Archive | Ontario Mining

[Ferrochrome Processing Facility] Noront chooses Sault Ste. Marie – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – May 7, 2019)

May 7, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Chromium/Platinum Group Metals, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.saultstar.com/

Noront Resources has selected Sault Ste. Marie to be the host of its ferrochrome processing facility. CEO Alan Coutts said the lower operating costs over the 100-year period, is what set Sault Ste. Marie out from Timmins.

Sault Ste. Marie will be the home of a new ferrochrome processing facility, said Alan Coutts, CEO of Noront Resources.

He made the official announcement at city hall Tuesday morning, concluding that the final analysis completed between the shortlisted cities – Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins – suggests while Timmins may have lower capital expenditure costs, Sault Ste. Marie’s operating costs will be lower, a significant factor for the 100-year operation.

The lower operating costs is what tipped the balance in Sault Ste. Marie’s favour, he said. As well, the completion of Algoma’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings allowed Noront Resources to have thorough discussions with the steelmaker’s new owners to ensure that a long-term lease arrangement between the two parties could be reached. Continue Reading →

Sudbury: Ontario hears from mining executives about electricity prices (CBC News Sudbury – May 6, 2019)

May 7, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Power Issues, Ontario Mining

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

Consultation sessions recently held in Sudbury

Some mining officials say the key to mining success in Ontario is keeping electricity prices competitive.

On Friday, consultation sessions were held in Sudbury between industry stakeholders and the provincial government. Markham MPP Paul Calandra and Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, met with mining officials.

“We want to hear first hand from the mining sector on how we can improve our electricity system to make businesses more competitive,” Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Greg Rickford said. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Noront Selects Sault Ste. Marie Site for Ferrochrome Production Facility

May 7, 2019 in Chromium/Platinum Group Metals, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

TORONTO, May 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Noront Resources Ltd. (“Noront” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture: NOT) has selected the Algoma Steel Inc. site in Sault Ste. Marie for its Ferrochrome Production Facility (FPF). The Timmins Kidd Metsite is no longer being considered.

Four communities participated in the initial bidding process which began in February 2018. All submissions were evaluated based on a comprehensive set of criteria determined by Noront and the engineering firm Hatch, which was engaged to assist in the adjudication process. Critical factors included environmental and site suitability, capital costs, operating costs and an assessment of community acceptance for hosting the facility.

Sudbury and Thunder Bay were eliminated in July of 2018. After a thorough and rigorous analysis of the two remaining sites in Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins, the Timmins Kidd Metsite was eliminated as well. A further refinement of the operating and capital costs of the final sites was completed with the following results: Continue Reading →

High-grade discoveries open “whole new chapter” at Kirkland Lake mine: Exploration drilling probes unexplored areas at Macassa’s South Mine Complex – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 2, 2019)

May 2, 2019 in Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Kirkland Lake, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Kirkland Lake’s Macassa Mine doesn’t appear to be relinquishing its status as one the world’s richest gold mines. Kirkland Lake Gold released some eye-popping high-grade drill intercepts from its ongoing underground exploration and expansion project within the South Mine Complex (SMC).

In an May 2 news release, the company highlighted the results from 73 drill holes and nearly 30,000 metres worth of drilling from the east and west exploration drifts on the mine’s 5300-foot and 5700-foot level.

Some of the high-grade intersections include 118.8 grams per tonne (g/t) over a 2.0 metre core length at SMC, and 4,772 g/t over a 2.0-metre length from an identified zone, west of the current resource. A 1.8-metre section from another hole yielded 2,458.6 g/t in the lower complex and to the east and at depth. Continue Reading →

Innovation centre planning $4M expansion in Sudbury: NORCAT plans above-ground addition to its underground centre to meet demand – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 30, 2019)

April 30, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

NORCAT is planning a $4-million expansion at its Sudbury underground centre to meet growing demand for the development, testing and commercialization of new mining technologies.

