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Ontario Mining

Golden Hope For a Timmins, Ontario Wasteland – by Nick Stewart

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. This article was published in the January, 2011 issue.

Goldcorp Inc. is just months away from making a production decision to dig up the literal “heart of gold” a stone’s throw from downtown Timmins. 

The Vancouver-based producer is working fervently through the winter months to build a case for a series of open pit mines at the very centre of the historic mining community, potentially making Timmins a unique portrait of modern mining in Ontario.

The project will carve out a patch of land just south of Highway 101, the main drag along which most of the city’s major commercial activity is located. The 250-acre property is surrounded by a pharmacy, a fast food outlet, a hotel, the Shania Twain Centre, the Gold Mine Tour and residential suburbs on two sides. The downtown core is across the street to the west.

This large area is the site of the shuttered but still treacherous underground Hollinger Mine, closed in 1968. Its hundreds of miles of tunnels have plagued the community with sinkholes and subsidences, creating a restricted wasteland and resulting in millions in property damage.

By mining out the area, Goldcorp stands to not only tap into the abandoned riches beneath the soil, but also to later transform it into safe, usable land. Like the issues surrounding the property itself, the new mining project is rife with logistical challenges, not the least of which involves determining what was left in the ground following nearly a century of mining.

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KWG Resources News Release: RING OF FIRE CHIEFS INVITED TO JOIN CANADA CHROME BOARD

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

MONTREAL, Canada, Jan. 18, 2011 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) —
Symbol on TSX Venture Exchange: KWG
Shares issued and outstanding: 623,458,941

KWG Resources Inc. (KWG) has extended invitations to the Chiefs of five First Nations in the Ring of Fire area to join the Board of Directors of its subsidiary Canada Chrome Corporation (“CCC”).

“Late last year we advised Chiefs Elijah Moonias, Cornelius Wabasse, Sonny Gagnon, Roy Moonias and Lewis Nate that there appeared to be technical and economic merit to proceeding with a feasibility study of the railroad for which we have staked a right-of-way and sampled soil profiles,” said KWG President Frank Smeenk. “Should subsequent development ensue which physically affects their traditional lands, there must first be prior consultation and accommodation, as is well understood by all constituencies. The entire Matawa family of First Nations is enthusiastic to see these developments progress. To facilitate and expedite the process, we felt that the extensive consultation necessary could be most effectively undertaken by having the leading members of the five most directly impacted communities participate in the corporate planning from the outset. In this way those who are most affected by these hoped-for developments can become the proponents of them.”

Golder Associates were retained by CCC to conduct testing of the soil profiles from samples taken last winter at 1000-foot intervals along the length of the potential right-of-way.

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Minister [Gravelle] Tries to Calm Fears for Ring of Fire – by Chelsey Romain (Timmins Daily Press)

This article was originally published in the Timmins Daily Press on January 11, 2011. Timmins is the second largest mining community in Ontario with a population of about 45,000.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“We consider it an absolute priority that the greatest value-added opportunities take place with the Ring of Fire development. That very much includes the processing facility be in the North.” (MNDMF Minister Michael Gravelle – Jan/11/2011)

“We are very, very concerned about plans for the Ring of Fire because, quite frankly, there doesn’t seem to be any plan. There doesn’t seem to be a plan that involves Northern communities or the First Nation people who live up in the region.” MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay – Jan/11/2011)

Vows ore won’t go to China

The Far North’s Ring of Fire project has been hailed as the next great thing in mining, bigger than the Porcupine Camp and Sudbury’s ore body combined.

But there is fear among those wanting to benefit from the project that Northern Ontario, more specifically the Northeast and Timmins, will be left out, while foreign countries reap the rewards.

A recent comment from Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees president William Brehl that ore mined from the Ring of Fire could be shipped to China for processing has political leaders saying discussion on the subject needs to take place now.

