Twitter

Junior Exploration Sector

[Northern Superior Resources] Junior miner ditches duty-to-consult lawsuit against Ontario – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 2, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Exploration president criticizes Queen’s Park on hands-off approach to Indigenous engagement

A Sudbury junior miner has dropped a $25-million duty-to-consult lawsuit against the Ontario government and has settled out of court.

With their case still on appeal, Northern Superior Resources president Tom Morris said with a favourable outcome far from certain, it just made financial sense for the small exploration firm to end its five-year legal battle with Queen’s Park.

He declined to comment on the terms of the agreement reached with the province. “There was no guarantee that we were going to win anything out of that. The reality was that with what was offered to us, it just made sense to bite the bullet and move on; and the same from the government’s standpoint.”

Read more

What happens when ‘kingmaker’ Eric Sprott backs your penny mining stock – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 1, 2018)

http://business.financialpost.com/

The billionaire investor has injected $10 million in a company exploring for nickel in B.C.’s Golden Triangle — an area that has been mined for a century without much nickel ever being found

One Friday afternoon not so many months ago, Canadian billionaire Eric Sprott was sitting in a leather wingback chair in a dimly lit room, talking about a junior mining company that he just can’t stop investing in.

The company, Garibaldi Resources Corp., is in the earliest stages of exploring for nickel in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, an area that has been relentlessly explored and mined for a century without much nickel ever being found.

Nevertheless, Sprott was enamoured: He compared the area to Voisey’s Bay, also a nickel deposit, and likely the largest metal discovery in Canada in the past 40 years. That find has turned out to be worth billions of dollars.
“It just keeps coming together,” Sprott said about Garibaldi, turning to an interviewer on his left during a video that will be posted on YouTube. That Garibaldi has never had any revenue passes without comment.

Read more

Looking for Hemlo II: Canadian Orebodies – by Jay Currie (MotherlodeTV.net – February 27, 2018)

http://motherlodetv.net/

A lot of exploration is about looking for pointers, for clues, as to where a deposit might be. For Canadian Orebodies, a train of boulders, a number of which had high-grade gold mineralization pointed in a particular direction. If you look at the map above you can spot the boulder train. Angular boulders which suggest that the source is not far away.

If you follow the boulder train “up ice” – because the boulders were almost certainly the result of glaciation – you will see what Gordon McKinnon and his team at Canadian Orebodies have been quietly working on for the past nine months. The acquisition of the “Century Mining Claims”. It was not straightforward.

“Century Mining was in bankruptcy,” said McKinnon. “And Teck Resources held a bunch of rights including the right of first refusal and a back-in right. There were also two prospectors who had a 3% Net Smelter Royalty, which made for a drawn out five-party negotiation. After nine months of discussions, we managed to get Teck to give up its rights in exchange for a 0.5% NSR, and we negotiated a royalty buy down with the prospectors. Eventually, we got what we wanted and we finalized the acquisition of the property.

Read more

Cobalt price: Supply scramble heats up with Canadian deal – by Frik Els (Mining.com – February 22, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

Investors piled into Cobalt 27 Capital Corp (TSX-V:KBLT) and RNC Minerals (TSX:RNX) on Thursday after the companies entered into a royalty deal on all future nickel and cobalt production at RNC Minerals’ Dumont project in Quebec in a deal worth $70 million.

Shares in Toronto-based Cobalt 27 gained as much as 6% in lunchtime trade lifting its market cap to C$440m ($350m) . Investors who bought into the battery metals story when Cobalt 27 listed in June are now enjoying a 45% appreciation in the value of the stock since then. Cobalt 27 stockpiles the metal, holds options on cobalt juniors and enters into streaming and royalty deals in an effort to be a pure play on the cobalt price.

RNC Minerals stock popped 12% shortly after the open on the TSX affording the company a market value C$90m before cooling off in later trade. The Toronto-based firm which changed its name from Royal Nickel Corp in 2016 owns 50% of the Dumont project in the Abitibi mining camp in a joint venture with Waterton, a private equity investor. RNC Minerals is up 43% year to date.

