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Quebec Mining

Cree hold ‘eye-opening’ discussions on how development happens in northern Quebec – by Cole Bosum (CBC News North – September 27, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Leaders meet with Cree traditional hunters and trappers last week to talk development

How development happens in Cree communities and who benefits was front and centre at a recent meeting between Cree leaders and many hunters, trappers and land users from the inland communities in northern Quebec.

Close to 300 hunters and tallymen, as traditional land users are called in Quebec, were registered for the meeting that happened in Mistissini last week, but organizers say closer to 500 were in the room. “The meeting for me was a real eye-opening experience,” said Mandy Gull-Masty, the grand chief of the Cree nation in northern Quebec.

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How Quebec Cree avoided the fate of Attawapiskat – by Terry Milewski (CBC News Politics – May 14, 2013)

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

Please note that his article is from 2013!!

On the eastern shore of James Bay, a very different story

Freezing, mouldy homes. Sewage contamination. Sick kids. Unemployment. A blockade on the road to the mine. A hunger strike by the chief. That, it seems, is the news from the Cree of James Bay — at least, as it’s defined by the desperate community of Attawapiskat, in northern Ontario.

Before that, there was the news from nearby Kashechewan. Flooding. Despair. Suicide. And both James Bay towns endured fresh emergencies this spring as the annual meltwaters exposed, again, their rickety infrastructure.

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Quebec to become ‘anchor’ for Gold Fields’ diversification strategy, CEO says – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – September 25, 2024)

Global mining news

Gold Fields’ (NYSE: GFI; JSE: GFI) C$2.2 billion ($1.6bn) Osisko Mining buy, set to close before year-end, will help balance the South African company’s aging assets in Ghana and Peru, CEO Mike Fraser says.

The deal, which comes two years after Gold Fields’ failed bid for Yamana Gold in 2022, adds a project that is expected to boast low costs and that Fraser says fits well with its Salares Norte mine in Chile, which marked first production earlier this year.

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Opinion: Federal caribou decree will hammer rural Quebec – by Gabriel Giguère (Financial Post – September 25, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

To save a handful of woodland caribou, Ottawa seems willing to sacrifice the jobs and in some cases the hometowns of hundreds of Quebecers

The federal government is considering an emergency decree to protect woodland caribou that would cost Quebec and its rural regions dearly. Thousands of families who work in the forest sector in the Saguenay, Côte-Nord and Abitibi regions could suffer serious consequences.

Unfortunately, it would seem federal officials put greater weight on saving caribou than saving humans’ jobs. The decree, which has now been through the compulsory consultation stage but has not yet been issued, aims to protect three herds comprising a total of 265 caribou — about four per cent of the estimated 6,162 woodland caribou found in Quebec and just a fraction of one per cent of the more than 30,000 in Canada.

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Container fire under control at Port of Montreal – by Harry North (Montreal Gazette – September 23, 2024)

https://montrealgazette.com/

The fire, in a container with lithium batteries, produced enough smoke that the city asked residents to stay inside and close their windows.

Montreal’s fire department said late Monday it had contained a fire in a container at the Port of Montreal holding 15,000 kilograms of lithium batteries.

Some residents of the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough were advised to stay in their homes Monday evening and close their windows as foul-smelling smoke filled the area. The city confirmed around 10:30 p.m. that the confinement advisory had been lifted and the air did not pose any danger to residents.

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Osisko Metals seeks financing partner on huge Gaspé copper project in Quebec – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – September 19, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM; US-OTC: OMZNE) is advancing the giant Gaspé copper project in Quebec with an economic study planned for February amid efforts to land a 20% partnership with provincial financing agency Investissement Québec.

“No promises, but they’re interested in the project, and for us it would be ideal to get IQ as a partner,” CEO and chairman Robert Wares said in an interview. “That would be a big boost, and as partners obviously they can help us fund the whole project to a final investment decision.”

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Quebec won’t fund graphite mine project tied to Pentagon; locals claim ‘victory’ – by Joe Bongiorno (Canadian Press/CTV News Montreal – September 19, 2024)

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/

After years fighting against the opening of a mining project with ties to the Pentagon, Louis Saint-Hilaire is breathing a sigh of relief.

That’s because this week, the Quebec government rejected the mining company’s application for public funding, a decision Saint-Hilaire says reflects the will of many of the people who live near the proposed site in the Laurentians region. “It’s a big victory for us, but it’s not a total victory,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

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Winsome Resources confirms Canadian lithium project’s potential – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 17, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Winsome Resources  said a scoping study for its $259 million Adina lithium project in Quebec, Canada, has reinforced the asset’s potential as a capital-efficient mine with a 17-year productive life.

