Sudbury Basin – Page 59 – Republic of Mining

Cliffs holds open house to discuss [Sudbury] chromite smelter – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 26, 2012)

October 26, 2012

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

Interested residents who attended an open house Thursd ay in Capreol on had an opportunity to have their comments and complaints considered by Cliffs Natural Resources as it undertakes the environmental assessment for its chromite smelter project.

Cleveland-based Cliffs is about two years into collecting baseline data for its combined federal and provincial environmental assessment for development of its Black Thor deposit near McFaulds Lake in the Ring of Fire.

Jason Aagenes, director of environmental affairs for Cliffs’ ferroalloys division, briefed reporters on the environmental assessment of the four components of its Ring of Fire. Cliffs is looking to develop an open-pit mine in the James Bay lowlands, which will include a concentrator to crush chromite ore and a lined tailings pond.

It is also developing an integrated transportation corridor to move concentrated ore from the Ring of Fire to a ferrochrome processing plant it plans to build at the former Moose Mountain Mine site, north of Capreol.

Aagenes said the project is in the feasibility and environmental assessment stages, and said Cliffs is working on an aggressive deadline to begin mining and processing by 2016. Cliffs originally intended to be in production by 2015.

Sudbury nickel mine stops operations at year’s end due to falling prices – by Andrew Livingstone (Toronto Star – October 20, 2012)

October 25, 2012

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.

Operations at the Sudbury mine site where 40 per cent of the nickel used to make allied artillery during the First World War came from will be suspended at the end of the year.

The Frood site, which has been in operation for over a century, will be closed because of recent decline in the price of nickel and market volatility.

Since 2011, the price of nickel has dropped 30 per cent, 17 per cent this year alone. The closure will not lead to any job losses, said McPhee. 85 workers are currently employed at the site and when it closes, will be reassigned to other jobs within the Sudbury operation.

The Frood site has been mined for more than 100 years, but the ore now has low value and the company had been mining at a loss.

[Sudbury Wahnapitae] Natives work with Cliffs – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 25, 2012)

October 25, 2012

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

Members of Wahnapitae First Nation regard plans by Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite smelter just 20 kilo-metres from their border as an opportunity.

But the president of the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association, a Wahnapitae First Nation member, says they also view the plant as a threat. That’s why the First Nation, and the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association, are working with Cliffs on a baseline environmental review of the project, getting involved on the ground floor.

Hans Matthews has been a member of his First Nation’s Mining Industry Working Group for a decade and president since the beginning of the association, which will mark its 20th anniversary with a conference in Toronto next month.

Headquartered in Wahnapitae First Nation, Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association drew a handful of guests to its first annual convention. Eight hundred delegates are expected to attend this year’s event, cochaired by Matthews and Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys.

Vale profits to drop 61%: Analysts – by Jeb Blount and Sabrina Lorenzi (Reuters/Sudbury Star – October 23, 2012)

October 24, 2012

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

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Vale SA (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) the world’s No. 2 mining company, is expected to report that third-quarter profit tumbled 61 percent from a year earlier as output slipped and the price of iron ore and other metals dropped to three-year lows.

Profit is also likely to be hurt by the company’s decision to set aside about $540 million for the possible payment of back royalties in a dispute with Brazil’s government.

Net income likely fell to $1.92 billion in the three months ending September 30 from $4.93 billion the year before, according to the average estimate of 19 analysts in a Reuters poll.

If results expected late on Wednesday confirm the estimate, it will mark the company’s worst quarterly profit in 33 months. Falling prices and weak demand in China, Vale’s largest market, have led the Rio de Janeiro-based company to delay spending, close operations and consider cuts to investments and dividends.

“Third quarter results are likely to suffer from a steep drop in prices,” BTG Pactual Group analysts Edmo Chagas, Antonio Heluany and Gregory Goldfinger wrote in a Monday report.

Study finds [Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining] Broken Hammer has potential to be viable – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – October 23, 2012)

October 23, 2012

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

Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. has released what it’s calling positive results on studies conducted on its Broken Hammer copper and platinum group metal project in Sudbury.

“We are very encouraged by the positive results of the pre-feasibility study,” Marz Kord, president and CEO of Wall-bridge Mining, said in a release.

