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City approves sale of lands to Goldcorp – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 23, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Timmins city council has approved selling off 30 parcels of public land for more than $872,000 to Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines to allow the company to be in a better position to move forward with the Century Project expansion.

The sale was approved Tuesday night with a purchasing bylaw that was first approved by a motion of council after an in-camera meeting held a month ago, on Tuesday. April 17, 2018.

The closed meeting was held to discuss the pending sale or purchase of lands by the city. Only the mayor and four council members were present: Joe Campbell, Mike Doody, Veronica Farrell and Walter Wawrzaszek. Following that one-hour meeting, council went into a public session to pass the resolution to authorize the sale of the land parcels. The media, which was not present that day, had not been told of the public meeting.

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Team Tahoe wins Timmins Mine Rescue Competition- by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 12, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

Team Tahoe has once again won the Timmins District Mine Rescue competition. The 2018 competition event was held at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Also competing were Kidd Operations and Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines.

The winning results were announced at the annual mine rescue dinner held Friday night.This is the second consecutive year for the Tahoe Resources crew to win the event under the leadership of team captain Adam Weagle and team coach Jim Davis.

Other team members are briefing officer Terry Roy, #2 man Sylvain Falardeau, #3 man Nicholas Schwehr, #4 man Matt Johnson, vice-captain Peter Gagné, #6 man Rick Martin, and team technician Dan Guillemette.

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Mine rescue teams rise to the challenge – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – May 11, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Cloaked in darkness, with blinking miner’s lamps, the scratchy squawk of two-way radios, the cries of injured miners and the puffy sound of air whistles is just part of drama being played out at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex this week.

Seven mine rescue teams from both the Timmins and Kirkland Lake Districts are each taking their turn in sorting out a mock disaster designed to test their skills as rescuers and first-aiders in a complex underground setting.

The Sportsplex arena floor is mapped out into different zones representing different levels of a mine where the emergency has occurred. Each team is given time to get briefed on the scenario, gather their emergency equipment, give it a field test and then proceed to the source of the emergency.

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HISTORY: Porcupine rose from ashes of 1911 fire – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – March 25, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a writer of local history.

TIMMINS – I can’t remember what romantically inclined poet first said it, but the adage was very true – the Porcupine Camp did, “like a Phoenix, rise from its ashes” after the great Porcupine fire of 1911.

For those of you unfamiliar with the event, here is the New York Times version of what happened, printed on July 13th, 1911: “Hundreds of lives were lost and millions of dollars’ worth of property was destroyed in the forest fires which swept the Porcupine mining district in Northern Ontario yesterday.

“The mines burned include the Dome, the North Dome, the Preston, the East Dome, the Vipond, the Foley O’Brien, the Philadelphia, the United Porcupine, the Eldorado Porcupine, the Hollinger, the Standard Imperial, the West Dome and the Success.

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Tahoe invests in Timmins: Grows in low-risk jurisdiction (Canadian Mining Journal – February 2018)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Timmins, Ont.-based junior Lake Shore Gold was acquired by Tahoe Resources in 2016 in a friendly, all-stock deal valued at close to $1 billion.

For Tahoe, which already had mines in Guatemala and Peru, the merger brought new gold production, exposure to a low-risk jurisdiction in an established gold camp, and diversification.

“The combination with Lake Shore Gold enhances Tahoe’s position as the new leader in precious metals by adding another low-cost operation in Timmins, one of the most prolific gold camps in the world,” said Tahoe CEO Kevin McArthur at the time. “We are impressed by the long-term presence and see tremendous regional opportunities going forward.”

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City confident in community’s support for Noront bid – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – March 8, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – While some opposition has emerged in other communities to the proposal by Noront Resources Inc. to create a new chromite ore processing facility in Northern Ontario, Timmins Mayor Steve Black is confident about the solid support from this city.

Noront, a junior mining exploration company, is the leading player in the Ring of Fire mining development and is looking at possible future sites for a chromite refinery in Northern Ontario.

Timmins is one of four Northern Ontario cities that have responded to a call for proposals from Noront. Other cities include Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. All the bids were submitted in February and are currently being reviewed.

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Tahoe suffers $18m Q4 loss as Escobal shutdown saga drags on – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – February 24, 2018)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Precious metals producer Tahoe Resources has recorded an $18-million loss for the fourth quarter ended December 31, as its flagship Escobal silver mine, in Guatemala, lingers on care and maintenance.

The TSX- and NYSE-listed miner reported an adjusted comparative loss of $17.7-million, or $0.06 a share, for the period, contrasting against headline earnings of $18.4-million, or $0.06 a share, in the same period of 2017. This was well below average analyst estimates, calling for nil cents a share.

The company talked up the rising importance of its gold portfolio, as Escobal – the world’s third largest silver producer – remains closed because of a mining licence dispute. The net loss for the period came to $18-million, or $0.06 a share, compared with profit of $300 000, or nil per share, in the same period of 2016.

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Noah Timmins: The Grand Old Man of Canadian mining (Quebec Heritage News – November 2004)


(L to R) Noranda CEO James Murdoch and Hollinger Mines CEO Noah Timmins – 1932.

http://qahn.org/quebec-heritage-news

The Timmins family was among the many Montreal families who chose to holiday in Ste. Agathe in the early part of the 20th Century. Henry and Noah Timmins, two inseparable brothers who had married two sisters, purchased a part of the farm of Adolphe Marier in 1915, on what was then called Chemin du Roi, but is now Tour du Lac.

They were a wealthy mining family whose influence extended to mining regions all over the world, but they had not always been in mining. They had started their lives in the simple northern town of Mattawa, Ontario, in the early 1860s.

