Vale – Page 70 – Republic of Mining

Fired Vale striker gets his job back – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 13, 2012)

December 13, 2012

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

The first miner fired during the year-long strike by United Steelworkers against Vale has been reinstated to his position at Vale’s Coleman Mine.

Ron Breault was fired by the mining company in September 2009, two months after about 3,000 members of USW Local 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne went on strike.

Arbitrator Janice Johnston released her decision Wednesday. She ruled Breault should get his job back, with full seniority and benefits, and that he be awarded about 19 months of back pay.

Brian Shell, the lawyer representing USW and Breault, said Johnston gave Breault a 30-day suspension because of “some words he spoke on the picket line.” But she ruled firing Breault was too severe a penalty. USW Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said Breault was happy and relieved to get his job back.

Breault happened to be standing outside the Steel Hall at Brady Street when Bertrand called him to tell him the good news. Bertrand said Breault and his union knew he was innocent of allegations of misconduct, for which Vale fired him during the strike.

NEWS RELEASE: VALE INVESTS IN LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY’S CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

December 7, 2012

Company commits $125,000 towards a Health and Safety Research Chair at Laurentian

SUDBURY, ON (DECEMBER 7th, 2012) – Vale representatives presented Dr. Tammy Eger, associate professor at the School of Human Kinetics and current CROSH director, with a cheque for $125,000 at the 3rd Annual Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) Community Symposium. The funds will be used to aid in the establishment of a permanent Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety, a key priority in the Centre’s growth plan.

“This is a proud day for CROSH,” said Dr. Eger. “We’ve come a long way in the past four years, and this donation will bring us closer to achieving one of our most important objectives. The creation of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will provide the leadership needed to build upon CROSH’s successes and expand its vision and influence.”

Officially approved by Laurentian University’s Senate in 2008, CROSH is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, guided by an advisory board comprised of representatives from labour, industry and local health and safety organizations, who engage in innovative studies aimed at identifying health and safety concerns and eliminating hazards and occupational disease from workplaces around the North.

Once full-funding for the position has been secured, the Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will drive innovative research that will establish the Centre as a national and international trendsetter in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices.

OMA member Vale helps rocks get centre stage at a national museum

December 5, 2012

(L-R) Vale Canada representatives Cory McPhee, VP, Corporate Affairs; Audrey Leduc, Corporate Affairs Officer; and John Mullally, Director, Corporate Affairs in front of display with rock sample from Sudbury’s Vale mine. (Photo by: Jamie Kronick, Canadian Museum of Nature)

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

After residing for almost two billion years in the Sudbury Basin, a 227-plus kilogram piece of nickel ore now has a new home as a centrepiece in the Vale Earth Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The new gallery was officially unveiled recently. It has 8,000 square feet of floor space and it provides a journey through billions of years of geological time and shows how geology and mineralogy connect to everyday life in the 21st century.

In 2009, Vale pledged $1 million to sponsor this gallery. A smaller phase of the Vale Earth Gallery opened in 2010. The new, larger and permanent gallery is the result of two years of planning and three months of extensive renovations. The gallery is also home to a satellite exhibit from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

The giant piece of nickel ore is not alone in the new gallery. Fourteen oversized mineral samples share space with about 1,000 mineral, rock and gem specimens. The gallery also contains numerous interactive educational exhibits.

UPDATE 5-Vale to scale back investment as global economy bites – by Jeb Blount (Reuters U.S. – December 3, 2012)

December 4, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 3, 2012 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA , the world’s second-largest mining company, cut estimated 2013 capital spending by 24 percent after a global slowdown and a drop in iron ore prices led the company to rethink expansion.

The retrenchment comes after sluggish growth in the United States, China and Europe diminished demand for metals and weighed on the price of iron ore, Vale’s main product.

Iron ore , a key ingredient in steel, fell to a three-year low in September, and is currently hovering around $115 a tonne. Vale forecasts a $110-$140 a tonne range in the coming year.

