The provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador plans to kick-start the province’s mining sector through envisioning five new mines, revamping decades-old legislation and creating 1,400 jobs by 2030. Julian Turner reports on the drive to put this far-flung corner of Canada on the mining map.
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) is renowned for its fishing industry, the rugged, uncompromising beauty of its coastline and weather, its unique dialect and the warmth of its people, all of it immortalised in E. Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Shipping News.
Less well publicised is that the most easterly province of Canada is home to a sporadic mining sector. Ground was broken on the first mine in the small town of Tilt Cove in 1864 and more than 150 years later a total of 11 mines produce 14 separate commodities, including iron ore, nickel, copper, cobalt and gold, while the industry in NL directly employs 4,800 people. Continue Reading →
The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/
James Gill secured a place in mining history through the exceptional success and staying power of Aur Resources. In 1981, he made a timely decision to launch his own company and begin the hunt for projects with potential to become producing mines. With a PhD in economic geology and early career experience with senior companies, he brought strong technical skills and a disciplined approach to corporate management to his newly incorporated junior.
Aur began life with $250,000 of seed capital, which Gill parlayed into a large land package in Quebec’s Val d’Or mining camp. Aur became a modest-sized gold producer through discoveries and mine acquisitions, but the big breakthrough came in 1989 with the Louvicourt copper-zinc discovery. Gill’s entrepreneurial energy came to the fore as Louvicourt was developed into one of Canada’s premier copper-zinc mines. He continued to develop and acquire mines in Canada and abroad until 2007, when he negotiated a $4.1 billion buyout of Aur by Teck Resources.
http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.
Mining was part of Gill’s DNA, as his grandfather James E. Gill (a 2003 CMHF inductee) was a successful consulting geologist and an influential professor of economic geology at McGill University. Born in Montreal, James W. Gill is a McGill graduate with a BSc degree (1971) and a MSc degree (1976). He also earned a PhD from Carleton University in Ottawa.
(LtoR) James W. Gill receiving the award from Anthony Vaccaro, CMHF Director and Group Publisher, The Northern Miner Group at the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame dinner on January 10th. Keith Houghton Photography.
Hundreds of eager people flooded the Arts and Cultures Centre in Labrador City on Tuesday night to hear what Tacora Resources had to say about job prospects. The seats filled up and people spilled into the aisles as the iron ore company hosted its first information session on the reboot of the Scully mine.
They were told hiring would start small with a few jobs as early as January, with the majority of positions being filled in March. “We’re very excited to see the interest and it says a lot about what we’re about to take on and what it means to the community,” said Tacora general manager Bob Gagne.
In the crowd were people desperate to get back to work after some tough economic times in Labrador West. The mine shut down in 2014, as iron ore prices slumped and costs increased.
More than 400 people were put out of work then, and about 260 people are expected to be hired before the mine reopens in June 2019. Continue Reading →
New life is about to be breathed into an old pit, as Tacora Resources Inc. announced today the Scully Mine will restart operations next summer. The company is expecting to create 260 jobs, and will start looking for those workers right away. A hiring information session is expected to take place Tuesday night, 6:30 p.m. at the Arts and Cultures Centre in Labrador City.
“It’s the life breathed back into our community again,” said Wabush Mayor Ron Barron. “Let’s get the show going and get people working.” Premier Dwight Ball was in Labrador West on Tuesday to make the announcement alongside Tacora CEO Larry Lehtinen.
“The work starts today, the hiring process starts today,” Ball said. “The next step and the way forward for Wabush starts today.” Lehtinen said the Scully mine has a future “decades and decades” long, with an expected annual production between 6 and 6.5 million tonnes of iron ore, which will be 65.9 per cent iron content. Continue Reading →
Innu launched the lawsuit in 2013, seeking $900 million in compensation
The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear an appeal over jurisdiction in the latest stage of a long-running effort by Innu First Nations to sue mining giant Rio Tinto.
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador launched the appeal after Quebec’s highest court ruled that the Innu of Uashat and of Mani-Utenam and others could sue the company and its Iron Ore Co. of Canada subsidiary through Quebec courts.
The attorney general of Newfoundland and Labrador has argued that Quebec courts are without jurisdiction in the matter because the mining operations are in Labrador. Continue Reading →
The Moss Pit has officially opened at the Iron Ore Company of Canada’s Labrador City mine. IOC says the $79-million investment is not a massive hole in the ground yet, but as it is scooped out it will allow the company to speed up production and extend the life of the mine by about 50 years — and at a reduced operating cost.
“It’s been a long time coming. A little over five years,” said Clayton Walker, president and CEO of Iron Ore Company of Canada. Walker said it’s the right time to invest, feeling that support is in place from stakeholders, government, employees, local unions and there’s confidence in the market.
“I’ve been really pleased with how everyone has come back, we got back to work, everyone’s working hard,” he said, referencing the labour-management dispute which started at the mine last winter and stretched into spring. Continue Reading →
TSX-listed Altius Minerals and Nasdaq-listed Royal Gold have entered into an agreement with Vale Canada to settle litigation related to the calculation of the royalty in respect of all concentrates produced from the Voisey’s Bay mine, in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Voisey’s Bay 3% net smelter return royalty is directly owned by the Labrador Nickel Royalty partnership, of which Altius is a 10% owner and a subsidiary of Royal Gold is a 90% owner.
The parties agreed to a new method for calculating the royalty regarding concentrates processed at Vale’s Long Harbour processing plant, which will be effective for all Voisey’s Bay mine production after April 1 this year. Continue Reading →
Red Moon Resources hopes to expand mining operations over next 2-3 years
A mine that closed decades ago on the province’s west coast has restarted operations, as a new company has taken over the Flat Bay mine and shipped its first load of gypsum out to market since 1990.
