Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 162

Companies already jockeying for first dibs on Ring of Fire infrastructure money – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – March 7, 2016)

March 8, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

There could be battle shaping up on who gets first dibs on the government infrastructure money that has been promised for the Ring Of Fire mining development in far Northern Ontario.

Speaking out the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) now on in Toronto, Alan Coutts said his company is ready to move ahead with an all-season road for the project.

Coutts is the president and CEO of Noront Resources Ltd., one of the major players in the Ring Of Fire venture a large mining development located about 600 kilometres northwest of Timmins, in the remote McFaulds Lake area. The prospect is identified mainly as a chromite project, valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

Monday’s announcement by Coutts is at odds with an announcement made earlier this year by KWG Resources Inc, the other big player at the Ring Of Fire.

PM can save Ring of Fire – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2016)

March 8, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury Star columnist calls for a Trudeau ‘Marshall Plan’ for Ontario’s Ring of Fire

Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral belt, located in the province’s remote James Bay Lowlands, is thought to hold more than $60 billion of geological riches. When it was discovered in 2007, it was supposed to usher in a new era of prosperity for Northern Ontario, especially for the impoverished First Nations communities in the region.

Almost a decade later, the ore remains in the ground and doesn’t appear to be coming out anytime soon. Thanks to the Ontario government’s ineptitude, dysfunctional mining policy, lack of promised infrastructure spending and (to a much lesser extent) a broader commodity slump, American miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. left the province in frustration in 2013, permanently halting its proposed US$3.3-billion chromite project.

The ultimate indignity for Ontario came last year, when Cliffs sold its US$550-million investment in the Ring of Fire to junior miner Noront Resources Ltd. — the only significant player left in the area — for a bargain-basement price of US$27.5 million.

At the present time, Noront is focused primarily on its bankable Eagles Nest nickel/copper/PGM property, valued at about $10 billion, which can be developed only if a proposed east-west road is built into the mining camp and has put its world-class chromite deposits on the backburner for the foreseeable future.

Kenora institute spearheads Aboriginal surface miner training – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 4, 2016)

March 4, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A training agreement between an Aboriginal training centre in Kenora and an emerging northwestern Ontario gold miner is starting to pay dividends for area First Nations.

A first wave of 12 graduates from Seven Generations Education Institute’s surface miner training program were scheduled become permanent employees of New Gold at its advanced Rainy River project in early January.

The trainees, who arrived at the mine site located 65 kilometres northwest of Fort Frances last August, have had four months of hands-on experience in driving large Komatsu haul trucks and operating Sandvik DR580 production drills during the construction of the open-pit mine, which began last May near the town of Emo.

[Ring of Fire] Four Rivers preparing communities for development – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2016)

March 3, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Development in the Ring of Fire is years away, but Indigenous communities in Matawa First Nations territory are strategically going about training their people so they’ll be ready for development when it arrives.

Since 2011, Four Rivers, Matawa’s First Nations Environmental Services Group, has provided the tribal council’s nine communities with information and resources to help them make decisions about the management of their natural resources.

“With everything that’s going to be happening, with the Ring of Fire, with mining activity, it’s really important that our First Nations are granted or given the opportunity to be autonomous in their jurisdictions over their lands,” said Beedahbin Desmoulin, Four Rivers’ interim manager of environmental programs.

Oban Mining aiming to be next Canadian mining house – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2016)

March 3, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Oban Mining wants to become Canada’s next great mining house.

Like the 14-year-old Scotch whiskey it’s named for, the executives at Oban Mining hope the company will only get better with age, satisfying even the most finicky of investor palates.

Launched by the same team that brought the Canadian Malartic gold mine online, Oban wants to be the next great Canadian mining house, and president-CEO John Burzynski doesn’t shy away from making bold statements about its plans.

“We intend to be the next Osisko Mining Corporation,” he said during a January presentation to the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association.

Sustainable solutions needed for remote mining – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2016)

March 3, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The most significant mineral discoveries in Canada the last two decades are the base-metal deposits found in the Ring of Fire.

The discoveries were made five years ago in the midst of a global economic crisis from which no economy has completely recovered. It is unreasonable to expect that any mineral deposit in a very remote region could be in production by 2016.

No one, not government, not industry, not Aboriginal communities, are to blame for the current hiatus in developing new mines in the Far North. Starting a new mine anywhere in Canada is very difficult.

For the last decade, Canada has been making major changes to the political relationships with Aboriginal communities.

A Railway Is Not a Mine: Ontario Court of Appeal Rules on Surface Rights in Unpatented Mining Claims – by Iris Antonios, Robin Linley, Paul Schabas (Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP) (JDSUPRA Business Advisor – March 1, 2016)

March 1, 2016

http://www.jdsupra.com/

On February 24, 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in 2274659 Ontario Inc. v. Canada Chrome Corporation, confirming the interpretation of sections 50 and 51 of the Ontario Mining Act (Act) as they relate to surface rights in a mining claim. The Court of Appeal held that surface rights in unpatented mining claims are restricted to prospecting and development of mines, minerals and mining rights on the claims themselves, and that claims cannot be staked to protect transportation corridors or to prevent competitors from accessing other mining interests.

At the heart of the dispute between the parties was the desire by each to build a transportation link to chromite deposits in the “Ring of Fire” in northern Ontario. The respondent, 2274659 Ontario Inc. (227), wished to build a road from the CN Railway at Cavell, Ontario to its mining interests in the Ring of Fire, 340 kilometers to the north.

