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Kidd Mine, Minister Gravelle announce legacy fund – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – May 5, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Kidd Operations is looking to maintain its practice of supporting local non-profit organizations beyond the year 2021, when their mining operations in Timmins are set to come to an end.

On Monday, the mining company announced that it and the Ontario Trillium Foundation will spend $500,000 each over the next six years to create a $1-million “legacy” endowment fund. After the mine is closed, the fund will be managed by the foundation and will be distributed as grants by a volunteer board.

According to Kidd Operations’ general manager, Tom Semadeni, the deal to create the new fund with the government-run foundation was two years in the making.

“We realized that Kidd has had a very significant involvement in the community, and we’re aware that when we leave there will be a potential void. So we want to provide a lasting legacy, where we could still provide support to the community,” said Semadeni. “We worked together with the Trillium Foundation on what would be a reasonable sized endowment that could be managed going forward.

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The search for gold: Lake Shore sees sparkle in the Gap – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – April 29, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

CEO Tony Makuch kicks off Modern Mining and Technology Week in Sudbury

Timmins-based Lake Shore Gold has come a long way since a rough patch in 2012 and 2013 when a lot of investors thought the gold producer could go bankrupt.

The company’s first quarter of 2015 was its best ever, with a record production of 53,000 ounces of gold, which represented a 19-per-cent increase over the same period in 2014.

Tony Makuch, the president and CEO of Lake Shore Gold, kicked off Modern Mining and Technology Week in Sudbury on April 24 with a keynote about the company’s trials, tribulations and more recent successes.

“No one thought there was any value in these deposits,” Makuch said, referring to the company’s two Timmins mines, Bell Creek and Timmins West.

“You have to believe in the mining industry, and that gold will be discovered,” he added. “I didn’t know what we would find there in Timmins.”

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Hollinger open pit taking shape – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – April 4, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Goldcorp has asked for, and has received permission, from Timmins city hall to extend the deadline for the Subsequent Land Use Plan — that’s the land reclamation plan on what will be created to replace the Hollinger open pit, once the mining has ended. City council recently approved the request, to allow Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) push the deadline back from March 31, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2015.

This also means that the deadline for the final plan is being pushed back to the end of 2017. This is the second time the company has asked for an extension. Originally, the plan was to have been submitted by Nov. 11, 2014. Last fall, Goldcorp requested the first deadline extension to have a plan submitted March 31, 2015.

PGM was back at the council table just a couple of weeks ago to explain that things were not going along as quickly as anticipated. PGM general mines manager Brendan Zuidema told council the company has faced some delays and challenges.

“We have experienced several unexpected delays since signing the original agreement on Nov. 12, 2012, along with many other operational challenges caused by the worst weather we have experienced in many years,” said Zuidema. “Last year and this year, it has been pretty tough in the pit.

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Primero targets 2018 start-up for Grey Fox Mine – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – March 14, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

BLACK RIVER-MATHESON – Primero Mining Corporation is aiming to have a new open pit mine in operation by 2018. Ernest Mast, the newly appointed president and chief operating officer, said they plan to begin construction on the Grey Fox open pit next year.

Primero currently operates the Black Fox Mine Black River-Matheson which has both an underground and open pit operation. “That open pit operation will cease later this year,” said Mast, who was appointed president last month. “We will see a decrease in employment from that but then when Grey Fox opens, it is just going to take up that personnel.”

Based solely on confirmed reserves, the Black Fox underground mine may have just another four years of operation. However, Mast said there is considerable evidence to suggest Black Fox will enjoy a considerably longer lifespan. The Grey Fox property is located about three kilometres south of Black Fox Mine.

Both mines are on the geological Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone which extends from Val d’Or to to the west of Timmins.

“Obviously numerous mines are on that trend,” said Mast. “One of the characteristics of the mines on this trend is that most go down to 1,200 to 1,400 metres, and right now we’re only at 520 metres and our drilling at around the 650 metre level has given us the best intercepts (drill results) in the history of the mine and those were recently announced.

