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Mining Documentaries

AUDIO: [De Beers and Attawapiskat] After the Last River screens at Bay Street Film Festival in Thunder Bay (CBC News Thunder Bay – September 10, 2015)

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

Movie highlights relationship between First Nation and mining company in northern Ontario

The Bay Street Film Festival kicks off Thursday through Sunday in Thunder Bay. One highly-anticipated film screens Thursday evening after receiving a great deal of attention during production.

After the Last River tells the story of the Attawapiskat First Nation’s experience with the nearby De Beers diamond mining company in northern Ontario.

The small community near James Bay garnered international attention for its’ social issues through the grassroots Idle No More campaign.

Vicki Lean, the film’s director, said there’s not enough discussion about how mining companies and small communities can impact each other.

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‘Overburden’: Powerful New Film Doc Captures Big Coal’s Enduring Trauma — And Two Women’s Work to Heal Its Damage – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – September 8, 2015)

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

While recent headlines hastily declare the death of King Coal, a powerful new film documentary based on seven years of investigation poignantly captures the complexities and largely overlooked stories of the enduring trauma of the coal industry on miners, their families, affected neighbors and the ravaged communities and Appalachian mountains they call home.

As one of the most timely, poetic and informed film documentaries released this year, Overburden: Two Women and the Mountain Between Them, chronicles a quintessential American journey–amid the tragedy of lawlessness in the workplace and the environment–of two courageous women, formerly divided, who shed their fears and find common ground to begin the painful process of dealing with their grief, seeking terms of justice, and healing their damaged communities and mountains.

“We’ve all become family,” Betty, a once fervent pro-coal supporter tells Lorelei, a coal miner’s widow and vocal mountaintop removal mining organizer, in the film. “Don Blankenship has put us together,” she adds, referring to the notorious former Massey Energy CEO.

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The Blood Red Rubies of Burma (DOCUMENTARY) – June 2015

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuuRPqRkd4bUZxDSActiiog/feed

The Mogok Valley in Upper Myanmar (Burma) was for centuries the world’s main source for rubies. That region has produced some of the finest rubies ever mined, but in recent years very few good rubies have been found there. The very best color in Myanmar rubies is sometimes described as “pigeon’s blood.”

In central Myanmar, the area of Mong Hsu began producing rubies during the 1990s and rapidly became the world’s main ruby mining area. The most recently found ruby deposit in Myanmar is in Namya (Namyazeik) located in the northern state of Kachin.

Ruby Country – as the Burmese call their country, which is famous for the jewels as red as blood. In the old days the rubies were in maharajas ownership. They were sold to the Europeans. Today, trade with the red rubies is fully at the hands of the military government field in the. They are currently the new owners of the mines. The golden triangle is the largest and most dangerous ruby country in the world.

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Afghanistan’s Secret Billion Dollar Emerald Mines (Journeyman Pictures – March 31, 2015)

 

http://www.journeyman.tv/

Hidden Gems: Afghanistan is not only a country in perpetual turmoil, but also a geological miracle. Can they now harness 1,000 billion Euros worth of natural resources in order to lift the nation out of poverty?

“We have a lot of requests from Europe because the Emeralds from Afghanistan are the best in the world”, Raphael says. He’s a Frenchman who first came to Afghanistan to train Afghan security services before venturing into the emerald trade.

He sees a huge chance here to exploit a market that could easily increase in value twenty or thirty-fold, but the obstacles are not inconsiderable. Just to get to the mines Raphael has to travel the 150 Kilometres from Kabul to Panjshir, right through Taliban kidnap country.

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Filmmaker goes home to document Red Lake mining life – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 30, 2015)

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Abudding Toronto filmmaker has paid an artistic and captivating tribute to his hometown of Red Lake with the release of his first feature-length documentary.

Cliff Caines’ 78-minute film, “A Rock and a Hard Place,” is a nostalgic and critical portrait of a resource-dependent town built upon some of the world’s richest gold deposits.

Under the umbrella of his production company, Headframe Films, the documentary received an honourable mention at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver this past May.

The catalyst for the project was in 2010 when he got wind of rumours that Goldcorp was evaluating the possibility of digging up entire subdivisions of Balmertown, a small community within Red Lake where he grew up, to convert the land into a huge open pit.

