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Sudbury Basin

Vale’s Totten Mine opens after three-year delay – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – Feb 21, 2014)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

It started as a hole in the ground, but after a $760-million investment, Vale’s Totten Mine had its official opening Friday.

Dignitaries from around the province, including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk, and Michael Gravelle, the province’s minister of Northern Develoment and Mines, gathered around the ceremonial ribbon to welcome Vale’s sixth mine in the Sudbury region, and its first to open in nearly 40 years.

Subury MPP Rick Bartolucci, Ontario’s former minister of Northern Development and Mines, had was not present at the ceremony due to a prior commitment. “The 200 jobs that are being created as a result of the Totten Mine will support families and will fuel the economy of this region,” Wynne said at the grand opening.

The premier said the provincial government has an important role to play in developments like the Totten Mine by creating a regulatory environment that encourages businesses to invest and prosper.

The mine was supposed to open in 2011, but a number of factors, including the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009, slowed Vale’s progress.

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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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New Sudbury mine ‘very important’ to Vale – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 22, 2014)

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

Vale will continue to invest in Canada despite bad market conditions and low nickel prices because of the strength of its assets, and those assets aren’t just its ore bodies and its operations, said Peter Poppinga.

Vale officially opened its newest Sudbury operation Friday, the $760-million Totten Mine, a nickel and copper producer. Totten is state of the art, fully automated, has an outstanding safety record and excellent environmental standards.

“But Totten for us actually means much more,” said Poppinga, president and chief executive officer of Vale Canada, and executive director of Vale Base Metals and Information Technology for Vale SA.

“When I (say) asset I don’t mean only ore, I don’t only mean mines or surface facilities. I actually also mean the people, the workforce, the motivated workforce, and I also mean the stability of the business environment and the regulatory environment.

“This is very important for us,” Poppinga told more than 100 invited guests in the warm room of Worthington mine, 40 minutes west of Sudbury.

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NEWS RELEASE: Vale opens first new mine in Sudbury in over 40 years

(L to R) Cutting the ceremonial ribbon at the official opening ceremony of Totten Mine on February 21st, 2014 are: Conor Spollen, Vice-President, North Atlantic Projects, Vale; Rick Bertrand, President, United Steelworkers, Local 6500; Bob Booth, Totten Mine Manager, Vale; Hon. Marianne Matichuk, Mayor, City of Greater Sudbury; Kelly Strong, Vice-President, Ontario & UK Operations, Vale; Hon. Kathleen Wynne, Premier of the Province of Ontario, Hon. Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines; Province of Ontario; Peter Poppinga, CEO of Vale Canada and Executive Director of Vale’s Global Base Metals; Chief Paul Eshkakogan; Rob Assabgui, General Manager, Mines & Mill, Vale.

http://www.vale.com/canada/EN/

Canada NewsWire – SUDBURY, ON, Feb. 21, 2014 /CNW/ – Vale celebrated the official opening of Totten Mine today in a ceremony with the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, the Honourable Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development & Mines, members of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation and many other community leaders.

“Totten Mine is Vale’s first new mine in the Sudbury Basin in more than 40 years and represents a significant investment in the future of our operations in Ontario and across Canada,” said Peter Poppinga, President & Chief Executive Officer of Vale Canada and Vale’s Executive Director of Base Metals and Information Technology.

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PoV: Why we need a statue of Stompin’ Tom [in Sudbury] – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – February 15, 2014)

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

When a group of Sudburians first announced they wanted to raise $50,000 to place a bronze statue of Stompin’ Tom Connors downtown, it seemed a bit out of place. Connors was not a Sudburian, yet he is inexorably part of our heritage for his iconic song, Sudbury Saturday Night. He is not necessarily associated with an individual place, rather he was relentlessly Canadian. Why a bronze statue in Sudbury?

Because he was able to write a simple, irresistibly catchy song that captured who we were at the time. In 1965, when he wrote the song, we were a city of hard partying labourors drinking away the sweat of the mines. It does not represent what Sudbury is today, but Connors was able to make a nation think about a city that many at the time knew only as a place “up North.”

Sudbury Saturday Night — best captured in his performance at the Horseshoe Tavern — might make us cringe a bit now. “The girls are out to bingo and the boys are gettin’ stinko and we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night.”

Inco is now Brazil-based Vale, and bingo has faded. And drinking heavily is not so much to be memorialized these days. “We’ll drink the loot we borrowed and recuperate tomorrow, cause everything is wonderful and we had a good fight.”

