Republic of Mining

Fire closes [Sudbury Vale’s] Levack mine – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – March 10, 2012)

March 10, 2012

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

Day shift at Coleman Mine was cancelled Friday and about 100 night-shift employees were locked down for several hours after a small fire early Friday morning at the mine in Levack.

Vale spokeswoman Amanda Eady said the company’s fire emergency system was activated at 3:42 a.m. when a small, 3.5-yard scoop tram caught fire on the 4,810-foot level of the mine.

Production and maintenance workers on the job were alerted about the fire with the release of stench, said Eady. Stench is a strong warning gas that smells like onions and rotten eggs. That was the signal for workers to report to refuge stations where all were soon accounted for, said Eady.

Vale’s mine rescue team was dispatched, and ensured the fire was out and the area was properly ventilated before the all-clear was given and night-shift employees returned to surface shortly after 10 a.m.

Making progress on mining issues in Ontario’s north – by Anna Baggio (CPAWs Wildlands League – March 8, 2012)

March 10, 2012

http://cpaws.org/

Anna Baggio is the Director Conservation Land Use Planning, CPAWs Wildlands League (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society)

This past week, Ontario made a historic announcement and protected over 2.3 million ha of native lands from staking and prospecting in the far north. This was in response to the long standing moratorium declared by Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI). In its announcement, the government said it withdrew the lands “from prospecting and mining claim staking to give clarity to the province’s mineral exploration industry and avoid future disagreements over the land in question”.

To give you a sense of the size of this area, picture not 1 Greenbelt or 2 Greenbelts around Metro Toronto, picture something bigger than 3 Greenbelts or more than 3 Algonquin Parks. The last time Ontario withdrew land on this scale was in 1999 during Lands for Life. The last time Ontario withdrew anything this size in one shot was in 1970 when they established Polar Bear Provincial Park. See the map here.

2012 PDAC Special Achievement Award – Mine Training Society Northwest Territories

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Hugh McSwain, North Slave Metis Alliance, Mine Training Society Board; Joe Hinzer, Co-Chair of the PDAC 2012 Convention Planning Committee

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Special Achievement Award

From time to time, the PDAC presents a Special Achievement Award that recognizes exceptional contributions to the mineral industry. This year, the association has chosen to honour the Mine Training Society (MTS) for providing Aboriginal people in northern Canada with the opportunity to develop usable job skills for the mining industry and for developing a pool of skilled workers for the industry.

MTS is a non-profit organization comprising Aboriginal, industry, and government partners. Its objectives are to: i) screen, select, train, and place northerners in all areas of mining; and ii) in cooperation with the NWT’s education system and communities, build a legacy of education and awareness about the employee and skill requirements of the mining industry.

2012 PDAC Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) David Giles, Vice-President Exploration, Fresnillo Plc.; Edward Thompson, PDAC Former President and Chair of Awards Committee

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery

This award, honouring the memory of one of Canada’s greatest mine finders, recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.

David A. Giles is the recipient of this year’s award for heading Peñoles and Fresnillo plc exploration teams that have seen considerable success in the number of their new economic gold and silver deposit finds in Mexico and Latin America.

2012 PDAC Viola R. MacMillan Award for company or mine development – Osisko Mining Corporation

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Sean Roosen, President and CEO, Osisko Mining Corporation; Rod Thomas, Second Vice-President, Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Viola R. MacMillan Award for company or mine development

This award is named in honour of the PDAC’s longest serving president and is given to a person or company demonstrating leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources.

The PDAC has selected Osisko Mining Corp. to receive this award for successfully developing and bringing into production the company’s Canadian Malartic gold property in Quebec’s Abitibi gold belt. In November 2004, Osisko acquired the property, which had produced some 5 million ounces of gold from 1935 to 1983 from four mines (Canadian Malartic, Barnat, Sladen and East Malartic). A detailed compilation of the extensive historical database was followed by the start of a major drilling program in March 2005.

2012 PDAC Skookum Jim Award for Aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry – Nuna Group of Companies

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Charlie Lyall, the former president of the Kitikmeot Corp.; Glenn Nolan, incoming President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Skookum Jim Award for Aboriginal achievement in the mineral industry

Recipients of this award will have demonstrated exceptional achievement and/or service in an aboriginal-run service business for the Canadian mining industry or a Canadian aboriginal exploration or mining company, or have made a significant individual contribution to the mining industry.

