[Mining] Berm altering Timmins skyline – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 27, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The landscape in the heart of Timmins is changing and with the arrival of spring, the change has become that much more obvious. Motorists travelling into downtown Timmins from the East End can now easily see the new rock berm rising in the west, behind Schumacher.

The berm is the work of Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines, which is installing it to surround the new Hollinger open pit mine. It is designed to lessen the impact of dust, noise and vibration that is expected to occur during the mining operations.

Work on the new berm is especially noticeable for anyone driving along Vipond Road in recent weeks.

Rick Dubeau, city councillor and chairman of the Hollinger Project Community Advisory Committee (HPCAC), referred to the change in his most recent community report. “You can see the skyline of the city drastically change as the berms are constructed,” he wrote.

PGM has indicated that the berm will be covered with earth and eventually landscaped once the mining work is done, sometime in the next eight or nine years.

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Steady decline in FedNor funding – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – May 27, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Funding for Northern Ontario initiatives through FedNor has been reduced by 25% since the Conservatives came to power in Ottawa in 2006.

In addition to those cuts, over the past six years more than $14 million of available funding for the region was not spent at all. That’s according to annual financial reports that are accessible to the public online.

FedNor (Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario) money is used fund anything from major infrastructure upgrades for Northern Ontario municipalities, to helping support fledgling businesses and small non-profit organizations.

The apparent scaling back of the program under the Conservatives has outraged MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) who believes the Conservatives have sacrificed a program vital to the region’s economy to pay for their pre-election recent budget surplus.

“Quite clearly, the Conservatives are bad for business in Northern Ontario,” said Angus. “Cutting money from economic development is not how you build an economy. Tools like FedNor are essential for us to make sure we have a diversified economy because we are a boom/bust economy.

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Patience key, judge tells Sudbury audience – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – May 27, 2015)

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

Negotiating with First Nations in the Ring of Fire may be tricky, and take time, but the country can no longer justify ignoring or exploiting its aboriginal communities, a former supreme court judge said Tuesday.

“The project does illustrate how government and industry can, and should, take First Nations seriously in economic development,” Frank Iacobucci told a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce luncheon series audience.

The veteran lawyer, who brokered an agreement in 2013 with the Matawa Tribal Council chiefs on behalf of the Ontario government, said he has been impressed with the leadership of aboriginal communities and the efforts they have made to engage their members.

“With that leadership and that engagement, there is more opportunity for agreements,” he said, while cautioning patience is often required. “It’s not a matter of being quick,” said Iacobucci. “It’s a matter of being right.”

As deputy minister of justice in the Mulroney government of the 1980s, Iacobucci worked on a constitutional amendment that would have afforded more political autonomy to First Nations.

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‘Tragic [mining] milestone’ – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 26, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

BLACK RIVER-MATHESON – It appears Alexie Dallaire-Vincent may be the first woman to die on the job in an underground mine in Ontario. The 22-year-old tram operator at the SAS St. Andrew Goldfields Holt Mine, was killed Saturday afternoon, according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour

It was reported the woman, a native of the Kirkland Lake area, died from injuries after being struck by an ore-haulage car on the 925 level in that mine, located east of Matheson.

A number of local veteran mining inspectors and investigators reached by The Daily Press on Monday said they could not recall a previous incident in which a woman died on the job, working underground in an Ontario mine.

“I’m not sure, to be honest with you, but I do believe that is the case,” said Ministry of Labour district manager Pete Lefebvre, who is also a former mine rescue officer.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour communications office in Toronto could not confirm it, as the ministry does not keep gender-based statistics, said spokesman William Lin.

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HISTORY: In 1923 Timmins already bustling – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – May 23, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A few stories from the year 1923… let me first, however, set the mood. According to a number of news sites, some of the big news events for that year included the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb (in February), the eruption of Mt. Etna in Sicily, which left over 60,000-plus homeless (in June) and the Great Kanto earthquake that nearly flattened Tokyo (over 100,000 people were killed).

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president of the United States after the death of President Warring Harding in August of that year – Harding had suddenly died while he was staying in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Calif.

In Canada, William Lyon McKenzie King continued on as Prime Minister, and, overseas, a young Adolph Hitler led the Nazi Party in a failed coup d’état in Germany (known as the Beer Hall Putsch). On the popular culture scene, Time Magazine was launched (and is still in print today), women’s one-piece bathing suits were all the rage (woo-hoo!) and Agatha Christie cranked out another Hercule Poirot mystery (“The Murder on the Links”).

So while the Cotton Club opened in New York City, Pablo Picasso built the stage sets for Jean Cocteau’s production of “Antigone” and Albert the Duke of York married Elizabeth Rowes-Lyon (later known as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), this is what was happening in the Porcupine in 1923…

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New PC leader [Patrick Brown] urged to speak up for Ring of Fire – by Staff (Sudbury Star – May 25, 2015)

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

Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle is calling on the new leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives to stand up to the Harper government and demand federal funding for the Ring of Fire.

