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Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications

Matawa tribal chiefs not so keen on Fortress Am-Can – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – Janaury 16, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Indigenous leaders warn province to think again about granting access to Ring of Fire without proper consent

Fortress Am-Can might be Premier Doug Ford’s plan to expedite critical minerals production in the Ring of Fire, but the majority of chiefs with Matawa First Nations tribal council are pushing back that it certainly isn’t theirs.

In a Jan. 16 news release, the leadership warned that, as they are the inherent, treaty and Aboriginal rights holders to the area in and around the undeveloped Far North mineral belt, the Ontario government’s ability to grant access to critical minerals “within our traditional homelands is precarious.”

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Premier wants critical minerals production accelerated – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 14, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ford promotes more robust cross-border trade with U.S. as threat of tariffs loom

Expect a major announcement on the north-south road to the Ring of Fire during the PDAC mining convention in March.That was the word from Premier Doug Ford and Mines Minister George Pirie during a Jan. 13 press conference in Toronto to promote Fortress Am-Can, touted as a new strategic alliance between Canada and the U.S. that involves a plan to fast-track critical minerals production.

Critical minerals and the untapped potential of the Ring of Fire received frequent mention by Ford, Pirie and Northern Development and Indigenous Minister Greg Rickford.

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Mining the Northwest: Red Lake’s Madsen Mine ready to restart – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 13, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

West Red Lake Gold Mines building out its workforce to reach commercial production by year’s end

West Red Lake Gold Mines is aiming for a mid-year restart of its Madsen Mine at Red Lake. The Vancouver mine developer released a prefeasibility study in early January, laying out its plan to bring Madsen back to life in 2025.

In taking over a mine that struggled out of the gate and failed under previous ownership, company management is confident it’s delivered a pragmatic and conservative plan that it can deliver on. With 1.7 million ounces of indicated gold reserves and resources, Madsen’s new mine life is pegged at 7.25 years.

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Wabun Tribal Council boss goes to bat for Newmont – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 7, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Batise respectful of Takywa Tagamou Nation’s position, but disagrees with their portrayal of gold miner

Newmont isn’t the “bad actor” that it’s being made out to be. Wabun Tribal Council executive director Jason Batise reaffirmed his organization’s support that the gold mining company has proven itself as a good corporate citizen and solid First Nations partner in operating its mines in the Timmins and Chapleau area.

Timmins-based Wabun issued a news release last week throwing its support behind Newmont-owned Porcupine Mines in the face of a legal claim filed last November by Takywa Tagamou Nation (TTN).

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Magna Mining forks over a dollar for 30,000 hectares of Sudbury base metal properties – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Local mine developer swings its second major land acquisition deal in 2024

Sudbury’s newest and boldest miner, Magna Mining, continues to expand its footprint in the Sudbury basin. The junior mine developer has signed an asset acquisition agreement with NorthX Nickel to pick up a raft of former mine and exploration properties that hold some promising base metal potential.

And it’s a pretty sweet cash deal for Magna. One dollar. The properties, scattered all over the corners of the Sudbury basin, amount to about 30,000 hectares that Magna believes have significant upside based on the geology and the record of high-grade hits from drilling programs carried out by previous companies.

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Uh Oh Canada – by Diane Francis (Substack – December 19, 2024)

https://dianefrancis.substack.com/

Canada has just joined a growing list of rich democracies that cannot get their political or economic act together. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way out. The electorate is fed up with financial problems, high taxation, and unscreened immigration. Similar political battles plague two other G7 nations, France and Germany.

All three governments sag because they prioritized social engineering and political correctness over enterprise and economic development. Their electorates are divided. Worse, the Europeans live in a dangerous region and wrestle with re-arming, a flood of Ukrainian refugees, and fending off Russian cyberattacks, sabotage, espionage, and political interference.

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Mining the Northwest: Opportunities abound for new Musselwhite owner to grow gold resources, shave costs – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 13, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vancouver’s Orla Mining looks to fine-tune operations at the remote northwestern Ont. mine while putting money into the drill bit

Orla Mining may be new to the mining scene in Ontario, but the Musselwhite gold mine is not new to them. The Vancouver company’s pending acquisition of the remote northwestern Ontario underground mine from Newmont probably sent more than a few people scurrying to Google last month to dig into the details of the expanding seven-year-old outfit.

Unlike other mining newcomers to the region, Orla isn’t buying a broken operation that was mismanaged and in dire need of cash-infused resurrection. Musselwhite is one that, by all accounts, is well-run operation that no longer fit into Newmont’s ambitions to invest in so-called Tier 1 assets.

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Agnico Eagle wants to buy its gold exploration neighbour in western Quebec – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 13, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Agnico eyes O3 Mining’s Marbon deposit with $204-million cash offer

Agnico Eagle is looking to expand its mining footprint in the Abitibi region. The Kirkland Lake and Detour Lake gold miner is making a takeover bid for O3 mining, a neighbouring gold company on the Quebec side of the prolific Abitibi mineral belt.

