Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

This letter was sent to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines in October/2008. The letter provides interesting background information on Ontario’s mineral exploration sector. R. S. Middleton is a well-known and respected geophysicist who has been involved with many mining projects around the world and in Canada over the past 40 years.

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

LACK OF ADEQUATE OR APPROPRIATE CONSULTAION

Meetings on changes to the Mining Act in Ontario were held on August 11, 13, 18, and September 8th, 2008 in Timmins, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kingston and Toronto. The timing was particularly unfortunate since exploration people are always away in the field during the summer months so they were unable to take part or comment on the  proposed changes to the Act. This suggests either that the government has a poor understanding of the industry or that it has deliberately set in train a process to carry out its plans without proper consultation with the industry. Changing an Act of Parliament with only a three week review period is completely unacceptable in any parliamentary democracy.

Those of us away on field work have been unaware of any of the discussions and proposals that have taken place and consider that they have not been properly consulted.

Moreover holding hearings in a small number of towns over such a short time frame, will not elicit the input that is required from the industry.  Why was Ottawa not included in the hearings?  There are more exploration mining companies based in Ottawa than in Thunder Bay.

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This article originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Ontario Prospector which is published by the Ontario Prospectors Association.

R. S. Middleton is a well-known and respected geophysicist who has been involved with many mining projects around the world and in Canada over the past 40 years.

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

A New Chromite Industry for North America

Ontario has been blessed in that a number of world class mineral discoveries have been made over the past 125 years which has brought wealth and prosperity to its citizens and Canada.  These discoveries have sustained thousands of support industries that have manufactured and supplied the implements to extract the metals, industrial minerals and gemstones that form the Mining Industry of Ontario.  Revenues from these mining operations make up approximately 30% of government tax revenue and were the foundation and beginning of the financial industry based in Toronto.

The discovery of the Sudbury nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE (Platinum Group Element) deposits at the end of the 19th century are the largest contributor of revenue with a gross metal value of over $190 billion.  The multitude of silver mines found in 1903 in Cobalt, Ontario generated millions of ounces of silver with by-product cobalt, arsenic, nickel and bismuth and became the strength of the Toronto Stock Exchange in the early 1900’s.  By 1909 prospectors operating from the Cobalt Camp found the famous Porcupine Gold Camp (Timmins) which has now produced over 70 million ounces of gold from 100 years of production.

Prospectors from both Timmins and Cobalt then found the Kirkland Lake – Larder Lake gold mines and the Noranda Camp in Quebec.  Also from Timmins the Kidd Creek copper-zinc-silver mine (1963) with a gross metal value reaching $75 billion, the Kamiskotia (1915), Detour gold (1974) and Hemlo (1979) camps were found.  Geraldton-Beardmore and the Red Lake gold camps were developed in the 1920’s-1930’s in part with the financial base built by Timmins.

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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. This article was published in the October, 2010 issue.

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

Uncertainty in regulations and land tenure worries miners

Ontario may promote itself as being among the best mining jurisdictions in the world, but some industry executives polled in a Fraser Institute survey are second-guessing that blanket statement. A special mid-year report penned by researchers Fred McMahon and Miguel Cervantes raises some red flag issues for investment.

Confidence in Ontario continues to sag due to respondents’ concerns over government policy, dealings with First Nations, and uncertainty over whether a big chunk of Ontario’s untapped mineral resource will be set aside for protection.

“Mining is a long-term endeavor,” said Fred McMahon, vice-president of the Vancouver-based international public policy think tank. “That kind of instability is very damaging.”

Some mining companies accused the McGuinty government of trying to
“kill Ontario” and hinted that antimining environmental activist groups
have considerable weight in shaping public policy.

As commodity prices improve, Mc-Mahon said governments, unions and non-government organizations are finding mining an easy target to tear up existing agreements, drive up costs, and introduce “predatory taxes” that cause instability in investment.

McMahon said these dramatic changes in recent months prompted the Fraser Institute to release its firstever mid-year report card in August.

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Frank P. Tagliamonte is a North Bay-based geologist and prospector.

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

The McGuinty government has recently passed legislation, the Far North Act – Bill 191, that will be detrimental for all the citizens of Ontario, especially the North.