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Sudbury firm wins key space contract – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – January 30, 2014)

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

It would be a stretch to say he’s over the moon, but Dale Boucher is certainly excited by the chance his company’s drilling equipment could get on board for a lunar mission.

It’s a possibility that edged nearer to a probability this week, as the Canadian Space Agency awarded a contract to Deltion Innovations of Sudbury to tailor its technology to moon-like conditions. “It’s not a flight contract,” said Boucher. “But what it does is get us one step closer to that.”

Deltion’s DESTIN drill, which takes core samples, was put through its paces in 2012 at a NASA experiment in Hawaii. The Mauna Kea volcano features terrain similar to the cratered ball that orbits earth, and the Sudbury-designed drill did its bit, so to speak.

“It was a practice run and our system passed with flying colours,” said Boucher, adding the unit worked in conjunction with a rover designed by Neptec Designs. Last month, Deltion formed a strategic partnership with this Kanata-based company.

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Mine safety review begins Tuesday – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – January 27, 2014)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The first meeting of the provincial government’s review of mine safety will take place in Sudbury Tuesday, Jan. 28.

After a campaign from the United Steelworkers and the Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support (MINES) Committee for a mine safety inquiry, the government agreed to instead begin a tripartite review of the mining industry, chaired by public representatives, union leaders and industry representatives.

The MINES Committee was formed in reaction to the mining deaths of Jordan Fram and Jason Chenier, who were were killed in a run of muck at the 3,000-foot level of Vale’s Stobbie Mine in Sudbury on June 8, 2011.

On Feb. 29, 2012, the United Steelworkers released a comprehensive report with 165 recommendations to ensure other miners would not face the same dangerous conditions that killed Fram and Chenier the year before.

One of the report’s main recommendations was for the Ontario government to initiate a detailed mine safety inquiry. The last inquiry of the sort was conducted in 1981, and the Steelworkers argued changes in technology and mining practices necessitated a fresh look at the industry.

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KGHM International to cut back at Sudbury mine – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 28, 2014)

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

Employees at KGHM International’s McCreedy West Mine are waiting to learn their fate after hearing from company officials last week that as many as 70 of 100 members of United Steelworkers Local 2020 could be laid off Feb. 16.

Local 2020 members were told Jan. 17 that Glencore Xstrata’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations was exercising the 30-day cancellation clause in its commercial contract with KGHM to process McCreedy West nickel ore. KGHM spokeswoman Kristina Howe said Glencore indicated that its processing facilities are at capacity and that it has a surface capacity, so it didn’t require additional custom feed ores for its mill.

“This has been a positive working relationship with Glencore, and the commercial arrangement, which has been in place since 2011, has allowed McCreedy to continue to mine nickel,” Howe said in an email. As a result, KGHM will have to figure out “the economics of continuing with the mine … if we can’t have our ore processed,” she said.

USW area co-ordinator Myles Sullivan said Local 2020 members were told that a large portion of McCreedy West was going to be closed and that a small zone would continue to operate with a reduced number of workers.

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Sudbury basin still fertile ground for base metal producer – by Jonathan Migneault (Northern Ontario Business – January 9, 2014)

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-based Wallbridge Mining has focused its gaze toward platinum group elements (PGEs) in the Sudbury basin.

“We’re almost entirely focused on the projects that have significant potential for PGEs,” Joshua Bailey, the company’s vicepresident of exploration, told Northern Ontario Business at the 2013 Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium in Sudbury.

Bailey estimates approximately 20 million ounces of platinum group elements have been discovered in the Sudbury basin over the last 20 years. PGEs, which primarily include platinum and palladium, are important components for catalytic converters in vehicles and fuel cells.

“These are elements that are basically key for keeping emissions low and keeping smog down in big cities,” Bailey said. “I think demand is pretty strong right now.” South Africa and Russia are the world’s top PGE producers, but Sudbury has turned out to be a North American leader for the metals. Bailey said Sudbury has the advantage of labour and political stability over those two jurisdictions.

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Glencore, Vale slow to offer Sudbury mining plan details (CBC News Sudbury – January 7, 2014)

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

Rumours continue to swirl about what the future looks like for Vale and Glencore in Sudbury. The two mining giants still aren’t talking publicly about plans to combine some operations.

Comments just before Christmas from Vale’s CEO indicated the two rivals are now in serious discussions about how to work more closely in Sudbury.

But one industry expert says details will be slow in coming. “I think we are going to see very little information come out that is public that we can actually evaluate,” said Bruce Jago, head of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University.

“They are going to keep this really close to their chest.” Jago said he doesn’t think any new found co-operation between Vale and Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations will result in any major job losses.

