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Ontario Mining

Ontario election: Make Laurentian University Ontario’s mining champion – by David Robinson (Sudbury Star – February 24, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

It’s one of David Robinson’s four pillars as the Green Party candidate for the Sudbury riding

My job as Sudbury’s Green candidate is to get climate change on your agenda and convince you it is part of a real economic development strategy for our city.

My job as your MPP would be to bring together political factions and leading institutions in the city in a unified campaign to get what Sudbury needs. No other candidate has the knowledge, experience or the proven record of working for Sudbury. No other candidate has the contacts and the respect in every corner of the city.

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Mining industry, business groups in NWO call for better support for mining from next Ontario government – by Kris Ketonen (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 24, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

More power generation, meaningful consultations with First Nations needed if projects are to move forward

Whichever party is elected as the next provincial government needs to show better support for northwestern Ontario’s mining industry if some of the region’s major developments are to move forward, industry and First Nations groups say.

“We need Queen’s Park to actually recognize us more,” said Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association. “We need more money put into exploration to move things forward.”

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NEWS RELEASE: Only Doug Ford Will Protect Ontario by Unlocking the Ring of Fire (February 22, 2025)

A re-elected PC government will make Ontario the most competitive place in the G7 to invest, create better jobs with bigger paycheques and do business, including in the north

Thunder Bay, February 22, 2025 — Today, Doug Ford outlined the PC plan to speed up approvals, cut red tape and invest in infrastructure to unlock the enormous economic potential of Ontario’s critical minerals in the Ring of Fire and protect northern Ontario’s economy and workers.

“Over the past seven years working with First Nations, we’ve made significant progress building the roads to the Ring of Fire,” said Doug Ford. “As we face down the threat of President Trump’s tariffs, we need to do more and we need to do it faster. To protect Ontario, we have to get our critical minerals out of the ground, processed and shipped to factory floors. We have to double down on working with First Nations to speed up approvals and get shovels in the ground on critical mineral projects.”

President Trump is on a mission to suck up every dollar of investment he can for America’s economy. He’s promising major reforms to streamline regulations and speed up approvals.

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The complex legacy of Viola MacMillan – by Ashley Fish-Robertson (CIM Magazine – February 19, 2025)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

A new book explores the life and scandal of a controversial pioneer in Canada’s mining industry

Viola MacMillan’s life, shaped by remarkable accomplishments and the gripping Windfall scandal that took place in the 1960s, forms the heart of Toronto-based author Tim Falconer’s latest book, Windfall: Viola MacMillan and Her Notorious Mining Scandal.

Born in 1903 in Dee Bank, Ontario, MacMillan left school at the age of 12 to support her impoverished family, working as a cleaner with her mother. After the First World War, MacMillan returned to school and later moved to Windsor, Ontario, where she saved up money for business college by working as a telephone operator and live-in maid. After graduating, she was hired as a stenographer.

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Mining the Northwest: Indigenous business group calls for greater consent in mine planning – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 19, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Anishnawbe Business Professional Association proposes new framework that follows the path of reconciliation

Jason Rasevych would like to see corporate Canada do more to put into practice what they put on paper. The president of the Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA) notices that mining companies often make statements in their annual sustainability reports about how they’re working progressively with First Nation communities.

Most of it is centred around promises of jobs and business opportunities. What’s missed is how mining activity will impact a community’s culture. While companies often say they are committed to reconciliation, Rasevych asks, “How are they reporting on that each and every year?”

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Doug Ford wants to ‘protect Ontario’ by digging up the Ring of Fire – by Jon Thompson (Ricochet Media – February 2025)

Front

But consultation isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s international law. And local First Nations want an equitable role in the process

In response to a serious question about municipal revenues during the Northern Leaders Debate last Friday, Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford touted the value of, “unleashing northern Ontario’s economic potential, and I’ll tell you where the potential is: their potential in the north is called the Ring of Fire.”

Ford had planned a northern victory lap to meet with industrial unions in Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay this week, following leaders debates on Friday and Monday. That trip was cancelled after a plane crashed in Toronto, but it was designed to cement Ford’s vision that developing the so-called “Ring of Fire” is somehow a patriotic duty of blue-collar workers.

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Buried treasure: Ontario’s new regulation aims to facilitate the recovery of minerals from mine waste, but many hurdles remain, experts say – by Kelsey Rolfe (CIM Magazine – February 20, 2025)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Ontario is becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to have a dedicated regulatory pathway for projects aimed at recovering residual metals and minerals from mine waste. Experts said the move is a promising step, but technical and economic hurdles still stand in the way of wide-scale waste re-mining efforts.

The province announced a regulatory change to the Mining Act in late November 2024 to create a permit process specifically for recovering metals and minerals from tailings and mine waste at open, closed or abandoned mine sites in the province.

