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Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure

Noront open to KWG’s idea of rail into Ring of Fire – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – June 4, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – A few dozen people gathered in the ballroom of the McIntyre Arena on Thursday for the Billions in the Ground investment seminar on Thursday. The seminar was part of the Big Event Canadian Mine Expo’s new focus on attracting investors for new mining projects to the trade show.

During the seminar, there were presentations made by several mining industry companies about their plans for the future and investment potential, backed up by reams of statistics, geological surveys and share price histories.

But the presentation that elicited the most curiosity and questions from the group of people at the seminar was that of Noront Resources chief executive officer, Alan Coutts. The topic was the Ring of Fire and the reasons why starting development of the Ring of Fire is taking so long.

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New road needed in Fort Mac rebuild (Sudbury Star – June 3, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Postmedia Network – There is a mountain of post-wildfire rebuilding ahead for Fort McMurray. But at least one change should be added: road access into and around this important northern city.

Fort McMurray’s geography has been part of the wildfire story since the May 3 evacuation. The reality of a city designed with one road in and out — Highway 63 — meant evacuees funnelled either south through the fire or north to the shelter of oilsands facilities. Going north meant residents were safe from the immediate danger of the fire, but they were also stranded.

Now is the time for the federal, provincial and local governments to hash out a real plan to correct the oversight and answer the long-standing community call for an additional road into, or at least around, Fort McMurray. One option is a project called the East Clearwater Multi-Use Access Road, a 30-kilometre ring road primarily aimed at keeping heavy trucks off Highway 63, which cuts through the heart of Fort McMurray.

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Development restrictions around old mine site ‘unacceptable,’ says Pickle Lake mayor (CBC News Thunder Bay – May 31, 2016)

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

The mayor of Pickle Lake, Ont., says the future of his town is being threatened by development restrictions imposed by the province, related to an abandoned mine site. Development has long been restricted in some areas because of contaminated tailings containing arsenic, left behind by the Central Patricia Mine, which closed in the early 50s, said Mayor Karl Hopf.

But the draft of a new official plan for the township would further block new development within a thousand metres of a mine headframe (the structure built above a mine shaft), he said.

“Now, the old headframe from 1952 is roughly 50 metres off our main highway corridor that goes to our commercial and industrial area,” he said, adding that about 700 acres of land could be included, and the province would also put further conditions on development on land bordering the restricted area.

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Northern Corridor Could Boost Canada’s Potential – by Hannah Hoag (News Deeply.com – May 31, 2016)

https://www.newsdeeply.com/

A vast pathway connecting roads, rail, pipelines, power and communications across northern Canada could bring huge benefits in trade and quality of life, says a new study. We spoke to one of its authors.

TORONTO – A corridor running for 7,000km (4,375 miles) through northern Canada could link communities, trade and natural resources with markets in the south and overseas, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

The report calls for the creation of a right-of-way – a route agreed in advance by stakeholders, including governments, private landowners and indigenous groups. Taking this approach, instead of evaluating and approving infrastructure projects on a piecemeal basis, would be more efficient and less costly, the authors argue.

Under the proposal, pipelines, railways, roads and electrical transmission lines would stretch from sea-to-sea-to-sea, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic with the Beaufort Sea, Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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A 7,000-kilometre northern corridor in search of shared vision – by Claude Montmarquette and Andrei Sulzenko (Globe and Mail – May 27, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s history is full of examples of large-scale transportation infrastructure projects that have motivated growth and helped define a shared vision for the country. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Trans-Canada Highway and the St. Lawrence Seaway are prime examples.

But the Canada of 2016 does not have such grand plans for infrastructure that may be vital to supporting economic and social development in this country. Aside from some private-sector proposals (mainly pipelines), there are precious few examples of transportation infrastructure developments outside our major urban centres.

The best way to address this lack of vision may well be through a bold approach being examined by researchers at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and CIRANO, a Quebec-based economic research organization. We have just released a study on the potential for a major transportation right-of-way through Canada’s North and near North, connecting resource-rich areas with tidewater access on all three coasts.

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Proposed 7,000-kilometre resource corridor would improve life in Canada’s North, researchers say – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – May 27, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

An ambitious proposal to build a 7,000-kilometre trade and infrastructure corridor in Canada’s North has taken a key step forward.

The Northern Corridor would link Canada’s people, goods and natural resources with overseas and southern markets, and boost sovereignty and development in vast swaths of the country that are economically isolated, concludes the first feasibility study of the concept. The idea was launched a year ago by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and Montreal’s Centre for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations.

Pipelines, railways, roads, electricity and transmission lines would share the right of way that extends from the Pacific to Atlantic oceans, the Beaufort Sea to the north, as well as Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting to existing rails, roads, pipes and ports in the southern part of Canada.

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Railway eager to have ties in Ring of Fire – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 26, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – If and when the Ring Of Fire mining development takes off, Ontario Northland is ready to get the wheels rolling and show them how to run a railway. That was the message from Ontario Northland president and CEO Corina Moore, who spoke in Timmins at the FONOM conference earlier this month.

Moore was in Timmins to give municipal leaders an update on the provincially-owned transportation company, which provides rail freight service, limited rail passenger service and bus passenger service across Northeastern Ontario.

The Ring Of Fire is a mining prospect located near Webequie and McFaulds Lake about 600 kilometres northwest of Timmins. The venture is identified mainly as a chromite project, valued in the tens of billions of dollars. There are huge deposits of other metals there too, but so far none of the significant mining companies involved has moved forward with any sort of a mining operation because market prices are too low.

