Nunavut’s newest MLA talks about mining and infrastructure – by Elaine Anselmi (Nunatsiaq News – October 17, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

As Nunavut’s legislature starts its fall sitting, David Qamaniq delivers his first members statement

The opening of the Nunavut legislative assembly’s fall sitting saw the newly minted Tununiq MLA, David Qajaakuttuk Qamaniq, give his first member’s statement.

“I would not be here today without the hard work and success of many people,” he opened, thanking his family and friends, as well as the opponent he faced in last month’s byelection, Charlie Inuarak.

“I fully recognize that I have joined this house at the midway point in its term. It feels like joining the National Hockey League midway through the season,” Qamaniq said, prompting laughs all around.

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Western Nunavut gold miner pleads guilty to Fisheries Act violation – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – October 8, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

CAMBRIDGE BAY—TMAC Resources Inc., which operates the Hope Bay gold mine about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, must pay a $50,000 fine for the unauthorized discharge of effluent into a nearby creek.

TMAC, which pleaded guilty to violating a regulation under the Fisheries Act, was ordered to pay the fine on Oct. 2 at a hearing in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

The money will go into the federal Environmental Damages Fund, which ensures court-awarded penalties support projects with positive environmental impacts. “It’s not good,” said Alex Buchan, TMAC’s vice-president of corporate social responsibility, of the conviction.

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Northern zinc-rich projects get boost – by Rose Ragsdale (North of 60 Mining News – October 1, 2019)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

As the worldwide deficit in zinc production grows, several zinc-lead mining projects across northern Canada await construction of access arteries needed to deliver their ore to market. The projects are among the world’s most attractive and represent a base metals treasure trove coveted by would-be developers and end users alike.

Recent funding from the Canadian government and other public and private sources could unlock the floodgates to critical infrastructure development needed to spur base metals mining in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

In mid-August, the Government of Canada, two territorial governments and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association agreed to commit more than C$60 million to the Slave Corridor Project, an initiative aimed at kickstarting development in the mineral-rich and underdeveloped Slave Geological Province, with construction of new roads and a deep-water port.

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Rankin Inlet mine ramps up production, putting strain on local housing – by Emma Tranter (Nunatsiaq News – September 26, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Meliadine gold mine set to enter phase two of production in 2023

MELIADINE MINE—A 25-kilometre road winds through the brilliant yellow tundra surrounding Rankin Inlet leading to Agnico Eagle’s newest gold mine. From a distance, the site looks like a small town, with new buildings stacked beside rows of living quarters.

The long-awaited mine, which cost more than $900 million to build, officially began commercial operations in May 2019. Agnico bought the property in 2010, but the area has been explored for its mineral potential since the 1980s, said Martin Plante, Meliadine’s general manager.

Although there were some “bumps along the way” to production, things are now going smoothly, Plante said. “Right now we are in production mode. We started to hire our permanent employees in 2017 at the mine and as the new department is getting in line, we’re starting to hire people in the other sectors too,” he said.

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‘Momentous day’ as Yukon’s newest mine pours 1st gold bar (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

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

Yukon’s newest mine marked a milestone on Tuesday, as it poured its first gold bar — 1,001 ounces in size, and worth about $2 million. “A momentous day,” said Mark Ayranto, chief operating officer of Victoria Gold, which owns the Eagle mine near Mayo, Yukon.

Ayranto was in Whitehorse on Tuesday, in a roomful of people watching a live video feed from the mine site. On screen were two people decked head-to-toe in protective silver suits, ready to tip the molten gold into the mould.

Unrecognizable in one of those suits was Yukon Premier Sandy Silver. The $500-million mine will be the largest in Yukon’s history. It’s expected to be a major contributor to the territory’s economy.

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New geological survey maps understudied part of N.W.T. – by Laura Busch (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

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

Mining advocates are applauding the N.W.T. Geological Survey for its recent work mapping an under-explored area of the territory. Tom Hoefer, the executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines, says the information could spur mineral exploration and help the N.W.T.’s slumping mining industry.

