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Stan Sudol Columns/Media References and Appearances

Column: Noront the new king of the Ring – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury star – March 25, 2015)

(L to R) Noront Team at PDAC Awards Ceremony: Glenn Nolan, Vice President, Aboriginal Affairs; Alan Coutts, P.Geo, President and CEO; Kaitlyn Ferris, Manager, Corporate Responsibility; Paul Semple, P.Eng, Chief Operating Officer; Gregory Rieveley, CPA, CA, Chief Financial Officer.
(L to R) Noront Team at PDAC Awards Ceremony: Glenn Nolan, Vice President, Aboriginal Affairs; Alan Coutts, P.Geo, President and CEO; Kaitlyn Ferris, Manager, Corporate Responsibility; Paul Semple, P.Eng, Chief Operating Officer; Gregory Rieveley, CPA, CA, Chief Financial Officer. (Photo by Stan Sudol)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Just when I was ready to title my next Ring of Fire column, “Lost and sinking in the political muskeg of the James Bay lowlands,” a corporate bolt of lightning struck Monday, when Noront Resources, with the backing of Franco Nevada Corporation, announced the acquisition of Cliffs’ chromite properties.

This is a game changer in the Ring of Fire! A Canadian company is putting cold hard cash on the table – during one of the most severe mining busts in decades – in the long-term financial belief of the economic potential of the Ring of Fire.

Franco Nevada is lending Noront U.S. $22.5 million for five years at 7% interest in return for a 3% royalty for Cliffs’ Black Thor chomite deposit and a 2% royalty for all of Noront’s other Ring of Fire properties, with the exception of their Eagle’s Nest nickel/copper/PGM mine. The stock markets seemed to be pleased with this announcement, as Noront shares closed at 48.5 cents on Tuesday, the same as Monday, up almost 37% from their closing price the previous week.

Without a doubt, this is the mining deal of the century — and/or an extraordinary fire sale.

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UPDATED: Ring of Fire deal ‘game-changer’ – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – March 24, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Noront Resources Ltd. announced Monday it plans to buy Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources’ chromite assets in the Ring of Fire for $20 million.

International companies have touted the region’s mining potential for years, but have yet to take any projects to construction, largely due to transportation and access issues.

“We’re all in with respect to the Ring of Fire. This is where we want to be committed to,” Alan Coutts, Noront’s president and CEO, told The Star on Monday. “We think the region is very prospective, from a geological and exploration point of view.”

Coutts likened the Ring of Fire “to another Sudbury,” predicting “there’ll be multiple mines discovered over time, like in Timmins or Red Lake. We think it’s another one of these emerging mining camps.”

Coutts said the Toronto-based company has been involved in the Ring of Fire since 2007 with the Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-platinum group deposit.

The chromite deposits are part of Coutts’ longer-term vision. While not an immediate priority, he said he would like to begin extracting nickel within three years and chromite within five years.

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[Northern Ontario – Iroquois Falls] Small Town Shut Down – The Agenda’s Steve Paikin interviews Michael Shea, Jamison Steeve, Madge Richardson and Stan Sudol (March 11, 2015)

http://theagenda.tvo.org/ Resolute Forest Products is shutting down the newsprint mill in Iroquois Falls, Ontario, a move that will result in the loss of 182 jobs , continuing to erode livelihoods in a town of just 4600. The forestry company essentially built Iroquois Falls a century ago and was its largest employer. Like many other single-resource …

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Government failing to fuel Ring of Fire, says Ontario Chamber of Commerce – by Mark Sabourin (EcoLog.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.ecolog.com/default.asp

The stink of the Cliffs mining debacle has soured the air around Ontario’s Ring of Fire and has slowed pace of development in the remote but mineral-rich area. Ontario should kick-start development afresh by fast-tracking the most promising proposal on the table and moving aggressively on an infrastructure plan. If it does, dollars will flow into the region from the federal government and the private sector.

