Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

Save Canadian Mining initiative launched – by Staff (Mining.com – November 19, 2019)

November 20, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector

https://www.mining.com/

The CEO of Chilean Metals (TSX.V:CMX), Terry Lynch, launched this week Save Canadian Mining – an advocacy group with the goal to give voice to the specific interests of Canada’s junior mining sector.

In a press release, Lynch said that Save Canadian Mining will work to raise awareness of the importance of the junior mining segment for the country’s economy. It will also advocate for positive change on their behalf with government and regulatory agencies.

“The current rules in our equity markets have created an environment for predatory short-selling practices to thrive, particularly on our vulnerable junior markets,” the executive said in the media brief. Continue Reading →

CN strike leaves farmers, miners scrambling as Canada’s biggest rail network shuts down – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2019)

November 20, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A strike by 3,200 Canadian National Railway Co. train conductors and yard workers has closed Canada’s largest rail freight network, triggering fears about the impact on farmers, mining companies and other pillars of the economy.

The CN employees, represented by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, walked off the job at just past midnight on Tuesday after several months of mediated talks. Negotiations to replace an agreement that expired in July were scheduled to continue on Tuesday at a downtown Montreal hotel, said Christopher Monette, a spokesman for the Teamsters.

CN had already been winding down operations to avoid leaving loaded trains in storage or on tracks. The railway stopped picking up some hazardous goods and interchange cars from other railways in recent days. CN said in an internal memo that qualified managers will operate some trains, focusing on container shipments. Continue Reading →

JOURNEY DOWN THE RAILWAY THAT COULDN’T BE BUILT – by Peter Gzowski (MACLEAN’S Magazine – Novmeber 16, 1963)

November 19, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History, Iron Ore, Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure, Quebec Mining

https://archive.macleans.ca/

A portrait, then and now, of the extraordinary feat that is the Quebec North Shore and Labrador line

THE SUN was inching into the bleak northern sky when Maclean’s photo editor Don Newlands and I checked out of the Sir Wilfred Grenfell Hotel in Wabush, Labrador, to begin the journey to Seven Islands, Que. We had flown into Wabush directly from Toronto and spent a few days there looking into life on the last frontier, à la 1963, and although we had both enjoyed our visit with the men and women who are opening up the wilderness, I for one was anxious to get going.

Our program was to drive our rented car to Labrador City, three miles away over a dirt road, and then take the passenger-express train from there to Seven Islands. Most of this journey would be over the QNS & L — the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway — and seeing the railway, I knew, would be an exciting experience for me.

I had spent the summer of 1952 as a beardless (though not for lack of trying) chain man on a survey party helping to build the QNS & L. And, although I hadn’t been back in eleven years, I had retained a sort of proprietary interest in the railway.

The QNS & L was one of the great construction projects of our time, a job that many expert engineers were certain could never be finished, and many of us who worked on it — there were as many as seven thousand men employed at one time — looked on the achievement much the way war veterans look on battles their regiments have won. Continue Reading →

Barrick seeks to eclipse $1.5 billion asset sales target, eyes more copper (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Gold and Silver

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) is keen to top its $1.5 billion target for asset sales after shedding its half of the Super Pit gold mine in Western Australia, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said on Monday.

Australia’s Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (SAR.AX) agreed on Monday to buy Barrick’s 50% stake of the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Joint Venture, which operates one of Australia’s largest gold mines, for $750 million.. Newmont Goldcorp Corp (NEM.N) holds the other 50% share.

The deal is a first step in Barrick’s plan to jettison at least $1.5 billion in less-profitable assets by the end of 2020 in the wake of its acquisition of Rangold Resources a year ago. “The number is $1.5 billion to beat,” Bristow said in an interview. “We’re already half way.” Continue Reading →

Manitoba mining could see a billion-dollar boost – by Martin Cash (Winnipeg Free Press – November 19, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Manitoba Mining, Thompson

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

There has not been much good news in the mining industry in Manitoba for a few years, but that’s starting to change, potentially in a very big way.

Vale is on the verge of making what would be the largest single investment in the mining industry in Manitoba’s history at its Thompson operations.

