Quebec Mining – Page 51 – Republic of Mining

Strictly Legal: Creating Cree Corp. makes perfect sense – by Kathryn Leger (Montreal Gazette – April 27, 2012)

April 27, 2012

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

When Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come visited law firm Lavery LLP’s offices recently for a packed encounter with local mining entrepreneurs, his talk began with the up-close and personal.

“I am a son of a hunter, a fisher and a trapper,” said Coon Come, 56, the head of the Grand Council of the Crees, the political body representing Quebec Cree.

“My dad lived on the land and so did my mother. I am a father to five children. I have three daughters and two sons. I am a husband to Mary Ann Coon Come. We have been married for 35 years and I am also a grandfather to two children.”

With that informality out of the way, which he later said is essential to relationship building with the Cree, Coon Come proceeded to enthrall those in attendance as he explained the aboriginal perspective on Quebec’s Plan Nord.

Huge mining projects in works – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – April 25, 2012)

April 26, 2012

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

Quebec-Labrador on track to be world’s third biggest iron-ore draw within decade

Two jumbo projects could turn Quebec-Labrador into the world’s third biggest iron-ore mining region in a decade – and one of them has just deepened its footprint in Quebec.

The jumbos are New Millennium Iron Corp., with international partner Tata Steel of India, and Adriana Resources Inc., with partner Wuhan Iron & Steel Corp., China’s third biggest steelmaker.

Their multi-billion-dollar projects, along with Iron Ore Co. of Canada’s ongoing expansion, a fast-track project by Alderon Iron Ore Corp. with Hebei Iron & Steel Group, China’s biggest steelmaker, and many smaller developments could triple the region’s annual capacity to 150 million tonnes.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., which bought Consolidated Thompson for $4.9 billion last year to merge it with Wabush Mines, is also expanding. Century Iron Mines Corp. and Champion Minerals Inc. are working on key properties. though Oceanic Iron Ore Corp.’s Ungava project is remote. Another contender is Labrador Iron Mines Holdings.

Canadian miner vies to be major rare-earth supplier – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 18, 2012)

April 18, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

The race is on for mining companies vying to become the world’s next big producers of heavy rare-earth minerals, used to manufacture components for everything from vent fans for jet engines to laser-guided systems for smart bombs.

From hundreds of companies actively exploring for rare-earth deposits, only a handful – including a few Canadian – have made discoveries that could establish them as key suppliers in the quickly evolving market.

The 17 so-called rare-earth elements have been mined for half a century – with most of them coming from the Bayan Obo mining district in China. The minerals had been largely ignored until recent years, when they found their way into technological innovations ranging from smartphones to super-magnets used in wind turbines and automobiles.

Prices for the minerals touched all-time highs after No. 1 producer China tightened export restrictions on rare earths by nearly half in 2010 as it sought to guarantee supplies amid booming demand from its own market, which analysts say could consume all it produces within a decade. The caps were highly criticized by governments in Europe and the United States, which have complained to the World Trade Organization.

NEWS RELEASE: Champion Minerals Enters Into an Exclusive Memorandum of Understanding With the Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam Innus First Nation on the Potential Development of a New Multi-User Railway

April 14, 2012

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – April 2, 2012) – CHAMPION MINERALS INC. (TSX:CHM)(FRANKFURT:P02) (“Champion”, or the “Company”) is proud to announce that it entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam Innu First Nation (“ITUM”) of Uashat, Quebec, located near the Port of Sept-Iles.

“This memorandum of understanding confirms that ITUM has agreed to enter into exclusive discussions with Champion in connection with the potential development of an entirely new multi-user railway and the potential creation of a partnership, the equity of which would be opened to other users, in order to design, build and manage this new railway. The objective of this new railway would be to service the iron ore industry directly linking the Fire Lake North region to the planned multi-user Port Facility at Pointe Noire, in Sept-Iles, Quebec”, says Richard Quesnel, Senior Technical Advisor and Head of Champion’s Advisory Board.

At this stage, the intent of ITUM and Champion is that the interests and long term vision of ITUM will be integrated in the project planning as the parties desire to create a sustainable development project that will enable the economic development of the region and support mutual environmental and social responsibility objectives. “This railway project is the one that offers the best prospects for the development of my community. Negotiated with respect, this project offers sustainable economic benefits and constitutes an important asset that will create appealing jobs on our territory for our next generations”, said Chief Georges-Ernest Gregoire of ITUM.

