Ontario Mining – Page 238 – Republic of Mining

[Sudbury]Mining to recover in 2013, board predicts – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 21, 2013)

February 21, 2013

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

New developments in the mining industry in 2013 will contribute to a predicted 1.7% growth in real gross domestic product in Sudbury, up from 0.6% in 2012, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

Sudbury was second from the bottom in economic performance of 28 census metropolitan areas last year, but the board is forecasting it will move up to 22 in 2013. GDP is a measure of the overall economic activity — the value of goods and services produced — within an economy.

Sudbury’s economy was held back last year by significant declines in several sectors, said Jane McIntyre, an economist with the Conference Board of Canada. McIntyre collects data for several cities, Sudbury among them.

In 2011, there was strong growth in the primary and utilities sector, mostly mining, as Vale recovered from the effects of a year-long strike by United Steelworkers.

Weaker metal prices last year, as well as the temporary shutdowns early in the year at Vale mines and the closing of the Frood portion of Frood-Stobie Mine at the end of the year, took a “chunk” out of that sector in 2013.

Detour Lake pours first gold bars, set to become Canada’s biggest producer – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2013)

February 20, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Canada’s newest mega-gold mine poured its first gold bars on Tuesday, as the Detour Lake project in Northern Ontario reached production alongside volatile gold prices holding just above $1,600 an ounce.

Detour Gold Corp., the owner and operator of the huge open-pit mine, poured four gold bars at the Cochrane, Ont., project for a total of 2,000 ounces of the precious metal. The spot value of that gold was some $3.2-million (U.S.) at current gold prices.

The mine was built over 26 months and comes into being about six years after Detour bought the properties. It will vie for top spot with Canada’s largest gold mines, and has the potential to be expanded further under the right conditions.

“We do have the reserves to expand more, no doubt in my mind,” said Gerald Panneton, the president, chief executive and founder of the company he took public six years ago on the Toronto Stock Exchange. “Are we going to do it? It’s a question of economics and market. We will probably take a decision in a couple of years.”

When it went public in 2007, Detour Gold stock was trading at just below $4 a share, a fraction of the $20.75 where it closed on Tuesday. When the company was born, the price of gold was around $650 an ounce, or less than half what it is today.

New economy community-focused, planning board told – (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – February 20, 2013)

February 20, 2013

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

There will be nearly 7,000 additional mining jobs in Northern Ontario by 2020, says a Conference Board of Canada study released last month. And to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead, economist Thomas Townsend said the new economy will have to be more localized and more community-focused.

Townsend, president and founder of Townsend-Danis Advantage, provided the keynote address during the Think Globally, Act Locally presentation hosted by the North Superior Workforce Planning Board in Thunder Bay on Tuesday.

Townsend explained that the labour force has to be adaptive to changing economic forces, and that adaptation has to start at the local level. “It starts with the people and their capabilities and skills that are currently here, but it also includes their aspirations,” Townsend said during an interview following his address.

“The development of the region will occur, but it has to match with skills people have in order to fit with that development and the kinds of things they want to do with their life, the kinds of lives they want to lead, and the kinds of communities they want to form.”

Townsend said this will involve reading the future, changing the system for positive adjustment, readying the region and making it happen.

Clement won’t allow Ring of Fire to be ‘mired in uncertainty’ – CBC News Thunder Bay (February 19, 2013)

February 20, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Tony Clement calls mineral-rich Ring of Fire project a ‘complex, generational opportunity’

Tony Clement, Canada’s Treasury Board president and FedNor minister, has officially taken on federal responsibility for the massive Ring of Fire mineral discovery in northern Ontario.

Speaking Tuesday afternoon to members of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, Clement said he would be co-ordinating the government’s engagement with stakeholders, in conjunction with several federal ministries such as Aboriginal Affairs, Industry, Natural Resources, Environment, Health, and Infrastructure.

Clement said he is very familiar with the development because he is also responsible for FedNor, the regional development agency for northern Ontario. The minister told reporters he planned to meet soon with first nations’ leaders to discuss issues concerning the Ring of Fire.

