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Stan Sudol Columns/Media References and Appearances

Managing Mining Intelligence – the SAMSSA Solution – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal -September 2014)

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association  (SAMSSA).  destefan@isys.ca  This column was originally published in the September 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

When the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) was created in 2003 the founding fathers were looking for something of added value to assist member companies in improving their markets and business opportunities.

The idea of just having an association focused on a social environment offering coffee club meetings and the odd golf tournament and even a hard cover catalogue with direct mailing didn’t meet their needs in a rapidly growing digital age.

One of the most common comments was that the proliferation of industry news and global markets analyses was becoming overwhelming, contradictory and almost impossible to manage. In the process of developing this new service SAMSSA outlined its mandate which stated:

Mission – “Provide the most innovative and highest quality mining supply/products/services for domestic and worldwide markets.”

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Northern Ontario has many exciting mining stories – by Dieter Buse

Dr. Dieter K. Buse, Professor Emeritus, History, Laurentian University

Thanks to Stan Sudol for presenting “Klondike gets the glory” (Sudbury Star May 30-31) on the main mining stories and the rich history of northern Ontario. Who could disagree with his claim about the “collective obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while Northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment”? Perhaps not completely, because at least one such outlet, the Toronto Star (Aug 11, 2013; reprinted in Sudbury Living Fall 2013) published my lengthy piece “The Hole in Canadian History.”

In it I argued, very similar to Sudol, that the Yukon and Newfoundland have six taxpayer-funded national historical interpretive sites while northeastern Ontario has only two. I also pointed out that the special aspects of Ontario’s northeastern history have been recognized by only a few commemorative plaques.

Indeed, many of the stories and some of the information that Sudol presents can be found in the book I co-authored with Dr. Graeme S. Mount, Come on Over: Northeastern Ontario, A to Z (Scrivener Press). In the Afterword to that book one can read “Arguably, Cobalt’s history is as exciting as that of Dawson City, and its silver rush led to the Porcupine gold rush which was far more important. In all, the Porcupine Camp has produced over 70 million ounces of gold and continues to add to that total while the Klondike produced all of 12 million ounces.”

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Editorial: The NDP – for now – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – June 11, 2014)

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

“The NDP’s intention to force companies to process more minerals in Ontario is dubious, but
it hasn’t really been tried. The party wants to establish a stainless steel industry in the
province, something advocated by mining analyst Stan Sudol. It would be interesting to watch
them try, rather than allowing so much unprocessed material from the Ring of Fire to leave
the country.” Sudbury Star Editor – Brian MacLeod

Northern Ontario has factored large in both the Liberal and NDP campaigns.

Unfortunately, the Progressive Conservatives have ignored the region. Party Leader Tim Hudak never once ventured north, he skipped the leadership debate in Thunder Bay, and has taken no time to explain his party’s policies to northerners. There is a sense that the party’s policy of eliminating 100,000 civil servants jobs will hit some northern ridings hard – especially Sudbury and Nickel Belt’s health and education sectors. And Hudak has not properly explained what the party would do with the $100 million Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

The Tories say they would finish four-laning Highway 69 – sometime. That doesn’t cut it.

Hudak’s focus on the deficit is commendable, but the speed at which he wants to eliminate it – one year faster than the other two major parties – is bound to have a significant impact on the North. A Hudak government would suppress Northern priorities to debt reduction.

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Francis Hector Clergue and the Sault’s Essar/Algoma Steel is a Glaring Omission from “Northern Ontario’s Top Ten Mining Events” – by Stan Sudol

I take my history seriously and thus owe my readers an apology for a “glaring omission” from my “Northern Ontario’s Top Ten Mining Events” column which was recently published in the Sudbury Star.

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/05/30/accent-celebrating-northern-ontarios-mining-history

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/05/31/cobalt-boom-top-event-in-northern-mining

American-born entrepreneur Francis Hector Clergue, who founded Algoma Steel – now owned by Essar Steel – and created an industrial empire at Sault Ste. Marie that also included iron ore mines, a power plant, pulp and paper mill, a steam ship line and a rail road, should have been on that list.

Northern Ontario Business editor Ian Ross – who is originally from the Sault – pointed out my mistake and I am very grateful for being corrected as Clergue’s visionary legacy continues to this day.

