Canada Mining – North of 60 – Page 33

De Beers looks to push the innovation bar at Chidliak – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner/Diamonds in Canada – November 20, 2018)

November 28, 2018

Northern Miner/Diamonds in Canada

In 2013, De Beers Canada turned down a chance to own a majority stake in Peregrine Diamonds’ Chidliak project in Nunavut. Five years later, it now owns the project outright. What changed in that time period? De Beers Canada CEO Kim Truter says that the timing just wasn’t quite right the first time around.

“I always say to people that to develop a mining business, you need a few stars to line up and of course the number one star is what’s happening with the global economy and what’s happening with the diamond business in general, then you get down to the local environment and the quality of the asset. At that time, those various stars just didn’t line up,” Truter told Diamonds in Canada magazine in an October interview.

Now, the situation on all those fronts is different. “First of all, the project had actually advanced, so credit to the Peregrine team that have done a tremendous job advancing the understanding of the orebodies and the kimberlite pipes up there,” Truter explains. “That, coupled with our portfolio needs and where the economy was sitting meant the stars did line up. So it’s fantastic to have made that acquisition.”

Mines drive growth across Canada’s North: Gold heats Nunavut, Yukon economies, offsetting NWT contraction – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – November 23, 2018)

November 24, 2018

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

New gold mines are expected to drive strong economic growth in Nunavut and Yukon over the next several years, according to the latest Territorial Outlook published by The Conference Board of Canada. The non-profit think tank focused primarily on researching and analyzing economic trends, however, forecasts a shrinking economy for Northwest Territories as the diamond sector there matures.

Despite a tepid recovery for the mining sector as a whole, the new mines being developed in Nunavut and Yukon are expected to drive a 4.7 percent economic growth across Canada’s three territories in 2019 and 4.5 percent in 2020 – easily outpacing the Canadian average, which is forecast to be less than 2 percent growth.

“While the mining sector has been more cautious in this upswing cycle than in the past, there are still several mining projects that are advancing through the approval process and will bolster economic growth and employment opportunities in the northern territories over the next few years,” said Marie-Christine Bernard, director, provincial and territorial forecast, The Conference Board of Canada.

Yukon Territory called a top model for treaty-making – by Chuck Tobin (Whitehorse Star – November 19, 2018)

November 21, 2018

https://www.whitehorsestar.com/

Dr. Ken Coates told delegates attending this year’s 46th Annual Geoscience Forum that the Yukon offers the world a story of success in the art of treaty-making. And the world continues to watch. Coates told the mining industry Saturday it’s on the front line of reconciliation.

Raised in the Yukon from Grade 3 through high school, the historian and professor at the University of Saskatchewan said he can see the success from where he’s sitting outside the territory. He remembers back to 1973, when local Indigenous leaders came to speak to their Grade 11 law class at F.H. Collins Secondary School.

The class was mostly white students, because in those days, many of the aboriginal students had already dropped out by Grade 11. His Grade 8 class was about 30 per cent Indigenous, but that had fallen to just a fraction by Grade 11.

Young women in Yellowknife encouraged to pursue science, tech careers – by Randi Beers (CBC News Canada North – November 20, 2018)

November 20, 2018

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

De Beers Canada luncheon promotes careers in science, technology, engineering and math

Akruthi Balaji has dreams of becoming a surgeon someday. The Grade 12 student was one of about 50 young women learning about all the possibilities for women in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields — Monday in Yellowknife.

De Beers Canada organized the luncheon just as the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum gets underway this week. It starts Tuesday and runs through Thursday. Balaji isn’t intimidated by the prospect of entering a field she knows will be dominated by men.

“I do know there’s probably going to be a lot more men in whatever I am doing, but hopefully that can change and I really don’t feel that scared to go into it,” she said. Women are underrepresented in STEM fields. According to Statistics Canada, 39 per cent of STEM graduates are women, while women make up 66 per cent of all university graduates.

Baffinland sets new iron ore shipping record this year (Nunatsiaq News – November 15, 2018)

November 16, 2018

http://nunatsiaq.com/

Company ships 5.1 million tonnes to Europe, the U.K, Taiwan, Japan

After receiving regulatory permission to do so, the Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. shipped a record-breaking 5.1 million tonnes of iron ore from the Mary River mine this year, the company said last week in a news release.