Project will be ‘complex’

Clement said he didn’t expect his new job to be “easy-peasy,” but he added he is looking forward to moving the project ahead. Clement called the mineral-rich area in northwestern Ontario “a generational opportunity,” offering the prospect of several decades of mining and thousands of jobs.

Tony Clement takes on responsibility for controversial Ring of Fire – by Peter Koven (National Post – February 20, 2013)

February 20, 2013

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — The federal government is winning accolades for finally naming a point man on the Ring of Fire, a massive mining development in Northern Ontario with many complex issues to unravel.

Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board and head of a federal development organization for Northern Ontario, announced Tuesday that he will take the lead role on the file. He said he was asked to do so by the prime minister.

“There is a lot at stake and we cannot afford to allow this development to stall and become mired in paralysis and uncertainty,” he said in a speech in Thunder Bay.

The Ring of Fire, located in the James Bay Lowlands, is thought to contain $30-billion to $50-billion worth of minerals and is poised to be North America’s first significant source of chromite. A large mining company, Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., is prepared to spend more than US$3-billion to build a mine and key infrastructure in the region.

The discovery of the Ring of Fire created a brief euphoria in 2007 and 2008 as the potential economic benefits of the region sunk in. But development has been extremely slow since then. Cliffs, along with the federal and provincial governments, have struggled to manage very challenging issues around First Nations involvement, environmental management and infrastructure.

Feds coy on plan for Ring – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 20, 2013)

February 20, 2013

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

It would be putting “the cart before the horse” to draw con-c lusions about how much money the federal government would spend to develop infrastructure for the Ring of Fire, or its dialogue with aboriginal people about the development, says Tony Clement.

The first order of business for the Treasury Board president, appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week to spearhead federal involvement in the massive project, is to listen, Clement told The Sudbury Star on Tuesday.

Clement, who is also the minister responsible for FedNor, spoke at lunch to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, telling the business crowd the Ring of Fire “is no ordinary mine development.”

The chromite deposits, located in the James Bay Lowlands, have the potential to create 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, and be a source of revenue for Northern Ontario and beyond for decades, said Clement.

Cliffs Natural Resources, one of the companies seeking to open a mine in the Ring of Fire, wants to build a chromite smelter in Capreol, creating up to 500 jobs in the Sudbury area. Next to the Alberta tar sands, the Ring of Fire chromite deposits represent the largest natural resource project in Canada.

[FedNor Minister] Clement takes charge in Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 19, 2013)

February 19, 2013

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Tony Clement came to Thunder Bay with a take-charge attitude on the Ring of Fire. “It’s time to push the refresh button on this opportunity,” said the FedNor and federal Treasury Board president during a speech to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, Feb. 19.

Calling the Far North exploration camp “a generational opportunity,” Clement said he’s been instructed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to “coordinate and lead our government’s engagement on this file.”

Clement said the potential to mine in this remote region could go on for “several decades” and the ripple effect from the mineral wealth will be felt beyond Ontario. “There is a lot at stake and we cannot afford to allow this development to stall and become mired in paralysis and uncertainty.”

Progress on exploration has been hampered by disagreements with area First Nation on consultation issues and over the environmental assessment process on potentially large-scale mine and infrastructure developments in the James Bay lowlands.

OMA directors gain a fresh view of Ontario’s changing political landscape

February 19, 2013

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

As we wait to see what the first Throne Speech from Ontario’s new Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, which is being delivered today, and a pending budget really mean, Ontario Mining Association members were advised, at a recent board meeting, the political landscape has changed irrevocably. “Throw away the old playbook because right now conventional wisdom is worth nothing,” Darrell Bricker, Chief Executive Officer of Ipsos Global Public Affairs told the OMA.

His presentation “The Ontario Political Landscape” showed how the steady growth of Western Canada as an economic force and large scale immigration has changed the political environment. He noted that 90% of Canadians are now governed at the provincial level by women. There are female premiers in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta (Canada’s four most populous provinces) and Newfoundland.