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Timmins student recognized for cinematography work by Ontario Mining Association – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – June 1, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

He hasn’t even graduated high school yet, but Francis Huot has already two awards for filmmaking awards under his belt.

Last week, the École Secondaire Theriault student was in Toronto accepting a So You Think You Know Mining Award from the Ontario Mining Association for a short film he made. There were several different categories at the awards, but Huot was recognized for having the best cinematography out of all the videos submitted.

The video Huot is simple but impactful. The visuals of the two-minute-long video are a black-and-white montage of mining machinery and shafts inside GorldCorp’s Dome Mine in Timmins.

“We got permission to go down into the mine and take some shots,” explained Huot. “It was very cool. It’s not every day you get an opportunity to take shots like that.”

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NEWS RELEASE: ONTARIO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS & TEACHERS AWARDED OVER $42,000 IN CASH PRIZES AT ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Best Overall Entry: Women, The Future and Mining – by Marika Moskalyk, Marymount Academy, Sudbury

To view all the winning entries, click here: http://sytykm.oma.on.ca/peopleschoice/awardwinners?year=2015&utm_source=2015+SYTYKM+news+release&utm_campaign=SYTYKM+winners+announced&utm_medium=email

TORONTO, Ontario – The Ontario Mining Association today announced the winners of 7th annual So You Think You Know Mining video competition, which challenges students to tell imaginative stories about the benefits of mining to society.

Nearly 300 videos from across the province were evaluated by an independent panel of media and mining professionals to determine the winning entries in nine award categories, with prize money ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, and each winning video earning a $500 bonus for the contestant’s school. In addition, the public voted online to select the winner of the $2,500 People’s Choice Award.

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Blood on the Mountain: New Film Chronicles Coal’s War on Appalachia – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – May 26, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

One of the most telling moments in the new documentary film Blood on the Mountain draws from 2008 footage of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship calmly mumbling his replies to numerous questions on mine safety at a hearing. When asked if he knew how many coal miners had died in Massey mines in the eight years since Massey became a publicly traded company, the notorious “dark lord” of the coal industry shook his head and said no.

Filmmakers Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman allow for a gut-wrenching moment of silence, having methodically chronicled the industry’s treadmill of violation-ridden disasters, and then provide the answer: 52 deaths under Blankenship as CEO of Massey Energy.

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Mining Documentary: Yamashita’s Gold – World War Two History

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Yamashita’s gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged war loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Japanese forces during World War II and hidden in caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines. It is named for the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, nicknamed “The Tiger of Malaya”. Though accounts that the treasure remains hidden in the Philippines have lured treasure hunters from around the world for over fifty years, its existence is dismissed by most experts.[1][2] The rumored treasure has been the subject of a complex lawsuit that was filed in a Hawaiian state court in 1988 involving a Filipino treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, and the former Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos.[3]

The looting and the alleged cover-up[edit]

Prominent among those arguing for the existence of Yamashita’s gold are Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave, who have written two books relating to the subject: The Yamato Dynasty: the Secret History of Japan’s Imperial Family (2000) and Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold (2003). The Seagraves contend that looting was organized on a massive scale, by both yakuza gangsters such as Yoshio Kodama, and the highest levels of Japanese society, including Emperor Hirohito.[4]

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The Klondike Gold Rush debuts Jan. 6 on PBS – by Tony Wong (Toronto Star – January 1, 2015)

http://www.pbs.org/wned/klondike-gold-rush/home/

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.

Documentary about Yukon gold rush in the late 1800s based in part on Charlotte Gray’s Gold Diggers.

Canadian author Charlotte Gray has mined literary gold by plumbing the history of the Klondike. Her well-reviewed 2010 book Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike spawned a scripted miniseries executive-produced by Ridley Scott, starring Tim Roth and Sam Shepard on the Discovery Channel. And now PBS is premiering TheKlondike Gold Rush on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

The documentary is not entirely based on Gray’s book, but the Ottawa author is featured extensively in the hour-long program, along with historians Michael Gates and Terrence Cole.

“People set off with very little clue about where they were going, they were swept up in this mass hysteria,” says Gray in the film. “The saying was that there was gold as thick as a cheese on a sandwich.”

