Members of Miners for Cancer alongside G-Rant from Newcap Radio’s Hot 93.5FM seen here holding a $20,000 cheque that will go towards renovating the chemotherapy suites at the Northeast Cancer Centre in Sudbury, Ontario.
Sudbury, December 4th, 2016 – On Friday night, at the sixth annual Miners for Cancer Christmas Gala, local radio host and guest speaker G-Rant, from Newcap Radio’s Hot 93.5FM morning show, announced on behalf of Miners for Cancer a $20,000 donation towards the Northeast Cancer Centre’s Chemotherapy Suites.
In a bid to say thank you for bringing so much cancer awareness to the community through his willingness to share his own personal story, Miners for Cancer not only invited G-Rant to be the guest speaker at the sold out event, but also consulted with him on where the twenty thousand dollar donation should go.
But it’s not just the environmental lobby that fails to understand this — our current provincial government has no clue either. In fact, they’re actively going to make a bad situation even worse. What industry is the largest employer of native people in Canada? Mining. And what industry is the NDP hell bent on destroying in our province? Coal mining.
As though we don’t have enough homegrown protests over our own pipelines, it appears Alberta is now a prime venue on the Standing Rock world tour of indigenous indignation.
In the past week, so-called flash mobs have popped up in Calgary’s Chinook Centre and Edmonton’s West Edmonton Mall, merrily protesting the goings-on in North Dakota, where native groups and supporters are trying to halt construction of yet another pipeline, this one south of the 49th parallel.
Don MacLean has always felt there is a “continual sense of change and renewal” in mining. After 60-plus years in the industry, the founder of MacLean Engineering should know. The mining technology engineer saw the beginnings of the diesel age, putting the first diesel scoops in Sudbury’s Creighton mine in 1964.
Now, over 50 years later and involved as ever, MacLean is experiencing the “electrification of the mining industry,” as he works on introducing electric mining equipment at Goldcorp’s Borden mine site near Chapleau.
The shifts have “just been a rush,” he said. “I’ve never worked a day in my life,” is MacLean’s oft-shared trademark sentiment on the industry.
The namesake metal of the town of Cobalt is the focus of a Vancouver company which has acquired a former silver mine property near the historic northeastern Ontario community. CobalTech Mining, formerly known as Big North Graphite, closed the acquisition of the former Duncan Kerr property from Trio Resources of Toronto on Nov. 23.
The company has plans to dig into the leftover piles of mineralized material on the surface to source cobalt.
Their 32-hectare property, located three kilometres southeast of the town in Coleman Township, contains the underground remnants of the former Kerr and Lawson silver mines, which operated intermittently from the mid-1900s through to the 1960s.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The ban on diamond exports from conflict zones is proving successful in curbing so-called ‘conflict diamonds’ from being sold into official and black markets, thereby reducing their use as a potential source of finance for rebel groups.
This is according to nonprofit diamond industry representative organisation World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) president Ernie Blom.
He tells Mining Weekly that the Kimberley Process (KP), which has an interest in both domestic and international issues related to the mining and marketing of diamonds, has been “totally successful” in rooting out the international supply chain areas that are a source of conflict diamonds and blocking those channels. This has eliminated the appeal of operating directly, or by proxy, with those involved in sourcing diamonds from conflict zones.
A major border crossing between China and Mongolia has imposed new fees on commodity shipments between the two countries, amid a diplomatic row sparked by the visit to Ulaanbaatar of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama last week.
The Dalai Lama is cherished as a spiritual leader in predominantly Buddhist Mongolia, but China regards him as a dangerous separatist and warned the visit could damage bilateral relations.
The crossing at Gashuun Sukhait is used to export copper from the giant Oyu Tolgoi mine run by Rio Tinto, as well as coal from the Tavan Tolgoi mine, which China’s state-owned Shenhua Group is currently in the running to develop.
Every aspect of mining that involves First Nations has the potential to infringe upon their rights and title, according to the Fair Mining Collaborative (FMC).
The B.C.-based non-profit is working to make sure Indigenous communities have the skills and tools to ensure mining deals are done right, especially as Canada pursues truth and reconciliation. “The history of mining in B.C. is paired with the history of colonization in the province, legally and socially,” said Glenn Grande, the collaborative’s senior researcher and writer.
Grande is of Cree ancestry and a former teacher who taught at all grade levels in First Nations communities throughout B.C. He graduated with a juris doctorate from the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law in 2014.
SANTIAGO Dec 1 (Reuters) – Chile’s government will give state-owned copper miner Codelco $975 million in capitalization so the cash-strapped firm can finance its ambitious investment plans, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdes said on Thursday.
World no.1 copper producer Codelco returns all its profits to the state and is funded by a mix of capitalization and debt.
