Thompson – Page 5 – Republic of Mining

Manitoba sulphur dioxide emissions will soon be drastically reduced – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – June 14, 2013)

July 5, 2013

The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000. editor@thompsoncitizen.net

There was good news and bad news about Manitoba’s environment in the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment’s 2010-2011 progress report on the Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-200 that was released earlier this spring.

The bad news was that Manitoba was the third-largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in Canada in 2010, accounting for 14 per cent of the total, behind only Alberta t 27 per cent and Ontario at 20 per cent.

The good news was that SO2 emissions from Manitoba in 2010 were down 44 per cent from their 2008 level, to 197,000 tonnes from 350,000 tonnes, thanks in part to the closure that year of Hudbay’s copper smelter in Flin Flon, which was expected to reduce total emissions of SO2 by 185,000 tonnes per year. That was the largest relative decrease in S02 emissions in any province over the same two-year period.

And while it will not be good for the local economy, the scheduled closure of Vale’s smelter in Thompson in 2015 is expected to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted in Manitoba by another 185,000 tonnes.

Birchtree: Vale sheaths the Sword of Damocles – Editorial (Thompson Citizen – May 15, 2013)

July 5, 2013

It was one of the rare good news announcements to come from Vale, still Thompson’s most important employer, in the last 2½ years: Birchtree Mine, which opened in 1968, is “no longer scheduled to be placed on care and maintenance in August,” Lovro Paulic, vice-president for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, told employees in an internal Manitoba Operations update circulated May 6.

Still, it must be seen in perspective for what it is: good news by virtue of not being bad news. The status quo hasn’t changed and there is no net gain here. The good news is that for the time being at least there is no loss either. Still, it must be seen in perspective for what it is: good news by virtue of not being bad news. The status quo hasn’t changed and there is no net gain here. The good news is that for the time being at least there is no loss either. About 185 Vale employees work at Birchtree Mine, along with approximately 25 non-Vale contractors.

Kelly Strong, Vale’s vice-president of Ontario and UK operations since last November, told a packed luncheon last month in Sudbury that nickel prices of a little more than $7 a pound are comparable to $2.50 a pound a decade ago, and are creating huge challenges for Vale. Nickel prices were under $7 last week. Strong said several factors have substantially increased mining costs, including oil prices that have increased by 350 per cent, and the Canadian dollar, which has increased in value by 60 per cent compared to the U.S. dollar.

Chiefs stand together to demand development on their own terms – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – May 3, 2013)

July 5, 2013

ian@thompsoncitizen.net

Representatives of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) held a press conference outside the provincial governments Mines Branch and Mineral Resources Division office in Winnipeg on April 26 to announce that Manitoba First Nations are declaring moratoriums on resource development in their traditional territories and that stop work orders on mine development are being posted and will be enforced.

“We’re no longer going to be sitting back watching corporations and governments come into our traditional territories and ancestral lands and exploit our resources, leaving us nothing at the end of the day,” said AMC Grand Chief Derek Nepinak. “We’re not going to accept that. The status quo is done. For far too many generations now, provincial governments, federal governments have worked in collusion with the corporate industries to come into our territories and to take the vast wealth of our ancestral lands. Meanwhile they come back to us with contribution agreements that are wholly inadequate to provide for the basic needs of our communities and our citizens. Those days are over, those days are done and what’s happening here I think is an emergence of a new unified position. Once again our people are leading the way.”

Birchtree Mine dodges a bullet: Vale says ‘care and maintenance’ no longer scheduled for August – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – May 9, 2013)

May 13, 2013

Reprieve comes less than four months before mine faced being mothballed

Birchtree Mine, which opened in 1968, is “no longer scheduled to be placed on care and maintenance in August,” Lovro Paulic, vice-president for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, told employees in an internal Manitoba Operations update circulated Monday. The company had announced last Oct. 18 care and maintenance was being considered for Birchtree Mine in 10 months time, leaving Thompson in a state of suspended animation of sorts over the last seven months. The mine was previously on care and maintenance from 1977 to 1989. The current life of mine plan anticipates closure of Birchtree Mine at some point in the next 10 years.