This week’s provincial mining exploration conference led off with the blockbuster news that the Brazilian company is in the final stages of confirming $1 billion of new investment in its Thompson operations over the next five years. Continue Reading →

Canada’s worst violent crime problem is in Thompson, Man. – by Shannon VanRaes (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 19, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Manitoba Mining, Nickel, Thompson

https://www.macleans.ca/

As the “Hub of the North” Thompson serves a regional population
of 55,000. The city’s airport is the second busiest in the province
and more than 40 remote communities—mostly First Nations and
Northern Affairs settlements—rely on Thompson for essential
services and commerce.

It’s the “machete kids” that worry Donnel Jonsson most. The property manager for Ashberry Place, a low-income apartment complex in Thompson, Man., has dealt with assaults, fires and even murder over the years. However, recent youth crime has him feeling unsafe, particularly along the city’s Spirit Way trail.

“Kids are going around and assaulting individuals walking the path, no reason why, they just come up to them and basically stab them or cut them across the face,” he says, pointing to a wooded section of trail below a 10-storey-high wolf mural.

This May, the city’s RCMP detachment indeed found itself investigating a stabbing spree that left five injured. In March, a machete-wielding home invader hacked a dog to death and in June, Thompson saw two stabbings and a machete attack in three days. Continue Reading →

First Nations near proposed Sask. diamond mine cautiously optimistic about future (CBC News Saskatoon – November 18, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Diamond Mining, Saskatchewan Mining

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

Mining giant Rio Tinto announced plans to exercise options in Star-Orion South Project, buy majority stake

Three First Nations in central Saskatchewan say they’ve begun informal talks with a large multinational mining company planning a large diamond mine project in the area.

On Friday, Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) gave notice it would be exercising its options to enter into a joint venture agreement with the project’s current owner on the Star Orion South diamond project. If successful, the move would eventually leave Rio Tinto with a majority stake.

The potential change in ownership would be welcome, according to the James Smith Cree Nation. For years, the First Nation has been battling with the mine’s current owner, Star Diamond Corporation (formerly Shore Gold). Continue Reading →

Quebec is as much an oil state as Alberta — they just let others produce it – by Monte Solberg (Financial Post – November 19, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

Monte Solberg, the principal at New West Public Affairs, is a former Alberta MP and cabinet minister

Take my hand, will you, and I will lead you through the wardrobe to a magical place, where the only energy is clean energy, where Tesla-driving Quebecers signal as they change lanes, and the only emissions are of a private nature.

Now, as we walk through a pristine old-growth forest we come upon a great eminence, a splendid figure who picks absent-mindedly at a glorious cape made entirely of recycled plastic straws. What is this place and who is this extraordinary man?

It is Imaginary Quebec of course, home to Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Québécois. Here, he speaks for all of Quebec. Here he has declared that he will not help Alberta “create an oil state,” suggesting that the Quebec economy isn’t itself greased and fired by decayed dinosaurs. Continue Reading →

Barrick Gold sells half of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines for $750 million – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 17, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX)(NYSE:GOLD), the world’s second largest producer of the yellow metal, reached an agreement to sell its 50% interest in Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Western Australia to Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX:SAR).

Saracen already holds two gold operations in the Kalgoorlie region, namely, the Carosue Dam and the Thunderbox mine sites.

In a media statement, Barrick said the KCGM transaction involved the payment of $750 million in cash and that such funds will be used to further strengthen the company’s balance sheet, invest in future projects and deliver returns to its shareholders. Continue Reading →

Alberta is facing a full-blown economic crisis and it needs support, not condescension – by Martin Pelletier (Financial Post – November 19, 2019)

November 19, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

Alberta’s billions in transfer payments have helped other provinces hurt by economic troubles, so where’s the compassion for the province now?

Western Canada is currently facing uncertain times not witnessed since the Petro-Canada Centre, better known as Red Square, was built to house the then Crown Corporation in downtown Calgary in 1983. And with no resolution in sight for the five-year-long rout in oil and natural gas prices, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

While Encana’s decision to move its headquarters to Denver made headlines, the reality is that business are leaving the province in droves. One local realtor, Robert Graham at Arrowstar, told Global News recently that Arrowstar alone has helped 100 Western Canadian companies relocate to the Houston area, 40 of those in the past year and a half.

