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Vale Base Metals names new CEO – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 23, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Former Barrick, Xstrata executive Shaun Usmar to steer Brazilian miner’s nickel, copper operations

Shaun Usmar, a mining executive with more than three decades of global experience, has been selected CEO of Vale Base Metals. He succeeds Deshnee Naidoo, who stepped down last March. Usmar will assume his new role at the end of this year and will be based in Toronto.

Vale Base Metals is a spinoff of Brazil’s Vale SA and runs its global base metals assets. It is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel, copper and cobalt with Canadian operations in Sudbury, Thompson, Man, and Voisey’s Bay, Labrador.

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Construction begins on Sudbury’s newest mine – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 19, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Development on phase one of Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project now underway

On an old brownfield site west of Sudbury, earth-moving equipment has started carving out the early structure of what will eventually become the city’s newest nickel-copper mine.

Work on Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project, located about a 30-minute drive west of Sudbury, got underway in mid-July. A warm, sunny afternoon on July 18 gave company executives the perfect opportunity to show off their development plans to a group of visitors.

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Canada Nickel outlines new million-tonne nickel resource near Timmins – Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 19, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

BHP’s pain in mothballing Australian nickel mines is Canada Nickel’s gain, says CEO Mark Selby

Bad news for global miner BHP is great news for Canada Nickel and its ambitious plan to roll out a series of nickel projects in the Timmins area over the next decade, including a new one-million tonne resource south of the city.

“One hundred per cent,” said Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby in a recent interview with CRUX Investor in reacting to the blue sky opportunity he sees for his company on the news that BHP is shutting down its Western Australian nickel projects until 2027, blaming plummeting metal prices and world oversupply of nickel.

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Vale to create a new open-pit mine in Sudbury – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – July 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Stobie project is expected to cost $205 million over the next four years and could be a model for future projects in the basin

Vale Base Metals has announced it is going to rejuvenate the historic Stobie Mine property with the creation of a new open pit mine. And the work will be carried out using several local contractors who will employ USW Local 6500 members to carry out the work.

Gord Gilpin, director of Ontario Operations for Vale Base Metals, said the new mine will be a significant four-year project carried out at a cost of more than $200 million.

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Sudbury’s Stobie Pit Mine getting new life above ground (CBC News Sudbury – July 17, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Vale has partnered with First Nations, Steelworkers and an operator to start an open-pit mine at old site

What’s old is new. Vale Base Metals announced Wednesday it will start operations at an open-pit mine at the site of the old Stobie Mine in Greater Sudbury.

The $205 million project will be a partnership between Vale, Thiess Mining, United Steel Workers and local First Nations. It’s expected to produce 300,000 tonnes of ore, primarily nickel and copper, by the end of 2024. The previous Stobie Mine operated underground from 1914 to 2017, though it also began as an open pit mine in 1890.

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Hearst-area graphite deposit holder gets excited about mining – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 17, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Zentek produces ultra-high 99.9 per cent result from new purification process

A new refining process has reinvigorated Zentek’s interest in mining and processing graphite at its Albany project in the Hearst area. The Guelph technology company said it’s produced an ultra-high purified result of 99.99915 per cent that was taken from a sample extracted from the Northern Ontario graphite deposit, near Constance Lake First Nation.

Zentek reported July 17 that the “five nines” purity material was achieved from a specialized graphite purification process using a 100-gram sample taken from Albany and used during pilot plant trials back in 2017.

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First Nation court action against Ontario could invalidate all mining claims in the province – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A court action launched by Grassy Narrows First Nation against Ontario could invalidate all mining claims in the province, a lawyer representing the Indigenous group said – a scenario that could cause havoc for the industry.

Grassy Narrows on Friday served Ontario with a notice of application asking the Ontario Superior Court to mandate individuals and companies to consult with the First Nation before seeking mining claims. The Globe and Mail earlier in the week reported that the legal action was pending.

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Wawa gold explorer ready to move beyond assay tampering scandal – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Red Pine Exploration resets Wawa Gold Project with a clean assay database, new CEO, and hopes for an underground mine

After a drill data tampering scandal in May, Red Pine Exploration said it’s scrubbed its assay library clean and is ready to move on with new CEO to steer its Wawa Gold Project. The Toronto junior miner endured a harrowing two months when it retracted years of reported drill results, dating back to Red Pine’s acquisition of the project in 2014.