“We are very, very concerned about plans for the Ring of Fire because, quite frankly, there doesn’t seem to be any plan,” said MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay). “There doesn’t seem to be a plan that involves Northern communities or the First Nation people who live up in the region.”

Up for debate is whether or not the companies involved with the project will decide to have a processing plant in the North. Stating Ontario’s lack of competitiveness versus other provinces as well as other countries, there is concern that a processing plant could be built elsewhere, most specifically China.

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Sudbury’s Mining Reseach Hub Gets $10-Million Rio Tinto Investment – by Nick Stewart

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. This article was posted on the newspaper website on January 11, 2011.

“While this is a real game-changing technology that’s developing, we still need to
do drill and blast conventional advances, and that has to happen at a higher
speed too.” (Dr. Peter Kaiser, CEMI President and CEO)

Sudbury, Canada turning into Silicon Valley of hardrock mining reseach

A $10-million research effort funded by Rio Tinto and coordinated through the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation will first be tested at the mining giant’s Northparkes Mine in New South Wales, Australia.

A $10-million investment in one of Sudbury’s major mining research nodes by Rio Tinto in December may well benefit other mining operations in Sudbury and around the North, according to project leaders.

The U.K.-based company’s partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) will target the high-speed construction and development of underground mines and the development of ground support systems.

As the company seeks to rapidly move away from open pits to these new underground environments, Rio Tinto will focus on its own mechanized tunnelling and shaft sinking systems, whose issues are common across many Sudbury-area projects, said CEMI president and CEO Peter Kaiser.

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Battle of the Canadian Gold Rushes: Klondike Versus Northern Ontario – by Stan Sudol

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

The Yukon Klondike

I have a small complaint about Canadian mining history or more importantly, our media coverage of past gold rushes. The Yukon Klondike gold rush of 1896-1899 seems to take all the glory – thanks to writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Canadian literary icon, Pierre Berton – while northern Ontario’s four globally significant gold/silver discoveries in the first half of the last century do not get the historical respect they deserve.

The initial Klondike discovery, on August 16, 1896, at a fish camp near the junction of the Yukon and Klondike rivers, is credited to George Carmack and his Tagish Indian brothers-in-law, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson (Tagish) Charlie. Robert Henderson, a Nova Scotia prospector is credited as a cofounder, since it was on his advice that the discovery was made, however he made no money from the find.

At the height of the rush, Dawson City, the main staging town at the mouth of the Klondike River had a booming population of about 30,000 and was known as the most cosmopolitan city west of Winnipeg and north of Vancouver.  Due to its isolation, all the claims had been staked by the time most people finally arrived. Some of the most memorable photographs from the period show a thin line of thousands of people climbing the legendary Chilkoot Pass – the shortest but most difficult route to the goldfields – bringing the required year’s supply of food and living material.

Fortunes were made and lost in Dawson City’s “rip-roaring” frontier atmosphere where prostitutes were tolerated and nearly everyone was on the lookout for charlatans and con men. Many became rich just supplying services to the stampeders.  In total, about 12.5 million ounces of gold was produced during this short-lived rush that lasted for less than a decade.

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Noront Resources May Go Underground in the Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross

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. This article was published in the January, 2011 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“Mining companies from Canada think nothing of establishing social programs for poor communities in Brazil or South Africa. They hesitate in Canada. As a Canadian, I’ve got a problem with that. I think it’s an obligation for us as Canadians to help the First Nations get out of this welfare state and start (helping them) develop and become self-sufficient in developing community jobs.” – Noront CEO Wes Hanson

Noront Resources has subterreanean plan for Ring of Fire

A leading junior nickel and chromite miner in the Ring of Fire wants to establish a light environmental footprint in the James Bay region.

Wes Hanson, Noront Resources’ president and chief executive officer, laid out his company’s impressive conceptual plans before a receptive audience of businesspeople and mining suppliers in Sudbury in late November.

