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Ontario Mining

IAMGOLD sees a lot of ways to grow in Timmins – by Amanda Rabski-McColl (Northern Ontario Business – January 17, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

‘I think we have a much better understanding of the capacity in the region, and now we’re established,’ says president and CEO

Youth have a bright future at a gold mine south of Timmins. With IAMGOLD looking to invest in community and education, Bryan Wilson, the general manager of its Côté Gold site near Gogama, about 90 minutes south of the city, says education in the trades is the ticket for Timmins.

“We’ll keep working with Timmins; it’s a mining mecca,” said Wilson, at the Timmins Chamber’s state of mining event on Jan. 15. Situated halfway between Timmins and Sudbury, the open-pit mine went into commercial production in 2024.

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Excerpt from Windfall: Violoa MacMillan and her Notorious Mining Scandal – by Tim Falconer (January 17, 2025)

Click Here to Order Book: https://shorturl.at/dMsqN 

Tim Falconer spent three summers on mineral exploration crews, worked in two mines and studied mining engineering at McGill University for two years before switching into English Literature. He is the author of five previous non-fiction books and a veteran magazine writer. His last two books—Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music and Klondikers: Dawson City’s Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey—made the Globe and Mail’s Top 100. He lives with his wife in Toronto.

Viola MacMillan, who was one of the most facinating women in Canadian business history, was the central character in one of the country’s most famous stock scandals. MacMillan was a prospector who’d gone on to put together big deals, develop lucrative mines and head a major industry association – all at a time when career women were a rarity.  Early in July 1964, shares in her company, Windfall Oil and Mines, took off. In the absence of information about what Windfall had found on its claims near Timmins, rumours and greed pushed share prices to a high of $5.70.  MacMillan stayed quiet. Finally after three weeks of market frenzy, Windfall admitted it had nothing. When the stock crashed, so many small investors lost money that the Ontario government appointed a Royal Commission to examine what had happened. Meaningful changes at the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Ontario Securities Commission followed. Windfall is biographical history at its finest: the unlikely story of the trailblazer who, although convicted and imprisoned, would later receive the Order of Canada.

EXCERPT: THE QUEEN BEE

Viola MacMillan had been so successful selling houses on the side that she decided to leave her job as a stenographer at Rodd, Wigle & McHugh to start her own real estate agency. The move turned out to be ill-timed. By the end of the 1920s, Windsor was no longer booming, and then the Great Depression followed the stock market crash of October 1929. George hadn’t had a job in a while, so they moved to London, Ontario, where she sold Christmas cards wholesale. They kept the place in Windsor and filled it with boarders while taking in more roomers in the home they rented in London. She also tried to sell houses on the side, but that proved a tough go.

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Province announces funding for Timmins critical minerals companies – by Lydia Chubak (CTV News Nothern Ontario – January 15, 2025)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/northern-ontario/

As Ontario braces for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff order expected next week, it’s ramping up its investment in the critical minerals sector. It’s funneling more than $7 million through the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund to 17 projects.

“Our natural resources are essential to the execution of the AM CAN Plan,” said Stephen Crawford, associate minister of mines. “That is another reason why the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund is so important.”

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Matawa tribal chiefs not so keen on Fortress Am-Can – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – Janaury 16, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Indigenous leaders warn province to think again about granting access to Ring of Fire without proper consent

Fortress Am-Can might be Premier Doug Ford’s plan to expedite critical minerals production in the Ring of Fire, but the majority of chiefs with Matawa First Nations tribal council are pushing back that it certainly isn’t theirs.

In a Jan. 16 news release, the leadership warned that, as they are the inherent, treaty and Aboriginal rights holders to the area in and around the undeveloped Far North mineral belt, the Ontario government’s ability to grant access to critical minerals “within our traditional homelands is precarious.”

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Premier wants critical minerals production accelerated – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 14, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ford promotes more robust cross-border trade with U.S. as threat of tariffs loom

Expect a major announcement on the north-south road to the Ring of Fire during the PDAC mining convention in March.That was the word from Premier Doug Ford and Mines Minister George Pirie during a Jan. 13 press conference in Toronto to promote Fortress Am-Can, touted as a new strategic alliance between Canada and the U.S. that involves a plan to fast-track critical minerals production.

Critical minerals and the untapped potential of the Ring of Fire received frequent mention by Ford, Pirie and Northern Development and Indigenous Minister Greg Rickford.

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Ontario Pitches Trump on Mining Deals With Tariffs Looming – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – January 13, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The leader of Canada’s most populous province is pitching a “renewed strategic alliance” with the US on critical minerals, as President-elect Donald Trump threatens crippling tariffs on the northern nation.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled Monday a new plank in a broader strategy he calls “Fortress Am-Can.” The plan aims to invest in and build out a critical minerals supply chain in North America. It advocates for expanding capacity to process metals and minerals mined on the continent, while accelerating federal and provincial timelines to permit and approve mining projects.

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Mining the Northwest: Red Lake’s Madsen Mine ready to restart – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 13, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

West Red Lake Gold Mines building out its workforce to reach commercial production by year’s end

West Red Lake Gold Mines is aiming for a mid-year restart of its Madsen Mine at Red Lake. The Vancouver mine developer released a prefeasibility study in early January, laying out its plan to bring Madsen back to life in 2025.

