Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas – Page 235

Ring of Fire Road – by Jodi Lundmark (tbnewswatch.com – February 22, 2012)

February 23, 2012

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The Ring of Fire will be top of mind for local delegates heading to the Ontario Good Roads Association Conference in Toronto next week.

“The projects that are up there are going to make this province rich,” said Mayor Keith Hobbs.

The economic impact on Sudbury for value-added services in the mining sector is $5 billion. In Thunder Bay, it’s around $450 million, which the mayor says is a good start, but is just that – a start.

“There’s more businesses coming in all the time; more junior exploration companies are setting up shop in Thunder Bay. We have to make sure it happens on a large scale,” he said.

Hobbs will be joined at the conference by Councillors Joe Virdiramo, Iain Angus, Brian McKinnon, Aldo Ruberto and Ken Boshcoff as well as city manager Tim Commisso and Fort William First Nation’s economic development officer Ed Collins.

Federal agencies raise flags over Ring of Fire – CBC News/ThunderBay – (February 21, 2012)

February 22, 2012

This article came from CBC News Thunder Bay: http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Environment Canada and Canadian Wildlife Service urge caution in assessing chromite project

CBC News has learned two federal agencies want a more thorough review of the environmental impacts of chromium mining in the Ring of Fire.

Documents obtained by CBC News under access to information show the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) was seeking advice earlier this year from other government departments.

It wanted to know how much scrutiny it should give the proposed Cliffs chromite project, 540 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

In a June 2011 letter, the Canadian Wildlife Service said the agency should “err on the side of caution due to the many uncertainties” associated with the project “and the potential for impacts to migratory birds, species at risk and wetlands.”

Madeline Head, who is with the environmental stewardship branch of the Canadian Wildlife Service, recommended the CEAA put the Cliffs project to “a higher level of assessment and scrutiny ensuring rigorous assessment of the project effects …”

First nations don’t have a pipeline veto, but they do have options – by Tom Flanagan (Globe and Mail – February 21, 2012)

February 21, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Tom Flanagan is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. He has managed campaigns for the Conservative Party of Canada and the Wildrose Party of Alberta. He is co-author of Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights.

The Conservative government has shown that it favours Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to carry bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands to the B.C. deepwater port of Kitimat. Despite this open support, there’s a risk that the Northern Gateway proposal could go the way of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline – ultimately approved in principle but held up so long it never gets built, because the market has found alternative options.

About 50 first nations lie in Northern Gateway’s path. Consultation with these first nations will be critical, so let’s look at the legal framework.

In the 1997 Delgamuukw case, the Supreme Court of Canada held that aboriginal title still exists across British Columbia where treaties have never been signed.

First Nations need more input [Ring of Fire]: Gravelle – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – February 18, 2012)

February 19, 2012

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

First Nations should be included in Ring of Fire talks, Nickel Belt NDP MP Claude Gravelle said.

Gravelle, the NDP’s natural resources critic, is involved in a study about mining and natural resources in Northern Canada. The committee is interviewing interested parties in the Ring of Fire for the report, which will focus on northern communities, the First Nations and mining companies in the North.

“The mining companies are certainly interested in developing the Ring of Fire and the First Nations are very interested in also being part of (it),” Gravelle said of the mineral rich area in Northern Ontario.

The Natural Resources Committee, which Gravelle vice chairs, spoke with mining companies and First Nations communities on Tuesday.

The discussion included the need for business partnerships and the environment side of developing the Ring of Fire project.

The “RING” Revisited: An update on Ontario’s famous “Ring of Fire” district – by D’Arcy Jenish – (Canadian Mining Journal – February/March 2012)

February 17, 2012

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

Richard Fink, Vice President, Technology, with Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources, is a mining industry veteran who knows that discretion is sometimes the better part of valour when it comes to discussing mineral deposits, and the business of putting them into production. Yet, he is eloquent and forceful when describing the potential of the company’s Black Thor chromite deposit and its nearby Big Daddy ore body, both located in northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral district.

“We have a set of major league ore bodies,” says Fink. “The discovery hole on Black Thor was only drilled in September, 2008 so the paint is still wet on this, but you couldn’t ask for a better project. It’s arguably the best open pit chromite deposit in the world in terms of tonnage, grades and mineable widths.”

He also foresees significant socio-economic spinoff if the discoveries can be turned into producing mines. Indeed, Cliffs is looking at estimated capital investments of $3 billion to build a mine and related infrastructure and the projects would create up to 1,250 permanent jobs.

