Republic of Mining

Vale, [Sudbury] union agree to work together – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 2, 2012)

February 2, 2012

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

United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale Ltd. have agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the death of veteran miner Stephen Perry at Coleman Mine on Sunday.

Six people — three from the company and three from the union — will meet Thursday to begin work on the investigation into the fatal accident.

The shutdown at Vale’s five Sudbury mines will continue so the focus remains squarely on safety, and not on production, said Angie Robson. Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said he was happy the two sides agreed to work together.

“Hopefully, things will be much better here on in,” in terms of both safety and labour relations, said Bertrand.

Mine production was halted Sunday after Perry, 47, was killed while operating a loader at the 4,215-foot level of the Coleman shaft of the main order body at mine in Levack.

Co-operative [industry/First Nations]approach to mining venture – (Timmins Daily Press – February 2, 2012)

February 2, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Company, two First Nations sign memorandum of understanding

An agreement has been reached between a mining firm and two First Nations over mineral rights to about 60,000 hectares of land. Ring of Fire Resources Inc. has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Matachewan and Mattagami First Nations with respect to its mineral exploration activities in 10 townships just north of Timmins.

The memorandum sets out the provisions of a co-operative approach to developing the Ring of Fire Inc. interests within the territorial homelands of the two First Nations. The agreement provides for business and employment opportunities that encourage First Nation participation in the mining industry.

The parties have also committed to negotiating an Impact and Benefits Agreement should the project warrant a mining operation.

Hemlo Mines creates opportunities for First Nations students

February 1, 2012

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.

Ontario Mining Association member Barrick Hemlo Mines is providing opportunities for residents of two nearby First Nations, Pic River and Pic Mobert, in Northwestern Ontario. In 2009, the original 1992 agreement between Hemlo and these First Nations was broadened. It creates a framework to train First Nations people in skills for present and future mining employment, to support business development and to include involvement in environmental stewardship programs.

“The agreement helps build capacity in First Nation communities to ensure that they benefit from mining,” said Roger Souckey, Superintendent of Employee Relations at Hemlo Mines. “About 50 First Nations people work at Hemlo Mines, or about 10% of the workforce. The mine is a benefit to the area.”

The Hemlo Operations of Barrick include the Williams and David Bell gold mines. The mines purchased goods and services worth $35 million in Ontario in 2010 and $147 million in Canada. In 2010, Hemlo Mines paid taxes and royalties of $8 million and contributed a further $800,000 in a variety of donations to local communities.

Joint [Vale/union] investigation preferable in accidents – Editorial by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 2012

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

The tragedy of death underground has revisited Sudbury in a manner that leaves all of us asking how this could happen again at a company that has more than 100 years of experience in mining.

Stephen Perry, 47, a 16-year miner at Vale, died at the 4,215-foot level at Coleman Mine in Levack on Sunday after he was struck by loose rock while he was working at a development heading.

The incident happened just days after Vale officials presented their findings about the deaths in June of two miners, Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram, after they were overcome by 350 tonnes of muck and sand while they were working at the 3,000-foot level of Stobie Mine.

Vale has suspended all five of its underground mining operations, affecting more than 1,500 workers, in order to come up with plans to ensure a safe working environment.

Mass for killed [Vale Sudbury] miner set for Friday – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 2012

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

A memorial mass will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Christ the King Church for Stephen Perry, who was killed Sunday afternoon on the job at Coleman Mine in Levack.

Perry was from Corner Brook, Nfld., but had worked with Inco and Vale for 16 years. Vale vice-president Kelly Strong called Perry a skilled and experienced miner who was respected by his colleagues. Family in Newfoundland said he was a kind and giving man, who would do anything to help someone in need.

Perry is survived by a daughter and several siblings.

Vale suspended operations at all five Sudbury mines after Perry was killed working on a piece of machinery to load blasting equipment to open up the 4,215-foot heading off the Coleman shaft in the main ore body.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour and Greater Sudbury Police Service have been at the site beginning their investigations. Vale and the union representing Perry, United Steelworkers Local 6500, will also conduct investigations.

Why Republican voters are up in arms over Keystone XL – by David Weigel (National Post – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 2012

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

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Newt Gingrich’s schedule, 72 hours before the Florida primary, went like this: church, parking lot of a retirement mega-city, church. His only speech of the day is here, in a grove of tidy homes and souped-up golf carts. As the Villagers stand, or sit in their chairs, or stay in their carts to sip Arizona Iced Tea or frappes, Gingrich explains why Barack Obama is failing them.

“He recently vetoed the Keystone pipeline,” says Gingrich. Boo! Boo! Boo!

“Now, think about it! He did it to appease left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco.” “Ugh,” mutters a retiree near the press riser. Gingrich laid on the scares with a trowel; an ugh was the least he could do.

“Think about what would come of this,” Gingrich continues. “Here was an opportunity to have oil come from Canada through the United States, to the largest petrochemical complex in the world, in Houston.