While their McFauld’s Lake rivals, Cliffs Natural Resources and KWG-Canada Chrome, are mapping out ambitious plans for an open pit chromite mine and railroad in the Far North, Noront Resources’ development concept is positively subterreanean.

The Toronto miner has preliminary plans for a massive underground complex beneath the swamps of the James Bay Lowlands. With no operating mines to produce a steady flow of cash, Noront is focused on minimizing costs and is determined not to damage one of the world’s largest wetlands.

Noront is eyeballing a mine, mill and tailings storage facility that are completely underground. There will be no headframe on surface. “The goal is to build a mine you can walk over and not even know it’s there,” said Hanson.

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Rare Earths Provide Ontario With a Rare Economic Opportunity

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 burgeoning global markets and growing high-tech applications for rare earth elements provides Ontario with an opportunity to expand its mining – and manufacturing — sectors.  The 17 rare earth elements with strange sounding names are essential to the production of items such as permanent magnets, rechargeable batteries, electric and hydrogen vehicles, lasers and the miniaturization of electronic devices among others. 

As markets and applications expand, supply is strained.  Worldwide demand for these elements is expected to outstrip supply by 40,000 tonnes annually unless new sources are developed.  The Ontario Mineral Deposit Inventory documents more than 200 known rare element and rare earth element mineral occurrences across the province.   

The Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry says rare element and rare earth element minerals are among the non-traditional metals being targeted for exploration in Ontario.  Areas with rare earth development potential in the province would include Bancroft, Elliot Lake, Hearst, Kenora, Marathon and Moosonee.

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Northern Ontario Mine Construction Underway for Detour Gold – by Adelle Larmour

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. This article was published in the January, 2011 issue.

The start of Detour Gold’s mine project will produce a wealth of economic spinoffs across the North

Cochrane is one of the northeastern Ontario communities reaping spinoff benefits as the project site preparations begin for one of Canada’s largest undeveloped gold reserves.

Detour Gold Corporation, a Toronto-based junior, received provincial approval for its closure plan and environmental assessment in early November. It has prompted the procurement process for mining equipment and services that will help build and operate the open-pit mine for a targeted production date of early 2013.

Located at Detour Lake, about 180 kilometres northeast of Cochrane, the project is situated on the site of Placer Dome’s former Detour Lake Mine, an historic producer of 1.8 million ounces of gold. Detour Gold has aggressively performed more than 450,000 metres of drilling and has completed a feasibility study since acquiring the property three years ago.

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Xstrata Helps Raise Operatic Voices in Mining Communities

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.
 

Ontario Mining Association member Xstrata Nickel is a “Major Sponsor” of the Canadian Opera Company helping to bring productions to communities far from singing distance of traditional major performing centres.  The Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour takes student-friendly operatic performances to classrooms in Ontario – and beyond.

Throughout Xstrata’s sponsorship of the COC, it has assisted in bringing operatic education, art and culture to cities such as Sudbury and Timmins in Northern Ontario and other communities in which it has mining operations.  This year, the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour ventured further afield and brought its production of Cinderella to communities near Xstrata Nickel’s Raglan Mine in Nunavik, Quebec.

The Raglan Mine is located in the Arctic region of Quebec north of the 60th parallel of latitude.  The mine site is situated more than 1,800 kilometres north of the home of the COC at University Avenue and Queen Street West in Toronto.  Undaunted by geography and climate, five singers, one music director, one stage manager, two COC staff and a photographer headed to Nunavik.

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OMA Contributes to Skills Canada Ontario Career Blog

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 is participating in Skills Canada Ontario’s blog www.skillswork.blogspot.com/ to promote awareness in skilled trades and technology career paths in the mineral industry.  The OMA is contributing to this communications forum to help students better understand the employment prospects offered by the mining industry.

“The OMA has been an active partner with Skills Canada Ontario for more than five years.  In 2010, the OMA celebrated its 90th anniversary and it is one of the longest serving trade organizations in the country,” said the OMA.  “We represent companies engaged in responsible exploration, extraction and processing of Ontario’s mineral resources.”

