Ontario Mining – Page 252 – Republic of Mining

Cliffs in early stages of EA (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – October 25, 2012)

October 25, 2012

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

Cliffs Natural Resources is conducting an environmental assessment of mining activity in Northwestern Ontario as part of the potential Ring of Fire mining development.

While it is still too early to determine any negative impacts mining activity might have on the environment, Jason Aagenes, director of environmental affairs at Cliffs, said Wednesday the company is still in the early stages of an ongoing process.
“We have been collecting baseline data for a number of years,” Aagenes said.

“We will be starting the actual environmental assessment in the upcoming months.” The environmental assessment is collecting baseline data on the main aspects of the environment, including biological, physical and human, as well as traditional knowledge.

It is being conducted in consultation from First Nations and municipalities. It will examine environmental impacts of the four main components of the project, including the mine to be built near McFaulds Lake, an ore processing facility near the mine, the transportation system and the ferrochrome production facility.

[Ring of Fire] Selling out our kids’ kids – by Dave Dale (North Bay Nugget – October 24, 2012)

October 25, 2012

http://www.nugget.ca/

Desperation will make people do ill-conceived things. Some will even trade their own family members for a penny and promises when the wolves are at the door.

And during hard times, elected officials are quick to sell the farm — lock, stock and your mother thrown in — for short-term economic and political gain.

There’s no shortage of examples in Ontario, many recent and several ongoing. More about the recent pitch by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission unions to become a federal port authority later.

First and foremost, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Tory crew are at this very moment prostituting your children’s children on a long-shot global wager.

The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which becomes binding next week, allows China to crawl into our economic bed for a minimum of 31 years.

Neskantaga wants mediation on Ring of Fire environmental assessment – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – October 24, 2012)

October 25, 2012

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Neskantaga First Nation is requesting mediation to resolve differences between the environmental assessment it wishes to see for Cliffs’ Ring of Fire mine, and the assessment process the company has proposed.

In a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Environment Jim Bradley dated Sept. 27, Neskantaga called on Bradley to refer Cliffs’ terms of reference to mediation.

“Our constitutionally protected aboriginal rights and title and treaty rights are not appropriately addressed in the terms of reference,” Neskantaga wrote. “Therefore, numerous fundamental issues of concern arise on the terms of reference as submitted. It is our strong view that these should be addressed in a mediation between Neskantaga and…Cliffs.”

Neskantaga’s legal council Greg McDade of Ratcliff and Co. LLP told Wawatay News that as of Oct. 19, the minister had not yet responded to the request. Under Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act, the minister has the ability to refer a terms of reference to a mediator if requested.

[Sudbury Wahnapitae] Natives work with Cliffs – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 25, 2012)

October 25, 2012

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

Members of Wahnapitae First Nation regard plans by Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite smelter just 20 kilo-metres from their border as an opportunity.

But the president of the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association, a Wahnapitae First Nation member, says they also view the plant as a threat. That’s why the First Nation, and the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association, are working with Cliffs on a baseline environmental review of the project, getting involved on the ground floor.

Hans Matthews has been a member of his First Nation’s Mining Industry Working Group for a decade and president since the beginning of the association, which will mark its 20th anniversary with a conference in Toronto next month.

Headquartered in Wahnapitae First Nation, Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association drew a handful of guests to its first annual convention. Eight hundred delegates are expected to attend this year’s event, cochaired by Matthews and Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys.

Northern Iron wants Domtar as railroading partner – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 2012)

October 24, 2012

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.

Northern Iron Corp. is knocking on Domtar’s door to gain access to a railroad right-of-way to advance a proposed open-pit iron ore operation in northwestern Ontario.

The Vancouver junior miner has a series of iron deposits spread out over 14,600 hectares, east of Ear Falls and south of the Red Lake gold mining district, that includes the former Griffith open pit, once operated by Stelco. The project contains an historic estimate of more than 500,000 million tonnes that the company is trying to prove up.

The company wants to build an on-site processing plant that converts iron ore into premium hot briquetted iron (HBI) for the North American and global steel industry. They’ve secured two advance orders of 960,000 tonnes of HBI from two Chinese state-owned companies if the mine goes ahead with production in 2016 as planned.

But to move product out, the company wants to gain access to a railway right-of-way that runs 120 kilometres south from the Griffith site to Amesdale, a spot on the Canadian National Railway’s (CN) main east-west line.

MUNICIPALITY OF GREENSTONE MEDIA ADVISORY: Northwest Kick Start plan featured at the Ontario Waterpower Conference in Niagara-on-the Lake

October 23, 2012

What: Northwest Kick Start plan featured at the Ontario Waterpower Association’s Power of Water Canada Conference in Niagara-on-the Lake, October 23, 2012.

Background: The Northwest Kick Start plan, unveiled by the Municipality of Greenstone on September 20, 2011, continues to influence the evolution of electricity-related planning in Northwest Ontario.

Today’s presentation at the Power of Water Canada Conference by Larry Doran, one of the plan’s authors, occurred at the same time as the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) outlined its current thinking on energy and transmission planning in the Region.

