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Mining Power Issues

Mine electrification in Canada: An industry in transition – by Amanda Fitch (Canadian Mining Journal – April 9, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Canada’s mining sector is making strides in electrification, driven by technological advancements, policy support, and infrastructure investments. The increase in demand for critical minerals in Canada is evident and is the result of mining companies integrating electrified solutions.

These solutions include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and electrified infrastructure to enhance sustainability and efficiency while balancing innovation with operational realities. Canadian mines have been pioneers in integrating BEVs into their operations with over a decade of use in the industry.

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Northeast First Nations team up with province on two proposed hydro power projects – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 9, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Moose River, Albany River basins contain an estimated 3,570 megawatts of future hydroelectric power

To Taykwa Tagamou Nation (TTN) Chief Bruce Archibald, Indigenous involvement in the selection process of two proposed hydroelectric projects in the Moose River basin is what economic reconciliation should look like.

Archibald spoke at an April 9 news conference at the Sandy Falls Generating Station, outside Timmins, to reveal a pair of new power stations that will be added to Ontario Power Generation’s power-producing fleet in the coming years. The event was livestreamed on YouTube.

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Power shortage poses problem for the mining sector says lobby group – by Clint Fleury (TBnews Watch – February 8, 2025)

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The Northwest Energy Task Force says the Ontario government needs to start planning for additional power generation to meet the mining boom in the Northwest.

THUNDER BAY — Northwestern Ontario would need 250 megawatts of additional energy to meet the demand for the 41 potential mines that are expected to start by 2033, according to the Northwest Energy Task Force. Iain Angus, co-chair of the lobby group, said Northwestern Ontario could risk losing investments from some of those mining companies if we are “not prepared to provide the power.”

Ontario needs to start building additional transmission lines now, said Angus. The Northwest Energy Task Force is calling on all provincial candidates in the northwest to seriously consider adding the region’s energy needs to their platforms.

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More power needed for growing northwestern Ontario mining sector: task force (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 07, 2025)

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

About 250 megawatts of additional power generation required

More power is needed in northwestern Ontario if the region is to meet the demands brought on by what a task force calls “unprecedented growth” in its mining sector.

The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association’s (NOMA) Northwest Energy Task Force said there are currently 41 major exploration projects in the region, with 37 of those aiming to be operational by 2033.

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Powerfully promising: Harnessing the Churchill River’s hydroelectric potential needed to develop the mining sector – by Gary Kean (Salt Wire/The Telegram – January 13, 2025)

https://www.saltwire.com/

Access to not only more, but clean, power in Labrador essential to luring investment, says mining industry

In the early 2000s, the idea of building an aluminum smelter in Labrador was shelved, and Yvonne Jones often wondered what else could have been if the region’s resources had been tapped into at the time. With Newfoundland and Labrador now planning to develop more hydroelectric power on the mighty Churchill River, the Liberal MP for Labrador hopes the next industrial vision to come along can be realized.

The smelter project would have been a joint venture between aluminum titan Alcoa and the provincial government, but the province walked away from the deal after a feasibility study was done. The company wanted the government to foot too much of the energy costs associated with the development.

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Quebec and N.L. put aside decades of bad blood to ink new hydro power deal – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – December 13, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are vowing to put aside decades of bad blood over the Churchill Falls hydropower station, cementing what they’re calling a historic deal that will see them invest and work together on future electricity development worth tens of billions of dollars.

Under an agreement in principle that was unveiled Thursday in St. John’s by premiers François Legault and Andrew Furey, Quebec would secure a key source of power. Newfoundland would win significantly more revenue for its existing power generation and clinch a partner with deep pockets and technical know-how for three new production projects along Labrador’s Churchill River.

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NEWS RELEASE: Sandy Lake First Nation Energized by Wataynikaneyap Power (Watay Power – June 21, 2024)

https://www.wataypower.ca/

(June 21, 2024 – Fort William First Nation, Ontario) Wataynikaneyap Power is pleased to announce the energization of Sandy Lake First Nation. The northern Ontario community was connected to the provincial power grid on April 18, 2024.

“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the community’s connection to the power grid on Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” Sandy Lake Chief Delores Kakegamic comments. “The Wataynikaneyap Power transmission system means more than reliable electricity for the community. It means we can build new homes and buildings, such as our new Health Centre, and connect them to power.

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Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power – by Evan Halper (MSM.com/Washington Post – March 8, 2024)

https://www.msn.com/

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.

In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.