Vale will invest $16.3 billion in 2013, down from the $21.4 billion budgeted this year for new projects, research and development and to maintain existing mines and plants, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

“The outlook for slower expansion of global demand for minerals and metals in the medium term requires rigid discipline in the allocation of capital and greater focus in maximizing efficiency and reducing costs,” the company said in the statement.

NEWS RELEASE: Canada’s mineral treasures sparkle in new Vale Earth Gallery at Canadian Museum of Nature

November 29, 2012November 28, 2012

www.vale.com

Ottawa, November 28, 2012─Canada’s mineral treasures and the geological forces that shape the country are featured in a renewed and expanded gallery opening November 30 at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The Vale Earth Gallery presents a fascinating journey through geological time that relates how the Earth formed, how powerful forces have changed and shaped our planet, and how geology and mineralogy connect with everyday life. The new attraction is the result of two years of planning and three months of renovations to a smaller phase of the Vale Earth Gallery that had opened in 2010.

“This new gallery returns the museum’s best geological and mineral specimens to permanent display in an expanded setting that includes new content and engaging interactives,” says Meg Beckel, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature. “We are extremely grateful for Vale’s support that has allowed us to complete this project that will inspire and connect visitors with our collections and the mineralogy research of our scientists.”

Instructive panels, interactive games and simulations explore the complexities of geology and the three main types of rock that make up the planet—sedimentary, magmatic and metamorphic.

Family, MPP push for [mining safety] inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 26, 2012)

November 26, 2012

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

Jordan Fram had always wanted his mother, Wendy Fram, to go underground to visit where he worked at Vale’s Stobie Mine. Wendy Fram would tell her son: “Jordan, you’re never going to get me down underground. I can’t even get in that cage, let alone go under-ground.”

Wendy Fram did travel 3,000 feet underground at Stobie Mine late in the summer of 2011. She visited the spot where Jordan, 26, and his colleague, Jason Chenier, 35, were killed June 8 when they were overcome by a run of 350 tons of muck.

Fram wasn’t thinking about the need for an inquiry to review mining practices in Ontario when she went with her son Jesse, daughter Briana and their partners to say a prayer for the men and to lay flowers for them.

Still, Fram noticed even then there were changes that could be made. When Fram had heard the word muck before, she thought mud — not the huge boulders and rock and water she saw underground.

When she saw where her boy had worked, Fram said, “I couldn’t believe that people work in those conditions. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe it.”

Group worried about metals in Sudbury soil – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 23, 2012)

November 23, 2012

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

A committee concerned about the health of Sudburians is calling on the government of Ontario to fill what it says is a gap in a study that looked at metals of concern in Sudbury’s air, water and soil.

Recommendations from the Sudbury Community Committee for Human and Environmental Health are the next logical step to the Sudbury Soils Study, says the committee and an environmental expert it commissioned to review the study.

The Sudbury Soils Study was a $15-million, eight-year study of the effects of a century of mining on the soil, air and water of the Sudbury Basin. The committee says the study didn’t consider an important factor relating to Sudburians’ health — the quality of the air inside their homes.

Scientific data collected for the study, conducted by the Sudbury Area Risk Assessment group, included indoor dust testing at 91 homes in five communities in Sudbury. That sampling showed, in many of those homes, levels of metals such as nickel and lead three to six times higher than concentrations those metals in soils in the areas.

The dust samples were collected in Falconbridge, Copper Cliff, Hanmer, Coniston and Sudbury Centre, some of which were dubbed hot spots because of smelting activities over the years.

Boom bust cycle normal in mining industry [Jason Turnbull interviews mining analyst Stan Sudol] – CBC Radio Sudbury (November 1, 2012)

November 22, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/pointsnorth/ Slumping nickel prices and a bit of slowdown on base metal prices have caused speculation that Vale is not interested in maintaining full operations in Sudbury. Points North’s Jason Turnbull interviews Toronto-base mining analyst Stan Sudol about the recent cutbacks by Vale at their Sudbury operations. Click here for the interview: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2299263418

Planning should determine Vale’s request – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – November 17, 2012)

November 17, 2012

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

It is the city’s planning committee, not the labour board, that is considering whether to allow Vale to temporarily house workers on its properties, so committee members should consider the request with sound planning principles in mind.

