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NEWS RELEASE: Sixth annual Ontario mine reclamation symposium attracts record participation level

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The sixth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium, which was held in Cobalt June 18 and 19, attracted a record number of delegates. More than 150 environmental specialists attended this event, which was organized by the Ontario Mining Association in collaboration with the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA).

The conference combined technical sessions with an extended field trip in Cobalt – one of the oldest mining regions in Canada – which covered part of the Heritage Silver Trail. The gathering also included opportunities to celebrate excellence in mine reclamation activities.

The winner of the prestigious Tom Peter Memorial Mine Reclamation award for 2013 was Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) for its work on the Hollinger Tailings Management Area in Timmins. This marks the second time Goldcorp’s PGM operation has earned this honour. In 2011, it won this award for rehabilitation work on the Coniaurum property in the Timmins area.

PGM started its preliminary plans for the Hollinger site rehabilitation in 2008 and the first phase of work on the project began in the Spring of 2009. Much of the reclamation activities involved the relocation of tailings, dredging to better handle drainage, re-vegetation and treating water in Gillies’ Pond. The company worked closely with the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority (MRCA) and the Timmins Snowmobile Club on the Hollinger site.

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Vale 2012 Sustainability Report Message – by Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira (June 2013)

Vale Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira

Click here for the Vale 2012 Sustainability Report: http://www.vale.com/EN/aboutvale/sustainability/links/LinksDownloadsDocuments/2012-sustainability-report.pdf

Message from the President: Commitment to people, life and the planet

The global economic context is now much more challenging than in the last ten years. It is expected that the global economy will grow at a slower pace in the new period we are living in. This requires greater effort and austerity in the management of a large company like Vale.

This is why we face the present difficulties and establish priorities, with transparency as a major element in our management approach. The focus of our investments is the development of world-class assets with long life, low cost, high quality production, with advanced technology, and expansion capacity. In 2012, we presented the third major result of our history.

I highlight the importance of taking into account value generation in close coordination to the commitments we have with life, with people in di erent locations where we operate, and with the planet as a whole.

Our pursuit of operational excellence is based on the preservation of the integrity of each one of us at Vale. Aligned to the pursuit of zero harm to people and the environment, we created “Golden Rules” and initiated the implementation of the Health and Safety Global Management System (SGSS, in Portuguese).

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Goldcorp earns environmental award – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – July 3, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Rebirth is a concept that few truly fathom, but the area once known as the old ‘Hollinger Slimes’ has been re-born. It is now set to be slowly opened to the public by linking it with the trail system around Hersey Lake.

When national legislation changed in 1991, it became the responsibility of mining operations to develop and follow through with closure plans to ensure the land utilized in operations was returned to its natural state. For decades-long operations like the McIntyre, Hollinger and Dome, this requirement was more than a tall order.

Despite this steep learning curve, Goldcorp has now received its second Tom Peters Memorial Award, a tip of the legislative hat towards the company’s efforts in the Conarium, Hollinger Tailings and the McIntyre concentrate dump.

“This is the second time in a row that we have won the national Tom Peters Memorial Award,” said environmental manager Laszlo Gotz. “This site, the Hollinger Tailings Management area, where we started reclaiming in 2009 and finishing in late 2012 and now a year later, this area is a green and lush as anywhere else in this area.”

When Gotz and his team first arrived on site, the landscape was alien, barren and poisoned. Tailings ponds shone an unnatural blue, the the rock coated in the arsenic and other heavy chemicals. It sat as it had for decades, a poisoned reminder of long outlawed industry practices.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Detour Gold cycling team raises $124,000 to fight cancer

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

A team of cyclists from Ontario Mining Association member Detour Gold took a direct route in raising more than $124,000 in the sixth annual Ride to Conquer Cancer this past weekend. Twenty eight cyclists wore the Detour Gold colours on the 200 kilometre route from Toronto to Niagara Falls on June 8 and 9.

More than 5,000 cyclists participated in the event, which benefits the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. This participatory event raised more than $19 million to support personalized cancer medicine. The Princess Margaret facility in Toronto is one of the top five cancer research centres in the world.

Rachel Pineault, Detour Gold Vice President Human Resources and Northern Affairs, says this is the third year a company team has entered this charity event and the participation rate has grown every year. “I bought my bicycle last August and spent a year in preparation,” said Ms Pineault.

“The last time I was on a bike previously was 20 years ago and there was a baby seat on the back,” she added. This year, Rachel’s family joined her on the cycling expedition. “This fundraiser was a great effort and we will do it again.” The Pineault Family raised more than $21,000.

