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Quebec Mining

Tired of being linked to toxic substance, the Quebec town of Asbestos is changing its name – by Amy Luft (CTV News Montreal – November 27, 2018)

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/

ASBESTOS — The Quebec town of Asbestos is tired of the negative connotation of its name – so it’s getting a new one. Town officials said in a news release Wednesday that municipal council has agreed to a name change following “several reflections and with a view to development oriented towards the future.”

Mayor Hugues Grimard said Wednesday the name carries an unfortunate connotation and it’s preventing the town from developing foreign business ties.

“If we want to go further in terms of economic development, then we don’t have the choice,” Grimard said in an interview. “The media attention of our past stays with us any time we do anything.”

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JOURNEY DOWN THE RAILWAY THAT COULDN’T BE BUILT – by Peter Gzowski (MACLEAN’S Magazine – Novmeber 16, 1963)

https://archive.macleans.ca/

A portrait, then and now, of the extraordinary feat that is the Quebec North Shore and Labrador line

THE SUN was inching into the bleak northern sky when Maclean’s photo editor Don Newlands and I checked out of the Sir Wilfred Grenfell Hotel in Wabush, Labrador, to begin the journey to Seven Islands, Que. We had flown into Wabush directly from Toronto and spent a few days there looking into life on the last frontier, à la 1963, and although we had both enjoyed our visit with the men and women who are opening up the wilderness, I for one was anxious to get going.

Our program was to drive our rented car to Labrador City, three miles away over a dirt road, and then take the passenger-express train from there to Seven Islands. Most of this journey would be over the QNS & L — the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway — and seeing the railway, I knew, would be an exciting experience for me.

I had spent the summer of 1952 as a beardless (though not for lack of trying) chain man on a survey party helping to build the QNS & L. And, although I hadn’t been back in eleven years, I had retained a sort of proprietary interest in the railway.

The QNS & L was one of the great construction projects of our time, a job that many expert engineers were certain could never be finished, and many of us who worked on it — there were as many as seven thousand men employed at one time — looked on the achievement much the way war veterans look on battles their regiments have won.

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Canadian lithium-tech companies find traction amid rise of electric cars – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 26, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Canada’s mainstream lithium miners continue to struggle suggesting the next wave of growth will come from technology — not geology

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Burnaby, British Columbia to announce his latest climate change initiative at the pilot plant of an upstart company that’s tinkering with lithium-ion battery technology.

His choice of venue revealed much about the opportunities in Canada as a new supply chain takes shape around the growing electric vehicle industry, which relies on lithium-ion batteries, not oil.

Although mining has been a historical strength in Canada, the latest rush around battery metals may end up providing more opportunities to this country’s fledgling technology sector.

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Osisko Gold buys Stornoway Diamond in deal with creditors – by Colin McClelland (Financial Post – September 9, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Montreal-based Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. is buying Stornoway Diamond Corp. in partnership with its creditors as the Longueuil, Que.-based gem miner files for bankruptcy protection.

The agreement stemming from a June letter of intent will see Osisko and other creditors assume all debts and liabilities of Stornoway while continuing to operate its Renard diamond mine in Quebec by supplying $20 million in working capital, according to a company filing to the provincial Superior Court.

“The continued downward pressure on the market price for rough diamonds, as well as a variety of other factors and circumstances, have contributed to the corporation’s inability to generate positive free cash flow in 2019, and to maintain an adequate level of working capital,” the company said in the filing.

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Quebec is poised to be a leader in lithium development, Legault says (Montreal Gazette – August 19, 2019)

https://montrealgazette.com/

Lithium is a “jewel” that Quebec has yet to exploit, Premier François Legault said on Sunday.

Speaking to the youth wing of the Coalition Avenir Québec meeting in Sherbrooke, Legault dreamed of a Quebec that would one day export lithium batteries around the world, noting that the province is home to the world’s third-largest deposit of lithium, an element essential to the manufacturing of batteries used by electric vehicles.

Along with other “strategic metals” that are also found in Quebec, Legault said it would be possible to construct “100-per-cent Quebec batteries.” “We have the potential to take our place in this enormous market,” Legault said.