Read more

[Northern Superior Resources] A tale of two exploration projects – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – February 21, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

President, CEO and director of Northern Superior Resources gives overview of challenges of exploration on Ontario and Quebec properties

If there’s one piece of advice Tom Morris can give to mineral exploration companies, it’s let nature tell the story.

After more than 35 years in prospecting, exploration and mining, the president of Northern Superior Resources brought a message to the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association. Pay close attention to the findings, even if they aren’t what they are looking for, to determine what kind of resources are really in the ground.

Morris spoke on Jan. 20 about what he learned from two properties: TPK in the Far North, near the Ring Fire, and Croteau Est in Quebec. Very different locations, infrastructure needs, and histories. Both are showing great promise as potential gold mines.

Read more

Harte Gold triples resource at Sugar project in Ontario – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – February 16, 208)

http://www.northernminer.com/

In its first real update since 2012, Harte Gold (TSX: HRT; US-OTC: HRTFF) has tripled the resource at its Sugar deposit about 80 km east of the Hemlo camp in northern Ontario.

The new 1.5 million ounce resource is based largely on Harte’s 2017 drill program (138,000 metres) and about 50% is classified as indicated and situated in the upper 500 metres of the deposit.

The Sugar zone (including the Middle Zone) now contains an estimated 2.61 million indicated tonnes grading 8.52 grams gold per tonne for 714,200 ounces of contained gold and another 3.59 million inferred tonnes (to a depth of 1,000 metres) grading 6.59 grams gold for 760,800 oz. contained gold. The resource used a 3.0 gram gold cut-off.

Read more

First Nation, mining company announce partnership – by Alexandra Paul (Winnipeg Free Press – February 20, 2018)

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

A remote Manitoba First Nation has made history by partnering up with a mining company to explore diamond claims staked in the Oxford Lake area.

There’s only an outside chance the deal between Altius Resources Inc. and Manitoba’s Bunibonibee Cree Nation will lead to a new mining source for diamonds, but its chief and the lawyers who mediated the agreement with Altius say the deal breaks ground even if there’s never enough diamonds to open up a mine.

“It is very historic. It is, we believe, the first of its kind in Manitoba. It sets out the conditions for acquiring the First Nation’s consent. Which means the company has acquired it, but has done so on a whole series of protection and compensatory measures that are sufficient for the First Nation,” said Kate Kempton, counsel for the First Nation at the Toronto-based law firm Olthuis, Kleer and Townshend.

Read more

$2 million in mine exploration funds coming from federal, Saskatchewan governments – by Eric Westhaver (Flin Flon Reminder – February 14, 2018)

http://www.thereminder.ca/

Mine exploration around Flin Flon is about to get a boost, courtesy of the federal and Saskatchewan governments. A joint venture between the two sides will provide a total of $2 million in funding for aerial exploration and incentives for junior mining companies.

Under the program, Saskatchewan’s provincial government will spend $1 million on a geophysical survey of the area around Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach. A budget proposal for other parts of the project is in the planning stages.

The surveying will be done jointly by the Geological Survey of Manitoba and the Geological Survey of Canada and Natural Resources Canada. Work on the project is expected to begin before early March.

Read more

Seabridge dealing with damages from previous mining activities in northern BC – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – February 12, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

The Association of Mineral Exploration in British Columbia recently awarded Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA)(NYSE:SA) the 2017 Robert R. Hedley Award for excellence in social and environmental responsibility at its KSM project, which the company says is one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world measured by reserves.

Inspired by the work at KSM, Brent Murphy, Seabridge Vice President of Environmental Affairs, decided to replicate the experience at Iskut, the firm’s second project in northern BC, which was obtained with the closing of Seabridge’s acquisition of SnipGold Corp. in June 2016.

The 29K-hectare property is located some 110 km northwest of Stewart and includes the former high-grade gold Johnny Mountain Mine and the copper-gold Bronson Slope deposit.

Read more

Northern Ontario First Nation awaits ruling over contested mining exploration permit (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 12, 2018)

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

Eabametoong asking court to overturn Landore Resources Canada’s gold exploration permit to

A northern Ontario First Nation now waits for a court ruling over a contested mining exploration permit in its territory after hearings in Toronto wrapped up last week.

