Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 166

Remember This? Helen Mine started it all [Algoma Steel] (Soo Today – January 17, 2016)

January 18, 2016

https://www.sootoday.com/

It was named after its original owner’s sister

At the end of the 19th century, local prospectors Benjamin Boyer, Jim Sayers and Alois Goetz found what they thought was gold while searching for minerals in the Algoma area.

The men took their sample to Francis H. Clergue who recognized the mineral as iron ore, not gold. The three men offered the land to Clergue for $500. Upon purchase Clergue created the Helen Mine which he named after his sister.

Mining began at the new Helen Mine and on July 1, 1900 the Canadian Blast Furnace Company (of Midland, Ontario) purchased and processed the first iron ore. The payroll at that time was just $107,535 for almost 400 employees.

Northern Communities feel climate change impact – by Geoff Shields (Wawatay News – January 10, 2016)

January 14, 2016

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

On December 14, 2015, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change was held in the Le Bourget suburb of Paris. Representatives of the Canadian Government were present at the talks, however the fact that there were no representatives of the First Nations peoples was of great concern to Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day.

Day expressed his concern in a letter sent on November 23rd 2015 to the Prime Minister and Provincial Ministers prior to the meeting.

One of the rapidly accelerating effects of global warming which is impacting on the Northern Communities is that on the road system in his letter Day stated that “ Our Peoples in the North are all too aware that warmer winters have already negatively impacted their livelihoods, many communities depend on winter roads for food and materials.

Sudbury PoV: City’s politicians must work together – by Don MacDonald (Sudbury Star – January 13, 2016)

January 14, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Don MacDonald is the editor of the Sudbury Star.

The thing about commodity prices is you can never be sure when they are going to drop and, when they do, how long it will take for them to recover.

Nationally, Canadians are seeing the effect of low oil prices on the Alberta and Canadian economies: thousands of jobs lost, alarming drops in capital spending, a decline in the value of the loonie and the inflation that causes, and billions in government revenues gone.

Sudbury is experiencing something similar as the prices of nickel, copper and other metals fall. This time last year, nickel was selling for close to $7 a pound U.S. Today, it’s selling for less than $3.80. Experts had predicted nickel would recover by the end of 2015, but that never happened.

Sudbury’s economy in bad ‘cycle’ – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – January 13, 2016)

January 13, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury lags behind many other centres in job retention and creation, judging by a recent analysis of labour markets in Canada.

In fact, the City of Lakes is rock bottom among 33 cities ranked by BMO Capital Markets in a monthly report card issued Jan. 8.

Topping the list is Guelph, a city of comparable size to Sudbury but one whose economy is apparently humming along at a significantly better clip.

The southwestern Ontario city boasts “robust job growth, population inflows, a puny 4.2 per cent jobless rate and the highest share of the population that is working,” the report says.

Ring of Fire: progressing or stalled? – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – January 13, 2016)

January 13, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

Despite criticism for many corners that the provincial government is not doing enough to launch the Ring of Fire chromite development, Northern Affairs and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle argues that the province is making significant headway.

In a letter sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne on Monday to update her on the work he has been doing since 2014 to fulfil his mandate to promote mining and economic development in Northern Ontario, Gravelle pointed to the ongoing negotiations with First Nations near the Ring of Fire as a sign of progress.

Talks with Matawa-member First Nations in the region around the Ring of Fire are continuing, said Gravelle, under the auspices of the Ring of Fire Regional Framework Agreement.

“New awakening” in Indigenous engagement – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – January 11,2016)

January 12, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sean Willy brings a unique perspective to his role as director of corporate responsibility for the uranium producing Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation (Cameco).

Willy was raised in the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, and belongs to the Metis Nation of NWT.

He runs the Saskatchewan-based Cameco’s Aboriginal engagement program, bringing personal and professional insight to his role, which he presented at a Goodman School of Mines lecture.

The school’s Nicole Tardif said Willy was brought to Sudbury to share Cameco’s years of experience building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with Indigenous populations in northern Saskatchewan with local academia and industry.

[Sudbury mining] Quakes occurred near Creighton – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 12, 2016)

January 12, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Two seismic events that occurred before 6 p.m. Sunday in Sudbury have been reclassified from slight earthquakes to rock bursts, and their location has changed from east of the city to three kilometres northwest of Lively.

Vale recorded two seismic events 500 and 800 feet north of Creighton Mine, which were felt in the community about 5:40 p.m. The first event occurred about 7,680 feet underground and the second at 7,400 feet underground, said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson.

The 7,680-foot level event registered a magnitude of 3.1Mn and the second event registered a magnitude of 3.3Mn, according to Creighton’s ground control system.

All workers at Creighton were brought to surface as a precaution and no one was injured, said Robson. Operations resumed at the mine Monday and there didn’t seem to be any significant damage the operation, she said.

Northern Ontario Multi-modal transportation study rolls toward finish – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 11, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The province is about a year away from rolling out a multi-modal transportation strategy for the North.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has been studying how people and freight move across the region and have been regularly meeting with regional stakeholders to gather their feedback on how to plan and improve transportation infrastructure over the next 25 years.

