Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 172

Few details released about Sudbury miner’s death – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – October 22, 2015)

October 22, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The worker killed underground Tuesday at Nickel Rim South Mine near Skead has been identified as Richard Pigeau, but neither his employer nor his union were willing to say much yesterday about the miner’s life, or death.

“We just contacted the family, so don’t want to be disrespectful to them, because they’re just making arrangements right now,” said Anne Marie MacInnis, president of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor.

In a release issued Wednesday, the local expressed “great sadness” over the loss of a “union brother,” and extended “sincerest condolences” to the family, friends and co-workers of Pigeau.

MacInnis said the union would have more comments to make once the Ministry of Labour releases the site and health and safety committees operated through Mine Mill and Glencore are able to begin their own investigation into the tragedy.

[Sudbury Glencore] Fatality at Nickel Rim Mine – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A Ministry of Labour inspector was on the way at noon to the scene of a fatality at Glencore’s Nickel Rim South Mine.

An employee, a member of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, was killed when a piece of machinery fell on him. The union represents production and maintenance workers.

Labour ministry spokeswoman Janet Deline confirmed a worker died this morning at the mine owned by Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, a Glencore company.

Deline said paramedics were on the scene and Greater Sudbury Police Service officials were “holding” the site of the accident.

The company issued a statement a few hours after the accident, saying: “We confirm a fatality underground at our Nickel Rim South Mine this morning.

Looking Past the Federal Election for Real Results [in the Ring of Fire] – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – October 15, 2015)

October 16, 2015

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – EDITORIAL – Most people are focused on October 19th and the election. What is really important, and what is more important for Northwestern Ontario is what happens on October 20th and beyond.

Once the campaign is over, and the rhetoric is safely stored away, it is time for real work.

Our region faces challenges, and Thunder Bay faces challenges.

All of the elected leaders – regardless of their political party – need to start to really work hard on solving these issues. If not, nothing will change, and for Thunder Bay the long-term costs are going to be very high both financially and socially.

Many of the really important issues that have long-term impact on the health and well-being of residents across Northwestern Ontario still need to be addressed and solved.

Inuit-owned firm explores for minerals in western Nunavut (Nunatsiaq News – October 15, 2015)

October 15, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Nunavut Resources Corp. teams ups with Transition Metals Corp.

An alliance between the Inuit-owned Nunavut Resource Corp. and a Sudbury, Ont.-based company called Transition Metals Corp. has turned up potential sites for gold and base metal exploration following aerial surveys on Inuit-owned land done this past summer, Transition Metals said Oct. 8 in a news release.

In April 2013, the two firms struck a deal to work together for five years hunting for potential mineral deposits within an area known as the Izok Corridor.

The Izok Corridor is an area stretching from Izok Lake to Coronation Gulf that’s the proposed location for a moribund scheme promoted by MMG Ltd. to build a chain of lead-zinc mines linked by an all-weather road.

MMG halted that project in 2013 because of low metal prices and there’s no sign that MMG will restart it any time soon.

Sudbury PoV: Job losses cause for concern – Don MacDonald (Sudbury Star – October 14, 2015)

October 15, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The numbers are depressing — 4,200 jobs gone in Greater Sudbury since June, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. At the same time, Sudbury’s unemployment rate has jumped from 5.9 to 7.3 per cent.

StatsCan said Sudbury had 84,700 jobs in June; that number dropped to 81,700 in September.

It seems likely the bleeding will continue: in recent months, First Nickel announced it would close Lockerby Mine, while KGHM International will be shutting down its McCreedy West Mine. With that, several hundred jobs will be or have been lost.

The companies blame low metal prices, especially for nickel, for their decisions. Analysts earlier in 2015 had predicted nickel would be selling at $9 a pound or so by this time; instead, nickel is well below $5.

Now, there is speculation Glencore, another key employer in Sudbury, is looking at cutting nickel production.

Ring of Fire for people, not ‘American war machine’ – by David Starbuck (Sudbury Northern Life – October 14, 2015)

October 15, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

David Starbuck is the Marxist-Leninist Party candidate in Nickel Belt.

One of the issues being discussed in the current election is the potential development of the Ring of Fire chromite-nickel deposits recently discovered in Northern Ontario. Each of the cartel parties is supporting this development and blaming one another and other levels of government for the perceived delay.