Lawyers representing Eabametoong First Nation were in Ontario divisional court on Feb. 7 and 8. The First Nation wants the panel of judges to overturn a permit issued in its territory by the province to Landore Resources Canada in 2016. Eabametoong has argued the province failed in its duty to consult.

“Our position isn’t really anything new that we’re asking the courts to do, in terms of extending the duty to consult beyond what’s already been established,” said Krista Robertson, a Victoria-based lawyer with JFK Law, and legal counsel to the First Nation.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Osisko Mining Provides Quebec Exploration Update (February 8, 2018)

http://www.osiskomining.com/

Exploration Budget for 2018: $100 million

(Toronto, February 8, 2018) Osisko Mining Inc. (OSK:TSX) (“Osisko” or the “Corporation”) is pleased to provide an update on the progress of exploration at its 100% owned Windfall Lake, Urban Barry and Quévillon gold projects located in the Abitibi greenstone belt, Eeyou Istchee James Bay, Québec.

Osisko has been conducting new exploration and definition drilling at Windfall for 26 months, since late October 2015. As of the end of January 2018, Osisko has completed 518,000 metres of the planned 800,000 metres to complement the pre-existing 180,000 metres drilled at Windfall by previous operators.

The company is rapidly advancing the Windfall and Lynx deposits through a balance of resource delineation drilling and exploration drilling for extensions and new mineralized zones. Osisko has been successful in the past two years at significantly expanding the known areas of mineralization in the Windfall system and reinterpreting the geological model of the Windfall deposit.

Read more

Exploration agreement aims to help junior mining companies in northern Sask. and Man. – by Bridget Yard (CBC News Saskatoon – January 31, 2018)

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

Future of Creighton, Sask.’s main industry ‘up in the air,’ according to longtime Mayor Bruce Fidler

An agreement between the Saskatchewan and federal governments worth approximately $2 million will aim to help junior mining companies in their exploration of northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The agreement was signed in December 2017.

The future of the mining camps near Creighton, Sask., which is approximately 430 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, is “up in the air,” according to the town’s mayor.

“The forecast put out a year ago by Hudbay [Minerals] was that the 777 mine, the one in operation right now where they’re producing ore, is going to run out and shut down in three or four years,” said Bruce Fidler.

Read more

Alaska mine developer’s shares fall 20 percent; partner pressured – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – January 29, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Shares of mine developer Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd fell more than 20 percent on Monday, the first trading day after a U.S. regulator’s surprise move to keep restrictions on the company’s big copper and gold mine project in Alaska.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reversed itself on Friday by maintaining restrictions on the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, saying it needed more time to assess the project’s impact on the environment and area fisheries.

Pebble holds one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits. Its development, near one of the biggest sockeye salmon fisheries on earth, has been fiercely opposed by environmentalists, native groups and fisherman for years.

Read more

Northern Ontario First Nation wants gold exploration permit quashed in case that could have impact on Ring of Fire – by Jorge Barrera (CBC News Indigenous – January 27, 2018)

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

Mining company pushed to end consultation after Barrick Gold came knocking

No one kept a record of what was said during the meeting between mining company Landore Resources Canada and the Ontario ministry in January 2016, but at stake was a potential deal with Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining firm in the world.

Landore, a subsidiary of Landore Resources Ltd., based in the Guernsey Islands, U.K., was eyeing potential gold deposits in an area with two lakes about 40 kilometres from Eabametoong First Nation where several families had camps, traplines and burial sites. Eabametoong First Nation is about 350 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont.

The mining company requested the “urgent meeting” with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines because it wanted to wrap up consultations and obtain a permit to explore for gold, according to court records.

Read more

Prospectors look to technology to help along rebound in B.C. mining exploration – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – January 24, 2018)

http://vancouversun.com/

Michael Burns can take a crew of two or three people with one of his company’s drones out to a remote mining claim and in a day do the survey work it would take a crew of four or five a month to do on the ground.

It’s an innovation that didn’t exist three years ago, said Burns, CEO of Vancouver headquartered Global UAV Technologies, during a presentation at the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.’s annual Roundup conference.

The conference saw more than 6,500 delegates — its best attendance in three years — from dozens of companies, government agencies, suppliers and financiers gather to examine the next best prospects for mining and how to accomplish exploration in context of a renewed focus on reconciliation with First Nations.

Read more