Archive | Ontario Mining

Evolution continues with billion-dollar gold growth plan – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – July 16, 2021)

July 16, 2021 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Ontario Mining, Red Lake

https://www.afr.com/

Evolution Mining will invest a billion dollars over the next two years in a bid to halt a four-year decline in output and grow gold production by at least 30 per cent.

The growth strategy will include the $380 million expansion of the Cowal mine in NSW, where an underground mine will be built beneath the existing open pit so long as final government approvals can be obtained.

The new strategy was announced on the day Evolution revealed it produced 680,788 ounces of gold in fiscal 2021; about 20 per cent less than the company produced in fiscal 2017 and the fourth consecutive year of lower gold production. Continue Reading →

Cobalt refinery operators have ambitious plans for ‘Battery Park’ – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 14, 2021)

July 16, 2021 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Cobalt Town, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

First Cobalt seeks to bring manufacturing partner to northeastern Ontario for value-added processing

The company refurbishing a mothballed metals refinery near the town of Cobalt are discussing the idea of creating a Battery Park, catering to the supply chain needs of the North American electric vehicle industry.

Toronto’s First Cobalt wants to produce refined cobalt at the facility, along with a used battery recycling plant, but they’re also strategizing to produce nickel sulfate on the same site, five kilometres outside of town, within the next few years. Both nickel and cobalt are used in electric vehicle battery production.

For First Cobalt, this is a US$60-million expenditure to bring the former Yukon refinery back to life. The facility ran for about a decade – producing cobalt, nickel, copper, silver and other products – before being shuttered in 2015. First Cobalt acquired the shuttered building in 2017. Continue Reading →

Who should pay when projects fail after Indigenous rights claims? – by Shiri Pasternak (Globe and Mail – July 14, 2021)

July 14, 2021 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Ontario Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Shiri Pasternak is a professor of criminology at Toronto’s X University. She has changed this affiliation in solidarity with Indigenous faculty because of the legacy of the institution’s namesake in the residential school system.

In early July, Foxgate Developments Inc. announced that it was shutting down construction at the 1492 Land Back Lane camp on reclaimed Six Nations land in Ontario. The site of the proposed housing subdivision called McKenzie Meadows had been permanently occupied by community members since last summer.

But unfinished business remains. Foxgate wants someone to pay for their losses – specifically, $200-million in damages from the Ontario and federal governments, the Ontario Provincial Police, and others for neglecting to remove the occupation.

They also want governments to affirm that title to the lands is legally held by Foxgate and not subject to a land claim by the Six Nations. Continue Reading →

Sudbury to headquarter new mining network – by Staff (Sudbury Star – July 14, 2021)

July 14, 2021 in Canada Mining, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Research, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Details of $112-million project unveiled on Tuesday

Sudbury will be the centre of a new network aiming to make Canada a leader in sustainable, efficient and safe mining, especially when it comes to so-called critical minerals.

François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced Tuesday the federal government will kick in $40 million towards a $112.4-million project put together by Sudbury-based CEMI, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation Inc.

The money will support the creation of the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network. MICA is a Canadian initiative bringing together people and companies from a wide range of fields to quicken the development and commercialization of innovative technologies to make the mining sector more productive and sustainable. Continue Reading →

Kirkland Lake Gold boasts record second quarter of production – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 12, 2021)

July 13, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Kirkland Lake, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Massive exploration drilling at Detour Lake should lengthen mine’s longevity

Kirkland Lake Gold is sitting pretty to reach its 2020 gold production targets, thanks to a record second quarter.

In a July 12 news release, the Toronto gold miner said, collectively, its three operations at Macassa in Kirkland Lake; Detour Lake, north of Cochrane, and Fosterville in Australia, produced a total of 379,195 ounces, up 15 per cent from the same quarter last year and up 25 per cent from the first quarter this year.