Patrick Brown is the former Barrie Conservative MP who won the provincial PC leadership earlier this month. “Mr. Brown is no longer part of the federal Conservative caucus and has the opportunity to speak freely,” said Gravelle. “I hope he uses this as a chance to stand up for the North.”

Gravelle said the Liberal government of Premier Kathleen Wynne has committed $1 billion to develop the Ring of Fire and reached a regional framework agreement with the chiefs of the Matawa Tribal Council.

“Meanwhile, the federal government hasn’t stepped up to the plate,” said Gravelle. The Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP said Brown recognized the importance of the Ring of Fire in a leadership debate in Sudbury on Nov. 24, 2014.

Gravelle said Brown told an audience he believes there’s tremendous opportunity “for our party to highlight a credible plan for how we’re going to make sure … the Ring of Fore develops, and it’s going to be extremely beneficial to all Ontario, but especially Northern Ontario.”

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Ontario’s new PC Leader [Patrick Brown] tours Ring of Fire with Nipissing MPP – by KA Smith (Bay Today – May 22, 2015)

http://www.baytoday.ca/

After a helicopter tour of the Ring of Fire, Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown met with supporters at the Discovery North Bay Museum early Friday evening.

Brown told reporters, “I wanted to make my first trip as the Ontario PC leader to Northern Ontario to show it’s a priority for me.” Brown toured a parcel of the Ring of Fire with representatives of NORONT Resources and Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

Brown is calling for the Ring of Fire to be at the centre of any economic plan for Northern Ontario. Brown denounced the Liberal government for their inaction. “Talk is cheap. There hasn’t been a single application. There hasn’t been a foot of road built and there hasn’t been a foot of rail built.”

“I just feel we’ve let down this opportunity. It is tremendously fortunate for Ontario to have resources like that, whether it’s the chromite or the nickel. Seeing the tests, and seeing the base camp reminds me sort of like a new frontier. This is an opportunity in North Ontario that we have to forge.”

Brown says there has to be an easing of red tape, energy costs have to come down and there must be a plan for transportation.

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Laurentian Exploration and Research: MERC looks to the future – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – May 2015)

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

The Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) has committed itself to an ambitious, five-year business plan. The mineral exploration research arm of Laurentian University’s Department of Earth Sciences, MERC boasts a global reputation as a centre of excellence for research focused on Precambrian ore deposits.

The five-year business plan will help guide MERC’s growth and allow it to play an even more important role in the global search for mineral deposits.

Completed in November 2014, the business plan sets six key strategic directions, including a greater focus on Precambrian shields around the world, the establishment of a science advisory council, the hiring of research associates to assist with project management, and the recruitment of more corporate members.

With increased financial resources from courses, workshops and membership dues, MERC will allocate $20,000 annually for pre-research investigation and establish a one-year operating reserve to offset shortfalls due to cyclical downturns in the mining industry.

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Between Friends (Canadian Mining Movie – 1973) Accent: 1973 film shot in Sudbury a neglected classic – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – January 26, 2014)

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

“What are you watching?” a character named Chino asks his pal Toby, slumped in front of a TV set. “It’s a commercial,” Toby replies. “They just interrupt it every now and then with a movie.”

The scene is from Between Friends, an overlooked gem of Canuck cinema shot in Sudbury in 1972. It appeared in 1973, made a stir on the festival circuit, then sank like a stone.

It did resurface briefly in 1985, long enough for me to see it as an undergrad at Queen’s. I remember leaving the lecture hall — there was no theatre at the university, not then, but there were projectors that could unspool a 35-mm reel — in a kind of fugue state. I had never seen a Canadian movie as gritty or as good as Between Friends.

I still haven’t. A tale of betrayal, broken dreams and a bungled plan to rob the payroll of a nickel mine, the film’s action takes place between Toronto, looking rather grey and grim, and Sudbury, where things get greyer and grimmer.

The latter isn’t named, but couldn’t be mistaken for anywhere else: Multiple images of the Inco smelter and surrounding slagscape, yet to undergo a greening makeover, form a key part of the film’s tone, not to mention a metaphor for the characters’ lives, which are progressively stripped of hope and purpose.

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A Mining Investor’s Guide to Toll Milling in Peru – by Jamie Keech (CEO.ca – May 21, 2015)

http://ceo.ca/

In the late 1990s a small Canadian junior mining company bought an exploration property in southern Peru with a plan to capitalize on the newly opened market after two decades of internal conflict and civil war.

Just 100 km north of the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth, the property consisted of hard earthen mountains, trickling riverbeds and the occasional cactus. Nestled in one rocky corner was a small, half-built gold processing plant. The mill came with the exploration property, almost as an afterthought, a redundancy that was easier to give away than tear down.

The junior was headed by Jean Martineau, a French-Canadian pulp and paper mill operator turned broker turned CEO.

Jean’s days as a broker had left him with one overriding view of the junior mining sector: it ran on a terrible business model – constantly raising money, diluting value, and rarely benefitting investors.