Vale, which is trying to find $100 million in cost savings at its Manitoba Operations in Thompson to help bring its cost per metric tonne for finished nickel to under US$10,000, says they have achieved 90 per cent of that goal over the last eight months – a cost savings of $90 million with $10 million still to go. The reprieve for Birchtree Mine is “as a direct result of our collective efforts” to achieve that cost savings, Paulic wrote to employees.

Vale is also looking to “secure a strategic investor” to more quickly develop its 1-D Lower ore body, a project first announced almost eight years ago on Aug. 19, 2005, and studied for close to a decade before that to determine if it could be mined profitably.

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation issues second stop work order to Hudbay – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – March 8, 2013)

March 20, 2013

IAN@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (MCCN) at Pukatawagan announced March 5 that Chief Arlen Dumas would return to the Lalor Mine near Snow Lake to issue a second stop work order against Hudbay, which operates the mine. A previous stop work order from MCCN was issued to the company and the Manitoba government on Jan. 28.

“Both the province and Hudbay have failed to comply with the order and thus Chief Arlen Dumas is returning to issue a second order,” announced MCCN in a press release.

“This order is issued because: Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., Ltd. And affiliated companies have breached the traditional laws of Missinippi Nehethowak as represented by Mathias Colomb Cree Nation by constructing, operating, and extracting resources from Lalor Mine at Snow Lake without the express permission of the owners Missinippi Nehethowak as represented by Mathias Colomb Cree Nation,” read the stop work order presented on Jan. 28. “WARNING: The failure to stop work, the resumption of work without permission from the Missinippi Nehethowak as represented by Mathias Colomb Cree Nation is punishable by the laws of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.”

Vale and Hudbay: Mining under the microscope – Thompson Citizen Editorial (February 27, 2013)

March 4, 2013

The fat is in the fire, as the old saying, dating back to at least the 16th century, goes. “I’m not surrendering my sovereignty for any more beads and trinkets. When mining companies come to our communities, the beads and trinkets of the past, jobs and training, that’s over,” aboriginal rights lawyer and academic Pam Palmater told about 100 people at an Idle No More – Northern Manitoba forum, co-sponsored by Churchill riding NDP MP Niki Ashton and the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC) at the USW Local 6166 Steel Centre Feb. 16. “We’re talking about sharing management ownership of the resource that belong to both treaty partners.”

The forum also featured speeches by NDP Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Steve Ashton, and Clarence Pettersen, NDP MLA for Flin Flon. Palmater, a Mi’kmaq lawyer whose family originates from the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick, is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Palmater and Pettersen spoke of Pukatawagan Chief Arlen Dumas’ struggle with Hudbay over Lalor Mine near Snow Lake. Pettersen says while he supports Dumas and Idle No More – Northern Manitoba, he supports negotiations between Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and Hudbay over constructing, operating, and extracting resources from Lalor Mine at Snow Lake and does not support the self-styled “stop-work order” or any blockade, such as the one Jan. 28, of Lalor by Mathias Colomb Cree Nation or Idle No More – Northern Manitoba.

[Manitoba] Province has ‘significant concerns about Vale’s commitment to the Thompson mining operations’ – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – October 22, 2012)

October 22, 2012

Urgent meeting with Poppinga

The provincial government has ‘significant concerns about Vale’s commitment to the Thompson mining operations’ and says it will be meeting on an urgent basis with Vale Canada President Peter Poppinga to discuss issues relating to Thompson, Steve Ashton, Thompson’s NDP MLA and minister of infrastructure and transportation, said Oct. 22.

“Following meetings with Murilo Ferreira, the CEO of Vale in 2011, and a further meeting between the Premier (Greg Selinger) and the CEO in Brazil in May 2012 we have been engaged in discussions with Vale in relation to the fund and other issues regarding the Thompson operation,” Ashton said. “We have made it clear that the Province of Manitoba is committed to continue working for value added jobs from the nickel resource in Manitoba.

