[Timmins] Hollinger open pit project goes forward – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – February 4, 2014)

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. 

Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) has received its final environmental approval from the province, paving the way for work to start on its Hollinger open pit mine. The environmental compliance approval (ECA) focused on noise, vibration and dust associated with the project, and was awarded by the Ministry of the Environment in early December.

Located adjacent to Timmins’ downtown core, the Hollinger site involves the repurposing of an historic underground mine, which operated for close to 60 years before closing in 1968. PGM, a subsidiary of Goldcorp, has spent $8 million to fill subsidences and other hazards that remain on the property.

The new project proposes eliminating the remaining hazards by removing the land around them and creating one large opening. The openpit operation will recover the gold remaining underground over an eight-year mine life. Ore will be processed at the company’s mill located at its nearby Dome Mine.

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Caribou protection hampers [northern Ontario] forestry upswing – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – February 5, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – At a time when the forest industry in this province is predicting a major upswing, Cochrane could end up losing jobs in this sector because of the impacts from government policies to protect caribou habitat.

Jamie Lim, president and chief executive of the Ontario Forest Industries Association, said the industry is looking at a “recovery hat-trick” which includes a rise in U.S. housing starts, changes to the Canadian building code next year which will allow the use of timber frames in higher-rise construction, and the global trend towards “green” or renewable building materials which favours wood.

However, she expressed concerns about limited gains being be made in forest-dependent communities like Cochrane where the new Abitibi River Forest Management Plan predicts “less economic benefits” due to a reduction in available harvest volumes.

The existing long-term management plan calls for a 65% volume reduction over the next 25 years. “The lower volumes translate into reduced manufacture of primary products, less taxes and less employment opportunities,” according to the analysis on Page 204 of that plan.

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Blasting set to begin at Hollinger open pit – by Benjamin Aubé (Timmins Daily Press – February 4, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The familiar sound of blasting will soon officially mark the Hollinger Mine’s return to life. With its Ministry of Environment air and noise permits safely secured and drilling having begun, Goldcorp is expecting the first blast at the historic mine to take place on Feb. 11.

“We began drilling around Jan. 28, and the first blast is now expected for this coming week,” said Paul Miller, superintendent of surface operations for the Hollinger project. “The date we’re now targeting is Feb. 11, and public notifications are being sent out and there will be some immediate analysis on the first blast.

“The initial blast will be very small, in the 3,000 to 4,000 tonne range to begin with, and located on the south-east location of the property in an area where we’re distant from residents and businesses.”

Miller, along with Goldcorp/Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) general manager Marc Lauzier, were at council to provide an update about the open-pit mine project.

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Peru’s copper sector the one with highest growth potential in the world—Chilean expert – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 5, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

It is not usual to hear Chileans praising their Peruvian neighbours, especially when the matter in question is the copper industry, Chile’s most precious resource, which accounts for 60% of the nation’s exports and 20% of its GDP.

But Juan Carlos Guajardo, the Chile’s Centre for Copper and Mining (CESCO) director, told Peruvian newspaper Gestión (in Spanish) that the production gap between the two mining countries is “set to narrow,” as Peruvian copper projects are solid, competitive and less costly in terms of energy needs.

He added that rather than seeing Peru’s copper sector as a threat, Chileans miners should evaluate the many opportunities for cooperation between both industries.

Actually Peru is already looking to boost cooperation agreements on copper processing technology with Chile as the country, the world’s top copper producer, has decades of experience extracting the red metal.

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Hard feelings over Westray vote in Sudbury – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – February 5, 2014)

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

A United Steelworkers campaign to hold employers criminally responsible for workplace deaths unfairly portrays them as bad guys, a local businessman has charged.

On Jan. 28, Sudbury city council heard from USW members on their movement to ‘Stop the Killing, Enforce the Law.’ It calls for police and Crown attorneys to charge executives and corporations criminally when workers are killed on the job.

At the same time, council passed a motion, presented by Joe Cimino, to support a campaign pushing the province to ensure police and the Crown are educated in and directed to apply the Westray amendments, named after the site of the 1992 mine explosion that killed 26 men.

“I fully support Westray. Absolutely, people should be held accountable for negligence and problems of that nature. I have no issue at all with the Westray Act,” Andre Dumais, who works in the mining supply sector, said Tuesday.

“My issue is with the name of the campaign, the Stop the Killing. To me it implies the employers in the mining companies, or any industrial companies for that matter, are actively trying to kill their employees.”

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[Northern Ontario] Aviation pioneer – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 4, 2014)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

NORTHERN Ontario’s aviation pioneers are a special breed. From lone bush pilots to small fleet owners they hop-scotched into a growing number of remote communities as airstrips were hewn out of the boreal forest. Gradually, scheduled air services were established. Names like Wieben, DeLuce and Kelner are among a long list of adventurous fliers who took on the challenge of opening up such a vast region as this.