“The [economic] outlook in the future isn’t that great, and the reason why is we haven’t found enough new mines to offset the mine closures that are going to be coming,” he said. “And the reason for that is we’ve had flagging, or really low exploration investment for the last 12 years now.”

The N.W.T. Geological Survey released new data on Monday of a large swath of the Slave Geological Province, including an area known as the Point Lake greenstone belt. Point Lake is located about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, near the Nunavut border.

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Yukon Zinc, owner of Wolverine mine, put into receivership – by Jackie Hong (Yukon News – September 16, 2019)

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Yukon Zinc Corporation, the company that owns the troubled Wolverine mine, has been put into receivership. Yukon Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Duncan approved an order putting PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. in charge of the company’s affairs Sept. 13 following a short hearing in Whitehorse.

Under the order, PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. will be allowed to, among other things, “take possession of and exercise control” over the Wolverine mine, carry out care and maintenance activities, manage legal proceedings and debts, and sell, transfer or lease assets as required.

The order is the result of a petition the Yukon government filed back in July, in which it requested Yukon Zinc be put into receivership due to “increasing uncertainty about Yukon Zinc’s ability to manage the site.”

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In Planet’s Fastest-Warming Region, Jobs Come With Thaw – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 17, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Canadian Arctic is melting, and two new gold mines are booming.

James Kalluk spent much of his childhood inside an igloo in Canada’s far north, close to the Arctic Circle. Building that kind of home requires temperatures low enough to freeze the region’s countless lakes, a particular consistency of snow and a long-bladed knife the Inuit call a pana.

“Today, there’s not much snow and it’s harder to make an igloo,” said Kalluk, now in his early 70s. “You may find a spot here or there that’s good, but the snow is very difficult now. It’s different.”

The loss of snow and ice are causing Canada to heat up much faster than the rest of the world—more than twice the global rate of warming, according to a national scientific assessment published in April. The farther north you go, the more accelerated the warming.

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‘Historic event’: Groundbreaking marks start of Tlicho all-season road construction (CBC News North – August 23, 2019)

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

Elected officials stabbed at muddy ground with clean shovels at the official groundbreaking on the Tlicho all-season road in Whatı̀​​​, N.W.T., on Saturday. For Whatı̀ Chief Alfonz Nitsiza, the moment was the culmination of decades of effort.

Speaking to reporters in a scrum, Nitsiza said that decades ago two elders — including his own uncle, who is a former chief — survived two plane crashes in the Tlicho region.

“They quickly realized, this is too much, and there’s a lot of people going in and out of the community for medevac, we need to get a road here. That’s when it all started — almost 30 years ago.”

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History Hunter: Hard rock mining on Dublin Gulch is more than a century old – by Michael Gates (Yukon News – August 29, 2019)

Yukon News

For other Michael Gate’s Mining History Columns on the Yukon: https://www.yukon-news.com/author/michael-gates/

The Klondike gold rush drew tens of thousands of hopeful prospectors into the north hoping to strike it rich in the placers of Bonanza Eldorado and numerous other creeks.

But among them were a smaller but unwavering brigade of prospectors who were determined to burrow beneath the placer gravels into bedrock in hope of finding the mother lode. These prospectors spread out to the branches of tributaries in regions so remote that they weren’t yet even plotted on maps.

One of these remote locations was Dublin Gulch, which was said to have been first staked by 1897. There was a staking rush to the area in 1901. Interest quickly dwindled and many of these claims lapsed, but another flurry of staking occurred two years later.

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North: Whale Tail mine expansion undergoes public hearings this week in Baker Lake – by Sara Frizzell (CBC News North – August 27, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/

Open pit mine began commercial production this summer

Plans to expand the newly opened Whale Tail gold mine, near Baker Lake, Nunavut, are the subject of public hearings this week in the community.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board is running the consultations Monday through Thursday. It’s reviewing plans to increase the size of the Whale Tail open pit, to start another open pit near a site called IVR and to start underground mining.