“Like other sectors, mining foresees a future demand for technologically smart and skilled people.  The flip side of this need for industry is boundless opportunity for young people embarking on training for future employment.  In some ways being a partner with an educational organization like Skills Canada Ontario is like being a member of a health club – the more you use it, the more you get out of it.” 

Vale Inco saved Sudbury from becoming Valley of Death: Clement – by Carol Mulligan (July 18, 2009)

Carol Mulligan is a reporter for the Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

“There was going to be no buyer, there were going to be no jobs, there weren’t going to be any capital investments, there was going to be no employer. That was the Valley of Death that Sudbury faced.”  Tony Clement (July 18, 2009)


Sudbury is better off now than it was two and a half years ago when Vale Inco Ltd. bought the former Inco Ltd., says Canada’s Industry minister.

If the Brazilian-owned Companhia Vale do Rio Doce hadn’t bought it, Inco would “not exist, it would have been closed down, it would have been liquidated if there wasn’t a buyer,” said Tony Clement in a telephone interview late Friday afternoon.

“There was going to be no buyer, there were going to be no jobs, there weren’t going to be any capital investments, there was going to be no employer,” said Clement. “That was the Valley of Death that Sudbury faced.”

Clement was responding to charges by United Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard that the federal government should have forced Vale Inco to live up to commitments made when it purchased Inco.

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Clement’s Takeover Hangover [Vale, Inco, Sudbury]-by Andy Hoffman and Jacquie McNish (July 22, 2009)

The Globe and Mail, 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. Originally published July 22, 2009

“There was going to be no buyer, [for Inco] there were going to be no jobs, [Sudbury] there weren’t going to be any capital investments, there was going to be no employer.” — Industry Minister Tony Clement

“He’s either sadly misinformed or he’s ignoring the facts because back in 2006 we were a very successful company. There were lots of companies trying to buy us, not just [Vale].”— Scott Hand, Inco’s former CEO

The wave of foreign takeovers that cut a swath through Canada’s resource sector in 2006 and 2007 has become a critical problem for Industry Minister Tony Clement as the new owners break their acquisition promises not to slash jobs and production.

Mr. Clement is under fire for ill-informed comments regarding the sale of nickel producer Inco to a Brazilian mining giant, and for taking an inconsistent approach to enforcing the commitments the foreign companies made in order to win Ottawa’s consent for the controversial deals.

Last week, the government took the extraordinary step of going to court to demand United States Steel Corp. meet job and production pledges that were part of its acquisition of Stelco Inc. in 2007. The move, a first in Canada, has shocked industry and legal observers who say that Industry Canada has been much more flexible with other foreign buyers.

But Mr. Clement then portrayed Inco’s acquirer, Brazil’s Vale SA, as a local saviour – even though Vale, too, is cutting jobs earlier than promised, closing operations and grappling with a strike. Mr. Clement said Sudbury, the site of Inco’s flagship nickel operations, would have become a “Valley of Death” if the Brazilians hadn’t bought the company for $19-billion.

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Exclusionary Planning in Ontario [Aboriginal Conflict and Ring of Fire Mineral Development] – Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?

This posting is an excerpt from “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” , a Conference Board of Canada publication written by three nationally renowned Canadian scholars: Thomas Berger , Steven A. Kennett and Hayden King.

“Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” Highlights:

Most of Canada’s natural resources—forests, metals and minerals, hydroelectric sites, oil and natural gas, and untapped resources that can be further developed—are in the North, and a warming climate is making them more accessible. Businesses, Aboriginal communities, and federal, provincial, and territorial governments will all want their share of the benefits of Northern economic development.

Canada’s North: What’s the Plan? draws on the different viewpoints of three nationally renowned scholars to explore the effectiveness of land use planning in Canada’s North from three very distinct perspectives. Their essays are required reading for those seeking to understand this important issue and draw their own conclusions.