What is holding Northern Ontario back? – by David Robinson (Northern Ontario Business – February, 2012)

April 5, 2015February 1, 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.

Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. drobinson@laurentian.ca

Premier Brad Wall is proud of Saskatchewan. The province is booming. Migration from other provinces is up 40 per cent —people are streaming in from places like Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. The province is even planning a jobs mission to Ireland to recruit workers.

But here is a question. Is our premier proud of Northern Ontario? Is anyone proud? In fact, is there anyone to be proud?

Saskatchewan, with about 33 per cent more people than Northern Ontario, and with only 80 per cent of the area of Northern Ontario, is managed by 58 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). In efficient Northern Ontario, we make do with 10 MPPs. And 10 per cent of a premier.

But if Ontario is so efficient, why is Saskatchewan doing so well by comparison?

Our peak oil premium – by Thomas Homer-Dixon (Globe and Mail – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 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.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont.

Peak oil – it’s history, right? Everything has changed so fast.

Two years ago, the world was facing an intractable oil crisis. “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear,” the U.S. Defence Department declared in a major report. “A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity.”

But now we’re told that the world is awash in oil. Deepwater production from the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil is soaring. New “elephant” fields have been discovered off Ghana and possibly Angola. Meanwhile, hydrofracking technology is liberating hundreds of thousands of barrels a day from “tight” shale oil formations in North Dakota and Texas, with more coming on line from Colorado, Wyoming and even Ohio.

[Canada Mines Minister] Oliver pushes for Ring of Fire development – Matthew Hill (Miningweekly.com – January 31, 2012)

January 31, 2012

Mining Weekly is South Africa’s premier source of weekly news on mining developments in Africa’s most important industry. Mining Weekly provides in-depth coverage of mining projects and the personalities reshaping the mining industry.

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Natural Resources Canada minister Joe Oliver on Tuesday continued his crusade to cut down on environmental approval timelines for major projects, to encourage the potential C$92-billion in mining investment the government sees over the next ten years.

Oliver made specific mention of the chromite and nickel projects underway in Ontario’s Ring of Fire district, saying he hoped Cliffs Natural Resources’ Black Thor deposit and Noront Resources’ Eagle’s Nest project make their way through the regulatory processes without hitches.

Cleveland-based Cliffs said earlier this month that it could cost nearly $1-billion to build a mine and a concentrator at Black Thor, where it is carrying out a prefeasibility study, to produce one-million tons of export chromite ore concentrate and 600 000 t of ferrochrome.

Closed [Vale shuts down Sudbury’s underground operations after latest fatality]- by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 31, 2012)

January 31, 2012

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

Vale Ltd. has temporarily suspended operations at its five Sudbury mines as the company steps back, pauses and focuses on a plan to make its operations safer after an experienced miner was killed Sunday at Coleman Mine.

Kelly Strong, vice-president of mining and milling for Vale, said 1,550 miners are off the job, with pay, while Vale managers meet with the joint health and safety committee to devise an action plan before the mines are reopened.

Until that plan is drafted, Strong couldn’t predict when the mines would reopen. It’s the first time in the 11 years he has been with Vale that it has suspended operations at all mines after a fatality at one of them, he said.

Vale employs 400 production and maintenance workers at its Coleman and Stobie mines, 350 at Creighton Mine, and 200 at each of Garson and Copper Cliff mines.

Steelworker president angry over [Sudbury Vale mining] deaths – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 31, 2012)

January 31, 2012

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

The president of the union representing the miner killed Sunday at Coleman Mine was as angry Monday as he was sad that a member of United Steelworkers Local 6500 had been killed on the job.

While his union was expressing its heartfelt condolences to the miner’s family, Rick Bertrand was feeling mixed emotions, as were many of his members. “A big part of it is anger, (I’m) very angry,” Bertrand said Monday at the new Steelworkers’ Hall at 66 Brady St.

“Four fatalities in seven months is unacceptable … this has got to stop,” said Bertrand. Two Local 6500 members, Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed June 8 of last year at Stobie Mine.

Another Steelworker, a member of USW Local 6166 in Thompson, Man., died in October, 12 days after he fell down a mine shaft while operating a scoop tram. Greg Leason, 51, had 23 years with Inco and Vale.

Investigators combing mine [Sudbury Vale mining death] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 31, 2012)

January 31, 2012

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

The Ministry of Labour has issued two requirements of Vale Ltd. after the death of a 16-year employee early Sunday afternoon at the 4,215-foot level at Coleman Mine in Levack.

The first requirement is “don’t disturb the scene,” said ministry spokesman Matt Blajer. The ministry has also asked for a number of documents, such as training records and equipment information. Two ministry inspectors responded Sunday after the fatality was reported. Monday, they called in a ministry ground control engineer to help.

Blajer said the ministry was told the miner was “loading the face of the rock with explosives from a man basket when the incident occurred.” Blajer identified the area as the 4215 Level West T1 Cut 5.

The ministry is also asking Vale for its plans for the development of the heading at 36 West T1 Cut 5, he said.