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Ontario Mining

Merger talks about the Sudbury mining camp long overdue, says industry watcher – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Stan Sudol sees synergies and cost savings if Glencore and Vale form mining joint venture in the Sudbury basin

Vale Base Metals chairman Mark Cutifani’s remarks this week to Reuters new agency about a pursuing a business combination between his company and Glencore in the Sudbury basin has mining analyst Stan Sudol wondering, “What took them so long?”

The Sudbury-raised and Toronto-based owner of the Republic of Mining website is a keen observer of the global nickel industry and of the Sudbury camp. Now is the “perfect time” for a business combination between Sudbury’s two largest miners, and one that’s long overdue, he said.

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Canada Nickel secures strategic investment from Korea’s Samsung SDI – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (CNC-X) chief executive Mark Selby sees the potential for a major mining company to buy the firm after it attracted yet another strategic investment from a global power player.

Toronto-based Canada Nickel on Friday announced an US$18.8-million equity financing from Korean electric car battery maker Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. The funds will be used to develop an Ontario electric vehicle battery minerals mine that Canada Nickel hopes to have in production before the end of the decade.

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Mining the Northwest: Former Pure Gold shareholders take management to task over Red Lake fiasco – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Investors of insolvent gold mining company expanding class action suit

The former management team and underwriters of a collapsed Red Lake gold mining company are being held to account by out-of-pocket shareholders.

A proposed securities class action suit filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the former directors and officers of Pure Gold Mining of Vancouver is being expanded to seeking compensation for damages and losses incurred from their investments in Pure Gold Mining.

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New push to combine Glencore, Vale mining assets in the Sudbury basin – by Darren MacDonald (CTV Northern Ontario – January 11, 2024)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

The news service Reuters is reporting that the long dreamed of merger of Vale and Glencore mining assets in Sudbury basin could happen this year. “Talks for a Sudbury tie-up have been on and off since 2006, when annual savings were put at more than $500 million, with a number of options being touted for the mining and processing operations in the area,” the Reuters story said(opens in a new tab).

Brazil-based Vale purchased the former Inco for $19.6 billion in 2006. Talk of combining efforts in the area have surfaced from time to time, and an official with the company raised the issue recently, according to the Reuters story.

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Comparison of Attawapiskat, Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations in Ring of Fire – by Stan Sudol (RepublicOfMining.com – January 10, 2024)

This column first appeared on the website LAW360 Canada which gives news and analysis on legal developments including litigation filings, case settlements, verdicts, regulation, enforcement, legislation and corporate deals. https://www.law360.ca/ca/

Columnists representing Attawapiskat, on Ontario’s James Bay coast – 500 kms north of Timmins – have recently written some op/ed pieces on the Ring of Fire. These columns that have left out some basic facts about the mineral-rich region, whose traditional territories the nickel/copper/chromite deposits are on, and previous industrial developments that might be considered inconvenient truths.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands is about the size of Norway and without a doubt plays a key role in capturing carbon emissions. Roughly 10, 000 people live in small First Nations communities like Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan or regional service towns like Moosonee and Churchill, Manitoba. During the 1930s, two railroads were constructed to Moosonee and Churchill, while their collective and cumulative impacts on the ecosystem was insignificant.

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Government funding expected soon to complete Temiskaming refinery build – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials ponders Quebec invite to build refinery in Becancour

Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming. The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.

Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.

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Ontario chiefs seek halt to online mining claim-staking – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Chiefs of Ontario resolution calls for year-long moratorium pending review

Indigenous leaders in Ontario are calling for a moratorium on the virtual staking of mining claims while they review the process to ensure that impacted First Nation communities are being properly consulted.

In a resolution passed last November during the organization’s annual fall assembly, the Chiefs of Ontario say the Mining Lands Administration System (MLAS) puts pressure on First Nations to participate in potential mineral development opportunities while also reducing the amount of land available for land claim settlements that are already underway.

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Agnico Eagle invests $23M for 12% of Canada Nickel – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – January 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) made a $23.1-million investment in the recent flow-through offering from Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; OTCQX: CNIKF). Agnico acquired 19.6 million units at a price of $1.18 per unit for a total consideration of slightly more than $23.1 million. This gives Agnico a non-diluted equity interest in Canada Nickel of 12% or 15.6% on a partially diluted basis.

Canada Nickel raised a total of $34.7 million. Each unit consists of one flow-through share and 0.35 of one flow-through share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share at a price of $1.77 any time prior to Dec. 29, 2026, or the expiry date.