Actually, I have just started reading the definitive book about Algoma – Steel at the Sault by Duncan McDowall – and feel horribly guilty for the omission! A more detailed column will be forthcoming.

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Accent: Cobalt boom top event in Northern mining [Part 2 of 2] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – May 31, 2014)

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

Note: This is the second of a two-part feature on Ontario’s mining history. The first half of a top-10 list of significant events was printed in Friday edition of the Star; the countdown continues below.

For Part-one, click here: http://republicofmining.com/2014/05/30/accent-celebrating-northern-ontarios-mining-history-by-stan-sudol-sudbury-star-may-30-2014/

5) Peter Munk: Canada’s King of Gold

Amazingly, Peter Munk knew little about mining as he previously developed resorts in the South Pacific and owned a high-fidelity stereo system company that went bankrupt. In 1983, with a small oil exploration company that was losing money, he decided to buy a half interest in the Renabie gold mine near Wawa and a piece of an Alaskan placer miner which together produced 3,000 ounces that year.

In 1984, he bought Camflo Mines with operations in northwestern Quebec, but more importantly, acquired an experienced mine management team that would help Barrick takeover mines in Ontario, the United States and around the world. A significant success was the Nevada Goldstrike mine in 1988 when company President Robert Smith saw its huge potential.

Munk’s greatest success was the acquisition of Placer Dome in 2006 during the foreign takeovers of some of Canada’s legendary miners that included Inco, Falconbridge and Alcan.

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Accent: Celebrating Northern Ontario’s mining history [Part 1 of 2] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – May 30, 2014)

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

Note: this is the first of two parts.

For part-two, click here: http://republicofmining.com/2014/05/31/accent-cobalt-boom-top-event-in-northern-mining-by-stan-sudol-sudbury-star-may-31-2014/

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while Northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

While, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves.

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Ottawa 580 CFRA News Talk Radio Host Rob Snow interviews RepublicOfMining.com’s Stan Sudol about Ring of Fire (May 26, 2014)

http://www.cfra.com/index.aspx Since taking over the drive home slot on 580 CFRA in 2004, Rob Snow has built his “Afternoon Edition” into one of the region’s most popular and influential radio shows. Snow describes himself as just an old-fashioned radio reporter at heart. Combining that reporter’s natural curiosity with a no-nonsense, let’s-just-get-to-the-point approach drives his intelligent, …

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Capreol chromite smelter ‘very unlikely’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 27, 2014)

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

Sudbury Star mining columnist Stan Sudol didn’t mince words about what the sale of the Cliffs’ camp
could mean. “I think this is another indication that Cliffs is a ‘dead man walking’ in the Ring of Fire,”
said Sudol. “The possibility of Cliffs building a furnace in Sudbury is also, unfortunately, very unlikely.”

Noront Resources Ltd. has purchased the exploration camp shuttered by Cliffs Chromite Ontario Inc. late last year when it announced it was indefinitely suspending its activities in the Ring of Fire.

Noront has been talking with the subsidiary of Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources since then about purchasing the camp, located 250 metres from Noront’s existing Esker Camp.

The sale of the camp is subject to certain conditions, one of them being the sale price not be revealed, said Noront president and chief executive officer Alan Coutts. If the deal goes through as expected, Noront will take possession of the camp early in the second half of this year.

What the sale means for Cliffs’ holdings in the Ring of Fire isn’t known. An email inquiry to the company about that Monday did not garner a response.

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Top Ten Mining Events in Northern Ontario History – by Stan Sudol (March 22, 2014)

This column was also published on the Huffington Post – the “New York Times” of the web: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stan-sudol/ontario-mining_b_4885841.html

Klondike Versus Northern Ontario

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

Unfairly, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, but I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves!

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NEWS RELEASE: What is your number one event in Ontario mining history?

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

It may not match David Letterman’s late night television talk show top 10 lists on the humour scale but Stan Sudol’s top 10 list of events in Ontario mining history are thought provoking and worthy of discussion. The Sudbury-born/Toronto-based communications consultant and editor of the blog Republic of Mining has done the industry a service by creating his own top 10 list on the subject.