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New book chronicles woman at centre of notorious Timmins mining scandal – by Nicole Stoffman (Timmins Daily Press – February 18, 2025)

https://www.timminspress.com/

‘I see her as the flawed hero,’ author Tim Falconer says of Viola MacMillan

A new book about a Timmins mining stock scandal launched Tuesday, Feb. 18. “Windfall, Viola MacMillan and her notorious mining scandal,” by Tim Falconer (ECW Press, 2025), tells the story of the trailblazing woman prospector and mine developer who, in July 1964, stayed quiet for three weeks while shares in her company, Windfall Oil and Mines, took off amid rumours about what the company had found on its claims near Timmins.

The claims were tantalizingly close to what would become the Kidd Creek Mine, one of the world’s largest base metal mines. When she admitted she had nothing, the stock crashed and many small investors lost money. “She out-and-out-lied to us,” investor Murray Pezim said.

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‘Serious lack of details’ in [Canada Nickel] nickel mine proposal concerns group – by Andrew Autio (Timmins Daily Press – February 17, 2025)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Carbon capture process ‘encourages dangerous emissions,’ says Ontario Rivers Alliance

The Ontario Rivers Alliance has submitted its concerns regarding Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford Project to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC).

The proposed Crawford Project, located 43 kilometres north of Timmins, would see an open-pit nickel cobalt mine, as well as an on-site processing mill. The mine would be capable of producing up to 275,000 tonnes of ore per day, and the project is expected to last approximately 43 years.

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STLLR Gold wants to shake its money maker at a Timmins tailings site – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 13, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto company sifting through Hollinger mine waste looking for leftover gold

A Matheson-area gold mine developer wants to sift through the tailings of the historic Hollinger Mine in Timmins to look for leftover gold.

STLLR Gold is heralding its Hollinger tailings project as a “gamechanging” and “strategic” opportunity that the Toronto company believes can yield significant amounts of untouched gold that can be reprocessed very cheaply and deliver some cash.

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Trump promises 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — including from Canada – by Benjamin Lopez Steven (CBC News Politics – February 09, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Ontario, Quebec premiers criticize U.S. president for creating economic uncertainty

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico — a move that prompted sharp criticism from some provincial premiers.

“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.

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Power shortage poses problem for the mining sector says lobby group – by Clint Fleury (TBnews Watch – February 8, 2025)

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The Northwest Energy Task Force says the Ontario government needs to start planning for additional power generation to meet the mining boom in the Northwest.

THUNDER BAY — Northwestern Ontario would need 250 megawatts of additional energy to meet the demand for the 41 potential mines that are expected to start by 2033, according to the Northwest Energy Task Force. Iain Angus, co-chair of the lobby group, said Northwestern Ontario could risk losing investments from some of those mining companies if we are “not prepared to provide the power.”

Ontario needs to start building additional transmission lines now, said Angus. The Northwest Energy Task Force is calling on all provincial candidates in the northwest to seriously consider adding the region’s energy needs to their platforms.

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‘We’re still open for business’: Kidd mine manager talks closure plans – by Amanda Rabski-McColl (Timmins Today – February 7, 2025)

https://www.timminstoday.com/

Environmental remediation jobs will be plentiful after base metal mine closes in late 2026

TIMMINS – Glencore is open for business even as the Kidd Mine site closes. That was the message at the Timmins Chamber’s State of Mining lunch, where Kidd Operations general manager Dawid Myburgh laid out the site’s successes in the last 58 years and the early stages of its closure plans.

The Kidd Mine is slated to close at the end of 2026. Myburgh laid out the opportunities and work left to do as the closure takes place. “We haven’t in our studies found an economically viable way to go on,” he said. “It’s not a farm. Every time we take something out, it doesn’t grow out, so it’s a normal part of mining and it’s something that, as a team we’re looking at being proud of how we do it.”

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More power needed for growing northwestern Ontario mining sector: task force (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 07, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

About 250 megawatts of additional power generation required

More power is needed in northwestern Ontario if the region is to meet the demands brought on by what a task force calls “unprecedented growth” in its mining sector.

The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association’s (NOMA) Northwest Energy Task Force said there are currently 41 major exploration projects in the region, with 37 of those aiming to be operational by 2033.

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Australian lithium player selects new site for proposed Thunder Bay refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 5, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Green Technology Metals tests lithium sample in South Korea to develop a product for the electric vehicle market

An aspiring Australian lithium producer in northwestern Ontario is eyeing a new site in Thunder Bay to place a refinery. Green Technology Metals is scoping out a brownfield on the city’s waterfront to evaluate its suitability to host a lithium chemical conversion plant.

The Perth-headquartered has shifted focus away from the former Cascades Paper plant property in the city’s north end to the Midcontinent Terminal property on Maureen Street in the centre of the city, near a grouping of grain elevators.

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