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Vale shows its green side – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 8, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

If Gina Jones’ garden grows as she hopes it will this summer, she could easily save hundreds of dollars on produce. The senior citizen planted tomato and cucumber plants Friday, offset with marigolds to keep bugs from eating their tender leaves, in her own raised bed in Vale’s community garden beside its Copper Cliff greenhouse.

Jones is most interested in how the radicchio seeds she planted will grow. Just that morning, she spent $4 at the grocery store to purchase a small ball of the bitter-tasting, purple leafy vegetable, also known as Italian chicory, that is an acquired taste for some.

“It hope it grows. I try,” said Jones. This is the second year Vale has offered the raised beds to Copper Cliff residents and the first year Jones, who lives a stone’s throw from the greenhouse, has joined in. “I love this place,” she said.

At age 90, Jones also loves the fact the beds, some of which are about three feet high, are easy to tend and don’t require her to bend over.

Lisa Lanteigne, Vale’s manager of the environment, soil and water, said the company started the community gardening program to engage the community and get residents thinking about “sustainably eating, eating locally.”

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Much depends on how we do mining – by Kate Heartfield (Ottawa Citizen – June 6, 2013)

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/index.html

Kate Heartfield is the Citizen’s deputy editorial pages editor.

The Canadian-owned Kumtor gold mine accounted for 12 per cent of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP in 2011. Canadians agonize over the bureaucratic changes at CIDA, about how best to go about ending poverty, and meanwhile a Canadian company that isn’t even a household name — Centerra Gold — is responsible for a big chunk of a developing country’s economy.

And as the recent protests and roadblock showed, as the mine goes, so goes Kyrgyzstan’s national politics. If Canada is going to make a notable difference in global development and security over the next few decades, it’s going to be in places like the Kumtor mine.

The UN’s “high level panel of eminent persons” recently reported on what the world’s development goals should be after 2015. How do we maintain or even accelerate the unprecedented reduction in global poverty that has marked the beginning of this century? Globally, the extreme-poverty rate has been cut in half over the last 20 years; that amounts to nearly a billion people pulled out of dire need. Another billion, though, are still extremely poor.

As the Economist pointed out recently, those two decades have taught us valuable lessons about how to reduce poverty. Basic social safety nets, infrastructure and governance are one part of the puzzle; liberalizing trade and investment is another.

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NEWS RELEASE: BC’s Mining Community Raises over $1.6 Million for BC Children’s Hospital

June 05, 2013 13:18 ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – June 5, 2013) – Mining for Miracles, BC’s mining community’s longstanding fundraising campaign for BC Children’s Hospital, presented a cheque for over $1.6 million to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation at the 26th annual Miracle Weekend held on June 1 and 2.

Mining for Miracles’ success depends on the generosity of individuals and corporations throughout the province. In particular, the hundreds of mining, exploration and development companies, service providers and suppliers across BC, Alberta, the Yukon and Northwest Territories and of course, employees, friends and family who know firsthand the positive difference Mining for Miracles makes to the health of BC’s kids. Donations were made through employee and corporate fundraising initiatives and events such as Jeans Day™, the Diamond Draw, Slo-Pitch, the Hooked on Miracles Fishing Tournament, and the Teck Celebrity Pie Throw, which took place on May 2, 2013.

“Mining for Miracles works closely with BC Children’s Hospital Foundation to make donations count. We support research, capital investment and the provision of outstanding health care at the many centres of excellence within BC Children’s Hospital,” said Jason Weber, chair of Mining for Miracles.

Mining for Miracles is currently raising funds to support the BC Children’s Hospital BioBank. Biobanking is a new and invaluable research tool that holds the potential to improve treatments and find cures for diseases affecting millions of children around the world.

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After Clark’s election victory, a fresh start for B.C. and Alberta energy debate – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 16, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The come-from-behind victory of Christy Clark’s Liberals in Tuesday’s British Columbia election comes as a big relief to those involved in Western Canada’s energy-based economy, but the close call must serve as an impetus to find a fairer way to share the risks and benefits of development.

Alberta has to lead the way. Its proposed oil pipelines through B.C. became one of the major flashpoints in the campaign leading to the vote, fuelling extreme views by the provincial NDP against the projects based on pressure from environmentalists that in the end contributed to the party’s spectacular flameout.