Briefly , this act has been initiated and promoted by an environmental lobby group and embraced by the McGuinty government without meaningful consultation with First Nations and the citizens of Ontario, particularly Northerners. It has been rejected by most mayors of Northern Ontario communities and when its impact is fully understood , will likely be opposed by cities and towns in the South as well.

This Act will prohibit all natural resource development, mining, timbering and hydro projects,  in a vast land mass comprising some 250,000 acres in Northern Ontario – not Southern Ontario.

Can Ontario realistically abandon potentially rich and vast resource areas that will provide employment, especially for First Nation communities, mineral riches and abundant tax revenues to a deeply indebted Province?

This land mass overlies the mineral-rich Canadian Shield with the potential to host world-class mining camps such as Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Sudbury and Red Lake.

Already a diamond mine is in production, producing world-quality diamonds within the soon to be “off-limits area.” Rich deposits of chromite, copper and nickel have recently been discovered in a small part of this vast area known as the Ring of Fire – one of the most important new mining camps in Canada. There is enormous potential for many more discoveries in the years ahead.

Can Ontario realistically abandon potentially rich and vast resource areas that will provide employment, especially for First Nation communities, mineral riches and abundant tax revenues to a deeply indebted Province? 

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OTTAWA, Sept. 10 /CNW/ – Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo and Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse today confirmed their support for Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Chiefs in their call to the Ontario government to withdraw the Far North Act (Bill 191).

“Consistent with our rights, the treaties and the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, First Nations must be fully and meaningfully engaged in all aspects relating to development in our territories,” said AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo. “The Ontario government’s approach to the proposed Far North Act is inconsistent with First Nation rights and the treaties and furthermore does not adequately fulfill the government’s duty to consult.  Especially in regions like Northern Ontario where First Nations peoples make up 90 per cent of the population, it is absolutely essential that we get this right.  The path forward must be one of full respect and engagement.”

Bill 191 proposes to protect about 225,000 square kilometers of Boreal Forest and was developed without input from the more than 24,000 First Nations peoples who inhabit over 30 First Nation communities in the area. 

The implications of Bill 191 will go beyond the proposed protected area and will directly impact the Aboriginal and treaty rights of all 49 NAN First Nation communities, signatories to Treaty No. 9 and Treaty No. 5 and First Nations across the country.

“In a time when the Ontario government is working toward a ‘new relationship’ with First Nations in the province, we should be working together to protect the environment and balancing sustainable economic development opportunities,” said AFN Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse.  “Instead, Ontario has unilaterally introduced this legislation which would leave control over land-use planning to the government even when many First Nation communities within Treaty No. 9 and Treaty No. 5 have developed their own land-use plans and have repeatedly expressed the need to be involved in the process.”

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The objectives of the Ontario Prospectors Association are to represent and further the interests of the mineral exploration industry and the interests of prospectors. Our mission is to enhance and promote the Ontario mineral exploration and development community to foster a healthy mining industry.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Board of Directors of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA) regrets that Bill 191, the Far North Act, was passed after the third reading by the Ontario Legislature.

The OPA believes the present form of the Far North Act will cripple exploration and related economic development in Ontario’s Boreal Forest lands, an area recently demonstrated once again to hold vast mineral deposits within the “Ring of Fire” chromite (stainless steel) and copper, nickel and platinum group element (automobile pollution control) discoveries. While the timing of the discovery and onset of development of the Ring of Fire has fortunately preceded royal proclamation of the Far North Act, future capital investment will not freely flow into the legal limbo created by Far North Act in its current form.

The OPA applauds the Far North Act’s recognition and support for Community-based Land Use Planning amongst the region’s First Nation communities. However, advance selection of a 50% (225,000sq km) protection target under the Far North Act’s proposed grid of “interconnected” waterway parks and protected spaces will ensure a 100% loss of potential for future discoveries and related economic development in this vast area of high mineral potential.

Exploration and mining in Ontario’s north have historically been mainstays of the economies of both northern and southern Ontario. The Far North Act in its present form represents a potential loss of economic opportunity.