Innu women march against Hydro-Quebec project [Plan Nord protests] – by Lorraine Mallinder (Toronto Star – April 14, 2012)

April 14, 2012

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

‘If Plan Nord goes through, we’re finished’

ST-HILARION, QUEBEC—Elise Vollant would not consider herself a political person. Yet, the former nursery school teacher is currently leading members of her Innu community on a 900-kilometre march to Montreal to protest the Quebec government’s Plan Nord, a multibillion-dollar scheme that will open the north to mining and energy companies.

The group, originally comprising 14 women, left Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam near Sept-Îles nearly two weeks ago. They plan to reach Montreal on April 22 to join wider environmental protests against the Plan Nord. Along the way, they’ve picked up supporters from other reserves and a French ethnologist. Now, midway, they are nearly 40 strong.

“I would never have imagined we’d get this far,” says Vollant, raising her voice against the din of passing trucks on a dismal stretch of Highway 138. Her political odyssey began last month after she joined a five-day blockade of a road running through her reserve to the $6.5 billion La Romaine hydroelectric project.

La hommage au “Plan Nord” – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Jounal – April 2012)

April 13, 2012

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

I had to look up the meaning of the word “plan” to reassure myself that Quebec’s “Plan Nord” fits “Oxford’s” definition. And, thankfully, it does.

I say “thankfully” because so many gov¬ernment plans we hear and read about are just “schemes” (also part of Oxford’s definition), but in Quebec’s case, I believe “A formulation and detailed meth¬od by which a thing is to be done” truly spells out what’s in the works as the Government of Quebec moves ahead with its “Plan Nord” program.
For those of you not too familiar with the program, it’s an $80-billion project designed to open the province’s vast resources located north of the 49th parallel and north of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

In a word, it’s an “immense” project that covers 1.2 million km2 and accounts for 72 per cent of Quebec’s geographic area. It’s an area where all of the province’s nickel, cobalt, platinum group metals, zinc, iron ore and ilmenite are found, as well as a sig¬nificant portion of gold production.

Bonanza gold grades at Upper Canada, Monster Lake – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – April 11, 2012)

May 4, 2015April 12, 2012

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Like most CMJ readers, I get a shiver up my spine at the thought of bonanza gold grades. So it was with excitement I read that Toronto’s Queenston Mining (Queenston.ca) had intersected 42.4 g/t Au at its Upper Canada property in Kirkland Lake, ON. Better yet, that was the grade over 5.5 metres.

Not all the grades at Upper Canada were as high. There was also 22.9 g/t over 6.6 metres, 13.2 g/t over 5.5 metres, 4.47 g/t over 37.2 metres and 4.40 g/t over 26.2. These results came for diamond drilling in the Upper L zone as well as the H, M & Q zones. Queenston says the results expand both the underground and pit potential of a large gold system.

A few high grade drill intersections do not a gold mine make, but Queenston has already outlined 1.96 million tonnes averaging 2.38 g/t Au in the indicated resource (uncapped) and 5.38 million tonnes at 4.55 g/t Au in the inferred category (uncapped). Together the resource contains an estimated 937,000 oz of gold that will be recovered by both open pit and underground mining.

Labrador Trough a promising play in iron ore – by Martin Mittelstaedt (Globe and Mail – March 28, 2012)

March 28, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Canada is a two-bit player when it comes to iron ore production, but that could be in for a dramatic change because of two words: Labrador Trough.

The trough is a little known geographical feature straddling Quebec and Labrador that is causing quite a stir in mining circles. The more than 1,000-kilometre-long, sausage-shaped landform hosts numerous iron ore deposits of a size and grade that suggest they will eventually lead to new mines. Investors should be taking notice because the trough’s ferrous riches, only moderately exploited to date, appear to be on the cusp of rapid development.

“The Labrador Trough has the potential to be a major global area” for iron ore production, contends Jackie Przybylowski, an analyst at Desjardins Securities Inc. who has just issued a 64-page report devoted to the investment prospects of companies active in the region. The firm initiated coverage on five of the area’s pure play iron ore prospects.

Firms clash on rights to build railway in Quebec [for iron ore miners] – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – March 23, 2012)

March 23, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

MONTREAL – A clash over infrastructure assets is shaping up in northern Quebec, pitting the interests of two corporate titans against a group of junior miners.

At stake is the transport of as much as 200 million tonnes of iron ore by rail, an annual moving bill that could top $1-billion, and the long-term ownership and usage rights of a key transportation link.