Mr. Bricker, who has a long career in public opinion research including time in the Prime Minister’s Office, said the 30 new seats that will be in House of Commons for the next federal election demonstrate the change. Fifteen of the new seats are in Ontario, six in B.C. and six in Alberta and almost all of these seats are in the suburbs of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

Speaking Notes for The Honourable Tony Clement Minister for FedNor – SPEECH TO THE THUNDER BAY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (February 19, 2013)

February 19, 2013

References to the Ring of Fire

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Thank you Ed (Schmidtke) for that kind introduction. And thank you to our hosts for this afternoon business luncheon, the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.

It’s great to be back in Thunder Bay. These are truly exciting times for the city and the region.

There is a buzz in the air and a sense of dynamism that, as Minister for FedNor and someone who has been criss-crossing Northern Ontario since 2006, gives me great satisfaction.

I just came from an announcement at the Thunder Bay Airport which exemplifies this energy and optimism. As many of you know the Thunder Bay Airport Authority has gone above and beyond the call of your run-of-the-mill airport manager.

It has aggressively expanded beyond its local market and its original mandate: it manages and offers consulting services to other airports, it sells – I should say exports – aviation software services across North America and the Caribbean, and it’s the exclusive distributor for a Swiss manufacturer of airport service maintenance equipment.

Cree woman dying of cancer last one standing on Attawapiskat diamond mine blockade – by Jorge Barrera (APTN National News – February 16, 2013)

November 4, 2015February 18, 2013

http://aptn.ca/pages/news/

ATTAWAPISKAT– Inside the wood stove-warmed canvas tent beside the barricades on the ice road leading to the De Beers diamond mine, Rebecca Iahtail says she’s dying from cancer. There are several women sitting around Iahtail, three men, including Iahtail’s partner Noah, at the tent’s entrance. The conversation is almost totally in Cree.

Spruce boughs and canvas are used as ground cover. Inside the tent a single candle burns next to an ashtray and an empty coffee cup. The flame glints softly off Iahtail’s glasses, her round face half shadow, half glow.

The wood stove pops and hisses. The tinny sound of a pop tune can be heard coming from the headphones of a teenage girl. It’s Friday night in Attawapiskat, day six of the blockade is about to come to an end.

Exhaust fumes, illuminated by headlights, float across the ice road. Tail lights streak through the darkness. A number of SUVs and pick-up trucks are buzzing between the barricades and the community, which is a couple of kilometres away.

The news that De Beers obtained a court injunction to break the blockade has triggered rumours of impending arrests by the OPP. Iahtail says she has colon cancer and was given three years left to live. A mother to an 11 year-old son who is in Moose Factory at a hockey tournament, Iahtail says her impending death is part of the reason why she’s decided to stay until the end.

Frozen out of the Ring of Fire – by David McLaren (Sudbury Star – February 16, 2013)

February 18, 2013

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Ring of Fire — it sounds like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Welcome to Mordor, Ont., an area of 5,120 square kilometres in the James Bay watershed chock full of nickel, copper, zinc, gold, palladium and chromium — especially chromium.

The Lords of the Ring are some 30 exploration companies, such as KWG Resources and Noront Resources, which have staked more than 31,000 claims. Cliffs Natural Resources from Ohio is the principal mining company. They’re after chromium, a vital ingredient in stainless steel. (Cliffs is proposing build a chromite smelter in Capreol, creating 400 to 500 jobs).

But others are coming in, including the Chinese state-owned Sinocan Resources Corp. The Crown, in this realm, has two heads: Stephen Harper and Kathleen Wynne.

Ottawa has responsibility for some environmental oversight through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and Ontario collects royalties, or will after the 10-year tax holiday it gives remote mines.

In fact, Ontario’s mining tax regime is so generous compared to other provinces that it amounts to a subsidy. (Throw in the oilsands and the Crown gives more money to mining companies than it spends on First Nations health, education and housing.) And the federal government’s recent omnibus bills have so severely crippled its environmental regulatory muscle that you might as well hang a sign on the north that says, “(Ring of ) Fire Sale”.

New [Ontario] mines minister, new hope for Cliffs? – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 15, 2013)

February 15, 2013

Cliffs Natural Resources hopes a restructured provincial government with Michael Gravelle at the helm of the Northern Development and Mines can kick-start talks on advancing its Ring of Fire chromite project.