Red Moon Resources sent the load of ore, destined for the cement industry, to Ontario via the deep water port in St. George’s at the end of August. “We’re just getting up and running,” said Patrick Laracy, the CEO of St. John’s-based Red Moon Resources, a company that completed the permitting process to begin mining operations in July.
Gypsum is used mainly in two industries: cement and wallboard, with the latter sometimes better known by the brand name Gyprock. The Flat Bay mine, just south of St. George’s, began producing gypsum in 1952, but was closed in 1990. Continue Reading →
VANCOUVER — Sokoman Iron (TSXV: SIC; US-OTC: GDNDF) has struck gold with the first hole in drilling at its Moosehead gold project in central Newfoundland, 20 km west of the town of Grand Falls-Windsor.
On July 30, Sokoman reported hole 18-1 cut 45 grams gold per tonne over 11.9 metres from 109 metres downhole. Significant assay results were also found up and downhole of the quartz vein. That vein lies between the previously drilled Western and Eastern trends at Sokoman’s Moosehead gold project, possibly indicating a new trend.
Sokoman drilled hole 18-1 to test the up-dip potential of a historical intercept in 2003 by Moosehead’s previous owner, Altius Resources. (The highlighted results occurred 80 metres up-hole from that intended target). Continue Reading →
Company wants to mine elements for permanent magnets, electric cars
The company behind a proposed mining project in southeast Labrador hopes its project is much larger than originally thought with the capacity for more production for a growing industry.
Search Minerals has been working in Labrador since 2010 and wants to mine for rare earth minerals near the community of St. Lewis in two deposits the company calls Foxtrot and Deep Fox.
The company’s president and CEO Greg Andrews says they have already found more than a decade of mine life in the Foxtrot deposit, but the second deposit could more than double that time. Continue Reading →
Cobalt27 Capital (TSXV: KBLT) recently acquired a US$300-million cobalt stream on Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt mine, beginning in 2021. It also has a stream on the Ramu nickel-cobalt mine in Papua New Guinea owned by the Metallurgical Corp. of China, and a net smelter return royalty (NSR) on the construction-ready Dumont nickel-cobalt project owned by RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) in Quebec.
In total the company has 12 streams and royalties, as well as physical cobalt. In the last five months alone the company has increased its physical stock of cobalt by 800 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes. The Northern Miner recently spoke with Cobalt27’s chairman and CEO, Anthony Milewski, about the company’s investments and his outlook for nickel and cobalt in the emerging electric vehicle (EV) revolution.
The Northern Miner: You have just completed a $300-million equity raise to pay for the cobalt stream in your portfolio from Voisey’s Bay mine in Labrador. Continue Reading →
Voisey’s Bay mine expansion creates hundreds of new job opportunities
Newfoundland and Labrador is teaming up with the federal government on a new $23.6 million-program designed to get more Indigenous people working at the Vale mine in Voisey’s Bay.
On Tuesday, officials from the Nunatsiavut government, Innu Nation, NunatuKavut, Vale, and the federal and provincial governments came together with the College of the North Atlantic (CNA) in Happy Valley-Goose Bay to announce the project.
It’s being led by the Labrador Aboriginal Training Partnership (LATP), and will help train workers for the mine, by giving them hands-on training experiences and skills development. Continue Reading →
Questions about the fate of mining operations at Voisey’s Bay over the past year have been replaced by unbridled hope and enthusiasm.
A green light for a multibillion-dollar underground expansion, a lifespan extended by many years, a workforce that will nearly double, and an operation poised to capitalize on what many expect will be an explosion in the demand for electric vehicles in the coming years.
You only need to pick up a metallurgical core sample from Voisey’s Bay to understand what all the hype is about, and you don’t need to be a geologist to know you’re holding something unique. Continue Reading →
A deal with Vale over cobalt marks the first time that Wheaton Precious Metals has moved outside the gold and silver space
Cobalt has given the Voisey’s Bay mine — one of the world’s largest nickel deposits — in Newfoundland and Labrador a new lease on life this week in yet another sign of the growing influence that the electric vehicle industry already exerts on global supply chains.
Brazilian giant Vale SA on Monday announced it will sell most of the mine’s future cobalt production for US$690 million to finance a long-delayed $1.7-billion expansion, which will add an underground component to the mine and extend its life by 15 years.
Cobalt, long considered an industrial metal used as an alloy in jet engines and natural gas turbines, is increasingly in demand for use in lithium-ion batteries. Forecasts that the electric vehicle industry is set for major growth over the next decade have increased cobalt prices by more than fourfold during the past two years to US$80,000 per ton. Continue Reading →
“More than half of the work force in the remote area accessible by plane is Inuit or Innu, while more than 80 per cent of contracts are with Indigenous-owned and operated businesses.”
Brazilian mining company Vale says it will proceed with construction of an underground mine at Voisey’s Bay, N.L., extending operations by at least 15 years and creating 1,700 jobs. Construction is to begin this summer and take about five years.
“A great day for Newfoundland and Labrador and a great day for Vale,” Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball said in St. John’s, N.L. Also on hand for what Ball declared a “momentous” announcement was Vale executive Eduardo Bartolomeo, Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady and former premiers Clyde Wells, Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes.
Once operational, Ball estimates the underground mine will create an additional 1,700 jobs in the mine and at the Long Harbour, N.L., processing plant. Continue Reading →
