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NEWS RELEASE: OMA-CLRA symposium explores new science to reclaim historic mine sites

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 will be applying modern science to the rehabilitation of historic mine sites. This environmental event, which is organized by the Ontario Mining Association in collaboration with the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA), is being held June 18 and 19, 2013 in Cobalt – one of the oldest mining regions in Canada.

The program for June 18 explores both the geology and history of mining in the cobalt camp and the environmental legacy of this activity. “Challenges with Developing Closure Plans for Historical Mining Areas like Cobalt-Coleman” is the title of a paper being presented by Michel Julien and Jean-Francois Doyon from Agnico-Eagle Mines, which maintains a large landholding in the area.

Another presentation, “From Tailings Basin to Aquatic Ecosystem: The ecological recovery of two waterbodies” is on the agenda. There are also talks dealing with water quality monitoring, improvements in water treatment and engineering wetland systems to manage tailings areas.

At the banquet in the evening of June 18, the Tom Peters Memorial Reclamation Award will be presented. Mr. Peters was a pioneer in the field of mine reclamation and a founding member of the CLRA, which was established in 1975. There are two components to this award – one for industry and a $5,000 bursary, which is sponsored by Vale, for a graduate student pursuing a degree in this discipline.

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A pot of gold at the end of Manitoba mine cleanup? – by Peter Kenter (Daily Commercial News – April 25, 2013)

http://www.dcnonl.com/

A Toronto environmental company is cleaning up a toxic Manitoba mine site at no cost to taxpayers. Its compensation? It gets to keep any gold it can extract from a stockpile of arsenopyrite concentrate.

“As the price of gold and copper began to rise, we realized the possibility for extracting value from mine tailings,” says Ross Orr, president and CEO of BacTech Environmental Corporation.

The company is employing bioleaching technology, which uses microbes to extract valuable metals from undesirable materials.

“Bacteria digest the sulphides to break up the matrix of the tailings materials,” says Orr. “The arsenic and iron go into the solution and the precious metals go into a precipitate for which we can use conventional extraction methods.”

While the technology isn’t new, the application is. The plant would be the world’s first bioleaching facility for the remediation of toxic material. The company initially met with some resistance, however, when it presented its ideas under its other banner, mining firm REBgold Corporation.

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Commentary: After the aluminum rush: restoring the Amazon rainforest – by Peter Whitbread-Abrutat (Northern Miner – April 24, 2013)

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

Peter Whitbread-Abrutat holds a PhD in Mining Environmental Science from the University of Exeter, and is a mining environment and community specialist at U.K.-based independent engineering consultancy Wardell Armstrong International. He can be reached atpabrutat@wardell-armstrong.com .Visit www.wardell-armstrong.com for more information.

Can the degraded land of the Amazon rainforest be salvaged by large-scale landscape restoration? Is it really possible to rebuild ecological integrity and enhance the lives of local communities in a sustainable way?

To delve deeper into these questions, in late 2011 I took a two-month sabbatical from my position as a mining and environment consultant specializing in mine closure and post-mining regeneration at Wardell Armstrong International. It was a personal odyssey to explore world-class landscape restoration, where I came face to face with some of the biggest environmental challenges in international mining, and found some equally surprising answers.

Supported by a fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, I travelled from mountaintop-removal coal mines in Appalachia to the southern tip of South America, and from the Everglades, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands to Atlantic rainforests and the farmlands and logged forests in Chilean and Argentine Patagonia.

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New technologies can help make mining greener – by Shawn Conner (Vancouver Sun – April 20, 2013)

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

But building a cleaner mine is no magic bullet for the industry’s public perception problems, especially when operating abroad

With its mobile ready-to-assemble drilling kits, Energold Drilling Corp. is used to going into untrammelled corners of the Earth – sometimes with unexpected results.

In particular, Energold CEO and president Fred Davidson recalls the Shuar tribe of Ecuador. “We had guys who, literally one generation earlier, had been headhunters,” Davidson said. “And they’d be standing there in a helmet, gloves, hearing-protection, goggles, boots and nothing else but a loincloth.”

Of the Vancouver company’s 245 drilling rigs, nearly 100 of them are what Energold calls low-impact. These are module-based rigs whose individual pieces can be carried on foot or by pack-mule down already-established trails (the heaviest piece, Davidson said, is just under 200 kilograms). This means that no access roads need to be cut to transport the rig to a remote site.

Once the pieces are at the site, workers – often including locals, like the Shuar – assemble the pieces into a drilling apparatus that takes up a significantly smaller amount of space than a conventional rig (four by four metres rather than 20 by 20).

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Massive project extended to 2016: Vale – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – October 13, 2012)

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

Vale’s $2-billion environmental project in Copper Cliff remains a go, but its completion date is being extended into 2016, the company said Friday.

“To mitigate risks associated with the (Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction) project, we now intend to take some additional time to complete the project, both to better position ourselves for success and to address short-term cash-flow constraints in light of current market conditions,” Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said Friday.

