Ontario Mining – Page 303 – Republic of Mining

The coming Ontario dark age – by David Robinson (Northern Ontario Business – August 2011)

April 5, 2015August 10, 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. Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. drobinson@laurentian.ca

The Dark Age begins in less than 10 years. Sometime before 2021, southern Ontario will begin rolling brownouts and plant closures. It will happen in the summer because Torontonians really need their air conditioners. It will happen because no one wants to pay full cost for power. And it will kill jobs.

By 2021, Ontario’s demand for electricity will have outrun supply. Shortages that began before 2002 were hidden when the recession cut manufacturing jobs. As the economy recovers, and the population of southern Ontario grows, a gap will open up between demand and supply. Energy conservation and repairing old nuclear plants will help, but won’t fill that gap.

Why should Northerners care? Because northern rivers will be poured into the gap. Because the price of electricity will be so high that jobs will be lost in Northern Ontario. Because even though demand for northern wood, metal water and power is rising, Northern Ontario will continue to stagnate.

Most of the hydroelectric capacity in Northern Ontario has been already been developed.

Commentary About “Mining Marshall Plan for Northern Ontario” – by Fred Haavisto (Sault Ste. Marie Community Forester)

August 10, 2011

I read your latest article this evening in Northern Ontario Business (Mining Marshall Plan for Northern Ontario). This was very well done, informative and a must read for every provincial and federal politician from Ontario. You have made many key points that should be taken under consideration immediately, if not sooner. Of course, the article tickled a number of thoughts in the mind of a lowly forester who has experienced the wilds of northern Ontario, especially those areas that have a peat substrate and high water levels.

Thank you for the heads-up on Quebec’s “Plan Nord”. By your comments, it is much more meaningful than Ontario’s “Growth Plan for Northern Ontario 2011”. However, as the authors said of the Ontario document….”…This Plan is a strategic framework that will guide decision-making and investment planning in Northern Ontario over the next 25 years”.

Your recommendations for a “Mining Marshall Plan” are to the point, imperative to the implemented, and applies equally well to the forest industry. In actuality, Mining and Forestry should probably work hand-in-hand.

1) Transportation infrastructure is necessary for both, but should not be restricted for the sole use of either or both of these sectors.

Staying the course [Vale’s Sudbury investments] – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – August 10, 2011)

September 13, 2018August 10, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. hcarmichael@thesudburystar.com

“There is no doubt we have one of the best mining supply and service sectors here today. … Having one of this level in our backyard gives us a significant advantage, especially when
circumstances require us to be nimble. … We will have a new copper strategy to respond
to increasing global demand in foreign countries. … Sudbury will play a pivotal role, including the Victor and Capre properties …” (Steve Wood – Vale Vice-president Mining and Milling North Atlantic Operations, August 9, 2011)

The turmoil in the markets in recent days and the debt crisis in the United States won’t derail Vale’s plans for its Greater Sudbury operations, a senior company official said Tuesday. “We are staying the course,” Steve Wood told members of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association at the group’s monthly meeting Tuesday. “We have our vision to be the biggest and the best (global mining company) and these projects have built up well situationally, as well.

“We don’t see any changes.” Wood is Vale’s vice-president of mining and milling for its North Atlantic operations. A Greater Sudbury native, Wood provided a 20-minute update of the global mining company’s plans for its Greater Sudbury operations.

In a scrum with reporters following his presentation, Wood reiterated that the bad economic news won’t affect the company’s Greater Sudbury operations or planned projects.

Plan calls for Northern resources to stay here – by Ron Grech (The Timmins Daily Press – August 9, 2011)

August 9, 2011

The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath unveils Northern Ontario platform

Standing in front of the idled Xstrata Copper smelter in Hoyle, Ontario New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath unveiled planks in her party’s Northern platform, which she claims would have prevented the mining facility from closing.

Flanked by NDP candidates from four Northeastern Ontario ridings, including MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP — Timmins-James Bay), Horwath said if elected, her government would ensure forestry and mining resources are processed where they came from.

The NDP say they would amend the Mining Act so that resources mined in Ontario must be processed in Ontario. “It makes no sense to pull raw resources from the earth and process them somewhere else,” Horwath said.

Currently Section 91 of the Mining Act requires mining companies extracting ore in Ontario to get permission from the government before being allowed to ship the ore outside of Canada for processing.

If it is mined in Ontario, process it here, Horwath says – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – August 9, 2011)

August 9, 2011

Tanya Talaga is a Queen’s Park reporter with the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

In a campaign swing through northern Ontario, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath vowed to stop resources mined in the province from being exported if they can be processed here. “Companies are pulling them out of the ground and shipping them elsewhere for processing and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Horwath said Monday from Dubreuilville, Ont.

