Ontario Mining – Page 337 – Republic of Mining

Lack of Mining Oversight Jeopardizes the Far North – Environmental Commissioner of Ontario News Release

September 23, 2010

Toronto, 22 September 2010 – The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario says mining service companies are using claim staking, exploration, and related activities to circumvent the government’s promise to protect half the boreal forest in the Far North. In his 2009/2010 annual report released today, Gord Miller says this is putting the fragile environment of northern Ontario at risk.

Last year, two lines of mining claims hundreds of kilometres long were staked by mining exploration companies to accommodate future rail access leading out of the Ring of Fire, an area known to contain gold, diamonds and potentially the largest source of chromite in North America. “Using mining claims to cut rail lines across a giant swath of the boreal forest nullifies any reasonable discussion about how to plan the protection and the development of northern Ontario,” says Miller.

“Furthermore, the government’s silence on this staking implies that it approves this as appropriate under the Mining Act and its proposed Far North Act.”

The report also found that ineffective government oversight allowed service companies to illegally construct a mining camp and airstrips without approval.

Balance in Far North Bill – Toronto Star September 19, 2010 Editorial Comment on McGuinty Liberal’s “Far North Bill”

February 11, 2011September 23, 2010

The Toronto Star 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. This editorial was originally published on September 19, 2010.

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

Beyond romantic notions of caribou running wild across endless tundra, most Ontarians know very little about the northernmost 40 per cent of our province.

Much of the land is barren and beautiful, but it is also facing increasing pressure for development; logging, mining and power companies all see great potential there. The First Nations, who have long called the region home, need a say in determining the future of the land and an assurance that they will benefit economically from its development.

The province, on the other hand, needs to balance these interests with environmental protections for the northern boreal region, a globally significant ecosystem. The provincial government’s Far North Act, Bill 191, would achieve that balance.

So it is unfortunate that the chiefs of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) territory are threatening that there will be “no peace on the land” if the government passes the bill in the coming days.

McGuinty Headed for a Northern [Ontario] Showdown – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun-September 16, 2010)

April 6, 2011September 23, 2010

Christina Blizzard is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Toronto Sun, the city’s daily tabloid newspaper.

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

The Liberals’ Far North Act will kill the ‘economic equivalent of another Sudbury’

When mayors, chambers of commerce and aboriginal groups from across the north all converge on Queen’s Park, you know there’s trouble brewing.

That happened Wednesday, as anger over the government’s Far North Act boiled over from the wide landscapes of the north, its boreal forests and mines to the manicured southern lawns of Queen’s Park.

New Democrat Gilles Bisson stormed out of a committee hearing on Bill 191, calling the process a “sham.” He’d asked that the bill not be called for third reading and the government go back to the drawing board.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy, usually a moderate, angrily declared aboriginal people will take “direct action” to protect their rights.

“We will do whatever is necessary to protect our interests, and if that calls for direct action, that’s what’s going to take place,” Beardy said.

Liberals should rethink the [Ontario’s] Far North Act – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun-August 19, 2010)

April 6, 2011September 23, 2010

Christina Blizzard is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Toronto Sun, the city’s daily tabloid newspaper.

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

Northerners don’t expect government hand-outs, or intrusive legislation from a remote provincial government in the south

The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. Similarly, it seems the highway to God’s country ends in a dead-end created by well-meaning but wrong-headed do-gooders.

Northern Ontario has spectacular landscapes, vast mineral riches, untold tourism potential and resilient, self-reliant folk.

While northerners don’t expect government hand-outs, they also don’t expect intrusive legislation from a remote provincial government in the south.

Yet that’s what’s happening with the Far North Act, which would put half the land north of the 51st parallel out of bounds for development. Worse, the government hasn’t said which 50% of land is off the table.
That uncertainty means mining companies are thinking twice before they invest in the north.

Canada’s Business News Network (BNN) Profiles the World-Class Sudbury Mining Basin – Stan Sudol

June 10, 2015September 22, 2010

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com) Toronto-based Business News Network (BNN) is a Canadian cable television specialty channel owned by CTVglobalmedia. BNN airs business and financial programming and analysis. You can’t go anywhere in Toronto’s financial district without seeing BNN broadcasting on television screens. On September 17, 2010, …

Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) Receives $1 Million to Support Labour Market Research – by Ryan Montpellier

September 20, 2010

Ryan Montpellier is the Executive Director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR)

On September the 17th, the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources, announced funding of $1 million to the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) in support of mining-related labour market information (LMI), under the Council’s Mining Workforce Information Network (MIWIN) project. The funding will be used to build a counter cyclical strategy for industry, enhance supply side information and establish a mining LMI centre of excellence, all requested by industry.

Launched in 2007, MIWIN now provides accurate and timely labour-market information to the mining industry and its stakeholders. This entails forecasting future hiring requirements in the sector, by occupation and region, based on a number of factors including productivity, turnover, retirement rates and fluctuations in commodity prices — the largest driver of employment in the sector.

