Twitter

Timmins

Tory MPPs probe the North [Timmins] – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – August 10, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Two members of the provincial Tory caucus left Timmins with a better understanding of the issues impacting Northern Ontario.

Progressive Conservative MPPs Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka) and Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock) were in Timmins Friday on a fact-finding tour. The two politicians met with Mayor Tom Laughren, municipal and business leaders, toured Goldcorp’s operations and visited with local Ministry of Natural Resources staff. Miller is the Tory critic for Northern Development and Mines, while Scott is the critic for the MNR.

The duo also visited The Daily Press, where they discussed pressing issues for the North in an editorial board meeting.
Many Northerners feel they have lost their voice in Queen’s Park, as only 11 of 107 seats are based in Northern Ontario. While he doesn’t expect the region to ever gain more seats, Miller said it is the responsibility of government to consider the impact all legislation has on the North.

Read more

[Timmins] Xstrata Copper seeks cost-saving suggestions [at Kidd Creek Mine] – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – August 2012)

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.

Timmins 100th anniversary special

At Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Creek Mine in Timmins, employee suggestions for improvement have helped increase the life of the mine. Its 2020 Vision initiative focused on engaging employees in an effort to realize cost savings that might further extend operations.
 
About 25 per cent of its workforce was interviewed by colleagues and the resulting 1,800 ideas are being put to good use. “We consolidated and grouped the ideas and the good news was that a lot of the ideas were things we had already started to do and people didn’t know about yet, so we were on the right track,” said mine manager Tom Semadeni.
 
“These ideas validated where we were going.” When the Kidd Metallurgical site closed in late 2010, only some concentrator employees were left. “We realized we needed to help all the employees understand they were part of a new organization because the dynamic was that we had the mine here and the met site concentrator some distance away,” he said.

Read more

The story of mining prospector Don McKinnon: SPECIAL TO THE TIMES – (Timmins Times – August 12, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

A close-up and personal look at a Timmins man who changed our mining history

ED’S NOTE: Following is a story on the life on Don McKinnon presented by a close friend of McKinnon and his family. McKinnon died Thursday.

The Canadian mining fraternity has lost one of the most successful prospectors from its ranks with the passing of Donald Duncan McKinnon. Just eight days before his 83rd birthday, Don passed away peacefully Aug. 9 at the Timmins and District Hospital surrounded by family and loved ones.

Born and raised in the Town of Cochrane, McKinnon had made his home in Timmins since 1956. The man with the heart of gold always loved the city with the heart of gold. This was his base as he prospected all over Canada from the High Arctic to the Maritimes and British Columbia. As well as in the United States.

He was much more than a prospector, however, as his interests ranged from municipal and provincial politics to the economy of Northern Ontario and the need to preserve the region’s special way of life.

Read more

Mining legend Don McKinnon dies – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – August 11, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The mining world is mourning the loss of an icon and Timmins has lost a dear friend. Famed prospector Don McKinnon died Thursday at Timmins and District Hospital, surrounded by his family. He was 83.
 
McKinnon earned success and fame with the majority of his vast knowledge being self-taught. Despite dropping out of high school, McKinnon set a goal of becoming a millionaire by age 40. He went on to become one of the most successful prospectors in the history of The Porcupine Camp.
 
Born in Cochrane in 1929, McKinnon enjoyed playing hockey as a youth, often with his childhood friend Tim Horton. But McKinnon also had a talent for art and acting. After dropping out of high school, he found work in construction in Iroquois Falls.
 
As a forest superintendent for paper-producing company Kimberly-Clark, he started studying rocks while in the bush. That’s when he took an interest in prospecting. He would spend hours studying geological reports and surveys, always watchful for promising claims, before heading out into the bush.

Read more

North [Ontario] being ravaged to buy Southern Ontario votes – by Robert Lillie (Timmins Daily Press – August 10, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The true nature of McGimpy, his gimp advisors and the political action committees enslaving them in this matter of selling the ONTC is clear.
 
On top of their insane, devastating mismanagement of the lumber industry, their disastrous electricity rates, unscientific submission to mindless animal protection groups (not true conservationists) in cancelling the Spring Bear Hunt (a PC misstep they haven’t corrected) and the protection of woodland caribou in areas my father and grandfather, experienced hunters, knew have not existed in for more than 60 years, this Liberal nature is clearest when we focus on the fact that the freight service is included in the package sale.
 
If they can’t make even the freight service pay, who can, without increasing fees to the detriment of the resource economy in the North and the entire province? The lions ‘s share of all natural resources resides in the North. Police and espionage novels, TV shows and films all say in solving crimes, “Follow the money.” A better, more inclusive and precise mantra is “Follow the benefit.”
 