Even after Cliffs Natural Resources cancelled its plans to build a mine, beneficiation plant and refinery, the cartel parties are competing amongst themselves as to who can give away the most public resources to the foreign mining monopolies that have seized control of this project.

The Ring of Fire is said to possess more than $100 billion in mineral resources. The cartel parties see this as a huge bonanza, an opportunity for Ontario to get out of crisis. The relevance of the Ring of Fire to the Sudbury by-election is that the chromite refinery was to be built north of Capreol, in the City of Greater Sudbury, and that Sudbury-based mining supply companies seek to use the development of the Ring of Fire as part of their expansion in the global mining industry.

Action against Vale rare: Mining watchdog – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 10, 2015)

October 13, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The enforcement action Environment Canada took Thursday against Vale Canada Ltd. is very rare in Canada, says a spokeswoman for a mining watchdog group.

Environment Canada enforcement officers, with support from Royal Canadian Mounted Police, executed a search warrant at Vale’s engineering building Thursday. The warrant was part of an active Environment Canada investigation that began in November 2012, said Nathalie Huneault of Environment Canada.

The investigation relates to alleged violations of the general prohibition in the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of substances that are deleterious to fish into water frequented by fish, she said. Huneault said Environment Canada couldn’t comment further because the matter is under investigation.

Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said Environment Canada was on site Thursday “collecting information related to alleged infractions under the Fisheries Act that allegedly occurred in 2012. Vale is co-operating fully in providing the information required.”

Essar-Cliffs tension at fevered pitch – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 7, 2015)

October 9, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Cut off from its iron ore supply, Essar Steel Algoma has filed a request for a temporary restraining order in an Ohio court against Cliffs Natural Resources. In an Oct. 6 news release, Essar said the matter is before a federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Essar Steel Algoma fully expects Cliffs to honour the supply agreement until such time as the matter has been justly resolved,” the Sault Ste. Marie plate and sheet producer said in a statement.

Hours earlier, Cliffs announced it had halted shipments to Essar by terminating its longstanding agreement to supply Essar with taconite iron ore pellets. The decision took effect Oct. 5.

A spokesperson with Cliffs was unavailable for comment. Essar spokeswoman Brenda Stenta said a “swift ruling” is expected on the matter. “There is no immediate impact to operations.”

Police raid Vale office in Sudbury – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 9, 2015)

October 9, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Three sources have told The Sudbury Star that police and Environment Canada officials raided Vale’s general engineering building in Sudbury on Thursday as part of an investigation into what one source said was a spill affecting fish and wildlife.

A source said Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Environment Canada employees spent four hours removing files, cabinets and computers with passwords from the Vale building on Lorne Street in Copper Cliff.

Another source said police and government officials seized all files, passwords and data from the environmental department, located in the engineering building.

“And they were collecting security cards after the employees left, so they couldn’t come back to the building,” said the Vale employee, who provided the information to The Sudbury Star on the condition of anonymity.

Vale’s Sudbury spokeswoman Angie Robson confirmed that Environment Canada was on site Thursday “collecting information related to alleged infractions under the Fisheries Act that allegedly occurred in 2012.

Timmins Museum marks 40 years of its own history – by Sarah Moore (Timmins Daily Press – October 7, 2015)

October 9, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – There’s been scandal, engineering marvels and, of course, there has been gold — and the Timmins Museum has brought that rich history to life for the last 40 years.

The museum, which is now located on Second Avenue in the city’s downtown, has been operating since 1975. It was initially opened as a National Exhibition Centre in South Porcupine, one of only 23 in Canada, to house travelling exhibitions from across the country.

Four years after the centre was created, a community museum component was also added to showcase permanent collections spotlighting artifacts that told the story of the City of Timmins, specifically.

“The community had been looking for a museum since the early 1950s,” said Karen Bachmann, the director/curator of the Timmins Museum. “Pieces had already been collected by the chamber of commerce that at the time were being stored at the chamber, the fire hall in Porcupine, the vaults at city hall and in some people’s homes, so it brought together a lot of this stuff.”

20 Questions with Sudbury Green Candidate David Robinson [Mining/Northern Ontario Initiatives] (Sudbury Star – October 9, 2015)

October 9, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Sudbury Star has sent a 20 Questions form to the four major candidates in the Sudbury and Nickel Belt ridings. Today, we feature David Robinson, who is running for the Green Party in Sudbury.

