Archive | Sudbury Basin

What The Heck Is That? — Our industrial Lake Louise – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – May 16, 2019)

May 17, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Sudbury History, Vale

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Few people would mistake Sudbury for Banff, and yet there is one spot just northwest of the city off MR 35 that I like to think of as our own little Lake Louise.

Easily spied on the west side of the road near the turnoff to William Day Construction, its surface is a vivid turquoise that has no doubt caught the attention of a few passing motorists other than myself.

It jumps out just as much, if not more, when you look at it from an aerial, satellite perspective in Google Maps, its hue so distinct from the other water bodies around it — more San Jose teal than Maple Leafs blue. Continue Reading →

Vale still confident about nickel prices – by Staff (Sudbury Star – May 11, 2019)

May 15, 2019 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

A deadly dam disaster in its home country of Brazil has put Vale SA in the red. On the bright side for Sudbury, however, the company remains cautiously optimistic about the demand and price for nickel.

Bloomberg News reports Vale suffered the first quarterly loss since late 2015 as the company set aside funds to cover damages, legal costs and other obligations related to the dam disaster that left hundreds dead in January.

The agency said he world’s largest iron ore producer set aside US$4.5 billion and posted a loss of $1.64 billion as the company comes under strict government scrutiny that resulted in authorities freezing billions of dollars of its assets to ensure the victims will be compensated and environmental remedies will be implemented. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Vale Canada and Terrapure win Environmental Leader Award for innovative mine rehabilitation project

May 15, 2019 in Mining Environmental, Water Shortage and Land Reclamation/Revegetation Issues, Sudbury Basin, Vale

Teaming up to solve a municipal and mining problem with a sustainable, cost-saving approach has earned Vale and Terrapure recognition for Project of Year

SUDBURY, ONT., May 15, 2019 – Terrapure Environmental® (Terrapure) and Vale Canada received an Environmental Leader Award for Project of the Year for their new, sustainable option for managing biosolids during winter months, when farmland application is prohibited and storage is complicated.

Instead of incinerating or landfilling nutrient-rich organics, Terrapure worked with Vale to develop a program to apply treated biosolids to its Central Tailings Area for reclamation and revegetation. It was the first project of its kind in Ontario. Continue Reading →

Sudbury: ‘Sudbury would have stayed invisible’: Dick DeStefano on his 15 years as head of SAMSSA – by Casey Stranges (CBC News Sudbury – May 9, 2019)

May 14, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Supply and Services Sector, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

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

A long-time advocate of Sudbury’s mining sector is calling it a career. After 15-years as head of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSAA) Dick DeStefano announced he is retiring.

The goal of the organization is to champion local service and mining equipment providers in Sudbury. DeStefano told CBC News that the group was able to create a “continual flow of information and awareness” of the sector.

“When we finally discovered there were over 25,000 people working in the industry and 8 per cent of the population in Sudbury worked in the supply industry alone and was generating something like $5 billion in sales, it seemed to be obvious to me that we really had a business that collectively was very powerful,” DeStefano said. Continue Reading →

Innovation centre planning $4M expansion in Sudbury: NORCAT plans above-ground addition to its underground centre to meet demand – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 30, 2019)

April 30, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

NORCAT is planning a $4-million expansion at its Sudbury underground centre to meet growing demand for the development, testing and commercialization of new mining technologies.

Situated northwest of the city in the community of Onaping, the underground facility was established in 1997 at the former operating Fecunis Adit Mine, previously owned by Falconbridge (now Glencore).

Don Duval, NORCAT’s CEO, noted the organization is the only non-profit regional innovation centre globally to have an operating mine dedicated to helping startup companies develop, test and demonstrate emerging technologies in an operating mine environment. Continue Reading →

Ideas: The Sudbury Effect: Lessons from a regreened city (CBC Radio Ideas – April 22, 2019)

April 28, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

 

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/

Forty years ago, nickel mines and smelters around Sudbury, a relatively small city in northern Ontario, had created one of the most dramatic examples of environmental devastation in the history of our planet. The nearby landscape appeared dead and blackened.