“There was progress on these discussions. However the recent announcement on Birchtree and the delay in a decision on the 1 D project has raised significant concerns about Vale’s commitment to the Thompson mining operations.

[Thompson, Manitoba] USW Local 6166 points to contracting out as a ‘contributing factor to our low productivity’ – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – October 19, 2012)

October 20, 2012

Vale’s Manitoba Operations is “one of the highest cost producers” in Canada and the United Kingdom, USW Local 6166 acknowledged Oct. 19, a day after the company said it was considering mothballing Birchtree Mine again next August. In a news release issued by the local, President Murray Nychyporuk pointed to contracting out as a “contributing factor to our low productivity” at Manitoba Operations.

While it’s not easy to say definitively how many contractors are working in Birchtree Mine because a number of contractors often work in multiple locations throughout Manitoba Operations and flow between worksites, Ryan Land, manager of corporate affairs for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, said late Friday afternoon there are about 40 contractors working at Birchtree Mine and a “little more than half are miners.”

Issues of cost and productivity are not new to the nickel miner. Productivity at Manitoba Operations from all mines for the number of pounds of nickel and copper produced in an eight-hour shift dropped from 320 pounds in 2001 and 315 pounds in 2000 to 198 pounds in October 2008, the company said on Nov. 28, 2008.

Vale wields Sword of Damocles over [Thompson, Manitoba] Birchtree Mine – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – October 19, 2012)

October 19, 2012

‘Birchtree Mine is being considered for care and maintenance, effective August 2013’

Birchtree Mine, which opened in 1968, is being “considered for care and maintenance” in 10 months time next August, Vale said Oct. 18. The mine was previously on care and maintenance from 1977 to 1989.

“Unless we are able to affect another outcome, operations will be suspended at Birchtree Mine as of August 2013. This will mean that by the end of 2012 there will be no further development of the mine and it will be gradually ramped down until August when it will be placed on standby. The mine may re-open depending on future nickel prices, market dynamics and the viability of doing so. Previously, Birchtree Mine was on standby for nearly 12 years before re-opening in 1989 and the current life of mine plan anticipated closure at some point in the next 10 years.”

The bad news was delivered in a follow-up letter to Manitoba Operations employees in Thompson to an earlier one issued Sept. 7 by Lovro Paulic, general manager of smelting and refining, Don Wood, general manager of production services and Mark Scott, general manager of mining and milling. The three most senior managers in Manitoba Operations also issued the Oct. 18 letter jointly.

Good news: Vale’s Thompson smelter and refinery may stay open a year or two beyond 2015 – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – Septmeber 7, 2012)

September 13, 2012September 8, 2012

Peter Poppinga, who less than a year ago replaced Tito Martins in Toronto as chief executive officer of Vale Canada and became executive director of base metals globally for Brazilian-based mining giant Vale, told company managers Sept. 6 “that every aspect of the base metals business is under review, including our Manitoba Operations, and we may face new challenges and new opportunities in the coming months as a result,” Lovro Paulic, general manager of smelting and refining, Don Wood, general manager of production services and Mark Scott, general manager of mining and milling, said in a jointly-issued letter from the three most senior managers in Manitoba Operations to employees here Sept. 7.

“The most pressing and immediate challenge before us is to reduce costs and increase efficiencies while continuing to strive for Zero Harm—these are complementary,” the trio said.

United Steelworkers Local 6166 President Murray Nychyporuk, elected to his second three-year term last spring, says the “news is not surprising” and the union recognizes the world nickel market has taken a serious downturn over the last year and Vale has to find a way to cut costs. Nychyporuk said the union would work with the company during the review process to protect their common interests.

Vale announces operations transition plan [for Thompson, Manitoba] – by Matt Durnan (Thompson Citizen – March 7, 2012)

March 8, 2012

Vale Manitoba Operations general manager Lovro Paulic spoke at the Thompson Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 29 to announce the company’s plans for 2012 and moving forward towards 2015.

The mining company will shut down it’s smelter and refinery operations in 2015 and, as a result are working on a transition plan to minimize layoffs as well as operate with fewer assets.