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Northeastern Ontario nickel miners not threatened by flood of the metal from Indonesia – by Kate Rutherford (CBC News Sudbury – January 03, 2024)

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

Environmentally sound production increasingly important factor in sourcing the critical mineral

Low nickel prices partly attributed to a flood of the metal coming onto the market from Indonesia aren’t deterring nickel miners in northeastern Ontario from moving forward in the coming year.

The price of nickel per pound was hovering around $7.42 US on January 1, 2024 compared to just under $14 a year prior. Paul Fowler is vice president of Magna Mining which owns the Shakespeare mine near Espanola and the Crean Hill mine near Whitefish.

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How reconciliation is tied up in the Ring of Fire – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 31, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

In remote Ontario, Marten Falls First Nation hopes to move past more than 100 years of subjugation, as it opens the door to critical minerals development and an all-season road that will change their lives

As crazy hectic as your life may be, it likely doesn’t hold a candle to that of Bruce Achneepineskum. He is chief of Marten Falls First Nation, an extremely remote Anishinaabe community on the banks of the Albany River in Ontario’s far north, about 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. As chief, Mr. Achneepineskum wears many hats. He oversees his council. He’s a mentor, a spiritual figure, an artist and a fire marshal. He’s a father of two grown children from his first wife, and of a 17-month-old boy with his current partner.

The needs in Marten Falls are immediate and stark. There is a severe shortage of homes. A boil-water advisory has been in place for 18 years. There are endemic social problems that never seem to go away – youth suicide, alcoholism and opioid addiction.

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Mining the Northwest: Ottawa went too far on regulating mining, infrastructure projects: experts – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 21, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Legal experts say ball’s in Ottawa’s court to revamp and make legal Canada’s Impact Assessment Act

The Canadian government’s environmental assessment process is in disarray. On Oct. 13, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a 5-2 decision that most of Ottawa’s controversial Impact Assessment Act (IAA) was unconstitutional and far outside the government’s authority to assess and make decisions on major resource and infrastructure projects

Only 10 out of 188 sections in the Act — passed in 2019 — were deemed valid. And that was a narrow section of the IAA concerning projects on federal land and that are federally financed.

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March: Updates on critical mining in northern Ontario – by By Norm Tollinsky (Canadian Mining Journal – December 21, 2023)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

When George Pirie, Ontario’s mines minister, closes his eyes and imagines what a resurgent northern Ontario mining industry will look like five years from now, he might see new nickel mines in Sudbury and Timmins, a battery industrial park in Cobalt, haul trucks transporting nickel concentrate on the recently completed road from the Ring of Fire, and multiple lithium mines and processing facilities in northwestern Ontario.

It is a good bet that much of the scenario will indeed materialize. The drills are confirming that the resources are there, the environmental assessments are progressing, and meetings with battery manufacturers and the automobile industry are resulting in offtake agreements.

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Argonaut Gold cashes up to build ounces at Dubreuilville mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 15, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto gold company raises $85 million in share raise to fund future expansion

Toronto’s Argonaut Gold has raised $85 million to fund future expansion at its Magino Mine, outside Dubreuilville, and another mine in Nevada. The financing was done through a public offering of more than 223,000 common shares that closed on Dec. 12.

In a news release, the company said the proceeds are earmarked to “fund development and optimization” at Magino and its Florida Canyon Mine in Nevada. The company didn’t specify how much will be individually allocated between Magino and Florida Canyon.

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Greenstone Gold mine offers glimpse into commissioning process – Austin Campbell (Northern Ontario Business – December15, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

After recently announcing construction is 96 per cent complete at the Greenstone Gold mine, the mine is looking to ramp up hiring, with a focus on local employment.

GREENSTONE — Things are set to heat up quite soon for the Greenstone Gold mine project just outside of Geraldton. Equinox Gold, the Vancouver-based gold producer that acquired Premier Gold in 2020 along with their interest in the mine project, recently announced that construction at Greenstone Gold mine is 96 per cent complete and that pre-commissioning activities are well underway.

Development of the mine project is a joint venture between Equinox Gold and Orion Mine Finance. The mine is set to pour its first gold in the first half of 2024.

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Newbies to Superior’s north shore can help fill the ranks of the mining industry – by Austin Campbell (Northern Ontario Business – December 11, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Confederation College’s Mining Potential program will offer free entry-level training for newcomers, women, youth

A new program is opening doors for underrepresented groups in the Marathon area of northwestern Ontario. Confederation College, in partnership with Northwest Employment Works, is offering a free training opportunity aimed specifically at women, youth, and newcomers to the mining industry.

The Mining Potential program focuses on developing learners’ non-technical skills, knowledge, and confidence in order to achieve meaningful employment, with the ultimate goal being to provide employers with a safe and well-educated workforce to draw from.

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