Ontario Mining – Page 324 – Republic of Mining

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.

Mining company, (Constance Lake) First Nation leadership end dispute – by Leith Dunick (tbnewswatch.com)

July 20, 2011

www.tbnewswatch.com

Aubrey Eveleigh, president and CEO of Zenyatta Ventures Ltd., points out an area of dispute, known as the Albanry Project. The company on Monday finalized an agreement with Constance Lake First Nation that will allow the junior mining firm’s exploration plans to go ahead. Prestige Limousine

A Thunder Bay-based junior mining company’s three-month dispute with Constance Lake First Nation is over. Aubrey Eveleigh, president and CEO of Zenyatta Ventures, said the agreement was finalized on Monday, a deal which will give his company the right to proceed with the Albany Project, a claim staked about 45 kilometres west of Hearst.

In return they’ve made concessions to the First Nation community of 1,400, including preferential consideration for job opportunities and contributions to a fund to benefit Constance Lake’s elders and youth.

“We’re quite happy that it’s over with now and we’re both moving forward to help explore in the area known as the Albany Project,” Eveleigh said.

Symbol of Ontario legislative authority goes on a summer vacation to the James Bay coast

November 5, 2015July 20, 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 ceremonial Mace from the Ontario Legislature, which is adorned with two diamonds from De Beers Canada’s Victor Mine near Attawapiskat, went on a summer vacation earlier this month. This symbol of authority at Queen’s Park made its first trip outside the Legislature since 1867 and toured the Victor Mine and communities on the James Bay coast.

The first and second diamonds mined, cut and polished in Ontario, which were donated by De Beers Canada, were encrusted in the Mace when it was refurbished in 2009. Accompanying the Mace on its rare summer vacation were Speaker of the Ontario Legislature Steve Peters, his Sergeant-at-Arms, Queen’s Park officials and the local MPP for Timmins-James Bay Gilles Bisson.

“Visiting the Victor Mine was an excellent opportunity to bring the diamonds, which grace the Ontario Legislature’s Mace, back to the people who mined them and the First Nations whose lands the diamonds came from,” said Mr. Peters, who also served as Ontario’s Minister of Labour from 2005 to 2007. “The health and safety practiced by De Beers is commendable and something every organization and company should aspire to attain.”

[Timmins] Miners dig deal – by Kristine MacDougall (Timmins Daily Press – July 20, 2011)

July 20, 2011

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

Goldcorp, Xstrata Copper finalize partnership agreement

A new partnership agreement between Xstrata Copper and Goldcorp is providing a sustainable future for both operations in Timmins. “We’ve been working on this agreement for over a year, and to finally see it be signed is a great accomplishment,” said David Yaschyshyn, Xstrata Copper’s superintendent of environment and industrial Hygiene.

“It truly is a win-win for both operations.” The announcement came Tuesday morning at Goldcorp’s Hoyle Pond Mine Site, just east of the met site property in Hoyle Township.

“We’ve secured a long-term supply of tailings for the paste filling operations at the Kidd Mine for its life. As well as being able to secure a supply of rock for our construction activities at the Kidd Concentrator site,” said Yaschyshyn.

Ontario gold producer Wesdome’s expansion supports new opportunities in Algoma

July 19, 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.

Like people, mine developments come in all shapes and sizes. They are diverse. Gold producer Wesdome’s recently announced re-starting of its Mishi Pit near Wawa on a year-round basis is an example that proves even small operations can offer major positive contributions to host communities.

Wesdome recently had its amended closure plan for the Mishi open pit approved, which gave the green light to expanding production from the Mishi pit to a 12-month-a-year operation. Ore from the Mishi surface mine will be shipped two kilometres to the Eagle River Mill and mine complex.

The initial five year expansion plan will boost Eagle River production by 1,000 ounces of gold per month and the $48 million expenditure for labour and equipment will be a boost to Wawa. Donovan Pollitt, Wesdome President and Chief Executive Officer, says the expansion will lead to 16 new people being hired at the mine and a second shift will be run at the mill. He added that a contractor has been hired to drill, blast and haul the ore to the mill and it is expected 10 to 15 people will be added to its payroll for this project.

NEWS RELEASE: KWG Applauds Unity Declaration of Matawa Chiefs

July 18, 2011

Montreal, Canada, July 15, 2011 – KWG Resources Inc. (TSXV: KWG) welcomes the announcement yesterday of the Unity Declaration made by the Chiefs of the nine First Nations of the Matawa Council of First Nations.

“This is an exceedingly encouraging development”, said KWG President Frank Smeenk. “There has been a lot of jockeying amongst all the players affected by the Ring of Fire discoveries, and the Chiefs are demonstrating their profound wisdom in determining to act together to confront those opportunities for all of their communities and people.”

“We are in complete agreement with Chief Moonias of the Marten Falls First Nation when he observed, in the press release announcing the Unity Declaration: ‘Our First Nations do not oppose responsible development but as the people of the land, we want to benefit from these potential mining developments and negotiate meaningful employment and business opportunities for our communities, while ensuring the environment is not at risk’.”

Hudak promises change for the North – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – July 15, 2011)

July 16, 2011

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

“I understand why people would be cynical. For years the government has put
the wish list of Southern Ontario special interest groups ahead of Northern
Ontario….We need to demonstrate to all Ontarians the vital need to develop
the Ring of Fire….This is a once in a century opportunity.”
(PC Leader Tim Hudak – July 15, 2011)

www.changebook.ca/north

Tory leader says Kidd Creek smelter shutdown was avoidable

Tim Hudak says the closure of the smelter at the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site was completely avoidable. It was a matter of government priorities.

The provincial Progressive Conservative Leader unveiled his election platform for Northern Ontario this week. Dubbed changebook North, Hudak claims his party will create an environment that will allow the region to prosper.

High hydro costs and taxation, he said, are two of the reasons that companies like Xstrata Copper take jobs out of province. “(Premier Dalton) McGuinty failed to provide the leadership necessary to keep those jobs,” Hudak said in an interview with The Daily Press on Friday. “This was a catastrophic loss for not only Timmins, but for all of Ontario.

“We want to make Northern Ontario attractive for investment. High taxes and hydro rates have moved Ontario to the bottom of the list for investment.”