Today, Sudbury boasts some of the cleanest air of any city in Ontario. Formerly acidified lakes — and there are 330 substantial lakes within the city limits alone — have come back to life. The surrounding countryside is now green and forested.

“The big push at the beginning was liming large tracts of land,” explains Tina McCaffrey, supervisor of Greater Sudbury’s ‘re-greening’ program. Once the lime has neutralized the acids in the soil, workers plant grass seeds and, later, tree saplings. The process of diversifying and restoring the ecosystem takes decades, and is still underway. Continue Reading →

Sudbury: No charges to be laid against Vale after investigation of potentially toxic slag run-off – by Erik White (CBC News Sudbury – April 26, 2019)

April 26, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

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

Mining company currently building new drainage system to contain slag run-off

Environment Canada has decided not to lay charges against Vale for potentially dangerous run-off leaking from its Sudbury slag piles. But the mining company is currently installing a new system for controlling the slag seepage, work it says is unrelated to the government investigation.

Environment Canada refused an interview with CBC, but said in a statement that it began investigating contaminated water coming from the Sudbury slag pile after a complaint from the public in 2012.

Court documents filed to obtain a search warrant for Vale offices in 2015 allege that someone discovered green foam in a creek near the slag piles on Big Nickel Mine Road that had high levels of nickel and other metals. Continue Reading →

Finding yourself among the slag heaps of Sudbury (Sudbury Star – April 25, 2019)

April 25, 2019 in Books, Art, Music and Photography About Mining and Northern Topics, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Sudbury Basin

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Acclaimed Greater Sudbury writer Tom Leduc is set to launch Slagflower: Poems Unearthed from a Mining Town, his debut collection of poetry, during an event at the Sudbury Theatre centre on Friday. The event runs from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free.

More than just a collection of poems, Slagflower is the story of a fourth-generation son of miners and his journey beyond the world underground, as well as the tale of a city struggling to grow beyond its past and become more than just a mining town.

Inspired in part by Leduc’s family history, the book invites readers to reflect on what it means to grow up in a mining town and “find yourself — and beauty — among the slag heaps.” Slagflower will be available for sale for $20, at the launch event and then through Latitude 46 Publishing, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon.ca and other independent book stores. Continue Reading →

Returning green to a blackened landscape: Microbiologist opens MMTS week with talk on mine remediation using microbes – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – April 15, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Biomining and Bioremediation, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Sudbury Basin, Sudbury Laurentian University – Mining Faculties and Research

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Nearly two centuries of mining in northeastern Ontario has left its mark with waste from thousands of mines.

But Nadia Mykytczuk said that waste can be turned into another mining opportunity and at the same time clean up the dirtier parts of the industry’s legacy.

Mykytczuk, a microbiologist, was the guest speaker at the kickoff luncheon for Modern Mining and Technology Sudbury Week (MMTS), hosted by the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation, on April 12. Continue Reading →

THE DRIFT: The cold, hard realities of mining on the moon: Greg Baiden Sudbury mining engineer takes pragmatic approach to space mining – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 10, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Space Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Greg Baiden once introduced himself at a NASA space mining conference in California as a “recovering asteroid miner.” The CEO of Penguin Automated Systems had been enlisted by the agency to bring a healthy dose of pragmatism to a roomful of high-minded scientists and entrepreneurs about the realities of mining in a hostile and extreme environment.

After listening to more than his share of science fiction stories over the years, Baiden felt he had to inject some Sudbury sensibility to the wider discussion.