In taking over a mine that struggled out of the gate and failed under previous ownership, company management is confident it’s delivered a pragmatic and conservative plan that it can deliver on. With 1.7 million ounces of indicated gold reserves and resources, Madsen’s new mine life is pegged at 7.25 years.

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Snow Lake Energy makes gallium discovery in Ontario – by Staff (Mining.com – January 13, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Snow Lake Energy (NASDAQ: LITM) said on Monday it has made a new gallium discovery at the Mound Lake property in Ontario to complement its existing portfolio of lithium and uranium assets, sending its shares higher.

An analysis of sampling conducted by Free Battery Metal (CSE: FREE), its partner on the project, unveiled that 70% of samples from Mound Lake had gallium values above the average crustal abundance (19 parts per million). Twelve samples returned gallium values over 50 ppm, with the highest measuring 110.5 ppm.

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NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Building Fortress Am-Can by Accelerating Strategic Resource Development (January 13, 2025)

Province’s critical minerals can power prosperity and security on both sides of the border

TORONTO — Today, Premier Doug Ford outlined Ontario’s plan to accelerate strategic resource development, including Ontario’s critical minerals in the Ring of Fire region, to build Fortress Am-Can, a renewed strategic alliance between Canada and the United States that is a beacon of stability, security and long-term prosperity.

The United States and Canada are each country’s most significant trading partners, representing trillions of dollars in annual economic activity and millions of jobs on both sides of the border. Fortress Am-Can will leverage Ontario’s unique advantages to help America bring jobs back home as it decouples from China, including by establishing a new Am-Can Critical Mineral Security Alliance that invests in and builds out American and Canadian critical mineral supply chains, including by significantly expanding Am-Can processing capacity.

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New research explores impact of Ring of Fire mining on First Nations in northern Ontario – by Sarah Law (CBC News Thunder Bay – January 11, 2025)

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

Focus is on embedding reconciliation into corporate polices

A new research project is exploring the human rights impacts of mining operations on First Nations in the Ring of Fire — a vast mineral-rich area in northern Ontario. The partnership, announced Wednesday, is between the Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA) and University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s international human rights program.

The research has already begun and is examining how mining companies are engaging with First Nations, with the goal of strengthening their policies on Indigenous relations and sustainability. Jason Rasevych is a member of Ginoogaming First Nation and president of the ABPA.

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Wabun Tribal Council boss goes to bat for Newmont – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 7, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Batise respectful of Takywa Tagamou Nation’s position, but disagrees with their portrayal of gold miner

Newmont isn’t the “bad actor” that it’s being made out to be. Wabun Tribal Council executive director Jason Batise reaffirmed his organization’s support that the gold mining company has proven itself as a good corporate citizen and solid First Nations partner in operating its mines in the Timmins and Chapleau area.

Timmins-based Wabun issued a news release last week throwing its support behind Newmont-owned Porcupine Mines in the face of a legal claim filed last November by Takywa Tagamou Nation (TTN).

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Magna Mining forks over a dollar for 30,000 hectares of Sudbury base metal properties – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Local mine developer swings its second major land acquisition deal in 2024

Sudbury’s newest and boldest miner, Magna Mining, continues to expand its footprint in the Sudbury basin. The junior mine developer has signed an asset acquisition agreement with NorthX Nickel to pick up a raft of former mine and exploration properties that hold some promising base metal potential.

And it’s a pretty sweet cash deal for Magna. One dollar. The properties, scattered all over the corners of the Sudbury basin, amount to about 30,000 hectares that Magna believes have significant upside based on the geology and the record of high-grade hits from drilling programs carried out by previous companies.

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Nickel executives raise alarm over potential flood of Indonesian imports stemming from free trade agreement – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s new free-trade agreement with Indonesia is causing an uproar in the nickel industry, with some executives saying that Ottawa should be clamping down on the Southeast Asian country, instead of opening up the domestic market to a flood of cheap supply produced at questionable environmental standards.

Earlier this month, International Trade Minister Mary Ng announced the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which will see tariffs phased out on many goods between the two countries as of 2026. The trade deal had been in the works for several years. Canada already has no tariffs on imports of nickel from Indonesia.

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Opinion: Canada needs swift reforms to lift its troubled mining sector – by Mark Selby (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.

Canada’s mining industry must overcome significant obstacles to unlock vast reserves of critical minerals essential to our modern economy. From securing development financing to navigating regulatory bottlenecks while competing against well-funded global players like China, bringing Canadian resources to market has never been so challenging.

The Canadian mining sector is teeming with projects stuck in the “Valley of Death” – the precarious stage between initial exploration success and full-scale production where many promising ventures fail to secure the backing needed to fund the years of permitting and engineering work required to begin production.

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Mining the Northwest: Opportunities abound for new Musselwhite owner to grow gold resources, shave costs – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 13, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vancouver’s Orla Mining looks to fine-tune operations at the remote northwestern Ont. mine while putting money into the drill bit

Orla Mining may be new to the mining scene in Ontario, but the Musselwhite gold mine is not new to them. The Vancouver company’s pending acquisition of the remote northwestern Ontario underground mine from Newmont probably sent more than a few people scurrying to Google last month to dig into the details of the expanding seven-year-old outfit.

Unlike other mining newcomers to the region, Orla isn’t buying a broken operation that was mismanaged and in dire need of cash-infused resurrection. Musselwhite is one that, by all accounts, is well-run operation that no longer fit into Newmont’s ambitions to invest in so-called Tier 1 assets.

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