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Junior Explorers Just Scratching the Surface In Northern Quebec’s Abitibi Gold Belt – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – August 15, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Northern Quebec is one of the most prolific gold regions in the world; it is home to the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, which has produced 180 million ounces of gold during the last century.

The Val d’Or/Abitibi region is also home to Canada’s largest gold mine: Malartic, which is run by Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM, TSX: AEM) and Yamana Gold (NYSE; AUY, TSX: YRI). However, junior explorers working in the area are demonstrating that miners have just literally scratched the surface and the region’s potential is limitless.

Since the 1920’s the region has been home to about 100 different mines; at the same time, about 300 gold deposits have been identified in the area. “There is no doubt. This is mining country,” said Philippe Cloutier, president and CEO of Cartier Resources (TSX.V: ECR), just one of the junior explores breathing new life into existing mining camps. “The mines in Northern Quebec shut down because of economics not because they ran out of ounces.”

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Travel Ontario and Quebec one mining destination at a time – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – July 2019)

http://resourceclips.com/

Small local museums, historic mines, a major science centre and massive operations demonstrate the industry’s importance and also offer diversions for summer road trips. After covering Yukon and British Columbia in Part 1 and the prairie provinces in Part 2, our survey continues east through Ontario and Quebec.

Omitted were museums not primarily devoted to mining, although many do include worthwhile mining memorabilia among other exhibits. Be sure to contact sites to confirm opening times, ask about footwear and other clothing requirements, and inquire about age restrictions if you have little ones in tow. Part 4 covers the Atlantic provinces.

Ontario

Where better than Sudbury for a mining showcase of global stature? Dynamic Earth visitors can don hard hats to tour a demonstration mine seven storeys below surface, or virtual reality headsets to mingle with imaginary miners and gargantuan equipment.

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[Osisko Mining Inc.]Price surge fuels fresh hopes that Canada’s richest gold country has more to give – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 27, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

‘Every time someone says all the mines have been found I laugh’ – John Burzyunski, CEO Osisko Mining Inc.

This spring, John Burzynski, chief executive of Osisko Mining Inc., caught whiff of an opportunity to acquire land near the Cadillac-Larder break — a name that may not ring a bell with most Canadians, but is renowned gold country.

Running from western Quebec to Larder Lake, Ontario, it stands out among the world’s richest geological gold belts; and even today, more than a century after being discovered, it is dotted with mines that pump out hundreds of thousands of ounces of bullion every year.

Burzynski, and his partners have been to the Cadillac-Larder break before: They discovered the deposit that became the Canadian Malartic mine, currently the country’s largest gold mine, which last year produced 697,200 ounces of gold, worth about $1.3 billion at current prices.

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Nemaska announces potential massive equity investment to save lithium project in Quebec – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 23, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

London-based Pallinghurst Group, betting on ‘an electric vehicle revolution,’ has proposed a deal that could make it Nemaska’s largest shareholder

After months of funding uncertainty, Nemaska Lithium Inc. on Friday announced a tentative agreement to secure as much as $600 million to build its proposed hard rock lithium mine and electrochemical plant in Quebec.

The project, which could create a new supply of the lithium needed for batteries in electric vehicles, has drawn international attention from battery makers and investments from Japan’s Softbank Group Corp. and from Investissement Quebec.

But cost overruns and shifting evaluations about lithium demand have combined to push Nemaska’s stock price down more than 80 per cent from its peak less than two years ago.

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Area Play: The Val d’Or, Quebec Camp in Canada is Heating Up – by David Erfle (Kitco News – July 12, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

Full Disclosure: I have purchased shares of ECR.V and BTR.V in the open market and have also recommended them both to my subscribers.

In the early 20th century, the discovery of the Cadillac Fault ushered in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Gold Rush and the geological anomaly continues to have a major impact on Quebec’s mining history.

The massive fault is roughly 160 kilometers long and extends from the town of Val d’Or, in Quebec, to Kirkland Lake, in Ontario. Its name derives from the township of Cadillac, where it was first discovered.