This year’s award is being presented to the Nuna Group of Companies for providing mining and construction services to mining companies in northern Canada and training and employment opportunities for Aboriginal People in the North. Nuna was formed in 1993 and is 51% Inuit-owned [Nunasi Corporation (25.5%); Kitikmeot Corporation (25.5%); and Nuna Management (49%)].

2012 PDAC Distinguished Service Award – Deborah McCombe

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Deborah McCombe, Executive Vice-President, Business Development for Roscoe Postle & Associates; Patricia Dillon, Past PDAC President

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Distinguished Service Award

This award recognizes an individual who has achieved one or more of the following: made a substantial contribution to mineral exploration and mining development over a number of years; given considerable time and effort to the PDAC; made outstanding contributions to the mineral industry in the field of finance, geology, geophysics, geochemistry research, or a related activity.

Deborah McCombe is the recipient of this year’s award for her many contributions and distinguished service to the mineral industry and its supporting organizations, including the PDAC. Mrs. McCombe served as a PDAC director from 1996 to 2011.

For much of that period, she chaired the association’s international affairs committee. She was also a member of the convention planning committee and served on the governance and strategic planning committees. Mrs. McCombe has also been an active supporter of the CIM, serving on the Mining Millennium 2000 convention organizing committee and chairing the CIM Toronto branch in 2003.

2012 PDAC Environmental & Social Responsibility Award – Mining Association of Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining Program

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Pierre Gratton, President and CEO Mining Association of Canada; Ross Gallinger, Executive Director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Environmental & Social Responsibility Award

This award honours an individual or organization demonstrating outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment and/or in establishing good community relations during an exploration program or operation of a mine.

This award recognizes Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM), a stewardship program developed by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) that aims to improve the mining industry’s overall performance by aligning its actions with the priorities and values of Canadians.

The program was created in 2004 to help mining companies evaluate the quality, comprehensiveness, and robustness of their management systems under several performance elements (tailings management; energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management; aboriginal and community outreach; crisis management planning; biodiversity conservation management; and safety and health). Participation in TSM is a condition of membership in MAC.

2012 PDAC (Prospector of the Year) Bill Dennis Award Winner – Gerald Panneton, President and CEO of Detour Gold Corp

March 25, 2018March 9, 2012

(L to R) Scott Jobin-Bevans, outgoing PDAC President; Gerald Panneton, President and CEO of Detour Gold Corporation&

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian discovery or prospecting success

This award, named for a former president of the association, honours individuals who have accomplished one or both of the following: made a significant mineral discovery; made an important contribution to the prospecting and/or exploration industry. The award may also be used to recognize an important mineral discovery in Canada.

Gerald Panneton, President and CEO of Detour Gold Corp., receives this award for his leadership of the team that has advanced the Detour Lake property in northern Ontario into a world-class, low-grade, high tonnage gold deposit.

Foreign policy is mining policy – by Elizabeth Payne (Ottawa Citizen – March 8, 2012)

March 9, 2012

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/index.html

Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Ottawa Citizen’s editorial board.

Six months after International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced CIDA would fund three controversial development partnerships between NGOs and Canadian mining companies, the federal government is laying the groundwork for more foreign aid to be delivered with the help of the mining industry. It’s a trend in international development that is raising new concerns.

“As I listen to this conversation … I sometimes think I’m at a business development meeting,” NDP MP Jinny Jogindera Sims said during recent Foreign Affairs and International Development committee hearings into the role of the private sector in achieving Canada’s international development interests.

“The purpose of … international development … aid is to reduce poverty. Yet a lot of the focus I’ve heard today has been on putting infrastructures in place or institutions in place that will help the mining companies.” Sims said she has concerns “about our aid being so closely tied to one particular industry.”

Costs a game changer for seabed gold and copper mining? – by Harpreet Bhal (Mineweb.com – March 9, 2012)

March 9, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Industry analysts reckon seabed mining could transform the mining industry, its attractiveness riding on high ore grades and dwindling metal supplies elsewhere, but see operating costs as a major hurdle.

LONDON (Reuters) – Touted as the mining world’s next frontier, its attractiveness riding on high ore grades and dwindling metal supplies elsewhere, seabed mining will have to prove it can keep costs low to win over mainstream investors.