So says the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) in its just-released report card on the Ring of Fire. In 2014, it outlined the potential the region holds and laid out a path to further development. This year’s 2015 report card evaluates the provincial government’s progress against that plan and gives it a failing grade.

Stan Sudol, communications consultant, mining columnist and owner/editor of RepublicOfMining.com, calls it “a stunning indictment of government incompetence, both provincial and federal.”

The OCC conservatively estimates that the first 10 years of development of the Ring of Fire will add up to $9.4 billion to the GDP, sustain up to 5,500 jobs annually, and generate $2 billion in government revenue.

The Ring of Fire is everything it’s cracked up to be, Sudol told EcoLog News, and likely more. Once more of the region becomes road-accessible — inevitable once development gets underway — geologists are confident that even more discoveries will follow. If northwestern Ontario is a mineral-rich iceberg, the Ring of Fire may be only its visible tip.

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Sudbury needs premier needs to act boldly [turn Laurentian in global Harvard of hardrock mining] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – February 9, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Note: this is the second of two parts.

Sudbury: Paris of the Mining World

While I can’t remember who coined the phrase, “Sudbury, the Paris of the Mining World” – I wish I had been that clever – there is an amazing amount of truth to the statement. Obviously, in no uncertain terms, does any part of Sudbury remind anyone – even in a drugged or drunken state – of Paris.

However, my lake-filled, mid-sized hometown does have a wide variety of retail, tourist, educational and other amenities that most tiny isolated mining towns do not and it is located only 400 km north of Canada’s largest city, Toronto.

A few years ago, a colleague who moved from Red Lake to Sudbury almost considered herself in “mining heaven” with the abundance of amenities not found in that tiny gold mining centre.

In addition to the Ontario government’s new differentiation and international student outreach policies, there are many other reasons why all post-secondary mining programs should be relocated to Sudbury’s Laurentian University.

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Accent: Laurentian as ‘Harvard of Hardrock Mining’ – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – February 7, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Note: This is the first of two parts.

Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson, who ran for the Green Party in Sudbury’s provincial byelection on Thursday, has done a terrific job in highlighting mining issues and his plans to ensure that Sudbury continues to become Ontario’s centre of mining excellence.

It’s a refreshing policy approach that often gets overlooked by other politicians, but in fairness to Glenn Thibeault and even Premier Kathleen Wynne, both have also mentioned — but not with the same passion as Robinson — and promoted Sudbury’s mining sector.

However, as with many issues related to Premier Wynne and the mining sector — including the Ring of Fire — there seems to be more “political talk” and very “little solid walk.” Actually, dodging and spinning would be a better description of her government’s mining policy in general.

If Premier Wynne is truly serious about promoting and establishing Sudbury as a centre of mining excellence, then she must merge and relocate all of Ontario’s university mining programs to Laurentian and significantly expand and establish a “Global Harvard of Hardrock Mining” with a mandate to educate the next generation of miners in Canada and from around the world.

With this consolidation, not only would the premier solidify Sudbury’s premier role in underground mining, supply and services, mining education and research in Canada, she would also dovetail with current policy proposals from her own Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities that are trying to cut duplication in the university sector and increase the number of international students attending the province’s universities.

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Attention Premier Wynne: Turn Laurentian Into Global Harvard of Hardrock Mining – by Stan Sudol (January 30, 2015)

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, mining columnist and owner/editor of www.republicofmining.com  He can be reached at stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

This essay was also published in the Sudbury Star in two parts:

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2015/02/07/accent-laurentian-as-harvard-of-hardrock-mining-2

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2015/02/09/sudbury-needs-premier-needs-to-act-boldly

Sudbury Byelection

Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson, who is running for the Green Party in the current municipal by-election, has done a terrific job in highlighting mining issues and his plans to ensure that Sudbury continues to become Ontario’s centre of mining excellence.