Ore-carrying vessels contracted by Baffinland made 71 voyages between July 24 and Oct. 17, carrying Mary River’s high-grade iron ore to markets in continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Japan.

And the company’s carriers also did two transits to Asia through the Northern Sea Route, or “northeast passage,” a route running through Arctic waters north of Russia that connects northern Europe and northern Asia.

Boom times ahead for Yukon and Nunavut, but not N.W.T., report says (CBC News Canada North – November 15, 2018)

November 16, 2018

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

New mines will mean strong economies in Yukon and Nunavut until 2025, Conference Board of Canada says

Good times are in store for Yukon and Nunavut in the coming years, according to a new economic analysis by the Conference Board of Canada. N.W.T., not so much.

The board’s economic forecast for the territories, released Thursday, predicts strong growth in Yukon and Nunavut between now and 2025, saying the two territories will outpace much of the country in terms of growth. The N.W.T.’s economy, however, is expected to contract over that period, making that territory one of the weakest economic performers in the country, the board says.

The territorial forecast is based on a number of factors, including government spending, consumer behaviour, and population trends, but the main determinant for northern economies is still mining activity.

Western Nunavut gold mine project gets review board’s final approval – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – November 13, 2018)

November 14, 2018

http://nunatsiaq.com/

Project now needs licence from Nunavut Water Board

TMAC Resources Inc. can move ahead with plans to expand its existing gold mine in western Nunavut, now that it has received a project certificate from the Nunavut Impact Review Board for Phase 2 of its Hope Bay Belt Project.

But the project certificate, issued on Nov. 9, comes with a caveat: TMAC will report and examine “barriers and opportunities to achieving high levels of Inuit employment.” The certificate follows the board’s review of the project’s potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. This was accepted, with some recommendations, by the responsible federal ministers in October.

The project certificate applies to the development of three gold mines and related infrastructure at Hope Bay, located about 150 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay and 700 km northeast of Yellowknife.

Yukon gov’t’s decision on Dawson City mining claims ‘expropriation’, agent claims – by Alexandra Byers (CBC News Canada North – November 9, 2018)

November 12, 2018

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

Darrell Carey’s placer claims in Dawson City overlap town’s cross-country ski trail network

Darrell Carey’s former agent says a Yukon government decision regarding the miner’s claims in Dawson City is “nothing short of expropriation.”

Carey had applied to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board (YESAB) to operate a placer mine over 34 claims on the east bench of the Dome. The claims overlap the town’s cross-country ski trail network, which, according to Carey’s former agent Randy Clarkson, were actually developed on old mining exploration trails.

In its decision document issued Wednesday, the last step in the process, the government approved YESAB’s recommendation of 21 strict conditions on Carey’s mining operation, but eased the restrictions in five of them.

Excerpt from “Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold” – by Deb Vanasse (October 29, 2018)

October 29, 2018

Kate Carmack was recently inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame for her part in discovering the Klondike gold fields. She is the first Aboriginal woman inducted into the Hall of Fame. Deb Vanasse has written the definitive story of Carmack’s fascinating life. Click here to order a copy of “Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold”: https://amzn.to/2yF7wZs

Deb Vanasse is an American writer of seventeen books, many of which are set in Alaska. She first became interested in the story of Kate Carmack when she hiked the “meanest miles” of the Chilkoot Trail, where as a young woman Kate packed for prospectors over the summit. After 36 years in Alaska, she now lives in Oregon, where she continues to write while doing freelance editing, coaching, and writing instruction. She is a co-founder of 49 Writers. www.debvanasse.com

Gold I Bring – Excerpt from Chapter One

The Roanoke is loaded with gold. Bags, cans, boxes, and crates cram its lower deck, jammed with a whopping ten tons of the precious metal panned and sluiced by lucky devils in the northern wilderness. Only a year ago, few had heard of the patch of low mountains and dense northern spruce now known as the Klondike. But these days, like an incantation of magic, the very word Klondike invokes abundance, the vindication of the American dream and the triumph of the individual in its most measurable manifestation: wealth.1

Feds give nod to expansion plan for western Nunavut gold mine – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – October 15, 2018)

October 16, 2018

http://nunatsiaq.com/

But “high levels of Inuit employment” sought at TMAC Resources’ Madrid-Boston project

CAMBRIDGE BAY—The planned expansion for TMAC Resources Inc.‘s gold mine near Cambridge Bay has cleared one of its final hurdles.