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Gerald is President and CEO of WWF-Canada, the country’s largest environmental organization. Prior to joining WWF, Gerald was Principal Secretary to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty where he worked directly with the Premier, Cabinet and Public Service to develop, implement and communicate the government’s agenda. He was intimately involved in all of the government’s significant environmental initiatives, from the Greenbelt and Boreal Conservation plan to the coal phase-out and toxic reduction strategy.

WWF-Canada hopes the Ontario Legislature will pass amended Far North Act Today WWF-Canada indicated that it hopes the Ontario Legislature will soon pass an amended Act with respect to land use planning and protection in the Far North.

The legislation was introduced in June 2009 to implement a vision announced by Premier McGuinty a year earlier for the boreal region occupying 42 per cent of the province. The Premier’s vision involves protecting at least half of the area, while encouraging new economic development. Both objectives are to be accomplished through community land use plans led by First Nations.

“We felt the conservation objectives were secure in the proposed legislation, but it needed to be improved to recognize greater control of the planning process by First Nations,” said Monte Hummel, President Emeritus of WWF-Canada. “Therefore, we have strongly supported First Nations concerns, through our testimony before the Standing Committee, through many meetings with both government and First Nations leaders, and through our recommendations for specific changes to the Act.”

The 49 pages of amendments introduced this week by Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources, will go a long way to ensuring that First Nations have an equal say in planning. Of particular importance is the introduction in Section 6 of a joint planning body with equal representation from the Province and First Nations to oversee the planning process, to advise on funding, and to determine a dispute resolution mechanism. Such a joint body was recommended by the Far North Advisory Council in their March, 2009 report, including representatives from the mining, prospecting, water power and forest industries, as well as environmental groups. In addition, WWF emphasized the importance of $16 million in new provincial funding to flow directly to First Nations engaged in land use planning.

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(QUEEN’S PARK) Minutes ago, in a vote of 46 to 26, the Dalton McGuinty Liberals completed their headlong rush to pass Bill 191 through the legislature with as little consultation as possible. The bill remained almost unchanged from its introduction, a stunning testament to a government that has completely abandoned its Northern Constituents.

“This is a sad day for Northern Ontario. Despite the outcry from Northern Ontario, it has fallen upon deaf ears,” said Randy Hillier, PC Party Critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “Dalton McGuinty has given away 42% of this province away to environmentalist friends in downtown Toronto. He’s stolen it, and Northerners didn’t get a penny in return.”

Bill 191 will ban all development in 42% of Ontario, an area of 225,000 km2. Because the bill makes no stipulations on which land is specifically off limits, the resulting uncertainty will undoubtedly play havoc with any new investments in Northern Ontario.

Widely derided by Northern Aboriginal, Industry and Municipal groups, the bill has been endorsed by Monte Hummel of the World Wildlife fund. In fact, the WWF was the only group consulted prior to the bill’s introduction.

“This is Dalton McGuinty’s idea of ‘balance’,” said Hillier. “It’s a devastating assault on the economy of the North at a time when it is already fragile. It’s proof that McGuinty has completely lost touch with those who elected him.”

(QUEEN’S PARK) Today, the McGuinty Government will call Bill 191 for passage, despite an outcry of opposition from Industry, First Nations, and Northern residents. Dalton McGuinty, who promised First Nations that he would not pass the bill without their consent, has instead cancelled all northern consultations and moved forward on a bill which will see 50% of the land north of the 51st parallel, an area the size of the United Kingdom, cut off from any economic development.

“This bill is a travesty. Dalton McGuinty has told Northerners that he knows better than them what they should be doing on their land,” said Randy Hillier, PC Party Critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “This government has ignored opposition from all Northerners, just to appease their southern Ontario special-interest friends.”

“Despite his promises of a ‘new relationship’ with First Nations, Dalton McGuinty has stabbed them in the back. He’s doomed them to generational poverty. How can they thrive when they are forbidden from participating in the economy?” said Hillier. “Northern Ontario is rich in resources. It has Chromite, Diamonds, Gold. Why is he putting all those resources off-limits for some of Ontario’s poorest citizens?”

The Ring of Fire, a mining project which McGuinty touted in his Throne Speech, lies within Bill 191’s exclusion zone.

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