“We need to be conscious about what is happening with our natural resources. It helps us put some control over how much of our resources get processed and it creates good jobs for Ontario families.”

Horwath said the time to secure mining and resource jobs is now as Ontario begins to develop the Ring of Fire, a $30 billion chromite deposit nearly 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. In December 2010, Swiss mining giant Xstrata announced it was shutting down its Timmins Kidd Met Site smelter and transferring the operation to Quebec. The move eliminated 700 jobs, she added.

Xstrata to expand Canadian operations, sweeten payouts – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – August 3, 2011)

August 3, 2011

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. Brenda Bouw is the Globe’s mining reporter.

Global mining giant Xstrata PLC will use bulging profits to expand its Canadian operations and sweeten shareholder payouts, a sign of the industry’s rosy demand outlook despite global economic uncertainty alongside rising costs and government intervention.

Xstrata, based in Zug, Switzerland, said profits rose by about 30 per cent in the first half of the year, and the diversified miner more than doubled its dividend on the back of record-setting commodity prices.

“Our recovery has been swift and robust and we are now operating with good momentum to deliver a substantially stronger second half,” Xstrata chief executive officer Mick Davis told investors on Tuesday. He cited in particular strong demand from China, the world’s largest consumer of commodities, as the country continues its frenzied infrastructure build.

Sudbury still vying for [Ring of Fire chromite] smelter – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – July 30, 2011)

July 30, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. hcarmichael@thesudburystar.com

Cliffs Natural Resources of Cleveland has yet to decide where it will build a smelter to process chromite concentrate from its Ring of Fire properties in northwestern Ontario.

A promotional video on the Cliffs’ website about the company’s three chromite deposits in the zone (Black Thor, Black Label and Big Daddy), entitled Value Beneath the Surface, highlights Greater Sudbury as one of the four communities where an enclosed chromite electric arc furnace facility could be built.

In the video, Cliffs says it is looking to start production with the Black Thor deposit in 2015 through an open pit operation and produce one million tonnes of chromite concentrate and 600,000 tonnes of ferrochrome annually. The three chromite deposits are described as “extensive, thick and high quality” with a potential production period of 80 years.

Ontario Mining Association helps get teachers back to school for mining education

July 28, 2011

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.

The Ontario Mining Association will be one of the presenters at the second annual Teachers’ Mining Tour, which is being held at the Canadian Ecology Centre near Mattawa. Thirty teachers from across the province will participate in the educational workshop being held August 15 to 19, 2011.

The goal is to help educators learn more about the realities of modern, high tech, solution-providing, environmentally responsible mining in Ontario. The Teachers’ Mining Tour is a professional development program for Ontario teachers and teachers in training. Teachers taking the course will be able to earn a component of their Environmental Science Additional Qualification through Nipissing University and the Ontario College of Teachers.

During the week, Lesley Hymers, OMA Environment and Education Specialist, will be making presentations on OMA education and outreach initiatives such as the So You Think You Know Mining high school video competition and the OMA’s collaboration with Skills Canada Ontario, which promotes trades and technologies as career options for students.

Cliffs Natural Resources endorses Ring of Fire railroad plan – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 2011)

July 27, 2011July 27, 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.

Rails to Ontario’s Ring of Fire

With a $2 billion pricetag for a proposed Ring of Fire railroad, KWG Resources is searching for innovative ways to finance it. Building a Ring of Fire railroad to move millions of bulk tonnes of chromite is a certainty, said a senior official with Cliffs Natural Resources.

Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, who is overseeing the Ohio miner’s project development in the James Bay lowlands, said rail is an inevitability as more mines come onstream in the remote district.

In last winter’s base case for its high grade Black Thor chromite deposit, Cliffs proposed a permanent year-round haul road between the mine site and railway connections near Nakina in northwestern Ontario. But Boor clarified that one mine alone doesn’t support the investment of a railroad.

However, establishing a transportation corridor will improve the economics of other nearby deposits. Once that “scale” is built up, Boor said, “the right answer is to put a railroad in place.

Digging in: Proves bigger can be better [Ontario mining] – Peter Koven (National Post – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

Detour Lake, Ontario – It will soon be Canada’s largest gold mine. For now, it is simply one of its busiest construction sites.

More than 900 people and 14 different contracting companies are hard at work at the mosquito-infested Detour Lake site at Northern Ontario, where construction on Detour Gold Corp.’s $1.3-billion gold mine is moving at impressive speed. It is the biggest of several promising gold projects that promise to make Ontario a much bigger player in the global gold sector as the metal continues to hit record highs.

“Managing 14 contractors to stay on time and on budget is always challenging. But so far, so good,” says Gerald Panneton, Detour Gold’s chief executive.