“The pre-feasibility suggests that the Broken Hammer project has the potential to become economically viable and generate positive cash flow. What’s more encouraging is that the deposit remains open for expansion to the west and to depth.

“The footwall-style Broken Hammer project is in a large land package on the northern rim of the Sudbury basin within a 9 km strike length of very similar geology with extremely strong prospects.”

The Broken Hammer project, located north of Capreol, is planned to be an open pit operation used for the extraction of about 196,000 tonnes of copper, nickel and platinum group metals.

Time to stand ‘on our own feet,’ Vale CEO says – by Mark Gentili (Sudbury Northern Life – October 18, 2012)

October 19, 2012

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Prices, market prompt belt-tightening at company

Although it is confident base metal prices will rebound in the medium- to long term, Vale Canada’s CEO has issued a statement to its Base Metals employees worldwide that it is taking steps to keep the company profitable in the short term.

Peter Poppinga’s letter sets what Cory McPhee, the company’s vice-president of corporate affairs, describes as a “broad direction” for Vale’s base metals division. This direction focuses on ensuring the continued safety of workers, prioritizing value over volume and pursuing a directive Poppinga terms “standing on our own two feet.”

“Basically, we want all of our divisions to be self-sustaining,” McPhee explained to Northern Life Oct. 18. The letter issued this week precedes more discussions, both face-to-face and by letter, with the company’s base metal employees to keep them in the loop of Vale’s plans.

The first step was announced today when the company revealed it will be suspending operations at its Frood site of the Stobie Mine as of the end of the year. Although 85 jobs will be affected by the decision, no layoffs are in the works, said Angie Robson, manager of corporate affairs for Vale’s Ontario operations, in a statement today.

[Sudbury mine] Closure part of global trend: Analyst – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – October 19, 2012)

October 19, 2012

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

Nickel analyst Stefan Ioannu of Haywood Securities in Toronto is not surprised by Vale’s decision Thursday to close the 100- year-old Frood Mine in Sudbury.

” You have deposits and greater depths right now,” he said. “The deeper you go, the more expensive it is to get to stuff. Maybe ( Vale) can squeeze a little more out if it sells at $10 (a pound), a little less at $7.”

Ioannu said the Frood decision is one of many being made across the globe right now by the mining industry. “One of the big things we have been seeing coming out of the majors is a focus,” he said. “They will be shutting some of their big projects and focusing on regular operations to cut costs. It’s an interesting shift.

“It’s very difficult for the big companies to justify developing things with the (nickel) price now.” Ioannu said while he sees nickel prices rising to US$10 a pound, they could bottom out at $6. The reason they will rebound, said the mining analyst, is that high-grade nickel pig iron deposits in Indonesia — which could be turned on and off quickly and flood the nickel markets — are mostly gone and only low grade ones remain.

[Sudbury Vale] Operations suspended – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – October 19, 2012)

October 19, 2012

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

The first shoe has dropped at Vale’s Greater Sudbury operations as part of the company’s new “self-sustaining” push. Vale announced Thursday it is suspending operations at the Frood section of Stobie Mine by the end of the year. The 85 employees affected will be transferred to other operations.

“No employees will be laid off as a result of this decision,” said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson. “While this move will affect approximately 85 employees, those employees working at Frood will be deployed to other areas of the operation, and all commitments under our collective agreements will be honoured.”

Robson said the move was a hard business decision that had to be made in difficult times. “Current market volatility, declining metal prices and falling demand for our products requires decisive action to ensure our business in Sudbury remains sustainable and robust throughout this challenging economic cycle,” she said. “Frood has a rich history and has been integral to our success for more than a century.

“However, after more than 100 years of operations, Frood is a remnant area that has low value ore and declining grades. In (times of ) lower metal prices, we are actually mining at a loss. At the same time, the area requires high capital investments in order to sustain production, so while the grades are going down, our mining costs there are increasing.

[Sudbury] LU president back for second term – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – October 19, 2012)

October 19, 2012

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

Despite opposition from professors, Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux received unanimous support from the school’s board of governors for a second term that will extend to June 30, 2019.

The board endorsed the unanimous recommendation of the Presidential Review Committee to renew his term as the school’s president and vice-chancellor.

