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Quebec Mining

Kiena digs deeper: Wesdome Gold Mines sets up historic Quebec gold producer for a new future – by Carolyn Gruske (CIM Magazine – February 27, 2023)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Just before CIM Magazine went to press, Wesdome Gold Mines announced that its company president and CEO, and our primary source for this article, Duncan Middlemiss, had resigned. Middlemiss’s resignation follows on the release of the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 production results and 2023 guidance, which was issued on January 17, 2023.

The report was a difficult one for the company. Beyond the delays at Kiena that Middlemiss notes in our profile, Wesdome’s main producer, Eagle River in Ontario, underperformed due to “the variability of the Falcon Zone, which negatively impacted our ability to accurately forecast near-term production” and production in Q4 fell short of expectations, partially because of “severe snowstorms hindering [Wesdome’s] ability to truck the high-grade ore to the mill.”

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Agnico Eagle raising the gold production bar in the Abitibi – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 21, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mine expansion at Detour Lake and Kirkland Lake figure prominently in gold production plans

There are more ounces to be pulled from the Abitibi gold belt, says Agnico Eagle. The Toronto gold company maintains it can produce more than two million ounces out of this region of northeastern Ontario and western Quebec by 2025, an area where Agnico got its start in the late 1950s. Agnico has five mines within this 32,000-square-kilometre area.

In a Feb. 17 conference call with analysts, Agnico management said it believes 2023 is an exciting year to advance a pipeline of projects and start to expand production at its existing operations while keeping production and total costs down to a low of $800 an ounce.

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Caution urged as mining companies eye critical minerals below Quebec boreal forest – by Stéphane Blais (Toronto Star/Canadian Press – February 8, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

MONTREAL – About one million square kilometres of Quebec is covered by boreal forest, roughly 70 per cent of the entire province. In the north, where ecosystems are less likely to have been altered by human activity, those forests have been accumulating and sequestering immense quantities of carbon for centuries.

“In the boreal environment, the forest decomposes very slowly, even more slowly than in the tropics,“ said Xavier Cavard, who holds a research chair in forest carbon management at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

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Tesla Deal for Lithium From Quebec Could Intensify Housing Shortage in Northern Mining Towns – by Kristian Gravenor (CoStar News – February 6, 2023)

https://www.costar.com/

Though surrounded by endless expanses of land, northern mining towns in Quebec are running out of permissible space to build much-needed housing and other property types required for growing cities.

It’s a problem expected to intensify as the region faces an influx of anticipated workers from a major new contract with U.S. manufacturer Tesla and an increase in mining for materials used to make batteries for electric vehicles. Tesla announced a deal last month to buy spodumene concentrate, a source of lithium and important raw material needed for electric vehicle batteries, from the Sayona Mine 560 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

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Cree mother wonders how mining development in northern Quebec will affect food supply – by Stephane Blais (CBC Montreal/Canadian Press – February 7, 2023)

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

Project would deprive the Cree of certain hunting grounds

Heather House studies full-time through McGill University’s distance education program, and when she is not immersed in books, she is raising her eight children with her husband in Chisasibi, the northernmost community in Quebec accessible by road.

Feeding a family of eight children, two parents, and two elders in such a remote community where grocery prices are among the highest in the country would be a major challenge if it were not for access to the land for hunting, fishing, trapping and berry picking.

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Hailed as green energy source, northern Quebec lithium project divides Cree – by Stephane Blais (CBC News Canada – February 6, 2023)

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

‘If the water becomes contaminated by the mine, I don’t see how we can limit the damage’

Type the word “Nemaska” into a search engine and most results refer to Nemaska Lithium, the company that sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 before being partly bought out by the Quebec government’s investment agency. The episode resulted in tens of thousands of small investors losing significant savings.

However, Nemaska is above all a Cree community in the heart of the boreal forest, more than 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. They share their territory with a wide variety of species, and caribou herds have long visited the area, drawn by its abundance of lichen.

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Where trapping is still a way of life, Quebec lithium projects spark fears for future – by Stéphane Blais (Global News/Canadian Press – February 6, 2023)

https://globalnews.ca/

As Freddy Jolly’s pickup truck travels the dusty roads through the spruce forests outside Nemaska, Que., the one radio station fades in and out, and Jolly fills the gaps between country ballads with conversation. “There are fewer moose than before due to logging,” Jolly says as he scans the horizon.

This is Eeyou Istchee in northern Quebec, the traditional land of the James Bay Cree, with a surface area equivalent to two-thirds of France. The 65-year-old Cree hunter and trapper knows the land well and has agreed to take a visitor to see sites where lithium mines are under construction.