Gold sales reached an average realized price of $1,814 per ounce. Up to the midway point of 2021, production totalled 682,042 ounces, a 3 per cent increase from the first half of 2020, reflecting higher production at Detour Lake and Macassa. Continue Reading →

Mining sector accelerator is latest beneficiary of Federal Liberals ‘net zero’ fund – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 13, 2021)

July 13, 2021 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://financialpost.com/

The project is intended to accelerate the mining sector’s development of innovative and clean technology, according to a government source

Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne is expected on Tuesday to announce a $40-million contribution from the federal government for a new Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator Network, the Financial Post has learned.

The project is intended to accelerate the mining sector’s development of innovative and clean technology, according to a government source, who requested anonymity because the news was not yet public.

The project, to be administered through the Sudbury, Ont.-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, would be the latest in the past few weeks to receive funding from the federal government’s ‘net zero’ Strategic Innovation Fund, an $8-billion fund meant to help industry decarbonize over the next several years. Continue Reading →

Bigger than Voisey’s: Canada Nickel files PEA for Crawford mine in Ontario – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 12, 2021)

July 13, 2021 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.mining.com/

Canada Nickel Company (TSX-V: CNC) announced on Monday it had filed a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Crawford nickel sulphide project in Ontario, almost a year after exploration drilling began at the asset.

The PEA envisions a conventional open pit mine and mill that will produce both nickel and magnetite concentrates over a mine life of 25 years.

The operation is set to generate 2.05 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of nickel-equivalent production in the period — 93% lower than the industry average of 29 tonnes of CO2. Continue Reading →

Vale, Steel to head back to table with facilitator – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 13, 2021)

July 13, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury members have been on strike since June 1; two sides looking for compromise

With a strike by Vale workers now entering its seventh week, the company and union have agreed to bring in an outside party to help them find common ground.

“Over the past few days Vale and the United Steelworkers Local 6500 bargaining committees have been exploring a path forward to the resumption of negotiations,” said Danica Pagnutti, corporate affairs specialist with Vale, in a message to The Star.

“On that front, we will be returning to the negotiation table on July 19 and utilizing a third-party facilitator that was jointly selected by Vale and the USW to assist in these conversations.” Continue Reading →

Timmins gold explorer makes new discovery – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 13, 2021)

July 13, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Galleon Gold intends to release preliminary economic assessment for open-pit mine in September

Galleon Gold has made a new gold discovery at its West Cache Gold Project, west of Timmins, where it wants to develop an open-pit mine.

The Toronto junior miner reports finding multiple gold zones in a mineralized area that it’s calling the South Area Discovery. West Cache is 13 kilometres west of Timmins. Highway 101 runs through the 3,700-hectare property.

The company has been talking up West Cache’s “blue sky potential” since kicking off a 46,000-metre drill program in June 2020 that’s continued well into this year. Continue Reading →

Gold explorers primed for ‘elephant-sized’ gold discoveries in Dubreuilville-Wawa area – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 9, 2021)

July 9, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mine construction, expansion and gold exploration revives historic northeastern Ontario gold mining camp

Gold miners and explorers are talking about discovering “elephant” deposits in the months and years to come in the Dubreuilville and Wawa area of northeastern Ontario.

The archean volcanic rocks of the Michipicoten greenstone belt seem to contain all the right geological ingredients to cook up massive new gold deposits in this historic mining camp that could rival the likes of Red Lake, Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Val d’Or.

Underground expansion is taking place at Alamos’ Island Gold Mine near Dubreuilville, surface construction is underway nearby for an open-pit operation by Argonaut Gold, and two exploration companies are finding gold at depth near some past-producing mines. Continue Reading →

It’s been 50 years since NASA’s Apollo 16 astronauts walked on Sudbury – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – July 9, 2021)

July 9, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Space Mining, Sudbury Basin, Sudbury History

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

They were here to train for their moon mission

This summer marks 50 years since NASA dispatched the Apollo 16 astronauts to Sudbury for field training ahead of their trip to the moon. Commander John Young and pilot Charles Duke, whose spacecraft would launch from Cape Canaveral less than a year later on April 16, 1972, teamed up with experts from Inco to study Sudbury’s impact crater and its unique geological structures.

