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Canada Mining – North of 60

Legacy of Canada’s role in atomic bomb is felt by northern Indigenous community – by Geoffrey Bird (The Conversation – August 9, 2020)

https://theconversation.com/

Geoffrey Bird is Professor of heritage, culture, and tourism at Royal Roads University.

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a little known part of the legacy is the impact on the Délı̨nę First Nation of the Northwest Territories. I explore their stories in the film A Moral Awakening, which is available online.

This heritage connects Indigenous people, Canadians and people all over the world who are concerned with peace, reconciliation and social justice. The film contributes to understanding of the global impact of nuclear weapons and its contested history.

But the main goal of A Moral Awakening is to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of the people of Délı̨nę, a story long silenced.

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Northern First Nations call for a major overhaul of mining legislation – by Haley Ritchie (Yukon News – August 8, 2020)

https://www.yukon-news.com/

The Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Vuntut Gwitchin governments are the latest to call for a major overhaul of mining policy in a submission to the Yukon Mineral Development Strategy.

“This is long overdue,” said Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Deputy Chief Simon Nagano, who added that the current outdated legislation is cumbersome for everyone involved.

“We’re not anti-mining. There’s a lot of First Nations families out there that work in the industry. We want to work with (First Nations), the miners, the Yukon government so that each party is happy. Finally, when the Yukon government can agree to have this completed it’ll be a benefit to all three,” he said.

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Communities resist Baffinland and Ottawa’s push for public hearings – by Thomas Rohner (CBC News North – August 6, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation says if a Nunavut regulator further delays its Mary River Mine expansion it would cause “extreme prejudice” against the company and be a “breach of procedural fairness,” according to documents filed on the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s public registry.

The board recently released a suggested schedule of meetings over the next three months to address the company’s Phase 2, which includes using rail lines to transport ore within Baffin Island.

The mine is about 100 kilometres from Milne Inlet on north Baffin Island. Those meetings, which have been suspended since March due to COVID-19, must occur before a public hearing can happen.

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U.S.-based investor proposes $700-million rescue plan for TMAC, urges Ottawa to reject sale to China – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 5, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A U.S.-based activist investor is urging the Canadian government to reject the proposed acquisition of Arctic miner TMAC Resources Inc. by a Chinese state-owned gold company and is proposing an alternative capital infusion plan that would see TMAC remain as a standalone.

James Rasteh, head of New York City hedge fund Coast Capital Management, said in an interview he can raise $700-million from his investors that would negate the need for TMAC to be acquired by Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd.

“We can absolutely raise the capital,” Mr. Rasteh said. In May, Shandong proposed an all-cash acquisition of TMAC worth $207.4-million, a small premium to its then market share price.

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Spectre of atomic bomb still looms over N.W.T. community 75 years after Hiroshima – by Katie Toth (CBC News North – August 5, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Please note that the Germans and Japanese were also working to develop an Atomic bomb. https://lat.ms/39XwV1P and https://bit.ly/3fv8Oc6 – RepublicOfMining.com

Délı̨nę is haunted by its connection to the Manhattan Project and creation of the nuclear bomb

Seventy-five years after two nuclear bombs were dropped in Japan — killing hundreds of thousands of people in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — one small community in the Northwest Territories is still haunted by its connection to the blasts.

Across Great Bear Lake from the 533-person hamlet of Délı̨nę sits the historic mining site of Port Radium.

Workers originally mined radium for medical use. But at the height of the Second World War, the Canadian government quietly called for uranium production as part of the country’s involvement in the Manhattan Project.

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OPINION: Canada must acknowledge our key role in developing the deadly atomic bomb – by Setsuko Thurlow (Globe and Mail – August 1, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Please note that the Germans and Japanese were also working to develop an Atomic bomb. https://lat.ms/39XwV1P and https://bit.ly/3fv8Oc6 – RepublicOfMining.com

Setsuko Thurlow is a Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

On Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the largest bell in the Peace Tower at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa will ring 75 times to mark the dropping of the two atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The arrangement was made by the Green Party’s Elizabeth May and Canada’s Speaker of the House, Liberal MP Anthony Rota. The bell ringing by the Dominion carillonneur Andrea McCrady will be livestreamed by the Peace Tower Carillon website so that it may be heard across Canada and around the world.

As someone who witnessed and experienced the consequences of nuclear war, I very often have brutal images in my mind of the atomic bombing.

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Yukon’s Gold Rush-era system for staking mineral claims, explained – by Julien Gignac (The Narwhal – July 30, 2020)

The Narwhal

Skeeter Wright has owned his densely wooded property in Whitehorse since the 1970s but, for the past two decades, he’s had to share it, in a sense, after a local company staked a piece of his land for mineral exploration.

It came as a surprise to Wright, who only learned about the claim from a neighbour at a community gathering some years ago.

The claim is still active and the company could choose to explore it one day — including the land outside his front window.

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When it comes to Canada-China relations, it is time to look North – by Jessica Shadian and Erica Wallis (Policy Options – July 7, 2020)

Policy Options – Institute for Research on Public Policy

Canada could chart a new course for its relationship with China, and protect our interests, by thinking more strategically about the North.

If there is one thing that the COVID-19 crisis has not brought to a halt, it is China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global network of land and maritime infrastructure projects. In fact, while businesses around the world fold or face bankruptcies, China is taking this opportunity to make the most of the global liquidation sale, including in Canada.

