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Ontario Mining

With millions pouring into Attawapiskat, colonial blame only goes so far – by John Ivison (National Post – December 7, 2011)

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

Failed colonial policies are the biggest obstacles to First Nation progress, Shawn Atleo told a gathering of native chiefs in Ottawa Tuesday. The Assembly of First Nations chief was referring to moves such as Ottawa’s decision to put the troubled Attawapiskat reserve in northern Ontario under third party management. “We simply can’t lurch from crisis to crisis and we can’t accept externally imposed solutions,” he said, before lauding the chief of Attawapiskat for demonstrating transparency and accountability.

Yet the decision to intervene was simply the government exercising its fiduciary duty. The apparent mismanagement of this band by its chief, council and the co-manager, who is meant to be advising the chief but turns out to be her “life partner,” made the worst of an already bad situation. Chief Theresa Spence spoke to the chiefs in Ottawa Tuesday and urged them to take an aggressive stand with the government. “We’re not going to take it anymore,” she said.

The simple fact is, she has been stripped of authority because money has been pouring into the reserve and yet conditions have deteriorated beyond any acceptable level.

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NEWS RELEASE: KGHM begins process of acquiring Canadian mining company [QuadraFNX]

Lubin, 6 December 2011

KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. intends to acquire the mining company Quadra FNX, listed on the Toronto, Canada stock exchange. As a result of entering into today’s agreement, the process of friendly acquisition of this company has begun. KGHM will come into possession of world-class ore bodies and
operating copper mines situated in Canada, the USA and Chile. The value of
this transaction amounts to USD 2,83 billion, and will be financed by the cash resources of KGHM.

The acquisition of Quadra FNX will increase production next year by the KGHM Group by approx. 25%, i.e. 100 thousand tonnes of mined copper, and ultimately by nearly 50%. Total mineral resources will increase by more than 8 million tonnes of copper, i.e. by 28%, putting KGHM into fourth place globally. KGHM is also considering the production of other metals, such as nickel and molybdenum.

There will also be a significant increase in the production of gold and other precious metals. Thanks to the acquisition of attractive mining projects, over several years the KGHM Group will substantially reduce its costs of production. This acquisition will strengthen the position of KGHM on the copper market, and will enable the growth of the company, as foreseen by the Company’s strategy, in the mining sector.

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Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners event attracts a record turnout

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.

By all yardsticks, there was a record turnout of more than 200 delegates for the Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners reception last week.   Large contingents of MPPs, political staff, public service employees from key ministries and mining company representatives were on hand to celebrate the success of mining in Ontario and its contribution to the society and economy of this province.

The reception, which was held at the Sutton Place Hotel near Queen’s Park, followed a day of activities, which included an OMA board of directors meeting, a presentation by Ring of Fire Coordinator Christine Kaszycki, an address by Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci and team meetings with several Cabinet Ministers and Opposition Leaders.
 
An improved understanding of mining’s important role in the future of Ontario, both as a generator of employment and wealth and as a provider of key materials for building a greener future, appears to be growing.  For the second consecutive year mining received special attention in the Speech from the Throne at Queen’s Park. 

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Mounties spied on native protest groups [KI’s Donny Morris included] – by Tim Groves and Martin Lukacs (Toronto Star – December 5, 2011)

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.

Although the Strategic Intelligence Report’s profile
of KI is heavily redacted, as with all the “communities
of concern,” it states that KI First Nation “remains
committed to ensuring their concerns related to the
impacts of mining and forestry are addressed by the
Ontario government” and “possible future disputes
could result in blockades and demonstrations.”

The spectre of heightened aboriginal protest has
become a source of anxiety for government and industry.

The federal government created a vast surveillance network in early 2007 to monitor protests by First Nations, including those that would attract national attention or target “critical infrastructure” like highways, railways and pipelines, according to RCMP documents.

Formed after the Conservatives came to power, the RCMP unit’s mandate was to collect and distribute intelligence about situations involving First Nations that have “escalated to civil disobedience and unrest in the form of protest actions.”

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Attawapiskat: await the audit – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – December 2, 2011)

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

HOW does a remote native community of 2,000 people that receives $18 million a year in federal funds alone — $90 million in total since 2006 — wind up in such a wretched state? Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast is not alone among reserves in poverty, but it’s housing conditions are top of mind across Canada as winter sets in. Large families living in shacks and tents is a national disgrace.

Uninformed critics blame the band council without knowing the details. Those details will shed light where it belongs, but everyone must wait for that information before coming to conclusions.