The Northwest Kick Start plan was conceived to show it was possible to provide a cost-effective power supply to a refinery for the Ring of Fire minerals in Greenstone. However, it evolved into a visionary power system enhancement plan, demonstrating region-wide benefits by facilitating a number of other longer term economic development and power system objectives, namely:

• Providing a grid connection to a number of First Nation communities currently supplied solely by diesel generation;

Xstrata seeks New Brunswick miners – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – October 2012)

October 23, 2012

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.

Xstrata Copper and the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) joined forces recently to recruit some potential employees. The Brunswick Mine in Bathurst, N.B., a division of Xstrata Zinc, is winding down operations since its mine life ends in 2013.

The Timmins operation, which includes the Kidd Mine and the metallurgical site, made a pitch to try and recruit some employees to Timmins.

“We gave a presentation on our operations and then the (TEDC) gave a presentation on the city itself,” said Brian Fleury, Xstrata senior human resources advisor in Timmins. “We had about 40 positions to fill at the time and we are always looking for those with mining experience. These would be very familiar with Xstrata’s way of doing things so they could fit in very well and hit the ground running.”

Cheryl St. Amour, director of business development and retention for the TEDC, offered the prospective employees an overview of what their life would be like in Timmins. “It wasn’t just the mine talking about their mine and their perspective of the community,” she said. “I talked about what the community offers.”

Study finds [Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining] Broken Hammer has potential to be viable – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – October 23, 2012)

October 23, 2012

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

Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. has released what it’s calling positive results on studies conducted on its Broken Hammer copper and platinum group metal project in Sudbury.

“We are very encouraged by the positive results of the pre-feasibility study,” Marz Kord, president and CEO of Wall-bridge Mining, said in a release.

“The pre-feasibility suggests that the Broken Hammer project has the potential to become economically viable and generate positive cash flow. What’s more encouraging is that the deposit remains open for expansion to the west and to depth.

“The footwall-style Broken Hammer project is in a large land package on the northern rim of the Sudbury basin within a 9 km strike length of very similar geology with extremely strong prospects.”

The Broken Hammer project, located north of Capreol, is planned to be an open pit operation used for the extraction of about 196,000 tonnes of copper, nickel and platinum group metals.

NEWS RELEASE: New Deal to Revitalize Ontario Northland, Connect Ring of Fire Receives Unanimous Employee Support

October 23, 2012

Plan will create economic opportunities and thousands of new jobs in Ontario’s North

NORTH BAY, ONTARIO (October 22, 2012) – The General Chairperson’s Association (GCA), representing employees of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC), today announced that their members have voiced unanimous support for the proposed New Deal to revitalize ONTC.

About 530 current employees along with a number of retirees attended weekend meetings in North Bay, Timmins, Cochrane and Englehart to learn more about the New Deal from GCA representatives, following its public announcement on Friday.

The GCA-led plan calls for transferring ownership of provincially-held ONTC’s railroad and other assets to a new ports authority to be operated under the Canada Marine Act. ONTC operations will be strengthened, and a new rail line to the Ring of Fire will be developed to ship chromite, nickel and other minerals and finished products to markets around the world.

“We are more energized than ever about the New Deal after receiving such enthusiastic support from our members,” said GCA representative Brian Stevens. “Their voices build on strong support from a growing list of key stakeholders, adding to our confidence in the plan’s success.”

[Marathon’s palladium] Mine on track for 2016 start – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – October 22, 2012)

October 22, 2012

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

The new Stillwater Mining Company executive spearheading the company’s proposed copper and palladium mine on Marathon’s outskirts says the project remains “fully funded” and on track to meet the previously announced production start-up date of 2016.

Stillwater Canada president Terry Ackerman, who is based in the company’s head office in Billings, Mont., was in Thunder Bay and Marathon last week to attend three open houses about the Marathon project.

Ackerman said the company hopes to have completed an ongoing environmental review into the project and obtain necessary operating permits by 2014. Construction at the proposed mine site just north of Marathon’s airport is expected to take two years and require 400 construction workers.

About 360 full-time miners are to be required once mining operations are underway. Ackerman, who was previously Stillwater’s vice-president of corporate development, replaces former Marathon project general manager Stan Emms. Ackerman said Emms has moved on to other projects.

Melancthon mega-quarry: It’s limestone vs. potatoes – by David Suzuki (Toronto Star – October 19, 2012)

October 22, 2012

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

David Suzuki is a scientist and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation communications specialist Jode Roberts.

A billion tonnes of limestone lie beneath the rural countryside in Melancthon township, 100 kilometres north of Toronto. A plan to remove it spotlights the challenges faced everywhere when the desire to protect valuable and ever-diminishing farmland clashes with efforts to push industrial development.

The Highland Companies, backed by a $25-billion Boston hedge fund, hopes to blast a big hole in this fertile land to get at a deposit of 400-million-year-old sedimentary rock. The pit would cover more than 930 hectares and be almost 20 storeys deep — the second-largest quarry operation in North America, and the largest in Canadian history.

