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Sudbury Basin

Sudbury students with ‘rocks in their blood’ get together after 50 years – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – September 16, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Laurentian geology graduates from 1974 gather in Wahnapitae to share memories and renew friendships

You may have attended a high school reunion; the reasons may be complex and often include renewing lost friendships or just bringing back youthful memories. For some, it is a reoccurring annual, five-year or even decade theme on the map of life.

What if it was your university graduating class? The program that set you off on a career and shaped your life? It was a cool wet day off the backroads of Wahnapitae, but it didn’t quench the spirit of the event. Dwayne Car, who hosted the get-together, had set up a tent and fire pit to chase away the chill.

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Magna Mining makes a bold $33-million move in Sudbury – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury mine developer will put its local knowledge to the test in asset deal with KGHM

Magna Mining, a fast-moving Sudbury mining startup company, has taken a giant leap forward by acquiring a working copper mine in the Sudbury basin along with a raft of promising properties from Polish-headquartered miner KGHM International.

Magna, known locally for its redevelopment of the former Crean Hill mine, has signed an agreement to acquire the operating McCreedy West copper mine and a stable for exploration and development properties across the Sudbury basin in a $33.3-million cash-and-share deal.

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Taking down Vale stacks in Copper Cliff will be slow and not exciting to watch – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – September 7, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

But it will be expensive — perhaps as much as $100 million by 2030, top executive says, as they must be taken down almost brick by brick

Sudbury’s tallest structure is slated to come down, and when it does the moment will be bittersweet not only for residents and workers but even the mining brass who have concluded it can no longer stand. The Superstack “has been with the city for more than 50 years, and there are emotional attachments to landmarks,” acknowledged Gord Gilpin, head of Ontario base metals with Vale.

“It’s internationally recognized with Sudbury, with the company, and with the mining industry.” Many older residents recall when the 1,250-foot cloud-tickler was erected and “we have our own stories of the history behind it,” said Gilpin.

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NEWS RELEASE: Copperstack and superstack dismantling marks final chapter of $1 billion Clean AER project (September 4, 2024)

Stan Sudol Photo

(Photo by Stan Sudol From 1990s)

Sudbury, Ontario (September 4, 2024) – Today, Vale Base Metals (VBM) announces it is moving forward with the dismantling of the copperstack and superstack at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.

These structures have been decommissioned following the successful completion of the approximately $1 billion Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (Clean AER) Project, which was a cornerstone initiative in our ongoing, long-term environmental stewardship program for Sudbury. The dismantling of the copperstack and superstack marks the final chapter of this ambitious initiative.

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Sudbury’s mining operations impress US Consul General – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – August 23, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

‘There is a lot of interest from US companies here,’ Baxter Hunt says

Visiting dignitaries are always asked why they are in Sudbury. This week, The Sudbury Star met with Baxter Hunt, US Consul General, during his multi-day tour of the area. Hunt had met Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre at PDAC in Toronto earlier this year. Lefebvre invited him to visit.

“I promised him I was going to get up here soon,” said Hunt, who started in this role in the fall of 2023. It is a three-year assignment. Back in July, the Hunt family drove up to Lake Temagami. He called the area “spectacular” and since he has heard of Killarney, he seems keen to experience more of the north.

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Vale Base Metals names new CEO – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 23, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Former Barrick, Xstrata executive Shaun Usmar to steer Brazilian miner’s nickel, copper operations

Shaun Usmar, a mining executive with more than three decades of global experience, has been selected CEO of Vale Base Metals. He succeeds Deshnee Naidoo, who stepped down last March. Usmar will assume his new role at the end of this year and will be based in Toronto.

Vale Base Metals is a spinoff of Brazil’s Vale SA and runs its global base metals assets. It is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel, copper and cobalt with Canadian operations in Sudbury, Thompson, Man, and Voisey’s Bay, Labrador.

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Construction begins on Sudbury’s newest mine – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 19, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Development on phase one of Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project now underway

On an old brownfield site west of Sudbury, earth-moving equipment has started carving out the early structure of what will eventually become the city’s newest nickel-copper mine.

Work on Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project, located about a 30-minute drive west of Sudbury, got underway in mid-July. A warm, sunny afternoon on July 18 gave company executives the perfect opportunity to show off their development plans to a group of visitors.