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HISTORY: A look back at the Hollinger Mine – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – March 14, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

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

TIMMINS – If you live in Timmins (or you’ve just driven through), you’ve passed by this complex, for lack of a better word, many, many times. It is a local landmark, a symbol of the Porcupine then and now. It is a monument to the thousands of miners and their families who have called this community home; indirectly, it has helped countless others set up businesses and make a home in this community. Its contribution to the social fabric of Timmins cannot be diminished – the people involved saw fit to start a hospital, a school, a train station, hotels, homes, sports facilities and clubs. The history of Timmins, like it or not, is intimately attached to the Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines – even today.

The Daily Press published a brilliant supplement to their paper in July 1960, that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Hollinger Gold Mine. As part of that celebration, Jules Timmins, president and chairman of the company (at 72 years young), was called upon to pour the 18,490th gold bullion bar, marking the Hollinger’s total production (to that date – July 22, to be exact) at a half-billion dollars, the largest output record of its kind in Canada. At that time, the Hollinger was the largest gold mine in Timmins and the second largest in Canada (it had just been surpassed by Kerr-Addison, in annual production).

A.F. Brigham, a former mine manager, predicted, back in the early 1920s, that the Hollinger would achieve this milestone by the end of the century. He did not count on the addition of the Schumacher property, which raised the reserves at the mine from 4 million tons (give or take) to a very healthy 6.3 million tons – allowing for the aforementioned feat to be achieved in half the time.

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Lake Shore’s potential new ore – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

We take a look at what’s driving reserve and resource growth at Lake Shore Gold.

Lake Shore Gold, an Ontario miner, issued a good gold reserve update on Thursday: by key analyst measures it beat expectations. The headline was 29% reserve growth, after depletion.

It was impressive, albeit growth on top of already short-lived reserves. Lake Shore has only about five years of minelife, though, it must be said, it has pushed that minelife out consistently with reserve additions over the years. The grade dropped, slightly, in its reserve update, but ounces grew: to 773,000 ounces gold @ 4.4 g/t Au from 598,000 @ 4.6 g/t Au.

For it, on a day that the spot price of gold was bouncing off $1,150/oz, Lake Shore did well in trading, gaining as much as 1.2% during the day.

But if the reserve growth surprised, a little, the real meat is yet to come. Much more interesting still, at this point, is what Lake Shore can bring in its relatively new 144 Gap discovery, 500 metres from its mining operations at Thunder Creek.

In drilling 144 Gap this and last year, Lake Shore caught some attention and for good reason: The hits have been high grade and broad. Late last year Lake Shore reported as much as 7.18 g/t Au over 24 metres among a number of other strong hits. More recently it has highlighted as much as 5.36 g/t Au over 47 metres. The intercepts have put the discovery at the forefront of Lake Shore’s drilling plans.

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Kidd tries deep mine drilling to extend life – by Ron Grech (Daily Press – March 10, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – With Kidd Mine set to wind down by 2021, the company has been testing some long-held theories about the configuration of the ore body in hopes of extending the mine life.

“We drilled a 1.4 kilometre horizontal hole from 7,900 feet below surface,” said Tom Semadeni, general manager of Kidd Operations. They drilled two holes at the level, and to Semadeni’s knowledge, those were the “longest holes at these depths in the world.”

Semadeni, who provided Timmins city council with an update of its operations this week, said they conducted the drilling to test a theory which “has been around for many years, that the Kidd ore body goes way down and then at some point might curl back up again. We don’t see it at surface, we don’t see it part-way down from surface but we thought we would put in some wildcat holes at depth to test the theory.”

Zinc and copper are the key minerals extracted from the Kidd Mine, though the operation does produce a fair share of silver as well.

“We didn’t hit any significant mineralization but we did run some geophysical instruments and geochemical analysis down through the hole, and we’re analyzing that now,” said Semadeni. “We didn’t find the next motherlode but we will do some more analysis and if it makes sense, we’ll drill another hole.

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Laughren, as new chair, sees great opportunities for ONTC – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – March 4, 2015)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Former Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren sees a great opportunity for Ontario Northland to make better use of its assets and to generate more revenues and attract more clients.

Laughren, it was announced last week, has been nominated for appointment as chairman of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission rail and bus service.