According to the company’s proposal, moving this much rock will require 20,000 kilograms of explosives a day for the next few decades, and hundreds of trucks and heavy machines. The proposed quarry would be 200 feet below the water table — vertically deeper than Niagara Falls, and twice as wide.

Two approaches to northern [Ontario] mines – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (October 19, 2012)

October 22, 2012

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

IT has become standard procedure for campaigning politicians to change their minds once in office — if they ever had any intention of keeping some promises in the first place. “Read my lips, no new taxes,” was George H.W. Bush’s way of phrasing it, but many seeking office in Canada have done the same. Departing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said as much in advance of the 2003 election campaign, only to introduce the Ontario Health Premium, the largest tax increase in post-war Ontario.

Pauline Marois sees things another way, at least in so far as northern Quebec is concerned. Running against Liberal Jean Charest, the Parti Quebecois leader had little good to say about his signature regional development policy, Plan Nord, which seeks to stimulate industrial activity north of the 49th parallel. But now that Marois is premier, and with mining potential that may be on a par with that in Northern Ontario, Marois is allowing for the possibility of tax incentives to attract mining projects to Quebec’s Far North.

The difference between Quebec and Ontario’s approach is important because it signals the McGuinty government’s unwillingness to engage in hard bargaining in spite of holding the high cards.

Marois has stipulated that in order to be eligible for the tax credits she once eschewed, mining companies would have to process their ore in Quebec. This, of course, results in far greater economic benefit to the host region and province than if raw ore is shipped elsewhere — usually to low-cost, low-wage places chosen by companies to maximize profits.

Solid Gold Resources Corp. News Release: Tyranny at Lake Abitibi

October 22, 2012

Toronto, October 19, 2012 – Solid Gold Resources Corp. (“Solid Gold” or “the Company”) (SLD:TSXV) reports that new regulations obligating proponents to consult with potentially-affected Aboriginal communities before conducting exploration activities in Ontario are scheduled to come into force on November 1, 2012.

“These regulations result in a total transfer of all natural resources to the control of hostile, third-party governments. It is my opinion that Canadians must do everything possible to stop this ill-conceived, race-based initiative”, stated Darryl Stretch, President of Solid Gold.

On January 3, 2012, in the absence of any supporting law, a Motions Judge in the Superior Court of Ontario ordered Solid Gold to stop all exploration work at Lake Abitibi and, together with the Province of Ontario, to consult and accommodate the Wahgoshig First Nation (“the WFN”).

Two days later, in reference to the order, Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario stated, “There is an important legal obligation now placed on businesses to consult in a formal and thorough way.”

There wasn’t a law or regulation in place on January 5, 2012 when the Premier of Ontario made that statement and, in fact, the law will not come into effect for another two weeks.

ONTC unions pitch plan [Ring of Fire railroad] – by Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles (North Bay Nugget – October 19, 2012)

October 20, 2012

http://www.nugget.ca/

The General Chairperson’s Association is asking the province to consider a proposal that would revitalize Ontario Northland and keep hundreds of workers employed.

The plan was unveiled Friday at North Bay city hall in front of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission employees, CEO Paul Goulet, politicians and CAW Local 103 president Brian Kelly.

Brian Stevens of the General Chairperson’s Association, representing unionized ONTC employees, called the proposal “economically sustainable” and said it would provide a new future for Northern Ontario.

“Not only will we save transportation services and hundreds of existing jobs in the North, but our plan will also create thousands more jobs by providing access to the Ring of Fire,” he said following the announcement.

The proposal includes transferring ownership of the provincial Crown corporation to a new ports authority under the federal Canada Marine Act. The first step in that process was recently completed with the creation of the James Bay and Lowlands Ports Trustee Corp., which would become a port authority if approved by the federal government. The corporation has already had discussions regarding the proposal with First Nations in the James Bay Lowlands, ONTC unions and Ring of Fire claim holder Canada Chrome Corp.

Resource development puts Treaties to the test – by Harvey Yesno (Wawatay News – October 19, 2012)

October 21, 2012October 20, 2012

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Harvey Yesno is the Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), an Aboriginal political organization representing 49 First Nation communities within James Bay Treaty 9 territory and the Ontario portions of Treaty No. 5.

In July of 1905 when the Treaty Commissioners began the process of securing signatures to the James Bay Treaty # 9, Chief Missabay and his men at Mishkeegogamang signed the treaty only after giving the request to enter into treaty with His Majesty due consideration, and he had determined that nothing but good was intended.

Resource development across the NAN territory (encompassing James Bay Treaty # 9 and Treaty # 5) will put the treaties to the test; as the future ahead for the families, people and communities of Nishnawbe Aski Nation is to participate in the economy and wealth that is contained within the lands and resources that surrounds us.

First Nations have been discussing the need for resource and economic development within our treaty territory for years. It has always been known by the people of NAN that one day Ontario will be on our doorstep; because the place we call home holds tremendous value and potential.

Today, however, the Province of Ontario is making significant changes in terms of legislation and policy with the passing of The Far North Act, Amendments to the Mining Act and now engaging First Nations on the Renewable Energy on Crown Land Policies.