‘Pause’ ONTC divestment: Murray – by Dave Dale (North Bay Nugget – November 19, 2012)

http://www.nugget.ca/

NORTH BAY – Big city Liberal politician Glen Murray said Northern Ontario is the key to the province’s future and should be run by a regional authority.

And Murray, who is seeking to replace out-going Premier Dalton McGuinty as the Grit party leader, said they should “pause” the divestment of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission until regional priorities are set.

“I’d put the pause button on ONTC decisions,” he said while in North Bay, Sunday. “We should not be making these one off decisions.”

Murray is stumping for Liberal Party membership support and visited Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury pitching his campaign platform. Tax cuts for the middle class and small business, no-money-down university or college and Northern Ontario autonomy.

“The north needs it’s own voice,” he said, noting it’s a resource-rich region with residents, business owners and community leaders with a stake in its success.

Murray said the shape of the authority could be decided by referendum — whether a general northern government or separate regional government n the northeast and northwest.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: An open letter to all Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidates on behalf of stakeholders supporting the New Deal for Northern Ontario

Dr. Eric Hoskins, MPP, St. Paul’s; Mr. Glen Murray, MPP, Toronto Centre; Ms. Sandra Pupatello; Mr. Charles Sousa, MPP, Mississauga South; Ms. Kathleen Wynne, MPP, Don Valley West

NORTH BAY, ON, Nov. 15, 2012 /CNW/ – Dear Candidates,

We are writing you to make you aware of our plan to revitalize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) and create significant new job and economic opportunities in Ontario’s North.

Our initiative, called the New Deal for Northern Ontario, will save existing transportation and communication services and hundreds of jobs in the North, while also creating thousands more jobs by providing rail access to the Ring of Fire mineral deposits. The plan, which includes the development of other competitive infrastructure components into the Ring of Fire region, will deliver significant benefits to First Nations, the region and the mining and related industries.

The New Deal calls for transferring ownership of the railroad and other assets of the provincially-held ONTC to a new ports authority to be operated under the Canada Marine Act. This will ensure that important infrastructure assets are kept in public hands for the benefit of all stakeholders. The first step in this process was recently completed with the creation of The James Bay & Lowlands Ports Trustee Corporation. The new Ports Authority will be led by Roy Hains, who successfully ran ONTC for several years and developed strategies to make Ontario Northland strong and sustainable.

Read more

Ontario continues to be a global mining leader and expects great things from the ‘Ring of Fire’ – by John Chadwick (International Mining – December 2012)

International Mining is a global technical magazine written for miners by miners. John Chadwick is the publisher. john@im-mining.com 

In November I wrote about one of America’s greatest mining states, Minnesota. This month I and my attention wander across the border to perhaps an even more important region in the global mining industry, Ontario.

In its far north is the Ring of Fire mining camp. At this early stage, Cliffs Natural Resources is looking at an operation there to treat 4.4 Mt/y of crude ore, expected to produce up to 2.3 Mt/y of chromite concentrate. Noront Resources is more into nickel-copper-PGMs – 1 Mt/y throughput producing approximately 150,000 t/y of high grade nickel-copper concentrate containing significant platinum and palladium.

KWG Resources, one of the first players in the area, has earned a 30% interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit, which, at a 15% cutoff, has a Measured resource of 29.5 Mt, grading 29% Cr2O3. The Indicated resource is 7.9 Mt grading 26.7% Cr2O3, and there are 4.8 Mt Inferred, grading 25.0% Cr2O3. By comparison, Outokumpu’s Kemi mine in Finland has ore reserves of 41.1 Mt averaging 24.5% Cr2O3. The much higher grades of the Big Daddy compare favourably with those deposits whose ore is shipped directly to foundries with minimal processing. This potential is being investigated.

Ontario has 42 operating mines today and is the largest producer of non-fuel minerals in Canada (21% of the nation’s total non-fuel production, worth over C$10.7billion in 2011).

Read more

Province wants union’s business plan – by Gord Young (North Bay Nugget – November 9, 2012)

http://www.nugget.ca/

The province is willing to consider a ports authority proposal aimed at revitalizing the ONTC as part of its divestment process, says a spokeswoman for Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci.