“The end result of this approach is a change in schedule for some of the gas capture components of the project to align with our scheduled planned maintenance period in September, 2015.

“The (planned maintenance period) is the available window to complete the final tie-in work, so that all of the new systems will be ready for start-up and commissioning once the September 2015 (planned maintenance period) ends. The end result will mean the project will be completed in 2016 instead of the end of 2015.”

The massive project will modernize Vale’s Copper Cliff smelting complex and result in a significant reduction in sulphur-dioxide emissions.

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Sudbury Mansour family antes up [donation for Living with Lakes Centre] – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – October 5, 2012)

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

A prominent business family in Sudbury has donated $500,000 to support environmental remediation studies that will help ensure the health and sustainability of the world’s freshwater systems.

“The future sustainability of our lakes is a pressing issue — one of the most important of our lifetimes,” said Milad Mansour, president of Milman Industries Inc., said in a statement. “We need to find innovative solutions to ensure their preservation, and this is the absolute best place to do it, no question.”

“I have always taught my children that giving is more precious than receiving,” said Nora Mansour. “It is a wonderful feeling to give back to our community by supporting Laurentian University.”

Milman Industries Inc. provides a wide array of products, as well as services. Located at two sites, Milman Industries features 13 companies that serve customer’s needs, from hoses to diesel or electric locomotives, scrap metal recycling, railway equipment and track repair, to sea and rail transportation.

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Sulphur controls paying off: Report – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – October 3, 2012)

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

Biodiversity in Greater Sudbury lakes is making a strong comeback as air pollution has seen a steady decline since the ’60s.

The 2012 Vital Signs report from the Sudbury Community Foundation was launched Tuesday from the Vale Living with Lakes Centre. This year’s report, titled City of Lakes Edition, focused on environmental recovery and the flourishing biodiversity seen over the years as air pollution is reduced.

Dr. John Gunn, the director of the Living with Lakes Centre, outlined some of the key findings for the crowd of about 40 gathered at the centre. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in Greater Sudbury are at one of their lowest levels ever, down from a record high in the 1960s when more SO2 was released in Sudbury than in Japan.

The SO2 killed off wildlife, made some lakes unusable and gave Sudbury a reputation it’s still trying to shake. Gunn said at some point, major polluters realized they could reduce emissions and save on their bottom line at the same time. That has led to a steady and sharp decline in SO2 emissions, and improved biodiversity in the region.

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Where to brush up on your mine rehabilitation expertise – Lakehead University, Thunder Bay

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 Ontario Mining Association and the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) are joining forces to hold the fifth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium and Field Trip.  This event is scheduled for June 20 and 21, 2012 at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

The seminar includes sessions on the geology and mining history of the Thunder Bay area along with understanding the chemical properties of peat bogs and blueberry soils on Northwestern Ontario.  An update on the development of restoration protocols at De Beers Canada’s Victor diamond Mine, located 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat, will be presented.  These studies are expanding knowledge for reclamation activities in the Ring of Fire area, which is under development.

Another case study will centre on the evolution of closure planning and consultation at Barrick Hemlo Mines Williams gold property near Marathon.  Roger Souckey from Barrick Hemlo Mines and Shane Hayes of the Pic Mobert First Nation will be making this presentation.  Also, the decommissioning of Vale’s (Inco’s) Shebandowan nickel mine near Thunder Bay will be reviewed. 

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NEWS RELEASE: New Clean Mining Alliance to Promote Advancements in Technology in the Mining Industry

Industry association to draw attention to clean technology innovation
 
VANCOUVER, BC – May 14th, 2012 – The Clean Mining Alliance is pleased to announce the unveiling of its new industry association aimed at supporting and advocating technological advancements to make the mining industry cleaner and more environmentally responsible.

“Frameworks exist to increase social responsibility in mining, but despite advancements in exploration, extraction, production and reclamation technology, the industry has struggled to present itself as having grown beyond the mining days of old,” says Dallas Kachan, Executive Director of the Clean Mining Alliance. “The Clean Mining Alliance exists to help promote new and emerging technology developments that are making mining more environmentally responsible.”

The Clean Mining Alliance is a newly formed international non-profit organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is being introduced during British Columbia Mining week, a time when the province celebrates the contributions the mining industry brings to the province, its communities and businesses.

Members of the Clean Mining Alliance include companies on the forefront of innovative breakthroughs in the mining industry, as well as leading research organizations.

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One project, one review — one controversy – by Scott Simpson (Vancouver Sun – May 11, 2012)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html
 
Federal commitment to streamline the environmental review process gets mixed reviews

Federal commitments to streamline environmental reviews of major resource projects sit well with the mining industry, but not so well with environmentalists, scientists and many other notable Canadians.
 
Miners have been a leading voice in calling on the Harper Conservatives to amend the review process to remove what they believe are needless delays in getting projects vetted by federal regulators.
 
