https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Gord Gilpin says companies discussing ‘strategic alternatives’ are part of ‘normal course of business’
Vale’s head of Ontario base metal operations, Gord Gilpin, is tamping down media speculation of a potential merger with Glencore, its crosstown mining neighbour in Sudbury.
Gilpin issued a Jan. 12 notice to its employees — Clarification of Synergy with Glencore — that it’s business as usual and no talks are underway.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Stan Sudol sees synergies and cost savings if Glencore and Vale form mining joint venture in the Sudbury basin
Vale Base Metals chairman Mark Cutifani’s remarks this week to Reuters new agency about a pursuing a business combination between his company and Glencore in the Sudbury basin has mining analyst Stan Sudol wondering, “What took them so long?”
The Sudbury-raised and Toronto-based owner of the Republic of Mining website is a keen observer of the global nickel industry and of the Sudbury camp. Now is the “perfect time” for a business combination between Sudbury’s two largest miners, and one that’s long overdue, he said.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Investors of insolvent gold mining company expanding class action suit
The former management team and underwriters of a collapsed Red Lake gold mining company are being held to account by out-of-pocket shareholders.
A proposed securities class action suit filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the former directors and officers of Pure Gold Mining of Vancouver is being expanded to seeking compensation for damages and losses incurred from their investments in Pure Gold Mining.
NiVolt Technologies says it has mixed hydroxide precipitate production capabilities and is scouting locations for a hydrometallurgical facility in Quebec
A new hydrometallurgical conversion facility to process nickel concentrate may be coming to Quebec. The news comes from an announcement by NiVolt Technologies of successful production testing and advancement of a project feasibility study.
NiVolt is a portfolio company of Kinterra Capital, a Toronto-based private equity firm. Kinterra recently closed a US$565-million battery metals mining fund. Its holdings include a stake in the Dumont Nickel project, located about 60 kilometres north of Val-d’Or.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
“It’s almost like you’re sending out search parties looking for winter. And of course, this has implications for Northern Ontario because of the ice roads.”
CAT LAKE FIRST NATION — City dwellers may have welcomed the unseasonably warm December weather, but it made Cat Lake’s chief a tad nervous. Chief Russell Wesley estimated in a recent interview that his remote community northeast of Red Lake might see a winter-road season of just four weeks, with half that time safe for light vehicles only.
That wouldn’t leave much time for the big trucks to deliver gasoline and building supplies for the homes he hopes to see put up in 2024.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Electra Battery Materials ponders Quebec invite to build refinery in Becancour
Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming. The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.
Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Chiefs of Ontario resolution calls for year-long moratorium pending review
Indigenous leaders in Ontario are calling for a moratorium on the virtual staking of mining claims while they review the process to ensure that impacted First Nation communities are being properly consulted.
In a resolution passed last November during the organization’s annual fall assembly, the Chiefs of Ontario say the Mining Lands Administration System (MLAS) puts pressure on First Nations to participate in potential mineral development opportunities while also reducing the amount of land available for land claim settlements that are already underway.
https://www.elliotlaketoday.com/
BacTech Environmental to run six-month pilot plant of its bioleaching mineral extraction technology
Testing of an innovative ‘green’ mining technology to extract valuable metals out of mine waste will start in Sudbury in early 2024. BacTech Environmental has a proprietary and environmentally friendly bioleaching process that it wants to test on mine tailings to extract small amounts of cobalt and nickel while it simultaneously cleans up the environment.
The bioleaching process involves using native and naturally occurring and harmless bacteria that can be trained in the lab to target certain ores and contain other substances that are harmful to humans.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Legal experts say ball’s in Ottawa’s court to revamp and make legal Canada’s Impact Assessment Act
The Canadian government’s environmental assessment process is in disarray. On Oct. 13, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a 5-2 decision that most of Ottawa’s controversial Impact Assessment Act (IAA) was unconstitutional and far outside the government’s authority to assess and make decisions on major resource and infrastructure projects
Only 10 out of 188 sections in the Act — passed in 2019 — were deemed valid. And that was a narrow section of the IAA concerning projects on federal land and that are federally financed.
Vancouver-based Teck Resources sacrifices most profitable assets on altar of ESG
One of the biggest B.C. business news stories of 2024 was the announcement Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TEK), B.C.’s biggest miner and Canada’s only diversified mining major, will sell its most profitable assets – its B.C. coal mines – to an even bigger diversified mining major: Switzerland’s Glencore plc (LSE:GLEN).
For $9 billion, Glencore will acquire a 77 per cent interest in Teck’s four steelmaking coal mines in B.C., collectively called Elk Valley Resources (EVR), with Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO owning the balance in a deal totalling $12 billion. EVR will also own 46 per cent of Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Toronto gold company raises $85 million in share raise to fund future expansion
Toronto’s Argonaut Gold has raised $85 million to fund future expansion at its Magino Mine, outside Dubreuilville, and another mine in Nevada. The financing was done through a public offering of more than 223,000 common shares that closed on Dec. 12.
In a news release, the company said the proceeds are earmarked to “fund development and optimization” at Magino and its Florida Canyon Mine in Nevada. The company didn’t specify how much will be individually allocated between Magino and Florida Canyon.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
After recently announcing construction is 96 per cent complete at the Greenstone Gold mine, the mine is looking to ramp up hiring, with a focus on local employment.
GREENSTONE — Things are set to heat up quite soon for the Greenstone Gold mine project just outside of Geraldton. Equinox Gold, the Vancouver-based gold producer that acquired Premier Gold in 2020 along with their interest in the mine project, recently announced that construction at Greenstone Gold mine is 96 per cent complete and that pre-commissioning activities are well underway.
Development of the mine project is a joint venture between Equinox Gold and Orion Mine Finance. The mine is set to pour its first gold in the first half of 2024.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Confederation College’s Mining Potential program will offer free entry-level training for newcomers, women, youth
A new program is opening doors for underrepresented groups in the Marathon area of northwestern Ontario. Confederation College, in partnership with Northwest Employment Works, is offering a free training opportunity aimed specifically at women, youth, and newcomers to the mining industry.
The Mining Potential program focuses on developing learners’ non-technical skills, knowledge, and confidence in order to achieve meaningful employment, with the ultimate goal being to provide employers with a safe and well-educated workforce to draw from.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Green Technology Metals meets with strategic investors to fund $1.2-billion lithium development
A key economic study posted this week by Australia’s Green Technology Metals “validates” their potential to become a large-scale lithium player in northwestern Ontario and Canada. With a proposed two-mine lithium operation valued at $1.2 billion in the works, the hunt is on to secure both private and government funding to make the mines and a Thunder Bay lithium refinery a reality.
Green Tech gave investors and stakeholders a better idea of what their mining and processing operations could look like with the release of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), Dec. 7.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Highland Copper hopes to hit mine production in the Keweenaw Peninsula at peak copper demand
Copper is known as the metal of electrification. Highland Copper holds ample reserves in a historic mining district in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that could address a looming supply shortage of the metal that’s used in electric vehicles and alternative sources of power.
With two multi-billion-pound copper projects located at the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula, CEO Barry O’Shea said his Quebec and Michigan-based company could be stepping into project funding and a construction decision by 2024 to start a three-year build.