1. Why did you decide to run for MP? I was and I am outraged at the failure of the mainline parties to present a clear and strong plan for dealing with climate change. We are headed for climate disaster and the prime minister wants to “stay the course.”

2. What drew you to the party? The Green Party had by far the most commitment about climate change and the best policy combination.

3. What is your background?

I have spent 35 years studying and teaching economic policy. I have spent 25 years focusing on Northern Ontario economic development and 15 years contributing to Sudbury’s economy and culture. For example, I Identified the mining supply sector as our key opportunity, initiated our mining supply organization and the mining supply journal, started the new school of architecture, brought some arts organizations to the city and have helped shape the city’s economic plans.

Sudbury played key role in [Physics] Nobel prize – by Liam Casey (Canadian Press/Sudbury Star – October 7, 2015)

October 7, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. — the former director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in northern Ontario — is a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on tiny particles known as neutrinos.

Arthur McDonald was roused from sleep at about 5 a.m. on Tuesday by a phone call from the Nobel Prize committee telling him the news.

“I was a little surprised,” he said in a telephone interview from Kingston, laughing with joy. “I am overwhelmed, but excited.”

The first thing the 72-year-old did as a Nobel Prize winner was hug his wife. “Thank you,” he told her. McDonald and Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita were cited for the discovery of neutrino oscillations and their contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.

“We were also able to determine that neutrinos do have a small mass and that’s something that wasn’t known before and it helps to place neutrinos in the laws of physics at a very fundamental level,” McDonald said.

Manitoba-Nunavut hydro link is economically viable: study – by Sarah Rogers (Nunatsiaq News – October 6, 2015)

October 6, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Report calls for next study on $904-million electrical power network

A new study commissioned by the Kivalliq Inuit Association says a project connecting Nunavut’s Kivalliq region to Manitoba’s electrical power grid is economically viable, environmentally beneficial, and should move forward without delay.

The estimated cost of the project, which would extend transmission lines north from Churchill, Man. up the western Hudson Bay coast, is about $904 million, says the new scoping study, prepared for the KIA by engineering firm BBA Inc. and released last month.

But the study suggests the project would pay for itself over its estimated 40-year lifetime, delivering projected savings of $40 million a year by replacing fossil fuels from dirty, expensive diesel generators with cleaner hydroelectric power.

The report, called Hydroelectric Power from Manitoba to the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, says extending the electric power grid “would generation great socioeconomic and environmental benefits for the population of the Kivalliq region and the development of the mineral industry.”

Pacific trade deal good for Sudbury, says Slade -by PRESS RELEASE (Sudbury Northern Life – October 05, 2015)

October 6, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will benefit all of Canada but, we in Greater Sudbury with our strong resource and manufacturing sectors, will see many more doors opened for products and services produced here in Greater Sudbury with our new trading partners” says Fred Slade, Conservative Party of Canada candidate.

Canada’s Conservative Government has signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that will protect and create Canadian jobs, and grow every sector of our economy by giving Canadian businesses access to some of the most dynamic markets in the world.

The TPP is a 12-nation market of almost 800-million consumers with GDP of $28 trillion — over 14 times the size of Canada’s economy. Canada will now be the only G7 nation with free trade access to all of the US and Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific continents, that’s over 60 per cent of the world’s economy.

Since 2006, our government has concluded Free Trade Agreements with 44 countries, compared to only five when we took office. “Canada’s mining industry has been a strong advocate for liberalized trade and investment flows for many years,” stated Pierre Gratton, Mining Association of Canada’s (MAC) President and CEO in a release today.

Government of the Northwest Territories’ (GNWT) proposal to alienate industry – by Gary Vivian (October 5, 2015)

October 6, 2015

http://www.nnsl.com/index.php

A Guest Editorial by Gary Vivian, President of Aurora Geosciences Ltd., in Northern News Services.

It’s said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The GNWT’s recent draft conservation plan has “good intentions” but it certainly will take us on a path to economic hell.

The plan – shared predominantly with conservation representatives, not the business community – is misguided, anachronistic and unnecessary. By simply circulating it for discussion, Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger has started that paving job to hell. If allowed to proceed, the plan will further damage our already wounded mining industry’s ability to create the high paying jobs, much needed business spending and royalties and taxes that are much needed by both aboriginal and public governments.

In this post-devolution world, we are expected to be more mature and able to take responsibility for our economic future. Taking such a misguided approach to conservation will alienate our number-one industry from land access and undermine the government’s own economic agenda.