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Sudbury Basin

Sudbury’s way to the future – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Star – December 31, 2015)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

I am a big fan of insightful and comprehensive community economic plans for Greater Sudbury, having chaired and participated in at least four such plans since 1970 that have fundamentally changed the direction of our community in preparing for the future.

The Greater Sudbury Development Corporation has recently designed a strategic plan (From the Ground Up 2015-2025) that could change the face of the community for the next 10 years if all sectors actively participate and contribute their energy and insights into implementing and supporting the efforts which this plan imagines and recommends.

The problem lies in the fact that very few people have read or even reviewed this important piece even though the plan, during the consultation stages, was led by a broad based 24-member steering committee. This document must be circulated and endorsed by the general public to be successful.

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Press Release – Ultra -Deep Mining Network gains momentum! Hosts 1st Annual Symposium and launches new Industry focused Call for Proposal

https://www.miningexcellence.ca/

Sudbury, ON (December 11, 2015) – Canada’s Ultra-Deep Mining Network (UDMN) continues to make strides in solving the challenges that impact resource extraction in ultra-deep (below 2.5km) environments launching new Call for Proposals and Network Members share the stage highlighting their innovative solutions and commercially viable products.

The $46 million NCE business-led network, now in its 2nd year of operation, has become the leading expert in ultra-deep (below 2.5km) research and innovation.

Under the management of CEMI – Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, and key involvement from industry leaders, the UDMN currently manage 24 active projects in 4 strategic themes (Rock Stress Risk Reduction, Energy Reduction, Material Transport and Productivity and Improved Human Health and Effectiveness).

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In a Sudbury mine, physicists probe secrets of dark matter – by Kate Allen (Toronto Star – December 6, 2015)

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.

SUDBURY, ONT.—In a hot, dark cavern buried two kilometres below the earth’s surface, a pallet of No Name dog food lies covered in dust.

These subterranean passageways have certainly seen stranger sights than bulk dog food. There was the one-of-a-kind sanding robot, for starters. There was the giant acrylic orb, split in two pieces to fit down the mine’s narrow elevator shaft. Over the next four weeks, there will be 3.6 tonnes of liquid argon.

Every day, a parade of physicists in coveralls and head lamps rattles down the elevator and tramps through these passages — plus engineers, welders, machinists, grad students, the occasional journalist. Stephen Hawking was here.

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Sombre, reflective tone at SAMSSA’s AGM – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – Decemeber 4, 2015)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA) welcomed a new president, two new board members and inducted two local businessmen into their respected Hall of Fame at their December 4 annual general meeting.

A crowd representing 110 of the organization’s 125 members stood in silence for the commencement of the meeting, out of respect for one of the Hall of Fame recipients, Andre Ruest of B&D Manufacturing, who passed away Nov.19.

“He was a great guy for me, always open to suggestions, I will sadly miss him, and we will honour his life and celebrate him at the end of the presentation today,” said executive director Dick DeStefano.

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[Ontario] Province seeks input on proposals stemming from mining review – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – November 28, 2015)

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

Ontario Minister of Labour Kevin Flynn says the provincial government intends to act on all recommendations by the Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review Final Report, beginning with a series of proposed amendments presented for consultation on Thursday.

Proposed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Ac including the introduction of new requirements for mines and mining plants to conduct risk assessments and have formal traffic management programs, the strengthening of existing requirements for water management and ground control, and the updating of training requirements for surface diamond drill operators.

“What I think it is is proof positive that all the work that went into the mining review was time well-spent,” Flynn said.

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Nickel goes below $4: Mining suppliers get hit – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 25, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

In a year that has seen two mine closures in Greater Sudbury, the low price of nickel has also resulted in a significant downturn in jobs available for the city’s mining supply and services sector, says the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA).

SAMSSA executive director Dick DeStefano said his members have been mum on the impact low nickel prices has had on their businesses, but said it has definitely resulted in fewer contracts with larger firms like Vale and Glencore.

Nickel hit a multi-year low of US$3.75 a pound Monday, and climbed slightly Tuesday to $3.92 a pound by 3:50 p.m.

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Dynamic Earth breaks ground on outdoor science park – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – November 25, 2015)

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

A slag dump-inspired slide, an amphitheatre stage made from a mining truck bed, a climb-on Creighton Mine – the functional will become fun when Dynamic Earth unveils a new outdoor science park, due to open in June 2016.

Staff from Science North and Dynamic Earth joined City of Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger for a press conference in the Atlas Copco Theatre on Wednesday to announce the science park, part of a $3 million attraction renewal initiative, for which the city has kicked in $250,000.

“Visitors to Dynamic Earth, no matter what their ages, get to work and they get to play with real mining equipment and technologies and, of course, learn about the earth and earth sciences,” said Julie Moskalyk, senior manager at Dynamic Earth.

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[Sudbury Laurentian’s] MIRARCO CEO pushes for Ontario mining brand – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – November 20, 2015)

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Ontario mining cluster more than the sum of its parts

Vic Pakalnis, president and CEO of MIRARCO Mining Innovation in Sudbury, is urging the provincial Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to take the lead in the development of an Ontario mining brand.

“We have a very good reputation in the rest of the world,” said Pakalnis. “Our mining expertise in Ontario and Canada is really valued,” but much more needs to be done to build on the industry’s strengths.

Pakalnis hopes to influence the Ministry’s pending refresh of the Ontario Mineral Development Strategy, which is scheduled for release early next year.