Situated northwest of the city in the community of Onaping, the underground facility was established in 1997 at the former operating Fecunis Adit Mine, previously owned by Falconbridge (now Glencore).

Don Duval, NORCAT’s CEO, noted the organization is the only non-profit regional innovation centre globally to have an operating mine dedicated to helping startup companies develop, test and demonstrate emerging technologies in an operating mine environment. Continue Reading →

Ideas: The Sudbury Effect: Lessons from a regreened city (CBC Radio Ideas – April 22, 2019)

April 28, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

 

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/

Forty years ago, nickel mines and smelters around Sudbury, a relatively small city in northern Ontario, had created one of the most dramatic examples of environmental devastation in the history of our planet. The nearby landscape appeared dead and blackened.

Today, Sudbury boasts some of the cleanest air of any city in Ontario. Formerly acidified lakes — and there are 330 substantial lakes within the city limits alone — have come back to life. The surrounding countryside is now green and forested.

“The big push at the beginning was liming large tracts of land,” explains Tina McCaffrey, supervisor of Greater Sudbury’s ‘re-greening’ program. Once the lime has neutralized the acids in the soil, workers plant grass seeds and, later, tree saplings. The process of diversifying and restoring the ecosystem takes decades, and is still underway. Continue Reading →

Sudbury: No charges to be laid against Vale after investigation of potentially toxic slag run-off – by Erik White (CBC News Sudbury – April 26, 2019)

April 26, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

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

Mining company currently building new drainage system to contain slag run-off

Environment Canada has decided not to lay charges against Vale for potentially dangerous run-off leaking from its Sudbury slag piles. But the mining company is currently installing a new system for controlling the slag seepage, work it says is unrelated to the government investigation.

Environment Canada refused an interview with CBC, but said in a statement that it began investigating contaminated water coming from the Sudbury slag pile after a complaint from the public in 2012.

Court documents filed to obtain a search warrant for Vale offices in 2015 allege that someone discovered green foam in a creek near the slag piles on Big Nickel Mine Road that had high levels of nickel and other metals. Continue Reading →

Pure Gold revives a past producer in the Red Lake camp – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 25, 2019)

April 25, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Red Lake

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mine developer aiming for commercial production at Madsen Mine project in 2020

Six years ago, as board members at Pure Gold Mining were going through a checklist spelling out the ideal attributes of a potential exploration property, they quickly realized the past-producing Red Lake Madsen Mine had it all.

“We wanted to be in a good, stable jurisdiction, we wanted a project that was high-grade, and we wanted access to infrastructure,” said Darin Labrenz, president, CEO and director at Pure Gold. “So, something that we could not only explore, but ultimately build.”

In operation between 1938 and 1974, Madsen is the second largest producer in the Red Lake camp, consecutively producing 2.5 million ounces of gold over 36 years. Continue Reading →

Sudbury lithium miner aims to take its place on battery production stage – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 24, 2019)

April 25, 2019 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Lithium, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Frontier Lithium teams with Queen’s University, Glencore on developing refining process

A Sudbury lithium exploration company has struck a partnership with Queen’s University and Glencore to devise a way to produce lithium hydroxide for the North American battery industry.

Frontier Lithium has inked a strategic partnership agreement to work with XPS Expert Process Solutions, a Glencore spinoff company, and Queen’s University professor Ahmad Ghahreman to develop a process to refine spodumene concentrate into lithium hydroxide.

The collaborative testing project is built around Frontier Lithium’s PAK project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake in northwestern Ontario. The company claims its 6,976-hectare property is the highest grade lithium deposit in North America. Continue Reading →

Australians drawn to Iroquois Falls for nickel – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 18, 2019)

April 23, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Junior Exploration Sector, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Perth explorer has high production hopes in expanding holdings in northeastern Ontario

A Sudbury junior miner has flipped a northeastern Ontario base metal property to an Australian exploration outfit.

Transition Metals announced April 15 that it has completed the sale of the Dundonald nickel-copper-near Iroquois Falls to Legendary Ore Mining. Legendary is a subsidiary of VaniCom of Perth, Western Australia. The two parties signed a binding letter of intent last August.

