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Sudbury Basin

New mining geophysics firm sets up shop in Sudbury – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 13, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Being located in the ‘Canada’s mining centre’ prompted move north for Wireline Services Group (Canada)

Wireline Services Group (WSG) got its start more than 20 years ago working in the historic Kambalda nickel and gold mining region of Western Australia. Now the Perth-headquartered mining tech company has established a firm foothold in Canada’s preeminent nickel mining camp.

The geophysics company recently moved into a spacious 7,500-square-foot office and shop on Valleyview Road in Val Caron last month, hiring two locals and transplanting two others from Toronto.

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Vale’s base metals chief vows to turn around underperforming Sudbury nickel mines – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 13, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The head of Vale SA’s base metals group is vowing to turn around its poorly performing Canadian nickel operations, as the Brazilian mining giant makes a play for a bigger piece of the fast-growing EV-battery-minerals market.

Vale entered the Canadian nickel market in 2006 when it paid $19.4-billion to acquire Inco Ltd., a company that had mined the critical mineral in Sudbury for a century.

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Ford: Mine expansion opening ‘a fabulous day’ for Ontario – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – October 13, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Premier was on hand in Sudbury for the official opening of Phase 1 of Vale’s Copper Cliff Mine Complex South Mine, which breathes new life into the shuttered mine and will double ore production at the site, creating 270 new jobs

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said today he was impressed that mining giant Vale has spent $945 million to bring an old mine “back to life,” saying the project was a key part of the province’s critical minerals strategy.

The premier was in Sudbury for the official opening of the Phase 1 expansion to Vale’s Copper Cliff Complex South Mine, a project that connected the South Mine operation to the North Mine creating the new Copper Cliff Mine Complex.

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New Vale Canada mine in Sudbury worth almost $1 billion – by Staff (Sudbury Star – October 13, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Premier Doug Ford among those to celebrate opening of Copper Cliff Complex South Mine Project

Vale Canada Limited on Thursday officially opened the initial phase of its CDN$945 million Copper Cliff Complex South Mine Project in Sudbury.

“This first phase of the Copper Cliff Mine Complex South Project enhances our supply of low-carbon nickel and other critical minerals and adds to the long-term sustainability of our Sudbury operations,” Deshnee Naidoo, executive vice-president of Vale’s Base Metals business, said in a release. “The successful delivery of this project is a major accomplishment for Vale and great news for Sudbury and the Province of Ontario.”

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Renewed effort promised to remediate [Sudbury] Long Lake Gold tailings – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – October 7, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Mines minister outlines how more action on the remediation process will take place this fall and into next spring and summer

There is a renewed effort in the works to get the old Long Lake Gold property in Sudbury cleaned up and rehabilitated. That’s based on a recent letter from Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie to Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas.

Pirie was responding to an inquiry from Gélinas with respect to whatever progress there might be on the former gold property located in Eden Township, just outside of the City of Greater Sudbury at the at the south end of Long Lake. Gélinas has been pursuing a government solution to the issue for several years.

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Mining battery vehicle expert speaks to importance of training – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – October 3, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

If you plan on running battery vehicles in mining, you will need properly trained maintenance technicians and vehicle operator

Sudbury’s Mike Mayhew, a leading consultant on the role of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in mining, said education and training are the next key steps to the evolution of implementing BEVs in global mining operations.

Mayhew was one of the key speakers at the Maintenance, Engineering and Mine Operators Conference in Sudbury, where part of the focus was discussing the role of BEVs in the Canadian mining industry. The event was hosted by the Sudbury branch of CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) and was held at Science North.

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Officials saying little about Tesla-to-Sudbury reports – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – September 20, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

An online industry publication says officials with the EV giant had scouted Sudbury as a possible site for a factory that would manufacture batteries or battery materials

If Tesla is indeed looking to set up shop in Sudbury, it seems we will have to wait a bit longer for more details. Last month, an online industry publication said officials with the EV giant had scouted Sudbury as a possible site for a factory that would manufacture batteries or battery materials.

Citing “multiple sources with knowledge of the matter,” Electric Autonomy Canada said high-level Tesla reps visited local Vale operations last month as “part of a larger location-scouting mission by Tesla in Ontario and Quebec to seek out potential manufacturing locations.”

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Canada lags behind world nickel producers, says mining exec – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – September 19, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

The rest of the world is speeding up production of nickel and nickel refineriess to take advantage of the Battery Electric Vehicle market

Nickel mining executive Johnna Muinonen told mining leaders in Sudbury Monday that Canada has fallen behind in nickel production compared with other countries in the world and she said there are some concerns in the Canadian nickel mining industry that need to be addressed before other countries in the take advantage of the growing demand for the metal.