The list is short a key member this week with the sudden death of Harvey Friesen. Together with his brother, Cliff, they grew Bearskin Airlines from a two-floatplane operation to a large, scheduled airline with 50 years of service — a remarkable achievement in an industry where longevity is rare.

The company was created in 1963 by a bush pilot named John Hegland from a base in Big Trout Lake, flying charter service to Sioux Lookout. (Hegland named the operation after Bearskin Lake where he owned a store.) A second hop to Thunder Bay was a logical step.

New owners turned Bearskin into an air taxi service with Harvey Friesen one of its pilots. In 1972, at age 24, he bought half the company and purchased most of the rest of it five years later. Brother Cliff bought in shortly after and a family business was born and grew with the addition of a base in Thunder Bay to augment the one in Sioux Lookout.

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Noront Leading Ring of Fire Charge – Rickford – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – February 3, 2014)

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

Getting it Right in Northern Ontario

THUNDER BAY – Mining – Federal Minister Greg Rickford says “Noront is now leading the charge. They were perhaps a little underestimated. In the wake of Cliff’s very clear announcement, Noront is moving ahead with the environmental assessment process. We’re all very hopeful that that will go live sooner rather than later.”

Rickford is the federal minister responsible for the Ring of Fire. The Kenora MP has been working the file getting the pieces in place to get the Ring of Fire project on a solid footing.

NetNewsLedger has reported that Cliffs Natural Resources is pulling out of the Ring of Fire with camps being emptied in January. Cliffs Natural Resources has denied those reports in an email to Northern Ontario Business. The company has been moving goods out of their camps, and online has completely pulled Northern Ontario off their map of activities in North America.

The Ring of Fire is a massive project, and “Getting it right,” as Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle has repeatedly put it is key for success.

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Timmins History: Dance night a treat for early prospectors – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – February 1, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A few years ago, the Auer family donated, to the museum, a selection of the journals of Charles and Mae Auer. The Auers were local pioneers, responsible for the Nighthawk Mine and the development that would become known as Mattagami Heights (today, home to our local Ford Dealership).

The diaries are an exceptional view of what life would have been like for the very early prospectors coming to the area. Today, I offer to you an excerpt that caught my attention because it sounds like something right out of a movie!

To set the stage, Charles Auer and his partner Black Jack Cole (what a name!) started to head for the Nighthawk River system in January 1908. Along with their dog team lead by Nell and Jack, they mushed their way on existing trails, breaking new ones when needed.

The temperatures plunged to -40 F and the snow was about three feet thick. The going was pretty rough. Eventually, they hit smoother ground and stopped for the night at Campbell’s Halfway House, outside of McDougall Chutes. They took care of the dogs and enjoyed a good hot meal.

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Stobie Mine inquest in planning stage – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2014)

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

The date hasn’t been set for the coroner’s inquest into the June 8, 2011, deaths of two men at Vale’s Stobie Mine, but months of planning for the complicated procedure are under way.

The examination into the deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, who were killed when they were overcome by 350 tons of muck while working at the 3,000-foot level of the century-old mine, is expected to be lengthy and complicated.

Cheryl Mahyr, issues manager with the Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, said Friday she couldn’t make any announcement about the timing of the inquest.

Coroners’ inquests are mandatory in workplace deaths in Ontario, and are not held until after outstanding investigations and charges under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act are dealt with, including appeals.

Both United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale conducted exhaustive investigations into the double fatality.

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A zero-Carbon Ring of Fire is needed – by Steve May (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2014)

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

 Steve May is an officer of the federal and provincial Nickel Belt Greens.

Picture this: You’re riding a silent, electrically-powered railway northward into the heart of Ontario’s largest industrial project, the Ring of Fire. Occasionally, the landscape of trees and rocks is interrupted by one or two wind turbines or ground-mounted solar arrays.

As you near the end of the line, you can see that the ore processing facility looks as if it were on fire, thanks to the thousands of solar panels affixed to just about every building surface. Here, chromite and other minerals are being extracted and processed in the world’s first zero-carbon mining project, deep in the heart of the James Bay lowlands.

Impossible? Hardly. Impractical? Not at all. A zero-carbon mining project would be good for the environment and for job creation. Sustainable, net-zero development may be the only option for “getting things right” in the Ring of Fire as we go deeper into the 21st Century, thanks to Canada having taken a back-seat on climate change reduction initiatives.

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Cliffs not pulling out of Ring of Fire – by Staff (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2014)

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

A Cliffs Natural Resources spokeswoman is denying a report from an online newspaper that the Cleveland-based company is pulling out of its development in the Ring of Fire.