The Canadian mining industry faces several labour market challenges and tens of thousands of skilled positions must be filled in the next decade to keep the industry robust. Despite impressive increases in the participation of various demographic groups (e.g., Aboriginal peoples, women and new Canadians), employers are still faced with an aging workforce and a looming labour shortage.

Russian Hydrology Student Particpates in De Beers Peatlands Reseach at Northern Ontario Diamond Mine

November 5, 2015September 15, 2010

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.

Russian graduate student Yulia Orlova hopes to take lessons she is learning about muskeg at De Beers Canada’s Victor Mine home to better understand the dynamics of Siberian peatlands. She came to Canada last year and started her Masters in Geography at the University of Toronto. Ms. Orlova is researching the impact of mine dewatering and mercury in peatlands under the direction of U of T professor Brian Branfireun. This is one of the major research projects De Beers Canada’s Victor Mine is helping to sponsor.

The 26 year old native of St. Petersburg graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a degree in hydrology. She worked for three years both for the Russian government and a non-governmental environmental agency before continuing her studies in Canada.

“There is expertise in Canada on peatlands and funding support and there were more opportunities to do research in my area.” – Russian Hydrology Student Yulia Orlova

“I wanted to come to Canada to study here,” said Ms. Orlova. “There is expertise in Canada on peatlands and funding support and there were more opportunities to do research in my area.” To complete her thesis on the hydrology of the James Bay lowlands, she collects and tests water samples from streams around the mine site and carries out analysis of the results and examines water chemistry.

Along with the academic component of her studies, Ms. Orlova, like all students and professors on the Victor site, is regularly engaged in safety training and orientation sessions.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Canada’s Mining Exploration Sector: Doing the Right Thing Wherever We Work – Jon Baird (June 23, 2009)

September 12, 2010

Jon Baird, Past President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), gave this speech to the Economic Club of Canada on June 23, 2009

Check against delivery

Thank you for your generous introduction, Bill. In a 2007 speech here at the Economic Club, National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations didn’t pull any punches.

He opened his talk by describing the poverty, suffering and frustration that too many of his people live with.
He called for businesses to join the AFN’s Corporate Challenge and work together with First Nations to help address long standing problems and alleviate poverty. The National Chief described the resource industry as a natural partner for First Nations and called on both groups to work together for their mutual benefit.

So it’s fitting that the PDAC is here today to publicly introduce our new corporate social responsibility initiative, e3 Plus: A Framework for Responsible Exploration.

Aboriginal people and Europeans have been working together on the hunt for minerals in Canada since Jacques Cartier arrived here 500 years ago looking for, he said, “gold, rubies and other gems.”

The PDAC marks the industry’s long connection with Aboriginal people with the Skookum Jim Award, which is presented at our convention in Toronto every March. It recognizes Aboriginal achievement in the industry. Skookum Jim was a Tagish man who led the group that discovered gold in the Klondike in 1896 and touched off the Yukon gold rush.

Those of you outside the mining community may not be aware of how closely geoscientists in this country work with First Nations people.

Thunder Bay’s Confederation College, Mineral Sector Train Aboriginal Students for Mining Jobs – Ian Ross

August 23, 2010

This article was originally published in Northern Ontario Business in the December, 2009 issue. 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.

The next generation of mining employees will include many First Nations participants

Building a home-grown workforce has always been an important to Henry Wetelainen, president of Bending Lake Iron Group.

The Thunder Bay-based junior miner is partnering with Confederation College to run a prospectors course at the company’s iron ore deposit near Ignace in northwestern Ontario.

For his Aboriginally-owned, family-run company, Wetelainen said it’s always been a driving interest in his family to get First Nation youth interested in the grass roots end of the mining cycle.

“This is important to us as a company,” said Wetelainen, who has students from remote First Nation communities such as Gull Bay, Kasabonika and Big Trout Lake. “What’s an agreement with the First Nations worth if you can’t live up to it?”

Hollywood’s Avatar Imitates Ontario Mining/Aboriginal Conflicts – by Juan Carlos Reyes

February 20, 2012August 22, 2010

Juan Carlos Reyes is the organizer of the annual Learning Together conference and an aboriginal consultant with Efficiency.ca. He is passionate about human rights and works tirelessly to help improve the lives of Canadian aboriginal people. This column was originally published in May 2010.

There still may be a few among you who have yet to see James Cameron’s epic blockbuster Avatar. My advice: Go see it! The movie offers an interesting vision of colonial mentality — something to which many Aboriginal people will relate. Here’s my take on it: White Americans travel to a distant planet to mine an invaluable mineral.

They hire researchers and scientists to placate the indigenous population (called the Na’vi) by socially infiltrating the community and attempting to convince them to move to more “suitable” locations. When the ruse fails, the mining company gets fed up and redefines the term “explosive climax.” The hero of the story, a white American military recruit, switches sides and helps lead the Na’vi to victory.