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2013 News Story: Bittersweet victory for mine safety – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – December 31, 2013)

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

The $1-million fine against Vale the largest occupational health and safety related fine issued by an Ontario court and the province’s decision to conduct a mining review together constitute The Sudbury Star’s top news story of 2013. Both stand to have a significant impact on the city’s defining industry.

On June 8, 2011, Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were working on the 3,000-foot level of Stobie Mine when they were overcome by a 350-tonne run of muck consisting of rock and water.

Vale pleaded guilty to three charges admitting to failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent water accumulation in the mine, which was determined to have played a role in the run of muck.

“The fine and the announcement of a review are the most significant legal developments relating to mine safety we’ve seen in this province for decades,” said Sudbury Star Managing Editor Brian MacLeod. “The persistent efforts of people in the community undoubtedly played a role in forcing the labour ministry to proceed with a review of mining practices.”

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NORCAT lands ‘exciting’ new tenant – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – December 23, 2013)

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

A British Columbia-based company is moving one of its projects to Sudbury. Sky Vertical Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Sky Harvest Energy Corp., is setting up its vertical wind axis turbine testing and manufacturing facilities to space owned by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technologies (NORCAT), it announced in a release earlier this month.

“Our CEO (of Sky Vertical) Kyle Loney lives in Sudbury. He is very integrated in the mining business himself and he knew of NORCAT and approached them. That’s how we came to learn of them,” William Iny, Sky Harvest’s president, told The Star this week.

What partially distinguished NORCAT, Iny said, was its 70,000-square-foot development facility.

“They’re not just involved in the mining sector, which we’re very interested in, because our vertical turbines have application for the mining ventilation shaft. Their high-tech facilities for … research and development and for manufacturing, their intellectual contacts within the technology field, were really impressive.

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Sudbury firm eyes role in lunar mining mission – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 17, 2013)

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

INNOVATION: Deltion partners with NASA contractor

A city once described as a moonscape now boasts expertise to mine the real lunar surface. Sudbury’s Deltion Innovations Ltd., formerly affiliated with the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology, has been developing space mining systems for over a dozen years and is now a step closer to putting its high-tech drilling and excavating equipment into orbit.

Last week, the company announced a new partnership with Neptec Design Group Ltd. of Kanata to collaborate on projects involving space flight systems.

The two companies have worked together in the past, but now have what Deltion CEO Dale Boucher describes as a “strategic alliance.”

The Kanata enterprise has been a prime contractor for Canadian Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration projects, providing flight machine vision systems and supporting shuttle missions. “They built a laser system to inspect the shuttle before coming down,” notes Boucher.

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Change to Vale’s buying scheme makes city more attractive – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – December 06, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Changes to Vale’s procurement system will result in new jobs and opportunities in Sudbury, said the executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA).

Dick DeStefano, SAMSSA’s executive director, said Vale’s new regional focus on supply and service procurement will improve Sudbury’s reputation as a world-leader for the mining supply and service sector.

“This will attract a number of satellite offices,” DeStefano said, as companies will set up shop in Sudbury to be closer to the buying action. Mining supply and service companies previously had to deal with Vale’s offices in Toronto and Brazil to set up contracts with the mining giant.

But in 2012, Vale started to change its organizational structure, and shifted its gaze to regional markets. “It was about getting more autonomy in the different regions,” Kelly Strong, Vale’s vice-president of Ontario operations, said regarding the shift in focus.

In early 2014 companies in Sudbury will be able deal with Vale employees who handle procurement directly in Sudbury.

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Dangerous, dirty legacy — arsenic found in [Sudbury’s] Long Lake – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – November 29, 2013)

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

A study ordered by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines found elevated levels of arsenic in several areas of Long Lake. The ministry, which contracted Colorado-based consulting firm CH2M Hill. The firm conducted field work in July and August. The study was released this week.

A gold mine operated 1.3 km south of the southwestern end of Long Lake from 1909 to 1939. In 1912, it was Ontario’s largest gold-producing mine, but it left behind a dirty, and dangerous, environmental legacy, including three tailings areas.

A packed house of mostly Long Lake residents and cottagers attended a presentation this week at the Holiday Inn to hear the results of the study. Researchers found the concentration of arsenic in the lake’s surface water exceeded Ontario’s drinking water quality standards of 25 parts per billion (ppb).

“It’s a very serious problem and we’re glad to see the progress,” Stephen Butcher, chair of the Long Lake Stewardship Committee, said. “The stewardship initially thought removing the tailings would be the best idea, but after watching last night’s presentation, it’s obvious nobody else wants it in their backyard, either.”

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