Muinonen is president of Dumont Nickel, Magneto Investments LP. Along with being a professional engineer (P.Eng) Muinonen has spent more than 20 years as a mining executive and in operational management in nickel mining, including nine years with Vale.

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Canada can build an electric vehicle industry worth $48B a year — but it must act now: report – by Don Pitts (CBC News Business – September 14, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Canada needs a strategy quickly in order to capitalize on payoffs in jobs and economic growth

As climate change shows its growing destructive power in floods and droughts worldwide, even strong advocates for the transition from using fossil fuels to battery-powered electric vehicles know EVs won’t be enough to fix the problem.

But as the North American auto show opens to glitz and fanfare, a new report from two reputable Canadian research groups says that Canada has a brief window to be a major player in transforming an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually into something more climate friendly — and to make money doing it.

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Opinion: Laurentian must be more than a mining university – by Dr. Dieter K. Buse (Sudbury Star – September 10 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury and northeastern Ontario need a full university, not a technical college disguised as ‘the mining university’

Re: ‘Opinion: Laurentian must turn its legacy into a new vision for the future,’ (bit.ly/3L0ARkQ) Aug. 29:

The opinions expressed in this article are misguided and ill-informed. Sudbury and northeastern Ontario need a full university, not a technical college disguised as “the mining university”. With due respect for Nadia Mykytczuk’s capabilities as a researcher and head of Mirarco (the Laurentian University research centre focused on mining), she takes much too narrow a perspective on rebuilding the university.

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Tesla looking at Sudbury for possible electric battery plant: Report – by Staff (Sudbury Star – September 5, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Tesla officials have scouted Sudbury as a possible home for a factory that would build electric batteries or battery materials, Electric Autonomy Canada reports. In an online story, Electric Autonomy Canada said Tesla went on a site-scouting expedition in Ontario and Quebec during a trip to visit Vale Canada last month.

“Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter, but not authorized to speak, told Electric Autonomy that, earlier (last) month, high-level Tesla employees visited Vale Canada operations in Sudbury, Ont., just ahead of the Mercedes-Volkswagen announcements (in August).

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Opinion: Laurentian must turn its legacy into a new vision for the future – by Nadia Mykytczuk (Sudbury Star – August 30, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Among other steps, LU should focus on being ‘Canada’s mining university’

As we get closer to the vote on Sept. 14 that will ultimately decide the fate of Laurentian University following a grueling, agonizing and, at times, nasty CCAA process, I find myself torn between our collective struggle to find closure, the empathy I feel for those whose lives were turned upside down, and mourning what we have lost in our Laurentian and Sudbury community.

As one of the terminated faculty, I have lived the pain of losing my job, my hard-earned academic career, and tenure. Even more difficult has been seeing many of my colleagues and their families leave our wonderful community.

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Magna Mining looks to revive former Sudbury nickel, copper mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 17, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Company acquiring former Crean Hill Mine on its path to become a mid-tier Canadian nickel miner

A Sudbury junior miner, with big ambitions to become a major Sudbury-area nickel producer, has picked up a choice piece of ground.

Magna Mining has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire all of the shares of Lonmin Canada in a deal worth $16 million.

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More funding announced for Sudbury-based mining software project – by Staff (Sudbury.com – August 9, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Additional financial support has been given by the government of Ontario through the Ontario Centre of Innovation

More funding has been announced to help the Sudbury-based MIRARCO mining innovation centre further the research and development of decision-support software for underground mining applications. This is part of a three-year agreement between MIRARCO and the Australia-based RPMGlobal software company that was first highlighted last December.

In a news release issued Monday, MIRARCO said the additional financial support was given by the government of Ontario through the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), an organization that supports innovators to commercialize new Ontario based technologies. A dollar amount was not revealed in the announcement.

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EVs are about to break new ground deep, deep under Sudbury – by John Michael McGrath (TVO Today – August 2, 2022)

https://www.tvo.org/

Running diesel engines two kilometres belowground would be prohibitively expensive — so this mine is turning to battery power

It would be a lot easier if mining were just a matter of getting ore out from deep underground. But mining is done by miners, and those workers need air they can breathe.

As mining companies go deeper and deeper into the Earth searching for the minerals that go into steel and the other metals that make up modern life — including, now, high-capacity electric batteries — supplying something as basic as fresh air becomes more and more difficult.

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