On Friday, Caroline Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, and Dominic LeBlanc, minister of intergovernmental and northern affairs and internal trade, issued a letter saying they accepted the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s recommendation to issue a project certificate for the company’s proposed Madrid-Boston project.

Last June, the review board spelled out 39 recommendations for the project. In their letter, dated Oct. 10, the ministers accepted all the terms and conditions recommended by the review board. But they agreed with a call from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association to tweak one recommendation on Inuit employment, so TMAC will now be obliged, through various committees, to report and examine “barriers and opportunities to achieving the high levels of Inuit employment.”

Looking up, up north: The territories reap tangible and intangible benefits from their biggest industry – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – October 5, 2018)

October 15, 2018

http://resourceclips.com/

Nunavut’s environmental review said no to a mining proposal but Ottawa said yes. What happened? Hoping to finally make a profit at its four-year-old Mary River operation, Baffinland Iron Mines asked permission to boost production from 4.2 million tonnes annually to six million tonnes.

Worried about possible environmental effects, the Nunavut Impact Review Board recommended in late August that the federal government reject the proposal. But it was the NIRB recommendation that got rejected. Five cabinet ministers approved the mine’s request, for the time being anyway.

Swaying the decision was the support of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, whose members “strongly support the Production Increase Proposal as a method of furthering Inuit aspirations in the region,” Ottawa stated. Support also came from Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq, who urged a swift decision in favour.

Kate Carmack will be joining nation’s mining hall of fame (Whitehorse Star – October 11, 2018)

October 12, 2018

https://www.whitehorsestar.com/

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame (CMHF) will welcome five individuals who have made lasting contributions to Canada’s mining industry – including a Yukon legend.

Kate Carmack is included in the inductees. She will be joining the Klondike Discoverers, who were originally inducted as a group in 1999. The group included George Carmack, Robert Henderson, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie.

Each have traditionally been credited with the discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush, which would essentially establish the Yukon. New information has been uncovered that Kate Carmack also played an integral role in the discovery.

Yukon mine a year away from pouring 1st gold bar – by Mike Rudyk (CBC News North – October 1, 2018)

October 2, 2018

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

Victoria Gold is well on its way to building the newest large-scale gold mine in North America

Victoria Gold Corporation’s president John McConnell says he still can’t believe he will be pouring the first gold bar from Yukon’s Eagle Gold mine just a year from now — in October 2019.

The mine site, about 80 kilometres north of Mayo, was busy through the summer with the arrival of new heavy machinery. “I have to pinch myself,” said McConnell.

“It’s quite the undertaking for a company the size of Victoria [Gold]. It’s one thing for a company like Goldcorp or Teck Resources to build a mine with all their resources. But we are a small little company and we are doing it.

Barrick and Randgold in talks on $18bn tie-up – by Henry Sanderson and Neil Hume (Financial Times – September 23, 2018)

September 23, 2018

https://www.ft.com/

Merger would create leading gold producer as sector struggles to attract investors

Canada’s Barrick Gold is in talks to merge with Randgold Resources, its London-listed rival, in a $18bn deal that would create the world’s leading gold producer, according to reports.

The discussions between Barrick and Randgold follow a dismal year for the sector, which has struggled to attract the interest of investors.

Shares in Barrick have dropped 25 per cent amid criticism of its strategy, while Randgold has fallen 34 per cent as it has struggled with a number of operational issues, including a strike at one of its biggest mines.

Chamber of mines responds to allegations made at MMIWG hearings – by Alex Buchan (Nunatsiaq News – September 20, 2018)

September 21, 2018

http://nunatsiaq.com/

Alex Buchan is the V.P Chamber—Nunavut N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

I wish to respond to the recent Nunatsiaq News story regarding violence against women in mining (“Sexual violence a spinoff of Nunavut’s mining industry: MMIWG hearings,” Sept. 13, 2018).

This article makes substantial reference to expert testimony from an Iqaluit resident—TJ Lightfoot—to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls held in Iqaluit last week.

With great respect to the actual professional credentials of this expert, Lightfoot is not an expert on mining in Nunavut. In fact, I understand Lightfoot is a youth services worker. As such, these views cannot be relied upon in considering the risk to women that may, or may not, be posed by resource development in our territory.