“This year the government has decided to capitalize Codelco with $975 million … this money will allow the company to continue developing its investment program,” Valdes said at a news conference. Last year, the government handed Codelco $600 million.
President and CEO of North American Palladium Ltd., Jim Gallagher is a professional mining engineer with more than 34 years of experience in the mining industry. We sat down with him to ask him a few questions about his education, his career and everything in between.
How did you get started in the mining business?
To be honest, I had a very narrow view of the opportunities the mining industry offered. I worked for a year at Inco after graduating and entered the geology program at Laurentian. I thought I would be a career geologist working at a mine.
How did you come to choose your educational path?
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley should bundle up when she comes to Vancouver next week to sell the merits of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. She is in for a frosty reception.
There is no bigger opponent of the pipeline than the city’s mayor, Gregor Robertson. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the project’s approval this week, Mr. Robertson didn’t hide his disappointment. It was clear the pair’s bromance had taken a hit.
In a statement, Mr. Robertson talked about how Vancouver had the strongest and greenest economy in the country. He boasted about the tens of thousands of jobs that had been created in the city in the past year alone. All of which, he contended, could be jeopardized by the Trans Mountain project.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified mining and marketing company Glencore sees a shortage in nickel arising as a result of burgeoning demand from electric vehicle (EV) production.
Batteries used in EVs are consuming about 100 000 t of nickel demand and if 10% of the world’s vehicle fleet transitions to electric power, 400 000 t of nickel would be required on current yearly production of 1.95-million tonnes.
“We see a shortage in nickel,” Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said in response to BNP Paribas analyst Sylvain Brunet during a conference call in which Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online took part.
MANILA, Dec 2 The Philippine government will suspend more mines in a fight against environmental degradation, the minister in charge of mining said, a move that could put future supply from the world’s top exporter at risk and lift nickel prices.
Nickel on the London Metal Exchange recovered nearly 1 percent from Friday’s lows on the potential for supply disruption after the minister’s comments.
The Southeast Asian nation has already halted 10 of its 41 mines in a campaign backed by President Rodrigo Duterte against what the government says is irresponsible mining. Twenty more are facing possible suspension and the agency in charge of the review may issue a ruling next week.
OTTAWA — True political leaders, it’s said, have the ability to look their supporters in the eye and explain to them that, while they might not want to follow a particular course of action, it is for the greater good.
Justin Trudeau showed that kind of leadership in announcing the approval of the Trans-Mountain pipeline in British Columbia. “I’m convinced it is safe for B.C. and right for Canada,” he said at a press conference Tuesday.
He said the approval of the Trans-Mountain pipeline and the replacement of the aging Line 3 between Alberta and Manitoba are in the national interest. His government risks paying the electoral price in lower mainland seats — a number of B.C. Liberal MPs, such as Ron McKinnon and Terry Beech, are openly hostile to the development.
Goldcorp is hard at work on projects that will see its century-long presence as an integral part of the Timmins economy continue for many years to come. That was the central message the mining company’s general manager, Marc Lauzier, brought to a crowded room full of mining industry members and other local business people on Thursday afternoon. The gathering was organized by the Timmins Chamber of Commerce as part of their series of Inside Your Business luncheons.
During his speech to the more than 150 people packed into the McIntyre Arena`s auditorium, Lauzier said despite the fact that many of their most profitable projects in the Timmins area are approaching the end of their life cycles, it is Goldcorp’s goal to keep mining in the region for as long as it is feasible.
“Today I want to talk about some the projects that we are trying to do so we can stay around Timmins for longer,” said Lauzier. “I’ve talked to some of our partners, and they are coming to the end of their lives in the next six to seven years. I’m standing here in front of you with some opportunities that could keep Goldcorp here and alive for at the same (levels of production) or even better for another 10, 15 or 20 years.”
An edited version of this list was published in the February/March issue of the Canadian Mining Journal.
Four Americans Made the List!
A few months ago, my dear colleague Joe Martin, who is the Director of the Canadian Business & Financial History Initiative at Rotman and President Emeritus of Canada’s History Society, asked me a very simple question: who would be considered the most important individual in Canadian mining?
Considering Canada’s lengthy and exceptional expertise in the mineral sector, it was not an easy answer and I decided to research and create a top ten list of the most important mining men in Canadian history.
The lack of women on this list simply reflects the fact that for much of our history most women were not given the educational or social opportunities to excel in business, especially in a rough and male-dominated sector like mining. Times have changed, women are playing key roles in mining today and will definitely be included on this list in the future.
However, a few qualifiers need to be established. This is basically a list of mine builders not mine finders. Building a company through takeovers and discoveries is one way but I am also focusing on individuals who have built corporate empires and/or who have developed isolated regions of the country with the necessary infrastructure for mines to flourish and create multi-generational jobs, shareholder wealth and great economic impact.