“The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive about the university’s accomplishments and progress since Dominic Giroux joined us,” Floyd Laughren, chair of Laurentian’s board of governors, said in a release. “Our board is extremely pleased with president Giroux’s performance and we are excited by the compelling vision that has been presented for the years ahead. We are fully confident that president Giroux is the leader to make the vision a reality.”

But not everyone at the university was pleased with the decision to give Giroux a second five-year term as president. A vote from the university’s faculty, before the Presidential Review Committee’s recommendation, did not go in his favour. Giroux took that in stride, however.

[Ned Goodman] Donor hopes to create world’s best mining school – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – October 16, 2012)

May 7, 2013October 18, 2012

http://www.northernlife.ca/

LU names mining school for Ned Goodman

Ned Goodman said his goal is nothing less than to make the Goodman School of Mines the best mining school in the world.

Laurentian officially named its new mining school after the CEO of Dundee Corporation Oct. 15 after the Goodman Family Foundation made a large contribution to an endowment fund set up for the mining school.

The contribution was made with the condition that any financial commitment, present or future, remains confidential.

However, Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux said the Goodmans’ contribution, along with others, brings the university more than halfway to the endowment fund’s financial goal of $20 million.

Goodman is a geologist, securities analyst, portfolio manager and senior executive, and has invested in many mining operations.

He was the driving force of the Dundee group of financial companies, which grew under his family’s leadership from a $300 million base to a $50 billion mutual fund entity.

Sudbury must become ‘self-sustaining’ – Vale by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – October 18, 2012)

October 18, 2012

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

Vale’s Sudbury operations must become “self-sustaining,” according to a letter sent to the company’s global operations Wednesday by Peter Poppinga, CEO of Vale Canada Ltd.

What that will mean to the company’s Sudbury operations and its 4,000-plus employees will become clear by the end of the week.

“In every area that we operate, there will be conversations with employees about specific actions that can be taken at those sites,” said Cory McPhee, Vale’s vice-president of corporate affairs. “Sudbury is no different.”

McPhee said Vale needs to make changes to improve efficiencies and control costs, while facing a difficult base metals market hampered by weak prices and demand.

He said representatives from the company will be speaking with employees across its global operations, including in Sudbury, before the end of the week to go over exactly what they mean by becoming more “self-sustaining.”

Goodman makes historic donation [to Laurentain’s School of Mines] – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – October 16, 2012)

October 16, 2012

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

A substantial donation to Laurentian University’s upcoming School of Mines will help propel the school to the top of the world heap in the discipline, said Laurentian President Dominic Giroux.

On Monday the university announced that an “historical gift” from Ned Goodman, the president and CEO of the Dundee Corporation, has put the school ahead of the halfway mark to create a $20 million endowment fund for the new mining school.

“To have the Goodman name associated with Laurentian University is exceptional,” Giroux said.

Through the Dundee group of financial companies Goodman helped build a $50-billion mutual fund entity. After he was laid off by Noranda in 1960 he went on to get his MBA from the University of Toronto and eventually became an important financier of Canada’s mining industry.

To honour Goodman and his donation, the exact amount of which has not been disclosed, the new school will be officially named The Goodman School of Mines. “It’s a school that needs the investment,” Goodman said about Laurentian. “It’s in the right place and it has the right background and it should be one of the best mining schools in the world, but it’s not there yet.”

[Sudbury] ‘Pro-Cliffs’ group worried – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 2012

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

A group of concerned citizens, comprised of people who are all “pro-Cliffs,” will hold a public meeting Oct. 15 in Capreol to strike a formal committee to hold the company’s and government’s feet to the fire on the issue of environmental health and safety.

Retired mining health and safety activist Homer Seguin said half a dozen citizens, including former longtime New Democrat MPP Elie Martel, have been meeting to discuss Cliffs Natural Resources’ plan to build a ferrochrome processing plant north of Capreol.

“We’re pro-Cliffs,” said Seguin, “because the jobs are welcome. But first and foremost comes safety.” Cliffs announced in May it plans to build a $1.8-billion smelter at the former Moose Mountain Mine site to process chromite ore the Clevelandbased company will mine in the Ring of Fire.

The committee’s support will come with the condition that the plant be built and operated so as not to adversely affect the health of its employees, and the air and water in the city, said Seguin. Little is known about chromite processing, said Seguin, and that’s something at which a formalized committee would examine.