Archive | Ontario Mining

The Mining Frontier in Northwestern Ontario: Second Star to the Right, and Straight On Till Morning – by Livio Di Matteo (Northern Econmist – February 10, 2021)

February 19, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining

https://northerneconomist.blogspot.com/

Northwestern Ontario is seeing some good news with respect to the mining sector. One recognition of this was the recent announcement regarding Lakehead University and Impala Canada launching a new mining research project.

The five year project involves the creation of an industrial research chair in mineral exploration to be held by Lakehead University geologist Peter Hollings and it is good to see investment in regional knowledge. The prospects for continued growth have also been put forth by the Community Economic Development Corporation in their new mining readiness strategy which was announced this week.

The strategy is designed to help Thunder Bay capitalize on opportunities from the projected continued development in the region’s mining sector. It estimates that continued development of the sector with Thunder Bay benefiting from supply chain spillovers in mining supply, workforce training, transportation and electrical infrastructure, and research will be substantial. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Thunder Bay, the next mining powerhouse: CEDC releases the 2020 Mining Readiness Strategy (February 9, 2021)

February 19, 2021 in Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Click for the report: https://bit.ly/3sdqteP

February 9, 2021 – Today, the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission released a Mining Readiness Strategy. The study outlines significant regional economic growth in the next 10 years due to 6 currently operating mines and 15 major exploration projects as they advance into operation.

Thunder Bay’s proximity to the active mines, exploration projects, critical minerals, workforce training abilities, service and supply businesses, and available land all play an essential role in being the mining hub for Northwestern Ontario.

“The exploration and mining industry, led by gold, palladium and lithium projects, will be a growing economic driver for Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario,” states John Mason, Project Manager, Mining Services, Thunder Bay CEDC. “The Mining Readiness Strategy will be an important tool to maximize benefit.”

The Mining Readiness Strategy highlights significant benefits to Thunder Bay, such as: Continue Reading →

Legacy mine tailings present mineral recovery opportunity for junior miner – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 17, 2021)

February 18, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Lithium, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Avalon Advanced Materials acquires closed Kapuskasing mine, Matheson processing plant as part of $16-million property package deal

A lithium exploration company wants to dig into a mine waste pile to recover valuable critical minerals that are used in fertilizer applications.

Avalon Advanced Materials is picking up four industrial minerals properties in Northern Ontario, including a former phosphate mine near Kapuskasing and a processing plant in Matheson.

Toronto-based Avalon announced Feb. 17 that it has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire a privately owned numbered company, 2333382 Ontario Inc. Continue Reading →

A frozen February generates the heat of gold exploration activity at Red Lake – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 16, 2021)

February 17, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Red Lake

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Drill rigs are turning at multiple gold and metal projects in northwestern Ontario

Sub-zero temperatures and frozen ground provide the perfect setting for some budding northwestern Ontario gold producers and a bevy of exploration companies to make headway on advancing their respective projects in the Red Lake area.

While Battle North Gold is preparing its Bateman Mine Project for the first gold pour in December, the Toronto miner is also kicking off an extensive regional exploration program at Red Lake.

The company is spending $7 million to explore its “string of pearls” targets and fund up to 22,000 metres of drilling in 2021. Continue Reading →

Agnico Eagle sizes up open-pit mine potentials in Kirkland Lake and Atikokan – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 12, 2021)

February 16, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

International miner pumps up gold exploration efforts on all its properties

A gold deposit near Kirkland Lake will be getting some extra attention by Agnico Eagle this year.

Surging gold prices has the international miner embarking on its “most ambitious exploration program in the company’s history” in budgeting $163 million in 2021 for its operating mines and projects in the development pipeline.

Approximately $14 million of it is being funnelled into its Kirkland Lake Project and a 52,200-metre program, mostly directed at the Upper Beaver deposit. Agnico announced its aggressive gold-finding plans in releasing its 2020 fourth-quarter and year-end results on Feb. 11. Continue Reading →

Red Lake renaissance: After a decade of decay, historic Ontario gold district bouncing back – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 16, 2021)

February 16, 2021 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Red Lake

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

When Australia’s Evolution Mining Ltd. took over the Red Lake gold mine in Northwestern Ontario in early 2020, it found busted equipment, manually operated mine shafts and demoralized employees. Formerly owned by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., the operation was in a shambles.

“This mine was lost within the Goldcorp portfolio,” Evolution chief executive officer Jake Klein said. “It was a tough place to work. It never met its budget or forecast. It never got allocated capital. Exploration development was starved. It was kind of a spiral of negativity.”

Now the Melbourne-based company is trying to turn the mine around, investing hundreds of millions to mechanize, improve and tweak the operation – and protect hundreds of jobs in the process. Continue Reading →

Battle North Gold ready to start Red Lake mine construction – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 9, 2021)

February 11, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Red Lake

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Battle North Gold’s board of directors has approved construction plans for this year to bring Red Lake’s next mine back into production.

The Toronto mine developer is targeting the processing of ore, and maybe the first gold pour, at its Bateman gold mine project by the end of this year with the start of commercial production at the end of 2022. The company released a feasibility study last fall, including a construction budget for this year.

The Bateman Gold Project is the former Phoenix Gold mine project, which operated briefly in 2015 under the flag of Rubicon Minerals until the company went into creditor protection, was restructured, with new management re-evaluating the mineral estimate. The company changed its name and that of the mine project last summer. Continue Reading →

‘Sudbury is a city primed for change’ – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – February 11, 2021)

February 11, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

John Gunn says city will have to transform itself yet again if it hopes to become an exemplary, carbon-neutral community by mid-century.

A lot has changed since John Gunn arrived in Sudbury in the late 1970s. The landscape at that time was “largely barren,” noted the director of the Living With Lakes Centre, leaving his young wife to ponder: “Are we really going to stay here?”