Laura Blondeau confirmed Thursday the General Chairperson’s Association (CGA), which represents unionized employees at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, recently met with Bartolucci to discuss the proposal, which calls for the transfer of the Ontario Northland Railway and other ONTC assets to a new ports authority that would be operated under the Canada Marine Act.

Blondeau said the CGA was advised to put together a business plan and participate in the procurement process by submitting the proposal to Infrastructure Ontario. GCA spokesman Brian Stevens could not be reached Thursday for comment.

A request for pre-qualifications closed late last month for the purchase of Ontera, the telecommunications arm of the ONTC and the first division of the Crown agency that’s up for sale.

The province has said there is significant interest in Ontera. And the next step in the process, the issuing of a request for proposals, could come later this month.

Read more

Like joining a neighbourhood, says Boor [Cliffs – Sudbury ferrochrome facility] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 9, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Bill Boor felt as if he were among friends Tuesday at a sold-out luncheon of 330 people organized by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. For Cliffs Natural Resources’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, it was like coming home in a sense.

That’s how Boor felt May 9 after delivering the news to investors in Toronto that Cliffs had selected the former Moose Mountain Mine site north of Capreol for its $1.8-billion ferrochrome processing plant.

“We made a lot more people unhappy that day than we made happy,” Boor told the lunch-time crowd. It was a long day, but Boor and other company officials opted to come to Sudbury for a late-afternoon reception with the city’s movers and shakers.

“It was the best thing we ever decided,” Boor told the chamber crowd. “It honestly felt like when you have a very long day at work and you go home.”

In Sudbury this week, Boor met with Mayor Matichuk, Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas and Nickel Belt New Democrat MP Claude Gravelle. All three attended the luncheon, sitting at the same table as Boor.

Read more

Slow burn [Ring of Fire] – by Eavan Moore (CIM Magazine – November 2012)

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

Tight markets, limited infrastructure and challenging ­relationships test the resolve of those exploring the Ring of Fire

From a geological perspective, the Ring of Fire region contains a little something for everyone. Since De Beers’ 2002 discovery of a copper and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit at Eagle One, explorers have uncovered chromite, nickel, gold, vanadium, iron and platinum group elements in and around the iconic crescent-shaped cluster of claims. But the extensive cash and patience required to operate in Ontario’s far north have turned junior exploration into a waiting game, as a few high-profile projects promise to open up inaccessible land to further development.

The region’s two heavyweights, Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront Resources, are each advancing a major project to the development stage. That does not lend itself to funder-friendly hype for explorers. “Where we are now in the cycle, there’s not as much flaming news coming out,” says Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association. And in a generally dry investment climate, he adds, even strong drill results do not seem to move markets.

Operating costs

Exploring in the Ring of Fire – 300 kilometres from the nearest road or rail – takes serious money. Michael Murphy, spokesperson for exploration junior White Pine Resources, sketches out the figures: “Diamond drilling costs are approximately $750 per metre for a small drilling program.

Read more

The quest for fire [Ring of Fire] – by D’arcy Jenish (CIM Magazine – November 2012)

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

The rewards will be great for those intent on developing Ontario’s new mining district, but they will not come without plenty of hard work and more than a little patience

When Noront Resources made the first major discovery in the nascent mining region, dozens of junior exploration companies rushed into the formidable terrain of swamps, bogs, muskeg and mosquito-infested boreal forest to stake claims. Located near the shores of McFauld’s Lake, some 550 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, the region has yielded three major finds: the Black Thor and Big Daddy chromite deposits, and the nearby Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-platinum-palladium resource.

Cliffs Natural Resources bought all of Black Thor and owns 70 per cent of Big Daddy. Together, those represent the first major chromite discoveries in North America, and current resource estimates indicate they may be large enough to support multi-generational mines. At the moment, Cliffs intends to develop Black Thor first, and is committed to investing $3.3 billion in that mine and a smelter located at Capreol, just outside Sudbury. Meanwhile, Noront is steadily developing its smaller Eagle’s Nest property close by. However, before either company ships a pound of metal to market, they have some difficult hurdles to clear.

