle burns next to an ashtray and an empty coffee cup. The flame glints softly off Iahtail’s glasses, her round face half shadow, half glow.

The wood stove pops and hisses. The tinny sound of a pop tune can be heard coming from the headphones of a teenage girl. It’s Friday night in Attawapiskat, day six of the blockade is about to come to an end.

Exhaust fumes, illuminated by headlights, float across the ice road. Tail lights streak through the darkness. A number of SUVs and pick-up trucks are buzzing between the barricades and the community, which is a couple of kilometres away.

The news that De Beers obtained a court injunction to break the blockade has triggered rumours of impending arrests by the OPP. Iahtail says she has colon cancer and was given three years left to live. A mother to an 11 year-old son who is in Moose Factory at a hockey tournament, Iahtail says her impending death is part of the reason why she’s decided to stay until the end.

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Frozen out of the Ring of Fire – by David McLaren (Sudbury Star – February 16, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Ring of Fire — it sounds like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Welcome to Mordor, Ont., an area of 5,120 square kilometres in the James Bay watershed chock full of nickel, copper, zinc, gold, palladium and chromium — especially chromium.

The Lords of the Ring are some 30 exploration companies, such as KWG Resources and Noront Resources, which have staked more than 31,000 claims. Cliffs Natural Resources from Ohio is the principal mining company. They’re after chromium, a vital ingredient in stainless steel. (Cliffs is proposing build a chromite smelter in Capreol, creating 400 to 500 jobs).

But others are coming in, including the Chinese state-owned Sinocan Resources Corp. The Crown, in this realm, has two heads: Stephen Harper and Kathleen Wynne.

Ottawa has responsibility for some environmental oversight through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and Ontario collects royalties, or will after the 10-year tax holiday it gives remote mines.

In fact, Ontario’s mining tax regime is so generous compared to other provinces that it amounts to a subsidy. (Throw in the oilsands and the Crown gives more money to mining companies than it spends on First Nations health, education and housing.) And the federal government’s recent omnibus bills have so severely crippled its environmental regulatory muscle that you might as well hang a sign on the north that says, “(Ring of ) Fire Sale”.

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New [Ontario] mines minister, new hope for Cliffs? – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 15, 2013)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Cliffs Natural Resources hopes a restructured provincial government with Michael Gravelle at the helm of the Northern Development and Mines can kick-start talks on advancing its Ring of Fire chromite project.

During the company’s fourth quarter conference call on Feb. 13, Cliffs chairman Joseph Carrabba said while the project timelines for Black Thor are on schedule, other “critical elements” are beyond the company’s control.

“Last May, we signed a term sheet with the province that among other things enabled the decision to locate the furnace operation in (Sudbury) Ontario,” said Carrabba.

“While negotiations of a binding agreement with the government have slowed and dialogue has been suspended during the provincial government transition, recent conversations with newly seated cabinet minister Gravelle indicates the province is committed to get a deal done.”

The Ontario government has said precious little since that May news conference in Sudbury when then-mines minister Rick Bartolucci announced Cliffs was locating the $1.8-billion ferrochrome smelter in the city as part of the Cleveland miner’s larger $3.3-billion mines and mill investment in Ontario.

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Second Debeers road blockade ongoing – by Rick Garrick (Wawatay News – Feburary 13, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

The DeBeers winter road has been blocked twice over the past week, an ongoing blockade that began on Feb. 10 and another from Feb. 4-6. The first blockade was over employment rates among community members and the use of Attawapiskat’s traditional territory, while the second blockade was over a lack of compensation for the mine’s impacts to traplines.

“It’s the same issue as with (the first blockade),” said Danny Metatawabin, Attawapiskat’s impact benefit agreement coordinator, about the second blockade. “They have a trapline there along with the other family.”

Metatawabin said the issues would be sorted out at a Feb. 11 meeting with DeBeers representatives. “The mine manager is on his way tonight, so hopefully we’ll sort it out by tonight,” Metatawabin said on Feb. 11. “As per the agreement, the membership was supposed to have been informed that we we’re not supposed to be doing any blockades.”

Metatawabin said the blockades prevented the delivery of fuel to the DeBeers Victor mine. “It’s been mostly a mixed reaction (to the blockades)” Metatawabin said. “Had the community fully supported the blockade, I think we would have more people over there, but right now there’s just a skeleton number of people over there.”

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Canadian native protesters block road to De Beers mine – Reuters (MiningWeekly.com – February 13, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO – Native protesters have blocked the winter access road to De Beers’ Victor mine in Northern Canada for the second time in less than two weeks, raising concerns over supplying the diamond project before the spring thaw makes the site inaccessible except by air, the company said on Wednesday.

De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American, has a window of about 45 days to complete its winter transportation programme on the ice road. The company’s trucks have so far faced disruptions on eight of 12 days since the programme was launched.

De Beers Canada has notified the protesters and the local community of a potential legal action in an effort to regain control of the transport corridor for fuel, machinery and other large supplies, spokesperson Tom Ormsby told Reuters.

“We need action at this point to get the road open, that’s our priority,” said Ormsby. “There will be economic consequences for all involved if we cannot successfully complete this programme, and it impacts the operation of the mine.”

The most recent barricade was set up on Sunday by a small group of protesters who are demanding the company provide compensation for the loss of traditional trap line territory.

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