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Vale to create a new open-pit mine in Sudbury – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – July 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Stobie project is expected to cost $205 million over the next four years and could be a model for future projects in the basin

Vale Base Metals has announced it is going to rejuvenate the historic Stobie Mine property with the creation of a new open pit mine. And the work will be carried out using several local contractors who will employ USW Local 6500 members to carry out the work.

Gord Gilpin, director of Ontario Operations for Vale Base Metals, said the new mine will be a significant four-year project carried out at a cost of more than $200 million.

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Sudbury’s Stobie Pit Mine getting new life above ground (CBC News Sudbury – July 17, 2024)

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

Vale has partnered with First Nations, Steelworkers and an operator to start an open-pit mine at old site

What’s old is new. Vale Base Metals announced Wednesday it will start operations at an open-pit mine at the site of the old Stobie Mine in Greater Sudbury.

The $205 million project will be a partnership between Vale, Thiess Mining, United Steel Workers and local First Nations. It’s expected to produce 300,000 tonnes of ore, primarily nickel and copper, by the end of 2024. The previous Stobie Mine operated underground from 1914 to 2017, though it also began as an open pit mine in 1890.

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High suicide rate exists among miners, research indicates – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 8, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Local study revealed one in 10 had considered taking their own lives, and a similar percentage had PTSD

A recent report from the U.S. that points to a high suicide rate among miners comes as sobering but not surprising news to folks locally who have done some of their own research on mental-health issues within the industry.

“It’s not a shock but it continues to sadden me that we are seeing those kind of numbers,” said Michel Lariviere, a Laurentian Unversity professor who co-authored a study through the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health on levels of stress, depression and suicidal tendency among workers in this field. “And in a community that is still very much a mining community, it reflects on collective wellbeing for an entire city.”

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Effort to ban nickel sales to Israel has pacifist intentions – by Tyler Clarke (Sudbury.com – June 29, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Retired Cambrian College mathematics instructor and longtime peace advocate David Starbuck is behind a petition which aims to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel

Condemning the State of Israel’s sustained bombardment of Gaza, local man David Starbuck helped launch a federal petition to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel. Nickel, he clarified in conversation with Sudbury.com, is used in armaments.

Through the local mining of nickel, there’s no telling how much the Greater Sudbury area has inadvertently aided in Israel’s “unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza,” as United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese put it earlier this year in finding reasonable grounds to determine Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

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Pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury wants Canada to ban nickel sales to Israel – by Staff (Sudbury Star – June 22, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Petition also targets those who sell arms to Israel; Israel’s supporters say it will do nothing to bring peace to the region

A pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury wants the federal government to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel and the arms manufacturers supplying weapons to Israel.

The No Nickel For Genocide Working Group of Palestine Solidarity (Sudbury) has also launched a petition campaign to back its demands. Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus launched the petition on the House of Commons website and in its first week, obtained more than 200 signatures, the group said in a release.

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Indigenous company lands Sudbury mine project contract – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 17, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin LP awarded advanced exploration contract for Magna Mining’s Crean Hill Project

Sudbury’s Magna Mining decided to buy local in picking an Indigenous contractor to extract a bulk sample from its emerging Crean Hill nickel and copper mine project.

Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin Limited Partnership (ADLP) has been awarded an advanced exploration contract that involves pulling a 20,000-tonne surface bulk sample that’s part of Magna’s early test mining scheduled for later this year. The sample will be trucked to Glencore’s Strathcona mill in Sudbury for processing.

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The Big Nickel scandal of 1916 – by John Sandlos (Canadian Mining Journal – June 16, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

In 1854, the land surveyor A.P. Salter noticed the needle on his compass wiggle in strange way, a signal that the bedrock on which he stood contained a huge deposit of nickel (one of the few ferromagnetic minerals that affects the orientation of old-school magnetic compasses).

Owing to its remoteness, Salter’s discovery was ignored at the time and soon forgotten. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Sudbury basin in the early 1880s brought an influx of newcomers and a transportation link to the region.

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Federal minister bullish on Greater Sudbury’s future – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 12, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Jonathan Wilkinson says city in a position to provide critical minerals but also process them to help make batteries for electric vehicles

The Nickel City is in a great position to benefit from the push for greener transportation, not only by supplying the ingredients for batteries but also by hosting plants to process them, according to Canada’s energy and natural resources minister.

“For a community like Sudbury, which is an historic mining town, I think that critical minerals are an enormous opportunity,” said Jonathan Wilkinson during a visit to the city on Monday. “It’s an opportunity for mining, yes, but it’s also an opportunity for great manufacturing jobs.

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