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Moody’s downgrades rail sector outlook as coal shipments drop – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – May 17, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A plunge in the amount of freight moving on North American railways has spurred Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the outlook for the sector to negative.

An “unprecedented” 37-per-cent year-over-year drop in coal shipments in April will help drive down overall freight volumes down by about 4 per cent this year and send revenues down by as much as 2 per cent for the major carriers, said Rene Lipsch, a Moody’s analyst.

“North American railroads face deeper and longer-lasting declines in freight volumes than we had previously anticipated,” Mr. Lipsch said in a note to clients on Monday. Coal carloads, which account for almost 30 per cent of the rail traffic in North America, have fallen by 33 per cent this year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

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Ontario North promised more infrastructure funding – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 13, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told municipal leaders in Timmins on Thursday that her Liberal government plans to continue spending money on infrastructure for things like roads, waterlines and sewers.

While it was welcome information for the mayors and councillors attending the annual FONOM (Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities) conference it sounded a lot like an election speech which is not completely unexpected, given that Ontario voters will go to the polls on June 14, 2018.

Wynne alluded to that when she mentioned that her government is effectively at the halfway point and she listed the many and varied achievements of the Queen’s Park Liberals under her direction. “So we’re nearly halfway through our mandate to build Ontario up so really this morning I want to show you what it is exactly that we are building in Ontario,” the premier told the delegates in the morning session.

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Chinese more likely to build rail link to Ring of Fire – by John R. Hunt (North Bay Nugget – May 4, 2016)

http://www.nugget.ca/

A recent report may be good news for the development of the Ring of Fire. It also is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Ontario and Canada. The report stated that representatives of a Chinese railway had visited the Ring of Fire with a view to connecting it to the nearest rail head.

They were invited or welcomed by KWG Resources, a mining company which is developing a property in the Ring of Fire. KWG has long argued that a rail link is much more essential than highway access.

The Ring of Fire may be the richest mineral deposit since the discovery of nickel at Sudbury and the founding of silver in Cobalt. It has the potential to create thousands of jobs with many opportunities for First Nations in the area.

Presumably the Chinese are capable of doing a good job, but so are companies from many other nations.

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EDITORIAL: Roads to First Nations working in other areas (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – April 30, 2016)

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

Current economic, social, education and health stats paint a bleak picture of Canada’s First Nation communities. This is particularly true of the so called fly-in First Nations located in Northern Ontario beyond surface road or rail access.

These communities have existed for centuries and once were self sufficient thanks to trapping and fishing. Today most fly-in First Nations are dependent on financial assistance provided by senior government.

Picture a situation where you live in a remote reserve linked only to the outside world by expensive air service of dubious merit; that you are governed by a distant oblivious ruler (Ottawa and Queen’s Park), and that you exist on government hand-outs which, if you decide to quit the reserve, you will lose.

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Help for isolated Ontario First Nation comes from Manitoba – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 26, 2016)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A plan is finally in motion to build a long-overdue 25-kilometre access road to an isolated and neglected northwestern Ontario First Nation community straddling the Ontario-Manitoba border.

Prior to the Manitoba government recessing for a provincial election in April, the East Side Road Authority was given political approval to expand beyond its borders and take on the so-called Freedom Road project for Shoal Lake 40.

The island community has received national attention for its forced isolation and enduring a boil water advisory for close to 20 years. The previous Harper government refused to allocate funding to the project, but the Trudeau government has pledged their commitment to finally connect the community to the outside world.

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Feds to consider public pension funds to help bankroll big infrastructure – by Andy Blatchford (Toronto Sun – April 24, 2016)

http://www.torontosun.com/

THE CANADIAN PRESS – OTTAWA — The federal government has identified a potential source of cash to help pay for Canada’s mounting infrastructure costs — and it could involve leasing or selling stakes in major public assets such as highways, rail lines, and ports.

A line tucked into last month’s federal budget reveals the Liberals are considering making public assets available to non-government investors, like public pension funds. The sentence mentions “asset recycling,” a system designed to raise money to help governments bankroll improvements to existing public infrastructure and, possibly, to build new projects.

For massive, deep-pocketed investors like pension funds, asset recycling offers access to reliable investments with predictable returns through revenue streams that could include user fees such as tolls.

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KWG CEO: Unlock Ring of Fire Riches With Chinese-Built Rail – Bloomberg TV’s Pamela Ritchie Interviews Frank Smeenk (April 22, 2016)

  http://bloombergtv.ca/ Frank Smeenk, President & CEO of KWG Resources joins Bloomberg TV Canada’s Pamela Ritchie to discuss his proposal to build a railroad to Ring of Fire that could be financed by Chinese banks.

Chinese engineers visit Ontario’s Ring of Fire to survey possible $2B railway route (Canadian Press/Toronto Star – April 19, 2016)

http://www.thestar.com/

Engineers from China recently visited the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario to assess the potential of building a $2-billion railway line, a proponent behind developing minerals in the area said Tuesday.

Frank Smeenk, CEO of Toronto-based mineral exploration company KWG Resources, said the rail line is crucial for the extraction of nickel, chromite, copper and platinum from the massive deposits.

He said a team of engineers from a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. surveyed a proposed 328-kilometre route last week as part of detailed engineering work before they advance toward a final investment decision.

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