Although its name in French means “valley of gold,” there is no valley in Val d’Or, however, there is still plenty of gold remaining in the surrounding area. The town of roughly 32,000 inhabitants was founded by miners in 1934 and its economy depends chiefly on mining gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, and copper. The lumber business is also important to the economy of Val-d’Or, as the forests of the Abitibi region provide 65% of the lumber produced in Québec.

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Alcoa-Rio Plant Workers Give in, ‘Exhausted’ From Lock-Out – by Sandrine Rastello and Matthew Townsend(Bloomberg News – July 3, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

An 18-month labor dispute at an aluminum smelter in Quebec controlled by Alcoa Corp. ended after workers accepted a deal, defying the recommendation of their union’s leadership.

On Tuesday, about 80% of workers at the Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. voted to ratify the offer after a meeting of the United Steelworkers in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, the union said. Alcoa said in a statement that the restart will begin on July 26, and is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2020.

The deal, which covers everything from pension financing to the use of subcontractors, follows months of failed attempts to revive negotiations after more than 1,000 union workers were locked out in January 2018. Last week, Alcoa threatened to idle the entire facility if workers don’t sign what it called a “final offer.”

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Alcoa Gets Tough With Union by Threatening to Idle Quebec Plant – by Matt Townsend (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finannce – June 27, 2019)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — After 18 months of often contentious labor talks with the United Steelworkers union at an aluminum smelter in Quebec, Alcoa Corp. has threatened to idle the entire facility if workers don’t sign what it’s calling a “final offer.”

Aluminerie de Bécancour, a joint venture in which Alcoa controls a 75% stake and Rio Tinto Group owns the rest, made a proposal that expires on July 5. If it’s not signed, the already-curtailed production will be totally suspended, Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said Wednesday in a statement.

Union workers were locked out of the facility in January 2018, and some operations continued to be run by managers. At full capacity, the plant known as ABI could produce 413,000 metric tons of aluminum a year, but that had been cut back to about a sixth of that, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Agnico Eagle Offers To Acquire Alexandria Minerals – by Allen Sykora (Kitco News – June 14, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE, TSX: AEM) has made an offer to acquire Alexandria Minerals Corp. (TSXV: AZX), a Toronto-based junior gold and exploration company, for C$26 million, the companies reported Friday. The proposal is based on a purchase price of 5 Canadian cents per share.

Alexandria said that its board of directors concluded that the unsolicited offer constitutes a “superior proposal” as outlined in a prior May 14 agreement with Chantrell Ventures Corp. Chantrell now has a 10-business-day period in which it can amend its own offer for Alexandria.

To enter an agreement with Agnico Eagle, Alexandria would first have to terminate the Chantrell agreement and pay a fee of C$875,000. If the Alexandria board accepts the Agnico Eagle offer, the agreement would be subject to approval of Alexandria shareholders.

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RNC puts forward plan for $1bn Quebec nickel/cobalt project (MiningWeekly.com – May 31, 2019)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Mining company RNC and its joint venture (JV) partner Waterton are ready to accelerate discussions with potential participants to advance the Dumont nickel/cobalt project – tipped to be one of Canada’s largest base metals mines – to construction, CEO Mark Selby reported on Thursday.

This comes as RNC published a “milestone” update to its 2013 feasibility study for Dumont, which ranks the Quebec-based $1-billion project among the top-five sulphide nickel producers globally.

With initial production of 33 000 t/y, ramping up to 50 000 t/y in the Phase 2 expansion, Dumont would produce about 1.2-million tonnes (2.6-billion pounds) of nickel concentrate over three decades, at a life-of-mine cash cost of $3.22/lb nickel and an all-in sustaining cost of $3.80/lb payable nickel.

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Osisko finds new gold zone at Windfall (Northern Miner – May 29, 2019)

Northern Miner

Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) has found a new and shallow gold zone about 350 metres north of the main deposit at its Windfall property in Quebec, one of the highest grade resource-stage gold projects in Canada.

The mineralization occurs between a vertical depth from surface of between 50 metres and 275 metres and is open at depth and along strike.

Highlights include 393 grams gold per tonne over 2.2 metres starting from 100 metres downhole in OSK-W-19-1883 and 31 grams gold over 6.1 metres starting from 211 metres downhole in OSK-W-1911.

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