While the diamond industry has been mining off the Namibian shoreline for years, Toronto-listed Nautilus Minerals is expected to be the first commercial operation to extract metals such as copper and gold from the seabed.

Some analysts say the move could transform the mining industry in the way off-shore drilling gave access to new deposits in the oil and gas sector in the 1970s. But keeping operating costs low will be crucial to seabed mining’s success, they warn.

Molycorp, a Rare Earth Mining Firm, Is to Merge With a Processor, Neo Material – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – March 8, 2012)

March 9, 2012

This article is from the: www.nytimes.com

HONG KONG — One of the West’s two main rare earth metal mining companies announced on Friday that it was buying one of the world’s two main rare earth processing companies for $1.3 billion, the latest in a series of deals that are rapidly consolidating the industry.

Molycorp, which operates the big American mine now being reopened and expanded in Mountain Pass, Calif., is buying Neo Material Technologies of Toronto, which makes specialty chemicals from rare earths at factories in China and Thailand.

Rare earth metals are vital for making a wide range of high-tech products, including smartphones, smart bombs, large wind turbines and electric cars. Rare earths are also needed for oil refining and the production of high-quality glass for cameras and other applications.

Molycorp is paying 71 percent of the cost of the deal in cash and the remaining 29 percent in shares. Molycorp valued its offer at 11.3 Canadian dollars for each share of Neo Material. That is a 42 percent premium to Neo Material’s closing price of 7.97 Canadian dollars on Thursday.

In Russia, opportunity still beckons – and so do the pitfalls – by Barrie McKenna and Nicolas Johnson (Globe and Mail – March 9, 2012)

March 9, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA AND TORONTO— Vladimir Putin has a point when he says Canada is missing out on vast trade and investment opportunities in Russia. But it’s a far more complex picture than Russia’s newly returned President suggests.

The country’s de facto ruler since 2000 – president until 2008, Prime Minister since then, and soon to return as President after an election victory over the weekend – told The Globe and Mail in an interview in Moscow last week that he is concerned about how little trade there is between Canada and Russia, given the two countries’ similarities. Each country has vast stores of oil and gas, large agriculture sectors, and large mineral reserves, such as potash.

Two-way trade totalled just $2.8-billion last year – roughly half of what Canada did with Brazil and a quarter of trade with relatively tiny Hungary. Investment is also light: Canadian direct investment in Russia totalled less than $600-million in 2010, up 12 per cent from 2009.

Keep pipeline for Canada, says Wildrose leader – by Peter O’Neil (National Post – March 8, 2012)

March 9, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

OTTAWA — Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith, sounding an alarm about the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the B.C. coast, argued Thursday that an oil sands pipeline should instead go to Atlantic Canada.

Ms. Smith, expected to give Alberta Premier Alison Redford a serious challenge in the upcoming spring election, advanced the idea publicly for the first time at a speech in Ottawa.

She offered what she described as a solution to the problems faced by land-locked Alberta given the Obama administration’s rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico, and the aggressive environmentalist-aboriginal campaign against the Enbridge Inc.’s $5.5-billion Gateway project to Kitimat, B.C.

“As we look to move our oil sands to market in the face of resistance to the south and west coast, an all-Canadian solution is looking increasingly attractive,” Ms. Smith said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada that was attended by several Alberta Tory MPs and former political staffers who worked under Reform party founder Preston Manning.

Land withdrawal does not quell First Nation dispute – by Northern Ontario Business staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 6, 2012)

March 8, 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.

Removing Crown land from mineral exploration does nothing to resolve a territorial dispute between a junior mining company and a remote First Nation community in northwestern Ontario, said the band chief.

Donny Morris fails to see how the provincial withdrawal of 23,181 square kilometres of land in the vicinity of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (K.I.) addresses their demand for a halt on gold exploration by God’s Lake Resources.

“This where we keep harping on the government, this is where consultation comes in, so where exactly are these lands that are withdrawn?” While the Ontario government heralded it as a step to addressing the impasse, Morris called it “a smokescreen” that sends out the wrong message.

The disputed area where the exploration firm is working is 83 kilometres north of the village of 1,300. One of the company’s claims are on the Morris family trap line, which is also considered a sacred birthplace and gravesite.