It’s a refreshing policy approach that often gets overlooked by other politicians but in fairness to Glen Thibeault and even Premier Wynne, both have also mentioned – but not with the same passion as David Robinson – and promoted Sudbury’s mining sector.

However, as with many issues related to Premier Wynne and the mining sector – including the Ring of Fire – there seems to be more “political talk” and very “little solid walk”, actually dodging and spinning would be a better description of her government’s mining policy in general.

If Premier Wynne is truly serious about promoting and establishing Sudbury as a centre of mining excellence, than she must merge and relocate all of Ontario’s university mining programs to Laurentian and significantly expand and establish a “Global Harvard of Hardrock Mining” with a mandate to educate the next generation of miners in Canada and from around the world.

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Sudbury letter: Uncertainty dogs Ring development – by Peter Best (Sudbury Star – November 4, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Re: Carol Mulligan’s Ring of Fire column, Oct. 30.

Stan Sudol hopes that “political sanity” will prevail and then the Ring of Fire will be developed. There can be no political sanity without underlying legal sanity, and right now, in this area of Canadian life, we don’t have that. The Supreme Court of Canada, with its “consult and accommodate” rulings, has handed First Nations band elites a virtual veto on all new developments on Crown lands, and they are using it with devastatingly negative consequences for us all, especially the vast majority of powerless natives. This was the unacknowledged elephant in the room in Carol Mulligan’s otherwise excellent article.

When George Smitherman was the Matawa Tribal Council’s spokesman he declaimed on their behalf that “First Nations will have the ultimate say on how the Ring of Fire mineral developments will unfold.” In 2012, Neskatanga Chief Peter Moonias threatened “blockades and even acts of mischief” if his little band’s demands for a proper piece of the action weren’t met. The fiscal, legal and law and order uncertainty caused by this type of selfish and irresponsible thinking foretold ultimate doom for the project.

Combined with the above was and is the McGuinty/Wynne government’s enthusiastic embrace and support of these Crown sovereignty-destroying court rulings. Wynne cabinet minister David Zimmer recently inanely lauded the framework agreement with the Matawa Tribal Council as a “government-to-government” agreement. A government’s first duty is to protect its own sovereignty.

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Ring of Fire doubts ‘baseless and false’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 30, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Cliffs Natural Resources’ new chief executive officer may have shaken the confidence of some this week when he said he had “zero hope” the Ring of Fire would be developed in the next 50 years.

But Lourenco Goncalves didn’t cause three proponents of the chromite deposits 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay to lose faith the Ring will be mined and will add billions to the province’s economy when it is.

Goncalves, 55, told The Financial Post he didn’t expect to see the Ring developed in his lifetime, and that he intends to be around for another 50 years.

The newly named CEO of the Cleveland-based company was, no doubt, expressing the frustration of the company with one of the biggest claims in the Ring of Fire. It has suspended work on its project after investing $500 million in it.

In May 2012, Cliffs and the Government of Ontario announced Cliffs had upgraded its Ring of Fire project to the feasibility stage and reached a number of key agreements with the province. Most important to Sudbury was Cliffs’ decision to locate a $1.8-billion ferrochrome processing plant in Capreol, just north of the city.

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Bees help restore Sudbury mining site – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – October 14, 2014)

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.

“Unsightly” mess left behind by a century of mining.

Retired foreman Wayne Tonelli worked in Sudbury’s nickel mines since he was a teenager, but his new gig is pretty sweet.
That’s because his old boss Vale (formerly Inco) is mining for more than metals these days. The company is in the ‘liquid gold’ business, enlisting thousands of honey bees to help restore a Sudbury landscape blighted by more than a century of nickel and copper mining and smelting.

“I like being outside after 40 years underground,” says Tonelli, now a bee-keeper for the international resources giant as part of a company program to re-green the area that decades back looked like a moonscape.