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Canadian Bush Stories – Videos by Geologist and Prospector Frank Racicot

Pat Sheridan (PDAC 2013) from Frank Racicot on Vimeo.

 http://www.canadianbushstories.ca/

Pat Sheridan (1932-) Pat graduated from the U of T in 1955. The first conductor he ever worked on in New Brunswick turned out to be an ore body but didn’t become a mine until over 50 years later. As a bonus for finding the ore body, he chose a bottle of Queen Ann Scott whiskey…apparently not the best whiskey around at the time. It didn’t take long to realize that ore bodies were not that easy to find. He found the Lac des Illes mine near Thunder Bay and advises prospectors to be inquisitive and not believe everything they hear from geologists, keep exploring and work like hell.

Film Maker and Geologist Frank Racicot

Frank Racicot is the man behind Canadian Bush Stories. He is a trained geologist and prospector who makes a living working in the bush. His intense passion is mineral exploration. He has searched for gold, platinum, nickel, copper, diamonds, uranium and other commodities. He loves his work.

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NEWS RELEASE: Season seven SYTYKM offers more money, more prize categories and more support for schools

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.

Season seven of the Ontario Mining Association’s high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining has officially been opened. Entries are now being accepted on line. This year’s competition offers more money, more prize categories and more support for schools.

The prize money available has been increased to $42,500. A new category – Best Cinematography – is also being offered. This new award will recognize the most effective use of the camera by a contestant. Think camera angles, cuts and lighting. In addition, this year to offer more support to educators, $500 will be provided to the schools of each winning entry.

“Video equipment and video production software comes with a cost,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson. “We wanted to find a way to offer more assistance to schools and their audio-visual, communications technology and visual arts classes. We hope this new $500 school prize bonus will encourage and support educators involved in SYTYKM.”

SYTYKM is supported by comprehensive web-based resources and a social media network that includes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. Contest details, video upload instructions, production ideas and past winning entries are all available on the OMA website at http://www.oma.on.ca.

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NEWS RELEASE: Antipodean version of Ontario Mining Association’s SYTYKM celebrates its first winners

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.

An e-mail received recently from the Land Down Under has served as a reminder that the launch of season seven of the Ontario Mining Association high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining is just around the corner. “Inspired by your initiative, South Australia’s first Dirt TV winners have been announced. I am sure you’ll enjoy the winning entry,” said SACOME (South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy) in the e-mail message.

The 2014-2015 version of SYTYKM will be offering prize money of $42,500 to Ontario high school film makers, up from $40,000 in season six. The deadline for entries is being set at March 30, 2015. Watch the OMA website www.oma.on.ca. Further details will be provided soon.

Now back to the Southern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Jason Kuchel, Chief Executive of SACOME, said that on a visit to Toronto he was so impressed with SYTYKM that he knew he had to adopt it at home.

“The SYTYKM competition’s growth over recent years is remarkable and truly inspirational,” added Mr. Kuchel. “The competition works on so many levels, including building community awareness of the benefits of the sector, increasing understanding of career opportunities among high school children and addressing the science and arts curriculums with a practical, real-world example that is also a lot of fun.”

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[Mining Documentary] The golden people of Baker Lake (2012) – produced by Ivor Barr (Copyright IDNR-TV)

IDNR-TV Natural Resources television

http://www.agnicoeagle.com/en/

The Meadowbank mine is located in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, about 2,600 kilometres northwest of Toronto. It is 300 kilometres west of Hudson Bay and 110 kilometres by road north of Baker Lake, the nearest community. Meadowbank was Agnico Eagle’s largest gold producer in 2014, with 1.8 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves* (17 million tonnes at 3.2 g/t). The mine is located on a very large property that has exploration potential for gold.

Meadowbank depends on the annual, warm-weather sealift by barge from Hudson Bay to Baker Lake for transportation of bulk supplies and heavy equipment. An all-weather road links Baker Lake to the site. An on-site airstrip is used for shipping food and goods and for transporting employees, who work on a fly-in, fly-out basis.

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[Mining Documentary] Troilus: A Mining Heritage Story (2010) – produced by Ivor Barr (Copyright IDNR-TV)

IDNR-TV Natural Resources television Troilus is a closed open pit gold, copper and silver mine located in northwestern Quebec, 120 km from the Cree community of Mistissini and 175 km from Chibougamau. The mine was in operation from 1996 to 2010 and was owned by Inmet Mining Corporation which was subsequently taken over by First …

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