The terms of the sale involved an initial payment of $50,000 to Transition Metals at the signing the letter of intent followed by a second payment of $100,000 upon closing the definitive purchase agreement. Continue Reading →

Thunder Bay: Project to build permanent road to northern Ontario First Nation ‘the right move’ chief says – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 18, 2019)

April 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

https://www.cbc.ca/

The chief of a northern Ontario First Nation says an ongoing project to build an all-season road to the community will help in many ways.

Marten Falls, which is about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, is in the midst of the provincial environmental assessment process to construct a thoroughfare that will link the remote First Nation to the provincial highway system north of Nakina.

“There’s a lot of socio-economic benefits that would derive from having an all-weather road to the community,” said Chief Bruce Achneepineskum, adding that those would include lowering the cost of freight, making it easier for community members to travel and better positioning the First Nation to take advantage of various economic development opportunities in the forestry, mining and tourism sectors. Continue Reading →

Thunder Bay: Ring of Fire development to be ‘slow, contested’ if Far North Act replacement stands as-is, legal expert says – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 17,, 2019)

April 17, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Ontario Far North Act, Ontario Mining, Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

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

Province reviewing Far North Act to reduce ‘red tape’ over development

Ontario’s proposed revamping of legislation that dictates how development proceeds in the province’s far north doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of First Nations and will likely lead to “renewed conflict” with Indigenous communities, according to an environmental law expert.

That’s among the conclusions submitted by Dayna Scott, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall and a co-director of the law school’s environmental justice and sustainability clinic to the ongoing review of the Far North Act.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is reviewing the 2010 legislation with an eye on repealing it, “with a view to reducing red tape and restrictions on important economic development projects in the far north.” Continue Reading →

THE DRIFT: The cold, hard realities of mining on the moon: Greg Baiden Sudbury mining engineer takes pragmatic approach to space mining – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 10, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Space Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Greg Baiden once introduced himself at a NASA space mining conference in California as a “recovering asteroid miner.” The CEO of Penguin Automated Systems had been enlisted by the agency to bring a healthy dose of pragmatism to a roomful of high-minded scientists and entrepreneurs about the realities of mining in a hostile and extreme environment.

After listening to more than his share of science fiction stories over the years, Baiden felt he had to inject some Sudbury sensibility to the wider discussion.

So to establish his credentials, Baiden began his presentation by mentioning that his former employer, Inco (now Vale), has been mining the remnants of an asteroid impact in Sudbury for the past 130 years. Continue Reading →

Ontario changes regulations on who pays to upgrade power lines (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 15, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Power Issues, Ontario Mining

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

Changes approved by the Ontario Energy Board could make upgrades to power lines across the province cheaper for industries setting up shop in far-flung parts of the province.

The OEB recently overhauled the rules on who pays for the upgrades to power lines. Previously, if industry required a line to be upgraded, it would bear the full cost of the upgrade. Now, a company only has to pay a portion of the upgrade.

Iain Angus, the co-chair of the energy task force with Common Voice Northwest, said one example is an upgrade needed on the power line to Greenstone. Continue Reading →

Diamonds in the Rough: Meet Canada’s all-female mine rescue team – by Len Gillis (Sudbury Northern Life – April 12, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Women in Mining

https://www.sudbury.com/

It was what happened in Sudbury three years ago that inspired a group of women to do something that had made them the darlings of the mine rescue world. Mine rescuer Kari Lentowicz of Saskatchewan was in Sudbury this week and remembered it well.

“Back in 2016 we were here in Sudbury at the International Mines Rescue Competition,” said Lentowicz on Wednesday when she spoke at the Workplace Safety North Mining Health and Safety conference.

“In that competition there were 189 competitors. Five were women. That was it.” That’s what prompted her to sit down with a group of friends and other mine rescue women to talk about creating their own all-female team of certified mine rescuers, something Lentowicz had been thinking about for several years. Continue Reading →