So to establish his credentials, Baiden began his presentation by mentioning that his former employer, Inco (now Vale), has been mining the remnants of an asteroid impact in Sudbury for the past 130 years. Continue Reading →

Diamonds in the Rough: Meet Canada’s all-female mine rescue team – by Len Gillis (Sudbury Northern Life – April 12, 2019)

April 15, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Women in Mining

https://www.sudbury.com/

It was what happened in Sudbury three years ago that inspired a group of women to do something that had made them the darlings of the mine rescue world. Mine rescuer Kari Lentowicz of Saskatchewan was in Sudbury this week and remembered it well.

“Back in 2016 we were here in Sudbury at the International Mines Rescue Competition,” said Lentowicz on Wednesday when she spoke at the Workplace Safety North Mining Health and Safety conference.

“In that competition there were 189 competitors. Five were women. That was it.” That’s what prompted her to sit down with a group of friends and other mine rescue women to talk about creating their own all-female team of certified mine rescuers, something Lentowicz had been thinking about for several years. Continue Reading →

The mental stress of mining studied in Sudbury – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – April 12, 2019)

April 12, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

When you take that deep dive down into the ground, your mental health can take a hit. Vale, Steelworkers Local 6500 and the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health at Laurentian University have recently completed a large study looking at the impact of mining on mental health.

“Most of the measures were very similar to the (larger) population when it comes to depression, anxiety, fatigue and other things, but there were a couple of things that were a little bit higher than the general population,” Keith Hanson, occupational health and disability lead at Vale, said.

“Burn-out was a little bit higher and post-traumatic stress disorder was higher than the population.” The research was presented Thursday as part of Workplace Safety North’s mining health and safety conference, which took place in Sudbury. Continue Reading →

KGHM’s mines in Canada face uncertain future – Staff (Sudbury Star – April 11, 2019)

April 11, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Copper, Europe Mining, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Poland’s KGHM, which operates mines in Sudbury, may freeze some projects in Canada or the U.S. if they require big investments, its chief executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We are not currently thinking about selling foreign assets,” said Marcin Chludzinski told Reuters. “We’re considering strategies for the next few years.” All of KGHM’s foreign mining projects except those in Chile have been put under review, he said.

“It’s not that we want to or have to sell,” Chludzinski told the news agency. “It’s more that we are looking at these assets as a strategic reserve. We’re considering actions similar to those we took at the Morrison mine (north of Sudbury), which is to freeze a project.” Continue Reading →

Top 10 Deepest Mines In The World: Most Of Them Are Gold Mines – by Vikas Shukla (Value Walk.com – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019 in Africa Mining, Canada Mining, Copper, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel, Sudbury Basin, Timmins, Zinc, Lead and Tin

https://www.valuewalk.com/

South Africa is home to eight of the world’s top 10 deepest mines. The country has been one of the world’s largest gold producers for decades, even though gold production there has been declining in recent years. A mine is an artificially made pit from where minerals and other resources are extracted. The depth of a mine represents the elevation from the entrance to the deepest excavation point.

The ranking below includes only operational mines, not the ones that are no longer in operation. For instance, the Empire Mine in California has a depth of 2.08 miles, but it’s no longer in operation. Similarly, the Kolar Gold Fields in India, which was 2 miles deep, was shut down in 2001 due to low levels of output after producing gold for centuries.

When they run out of minerals at existing levels, mining companies prefer to go deeper in existing mines to extract more minerals instead of digging a new mine. Continue Reading →

Mining association no longer just about Sudbury: SAMSSA undergoing major changes to broaden reach – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – April 8, 2019)

April 9, 2019 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Mining Supply and Services Sector, Sudbury Basin

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) is undergoing some major changes to broaden their reach. Among those changes will be a complete name change and new outreach strategy.

The mining service sector in Northern Ontario isn’t just about Sudbury, anymore, so it is making major changes to position itself as the unified voice for the whole of Northern Ontario.

“We want to be a pan-Northern Ontario association,” said Paul Bradette, director of business development. “The board had discussed this with members last September and approved a growth strategy.” He added the acronym has diminished, adding most people wouldn’t know what it stood for. Continue Reading →