Mining and Resource Development in Northern Canada – by David Kilgour: City of Greater Sudbury Municipal Councillor

February 16, 2012

David Kilgour is a City of Greater Sudbury municipal councillor. He gave this presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, which is considering the federal government’s role in the development of the Ring of Fire, on February 16, 2012.

Mister Chair and Honourable Members,

On behalf of Her Worship, Mayor Marianne Matichuk, members of city council and the citizens of the City of Greater Sudbury, I am pleased to be here this morning to discuss mining and resource development in Northern Canada; a subject that we in Sudbury know something about.

Greater Sudbury is an undisputed global centre of mining expertise. Over the past one hundred and thirty years, billions of dollars worth of Nickel, Copper, Platinum, Gold and many other metals have been mined, milled, smelted and refined in our city. Today, even with more than a century of mining activity, an estimated forty billion dollars of mineral reserves have been identified and constant exploration adds to this total every day.

We are the largest geographic municipality in Ontario; within our municipal
boundaries, approximately seven thousand workers are employed directly in mining production and mineral processing while about twice that number work in the mining supply and services industry. Nowhere else in the world will you find this level of mining activity within a fully urban city.

Building a [mining] workforce [in Thunder Bay and the Northwest] – Special to The Chronicle-Journal (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – February 16, 2012)

February 16, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

With the anticipated boom in the mining sector, industry leaders and organizations are taking steps to ensure the workforce is ready.

On Wednesday the North Superior Workforce Planning Board and the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Committee hosted a forum that looked into some of the employment and training opportunities and challenges that exist in the mining sector in Northwestern Ontario.

More than 200 participants attended the forum. Among the participants were job seekers, mining companies, service providers, government representatives and educators, who discussed how the workforce can be prepared for expanding job opportunities in the mining sector.

Madge Richardson, executive director of North Superior Workforce Planning Board, said the forum was also an opportunity to release a report on the region’s mining industry employment forecasts for the next two, five and 10 years.

Diavik releases 2011 annual socio-economic report

February 15, 2012

This news item originally came from the January 2012, Northern Mining News, published by the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., operator of the Diavik Diamond Mine, has released its 2011 socioeconomic monitoring agreement report, which provides a detailed summary of northern training, employment, and business benefits.

Highlights include:

• Training: As part of the mine’s continuing commitment to support northerners in developing trade skills, Diavik and minesite contractors supported 34 apprentices in 2011. All are northern and 19 are Aboriginal. Additionally, four northerners successfully completed their apprenticeships bringing the total number of Diavik apprentices to have achieved journeyperson certification to 31.

Mining companies, First Nations clashing over Ring of Fire, MPs told – by James Munson (iPolitics – February 15, 2012)

February 15, 2012

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

The conflict between mining companies hungry to exploit the vast riches of northern Ontario and the poverty-stricken First Nations that live there came to Parliament Hill on Tuesday.

The federal regulatory system is failing in the region’s mineral formation known as the Ring of Fire, First Nations representatives and mining executives told MPs at the House of Commons natural resources committee. One aboriginal group has even put one mega-project on hold through court action.

The legal obligations of miners to nearby First Nations are so difficult to discern, it’s denting Canada’s reputation as a politically stable place to do business, said one mining executive.

“The bar has been shifting to a point where I’m wondering what our legal rights are as an exploration company,” said Ronald Coombes, president of White Tiger Mining Corp., a junior exploration firm with assets in the region.

NEWS RELEASE: Chamber of Mines Congratulates NWT Government on Renewal of Prospectors Grubstake Program

February 13, 2012

Yellowknife, NT – February 13, 2012

The Chamber of Mines congratulates the NWT Government’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Investment for the announcement late last week that the Prospectors Grubstake Program would be re-launched after a 5-year absence.

According to Minister Ramsay, the program will provide financial assistance to qualified Northwest Territories prospectors through the Prospectors Grubstake Program, the NWT Government hopes to see additional prospectors search for new mineral occurrences or to reassess previously known occurrences and deposits around the territory.

Healthy and active exploration is the foundation for a sustainable mining industry. It was the persistence and optimism of prospectors Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson that resulted in diamonds being discovered in the NWT.

This led to the largest staking rush in Canadian history, and most importantly resulted in 3 diamond mines – Ekati, Diavik, and Snap Lake – that have created some of the largest opportunities the NWT has ever seen, particularly in Aboriginal employment and business.