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NAL offtakes in the pipeline – Piedmont – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly – February 1, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The joint venture (JV) partners of the North American Lithium (NAL) operation, in Quebec, are hoping to finalise offtake agreements over the project by the end of March this year.

Global lithium developer Piedmont Lithium president and CEO Keith Phillips told Mining Weekly Online that at 130 000 t/y, Piedmont would be the biggest buyer of NAL product, of which nearly half would be sold to third-party buyers.

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Arsenic in the air, fear and anger on the ground – by Eric Andrew-Gee (Globe and Mail – January 23, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As research shows carcinogens in their children’s bodies, people in Rouyn-Noranda are demanding more loudly that the local copper smelter – long exempt from provincial emissions rules – should clean up its act

Ethan Valois is eight now, and the arsenic levels in his body have started to come down. He and his parents live in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., home to a copper smelter that emits the known carcinogen at levels about 30 times higher than the provincial limit.

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After lithium mine approval, Ontario-based Cree want a seat at the table for environmental assessments of mining in the province – by Matteo Cimellaro (National Observer – January 18, 2023)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Lawrence Martin wishes the Cree nations on the western coast of James Bay had the same relationship with Ontario as the Eeyou Istchee have with Quebec.

Earlier this week, Ottawa approved a new lithium mine near the Eastmain Cree community in Quebec with caveats, including 271 environmental protections designed in conjunction with the project’s Indigenous neighbours.

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James Bay lithium mine wins federal approval amid Trudeau’s push to make Canada an EV player – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – January 17, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Quebec mine must adhere to 271 conditions, including measures to protect the environment

The federal government approved the construction of a lithium mine in northern Quebec, moving Brisbane, Australia-based Allkem Ltd.‘s project closer to the finish line, and moving Canada closer to being able to supply a highly sought metal that will be key to the energy transition.

Environment Minster Steven Guilbeault said Allkem’s Galaxy Lithium, which owns the project situated about 100 kilometres east of James Bay, and the Eastmain Cree community will need to adhere to 271 conditions, including measures to protect fish, birds, bats, wetlands, as well as lands and resources used by the Cree.

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Riding a 44% gain in its share price, Agnico’s first new CEO in 25 years is bullish on 2023 – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – January 4, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

‘I think 2023 really is going to be about optimizing the assets we have,’ says Ammar Al-Joundi

For the first time in almost 25 years, Toronto-based Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. — the largest gold miner inside Canada — will begin the year with a chief executive who isn’t named Sean Boyd.

Instead, Ammar Al-Joundi is the CEO while Boyd has moved into the role of executive chairman. Asked what lies ahead for Agnico and whether any big changes are planned, Al-Joundi relies on what could politely be characterized as boardroom jargon.

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Railveyor system hauls over 10 million tonnes at Agnico Eagle mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 6, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury mining supplier achieves milestone at Quebec mine

Sudbury’s Rail-Veyor® Technologies Global Inc. is proud to announce that the Railveyor™ TrulyAutonomous system operating at the Agnico Eagle Goldex mine in Val d’Or, Quebec, has hauled over 10 million tonnes of ore since installation and commissioning was completed in 2018.

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited announced in July 2022 that 1 million ounces of gold has been processed from the Goldex mine since 2013.

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Updates on Quebec plan for critical and strategic minerals – by Diane L.M. Cook (Canadian Mining Journal – December 4, 2022)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Global net-zero emissions by 2050 targets have Canada’s resource industry re-thinking its long game. Quebec is ramping up mining of its key minerals required to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. The province plans to become a leader in the critical strategic minerals (CSM) mining sector and a leader in the electric vehicle battery manufacturing sector for the North American automotive industry.

In its “Quebec Plan for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals 2020-25.” The province identified four policy pillars to promote the development of CSM to encourage investment in the province, meet the growing demand for these mineral resources, and play an active role in the global energy transition.

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Heating up: Montreal company overcoming obstacles to build a lab-grown diamond market – by Marisa Coulton (Financial Post – December 6, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Philipe Henriques has always had reservations about the diamond industry. “I’m pretty sure a lot of us have seen the movie Blood Diamond,” the high school social studies teacher said.

The 2006 film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a diamond smuggler in civil war-era Sierra Leone, where warlords force captive men to sift for the precious stones through muddy water at gunpoint. “I don’t think it’s always like that,” he said. “But I still think there are a lot of injustices.”

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