Laughren’s nomination, as well as the nomination of board members Steven Carmichael, Ewen Cornick, Gaeten Malette and Ila Watson, is subject to the approval of the standing committee on government agencies. “I think we’re going to go in with the goal to create an entity that is sustainable,” he said. “New direction, new customers, new clients, that’s been one of the downfalls of Ontario Northland, especially on the rail side.

“We’ve just watched Resolute (the paper mill in Iroquois Falls) close. I’m sure Resolute would have been a huge user of Ontario Northland. We’ve seen the changes at the Kidd Metallurgical site (with the Hoyle smelter closing). So we all know the importance of rail but we also have to look at new opportunities and future opportunities.”

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Dome still has ‘lots of life’ – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – February 13, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Goldcorp’s Dome Mine is the longest continuously operating underground gold mine in North America and it looks like that is easily going to continue for a few more years yet, according to the company’s newest mine general manager

“I think the Dome Mine has still got lots of life left in it,” said Brendan Zuidema, the newly appointed manager of Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM). He was the keynote speaker to the Timmins Chamber of Commerce “Inside Business” luncheon held Thursday.

Zuidema said a lot of the attention in recent months has been directed at the new Hollinger open pit, which observed the first anniversary of its first production blast just two days ago on Wednesday. Zuidema said there are other PGM operations that are just as important in sustaining the company and its 1,100 jobs in Timmins.

“We’ve got right now in reserves five years left at the Dome Mine, for underground,” said Zuidema. “I am not sure what we have in the open pit. The open pit is not done. The Dome Mine is one of those mines that keeps on giving and giving.”

As an example, Zuidema described a bulk stope (a large underground excavation) at the mine that was expected to provide about 400,000 tonnes of muck. He said it produced nearly double at 800,000 tonnes. “We called it the magic stope. The ore just kept coming,” he said.

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70th anniversary of Paymaster mining disaster – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – January 28, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Who knew what Hector Poitras was thinking that cold February morning in 1945, when he stepped onto the cage at the Paymaster No. 5 shaft getting ready to ride down into the mine with his co-workers?

It was a Friday. Maybe he was going to a dance that night, or maybe to see a hockey game at The Mac or the South Porcupine Arena. For whatever reason, Poitras didn’t have his mind completely on the job.

Poitras was a young rookie miner. That’s probably why another miner, an older fellow, gave him a friendly nudge and asked him why he didn’t have his cap lamp with him. Poitras had to get off the cage and head for the lamp room, thus missing his ride underground and possibly facing a bucket load of you-know-what from the shift boss.

That mistake would save his life. The cage had begun its descent into the depths of the mine. Eight men were on the upper deck. Eight were on the lower deck.

The incident itself took only seconds, at about 7:55 that morning. The cage was moving at a normal speed of about 1,200 feet per minute when the rope broke, said the Ministry of Mines report. There was no evidence to the rope being jerked or kinked, said the report.

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Lake Shore exceeds its gold production targets – by Staff (Timmins Daily Press – January 13, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Lake Shore Gold in Timmins reports that gold production in 2014 exceeded the yearly target by a significant amount.

The company said it had set a target range of 160,000 to 180,000 ounces of gold for 2014. As it turned out, 186,500 ounces of gold were poured in during 2014, the company said in a news release. Company president Tony Makuch said a similar production target is being set for 2015.

The company said its Bell Creek mill processed 1,245,900 tonnes of ore, at an average grade of 4.8 grams per tonne. The ore was from the LSG Timmins West mining complex and the Bell Creek Mine. Of the 186,500 ounces of gold poured last year, the company reported gold sales of 183,300 ounces at an average selling price of US$1,269 per ounce (CDN $1,398 per ounce).

Production in the fourth quarter of 2014 totalled 43,200 ounces, which resulted from processing 331,400 tonnes at an average grade of 4.2 grams per tonne. The company poured 42,400 ounces during that fourth quarter, while gold sales totalled 41,200 ounces at an average selling price of US$1,200 per ounce ($1,360 per ounce).

LSG has also reported significant improvement in debt repayments as the company strives to improve its financial position, said the release.