“Our goal this year is to produce 108 million pounds of nickel,” said Paulic, one of three general managers here. “We’ve already begun the process of converting to a single furnace operation. The plan was to produce 108 million pounds (of nickel) using two furnaces and five converters, but we’re going to attempt to do it using one furnace and two converters.”

Another death at Vale’s Sudbury mines – Editorial (Northern Miner – February 6-12, 2012)

February 2, 2012

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

The month of January closed out with Vale having temporarily halted all underground mining at its five nickel mines in Sudbury, Ont., following the death of a miner at the Coleman mine on Jan. 29.

Miner Stephen Perry, 47, was working on the 4,215-ft. level when he was struck by “what appears to be a displacement of material or rock from the development face in the main orebody,” commented Kelly Strong, Vale’s North Atlantic vice-president of mining and milling, in an early Jan. 30 news conference.

Perry was brought to surface where he was pronounced dead by medical personnel, said Strong, who extended his condolences to the miner’s family and friends. He had been with the company for 16 years. This is the fourth fatality in seven months at Vale’s Canadian operations, and the third death at the company’s Sudbury mines.

Republic Of Mining named to ‘Top 10 Mining Blogs’ list by Australian guide – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – November 1, 2011)

November 2, 2011

Mining IQ, a Sydney, Australia-based mining guide and international learning and communications portal, which is a division of International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC), has named Republic Of Mining (http://republicofmining.com) to its list of “Top 10 Mining Blogs,” one of only two Canadian sites to be included.

In 1973, the publishers of Industry Week magazine co-founded a company called Penton Learning Systems, which managed a consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities and assisted in the design and development of over 30,000 short courses and seminars in the fields of quality management, project management, finance and accounting, marketing management, strategic planning and implementation. IQPC was founded in 1989 and is still owned by Penton Learning Systems of Little Falls, New Jersey.

Republic of Mining is published by Stan Sudol, a Toronto-based journalist, communications consultant, mining strategist and speechwriter. Sudol picks up Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News mining stories, editorials and photos, with our permission, from time to time, usually about Vale’s Manitoba Operations.

Truth time on Thompson, Manitoba smelter and refinery – Editorial (Thompson Citizen – October 26, 2011)

October 28, 2011

It’s time for all the parties or stakeholders to tell the truth about Vale’s plan, announced almost a year ago, to close the Thompson refinery and smelter in 2015. And the truth is the smelter and refinery is closing. Vale has been consistent in their position on this since the day they made the bombshell announcement last Nov. 17.

You don’t have to like that piece of bad news delivered by Tito Martins, chief executive officer of Vale Canada in Toronto and executive director of base metals for the Brazilian parent company, or for that matter you don’t have to like Martins’ direct style or Martins’ himself even. That’s OK.

But you have to give credit where credit is due and Tito Martins has been nothing but a straight shooter on the company’s position on closing the smelter and refinery. He’s told people involved privately what he’s said publicly. And just in case anyone didn’t get the message Nov. 17, 2010 he reiterated it in person Jan. 26 at the Juniper Centre at the Thompson Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting.

Thompson, Manitoba Vale Steelworkers ratify three-year agreement – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – September 16, 2011)

September 16, 2011

The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000. ian@thompsoncitizen.net

USW Local 6166 members voted 87.8 per cent in favour of accepting an offer of settlement from Vale’s Manitoba Operations for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement Sept. 15.

“We are very pleased to have ratified a new agreement that is fair to employees and promotes our sustainability in Thompson,” said Lovro Paulic, general manager of Vale’s Manitoba Operations in a press release the night of the ratification vote. “We are proud of our positive working relationship with the union and its members. This is a good day for Thompson.”

The offer was presented Sept. 12 to the USW negotiating team, which unanimously recommended it upon presenting it to union members later that day.

“This is a positive outcome that was made possible by respecting the process,” said Murray Nychyporuk, USW Local 6166 president, in the Vale press release. “We are glad that there was such strong turnout by our members.”