Ontario represents the worst type of planning with Indigenous peoples—a seemingly complete disregard for the perspectives and opinions of the people who will be most directly affected by the land use plans. – The Conference Board of Canada Publication –  “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” (November, 2010)

Exclusionary Planning in Ontario

While Nunavut and Yukon have pursued land use plans through the relatively recent NLCA and UFA, treaties in Northern Ontario are over 100 years old and make no mention of planning commissions. There are also no stipulations for the co-management of surrendered lands in the North, and there is no consensus on roles and responsibilities. In fact, there is little consensus about who actually has authority in Ontario’s North. The Cree and Ojibwe feel that they agreed to share their territories in treaties 3, 5, and 9. Ontario feels that there was explicit surrender and, thus, the Crown has jurisdiction.

This is the unsteady footing from which planning proceeds in the province. Not evolving from the claims-based co-management common in the territories, Ontario’s experience might be described more as crisis-based, as it is a response to numerous high-profile confrontations. However, despite the differences between Nunavut’s and Ontario’s land use planning regimes, there are similarities—primarily, the exclusion of Indigenous peoples from the planning process. In Ontario’s case, the problem does not lie in the execution of plans, but in the drafting.

Ontario has an inauspicious history with First Nations communities in the province. That history has even occasionally resulted in violent conflict with the Haudenosaunee and Algonquin peoples, often over lands and resources. Of course, the province has witnessed the police shooting death of Dudley George at Ipperwash and the ongoing standoff in Caledonia, but most pertinent have been a number of recent conflicts in the North.

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2011 Ring of Fire Update Speech – by Ontario MNDMF Michael Gravelle

This Speech was give by Michael Gravelle Minister Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry at the Thunder Bay Rotary Club (Port Arthur Division) on January 4, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Check Against Delivery

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. It’s a privilege to join you once again. And, I am especially honoured to help launch Port Arthur Rotary’s New Year. On that note, let me offer to each and every one of you my most heartfelt wishes for good health and good fortune in 2011.

Today, I will update you on two of Ontario’s major initiatives:

(1) modernizing the Mining Act; and

(2) the Ring of Fire development in the Far North of Ontario.

Let me start with a brief progress report on MAM — Mining Act Modernization. As you know, the minerals sector is one of Ontario’s major economic drivers.

When we set out to modernize Ontario’s Mining Act, we wanted to strengthen our minerals sector through clear rules and regulations, as well as with streamlined administrative processes. Amending the Act will result in a more balanced approach to mineral exploration and development, and will help keep our mining industry competitive and responsive.

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Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North – Chapter 3: Metal and Non-Metallic Mineral Mining

The Conference Board of Canada is the foremost independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada. It is not a government department or agency and conducts, publishes, and disseminates objective and non-partisan research on economic trends, as well as organizational performance and public policy issues. Click here for Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North.

Please note that charts and maps are omitted from this posting.

The metal and non-metallic mineral mining industry has a long history of providing wealth and employment to Canadians. From the Klondike gold rush in the late 1800s, to the large-scale development and production of potash in Saskatchewan, to diamonds in the Northwest Territories, the industry has maintained its lustre on the global stage.

The industry has endured many boom-bust cycles in its history. In the 1960s, metal and non-metallic mineral mining directly accounted for over 2 per cent of the Canadian economy; by 2009, the industry’s share had shrunk to 0.5 per cent. But the situation is expected to turn around in the coming years as mining continues to be developed— particularly in Canada’s North.

The metal and non-metallic mineral mining industry
has a long history of providing wealth and employment
to Canadians.

Even in 2009—the worst year for mining in recent history—the industry contributed $6.5 billion to the
Canadian economy (in real terms) and continued to export a diverse variety of resources. There are many
spin-off benefits not included in the $6.5 billion: construction, transportation, utilities, warehousing, and
communications are some of the other industries that benefit directly from the development and production
of a single mine.

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