Others say the Harper government is blaming the victim, so to speak, for taking control of local spending out of the band’s hands and ordering an audit. This examination of spending will look at where it comes from as well as where it goes. The Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development department will thus be under as much scrutiny as the band itself. This alone may prove to be the most illuminating aspect of the audit, for it could shed light on a system of bureaucracy that First Nations have long complained is too complicated and restrictive.

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Plan sparks Ring of Fire ire – by Ryan Lux (Timmins Daily Press – December 5, 2011)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Process it here or leave it in the ground, union demands

Cliffs Natural Resources’ pledge to seek an exemption from the Ontario Mining Act to ship chromite concentrate from Ontario’s Ring of Fire to Asia for processing has raised the ire of unions and municipalities representing the North.

The company claims the raw chromite ore will undergo value-added processing in Ontario where it will be transformed into chromite concentrate. However, critics say the ore should either be refined in Ontario or left in the ground.

William Brehl, the head of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees, said the government risks squandering the economic potential of the Northern Ontario mineral bonanza.

“Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government has called the Ring of Fire the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century,” said Brehl.

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Debeers Representative Tom Ormsby Speaks to CBC Radio/TV About Attawapiskat Crisis

The housing crisis in Attawapiskat has some wondering why the community isn’t benefitting more from the nearby diamond mine. DeBeers Canada Director of External and Corporate Affairs Tom Ormsby spoke with various CBC Radio and TV interviewers: CBC Televion Interview between Tom Ormsby and Suhana Meharchand – November 30, 2011 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/canews-22424922/diamonds-at-attawapiskat-27436870.html CBC Radio Ottawa – November …

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Thunder Bay makes Ring of Fire smelter pitch – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 2011)

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.

City delegation meets with Cliffs decision makers

Thunder Bay was making its best sales pitch in November to convince Cliffs Natural Resources to build its ferrochrome processing plant on the shore of this northwestern Ontario port city.

A delegation led by Mayor Keith Hobbs had scheduled a mid-month trip to the international miner’s Cleveland headquarters during the same week that company’s executives were staging public open houses in Thunder Bay and Sudbury.

Though Sudbury is considered a frontrunner among four potential Northern Ontraio communities to land the electric arc furnaces to process ore from its James Bay chromite deposit, Thunder Bay has no intentions of giving up the ship.

John Mason, the city’s mining services project manager, concedes Sudbury does have direct rail access to a vital rail junction at Nakina and offers an “excellent” brownfield site north of the city, at Capreol, but Thunder Bay has put together an enticing package.

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Elephant In the Room: A First Nations perspective on the Far North Act – Stan Beardy (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – December 3, 2011)

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

Stan Beardy is Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN). NAN is a political organization representing 49 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 areas of northern Ontario.

“The heart of First Nations’ objections to the [Far North] act
is the unilateral imposition of an interconnected protected
area of at least 225,000 square kilometres (about 21 per
cent of Ontario). This infringes on First Nations’
aboriginal and treaty rights as protected in the Canada
Constitution Act, 1982.” (Stan Beardy – Grand Chief  of NAN)

Stan Beardy – Grand Chief of NAN

I am writing in response to the commentary, Development, Protection; Far North Act Clarifies Land Use Planning (Nov. 21) by Ontario Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle.

It appears the Ontario government feels that there is still much convincing to do on an issue that continues to find First Nations and government on opposing sides. Truth be known, the Far North Act is currently being implemented in spite of the objections of First Nations.

The heart of First Nations’ objections to the act is the unilateral imposition of an interconnected protected area of at least 225,000 square kilometres (about 21 per cent of Ontario). This infringes on First Nations’ aboriginal and treaty rights as protected in the Canada Constitution Act, 1982.

The minister said in his commentary that “those who characterize this protected area as a vast park are irresponsible and certainly disrespectful of the First Nations.”

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Attawapiskat’s hardships could be helped by roads – by John Ivison (National Post – December 2, 2011)

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

Shawn Atleo says he wants to smash the status quo. The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations has used the phrase in a number of interviews and likely repeated it in his meeting with the Prime Minister on Parliament Hill Thursday.

But while there’s little doubt he is distressed by the pictures coming out of the troubled Attawapiskat reserve in northern Ontario, he doesn’t really want to overturn the present state of affairs.

Rather, he and the country’s other chiefs, a delegation of whom will meet with Stephen Harper on Jan. 24, it was announced Thursday, would like the federal government to pony up some more money — without asking too many questions about what they intend to spend it on. The chiefs tie themselves in intellectual knots, arguing that the government has been asleep at the switch on Attawapiskat, while at the same time saying the feds have gone too far by instituting an “Ottawa knows best” regime.

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[Cobra Drilling] Tragedy toughened up Thunder Bay drilling boss – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December, 2011)

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.