Perhaps recognizing the need for a fresh start, Premier Alison Redford on Wednesday talked about co-operation in a congratulatory message to Ms. Clark — a stark contrast to the cool relationship she has had with the B.C. premier over the past year because of differences over the pipelines’ risks and rewards.

“I know we can do more together,” Ms. Redford said in a statement distributed shortly after 3:30 a.m., hours after British Columbians defied pollsters and stunned pundits to re-elect the Liberals for a fourth term.

“As Canada moves to seize new opportunities and open new global markets, I look forward to renewing discussions with British Columbia about the issues that affect our provinces.

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Miners around the North working for a cure – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 14, 2013)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

When Wayne Tonelli and Allan Epps proposed getting some co-workers together for a little pickup hockey, it was intended as a fun way to socialize amongst colleagues. Today, their small idea is producing big results for the Northern Cancer Foundation.

It was 1996 when the friends, who both worked as general foremen for Inco in Sudbury (now Vale) at the time, proposed getting their co-workers together for inter-mine and inter-office hockey and baseball games as a way to socialize outside the workplace.

But as the games grew into tournaments and the tournaments started generating money, the pair decided to donate the earnings to the Northern Cancer Foundation, the Sudbury-based medical centre that offers treatment to cancer patients from around the North.

To date, Miners for Cancer has raised more than $700,000 for the cancer foundation, and Tonelli anticipates hitting the $1-million mark within the next year.

“Primarily, in the past, everything ended up in southern Ontario and we got little bits and pieces here up north,” said Tonelli, president of Miners for Cancer. “But the fact that the money stays in the North to help people in the North was the biggest contributing factor.”

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NEWS RELEASE: VALE ANNOUNCES NEW SUSTAINABILITY WEBSITE

SUDBURY, ON, May 6, 2013 – Vale is pleased to announce the launch of a new sustainability website in Sudbury at: www.valegreatersudburysustainability.com. The website includes comprehensive information and reports about Vale’s environmental initiatives in the Greater Sudbury Area.

“Vale is committed to the long term sustainability of our operations in Sudbury, the local environment and our community,” said Angie Robson, Manager of Corporate Affairs for Vale’s Ontario Operations. “As part of that commitment, we have developed this resource for sharing information with the public about Vale’s environmental initiatives.”

The air quality section of the new sustainability website includes information about Vale’s Clean AER project, Vale’s sulphur dioxide emission reduction program and the company’s particulate control and monitoring program. This section also includes reports on Vale’s air quality monitoring results and information about its newly established environmental monitoring team.

The water section of the website includes information about Vale’s effluent treatment and discharge monitoring, water power management and drinking water treatment. Detailed information about each of Vale’s waste water treatment plants and water power facilities can be found on the website as well.

The reclamation section of the website includes information about various reclamation activities such as slag regreening, aerial seeding, tree growing and tree planting. The decommissioning section includes information about the care and maintenance of Crean Hill, Whistle and Shebandowan Mine sites.

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1,000 walleye released [by Vale] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 11, 2013)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Mining may be Vale’s first business, but several of its employees are talking like “fish people” these days. Several of them were at Vale’s Copper Cliff greenhouse Friday, getting ready to release 1,000 walleye yearlings into Ramsey Lake.

The fish project started last year when 4,000 rainbow trout were released into the Onaping River, which had been damaged by years of mining. Glen Watson is senior environmental specialist with Vale. Raising rainbow trout was relatively simple. Raising walleye was another matter, said Watson, “because these guys tend to be cannibalistic.

“That’s the biggest challenge of raising walleye in a tank like this,” he said, pointing to the 1,500-litre container in which the four-to five-inch fish were swimming before being released.

Watson and other Vale employees worked with Mike Meeker of Meeker’s Aquaculture near Evansville on Manitoulin Island on the project. “It’s exciting. It’s fun,” said Watson. “Who wouldn’t want to raise fish and release them into local lakes? This is as good as it gets.”

It took some work to essentially train the walleye to eat pellets instead of each other. Meeker, who has also started raising the fish also called pickerel at his trout farm, said he sourced an Ontario food supplier after importing walleye pellets from Japan, via San Francisco.

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NEWS RELEASE: BC Mining Community Raises Over $1 Million at the Celebrity Pie Throw

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – May 9, 2013) – Mining for Miracles, the BC mining community’s longstanding fundraising campaign in support of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, raised more than $1 million recently during its signature event, the 2013 Teck Celebrity Pie Throw.