Community representatives from Baker Lake and other Kivalliq-region communities will have their say at the hearings along with the territorial and federal governments. Agnico Eagle began mining operations at Whale Tail this summer with approval to run for three or four years and mine 8.3 million tonnes of ore.

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China would benefit most from billion-dollar, 700-km highway through Canadian Arctic, critics say – by Meagan Campbell (National Post – August 23, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

Questions are being raised about plans to build a $1-billion, 700-km highway from Yellowknife to a proposed port on Nunavut’s Arctic coast, paid for by Canadians but which critics say would largely serve Chinese government interests.

Last week, Transport Minister Marc Garneau pledged more than $50 million to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to study the feasibility of a highway to replace ice roads that are no longer reliable amid climate change.

While local leaders applaud the funding, critics say the largest benefit would go to a mining company, MMG, which is controlled by the Chinese government and holds several mineral deposits in the region where the highway would be built.

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Mining in the Arctic: The Beginnings of an Industry – by Scott Tibballs (Investing News – August 22, 2019)

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The Arctic is a harsh and unforgiving environment; whether it’s the weather conditions, darkness or isolation, it’s a region that hasn’t seen much human activity relative to the rest of the world.

Seven nations have territory north of the Arctic Circle: Canada, the US, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and, through its enduring ownership of Greenland, Denmark. Iceland is also regarded as an arctic nation despite not having any territory within the circle, and China has declared itself a “near Arctic state” — whatever that means.

The Arctic provides many opportunities by way of its historical resistance to human interference: It’s relatively untouched, and its changing climate means there are new opportunities to pursue in transportation, exploration and discovery — especially in the mineral resources space.

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NEWS RELEASE: New program to clean up largest abandoned mines in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories (August 19, 2019)

YELLOWKNIFE, Aug. 19, 2019 /CNW/ – Canada is moving forward with a long-term plan to clean up contaminated sites in the North.

Today, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, announced that the Government’s new Northern Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program will invest $2.2 billion over 15 years to address remediation of the eight largest abandoned mine projects in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

These projects are the Faro, United Keno Hill, Mount Nansen, Ketza River, and Clinton Creek mines in the Yukon; and the Giant, Cantung, and Great Bear Lake mines in the Northwest Territories. The Great Bear Lake project consists of multiple smaller sites in close proximity to each other.

The new program will leverage expertise gained over 15 years of managing human and environmental health and safety risks at contaminated sites in the North and allow for longer-term tenders for work at the sites, providing greater certainty for impacted communities and economic opportunity for Indigenous people and Northerners.

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‘As goes mining, so goes the Yukon’: Government and corporate leaders praise territory’s potential – by Brian Sylvester (Northern Miner – August 15, 2019)

Northern Miner

With 11 of 13 First Nations reaching settlements on land claims and a new gold mine set to ramp up production, Yukon was the focus of discussion during the Territorial Panel at The Northern Miner’s annual Canadian Mining Symposium held at Canada House in London, U.K., earlier this year.

The panel consisted of Yukon Premier Sandy Silver; Graham Downs, president and CEO of ATAC Resources (TSXV: ATC); Brandon Macdonald, president and CEO of Fireweed Zinc (TSXV: FWZ); John McConnell, president and CEO, Victoria Gold (TSXV: VIT); and Paul West-Sells, president and CEO of Western Copper and Gold (TSX: WRN; NYSE-MKT: WRN), with Andrew Cheatle, senior vice-president for Africa with Forbes & Manhattan, as the panel moderator.

The companies on the panel are all part of the Yukon Mining Alliance, a government-industry initiative designed to promote investment in the territory. Premier Silver kicked things off by offering the audience some facts and perspective on the Yukon in Canada’s northwest.

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