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[Sudbury Neutrino Observatory] Art McDonald on how to win a Nobel Prize – by Kate Lunau (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 21, 2015)

http://www.macleans.ca/

All it takes is one mine, 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, 274 scientists and the backing of an entire town

Arthur McDonald, tall, bespectacled and silver-haired, is hiking down the rocky tunnel of a nickel mine outside Sudbury, Ont., after descending more than two kilometres underground in a mine cage. The space is lit mainly by the roving headlamps worn by his small group. Roof bolts and steel screens brace the rock overhead.

The terrain is uneven, and it’s easy to stumble. McDonald, 72, takes slow, considered steps, occasionally turning to warn the others of a treacherous puddle or ditch. Fatigue is a common side effect of time spent this deep underground, where the air pressure is much higher than above ground, but he doesn’t seem to feel it.

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Memories from the University of Inco – by Stan Sudol

Stan Sudol in the 1990s.
Stan Sudol in the 1990s.

I am an Inco brat. I was born and raised in the shadows of those tall industrial smokestacks that tower over the city of Sudbury, Canada. In the days when I turned 18 in the late 1970s, if you didn’t go to university, then it was almost a rite of passage to work for “Mother Inco,” as it was affectionately (or derisively) known.

For most students today, the prospects of a good-paying summer job to help finance post-secondary education has become an elusive dream. Skyrocketing tuition fees combined with minimum-wage work equals enormous debt at graduation.

I truly feel sorry for these students, as my own experiences in the decade of disco included a wonderful combination of affordable tuition fees and blue-collar union employment that made a major contribution to my post-secondary education costs.

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[Sudbury] Health unit wants forum to ‘air concerns’ about Vale spill – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 14, 2015)

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

The Sudbury and District Health Unit is looking to coordinate a meeting at which representatives of three levels of government, an environmental group and others would discuss a situation that prompted an Environment Canada investigation at Vale Ltd.

The first Burgess Hawkins heard about Environment Canada seizing computers and materials from the mining giant, in relation to an alleged 2012 violation of the Fisheries Act, was when he read a news story about the raid, first reported by The Sudbury Star.

Since early last month, when Environment Canada produced a warrant and was accompanied by the RCMP to Vale’s engineering offices in Copper Cliff, Burgess has been keeping an eye on the unfolding investigation.

A manager in the SDHU’s Environmental Health division, Burgess said Friday he has had conversations with officials with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and talked with a co-chair of the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury.

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Residents deserve answers about Vale runoff – by Naomi Grant and Lilly Noble (Sudbury Star – November 13, 2015)

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

What’s your reaction when you see your neighbourhood playground in the news in relation to contaminated runoff?

“We just moved in August from three houses down from the site. Kids played there all the time. A little pissed off right now that nobody alerted us to the problem.”

“I lived near there for 20 years … They knew all that time and didn’t inform any-one. Our kids played at that park since it was built.”

“Who is going to test my soil? Who is going to give us answers?” These are a few of the comments posted by residents in response to the news that Vale runoff saturated a school board property in the west end, the site of Travers playground, for years.

Residents have received no information from regulatory agencies, authorities or Vale. Let’s look at the information available so far.

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Vale runoff saturated school board property for years – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 02, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The Sudbury Catholic District School board property where toxic runoff from Vale’s slag piles allegedly seeped for decades, was often over-saturated, says a former manager who worked at the property.

Denis Faucher retired in 2013, but in October 2012, when a nearby resident reported seeing lime-green-coloured runoff in Nolin Creek, he was the manager of facility services for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.

The facility services building, and surrounding property, is located at 199 Travers Street, near Vale’s large slag piles that line Big Nickel Road.

Faucher started to work at the facility in the late 1980s, and said even then he noticed coloured runoff coming down from the nearby slag piles.

“Especially in the early years, we always thought it was iron in the water coming through the rock,” he said. “It never dawned on us that it could have been something else.”

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[Wallbridge Mining] Sudbury junior joint ventures with Lonmin on Sudbury PGM project – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – November 2, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining Company started the next phase of exploration on its Parkin Properties in October, with funding from Lonmin. Wallbridge and Lonmin announced their agreement for the project in mid-September. Lonmin will be funding the project up to $11 million, with the potential to earn up to 50 per cent interest. This was an amendment to their existing North Range Joint Venture agreement (NRJV).

Lonmin is currently Wallbridge’s largest shareholder. The start date of Oct. 1 coincides with the beginning of Lonmin’s fiscal year.

Wallbridge initially worked with Impala Platinum Holdings Limited on the Parkin Properties. Josh Bailey, vice-president of exploration, said that in December, Wallbridge opted to purchase Implats’ 49.6 per cent interest in the joint venture by making cash payments over the next five years.

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Former Inco exec to receive honourary doctorate from Laurentian – by Staff (Sudbury Northern Life – October 28, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The former chief operating officer of Inco Ltd. will receive an honourary doctorate from Laurentian University in June.

Mark Cutifani, now the CEO of Anglo American, returned to Sudbury this week where he took in an international mining safety conference, before delivering an Oct. 27 lecture at Science North in the evening.

He was the guest speaker at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines’ GSM lecture. Cutifani, who worked for Inco from 2003-2007, focused his speech on changing the conversation around mining and how the industry can make positive connections with communities and economies.

The hour-long lecture was well attended, and Cutifani was tested with questions about leadership challenges and the mining industry’s track record with respect to the environment, citing recent developments about Vale leaking toxic runoff into the city’s waterways.

The announcement that he’ll receive the honourary doctorate came from Laurentian’s vice-president, academic, Robert Kerr.

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