Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

Supreme Court to hear latest challenge in dispute between Innu and Rio Tinto (Canadian Press/CBC News – November 15, 2018)

November 16, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Quebec Mining

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Innu launched the lawsuit in 2013, seeking $900 million in compensation

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear an appeal over jurisdiction in the latest stage of a long-running effort by Innu First Nations to sue mining giant Rio Tinto.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador launched the appeal after Quebec’s highest court ruled that the Innu of Uashat and of Mani-Utenam and others could sue the company and its Iron Ore Co. of Canada subsidiary through Quebec courts.

The attorney general of Newfoundland and Labrador has argued that Quebec courts are without jurisdiction in the matter because the mining operations are in Labrador. Continue Reading →

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

November 16, 2018 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles

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. Continue Reading →

Abandoned Canadian silver mines could boom again as battery demand prompts gold rush in cobalt – by Peter Armstrong (CBC News Business – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Africa Mining, Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt Town, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Ontario Mining

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Cobalt, Ont., could could be sitting on a gold mine — of cobalt — to help power electric cars, phones

The flooded bottom of an abandoned silver mine is an unlikely source of hope. But down there in the flickering light, a once worthless metal known as cobalt has sat idle for decades. Now it’s one of the most sought after metals in the world and that has many in this town in northern Ontario dreaming of boom times once again.

A century ago, prospectors came to Cobalt, Ont., in search of silver. They found it, and the town boomed. Amid all the silver, miners also found cobalt. So much that they named the town after it. Back then though, it was a mere indicator, a sign that something of actual value was nearby.

Now, all that ignored and discarded cobalt is the town’s best hope. “The potential here is huge,” says Frank Basa, chief executive officer of Canada Cobalt Works. Cobalt the metal has had a spectacular run over the past few years. And now Cobalt the town is poised to cash in. Continue Reading →

‘They were just tired’: Embattled Tahoe Resources sells out to create world’s biggest silver miner – by Garbriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://business.financialpost.com/

In a deal that highlights the importance of social licence in mining, Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. announced Wednesday it will purchase Tahoe Resources Inc., seizing the moment to buy a company whose stock has been in freefall amid ongoing controversies in the communities in which it operates.

Under the terms of the US$1.1 billion deal, Pan American will pay up to US$275 million in cash and an additional US$800 million in shares. That values Tahoe shares at US$3.40 — a 35 per cent premium on its 20-day volume-weighted average price — or 0.2403 of a Pan American share per Tahoe share.

Pan American said in a press release that the acquisition would create the largest silver company in the world, and pointed to its own track record of building mines and operating in Latin America — an area where Tahoe has been beset by violent conflict and legal challenges. Continue Reading →

Sherritt International sees jump in nickel production and profit – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – November 12, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Africa Mining, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Nickel Laterites

http://www.mining.com/

Sherritt International, (TSE: S) has released its 2018 Q3 report, and the numbers are up, thanks to the success of the company’s Moa joint venture (JV) with the Cuban Government.

Sherritt specializes in mining and refining of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ores, and the company also has projects and operations in Canada and Madagascar.

Pathe says the jump in numbers was largely due to higher realized nickel and cobalt prices. Cobalt is mined as a by-product of nickel, and acts as a stabilizing component in the lithium-ion battery cell structure. The average-reference price for nickel improved 26% from last year to $6.01/lb while the average-reference price for cobalt increased 22% to reach $35.21/lb. Continue Reading →

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver to acquire struggling Tahoe Resources in US$1.1-billion deal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. is buying U.S. competitor Tahoe Resources Inc. in an unusually structured US$1.1-billion deal aimed at resurrecting struggling Tahoe.

Nevada-based Tahoe’s shares soared nearly 50 per cent after the deal was announced Wednesday. The company’s shares had been trading near an all-time low and it has been under severe selling pressure from shareholders since last year when it was forced to stop production at its flagship mine in Guatemala after a legal setback.

In July, 2017, the Supreme Court of Guatemala suspended Tahoe’s licence at its Escobal silver mine after ruling local Indigenous populations weren’t adequately consulted before the licence was issued. Continue Reading →

Environmental groups call on federal government to protect caribou in northern Ontario – by Nicole Thompson (Canadian Press/Global News – November 14, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Caribou and Mining, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://globalnews.ca/

TORONTO — Three environmental groups are calling on the federal government to protect boreal caribou in northern Ontario, saying a decade of mismanagement by the province has put the animals increasingly at risk.

The David Suzuki Foundation, Ontario Nature and the Wildlands League issued a petition to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna this week, requesting that she recommend federal cabinet issue what’s known as a “safety net order” under the Species at Risk Act for two boreal caribou populations about 120 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

The move would prevent damage to or destruction of 65 per cent of the caribou populations’ habitats — the amount of undisturbed land that the federal government said in a 2012 report would give the animals a 60 per cent shot at becoming self-sustaining. Continue Reading →

Generations Of Miners Face The Future Of Automation Deep Underground – by Mary Katherine Keown (HuffPost Canada/Thet Canada.com – November 13, 2018)

November 14, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Glencore, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.thetcanada.com/

A proud third-generation miner, Mickey O’Brien enjoys the every day grind of taking that deep dive to the centre of the earth. A miner at Vale’s Copper Cliff Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, O’Brien works 10-hour shifts. After suiting up and assembling, he and his coworkers break into a number of crews to start the new and soiled process of gnawing away on the earth greater than 1.5 km underground.

