Twitter

Manitoba Mining

Editorial: Thompson mining’s future looking brighter, but when? (Thompson Citizen – November 27, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Although it wasn’t really that long ago that the mining industry was booming in Thompson – if you’ve lived here longer than 10 years, you experienced at least part of it – it might feel like it’s mostly been gloom and doom for a long time because, for the most part, it has.

The 2008 global recession, which was a bit delayed in arriving in Thompson, although eventually it did, was only first starting to be felt when Vale announced nine years ago this month that it had plans to shut down the smelter and refinery in Thompson for good.

At the time that it was first announced, the proposed shutdown date was 2015, though that was later pushed back three years, with operations ceasing about midway through 2018. A bit more than a year before that, Birchtree Mine was placed on care and maintenance status, resulting in the loss of more than 100 jobs.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

Vale Manitoba operations to make case for $1-billion investment in Thompson mine (CBC News Manitoba – November 16, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/

It’s believed investment could expand mine’s lifespan by 25 to 30 years

The operators of the Vale nickel mine in Thompson, Man., are hoping a $1-billion investment could extend the mine’s life span by 25 to 30 years. Gary Eyres, head of Vale’s Manitoba operations, said the mine’s team has been stepping up its exploration efforts, including aerial and magnetic surveys, and believes there are large enough ore deposits to warrant the investment.

Eyres says he’s confident that somewhere along the Thompson nickel belt is the equivalent of another mine “just waiting to be found.” They want to be able to present their case for it in the next six to 12 months to the company’s owners in Brazil, Eyres said

“Everything that I’m doing at the moment and our teams here in Thompson are doing at the moment, is we’re focusing only on when this happens, rather than if it happens,” he said.

Read more

Vale Manitoba Operations head believes there is an ore body equivalent to a new mine near Thompson – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – November 13, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

A proposed $1 billion investment in Vale’s Thompson mines in the next five years could generate nearly $8 billion in economic activity over the next 45 years, the company’s head of Manitoba Operations told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce Nov. 13.

“What we’re looking at is exploring our ore bodies,” said Gary Eyres, estimating that the proposed investment would be equivalent to opening a new mine in Thompson and saying that it is possible another mine shaft could be excavated down to as far as 6,300 feet. Right now, mining areas extend down to 4,800 feet below the surface. “We haven’t found the end of the ore body yet. Somewhere close by, I believe, is the next Thompson mine.”

If the investment goes ahead, it would result in $7.9 billion worth of economic activity between now and 2065, $7.4 billion more than putting the mines on care and maintenance until 2043 would create. It’s also $5.4 billion more economic activity than would be generated by simply mining out the current areas of T1 and T3 by 2043.

Read more

NDP and PCs at odds over which party supports the mining industry more (Thompson Citizen – July 18, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Manitoba’s NDP and Progressive Conservative parties are engaged in a war of words over which party is more supportive of mining in the run-up to the Sept. 10 provincial election.

NDP leader Wab Kinew said in a press release July 18 that Manitoba has lost two-thirds of its active mines since Brian Pallister became premier in 2016 and that Statistics Canada says there are 500 fewer natural resources workers in the province than there were in 2017.

“The Pallister government has stood idly by while northern communities struggle to stay afloat in the face of multiple mining closures,” said Kinew. “At a time when workers and their families need protection, how does the Pallister government respond? By calling it ‘business as usual.’”

Read more

Rockcliff gears up to drill in Snow Lake – by Stan Sudol (Northern Miner – July 15, 2019)

Rockcliff Metal’s founder Ken LaPierre at the 2019 PDAC Mining Convention. A $29 Million financing has turbo-charged junior Rockcliff Metals, which plans to complete over 100,000 metres of exploration drilling over next 18 months. Rockcliff is the 2nd largest landholder in the legendary Flin Flon/Snow Lake greenstone belt in Northern Manitoba after HudBay Minerals. (Photo by Stan Sudol)

Northern Miner

At the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto in March 2018, Rockcliff Metals (CSE: RCLF) was a struggling junior with a large land package in the lesser known but geologically rich Flin Flon–Snow Lake (FF–SL) greenstone belt, with eight high-grade, base-metal volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits and five gold properties.

It began as a tough year for Rockcliff, and it turned even rougher the week before the PDAC convention, when Kenneth Lapierre, Rockcliff’s president and CEO at the time, slipped on freshly fallen snow when taking out the garbage at home.

Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot-three-inch, former hockey-playing, karate-practising jock then started shovelling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his ankle demanded a trip to the doctor, where he learned that it was broken, and that he had torn all the soft tissue.

Read more

CEO at Canadian miner Hudbay steps down, industry veteran steps in – by Nichola Saminather and Debroop Roy (Reuters Canada – July 10, 2019)

https://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Canada’s Hudbay Minerals Inc said on Wednesday that Chief Executive Officer Alan Hair has stepped down after more than 20 years with the company and named Peter Kukielski, who was backed by its second largest investor in a proxy battle, as interim CEO.

As part of its proxy fight, private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management had nominated five directors to the company’s board. Three of them, including Kukielski, were elected in May following a settlement that ended the drawn-out battle.