The couple would indeed stick around, with Gunn studying the impacts of acid on lakes and helping to found the Freshwater Ecology Unit at Laurentian University in 1989. Over his career, he would also witness, and document, a remarkable transformation.

The city went from being “the world’s largest point source of sulphur dioxide” and the brunt of lunar comparisons to a model of environmental rebound, as reductions in emissions — now a fraction of what they were in the 1960s — and a concerted regreening effort allowed life to return to the land and water. Continue Reading →

A rival for Sudbury? Company hopes to turn Timmins into the new nickel capital – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – February 10, 2021)

February 11, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Canada Nickel Company describes its Crawford site as the largest nickel sulphide discovery since the 1970s

The CEO and Chairman of Canada Nickel Company told a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce audience on Tuesday that it is coming for Sudbury’s Big Nickel.

The company is in the process of “aggressively advancing” its Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project about 40 kilometres north of Timmins, which it describes as the largest nickel sulphide discovery since the early 1970s.

As part of the ongoing project, Canada Nickel recently launched a subsidiary called NetZero Metals to begin research and development on a processing facility that could produce zero-carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Continue Reading →

Could Timmins become Northern Ontario’s new nickel capital? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 9, 2021)

February 11, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A nickel supercycle is set to begin, thanks to Elon Musk, and Canada Nickel wants to be first to production

An upstart mine developer wouldn’t mind having Timmins knock off Sudbury among the world’s leading nickel mining camps.

Canada Nickel Company chair and CEO Mark Selby thinks his Crawford nickel sulphide deposit is a “global-scale” discovery with multi-million-tonne potential that could be a robust producer for generations.

Selby explained in a Feb. 9 web presentation to a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce audience of the sudden emergence of the Crawford Project in the historic Timmins gold and base metal mining camp. Continue Reading →

KWG forging ahead with Ring of Fire railroad – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – February 7, 2021)

February 8, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Chromium/Platinum Group Metals, Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Capreol native and veteran railroader Tony Marquis came out of retirement to take on a project he believes could “give a real kickstart to rail in Northern Ontario.”

Marquis is now in charge of constructing a rail route to the Ring of Fire, as newly appointed head of Canada Chrome Corporation, a subsidiary of KWG Resources.

“When KWG spawned this new company they staked claims from the Ring of Fire to an area just outside of Nakina, by the Aroland First Nation,” said Marquis. “The claims are on an esker that basically comes straight down, so that’s how the railroad would be built, right upon the esker.” Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Invests in Mineral Exploration and Mining Research at Lakehead University (Ontario Government – February 4, 2021)

February 5, 2021 in Ontario Mining

Funding will support a new industrial research chair and nine new jobs in Thunder Bay

THUNDER BAY – The Ontario government is providing more than $690,000 to help support research and development in mineral exploration and mining at Lakehead University. The funding will support a new industrial research chair and the creation of nine new jobs in Thunder Bay. This investment could eventually lead to the discovery of new mineral resources in Northern Ontario.

“Investing in job creation and research and development at Lakehead University will help drive new solutions and support our government’s commitment to grow the province’s mineral exploration and prospecting industry,” said Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines. “Through this project, we have the potential to attract new investments into the region and drive more economic opportunities here in Northwestern Ontario.”

Dr. Peter Hollings, the current chair of Lakehead University’s Department of Geology, will be named the new Industrial Research Chair in Mineral Exploration. Dr. Hollings and his team will work with Impala Canada and their geology team to analyze nickel, copper and platinum group elements and the associated geological attributes near the Lac Des Iles mine and the surrounding area. Continue Reading →

Dryden-area mine project could deliver 13 years of gold production – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 2, 2021)

February 4, 2021 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Treasury Metals releases preliminary economic assessment of district-scale open-pit and underground mine complex

Treasury Metals is placing a 13-year mine life on a proposed district-sized, open-pit and underground mine between Dryden and Sioux Lookout in northwestern Ontario.

The Toronto mine developer posted positive results from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Goliath Gold Complex, 20 kilometres east of Dryden.

After last summer’s acquisition of the Goldlund property, next to its Goliath Gold Project, Treasury launched a PEA to figure out how to combine both projects into one large mining and processing operation. Continue Reading →

Gold miner launches initiative to advance relationships with Indigenous Peoples – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 3, 2021)

February 3, 2021 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Newmont, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Newmont says Vancouver-based centre will aim to improve relations across company, mining industry

Gold miner Newmont has launched the Global Centre for Indigenous Community Relations to advance relationships between mining companies and Indigenous Peoples within the company and across the industry.

In a Feb. 2 news release, the company said the Vancouver-based centre would act as a way to “promote awareness, education and engagement between industry and Indigenous Peoples.”

“Newmont recognizes the special connection between Indigenous Peoples and the land, and that mining can affect this connection in some challenging ways,” said Tom Palmer, Newmont’s president and CEO, in the release. Continue Reading →

Federal consultation period being extended for Ring of Fire assessment process – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 2, 2021)

February 2, 2021 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ottawa is following Queen’s Park lead in allowing more time for locked-down remote Indigenous communities to express their comments and concerns on the potential impact of mining in the Far North.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) is extending the commenting period beyond the original Jan. 21 deadline to allow the public, Indigenous communities and other organizations to provide input on shaping the terms of reference surrounding the federal Regional Assessment of the Ring of Fire area in the James Bay region.

No new deadline for taking comments has yet been posted on the IAAC’s project home page. Due to pandemic-related meeting and travel restrictions, “the agency will be providing further opportunities to contribute to the planning of the Regional Assessment in the Ring of Fire area, including to the terms of reference,” the IAAC said in an email to Northern Ontario Business. Continue Reading →