Environmental assessments

Noront has been operating in the shadow of Cliffs, largely because its polymetallic deposits are not judged to be world-class scale, but Noront president and CEO Wes Hanson says the company aims to have an underground mine in production by late 2016 and hopes to be first to produce from the Ring of Fire.

Read more

Cliffs still fuzzy on chromite timeline – by Ian Ross (Sudbury Northern Life – November 7, 2012)

 http://www.northernlife.ca/

Black Thor faces cost pressures, volatile markets, First Nations opposition

The timelines for Cliffs Natural Resources to develop a chromite mining project in the James Bay lowlands still remain somewhat murky.

Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, spoke to a Sudbury Chamber of Commerce lunchtime crowd Nov. 6 to outline progress on the massive $3.3-billion Black Thor mine and Capreol furnace project, and also to tamp down reports that the Ohio miner’s development timelines are slipping by one year.

Boor maintains that the company is still shooting for a late-2016 start-up for mining operations, despite earlier comments by his CEO, Joseph Carrabba, that cost pressures and volatile markets could push back the start-up of production to 2017.

Read more

Ring of Fire rail plan adds new twist to old debate – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – November 7, 2012)

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Figuring out how to link the proposed Ring of Fire mines to market has been a long standing debate. Whether ore should travel east-west or north-south has been the primary discussion, with stakeholders across the spectrum weighing in on which way is best.

Through it all, the idea of using a railway instead of a road has been kept quietly on the backburner. Now a new coalition of unlikely partners is trying to bring the rail option to the forefront.

In what it calls a New Deal for northern Ontario, a group led by the James Bay Lowlands Ports and Trustee Corporation (JBLPTC) has proposed an ambitious, publically-owned transportation corridor that would tie the Ring of Fire to existing northern Ontario railway lines while taking over control of the Ontario Northern Transportation Company (ONTC) and continuing passenger rail services from James Bay to the south.

The plan is in its early stages. The JBLPTC still needs approval by the federal government under the Canada Marine Act to officially operate as a port. And even if it gets that federal approval, the organization needs Ontario to grant it control over the existing ONTC, while finding financial backing to build a new rail line from Nakina to the Ring of Fire.

But Roy Haines, CEO of the JBLPTC, is optimistic that the plan can not only get off the ground, but that it can succeed in spreading the benefits of the Ring of Fire across a wider group of stakeholders and keep the infrastructure publically-owned.

Read more

Critics say Liberals need to do more – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – November 8, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Liberal government needs to do more to get the so-called Ring of Fire back on track, Conservative’s Northern Development and Mines critic charged Wednesday.

Norm Miller, who is also the MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, said in a release he was disappointed Cliffs Natural Resources announced last week it would push back production at its Black Thor chromite mine to 2017.

Cliffs, a Cleveland-based company, had planned to begin production at Black Thor in Northwestern Ontario by 2015. The company also plans to build a smelter to process chromite, which is used to harden steel, in Capreol.

Miller said this and other Ring of Fire projects have the potential to create new jobs, but the provincial government has mishandled its development.

“Exploration work in the Ring of Fire has ground to a halt,” Miller said in a release. “You would think the Liberal government would be doing all they could to keep work going, especially with all the jobs and investment potential that are at stake as their $15-billion deficit hangs over the province and 600,000 Ontarians still find themselves out of work.

Read more

Cliffs to push mine, smelter project forward – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 7, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Bill Boor, senior vice-president of global ferroalloys for Cliffs Natural Resources, had already been asked several times about the company’s projected start date for its Black Thor deposit in the Ring of Fire by the time he addressed a lunch crowd Tuesday.

Boor told 330 people attending an event organized by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce that he hoped to clear up any confusion about his company’s schedule to begin production at its McFaulds Lake mine site in northwestern Ontario.

“How do you clear it up?” Boor asked rhetorically during his 40-minute speech. “My simple answer is, ‘It depends.’ ” Many things will have to come together to meet Cliffs’ target of beginning production by the end of 2016, he said.