However, the appellant, Canada Chrome Corporation (CCC), had, in 2009, staked over 200 unpatented mining claims in a linear fashion along the 340 kilometre corridor (CCC Claims), to a location near a mineral deposit in which it had a minority interest.

Ontario ‘colonization’ turned to clay – by Tom Villemaire (St. Catharines Standard – February 28, 2016)

March 1, 2016

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/

Tom Villemaire is a writer based in Toronto and the Bruce Peninsula.

At the start of the 20th century (seems so long ago), southern Ontario felt like it was all filled up.

To attract attention to northern Ontario, the clever minds at Queen’s Park did a little marketing. They coined the term “New Ontario.” And they cranked out pamphlets that said things like: “There is no place in Ontario where bigger crops of hay, roots, barley, peas, oats and wheat can be grown.”

And only about 60 years after Ontario failed miserably at settling the central part of the province by building colonization roads, it decided to try its luck farther north. So in 1912, Ontario passed the Northern and Northwestern Ontario Development Act.

Ring of Fire corridor ruling doesn’t excite Noront – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 29, 2016)

February 29, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A court ruling that opens up a prized overland route to the Ring of Fire was greeted with a shrug of the shoulders by Noront Resources, the leading mine developer in the remote exploration camp.

Though pleased with an Ontario appeals court decision that lifts KWG Resources’ exclusive hold on a vital north-south path of high ground into the James Bay lowlands, Noront president Al Coutts responded his company is more intent on driving a road from the west to reach their nickel deposit.

But it’s great to have options, he said. “It doesn’t really impact our plans going forward because we’re focusing on that east-west corridor of development and the Eagle’s Nest deposit.”

Nunavut adds huge Grays Bay road-port scheme to its shopping list – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – February 29, 2016)

February 29, 2016

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Nunavut Resource Corp., GN, would work together on proposed Kitikmeot transport system

As federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget speech looms March 22, the Government of Nunavut has added another piece of transportation infrastructure to its shopping list: the Grays Bay Road and Port Project.

That project would revive the moribund Izok corridor zinc-lead mining project touted by Chinese-owned MMG Resources Inc. and form the first phase of a long-dreamed-about all-weather road between Yellowknife and the Arctic Coast.

Without a port and road, MMG’s two proposed mines, at High Lake and Izok Lake, are not viable — and the project has been mothballed since April 2013.

Vale in Sudbury gets cap-and-trade ‘holiday’ – Canadian Press (Sudbury Star – February 27, 2016)

February 29, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Ontario’s Liberal government has released details of its cap-and-trade program, which is expected to increase the price of gas and homeowners’ natural gas bills, but gives some of the biggest polluters — including Vale Ltd. — a four-year “holiday.”

The government is putting a price on carbon of about $18 a tonne and capping emission allowances at roughly 142 metric tonnes per year in 2017, when the plan rolls out, according to a series of details contained both in Thursday’s budget and in draft regulations posted by the environment ministry.

The cap is expected to decline 4.17 per cent each year to 2020, when the Liberals hope to have achieved a 15-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over 1990 levels.

Time is ripe for mine investment: Sudbury panel – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – February 26, 2016)

February 26, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

The iron might not be exactly hot in the mining world right now — and the Ring of Fire has scarcely been kindled — but industry champions still feel it’s an opportune time for policymakers to strike.

“Globally, the mining sector is obviously in a bit of a downturn,” said Scott Boutilier, senior policy analyst with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. “From an Ontario perspective, though, there are a lot of things we can be doing right now to position the industry for greater success in the future.”

Boutilier was in Sudbury on Thursday to kick off a panel discussion at Dynamic Earth on “strengthening Ontario’s mining advantage.”

Lessons in resilience from a cyclical industry – by Chris Hodgson (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – February 23, 2016)

February 26, 2016

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

When reflecting on the current state of the mining industry, there is plenty of scope for negative sentiment. The outlook of many analysts is cautious at best, given slowing growth in China and Brazil, muted conditions in Europe and a weak recovery in the U.S. — all of which contribute to an ongoing slump in demand, pushing prices downward. Given that mining is a price-taker in global commodity markets, it is easy to think that the situation is hopeless, but we have been through this before.

Although the sector is vulnerable to cyclical risk, the products of mining are essential, irreplaceable components of daily life and modern technology. Long experienced in dealing with this boom-bust pattern, Ontario mining companies are doing what they can to prepare for the next upswing by controlling costs and ensuring that their business models are lean and nimble enough to meet the requirements of fiercely competitive and changeable global conditions.

Is the road to the Ring of Fire open to all? – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 25, 2016)

February 25, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

KWG Resources no longer has exclusive rights on a strategic transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire.

On Feb. 25, an Ontario appeals court upheld a divisional court ruling from last year that allows other mining companies to apply for an easement to use the 340-kilometre long route into the remote exploration camp in the province’s Far North.

According to a news release issued by Noront Resources: “The decision allows a proponent to apply for an easement along the corridor without requiring the consent of the claim holder (KWG).”

Noront inherited the court case when it acquired the chromite deposits belonging to Cliffs Natural Resources last spring.

New mindset needed for exploration – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – February 25, 2016)

February 25, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Discovering new orebodies and opening new mines in Northern Ontario is urgent and necessary.

In the past, providing a stimulus to prospectors — as the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines has recently done — and making an investment in exploration to provide better returns would do the trick.

The government has now done about as much as it can on this front, but in 2016 the field of mineral exploration needs much more than a short-term financial jolt.

The impact of the current downturn means the industry has to make fundamental changes in the way it conducts this part of the business.