The company inked a deal in April to acquire the Renard diamond mine and plant in northern Quebec with the goal of repurposing the existing infrastructure for processing ore from Adina. The lithium explorer and developer bought itself in August an extra three months to decide whether it would buy the past-producing mine, and today’s announcement suggests it would move in that direction.

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New regulations, proposed changes to Quebec’s Mining Act target exploration sector – by Susan Bell (CBC News North – September 17, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

New rules around consultation and authorization ‘a huge win for Cree Nation,’ says grand chief

Cree officials are welcoming changes to the way mining exploration happens in Quebec. Eleven per cent of the province, much of it in northern Quebec Cree territory and Nunavik, is currently under an active claim, according to provincial officials.

According to media reports, in 2022, there were 400 mining exploration projects within Eeyou Istchee, the traditional lands of the James Bay Cree. In the past, exploration was a largely unregulated corner of the mining world in Quebec.

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What will Ottawa do about a wave of deals for junior lithium miners? – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – September 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A wave of takeovers is poised to reshape the lithium mining industry, with global giant Rio Tinto Ltd. projected to become the dominant producer of an essential metal in a decarbonized economy.

With analysts predicting acquisitions are coming, how is the Canadian government that’s previously pledged to build a domestic critical mineral industry to going to react when foreign buyers begin circling a handful of domestic lithium producers? Based on deals done so far, Ottawa will sign off on any acquisition that doesn’t involve a China-based buyer.

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Hertz sparks antimony hunt in Québec as supply shortfall widens – by Angela East (Mining.com.au – September 16, 2024)

Australian Mining News

Vancouver-based Hertz Energy (CSE:HZ) is mobilising to the Harriman Project site in Canada this month to begin exploration for the under-supplied and increasingly sought after critical mineral, antimony.

The Harriman Project is an exploration-stage antimony project located about 17km northeast of the town of New Richmond in the Gaspé region of Québec. The region is known for its range of significant mineral deposits including Osisko Metals’ (TSX-V:OM) 495-million-tonne Gaspé Copper Project, one of the largest copper development projects in Eastern North America.

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Mining exploration mess finally slated to be cleaned up in northern Quebec – by Susan Bell (CBC News North – September 16, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Abandoned exploration camp on John Rupert’s trapline one of almost 500 such sites in Cree territory

After many, many years of asking, John Rupert’s trapline is finally scheduled to be cleaned up. The Whapmagoostui elder knows it’s likely too late for him to return to hunt there, but maybe not for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Because of my age, I might not be able to go back there,” said Rupert, 71, whose trapline, as traditional hunting grounds are called in northern Quebec, is 60 kilometres southeast of the community. It’s a place he knows so deep and so well that he and his father used to travel there in the dark, in a time before flashlights.

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Guilbeault’s decree to save caribou would turn Quebec village into ‘ghost town,’ mayor says – by Antoine Trépanier (National Post – August 28, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

‘I don’t see how a municipality could survive when 600 citizens are out of work. I can’t imagine that,’ Lise Boulianne said

OTTAWA — The mayor of Sacré-Coeur, a small village of 1,700 people in northern Quebec, says her municipality would empty out and could become a “ghost town” if federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault were to pass his decree to save the woodland caribou in Quebec.

In an appearance before the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, Mayor Lise Boulianne called on the minister to change his mind and abandon the plan.

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Referendum on Outaouais mine to take place next year – by Emma Weller (CBC News Ottawa – August 27, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/

Lomiko Metals wants to build graphite mine about 80 km northeast of Gatineau

People living near the site of a proposed graphite mine in the Outaouais will get a chance to have their say in a referendum, but not for more than a year. An alliance of local municipalities announced on Sunday during a public information session in Chénéville, Que., that the vote will take place Nov. 2, 2025.

Chénéville is among the towns surrounding the proposed La Loutre site, located about 80 kilometres northeast of Gatineau. The alliance also includes Duhamel, Lac-Simon, St-Émile-de-Suffolk and Lac-des-Plages.

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Gold Fields to buy Canadian miner Osisko in $1.57 billion cash deal – by Felix Njini and Nelson Banya (Reuters – August 12, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Gold Fields Ltd has agreed to acquire Osisko Mining for C$2.16 billion ($1.57 billion), it said on Monday, barely two years after an attempt to buy another Canadian miner was scuppered by a rival offer.

The Johannesburg-based gold producer will pay C$4.90 per share, a 55% premium to Osisko’s Aug. 9 trading price, it said in a statement. The deal will help the South African producer expand its presence in the Americas region, where it already has mines in Chile and Peru.

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