I’m fine with calling the ONTC a subsidy, if our current political masters are too dumb, lazy, corrupt or truly unable to make it pay, as long as the $3 billion going to Toronto’s public transportation system is also acknowledged as a subsidy. To get important things done, your tax dollars are working to the overall public and economic benefit.

Read more

Xstrata extends life of Kidd Mine – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – August 8, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Xstrata Copper has added another three more years of mine life to its Kidd Operation. The mine was targeted to close by 2017. However, Carole Belanger, communications and community relations co-ordinator for the Kidd Operations, said they are now looking at continuing until 2020.
 
The mine has been able to achieve this by making better use of the “sub-economic” mineralized rock, which it has a vast amount of.
 
Belanger said the good news was shared with staff very recently. In the meantime, there has been a hike in activity at the Xstrata metallurgical site despite the fact the smelter there has been shut down since May 2010. Belanger said the company has invested $40 million in a two-phase reclamation project, which is currently underway at the site.
 
The first phase, which began February 2011 and has since been completed, saw the demolition and removal of 36 buildings or structures that were connected with the smelter operation.

Read more

Excerpt from Bootleg Gold – by Kevin Vincent

To order Bootleg Gold Volume One, please click here: www.bootleggold.net

Introduction

“Is my Dad in your book? You didn’t mention my grandfather by any chance did ya’? Is ‘you-know-who’ in the book?” As a writer, if you live in a gold mining town, and it becomes common knowledge that you’re writing a book about highgrading, which is basically the theft of gold from a mine, as well as long-forgotten gold robberies, almost everyone will approach you with a story to share.

Timmins, Ontario is such a town. There are others, such as Sidney, Nevada, Dawson Creek, Yukon, and Forbes, Australia. The same stories are heard in hundreds of towns and villages across Africa, dozens of communities in California, Colorado, Alaska, Québec and even the state of Idaho where the first thing that leaps to mind is potatoes, not gold.

Curiously, everyone wants to see their family name in print – not their own name, they’d prefer to see their uncle’s name or their great-grandfather’s name. It’s an unofficial badge of honour – one where “sticking it to the man” – in this case, multinational gold mines – was justified, and almost bordered, somehow on righteous.

None of these many people who approach the writer were ever personally involved in high-grading, of course, but they happen to know someone who, (wink wink, nudge nudge) just might have been “involved.”

Read more

The heart of Timmins cast in bronze [Hollinger, McIntryre and Wilson]- by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – August 7, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

As the canvas wraps were pulled from the statuesque figures mounted on marble plinths on Saturday, the sun glinted gold on the bronzed faces of the three men whose triumph laid the foundation for the Timmins we know today.
 
Benny Hollinger, Sandy McIntyre and John “Jack” Wilson are three names that every Timmins resident knows, they are genesis, and finally, 100 years after their discoveries, they stand large as life in front of the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre.
 
“This is a very, very important event when you think about 100 years of Timmins and the next 100 years of Timmins,” said city Mayor Tom Laughren. “Back in 1908, when these gentlemen came here, what was here in Timmins?”
 
The group of onlookers, comprised of interested residents and members of the Wilson and McIntyre (Oliphant) families, took a moment to ponder the mayor’s question. “I have pictures in my office of this city in the 1920s and ’30s,” he said.

Read more

Stories about people stealing gold in Timmins … New book Bootleg Gold – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – August 1, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Copies of the book can be ordered online at: www.bootleggold.net.

Local author releases new book on high-grading.

For the City of Timmins having been around 100 years, there has to be a thousand stories about high-grading in this city. High-grading, also simply known as stealing gold from the mines, has been going on in Timmins since the day the big mines opened.

It’s no wonder that a local writer has finally made an effort to do some reputable research on the topic and come up with a few of those stories.

Kevin Vincent has authored Volume One of Bootleg Gold, a close look at the impact of high-grading on the gold mining industry here in Timmins, Ontario, — one of the world’s foremost gold mining camps. He has been working on the story and gathering research for 25 years. Vincent has done his homework, starting with exclusive interviews with the late Gregory Evans, the venerable Timmins lawyer who went on to become chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ontario.

Read more

Legal fight tarnishing gold firm – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 26, 2012)

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The president of Solid Gold Resources blames the ongoing conflict with Wahgoshig First Nation and the provincial government for his company’s plummeting stock values.
 
“It has completely destroyed it,” said Darryl Stretch. “It’s at three cents, which values my company at less than what it costs to put a shelf together these days. “When we came out with our IPO (initial public offering), it was at 25 cents… For the stock price to be at three cents is unreasonable and outrageous.”
 