Henry and Noah Timmins had inherited a general store in Mattawa from their parents. The community at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers, was predominantly French-speaking and Catholic, and the Timmins family lived in both languages.

Their sister, Josephine, had gone to school at the convent of Ste. Anne in Lachine, where she befriended the daughters of Louis Paré, the lockkeeper of the Lachine Canal. By 1878, she had married his son, Dr. Louis Paré, and introduced his sisters to her brothers, leading to the binding of the families through three marriages.

Their mining careers began in September, 1903 when a blacksmith named Fred Larose dropped in to their general store on his way home to Hull.

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[Timmins Cote Lake project] IAMGOLD set for restart – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – February 14, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Timmins, Gogama, Mattagami First Nation and Sudbury are all expected to benefit from the creation of the North’s newest gold mine, the IAMGOLD Corporation Cȏté Lake project.

The property is located 27 kilometres south of Gogama and 132 kilometres south of Timmins. The company revealed Tuesday that ground-clearing is expected to happen there by this time next winter.

The construction phase could create as many as 1,200 jobs over two years with the operational phase having 400 to 500 jobs. It’s a brighter story now than it was back in August 2015 when IAMGOLD revealed it was temporarily suspending the project and laying off workers, going from 33 permanent employees down to two.

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Timmins team making final pitch to Noront – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – January 31, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Team Timmins is in Toronto today hoping to bring good news the top executives of Noront Resources Ltd., the Canadian mining company that has the biggest claim in the Ring of Fire mining development.

Timmins is among four Northern Ontario communities that have responded to an official invitation from Noront on why their communities would be the best to host a new ferrochrome processing facility.

Along with Timmins, the cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Thunder Bay are responding to the same bid. Mayor Steve Black, also a mining engineer, who is part of the Timmins team, said he believes this city’s bid has advantages.

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TIMMINS HISTORY: What’s in a name? – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – January 28, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Am I dating myself if I ask the following – do you remember some of the old K-Tel commercials that were featured about every five seconds on television in the 1970s?

And yes, they were repeated at a high rate because I still remember some of the commentary “Octavian! Edward Bear! April Wine!” followed by a list of hits that you just had to own (I don’t know why those three bands have remained embedded in my brain, but there it is).

The records were a success and an easy way for kids to buy music – albums were $4.99, tapes $5.99 (pricey for the time, but oh so worth it if you were a young person collecting hit music). I admit it – I still have a few of those gaudy albums – and if you are feeling nostalgic, a lot of those early ads are on YouTube (pretty dated but fun to watch – the production values are worth the search alone).

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2017 a record year for Tahoe gold production – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – January 19, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Tahoe Resources Inc. is reporting record gold production for 2017 and the local mining operations at Bell Creek and Timmins West have made a significant contribution to that.

Tahoe this week reported 2017 gold production of 445,000 ounces, “achieving the high end of its annual gold production guidance range of 400,000 to 450,000 ounces, which was revised upward in September 2017,” said the company in a news release.

While most of the company’s gold production came from the La Arena mine in Peru, with 196,000 ounces in 2017, Timmins was close behind with 167,000 ounces of gold. The company’s third gold mining venue, the Shahuindo Mine, also in Peru, was third in production with 79,000 ounces.

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McEwan gearing up for ‘aggressive exploration’ – by Staff (Timmins Daily Press – January 20, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

BLACK RIVER-MATHESON – McEwan Mining Inc. is about to embark on an aggressive exploration program for its recently acquired Black Fox property, formerly Primero Mining Corp. near Matheson.

McEwan completed the purchase of the Primero property in October in a $35-million deal. In a news release issued Wednesday, McEwan Mining said the acquisition and exploration program is aimed at increasing gold production and expanding the company’s resource base.

“A $10 million property-wide exploration program that will include approximately 330,000 feet (100,000 metres) of drilling is underway. The main objectives are to test for extensions of existing resources, follow-up on significant drill results, and to investigate new exploration targets,” said the release.

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The Dome School of Mines – by Kelsey Rolfe (CIM Magazine – December 20, 2017)

http://magazine.cim.org/

The mine near Timmins, Ontario has been a fixture on the Canadian mining scene for over a century. At the end of December miners there will work their last shift

The Hocevar family has worked at the Dome mine in the famous Timmins-Porcupine gold camp for nearly 70 years. Joseph joined up after emigrating from Slovenia in 1949, working as an underground miner, and was followed by his sons Edward, a maintenance supervisor, in 1981 and Bill, a mining engineer, in 1984. Edward will be the last Hocevar to work at Dome, which will close its doors and tunnels on Dec. 31.

The Hocevars are just one of many mining families that have long and deep ties to Dome. “There are families that have had multiple generations working at the mine from when it first opened,” said Bill Hocevar, who left Dome in 1992 and is now a business development superintendent at Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations.

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Timmins’ criminal past with gold headed for TV – by Emma Meldrum (Timmins Daily Press – January 15, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Timmins’ criminal history with gold is on its way towards being featured in a two-part TV mini-series. Author Kevin Vincent announced last week that a television network – which won’t be named until the “docu-drama” is ready to air – has picked up the project, based on his books: Bootleg Gold, volumes one and two.

Vincent has come a long way since moving to Timmins 34 years ago, when he “wouldn’t know a gold mine if I tripped into one.” Today is a completely different story.

“There are literally thousands of stories that I’ve captured,” he said. “I have 17,000 pages of research. I’ve done dozens and dozens of hours of on-camera interviews with people that have been a part of that world. I have audio interviews with people I’ve interviewed that date back far into the 1930s. Notwithstanding that, even though I have the largest collection of these stories, it’s still a fraction of what’s out there.”

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