NASA hoped that the field training, which took place from July 7 to 9, 1971, would prepare the astronauts for lunar surface experiments. It turns out, the excursion didn’t prepare them as much as they’d hoped.

“We were very interested, at the time, in trying to work up the geology of the moon. The great debate in the literature prior to our first moon landing was how much of the moon was formed by volcanic activity and how much of it was formed by impact structures,” said Michael Dence. Continue Reading →

(Updated) Environmental group claims legal victory over De Beers for mercury reporting failures – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 6, 2021)

July 7, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Diamond Mining, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Diamond miner contends mercury never used at Victor operation, chemical element is ‘naturally occurring’ in James Bay region

A victory in court against De Beers Canada “sets a precedent” on reporting and regulating mining pollution in Ontario’s Far North, according to an environmental law organization.

Ecojustice said its “eight-year struggle for accountability” from the global diamond producer came to an end when the company pleaded guilty in a Timmins courtroom last week to one count of failing to provide mercury monitoring data from pollution streaming from its Victor Diamond Mine in the James Bay region.

De Beers Canada operated the open-pit Victor diamond mine, 80 kilometres west of Attawapiskat First Nation, from 2008 to 2019. Continue Reading →

Union fears big job losses from going green, after Ottawa pledges $420 million to Algoma’s electric retrofit – by Tom Blackwell (National Post – July 7, 2021)

July 7, 2021 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal, Ontario Mining, Steel and Stainless Steel Industries

https://nationalpost.com/

Union says 2,700 Northern Ontario steelworkers will bear brunt of Canada’s move away from coal

The announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday seemed like undiluted good news. Ottawa would provide $420 million in aid to Algoma Steel so it could convert its coal-fired furnaces to “electric-arc” technology.

Technology that could cut the greenhouse gasses spewed from the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., plant dramatically — by the equivalent of 900,000 gas-guzzling cars. But not everyone was enthused.

The union for Algoma’s 2,700 workers fears the retrofit as described Monday could mean hundreds of fewer jobs, and that a small northern Ontario city will have to bear a lopsided burden for Canada’s carbon-reduction goals. Continue Reading →

Legal battle brewing in northern Ontario over the protection of Indigenous sacred areas, mining rights – by Logan Turner (CBC News Thunder Bay – July 3, 2021)

July 5, 2021 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Mining Conflict and Opposition, Ontario Mining

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Province, prospectors argue First Nation didn’t fully participate in consultations

As the mining industry heats up in northwestern Ontario, a First Nation in Treaty 9 territory has applied for an injunction to stop mineral exploration and protect a sacred area within their traditional territory.

It’s a case that some say would set a precedent in Canada, establishing the inherent and treaty right of First Nations to protect sacred areas.

Ginoogaming First Nation considers Wiisinin Zaahgi’igan, an area of land roughly 360 square kilometres in size located about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, its “breadbasket, its church, its heartland, its graveyard and its hospital,” according to documents filed by their lawyers. Continue Reading →

Sudbury Vale Strike impacting battery market – by Staff (Sudbury Star – July 2, 2021)

July 2, 2021 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Analyst senses labour dispute could extend for months

A strike at Vale’s Sudbury operations is taxing a nickel market that’s key to powering electric vehicles. The job action by USW Local 6500 is now entering its second month, with no new contract talks planned.

Bloomberg News notes that Sudbury is one of the world’s few producers of nickel pellet, a form used to produce alloys for aerospace, electronic and nuclear industries.

Production at Vale’s northeast Ontario operation halted when unionized workers went on strike on June 1. The disruption is driving consumers to tap battery-grade nickel briquette as an alternative. Continue Reading →