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Drought in Western Canada means two provinces are having to import power – by Amanda Stephenson (CTV News/Canadian Press – January 29, 2024)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

Two hydro-rich provinces are being forced to import power from other jurisdictions due to severe drought in Western Canada. Both B.C. and Manitoba, where the vast majority of power is hydroelectric, are experiencing low reservoir levels that have negatively affected electricity production this fall and winter.

There’s no risk in either province of the lights going out anytime soon. But scientists say climate change is making drought both more common and more severe, which means more pressure on hydroelectric producers in the years to come.

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Michael Sabia’s grand plan to make Quebec a green-energy powerhouse – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Sabia blueprint will see Hydro-Québec spend as much as $185-billion to transform the province’s energy landscape from now until 2035

The village of La Romaine sits on the northern flank of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in a wind-swept place that the Innu people call Unamen Shipu, or “ocher earth” – a reference to the red colour seen on the banks of the nearby Oloman river snaking upland. Some 400 kilometres north-east of Sept-Îles, it’s reachable only by air and water except during the coldest months, when the government carves out a snow road to nearby communities. Locals like to say it’s their winter freedom.

It’s here, in this reserve of 1,200 Innu inhabitants, that Hydro-Québec chief executive Michael Sabia landed on a Wednesday in late November. Greeted at the community’s political offices, Mr. Sabia shared a lunch of caribou and traditional bread with local leaders and later spoke of his desire to rectify the past and make the Unamen Shipu Innu partners in the nearby Lac-Robertson power station, built on their territory in the early 1990s without any compensation. He handed a letter to the community’s former chief that apologized for the affront.

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Indigenous groups lead the renewable transition in northern Canada – by Jesse Chase-Lubitz (Yahoo News – February 28, 2023)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

A solution to climate change is emerging in one of the regions most affected by it. In Nunavut — the northernmost territory of Canada — a coalition of Indigenous communities is transitioning the region away from diesel and toward renewable energy.

In 2018, Nukik Corporation, which was formed by individuals in the Indigenous Inuit population, started planning the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link, a set of electricity and fiber-optic transmission cables. The link would connect the vast regions of rural northern Canada to a southern Canadian renewable energy grid in the province of Manitoba.

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Ontario Power Generation urges province to move ahead with new power projects – by Matthew McClearn (Globe and Mail – February 14, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ontario Power Generation has urged Ontario’s government to move forward with new hydroelectric generation plants in Northern Ontario.

In a report released Monday, the province’s largest utility told the provincial government that the region contains up to 4,000 megawatts of untapped hydroelectric potential. OPG recommended that planning for new facilities begin immediately, given the long lead times involved.

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News Release: Kingfisher Lake First Nation Energized by Wataynikaneyap Power (November 24, 2022)

The ‘line that brings light’ connects Kingfisher Lake First Nation to the provincial power grid

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION, Ontario, Nov. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Wataynikaneyap Power announces the energization of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, a remote northern Ontario community, which was connected to the provincial power grid on November 8, 2022. Upon grid connection and onto a reliable power source, the community turned off its diesel generators which had previously provided primary power to this remote community.

The Wataynikaneyap Power transmission system connects the Kingfisher Lake community distribution system to the Ontario grid through a total of 250 km of line and two substations, originating from its Pickle Lake Substation. Kingfisher Lake will continue to be served by Hydro One Remotes Communities Inc. (HORCI) for the local distribution of electricity.

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Told ‘no’ 37 times, this Indigenous-owned company brought electricity to James Bay anyway – by Fatima Syed (The Narwhal – October 20, 2022)

The Narwhal

Twenty-five years ago, five First Nations brought power to their remote, underserved communities, defying skepticism, scorn and swampy terrain

For the Indigenous communities along northern Ontario’s James Bay — the ones that have lived on and taken care of the lands as long as anyone can remember — the new millenium marked the start of a diesel-less future.

While the southern part of the province took Ontario’s power grid for granted, the vast majority of these communities had never been plugged in. Their only source of power was a handful of very loud diesel-powered generators. Because of that, daily life in the Attawapiskat, Kashechewan and Fort Albany First Nations involved deliberating a series of tradeoffs.

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Ontario to aid northern industrial sectors with energy costs – by Sarah St-Pierre (CIM Magazine – April 22, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

With the Northern Energy Advantage Program, Ontario doubles down on a shift towards green industry

Through its recently unveiled Northern Energy Advantage Program (NEAP), the Ontario government is aiming to strengthen Northern Ontario’s industrial sector by bringing down its electricity costs and building towards net-zero emissions.

Under the program, which is a revamp of the former Northern Industrial Electricity Rate (NIER) program, participating companies will receive rebates of $20 per megawatt-hour on electricity costs.

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