“I am on haulage,” O’Brien says. “Proper now I am driving a grader, however I am being skilled on a picker, so if we’ve massive chunks after a blast, the news will put them apart and I drill holes in them and I blow them up, and the news will come and decide them up. Cool, eh?”

A proud labour rights activist, he considers a lot of his colleagues — most of whom are members of Steelworkers Native 6500 — to be brothers and sisters. “I have been engaged on Inco property since I used to be 18 and I am 38 now,” he says, referencing the title of his firm earlier than it was purchased out by Vale in 2006. Continue Reading →

In EV era, Brookfield and Caisse place $13-billion bet on conventional car battery maker – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 14, 2018)

November 14, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Metals and Manufacturing, Zinc, Lead and Tin

https://business.financialpost.com/

Electric vehicles will make up 15 per cent of all auto sales in a decade — that still leaves 85 per cent of the market to traditional cars

The rapid growth of the electric vehicle industry may be drawing headlines, but when it comes to drawing major investments, the internal combustion engine remains on solid footing.

In a deal that highlights the breadth of the traditional automotive industry, two Canadian investment funds on Tuesday announced a US$13.2-billion deal to purchase the leading global manufacturer of lead-acid batteries.

Toronto-based asset manager Brookfield Business Partners and pension manager Caisse de dêpôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) along with other investors will jointly acquire 100 per cent of Ireland-based Johnson Controls’ automotive business — which shipped 154 million automotive lead-acid batteries in 2017. Continue Reading →

Amid mining slump, industry veteran Sean Roosen sees light at the end of the tunnel – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2018)

November 13, 2018 in Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sean Roosen’s motto is “SUDS.” It stands for “shut up and drill, stupid!” The mining executive says it’s a message his industry needs to embrace as it battles through another slump.

Environmental protectionism has gone too far, mining permits need to be more easily obtained and there’s too much interference from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which he says “do nothing” for the economy.

The loud, burly career miner is no slick Bay Street executive. He calls himself a “hillbilly.” But he’s someone who people listen to. Mr. Roosen heads up one of a handful of Canadian mining royalty companies, but he’s best known as part of a trio who founded, developed and built Canadian Malartic, Canada’s biggest gold mine. In the process he pioneered a new method of mining that revolutionized the notoriously slow-to-innovate industry. Continue Reading →

British Columbia revises law that regulates the environmental assessment of major resource projects – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 12, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

http://www.mining.com/

The British Columbia government announced this week that, after one year of consultations with Indigenous peoples, industry, communities, environmental organizations and the public, it introduced legislation to modernize the environmental assessment of major resource projects.

In a media statement, the provincial administration said that the idea behind the changes is to provide “a clear and timely path for the approval of responsible resource projects, pursue reconciliation with B.C.’s Indigenous peoples, increase public engagement and transparency and deliver stronger environmental protections.”

The new legislation is also part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement signed between the New Democratic Party and the Green Party when the former was pushing to form a minority government in last year’s regional election. Continue Reading →

Provincial money ends for Ring of Fire talks as Matawa chiefs await response, negotiator says – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – November 9, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Matawa chiefs negotiator Bob Rae says First Nations ‘ready to move ahead’

The lead negotiator for the chiefs of Indigenous communities closest to the Ring of Fire says they’re still waiting to hear back from the provincial government about how talks will look going forward.

That comes as Bob Rae says money committed by the province since 2013 that funded a number of initiatives through the regional framework agreement between Ontario and the nine member communities of the Matawa Tribal Council ran out at the end of October.

“We’re ready to move ahead with discussions on the key elements of the regional framework which has been agreed to,” Rae said. “We’re ready to sit down with the province and the federal government whenever they’re ready to respond.” Continue Reading →

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 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles

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. Continue Reading →

Supreme Court opens door to national securities regulator – by Tim Kiladze, Sean Fine and Alexandra Posadzki (Globe and Mail – November 10, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The fate of a unified, pan-Canadian securities regulator rests with provincial leaders after the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously endorsed legislation to create one. The question now is whether there remains the political will to finish the project, a quest that goes back to 1935.

On Friday, the Supreme Court gave its blessing for a pan-Canadian regulator, which would govern the country’s financial industry, to be known as the Capital Markets Regulatory Authority (CMRA).

Canada is the only Group of 20 country that does not have a national securities regulator. Its proponents have struggled to create one for decades because of political tension between the provinces and Ottawa, as well as the intricacies of the country’s constitutional law. Continue Reading →

After the fighting, a nation changed – by J.L. Granatstein (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 2018)

November 11, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History

https://www.macleans.ca/

J.L. Granatstein is a former Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and author of many books, including Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace.

From party politics to standard of living to national identity, the Great War transformed Canada

The Great War, lasting from August 1914 to November 1918, had a huge effect on Canada. In the hothouse atmosphere created by the conflict, attitudes changed faster, tensions festered more quickly and events forced governments and groups to take new positions at an unheard-of pace. The war changed everything.

First, there was the military aspect. In 1914, Canada had a tiny standing army, a two-ship navy and no air force. By the end of the war, 620,000 men and women had put on a uniform, an extraordinary effort from a population of just eight million.

The army had a corps of four divisions and 100,000 men fighting in France and Flanders and winning laurels, while the casualty toll over four years approached almost a quarter-million killed and wounded. Some 22,000 men served in the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force, and the navy patrolled Canadian waters with some effectiveness. Continue Reading →