Solid Gold holds claims within a 200-square-kilometre area outside the boundary of the Wahgoshig reserve. In January, the First Nation succeeded in having an injunction imposed against the exploration company to stop drilling in that area.
 
In February, Solid Gold filed a Leave to Appeal on the basis that “any consultation and accommodation required should have been completed (with Wahgoshig) by the Crown long before mineral claims were granted to Solid Gold,” said Stretch.

Read more

Timmins plans for the future – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – July 2012)

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.

Timmins 100th anniversary special

While Timmins marks its 100th anniversary this year and celebrates its past, its future is being guided by current needs and challenges. In 2011, a strategic plan – Timmins 2020 – was conceived to provide long-term direction for the city’s economic and community development.
 
“From a timing perspective, it originally started because it related to the loss of Xstrata (Copper’s Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site),” said Mayor Tom Laughren. “We really need to diversify and this plan will give us a bit of a template as we move forward planning for the next 100 years.”
 
The Met site’s closure in 2010 resulted in the loss of more than 600 jobs. “One time in Timmins we had both mining and forestry and that was good since when one was down, the other was up. But forestry has been down for a long time,” he said.

Read more

North must call out McGuinty on ONTC – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 10, 2012)

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

MPP says grassroots uprising only way to save Ontario Northland

If Northerners want to prevent the sale of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, they need to make their voices heard at Queen’s Park. That was the key message conveyed by local politicians to a crowd of about 70 people who attended a public meeting held at Centennial Hall in Timmins Monday night.

Residents were urged to express their opposition to the sale of the ONTC by phoning or sending letters or emails to Premier Dalton McGuinty and Northern Development Minister Rick Bartolucci.

Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren said the only way they were going to be successful was through a “grassroots movement” in which the “people bring the fight to Queen’s Park.”

MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) said if the McGuinty government “starts to sense there is a groundswell, that’s when they will start to respond… All I know is, if we don’t try, they’re just going to go ahead and do it.”

Read more

‘Plenty of wealth to share’ in Ring of Fire [PC leader Hudak visits mining camp] – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 26, 2012)

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Ontario PC leader tours James Bay lowlands

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak believes everybody with an interest in the Ring of Fire needs to keep their eyes on the prize. Hudak spent Monday touring the Noront Resources mining facility operating within the Ring of Fire.

His visit comes just days after First Nation leaders threatened to halt mining operations in the region by presenting an “eviction notice” to companies that have staked claims.

“There is going to be plenty of wealth to share,” Hudak told The Daily Press. “I think if we can align all our incentives towards job creation and new investment, that will probably make the biggest difference ever when it comes to addressing the poverty that afflicts so many of our First Nations, particularly in remote areas.

“This is a once-in-a-century economic development opportunity. It’s breaking a new frontier in job creation and investment in Northern Ontario. It has the possibility of surpassing the Sudbury basin and the Porcupine Gold Camp for mineral potential. We’re talking about over a hundred-billion dollars in value. So we need to move forward.”

Read more

Timmins working to attract New Brunswick mine workers to the city – by TEDC News Release/The Timmins Times (June 22, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) travels to Bathurst, NB where mine is closing next year

Timmins is heading to the east coast of Canada to see if it can find more skilled mine workers to come to the City With a Heart of Gold.

Cheryl St-Amour, from the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC), has travelled to Bathurst New Brunswick with representatives of Xstrata Copper Kidd Operations to promote the City of Timmins, and specifically, www.jobsintimmins.com said a news release from TEDC. Cheryl St-Amour noted that the “jobsintimmins” website has now become a central source of information on available employment opportunities in the City of Timmins, said the release.

Bathurst is home to the Brunswick Mine, an Xstrata Zinc operation. In March 2012, the company announced that Brunswick Mine would close in 2013 after almost half a century of mining activity. More than 800 people will be seeking to use their skills at other projects. These employees consist of a variety of skilled and unskilled workers, equipment operators, professionals and other mining related positions, said TEDC.

Xstrata Zinc is working to assist employees and their families transition to new opportunities and have been holding both internal and external job fairs for employees.

Read more

Queen’s Park continues to disappoint – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 20, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Northerners can’t seem to get any satisfaction from Queen’s Park. When we want our provincial politicians to do something for us, they don’t it.

Even when they finally look like they’re doing something right, they screw it up. This has been no more evident than since the Ontario Liberals presented their budget. This, of course, came on the heels of the government’s announcement that it was going to privatize the Ontario Northerland Transportation Commission.

Naturally, we thought, great timing. Here we have the New Democrats in a position to force the Liberals hands by using the budget vote as leverage in preventing the sale of the ONTC.

As we know, the NDP made some demands and the Liberals made some concessions but the issue Northerners were particularly keen on — preventing the sale of the ONTC — was not part of that package.

Read more