He carefully tends to seven hives containing 350,000 bees that are used to pollinate the blooming wildflowers the company has planted across 120 acres of unsightly black slag piles formed by waste from the Copper Cliff smelter complex, upon which the massive Superstack chimney sits.

“Bio-diversity is the buzz word in the resource industry these days,” explains Glen Watson, superintendent, reclamation and decommissioning for Vale’s Ontario operations.

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Michael Gravelle on negotiations between mining companies and First Nations – interview by Markus Schwabe (CBC News Sudbury – October 2, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/ We contacted the Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle, to talk about the difficulties in negotiations between mining companies and First Nation communities. Click here for the interview: http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/past-episodes/2014/10/02/michael-gravelle-on-negotiations-between-mining-companies-and-first-nations/

Northern Ontario mining projects need province’s support, analyst says (CBC News Sudbury – September 25, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury

A mining industry watcher says the provincial government should do more to help with First Nation consultation, and putting a cap on energy rates. Stan Sudol said recent changes to Ontario’s Mining Act have made negotiations between the industry and First Nation communities more complicated.

The Toronto-based communications consultant and mining policy analyst said that’s hurting the industry, because it’s delaying exploration projects, and increasing the cost. The onus is on the government to improve the negotiation process, Sudol added.

“The government needs to meet with the tribal councils across northern Ontario, along with junior mining companies, and let’s hammer out a blanket, uniform agreement that is good for everybody.” Unless something is done, junior mining companies and prospectors fear the consultation process could become more onerous, he said.

Ontario power costs too high

While the future of the Sudbury Basin mining camp looks promising, Sudol said he’s concerned about climbing power rates due to Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

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PoV: Development corp. notice a yawn – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – September 7, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

It’s no wonder the response to the Ontario government’s announcement that it has formed a development corporation to get moving on the Ring of Fire ranged from muted to headshaking. It was a case of watching a long, slow train running down a flat straight track; sooner or later it would get here, but what now?

The corporation, which the Kathleen Wynne government promised to set up within 60 days of being re-elected, has only an interim board of four senior public servants. No one from the federal government, no one from First Nations, no one from the mining industry.

The interim board, said Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle, will help bring about a full corporation, which will then negotiate agreements, assist with exploration and most importantly, make key infrastructure decisions.

But back in May 2012, the Liberal government and Cliffs Natural Resources -then the lead player in the Ring -announced that at a smelter to process material from the deposit would be built near Capreol, promising about 500 jobs, and that a north-south all-weather road would be constructed to help move the material.

Cliffs -which was going to begin production by 2015 -has since faded from the picture, stopping its operations in the Ring, so the province’s decision to throw all its eggs in that company’s basket backfired. (There are about 100 companies operating in the area, though only about one third of them are active and a few are in a position to move on development.)

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Critics look for details on Ring of Fire ‘devco’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 29, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Sudbury Star mining columnist Stan Sudol levelled even harsher criticism. “With no First
Nations or industry representatives on their board, this was obviously a rushed and cynical
announcement to try to meet an election promise,” said Sudol.”Let’s not forget this
development corporation was first announced 10 months ago, last November.”

Sudol pointed out the Cliffs Natural Resources, which has one of the largest claims in
the Ring of Fire, recently confirmed it was selling all non-core assets, including its
Ring of Fire properties. “This is an absolutely stunning indictment of the Ontario
Liberal government’s inability to move this project forward,” said Sudol.

It was on time, but it wasn’t the announcement those who were waiting for it were hoping to hear.

Six days before a self-imposed, 60-day election campaign promise to establish a development corporation to design, construct and maintain infrastructure for the Ring of Fire, the Government of Ontario announced it had officially done so.

In a brief news release, the province said the Ring of Fire Infrastructure Development Corporation was officially established as a not-for-profit corporation, headquartered in Thunder Bay, with an interim board of directors of four senior public servants.

The interim board will put the necessary structures in place to allow partners to determine their participation in the corporation, it announced.

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