During May’s chaotic lockdown, China entered a bid to buy a struggling Northern mining company, TMAC Resources. TMAC operates the Doris North gold mine at its Hope Bay property in Nunavut. The property up until very recently was labelled as “Canada’s next gold mining district,” but TMAC encountered operational challenges.

In late June, TMAC’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the company’s sale to the second-largest gold mine company in China, state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co. (“SD Gold”). Only five years ago, TMAC had successfully raised several hundred million dollars and began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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North: New Inuit benefit agreement worth $1B over life of Mary River Mine – by Beth Brown (CBC News North – July 7, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have a new agreement for Inuit oversight of the Mary River Mine. Officials from both groups say it will be worth more than $1 billion over the life of the iron ore mine.

Announced Monday, the Inuit Certainty Agreement was signed on June 16. It’s been in the works since an environmental review of the mine’s production and rail expansion ended abruptly last fall, says PJ Akeeagok, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.

The new, legally binding agreement clears up most technical concerns that previously left the Baffin Inuit organization unable to support the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s hearing for the phase-two expansion, which would increase production at Mary River.

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Rio Tinto not interested in any part of Dominion Diamond Mines – by Richard Gleeson (CBC News Canada North – July 6, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

The company thought to be the most logical to partner with or purchase Dominion Diamond Mines is not interested in the troubled diamond company.

In a recent affidavit, former Dominion CEO and former N.W.T. cabinet minister Brendan Bell says Dominion’s partner in the Diavik diamond mine — Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of global mining giant Rio Tinto — is the most obvious candidate to purchase Dominion’s 40 per cent stake in the Diavik diamond mine and also to purchase the Ekati mine, which Dominion owns 90 per cent of.

Dominion is in the process of restructuring or being sold, having been granted creditor protection in April.

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Yukon First Nation calls on territory to abolish ‘colonial’ claim staking process for mines – by Julien Gignac (The Narwhal – June 29, 2020)

The Narwhal

A Yukon First Nation is calling on the territorial government to abolish its wide-open process for recognizing mineral claims, citing colonial underpinnings that have brought waves of miners to the territory since the advent of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Under Yukon’s free entry system, prospectors can stake a claim anywhere they want, as long as it isn’t in a park or on certain municipal or settlement lands, for instance.

This outdated legislation hands over the rights to miners while removing First Nations from the consultation equation, according to Carcross/Tagish First Nation. The nation voiced this concern in its response to a request for comments on a Yukon Mineral Development Strategy now in the works for the territory.

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Despite COVID-19 challenges, Agnico Eagle says it’s in Nunavut for the long term – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – June 17, 2020)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

The president and CEO of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., which operates two gold mines in Nunavut, says Canadian companies are best positioned to manage mines in the territory, where partnerships with communities are key.

Sean Boyd, speaking on Tuesday, June 16, at an online keynote session at the Canadian Mining Symposium, was referring to the proposed buyout of TMAC Resources Inc.’s Hope Bay mine in western Nunavut by the Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd.

“We think that should be done by Canadian companies run by Canadians, based in Canada, because we have the understanding of history and we have that sense of pride in the country and that willingness to see people benefit from that opportunity,” Boyd said.

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ZINC-LEAD: Osisko Metals’ PEA for Pine Point suggests large-scale operation (Canadian Mining Journal – June 16, 2020)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES – A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Osisko Metals’ wholly owned Pine Point project outlines an 11,250 t/d open-pit and underground operation, mining 47 small open pits and eight high-grade shallow underground deposits.

The proposed 10-year mine would produce an average of 327 million lb. of zinc and 143 million lb. of lead annually at estimated cash costs of US67¢ per lb. of zinc-equivalent (including smelting, transport and royalties).
With a total initial capital cost of $555.7 million, the after-tax net present value estimate for the project, at an 8% discount rate, stands at $500 million with a 29.6% internal rate of return based on estimated life-of-mine zinc and lead prices of US$1.15 per lb. and US95¢ per lb., respectively.

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Dominion Diamond sues partner in Diavik mine for breach of contract, other allegations – by Sara Minogue (CBC News North – June 16, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Dominion Diamond Mines has filed a lawsuit accusing Diavik Diamond Mines (2012) Inc. — its 60 per cent partner in the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories — of managing the mine to the benefit of its majority owner, Rio Tinto, and to the detriment of Dominion.

The civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday with the Supreme Court of British Columbia (where Dominion is incorporated), claims Diavik Diamond Mines (DDMI) has continued to make cash calls from Dominion “knowing that Dominion has no ability to pay for such cash calls.”

Cash calls are basically requests from Dominion’s partner in the mine to cover its share of operating costs or other obligations.

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Western Nunavut gold miner hopes shareholders approve Chinese buyout – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – June 16, 2020)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Only a little more than a week remains before TMAC Resources Inc. shareholders cast their votes on June 26 on whether to support a buyout of the Hope Bay mine in western Nunavut by Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd.

If the deal with the Chinese state-owned company, better known as SD Gold, is a go, TMAC president and CEO Jason Neal says the Hope Bay mine will be able to ramp up to full operating levels.

“More importantly, we have acted in the interests of all stakeholders to put Hope Bay on a new trajectory for long-term success,” Neal said in a news release about the deal. He said he hopes TMAC shareholders will approve the buyout at a special meeting in Toronto, on Friday, June 26.

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