Canada mining boom leaves natives in the cold (Attawapiskat international coverage) – by Chris Arsenault (Al Jazeera – February 11, 2012)

February 13, 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/

Indigenous community with “third world conditions” sits 90km from diamond mine, prompting fight for resource royalties.

Despite living just 90km from a massive diamond mine, Jackie Hookimaw Witt has watched poverty tear at the fabric of Attawapiskat, an indigenous community in northern Canada.

The northern Ontario community made international headlines recently, when the chief declared a state of emergency, as many houses lacked heating during frozen winters, and families were left sleeping in storage sheds, shacks or run-down trailers, often with no running water.

“Why are our people living in such extreme poverty when we are so close to this rich mine?” asked Witt, a mining critic born and raised in Attawapiskat. “There is something wrong with this.”

As mining companies around the world reap profits from high commodity prices, people in Attawapiskat are demanding a bigger slice of the pie from the diamonds extracted from their traditional territory.

Ontario First Nation wins injunction to stop gold drilling – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – February 12, 2012)

February 14, 2012February 12, 2012

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

When members of Wahgoshig First Nation spotted a drilling crew on what they say is a sacred burial site, they demanded to know who the strangers were and what they were doing.

The Wahgoshig, whose Algonquin reserve of 19,239 acres is 113 km east of Timmins, running south from Lake Abitibi near the Quebec border, say they were met with silence. But what was happening on the land was anything but silent, according to court records.

The prospecting work involves clearing 25 sq. metre pads, clearing forest, bulldozing access routes to the drilling sites and the transportation and storage of fuel and equipment.

The workers were with Solid Gold Resources Inc., a junior mining firm that has a 200-square-kilometre prospect at Lake Abitibi near the Porcupine Fault zone. The land they were on, says Wahgoshig band chief David Babin, is not part of the reserve itself but does include the traditional lands the Algonquins have lived on for thousands of years.

Uranium deal with china ‘important’ for Saskatchewan – by Joe Couture (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – January 10, 2012)

February 11, 2012

www.starphoenix.com

Wall claims ‘great day’ for province

An agreement that is expected to allow Canadian companies to ship uranium to China is “very, very important” for Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall said on Thursday in reaction to news from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the Asian superpower.

“It’s a great day for Saskatchewan and we want to thank the federal government and the prime minister for raising a very Saskatchewan issue on their trade mission and making progress,” Wall told reporters Thursday at the Legislative Building.

Though a small amount of Saskatchewan uranium has been shipped to China before under special agreements, the new trade agreement signed by Harper is expected to allow Saskatchewan producers to directly sell Canadian yellowcake – a type of uranium concentrate powder – to China, he continued.

More nickel sulphide and chromite mineralization found in [Ring of Fire] mining camp – Northwest Bureau (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – February 11, 2012)

November 3, 2015February 11, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Noront Resources Ltd. has identified more nickel sulphide and chromite mineralization at its McFauld’s Lake Project in the Ring of Fire mining camp.

“While drilling to increase the chromite resource at Blackbird continued to return excellent results, the discovery of two new zones of nickel sulphide mineralization within 500 metres of (the company’s) Eagle’s Nest (deposit), highlights the tremendous exploration potential of this area,” company CEO Wes Hanson said in a news release.

“Both zones of nickel sulphide mineralization were identified by a new, ground-based geophysical survey that was completed in November,” he said. Hanson noted that the Eagle’s Nest feasibility study is progressing on time and on budget as is the resource update and preliminary assessment of the Blackbird chromite deposit.

Our national shame [Aboriginal living conditions] – by Mia Rabson and Mary Agnes Welch (Winnipeg Free Press – February 4, 2012)

February 4, 2012

This article came from: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Natural resources may transform northern Manitoba reserves from poverty-stricken to prosperous. Human resources may transform First Nations from have-nots to self-sufficient

No boat trip in Manitoba is prettier than the one between Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point, dodging dozens of tiny, pincushion islands made of bedrock and pine trees.

The Island Lake region should be a quintessentially Canadian jackpot of mining, logging, hydro development and high-end tourism catering to eco-adventurers and rich American sport fishermen. Instead, it’s a national shame.

There appears to be only one thing that will make reserves in northern Manitoba viable communities able to rise above the poverty that’s shackled generations: natural resources.

At the recent Crown-First Nations Gathering in Ottawa, chiefs had education, health care and housing on the brain. But the one resounding theme was a desire to get Ottawa and the provinces to the table so First Nations can finally start reaping the benefits of the natural resources they believe are bountiful on their traditional lands.