During the company’s fourth quarter conference call on Feb. 13, Cliffs chairman Joseph Carrabba said while the project timelines for Black Thor are on schedule, other “critical elements” are beyond the company’s control.

“Last May, we signed a term sheet with the province that among other things enabled the decision to locate the furnace operation in (Sudbury) Ontario,” said Carrabba.

“While negotiations of a binding agreement with the government have slowed and dialogue has been suspended during the provincial government transition, recent conversations with newly seated cabinet minister Gravelle indicates the province is committed to get a deal done.”

The Ontario government has said precious little since that May news conference in Sudbury when then-mines minister Rick Bartolucci announced Cliffs was locating the $1.8-billion ferrochrome smelter in the city as part of the Cleveland miner’s larger $3.3-billion mines and mill investment in Ontario.

Canadian native protesters block road to De Beers mine – Reuters (MiningWeekly.com – February 13, 2013)

November 4, 2015February 14, 2013

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO – Native protesters have blocked the winter access road to De Beers’ Victor mine in Northern Canada for the second time in less than two weeks, raising concerns over supplying the diamond project before the spring thaw makes the site inaccessible except by air, the company said on Wednesday.

De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American, has a window of about 45 days to complete its winter transportation programme on the ice road. The company’s trucks have so far faced disruptions on eight of 12 days since the programme was launched.

De Beers Canada has notified the protesters and the local community of a potential legal action in an effort to regain control of the transport corridor for fuel, machinery and other large supplies, spokesperson Tom Ormsby told Reuters.

“We need action at this point to get the road open, that’s our priority,” said Ormsby. “There will be economic consequences for all involved if we cannot successfully complete this programme, and it impacts the operation of the mine.”

The most recent barricade was set up on Sunday by a small group of protesters who are demanding the company provide compensation for the loss of traditional trap line territory.

Harvey Yesno: A visionary leader takes the reigns of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 2013)

February 13, 2013

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Making a comeback into First Nations politics was definitely not in Harvey Yesno’s plans. But the opportunity to make an impact at a pivotal time in the North’s history and lay a foundation of prosperity and self-determination for generations to come was something he could not pass up.

The 57-year-old Yesno was sworn in as grand chief of the Thunder Bay-based Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) last August, replacing Stan Beardy who was elected the new Ontario regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

To make a run for office, Yesno left his position as director for Aboriginal community and stakeholder relations with the province’s Ring of Fire Secretariat office. Prior to that, he had been the well-known president and CEO of the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund since 1993. “I was reluctant to come back after a 21-year absence in the political arena,” said Yesno, “but some things have not really changed and advanced.”

Conditions remain the same in many of the 49 Ojibway, Cree and Ojicree communities in the Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 territories: high unemployment, drug addiction, high cost of living, inaccessibility, inadequate housing, and revenue streams largely dependent on government transfer payments.

Attawakpiskat’s De Beers protest ill-directed – by Lorne Gunter (Toronto Sun – February 13, 2013)

November 4, 2015February 13, 2013

http://www.torontosun.com/home

On Sunday evening, just three days after an earlier blockade had been lifted, a group of about 12 aboriginal protesters from Attawapiskat, Ont., once again closed the winter road to the De Beers diamond mine 90 km west of the First Nations settlement. De Beers counts on the frozen road to resupply fuel, building materials and heavy equipment for the entire year since the ground around the giant excavation is too soft in summer to permit heavy loads.

This second blockade seems to be the doing a single family — the Edwards. And they claim their grievance with De Beers is over lack of compensation from miners for infringing on the family’s long-time traplines.

But if that’s their complaint, their grievance is with their own leaders at Attawapiskat, not with De Beers.

In late 2005, three years before the mine officially opened, De Beers concluded an “impact benefit agreement” (IBA) with Attawapiskat leaders. The IBA was approved in a referendum by 85% of residents.

Since that time, De Beers has paid money into a trust administered by the band council. The company is currently putting in an average of $3 million annually so the band has money to pay claims of lost livelihood and income from mine activity — precisely like the Edwards family.