“Thank you to Teck Resources Limited for its support of this fantastic event,” said Teri Nicholas, President and CEO of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. “The Pie Throw succeeds year after year only because so many enthusiastic industry participants step forward to fundraise and take a pie in the face in support of BC’s kids.”

The Pie Throw, held on May 2, also featured the 2013 Diamond Draw with ticket proceeds going to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. This year, one lucky individual in the mining industry won a 1.0 carat ideal square-cut diamond, valued at $17,500, donated by De Beers Canada Inc. from their Snap Lake Mine. The 2013 Diamond Draw package, worth over $22,000, includes the diamond, gold and a designer setting donated by De Beers Canada Inc., Teck Resources Limited and Andrew Costen of Costen Catbalue.

Mining for Miracles thanks everyone who supported the Pie Throw and the Diamond Draw for their generosity, in particular the hundreds of mining, exploration, development companies, service providers and suppliers across BC, Alberta, Yukon Territories and Northwest Territories, and of course employees, friends and family, who know firsthand the positive difference Mining for Miracles makes to the health of BC’s kids.

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NEWS RELEASE: OMA member Teck uses key commodity to save lives around the world

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Teck with UNICEF Canada recently launched a $5 million, five-year program that expects to save more than 150,000 children’s lives in India. Through the Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH), this initiative aims to increase the use of zinc supplementation and oral rehydration salts to treat diarrhea and improve health care systems in India. The announcement of this program was made at Canada’s High Commission in India’s capital city New Delhi.

The main target is the childhood populations of three states in India with the highest rates of childhood diarrhea – Uttar Pradesh, Madhiya Pradesh and Odisha. Providing zinc supplements and oral rehydration salts holds the potential to save more than 150,000 children.

“This new initiative exemplifies the considerable contributions corporate partnerships can make towards improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. UNICEF’s partnership with Teck in India will provide strategic investments in proven interventions,” says UNICEF Canada’s President and Chief Executive Officer David Morley. “UNICEF first partnered with Teck in Nepal and Peru through the International Zinc Association and we are pleased to be strengthening this partnership.”

The harsh reality, Teck is striving to change shows that one quarter of deaths of children under five years of age occur in India.

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Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Operations launches project to give local birds a wing up

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Operations has launched an avian biodiversity project in partnership with R. Ross Beattie Senior Public School in Timmins. The Raptor Nesting Project is taking flight through the support of a $1,500 donation from the Kidd Operations’ Community Partnership Program to the Technological Studies program at the school. The goal is to enhance the habitat and breeding success of local raptor species such as falcons, ospreys, owls and eagles.

As part of the project, students will construct four nesting platforms for birds of prey, which will be installed at sites near the Kidd Mine and its metallurgical plant. Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Aboriginal traditional knowledge will be involved in the selection of the location of these platforms.

“In line with Xstrata’s Corporate Sustainable Development Policy, Kidd Operations is committed to preserving the long-term health, function and viability of the natural environment around our operations,” said David Yaschyshyn, Superintendent of Environment at Kidd Operations. “The goal of this project, therefore, is to help enhance the unique biodiversity of our region now and in the future once our operations cease.”

“As part of our efforts to encourage the community to participate in sustainable environmental endeavours, we have partnered with R. Ross Beattie Senior Public School and its Technological Studies students to construct these four nesting platforms,” added. Mr. Yaschyshyn. “This will provide students with an opportunity to gain both hands-on woodworking experience and increased knowledge of the biodiversity of the community.”

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NEWS RELEASE: OMA member Vale supports local Sudbury hospice

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Vale made a $50,000 donation to Maison Vale Hospice in Sudbury last weekend. The donation was made by Kelly Strong, Vice President Ontario/UK Operations for Vale, at the Sudbury Arena.

“Vale is pleased to offer continued support for Maison Vale Hospice,” said Mr. Strong, who presented the cheque to Leo Lefebvre, Chairman of the Board of the hospice, and Leo Therrien, Executive Director of the hospice. “We are proud to be associated with such a compassionate and caring organization, which has touched the lives of so many in our community.”

“Maison Vale Hospice is fortunate to have developed such a mutually rewarding partnership with Vale,” said Mr. Lefebvre. “The company’s continued support is truly appreciated and benefits every resident and family who journey with us at the Hospice.”

The hospice is a 10-bedroom facility located on a two-acre site at the St. Joseph Health Centre Village of Care. It is supported by approximately 40 health care workers. It assists people in the final stages of life by attending to their physical, psychosocial, spiritual and practical needs. The hospice provides support and quality care to individuals and their families in a homelike setting.

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