They want duplication of paperwork eliminated, and they want Ottawa to commit its bureaucracy to fixed time limits for reviewing projects and rendering a verdict.
 
That could mean faster turnaround times on projects that typically take a decade to develop from early drilling investigations to operating mines.

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Vale’s Sudbury Subterranean aquaculture: How many fish per tonne?

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, after a successful pilot project, will soon be producing fish near its underground greenhouse at the Creighton Mine in Sudbury.  When they resurface, the subterranean grown fish will be released for restocking Sudbury area lakes and rivers.
 
Back in November of last year, Vale’s Environment Department placed fingerling rainbow trout in 1,500-litre tanks at its surface greenhouse.  Five months of care and feeding resulting in the rainbow trout growing to about 20 centimetres in length.  Recently, they were given a new home after being transported to the Onaping River.
 
“We are very proud of this project and its successful outcome,” said Glen Watson from Vale’s Environment group.  “The fish will provide a boost to the river’s fish population and biodiversity, providing a highly valued resource for the community to enjoy.”

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Sydney tar ponds revitalization gives Nova Scotia community new lease on life – by Kenyon Wallace (Toronto Star – April 30, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Sid Slavin can barely recognize the spot where he spent 37 years toiling in the hot, smelly furnaces of one of Canada’s largest steel plants.

Where thousands of workers once forged much of Canada’s rails, rivets, bolts, nails and wire at the steel plant and coke ovens that provided the area with an economic lifeline for nearly 100 years, only grassy fields and a monument to those who lost their lives working at the plant remain.

The dramatic transformation is the culmination of a 10-year plan to clean up the former site of the Sydney tar ponds, an industrial wasteland of toxic sludge left behind after the plant closed in 2001.

With the third and final phase of environmental remediation of the site underway, what was once an infamous urban blight will be home to a freshwater river running alongside green parklands.

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Goldcorp’s Hallnor tailings clean-up going better than expected – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – April 27, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Company expertise beginning to show results across the city

Land reclamation work by Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines continues in Timmins and the results appear positive. The company, which won an environmental award last year, for its work on the Coniaurum tailings project, is moving forward on the Hallnor tailings in the East End and a company official said the work is progressing better than expected.

Goldcorp PGM’s environmental manager László Götz, said this past week that the company is becoming so adept at reclamation work that the job is actually running more smoothly than expected. Götz was speaking at a meeting of the Porcupine Watchful Eye, a community group that oversees Goldcorp environmental operations in Timmins.

“The Hallnor Reclamation seems to be now going easier because of the experience we gained during the Coniaurum and Hollinger tailings reclamations. So I can say that our work is much better going than previously thought,” said Götz.

He is referring to the fact that Goldcorp has spent huge sums of money in the past five years to restore old tailings properties to a more natural state.

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Fishing hole shows promise [Sudbury Vale fish restocking] – by Kevin Priddle (Sudbury Star – April 21, 2012)

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

Members of Vale’s environmental department felt like ‘fish out of water’ when they launched the initial phase of their latest pilot project last November, which saw about 4,000 baby rainbow trout take up temporary residence at the company’s surface greenhouse in Copper Cliff.

But after five months of successfully raising the fish, the environmental team can now add “fish farmer” to their resumes and are excited to begin work on the next phase, which will establish a world-class sustainable fish farming operation 4,200 feet underground at the Creighton Mine greenhouse.

It’s an operation that will be the first of its kind, according to project leaders. The new initiative aims to restock fish supplies in local lakes that might have been stressed by recreational and commercial fishing, or environmental stresses from mining.

Vale has partnered with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, local fish expert Mike Meeker and professors at the University of Guelph to work on the project.

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Mining and Climate Change, Part 4: The NDP and the Wrong Carbon Pricing Policy – by Steve May (SudburySteve.blogspot.com – April 18, 2012)

http://sudburysteve.blogspot.ca/

Steve May is the CEO of the Sudbury Federal Green Party Association (Opinions expressed in this blog are my own, and should not be interpreted as being consistent with the views of the Green Party of Canada – Steve May)

Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, the New Democratic Party, should they form Canada’s next government (and let’s be frank here: there’s a very good chance that they will do just that), if it follows through on its policy (always a big “if” for the NDP), will establish a Cap and Trade emissions trading scheme which will see the sale of carbon offsets between various industrial emitters. Such a Cap and Trade scheme could conceivably involve about half of Canada’s emitters, in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon Trading

The Cap and Trade approach to carbon pricing will prove to be very problematic for business and industry, and for all Canadians. With their advocacy to implement carbon trading, the NDP may have struck upon a better policy than the Conservative’s regulatory approach, but with so many uncertainties and the opportunity for exemption and fraud in new carbon market, it’s far from the best option on the table if the goal is to reduce emissions. I’ve previously blogged about my concerns with Cap and Trade, so I’ll not go into significant detail here, as I’ve done so elsewhere (see: “Cap and Trade: Is this the Best that We can Come Up With?”, January 15, 2010)

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