Others are shutting up shop completely, or closing locations in the province: Chili’s shut all but three of its Alberta locations in 2017; Red Robin has plans to pull out of Alberta by year-end; and Starbucks has announced numerous closures in both Edmonton and Calgary. That on top of the multitude of mom-and-pop businesses that are simply going bust. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Northern Manitoba offers rich potential – by Doug Lauvstad (Winnipeg Free Press – November 18, 2019)

November 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Manitoba Mining

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Doug Lauvstad is president of University College of the North, which offers programming in 14 locations throughout Manitoba.

Northern Manitoba remains an enigma in the context of economic development. It is a region blessed with abundant natural endowments including a seaport, strong public-sector support systems, and an imperative on the part of all people and governments to create economic and community well-being.

It’s also a region separated by differing cultures and realities: larger, high-wage centres built around resource extraction versus small, often remote Indigenous communities with a traditional lifestyle removed from the economic mainstream.

Amid this dichotomy, northern Manitoba has the foundations for incredible wealth creation from industries such as mining, forestry, energy and tourism, which contribute and could continue to contribute billions of dollars to the Manitoba economy. Continue Reading →

Moose Cree First Nation withdraws legal obstacle for NioBay exploration (CBC News Sudbury – November 18, 2019)

November 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector, Ontario Mining

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

Company hopes to conduct test drilling on area approximately 45 km south of Moosonee

Moose Cree First Nation says it has withdrawn its application for a judicial review of mining company NioBay’s drilling permit in the James Bay lowlands.

In January, NioBay had received a permit from Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines to drill eight test holes near South Bluff Creek for deposits of niobium, which is used in electronics and to strengthen steel.

But in March, NioBay reported that MCFN and a member of the community had brought the application forward, seeking to set aside the company’s exploration permit. Chief Mervin Cheechoo and the Moose Cree Council said now they withdrew the application because NioBay had promised in writing not to build a mine without the support of Moose Cree First Nation. Continue Reading →

Artisanal gold mining polluting Peruvian biodiversity hotspot -study – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 17, 2019)

November 18, 2019 in Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining/Mercury Problems, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

https://www.mining.com/

Researchers at Dartmouth College analyzed satellite data and discovered that artisanal mining is altering the water clarity and dynamics of the Madre de Dios River watershed in the Peruvian Amazon.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers explained that higher levels of suspended sediment were found in rivers near the mining sites. The sediments contain mercury and other contaminants.

According to the Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation, Canada’s NGO Artisanal Gold Council has registered that some 181 tonnes of mercury are released into the environment every year in the Madre de Dios region. Continue Reading →

OPINION: If Alberta retreats behind a firewall, the province risks getting burned – by Kenneth Whyte (Globe and Mail – November 16, 2019)

November 18, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Conservative Party of Canada will likely have an opportunity to regain power in a year or two. How does that happen while Alberta, the keystone of Canadian conservatism, is making a bunker of itself?

Red Deer lies halfway between Edmonton and Calgary, roughly 150 kilometres from each, and despite snow and ice warnings in both directions, a couple of hundred people from all over Alberta turned up early at a hotel conference room last Saturday to address the big question: How should the province respond to a disappointing outcome in last month’s federal election?

This was a different gathering than the feral, amateurish Wexit rally at the Boot Scootin’ Boogie Dancehall in Edmonton on Nov. 2, the one with the Make Alberta Great Again hats and chants of “The West Wants Out!” The Red Deer crowd was composed of seasoned political operatives, the sort of people who run local campaigns and sit on boards of riding associations. Continue Reading →

Treaties in Ontario: what are they and what do they do? – by Rhiannon Johnson (CBC News Indigenous – November 10, 2019)

November 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues, Canadian Media Resource Articles

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

46 treaties cover what is now the province of Ontario

Since 2016, Ontario has held Treaty Recognition Week in the first week of November to honour the importance of treaties and raise awareness about treaty rights and relationships. What are treaties? A treaty is a legally binding agreement between nations.

European countries colonizing North America made treaties with the Indigenous Peoples occupying the land. These agreements often set out rules of governance, land use and the relationship between parties.

The earliest is the two-row wampum, an agreement between the Dutch and Haudenosaunee in 1613 in what is now New York state. The two-row wampum represents a river and the parallel lines represent the paths of each party’s vessel, and while they may travel forward together they will not intersect or interfere with each other. Continue Reading →