Much of Waterton’s ire surrounded Hudbay’s reported talks to buy Chile’s Mantos Copper for about $780 million last year and what it described as an erosion of shareholder returns under its management and board.

Read more

Editorial: A year after smelter/refinery closure, Thompson worse for wear but not down for the count (Thompson Citizen – July 3, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

About a year ago at this time, Thompson was awaiting the last round of layoffs from Vale’s Manitoba Operations and approaching the end of an era as nickel mining operations in Thompson, for the first time in their history, prepared to move from a fully integrated model that took nickel from the ground and refined it into its final product, to a mining-and-milling model, in which ore would be extracted and milled and then shipped off to Sudbury, Ont. for smelting and refining.

At the time, many people were – justifiably – concerned about what this change might mean for Thompson.

Looking back, the transition has been hard, especially for those who lost their jobs, but Thompson is not on the ropes economically, at least not yet, though the local economy has absorbed some pretty heavy body blows as a result of Vale shrinking its Thompson operations.

Read more

Back in Time: Striking it rich at Flin Flon’s first mine – by Craig Baird (Flin Flon Reminder – June 19, 2019)

https://www.thereminder.ca/

The origins of Mandy Mine involve two men who were working as railroad builders by Hudson Bay. They decided that they wanted to take their own prospecting trip along Grassy River and see what was there. They had some knowledge of the area thanks to earlier surveyors, but they wanted to see it for themselves.

Fred Jackson and Sidney Reynolds decided to take the trip in the autumn of 1915 and see what they could find. Luck was on their side as they decided to camp on top of a 35-foot wide lens of solid chalcopyrite.

Over the next few months, the were able to pull out 22 to 28 per cent copper, which contained $3.60 worth of gold per ton, along with about nine to 16 ounces of silver. For every $1,000 they spent drilling into the find, $1.25 million in ore was brought out. It was pay dirt for the two men.

Read more

[Manitoba Flin Flon – Snow Lake Greenstone Belt] Rockcliff Metals Wins a Financing Lottery! – by Stan Sudol (June 19, 2019)

Rockcliff Metals founder, Ken Lapierre, holding rich core samples from Manitoba’s Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt.

At Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2018 mining convention, Rockcliff Metals was a typical struggling junior with a great land package in the lesser known but geologically-rich Flin Flon – Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt with eight high-grade VMS base-metal deposits and five promising lode-gold properties.

It was starting out to be a tough year and unfortunately an even rougher start the week before the convention when Rockcliff CEO Ken Lapierre slipped on the freshly fallen snow, when he was taking out the garbage. Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot, three inch, former hockey playing, karate practising jock, started shoveling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his left ankle demanded a trip to the doctor where he learned that it was broken and that he had torn all the soft tissue.

For the entire PDAC convention, the largest and most important in the world, for juniors to meet potential future investors and current shareholders and financiers, Lapierre had to use a knee walker that resembled a scooter to get around, along with a substantial amount of painkillers.

Read more

Manitoba: Rupture of Thompson’s tailing dams could kill nearly 100 people, Vale reveals – by Ian Froese (CBC News Manitoba – June 17, 2019)

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

Active mine dam in Thompson, Man., records a ‘very high’ hazard rating

A mining giant reeling from a deadly dam collapse in Brazil says it is investigating one of its dams in Thompson, Man., over fears a rupture could kill as many as 100 people.

Vale revealed one of the six active mine dams in the northern Manitoba city recorded a “very high” hazard rating, as determined by the Canadian Dam Association, which means a collapse could result in up to 100 deaths, significant loss of environmental and cultural values and “very high economic losses” affecting important infrastructure.

The mining company disclosed the safety of its dam operations worldwide, after facing pressure from the Church of England Pensions Board and a group of Swedish investors in the wake of a January dam failure at Brumadinho, Brazil, that killed 270 people.

Read more

New mining manager outlines his vision for Vale at Thompson chamber meeting – by Kyle Darbyson (Thompson Citizen – June 5, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Gary Eyres tells business owners about nickel concentrate, electric cars and new exploration initiatives

After three months on the job, Vale’s latest mining manager Gary Eyres spoke at the Thompson Chamber of Commerce meeting May 29. Throughout his 44-minute presentation, Eyres outlined what Vale’s Manitoba Operations look like right now and where they are headed in the future.

The Australian went over Vale’s current status as a strictly mining and milling operation in Thompson since its smelter and refinery shut down for good back in late 2018.

However, Eyres said the concentrate load-out facility completed about a year ago allows the company to ship out 14 to 16 trucks’ worth of concentrate to Sudbury, Ontario for processing every day.

Read more

Pimicikamak Cree Nation members training for Hudbay mining jobs in Snow Lake (Thompson Citizen – May 28, 2019)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

A dozen members of Pimicikamak Cree Nation (PCN) at Cross Lake are being trained for mining sector jobs at Hudbay’s Snow Lake operation through a partnership between the company, the provincial government, PCN, University College of the North (UCN) and the Northern Manitoba Sector council.

The training began in February and will conclude in November. The provincial government is providing $87,000 in funding for the training, with Hudbay and PCN contributing in-kid support.

“We are working in partnership to develop the next generation of workers in Northern Manitoba’s resource economy,” said Premier Brian Pallister in a May 27 press release.

Read more