The company is in the middle of completing a feasibility study that will refine what came out of a pre-feasibility study. That will result in “a very specific project with tighter understanding of the impacts of what needs to be managed here,” said Boor.

Using targets the company believes are realistic, it is looking to complete the feasibility study by mid-2013 and to have permits in place in the second half of 2014. 
The environmental assessment for the project will be “running parallel and that’s an uncertain timeline,” said Boors.

Read more

Mine plans will rely on markets: Cliffs – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 6, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

The prospect of a large-scale chromite mine in the Ring of Fire — as well as new power and road infrastructure expected to go along with it — still seems do-able even as the main proponent ponders a less-than-rosy market outlook, possible time-line adjustments and a partner, leaders of an affected community say.

But the fact that Cliffs Natural Resources may yet again postpone its proposed production date is discomfiting. “It’s definitely a concern when they push (the date) back a second time,” Greenstone Mayor Ron Beaulieu said Monday.

“I mean, we met with Cliffs from day one, and they told us they had a production date set (2015) which seemed written in stone.”

Beaulieu added: “I still think it’s a viable project that will eventually come to fruition.” Cliffs spokeswoman Pat Persico said Monday that “officially we are working towards the end of 2016,” but the production date could be pushed “beyond 2017.”

Persico said the Cleveland-based iron ore giant remains committed to having a feasibility study and environmental assessment review for its Ring of Fire project completed by next year.

Read more

Cliffs could further delay Ring of Fire chromite mine – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – November 5, 2012)

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Cliffs Natural Resources is considering delaying the expected start date of construction on its Ring of Fire chromite mine until 2017 or beyond.

Joseph Carrabba, Cliffs CEO and President, told international investors on Oct. 25 that in light of current global iron ore prices the company is reviewing the timeline for its proposed northern Ontario mine.

“This includes delaying the major capital spending outlays and could push the production target date beyond 2017,” Carrabba said. “We still expect to complete the feasibility stage of development and environmental assessment by next year. However, we have decided to shelve our early works plans until feasibility is complete.”

Carrabba said that Cliffs plans to decrease spending on exploration of its chromite site in 2013 as well as cancelling plans for capital spending at the site for the upcoming year. “Exploration will go down in 2013, just like everything. The first thing that always goes is exploration and R&D from any mining company that goes with it,” Carrabba said.

Carrabba also told investors that the company is exploring the option “to take on a partner for the project.”

Read more

Noront Resources Fourth Annual Ring of Fire Christmas Fund – “Giving the Gift of Christmas”

The staff of Noront Resources, in cooperation with North-South Partnership for Children, is proud to present the Fourth Annual Ring of Fire Christmas Fund. Thanks to the support of the Noront Board of Directors, suppliers, employees, and friends, we raised over $55,000 during the first three years, giving children under 12 in the communities of Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations a wrapped Christmas gift. This year, we have extended the Christmas Fund to the Neskantaga First Nation!

In addition to wrapped gifts, previous years’ funds introduced a mentorship initiative, which brought two former NHL hockey players to Webequie First Nation. We are hoping to continue this initiative by bringing a Canadian mentor to the communities again in 2012.

All donations made online at www.northsouthpartnership.com will receive tax receipts.

Read more

[Thunder Bay power plant] Gas conversion on hold – by Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 3, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

The fate of the city’s OPG power plant will be clearer in a few months, the province’s minister of energy assured Friday.
Regional representatives were caught off-guard Thursday when the provincial government announced a hold on its plan to convert the plant so that it runs on natural gas instead of coal.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) — which is in charge of Ontario’s long-term power system planning — believes the loss in power generation could be made up elsewhere, and mothballing the local plant would save taxpayers up to $400 million (that number was highly disputed on Friday, however).

“If the plans will provide those power needs and save money, then we’ll take a look at them,” Ontario Energy Minister Chris Bentley said in an interview Friday. “If they won’t, then the conversion is back on.

“Look, anytime anybody tells me they can do something and save up to $400 million, they’ve got my attention. But right now, I’m at the ‘show me’ stage, and that’s why we’re waiting for the more-detailed approach and plan.”

Read more