Canadian National Railway Co. and pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec confirmed this week they are working on an estimated $5billion project to build a new 800-kilometre railway stretching from Sept-Îles north past Shefferville into the Labrador Mining Trough. The partners need firm transport commitments from mining companies before they can proceed.

But miners active in the region have been sketching out their own plan for a railway for more than two years, with the objective of controlling their own transport costs. They are worried that paying CN to move their iron ore powder or pellets will prove too expensive.

Jean Charest, prospector – by Paul Wells (Macleans’s Magazine – March 21, 2012)

March 23, 2012

http://www2.macleans.ca/

It was a tweet yesterday from Andrew McIntosh at QMI that finally got me thinking about what Jean Charest’s government is up to in Quebec’s north. I’ll cut to the chase: basically he’s turning it into Alberta.

What Andrew noticed was that, while most of the reporters in Quebec City were safely tucked away in the provincial budget lockup, Charest’s former chief of staff announced he will become an executive at Canada Lithium, which means he’ll be spending a lot of time in Abitibi setting up a mine that will provide 12% of the world’s lithium and, in return, make everybody rich as thieves.

There’s not a whiff of scandal to this. It’s good to see former government people getting honest work. (And the guy involved has been out of government for five years.) But Stéphane Bertrand’s new line of work reflects where things are going in Quebec these days. The whole province — or at least its teetering Liberal government and its investment community — is going resource-crazy.

I had heard, vaguely, about Charest’s “Plan Nord,” which he seems to spend a lot of time talking about, and which I mostly took to mean “don’t look at the construction-industry corruption scandal.”

Québec plans to pluck and invest in the golden goose of mining – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – March 22, 2012)

March 22, 2012

www.mineweb.com

While soaring mining taxation will pluck a few more feathers off the mining golden goose, the Québec government plans to shoulder some risk in exchange for higher fiscal rewards.

RENO (MINEWEB) – As Minister of Finance Raymond Bachand presented his budget Tuesday, he observed, “Like all peoples who possess such [abundant natural] resources, Québecers want to maximum their benefits,” partially by collecting more than Cdn$4 billion in mining royalties over the next decade.

A new mining regime will help accomplish these goals through gross royalties collected on mining, forestry and water-power than will reach $1.2 billion in 2011-2012.

“During the 10 years that preceded the reform of the royalties regime, mining companies paid a total of $289 million in royalties to Québec. Over the next 10 years they will pay more than $4 billion. That is 14 times more,” Banchard observed.

To encourage more ore processing in the province, the provincial government will apply an investment tax credit to assets used to smelt or refine metals, and for hydrometallurgy, the minister announced.

Quebec’s new budget is business as usual [Resources Quebec] – by Tasha Kheiriddin (National Post – March 22, 2012)

March 22, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose. Once again, the Quebec government is championing government intervention as the cure for the province’s economic malaise.

On Tuesday, provincial finance minister Raymond Bachand presented the province’s 2012-13 budget. After digging Quebecers into a deep financial hole — a whopping $184-billion debt, representing 55% of provincial GDP — the government is promising to dig a few more, in the form of multi-billion dollar mining projects, in which it will take an equity stake. Mr. Bachand credits former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau with the idea: “It comes down to what Mr. Parizeau said … we have to make sure we get a share of the business.”

The mining proposals form part of Premier Jean Charest’s “Plan Nord,” an ambitious northern-development proposal that brings back memories of the massive Hydro Quebec developments at James Bay in the 1970’s. To help develop the north and exploit the province’s abundant mineral resources, the government is setting-up Resources Québec, a new Crown corporation that will oversee a $1.2-billion equity portfolio. And assuming commodity prices remain high, the government expects to collect $4-billion in mining royalties over the next 10 years.

Provinces’ budgets get a lifeline from resource royalties – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – March 22, 2012)

March 22, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA— China is becoming a key line item in the budgets of Canada’s resource-rich provinces.

From Alberta and Saskatchewan in the West to Quebec in the East, China’s thirst for commodities such as oil, fertilizer and iron ore is no longer just about jobs and economic activity – the gusher of royalties is also helping provinces balance, and even pad, their books.

On Wednesday, Saskatchewan unveiled a budget with a small surplus for 2012-13 thanks to sharply higher oil and potash royalties. Potash will bring in $705-million, up 36 per cent from last year. Oil will generate another $1.6-billion in royalties, up 8 per cent. Saskatchewan now gets nearly 30 per cent of its revenue from various resource royalties.

Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand predicted on Tuesday that royalties from the province’s booming mining industry will grow nearly tenfold over the next decade, putting $4-billion into provincial coffers.