An experienced operator, Martineau decided the best way to fund exploration was to generate cash by getting the small mill on site up and running, purchasing ore from nearby small-scale miners as feed and processing it at a profit.

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Western Nunavut miner calls feasibility study “very compelling” (Nunatsiaq News – May 21, 2015)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

But Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. will look at trimming project costs

“Very compelling” — that’s how Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. describes the results of a new feasibility study for its Back River gold project in western Nunavut.

Bruce McLeod, Sabina’s president and CEO, said in a May 20 news release that the feasibility study “demonstrates the potential of Back River to be a significant Canadian gold producer.” But getting the mine up and running will take deep pockets.

The feasibility study calculated the initial capital cost of the Sabina mine at $695 million, with another $539 million needed to sustain operations.

On the other hand, over the mine’s 10-year proposed lifespan, its gross revenues could reach $4.5 billion. However, Sabina said it recognized that “financing such a project in current market conditions would be challenging.”

So Sabina may look for a “more easily financeable project in the current capital markets environment,” the release said.

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Northeastern Ontario municipalities back First Nations’ proposal for a railway across traditional lands for Ring of Fire – by Len Gilles (Timmins Daily Press – May 19, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Martin was a guest speaker at the spring meeting of NEOMA, the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association, which met in Iroquois Falls on Friday.

He outlined for municipal leaders from across the North how the plan is to build and east-west rail corridor from Moosonee, up to Kashechewan and then over to Webequie, where the Ring Of Fire mining prospects are located. Further to that, Martin said Mushkegowuk also wants to install a high voltage hydro transmission line to the same area.

The Ring of Fire is the name given to the vast deposit of chromite and nickel, located in the McFauld’s Lake and Webequie area, about 600 kilometres north-west of Timmins. The prospect is valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

After an extensive presentation by Grand Chief Martin on Friday, NEOMA members voted on, and approved, a resolution of support put forward by the City of Timmins, seeking formal support for the Mushkegowuk plan.

Before the resolution could be voted on, Cochrane mayor Peter Politis stood up to say he had a concern about the Timmins resolution, which he said had a “nuance” about the conceptual support for Mushkegowuk to privatize the rail service in Northeastern Ontario.

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[KGHM International] Energy plan to help new Sudbury mine – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 15, 2015)

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

A provincial government program to help new or expanding companies create jobs and cut electricity rates will help move the development of KGHM International’s Victoria Mine project forward.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli was in Sudbury on Thursday to announce details of the two-year-old Industrial Electricity Incentive (IEI) Program and how it will benefit the mining company.

The IEI Program captures surplus electricity capacity in Ontario and “redelivers” it to the industrial and business community in the form of significant cost discounts, helping them be more competitive, said the minister.

Sudbury can “legitimately be called the mining capital of the world,” Chiarelli told a small audience. Ensuring mining companies and industry have access to a reliable and affordable source of electricity is a priority for his government.

Existing northern miners, such as Glencore and Vale, are already benefiting from the Northern Industrial Electricity Rate Program, which is cutting about 25% of their electricity costs.

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[Ring of Fire] Minister marks mining week at TSX – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 15, 2015)

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

Anyone who says the federal government isn’t doing anything to advance development of the Ring of Fire hasn’t been paying attention, says Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford.

Rickford initiated the siren at the opening of business Thursday at the Toronto Stock Exchange to mark National Mining Week, a celebration of Canada’s leadership and expertise in the industry.

The minister hand-picked a who’s who of “movers and shakers” from Northern Ontario to accompany him at the ceremony and they met in a round-table session afterward to discuss mining in the Ring of Fire

Among those invited were Frank Smeenk, president and chief executive officer of KWG Resources, and Alan Coutts, president and CEO of Noront Resources. Noront recently purchased the assets of Cliffs Natural Resources in the Ring of Fire, making it the biggest player in the Ring.

Rickford took the opportunity when addressing the stock exchange to list the ways in which the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been working to get ready for mining the rich chromite deposits in the James Bay lowlands.

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It seems Sudbury really is the centre of the mining universe – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 14, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Greater Sudbury was represented at an awards gala held by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) in Montreal on May 11.

The annual event celebrates leaders in the Canadian mining industry and their many achievements over past years.

Northern Ontario winners include Christine Bertoli, recipient of the CIM-Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Awards.

Based in Lively, Bertoli is the chief mine engineer of Nickel Rim South Mine for Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Glencore). The award recognizes workers 39 years of age or under for exceptional achievement, as well as their potential for future leadership in various sectors of mining.

Sue Tessier of Val Caron was recognized with the CIM Community Service Award. Tessier, who enjoyed a 34-year career with Inco/Vale, is now retired and volunteers her time with a number of organizations, including the CIM Sudbury Branch, GO Eng Girl, and the Sudbury Regional Science Fair. This award recognizes unsung heroes for their contributions to the mining industry.

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