Tija Dirks, the MTO’s director of transportation planning, estimates a final report will be presented to premier and cabinet by January, 2017. The strategy is tied to the government’s Growth Plan for Northern Ontario. Once revealed it will provide short, medium and long-term solutions to improve the region’s transportation systems for road, rail, marine, air and other modes.

Turning Sudbury’s regreening expertise into actual green – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – January 08, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Protocol under development aims to turn local environmental knowledge into marketable product

Sudbury’s environmental destruction and subsequent reclamation is one of the city’s defining moments. From a blackened, barren nickel capital to a beacon of regreening and responsible mining around the world, Sudbury has come a long way since the 1970s.

A major project is germinating between the mayor’s office and Laurentian University that would capitalize on the expertise built from the recovery process.

Laurentian’s vice-president of research, Rui Wang, had introduced the Sudbury Protocol at the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation’s (GSDC) first Resourceful City talk in November.

[Only Road Between East and West Canada Severed] New Bridge crippled (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – January 11, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

The newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge has come apart, sparking a state of emergency in the Municipality of Greenstone and blocking traffic along the Trans-Canada Highway.

Provincial police closed off the road along Highway 11/17 near the Northern Ontario township Sunday afternoon. With the bridge out, this leaves motorists with no options to directly drive across the country. They would need to take a long detour through the United States.

In a news release, the Ministry of Transportation said that safety is their top priority and conditions are being assessed. The official MTO Twitter handle — @511Ontario — stated “duration of (closure) unknown at this time, possibly will be days.”

Canada’s Ice Roads Are Melting — And That Is Terrible News for Aboriginal Communities – by Hilary Beaumont (Vice News – January 6, 2016)

January 8, 2016

https://news.vice.com/

Aboriginal chiefs in Canada are blaming climate change for water and food shortages on their reserves this winter.

Isolated reserves in northern Ontario rely on ice roads to transport supplies in the winter, but warmer weather means those roads haven’t frozen yet, so food and water are in short supply.

“Everything you can imagine,” Rosemary McKay, Chief of Bearskin Lake First Nation, told VICE News. “They’re running out of food and anything they need in their home. Sugar, tea, flour, you name it.”

Construction on Nunavut mine’s second road to start next month (Nunatsiaq News – January 6, 2016)

January 7, 2016

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. will move ahead with plans to construct a new all-weather road in Nunavut, this time from its Meadowbank Mine site to its nearby Amaruq exploration camp

The new, single-line road will help the mining company beef up exploration at its Amaruq site, which has the potential to extend Meadowbank’s lifespan well past its current end date of 2018.

Construction on the first phase of the new 64-kilometre road is expected to begin in February 2016: a 16.8 kilometre stretch of road that will run from the mine site to its Vault area.

The second phase, a 47.4 kilometre stretch, will be constructed next winter and be completed in early 2017, the company said.

Mining industry failing in environmental conduct – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – January 7, 2016)

January 7, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

For the metal mining industry around the world, typically producing grades of less than five per cent, it is the management of waste rock and tailings (sand- and silt-sized particles of rock from around the grains of valuable mineral) that has the greatest potential impact on the environment.

And so it is the greatest point of concern for the public at large. The public is not concerned about commodity prices, mine productivity or even safety issues in mines, but it is concerned about our impact on the environment.

The only measure of success that counts is environmental performance, and we are failing.

In Canada, we can be proud of the fact that it was largely our consultants and their mining company clients that were responsible for developing the guidelines used to manage tailings management facilities (TMFs) around the world.

Franco-Nevada: Royalty of the Gold Industry – by Frank Holmes (Frank Talk: Insight for Investors – January 6, 2016)

January 6, 2016

http://www.usfunds.com/

In 1983, my friends and early mentors Seymour Schulich and Pierre Lassonde founded Franco-Nevada Mining, the world’s first gold royalty company.

The two uniquely gifted money managers were on to something big. It was originally Seymour—then an oil analyst at the Canadian investment firm Beutel, Goodman & Company, where he and Pierre met—who recognized that the royalty model used in the oil and gas industry had some of the highest returns on capital.

At the time, no one had applied this business strategy to the precious metals industry. Venture capital was challenging to secure. But with Seymour’s fastidious money management and Pierre’s vast mining expertise, the two raised $2 million. (That’s according to “Get Smarter,” Seymour’s 2011 memoir aimed at mentoring young Canadian professionals, which I highly recommend.)

Mining Outlook 2016: New mines on track in 2016, despite dismal resource outlook – by Nelson Bennett (Business Vancouver – January 5, 2016)

January 5, 2016

https://www.biv.com/

Mining companies like Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) and Thompson Creek Metals (TSX:TCM) may need to make some hard decisions in 2016 if they are to avoid solvency problems in 2017, warns the Bank of Merrill Lynch.

In a recent outlook, Merrill Lynch singled out these two B.C. miners for solvency issues in 2017, and flagged First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (TSX:FQM) for solvency problems in 2018, based on commodity price projections and the companies’ cash burn rate.

Cannacord Genuity has also red-flagged Teck. Of 11 mining companies it covers, Teck was the only one given a sell rating.

The concerns being raised by investment banks over B.C.’s largest, most diversified and most successful mining company is a barometer for just how bad things have become for the mining world.