Cliffs officials continue to talk with representatives of the Government of Ontario and First Nations communities in the area, Patricia Persico said Friday. “We are continuing with our plans as previously stated,” Persico said in an email.

In November of last year, Cliffs halted all technical work including its feasibility study, development and exploration activities for an undetermined period of time. It was a crushing blow to many in Ontario, particularly here in Sudbury where hopes were high after the former Moose Mountain Mine was chosen as the site Cliffs planned to build a $1.8-billion ferrochrome processing plant.

Persico said Cliffs remains supportive of the province’s plan to form a development corporation to finance and develop infrastructure for the Ring of Fire, and intends to participate in future discussions.

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Kivalliq mine workforce worth its weight in gold – by Sarah Rogers (Nunatsiaq-online.ca – January 31, 2014)

 http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Agnico Eagle training programs growing Inuit hires

OTTAWA — With its Meadowbank mine expected to produce nearly 400,000 ounces of gold this year, and its Meliadine project contemplated to go into production for the next two years, Agnico Eagle has a good reason to invest in Nunavut.

But the Canadian-based gold producer wants that investment to produce more than just gold — the mining company wants to create a local workforce. Of the 800 people employed at Meadowbank outside of Baker Lake, 31 per cent are Inuit.

And even then, those Nunavummiut employees, who hail from nearby Kivalliq communities, haven’t come easily. The more than 200 Inuit workers at Meadowbank have been coaxed with training and support progams — efforts that Agnico Eagle and regional partners continue to build on.

“We want to be in Nunavut for a long time,” said Krystel Mayrand, who works in human resources for Agnico Eagle.

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[Ontario Miners] Not paying the rent – by David Robinson (Northern Ontario Business – January 29, 2014)

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.  Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. drobinson@laurentian.ca 

One of the best things about teaching is that you actually learn more than your students do. I teach Natural Resource Economics at Laurentian University and I’ve learned a few strange things about Ontario’s mining policy.

I’d like to share a couple discoveries with my friend, Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle, and with his deputy minis ter, George Ross. In fact, I’d like to share the lessons with everyone in Northern Ontario.

The most shocking lesson came from one of Canada’s leading economists, Jack Mintz. Last year Mintz and Duanjie Chen, at the University of Calgary, looked at how Canadian provinces tax the mining industry. “Ontario’s system,” they concluded, “is redundant, expensive and wasteful.” “Redundant, expensive and wasteful” is pretty strong language coming from the most respected tax analyst in Canada, but there is more: Ontario has the second-lowest level of provincial taxes in the mining industry. BC basically pays companies to take its resources. Ontario seems just to give the resources away.

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Cliffs Natural Resources Walks Away From Ring of Fire – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – January 30, 2014)

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – Breaking News – Cliffs Natural Resources first stepped back from the Ring of Fire officially last November. The company explained in shutting down its operations in Northwestern Ontario that the company was “suspending operations”.

Now it appears the company is taking another big step back from the chromite discovery in Northern Ontario. Cliffs Natural Resources has been facing pressure from an investor who is seeking to break up the company.

Moody’s is saying that would not be beneficial. Moody’s says that Cliffs’ actions in the past twelve months that have including cost cutting spending reductions along with reducing debt levels. Those efforts have resulted in a stronger credit portfolio for Cliffs.

Moody’s reports that Cliff’s Asian-Pacific operations are providing the company with diversification and cash flow to the company which are helping to reduce Cliffs Natural Resource’s $3.9 billion debt load.

Moody’s states in a report reduced on January 28 2014, “Given its strategic objectives for positioning the company for future growth, we believe Cliffs will continue to exhibit a conservative approach to its capital structure and remain focused on cost reduction and managing to a neutral cash flow position while making necessary capital investments.”

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Sudbury firm wins key space contract – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – January 30, 2014)

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

It would be a stretch to say he’s over the moon, but Dale Boucher is certainly excited by the chance his company’s drilling equipment could get on board for a lunar mission.

It’s a possibility that edged nearer to a probability this week, as the Canadian Space Agency awarded a contract to Deltion Innovations of Sudbury to tailor its technology to moon-like conditions. “It’s not a flight contract,” said Boucher. “But what it does is get us one step closer to that.”

Deltion’s DESTIN drill, which takes core samples, was put through its paces in 2012 at a NASA experiment in Hawaii. The Mauna Kea volcano features terrain similar to the cratered ball that orbits earth, and the Sudbury-designed drill did its bit, so to speak.

“It was a practice run and our system passed with flying colours,” said Boucher, adding the unit worked in conjunction with a rover designed by Neptec Designs. Last month, Deltion formed a strategic partnership with this Kanata-based company.

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