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$4-million investment in golden property – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – December 3, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Another junior mining company is betting it has found a viable gold property in the city with a heart of gold. Gowest Gold Ltd., a firm with solid roots in Timmins, is planning to fast track an exploration program for its Bradshaw gold deposit, located about 40 kilometres north of the built up area of Timmins.

The company held an open house Monday at the McIntyre Auditorium to bring shareholders, supporters and members of the public up to speed on the work the company is planning in the coming year.

One of the first things the company has planned is to prepare the Bradshaw site to remove overburden and create a water management infrastructure. The company has also planned significantly more exploration drilling, according to company president and CEO Greg Romain, a Timmins native.

He said the company is in an enviable position of having closed a $4-million financing deal with Fortune Future Holdings Limited of China, who Romain said has demonstrated significant faith in the project.

‘First of all it is one of the newest deposits, not near an existing mine, to be found what I’ve been told since Hoyle Pond was discovered 25 years ago.

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Project could create 1,000 jobs – by Jeff Labine (Timmins Daily Press – November 29, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Things are looking good for Timmins’ new talc and magnesium mine, which could create more than a thousand jobs.

William Quesnel, president and CEO of General Magnesium Corp., told The Daily Press the demand for magnesium has doubled over the past few years. Magnesium is a light weight metal and highly sought after in the auto industry. Quesnel said the auto industry is pulling out all the stops to continue to make vehicles like SUVs with the lighter material, which is good news for the company.

“The project is really moving ahead,” he said. “Things take time to do. The thing is, people who are looking at the project to purchase our material have gone above and beyond on their due diligence. Their consultants say we will be a very low cost producer in the world. When you have low costs like that you are able to create jobs that are sustainable because you can deal with the fluctuation in metal prices.

“We have three phases we’re looking at and the jobs could be over a 1,000, which I think is a fairly strong impact for Timmins.”

The Daily Press learned from a source close to the project that the lifespan of the mine could be a hundred years. The three phases will be broken up into building a talc plant, followed by a magnesium concentrator and finally a magnesium thermal reduction plant. Quesnel said that will be the real job creator because it turns the magnesite material into a metal.

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HISTORY: Timmins Pioneers preferred boozy beverages – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – November 29, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

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

TIMMINS – Now, for something just a little different. I was going to put together another collection of little items and stories from 1940, but, being the short-attention-span kinda gal I am these days, I was sidetracked by an article entitled “Some of the Beverages Used Through the Years” by that goddess of the 1940s kitchen, Edith M. Barber.

She began her informative piece with a definition of beverages (“anything in liquid form which we drink with or between meals” – how helpful), and then proceeded with a description of a variety of rather unsavory drinks from the early Canadian colonial period.

That got me thinking about some of those early drinks, seeing as how we are approaching the holiday season, and festive beverages are once again on the itinerary. I figured, how bad could these early cocktails actually be?

Turns out the answer is, actually, quite horrid. How anyone could stomach some of these concoctions is beyond me (by the way, museum staff who are coming to my place for a glass of Christmas cheer need no longer fear that it will be an 1812 themed event).

The thinking at the time (I mean in the early days of Canada, between 1763 and the mid-19th century) dictated that fermented beverages were so much safer than water.

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MPP says Ontario dragging its feet on Ring of Fire – by Jeff Labine (Timmins Daily Press – November 19, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The MPP for Timmins-James Bay is blaming the Liberal government for squandering the proposed Ring of Fire project and causing friction with mining companies.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivered his fall economic statement, saying the government is working to meet fiscal targets despite modest economic growth and later than expected revenues. He said the revenue projection for 2014-15 is $118.4 billion – $509 million lower than first forecast.

In that same report, Sousa once again called on the federal government to match the Liberal’s $1-billion investment into the Ring of Fire.

New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson said because the Liberals have dragged their feet, major companies like Cliffs Natural Resources have left the project. He said Cliffs and many other mining companies continue to voice their frustration with the government.

“They have been talking about the Ring of Fire for eight or nine years,” he said. “They have mentioned it now in two or three budgets and a couple of Throne Speeches. Now they got this fallacy going on that they are going to do something when it comes to infrastructure in the Ring of Fire but we have to wait for the feds.

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