Agnico announced Dec. 12 that it has entered into a definitive support agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of O3 in an offer valued at $204 million. The proposed deal is built around the acquisition of O3 Mining’s main asset, its Marban Alliance property, located outside Val d’Or, that is next to Agnico Eagle’s Canadian Malartic mine complex.

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Jobs of the Future: Kenjgewin Teg, Legend Mining partnership ‘breaking down barriers’ to Indigenous unemployment – by Casey Stranges (Northern Ontario Business – December 9, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mentorship and training partnership touted by organizers as a “bridge” to employment for Indigenous youth in Northern Ontario

Scott Rienguette, general manager for Sudbury-based Legend Mining, says he’s on a mission to show Indigenous youth that the only barriers they’ll face entering the skilled trades are the ones they build themselves.

The Sudbury-based mining company has partnered with Kenjgewin Teg, an Indigenous learning institute on Manitoulin Island, to help get practical, hands-on training to people outside Northern Ontario’s large mining centres.

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Contrary to industry claims, red tape not slowing B.C. mineral boom, finds audit – by Stefan Labbé (Business In Vancouver – December 11, 2024)

https://www.biv.com/

Audit finds delays to approve dozens of B.C. mines were largely caused by market forces — not government permitting.

For several years, politicians and the mining industry have targeted Canadian regulations standing in the way of feeding a burgeoning critical minerals market. In advertisements and on its website, the Mining Association of B.C. (MABC) says the country’s westernmost province has a “generational opportunity” to supply the world with critical minerals needed for clean technologies.

The long-term economic impact, claims the group, could reach $800 billion. It’s a narrative that has been echoed by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and more recently picked up by B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad during the last B.C. election campaign. The only thing standing in the way, according to the MABC, is government red tape.

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Saddened by Kidd mine news? McEwen Mining sees new gold production over the horizon – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto gold company drilling off Grey Fox deposit with bump in resources expected in early 2025

While Glencore’s Kidd base metals mine is slated for closure in two years time, the legendary Timmins camp is far from finished when it comes gold mining longevity. McEwen Mining is excited by a new prospect in its gold mining stable at the Fox Complex, east of the city, that contains a new and emerging deposit dubbed Grey Fox.

In releasing a raft of high-grade assay results this week, the Toronto gold company framed the ongoing exploration program at Grey Fox as opening up “new possibilities for resource and production growth” in what is already a very prolific mining area for McEwen.

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Trudeau’s ‘vibe bribe’ will get the wrong kind of attention abroad – by Greg Quinn (Read The Line – December 3, 2024)

https://www.readtheline.ca/

Greg Quinn OBE is a former British diplomat who has served in Estonia, Ghana, Belarus, Iraq, Washington D.C., Kazakhstan, Guyana, Suriname, The Bahamas, Canada, and Antigua and Barbuda in addition to stints in London.

In my years in the British diplomatic service, I had a chance to experience politics in many countries, including, of course, Canada. Along the way I’ve drawn some conclusions. One of them is that elections are funny things — they tend to make political leaders forget inhibitions about policies they’d previously opposed while suddenly finding money that had presumably fallen down the back of the sofa.

Which is exactly what appears to have happened in Canada recently with the prime minister’s announcement of the temporary removal of GST/HST, from 14 December this year until 15 February next year, plus a $250 per person give away.

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B.C. environmental group files judicial review to challenge Northwest gold mine project – by Quinn Bender (Terrace Standard – December 2, 2024)

https://www.terracestandard.com/

The filing is the second petition in a week against the major gold-copper mine in B.C.’s “Golden Triangle”

A coalition of environmental groups has launched a legal challenge against the province’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), contending the proposed KSM mine in Northwest B.C. does not meet the criteria for a “substantial start.”

Ecojustice, representing SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), filed the petition, arguing the mine’s environmental assessment is outdated and poses significant ecological and cultural risks.

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New regulation aims to boost profitability of mine waste (Timmins Daily Press – November 2024)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Critic says scientific and technical support also needed to create inventory of potential sites

Ontario’s Ministry of Mines announced Thursday it is introducing a new regulation under the Mining Act that would make it easier to recover residual metals and minerals from mine waste that could be found at operating, closed or abandoned mine sites.

According to the ministry, there are hundreds of potential sites in Ontario that host tailings or rock waste which could be available for mineral recovery.

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The fight’s not over, say anti-nuclear First Nations – by Mike Stimpson (NWONewswatch/Northern Ontario Business – November 29, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Onigaming chief says he received many phone calls after the NWMO selection of Ignace-Wabigoon area as nuclear waste repository site

Onigaming First Nation Chief Jeff Copenace says his Ojibwe community has reacted with strong emotions to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s decision to build a nuclear waste facility in the Ignace-Wabigoon area of northwestern Ontario.

“My reaction is a little bit of anger, a little bit of sadness, but I’m not sure that I’m surprised,” Copenace said Nov. 28 just hours after the NWMO announced its selection of the Revell Lake site for its deep geological repository project.

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