James Cameron has received a lot of heat over this movie. But I think that Avatar was developed brilliantly. Some reviews claim that Cameron’s idea was to portray the Black or Muslim or indigenous experience. Regardless of his motivation, the movie succeeds in its depiction of the way industrialized nations have “taken over” in many developing countries.

Ontario’s Hemlo Gold Camp Celebrates 25 Years of Production

August 16, 2010

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.

Barrick’s Hemlo operations organized a series of educational and celebratory events to mark the 25th anniversary of gold production in the Hemlo gold camp in Northwestern Ontario, near Marathon. The Ontario Mining Association was pleased to participate in the activities. Lesley Hymers, OMA Environment and Education Specialist, was on hand with an interactive display booth promoting careers in mining and the OMA high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining.

Back in the 1980s, Hemlo was the industry newsmaker and headline driver in Ontario. It was the most exciting and largest mineral development in the province since the Kidd Mine in Timmins in the 1960s. The Hemlo orebody supported three mines originally. Good old fashioned prospecting smarts, innovative geological thinking and interpretations and perseverance led to the discovery and development of this gold mining complex. At the time, it was improbable to think that three headframes not more than two kilometres apart located within snowball throwing distance of the Trans Canada Highway were producing gold on previously explored ground.

The mine in the middle – Golden Giant Mine – began production in 1985 and it closed in 2006. The mine in the east – David Bell – and the mine in the west – Williams – are still in operation today and part of Barrick’s fleet of global gold mines. The Williams and David Bell mines share milling, processing and tailings facilities and the ores are co-mingled for the extraction process. In 2009, these mines produced 275,000 ounces of gold. Estimated proven and probable ore reserves contain more than 1.3 million ounces of gold.

Map Staking Versus Ground Staking: An Enormous Threat to Ontario’s Mineral Prospectors – by Gregory Reynolds

December 9, 2010August 6, 2010

This column was originally published in the Autumn, 2009 issue of Highgrader Magazine which is committed to serve the interests of northerners by bringing the issues, concerns and culture of the north to the world through the writings and art of award-winning journalists as well as talented freelance artists, writers and photographers.

Gregory Reynolds is a Timmins, Canada-based columnist who writes extensively about mining and northern Ontario issues. He can be contacted at poker@ntl.sympatico.ca

The Vanishing Canadian may sound like the title for a suspense novel but it is really a realistic description of the fate of the prospector. It has been a career in twilight for many decades but a proposed change to the Ontario Mining Act will turn into a final nail in its coffin.

Canadian’s mining and mineral industries owe their existence to the men – and a few women – who abandoned the comforts of civilization for the hardships of life in the bush.

Home was a tent or a crude cabin with the isolation of living alone usually tempered only by the comfort of a dog.

Bears, mosquitoes, black flies and no see’ems were part of the wildlife that made the hunt for precious and base metals dangerous, not forgetting the distance from medical attention and even further travel to reach a hospital.

When the provincial legislature makes map staking legal in Ontario, there will no longer be a need for prospectors. Individuals and companies will be able to stake claims by looking at a map and informing – and paying – the government electronically.

“The elimination of ground staking is singly the biggest threat to the individual prospector and will result in
an extensive cull and possible extinction of the independent prospector throughout Ontario.”

The present system is called “ground staking” because a person holding an Ontario prospector’s licence is required to physically walk the boundary of a mining claim, marking trees and erecting four corner posts to which his claim tag and other information must be affixed.

After a claim has been staked and then explored, sometimes something of value is discovered. That sets off what is known as a “staking rush.”

The Future of Mining in Ontario: Is it golden? – by Chris Hodgson

August 5, 2010

Chris Hodgson is President of the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province. This column was provided by the OMA.

The Ontario Mining Association held a conference in June “The future of mining in Ontario: Is it golden?” in North Bay, which celebrated the Association’s 90th anniversary. There was the appropriate cake on hand and other touches to mark the occasion along with a commemorative plaque, which was presented by Mines Minister Michael Gravelle on behalf of Premier Dalton McGuinty.

This plaque reads “Since its founding in 1920, the OMA has excelled in representing the interests of companies engaged in the exploration, production and processing of our province’s mineral resources. As the voice for the mining industry in Ontario, the OMA plays a crucial role in securing the sector’s prosperity and competitiveness, while ensuring that Ontario’s mining potential is developed in a sustainable way.”

Perhaps after 90 years, it is time to reflect on how the industry has changed over those decades. After all, the OMA has been open for business longer than all national mining organizations except the Canadian Institute of Mining. In order to put things in a historical perspective, since 1920, Canada has had 15 different people serve as Prime Ministers while Ontario has had 17 different premiers and 32 different mines ministers.

When the OMA first hung out its shingle, Sir Robert Borden was Canada’s leader in Ottawa and Ernest Drury of the United Farmers of Ontario was running things at Queen’s Park. The list of people who have served as Chairmen of the OMA -and there have been 77 of them -reads like a Who’s Who of Canadian corporate history.