The company points the finger of blame at former CEO Quentin Yarie for having selectively altered results coming back from the assay lab, recording them as higher grade than they actually were, and then filing them into the company’s drill database.

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High suicide rate exists among miners, research indicates – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 8, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Local study revealed one in 10 had considered taking their own lives, and a similar percentage had PTSD

A recent report from the U.S. that points to a high suicide rate among miners comes as sobering but not surprising news to folks locally who have done some of their own research on mental-health issues within the industry.

“It’s not a shock but it continues to sadden me that we are seeing those kind of numbers,” said Michel Lariviere, a Laurentian Unversity professor who co-authored a study through the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health on levels of stress, depression and suicidal tendency among workers in this field. “And in a community that is still very much a mining community, it reflects on collective wellbeing for an entire city.”

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Grassy Narrows First Nation to launch legal action against Ontario to mandate consultation on mining claims – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 11, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A Northern Ontario First Nation plans to launch a legal action against the province later this week aimed at requiring the mining industry to consult with the Indigenous people before staking claims.

Ontario’s free-entry system makes it easy for individuals and companies to file a claim online in return for a nominal fee. On Friday, Grassy Narrows will hold a press conference at Queen’s Park, announcing that it has served the province in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

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Marathon mine developer eyes 2025 construction start – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 4, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Generation Mining focusing on copper amid permitting delays, hunt to secure project financing

Generation Mining president-CEO Jamie Levy wants to assure all that the Marathon palladium-copper mine will get built. Ever since the Toronto junior miner first appeared on the north shore of Lake Superior in 2019, the company has been a press release-generating machine with its ambitious plans for an open-pit operation.

But in recent months, there’s been a lull in news flow that’s prompted a few concerned investors to ask Levy if the project is stalled.

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Blood nickel: What electric-vehicle hunger has wrought, and how Canada can help – by Mark Selby (Globe and Mail – July 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.

Blood diamonds, blood cobalt, and now blood nickel. Governments leading the global shift toward electric vehicles promise cleaner cities and a new era of sustainable energy and improved resource usage.

But just as governments promote EVs on environmental grounds, manufacturers are forced to source nickel from a region enabling the wanton destruction of ecologically sensitive lands, reckless treatment of workers, and the fundamental deterioration of living conditions. There is only one solution to this problem: the world needs more Canadian nickel.

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Vale Picks Mining Veteran Usmar to Lead Base Metals Turnaround – by Mariana Durao, Thomas Biesheuvel and Dinesh Nair (Bloomberg News – July 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Vale SA has selected veteran mining executive Shaun Usmar to take the helm of its base metals division as the Brazilian metals producer seeks to boost copper and nickel production, according to people familiar with the matter.

The board of the Rio de Janeiro-based company chose Usmar to head Vale Base Metals, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The appointment has yet to be confirmed and it’s possible things could change, one of the people said.

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Community support is vital, Frontier Lithium official says – by Mike Stimpson (Northern Ontario Business – June 28, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Company reps engaging communities on details of lithium project north of Red Lake

Community consultation is a key part of Frontier Lithium’s big project in northwestern Ontario, a spokesperson for the Sudbury-headquartered mining company said June 27.

“We actually have been really out there in communities, ramping up our engagement and consultation and information sharing about the project over the last six months,” Clara Lauziere, Frontier’s sustainability director, told Dougall Media.

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Northwest lithium project has opposition – by Mike Stimpson NWO News Watch – June 26, 2024)

https://www.nwonewswatch.com/

An online petition started by a Sandy Lake First Nation member has collected more than 12,000 signatures as of June 26.

SANDY LAKE – An online petition against Frontier Lithium’s PAK Project is nearing its goal of 15,000 signatures, but Gary Mamagesic likely won’t be adding his name to the list.

Not that the Sandy Lake First Nation member thinks open-pit lithium extraction south of his community is a good idea. Mamagesic said he grew up in Red Lake, where his father worked at an open-pit mine, so he has seen the ugliness of open-pit mining. Then there are his concerns about environmental impacts.

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