Like many other mining projects in Canada and around the world, Detour Lake is a past-producing property that is being revitalized as a new operation because of high prices. But what makes Detour unique is the stunning exploration success that its new owners have managed in a brief period of time. In five years, Mr. Panneton’s team has identified almost 15 million ounces of gold reserves, with more being added on a regular basis. Including resources, the project holds more than 25 million ounces.

Ring of Fire in Ontario of interest to miners but builders advised to look closer to current mines – by Saul Chernos (May 13, 2011)

July 22, 2011

Daily Commercial News and Construction Record website

Hot mineral exploration areas like the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario suggest significant construction down the road. But builders looking for more immediate work should focus on sites elsewhere in the province that are closer to actual mine activity, industry reps say.

Located in the James Bay Lowlands, hundreds of miles north of existing transportation and hydroelectric infrastructure, the Ring of Fire has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Mining prospectors and early-stage developers are hoping to tap what’s widely believed to be mammoth deposits of chromium, nickel, copper, platinum and palladium.

True, infrastructure such as an often-discussed $600-million railway line will be needed. However, actual development is years away at best. Although the Ontario government has announced its intention to open the area to growth, local Aboriginal populations are demanding treaty rights and environmental groups are worried new transportation corridors and mines will harm the fragile boreal forest.

“The Ring of Fire is a hot topic,” says Peter McBride, a spokesperson with the Ontario Mining Association. “It’s an area of incredible potential. Mines could be operating there for generations, but we’re not quite there yet. There’s lots more going on before it will come on stream.”

Updated Mining Marshall Plan for Northern Ontario – by Stan Sudol

October 6, 2011July 22, 2011

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and strategist who writes extensively on the mining sector. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

A version of this article was published in the August issue of Northern Ontario Business and the September issue of the Canadian Mining Journal.

What a difference a decade makes! Ten years ago, according to many in the Toronto media, mining was a sunset industry and a modern industrial country/province should not be in such a supposedly “low tech” sector. Some even thought we should let the industry die and allow lesser developed countries to be the primary suppliers of mineral commodities.

At that time, Ontario budgets were only a billion or two in the red, and its manufacturing sector was the cornerstone of a strong economy. Today, emerging markets like China, India are competing with the United States, Japan, South Korea and other developed nations for access to mineral resources around the world, the basic building blocks of any modern industrialized society. The mining sector has become one of the most strategic sectors of the global economy. And Ontario is a “have not” province, set to receive $2.2 billion in equalization transfers in the next fiscal year and run a $16.6 billion deficit.

Currently, Ontario faces a number of key economic problems including an aging workforce, crumbling infrastructure and provincial budget deficits that will not be able to sustain existing social programs. In addition, the South’s manufacturing might, which supported Ontario’s high standard of living since the 1950s, is under extreme stress due to globalization, a weak U.S. market – the destination of almost 90% of our manufactured goods – and high electricity costs.

Timmins still in the race for Ring of Fire facility – (Timmins Daily Press – July 21, 2011)

July 21, 2011

The Daily Press is the newspaper of record for the city of Timmins

By The Daily Press

Timmins is still in the running to be the homebase for processing ore from Ontario’s biggest mineral discovery in the past century. Representatives of Cliffs Natural Resources recently visited the city. Cliffs is looking for a community to host its ferrochrome production facility — a key component in developing the Ring of Fire.

Massive deposits of chromite, copper, nickel, platinum, diamonds, palladium, gold and silver have been discovered in the Ring of Fire, west of James Bay. Officials with the Timmins Economic Development Corporation and the city recently met with representatives from Cliffs.

“We have been working with Cliffs Natural Resources for quite some time now,” said Dave McGirr, chairman of the TEDC. “We prepared a detailed background document describing why Timmins would be the logical choice for Cliffs’ ferrochrome facility.

Northern [Ontario] plans fail to hit the mark – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – July 21, 2011)

July 21, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. Brian MacLeod is the managing editor. brian.macleod@sunmedia.ca

When the Ontario Liberals unveiled the draft of their Growth Plan for Northern Ontario in 2010, some critics said it lacked plans for implementation, such as timing, funding and sufficient monitoring.

And they complained it didn’t protect resources, a sore point in the North, since two of the largest mining companies in the world — Inco and Falconbridge — were taken over by foreign companies.

Xstrata, which bought Falconbridge, shut down the Kidd Creek metallurgical plant in Timmins, and changes sought by Vale, which bought Inco, resulted in a year-long strike by the United Steelworkers.

Changebook North, the Progressive Conservatives’ attempt at showing love for Northern Ontario, whose 850,000 citizens have a hard time feeling amore from Queen’s Park, suffers from an even more glaring lack of details.

Of the two growth plans, the Liberals’, at 60 pages, is more complex and wide-ranging, but it’s not a blueprint — there’s too much wiggle room and too much left to interpretation.