Driller’s helper

Barb Courte knows all about the rigours of the diamond drilling business from both ends of the stick. “I was the wife of a driller and I know what the guys go through,” said the president of Thunder Bay’s Cobra Drilling and Northstar Drilling.

In the hallways and boardroom of her new Russell Street headquarters, photos of her brawny and rugged-face employees adorn the walls. “It’s the employees that are important, they are my company,” said Courte, of the pack mentality she has cultivated among her employees in her 15 years in business.

Northstar is a family-owned outfit, while Cobra is a venture she shares with an undisclosed Sudbury partner. The two entities split six drill rigs, a combination of modern hydraulic and older “gear jammers,” and 50 employees.

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Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December, 2011)

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.

“How many more trillion-dollar Sudbury Basins are up
there waiting to be discovered?” Sudol said Queen’s
Park must partner with Ottawa to build a Far North
railroad, road network and transmission lines. “This
financial investment would generate tens of thousands
of jobs in both the North and the struggling south as
well as contribute badly needed tax revenue.” (Mining
Analyst Stan Sudol – RepublicOfMining.com)

All eyes on Cliffs Natural Resources to advance Far North deposit

It’s a real cliffhanger. Anyone with a stake in the Far North’s Ring of Fire is waiting on Cliffs Natural Resources to formally give the greenlight to develop its Black Thor chromite deposit in the James Bay lowlands.

Aside from petitioning for more competitive power rates in Ontario, the Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered international miner has been careful not to expand upon this pan-Northern mine, mill, transportation and refining project beyond its base case released last spring.

Until Cliffs decides to move the project into a full-blown feasibility study, the drama and suspense will continue. While the multi-billion dollar, multi-generational project will be regional in scope, it hasn’t stopped the communities from doing some smokestack chasing to land the ferrochrome production.

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Analysts leery of Cliffs’ threat – by Mike Whitehouse (Sudbury Star – December 2, 2011)

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

“Ontario needs to help build the necessary key transportation
routes to develop the North’s enormous and strategic mineral
potential. …These include a railway to the Ring of Fire mining
camp and all-weather highways to replace winter ice roads to
isolated aboriginal communities. The first priorities should
be regions with high mineral potential. The resulting economic
spinoffs throughout the entire province and increased tax
revenues will more than justify these public investments.”
(Mining Analyst Stan Sudol – RepublicOfMining.com)

The threat of taking its concentrate to Asia for processing will be legally difficult for Cliffs Natural Resources and may, in the end, prove only to be a negotiating ploy, mining analysts say.

Cliffs Natural Resources has announced plans to ship chromite concentrate from the Ring of Fire area in Northern Ontario to international markets, primarily China, to capitalize on the growing smelting capacity and booming demand for strategic metals in Asia.

Although still planning to build a smelter somewhere in Ontario — possibly in Sudbury — company officials have said demand from Chinese smelters will drive volumes for the concentrate, making its export economically viable.

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OMA launches the fourth season of its province-wide high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining

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.

Go to the Ontario Mining Association website www.oma.on.ca  and check out today’s launch of the popular high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining for the fourth year.  The 2012 competition is serving up opportunities to win $33,500 in prize money, an $8,000 increase of what was on the table last year.
 
The deadline for submitting two to three minute videos on the benefits of mining is midnight March 15, 2012.  To be eligible for the Early Bird prize of $500, entries must be received by March 1, 2012. 
 
Other key dates in 2012 are April 1 to 15 for the determination of nominees for the People’s Choice and OMA Academy Award, April 20 to June 3 which is the voting period for the People’s Choice Award and May 22 when winners will be determined and notified.  The awards ceremony is scheduled for June 5 in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Ring of Fire exemption vital for jobs – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – December 1, 2011)

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

Ontario has an unenviable record of shipping natural resources out of the country, where they’re used for finished products. The issue has again appeared on the Ontario legislature’s radar screen and it could be trouble for the Liberals, since job creation is at the centre of that screen at the moment.

Ohio-based Cliffs Natural Resources plans to develop the massive Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario.

Loaded with chromite–which is used to make stainless steel–nickel, copper and gold, the 5,120-square-kilometre deposit sits in an isolated landscape about a two-hour flight northeast of Thunder Bay. Cliffs wants to begin production at its Black Thor mine by 2015–if it gets past legal objections to the environmental assessment process from area First Nations.

Cliffs plans to build a processing facility to produce concentrate near the mine, as well as a ferrochrome smelter–possibly in Sudbury –if it can get a favourable deal on electricity rates, which are much lower in Manitoba and Quebec.

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