And while the request is obviously not good planning, temporary exemptions to planning regulations are not uncommon. If the city’s planners feel this can be done safely, and it’s a necessary requirement, councillors should consider placing restrictions on how the housing is used, such as a time limit that would require the company to reapply for an exemption.

In June, Vale began work on a historic $2-billion Clean ARE project to retrofit and upgrade its smelter. The largest environmental project of its kind in Sudbury’s history is expected to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions at the Copper Cliff smelter by 70%, bringing emissions down to 45 kilotonnes per year, well below the regulatory limit of 66 kilotonnes per year.

It’s a project that’s of enormous benefit to the city, not just for the obvious environmental advantages, but that amount of money spent on materials and labour is a major boost to the economy. Up to 70% of the money may be spent locally. But since the city has, for years, had a low vacancy rate, Vale says it needs to be ready to house an influx of workers that could hit 1,300 at peak construction in 2014/15.

Union wary of Vale move – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – November 7, 2012)

November 7, 2012

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

Union leaders say they are suspicious of a move by Vale to house temporary workers dur ing construction of the company’s $2-billion pollution reduction project in Sudbury.

“I think its 90-10,90% towards the labour issue, 10% towards housing contract workers,” said Dennis Theriault, vice-president of Steelworkers Local 6500. “I think our community of 160,000 can handle an influx of 1,3001,800 workers, particularly when a great deal of those workers are supposed to be from our local community.”

Vale has applied to the city’s planning committee to amend a zoning bylaw to allow the company to house temporary workers working on its massive Clean AER project. Theriault, however, said the application is a charade to hide Vale’s real plans of housing replacement workers during a future labour dispute.

“I’m very disappointed and very concerned about this. The timing of the application reeks of an opportunity to house workers around the date of our contract ending. That would definitely have a huge impact on our bargaining position,” Theriault said.

The collective bargaining agreement between the USW and Vale expires May 31, 2015.

NEWS RELEASE: Ministry Issues 41 Orders at Site of Vale Mine Fatalities

November 6, 2012

Ongoing Safety Issues Reinforce Need for Mining Inquiry

SUDBURY, ON, Nov. 5, 2012 /CNW/ – A community-based committee created after two workers were killed at Vale’s Stobie Mine is shocked that a Labour Ministry inspection of the same mine has resulted in 41 health and safety orders against the company.

“It is deeply troubling for us that orders have been issued to Vale related to concerns with standing water – the very hazard that contributed to the deaths of Jason Chenier and my brother, Jordan Fram,” said Briana Fram of the MINES (Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support) committee.

“How can it be that, only 17 months after Jason and Jordan were killed, Vale is being ordered by the Ministry of Labour to rectify problems with standing water in this same mine?” Fram asked.

The community-based MINES committee was formed last month to ask the provincial government to call an inquiry into Ontario mines. Such an inquiry has not been held in three decades.

The Ministry of Labour inspection of Stobie Mine occurred October 17, 2012. At least 10 of the orders issued to Vale, under terms of the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act, are directly linked to water issues.

Vale safety violations upset family of killed miner – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 6, 2012)

November 6, 2012

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

The sister of a miner killed June 8, 2011, at Vale’s Stobie Mine and the president of the union representing that worker say they were shocked the Ministry of Labour issued 41 health and safety orders against the company after an inspection at the mine last month.

Briana Fram asked how it could be that Vale is facing 41 infractions at the mine where, 17 months ago her brother, Jordan Fram, 26, was killed on the job.Fram and Jason Chenier, 35, died when they were overcome by 350 tons of muck while working at the 3,000-foot level at Stobie Mine.

Vale is facing nine charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and one of its super visors is facing six charges under the act after a Labour ministry investigation into the men’s deaths. Those charges are proceeding through court.

Briana Fram sits on an advocacy committee called MINES (Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support), struck to lobby for a provincewide inquiry into mining safety and practices to avoid tragedies such as the deaths of the two men.

MINES issued a statement Monday saying its members were troubled about the orders against Vale at Stobie, especially ones related to standing water. Excess water was identified as a large part of the reason the two men were killed.