While the ranking of Mr. Sudol’s compendium is likely destined to be the subject of perpetual debate, we suspect fewer could argue with the specific events themselves. Narrowing the topics down to 10 was no easy task with more than 150 years of Ontario mining history to analyze. As Mr. Sudol himself noted “the list encompasses traditional discoveries as well as certain events or the creation of institutions that have had long-lasting provincial or global impact.”

“Parts of Ontario’s mining history are brutal and tragic but it is also filled with stories of hope, courage and sacrifice, of enormous wealth creation and technical and social innovation. Ontario’s modern 21st century mining sector is the culmination of this amazing past that has helped forge a distinct regional culture in the province’s north and contributed enormously to the wealth of the entire province and country.”

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Canadian T.V. Ignores Ontario’s Rich Mining History – by Stan Sudol (March 2, 2014)

This column was also published on the Huffington Post – the “New York Times” of the web: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stan-sudol/ontario-mining_b_4885841.html

Klondike Versus Northern Ontario

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

Unfairly, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, but I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves!

Before I continue, I will come clean with readers as I have a certain “bias” on this topic, being born and raised in Sudbury – the richest mining city in North America – whose mines have been producing nickel, copper and platinum group metals for over 130 years.

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Accent: Sudbury’s [Vale] Totten a space-age mine – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – February 22, 2014)

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

In major mining centres, the opening of a new mine is no small feat. Especially when that mine is a company’s first to open in the area in more than four decades – and took seven years to get production-ready.

On Friday, Vale’s Totten Mine, located in the mineral-rich Sudbury Basin, officially opened to great fanfare. The $760-million mine is the company’s sixth in the basin and its first to use the newest, state-of-the-art mining technology.

“It integrates many of the advances that have been developed since the last Vale mine was built 40 years ago. These technical advances will continue to position Sudbury hard rock miners as among the most productive and competitive in the world,” said mining analyst Stan Sudol. “It also ensures that the Totten Mine is at the lower end of the cost curve.

“This is very positive for the Sudbury Basin. Totten confirms that Sudbury is still the richest mining district in North America, bar none. Because so much high-tech innovation has been included in the development of Totten, it also indicates Sudbury’s becoming a global Silicon Valley of underground knowledge, expertise and research and education.”

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Vale officially reopens Totten Mine in Sudbury after 40 years (CBC Sudbury News – February 21, 2014)

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

Dignitaries, including Premier Kathleen Wynne, are in Sudbury today for the opening of the Totten Mine. The project is mining giant Vale’s first new mining operation in the Sudbury area in 40 years.

The Totten Mine was originally closed in 1972, but Vale found advances in mining technology that would make it possible to re-open the site.

Sudbury mining researcher and writer Stan Sudol said this is a good sign for the industry in northeastern Ontario. “Totten is an excellent example of using technology in the globally competitive world of nickel mining,” he said.

“And it also shows that even though we’ve been mining for 130 years in the Sudbury Basin, there’s a lot to be found. We just have to find it, we have to go deeper.”

The mine’s opening has not been without difficulty. The project was originally scheduled to open in 2011, and has cost Vale over $760 million so far. The mine is expected to employ about 150 people.

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Totten Mine re-opens in Sudbury (Morning North Markus Schwabe’s Interview With Stan Sudol – February 21, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/ The Totten mine is the first new mining project from Vale in forty years. It was originally closed in 1972. Mining analyst Stan Sudol spoke to us about what this new development means for the Sudbury region. Listen audio (runs 6:38) Click here for the interview: http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/past-episodes/2014/02/21/totten-mine-re-opens-in-sudbury/  

[Ontario] Mines minister confident Ring talks making headway – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 6, 2014)

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

Michael Gravelle wasn’t sharing insider information about how talks are progressing between the government of Ontario and First Nations closest to the Ring of Fire.

But he telegraphed some heavy hints in an end-of-year conversation about the development of the rich chromite deposits located 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Consultations being led by retired supreme court justice Frank Iacobucci for the province and former Ontario New Democrat premier and federal Liberal leader Bob Rae representing the Matawa Tribal Council are vital part to moving the Ring of Fire forward, said Gravelle.

They are progressing well, the minister of Northern Development and Mines said several times during a telephone interview with The Sudbury Star.

And while didn’t want to “presume the end of the discussions” between the first nations and the province, Gravelle said he hopes his government will be in a position “very soon” to announce a framework agreement between the two parties.

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