Twitter

OMA Member Profile: Northgate Minerals – New Mines for Old Ontario Sites

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 Northgate Minerals is building one of the province’s newest gold mines upon the foundation of past producers.  The company is investing $339 (U.S.) million to construct the Young-Davidson Gold Mine.  Production is scheduled to start in early 2012 and plans call for annual production of 180,000 ounces of gold over a 15 year mine life.  Recent exploration results show promise of increasing the 2.8 million ounce reserve, which would extend the mine’s operation beyond that time frame and allow Northgate to increase annual gold production.

Young-Davidson is located near Matachewan in northeastern Ontario and is about 60 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake.  The site covers the operations of two historic gold mines, which produced about 1 million ounces of the precious metal from the mid-1930s to mid-1950s.  Northgate purchased the Young-Davidson property in 2005.

“Our vision since the moment we stepped onto the property has been to build a financially robust and long-life gold mine in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world,” said Ken Stowe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Northgate.  “Once production commences in 2012, Young-Davidson will become the new cornerstone of our company.”

Read more

Mining and Aboriginal Communities: Building Stronger Relationships – by Pierre Gratton

This speech was given by Pierre Gratton, President & CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC), at the BC Natural Resource Forum on January 13, 2011

“Fifteen years ago, there were fewer than twenty agreements between mining companies
and Aboriginal communities in Canada. Today, there are almost 200, and many more are
being negotiated.” Pierre Gratton, President & CEO of MABC. (Jan/13/11)

New Partnerships New Markets

Thank you for that kind introduction. It’s an honour and a pleasure to be a keynote speaker at the 8th BC
Natural Resource Forum in Prince George. Opportunities in the mining and supporting industries are really
starting to pick‐up in PG, the northern supply centre for our sector. It has taken time, but with the Endako
expansion, the major growth in the northeast coal block, Mt. Milligan, Red Chris on the horizon and a
resumption in exploration activity, there is lots to be excited about.

I have been asked to speak to you today about mining and Aboriginal partnerships. As I do so, I want to turn the clock back to look at where we’ve come from, then look at where we are and where we need to go.

The New Face of Mining

Before I became President of MABC, I served as Vice President of Sustainable Development and Public Affairs for The Mining Association of Canada. While working for MAC, I witnessed and participated in a
transformation that has taken place and continues to take place across the mining sector. It is clear to me that we are on a path from which there is no turning back – the path of sustainable development.

Read more

Mining Crucial to British Columbia’s Success – Randy Hawes, B.C. Minister of State for Mining

The following speech was delivered by Randy Hawes, British Columbia’s Minister of State for Mining, at the opening of AME BC Roundup 2011 conference in Vancouver on January 24, 2011.

“British Columbia is the first province in Canada to share direct provincial tax revenue
generated from new mines or mine expansions with First Nations. This only applies to
new mines and expansions. Resource revenue sharing will not cost the industry a cent.
This is a commitment to sharing revenue that the province will receive from new mine
developments.” (Randy Hawes – B.C. Minister of State for Mining – Jan/24/11)

This year’s theme, “exploring today for tomorrow’s resources,” is particularly apt. After spending $154 million on exploration in 2009, that figure more than doubled to $322 million in 2010.

This represents the third-highest total ever and a 109% increase on 2009. In 1999, the figure was just $25 million. This is an extraordinary turnaround and is indicative of a reinvigorated and optimistic mining industry.

It also underlines the importance the mineral industry is playing in the province’s economic recovery. Exploration investment is a key indicator of mining’s future and this suggests a very bright future indeed.

Perhaps the greatest indicator of mining’s excellent health is the development of new mines. The mining industry invested over $1 billion last year, expanding existing operations and developing new mines in B.C. Major mine expansions at Endako, Gibraltar, Highland Valley Copper, Wolverine and others underline the attractiveness of operating in British Columbia.

Read more

Shinning Propects In the Far North’s Ring of Fire Mining Camp – by Ian Ross (May 2010)

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. This article is from the May, 2010 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“The cost to produce electricity in Northern Ontario is really quite cheap.
Northern Ontarians are now paying for the very expensive nuclear plants in
Southern Ontario that they need. And our electricity costs should be based
on what it costs to generate electricity in Northern Ontario.”
(Moe Lavigne, KWG VP Exploration and Development)

Power and First Nation cooperation key to developing Ring of Fire mine.

An abundant supply of cheap power will decide whether northwestern Ontario lands any of the processing of chromite ore when a proposed Mc-Faulds Lake mine opens in 2016.

At an investors’ forum in Thunder Bay in early April, Moe Lavigne, KWG’s vice-president of exploration and development, laid out his company’s timelines and challenges on how the Toronto miner plans to develop its Big Daddy deposit in the James Bay Lowlands.

Behind the backing of Cliffs Natural Resources, a Cleveland, Ohio-based iron ore and coal conglomerate, KWG has set up a subsidiary company, Canada Chrome, to bring to life the massive and ambitious mine and railroad project, estimated at $2 billion.

Many one-industry communities along Lake Superior’s north shore are salivating at the opportunity to replace hundreds of lost forestry mill jobs with mineral processing employment opportunities. The manufacturing capacity to process McFaulds Lake chromite will require a concentrator and an electric arc furnace which produces fer-rochrome, a key ingredient in making stainless steel. The processing must be located close to a source of affordable power and rail connections.

Read more

Pan-Northern Ontario Initiative Seeks Saskatchewan Market – by Adelle Larmour

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. This article was posted on their website January 21, 2011.

More than $100 billion to be spent in Saskatchewan within the next decade

Northern Ontario companies stand to cash in on billons being spent in Saskatchewan on potash (above) and uranium mining over the next decade. More than $100 billion is expected to be invested in Saskatchewan over the next decade and some Northern Ontario businesses want a piece of the action.

Twenty-two businesses from across northeastern Ontario have united in a pan-Northern initiative under the auspices of Ontario’s North Economic Development Corporation (ONEDC), a non-profit corporation representing the five major Northern Ontario cities.

ONEDC (pronounced One DC), created to implement pan-Northern economic development initiatives, has been working with the support of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry (MNDMF) and in-market consultants to help facilitate business opportunities for Northern Ontario suppliers.

Read more

[Manitoba Government] Asleep at the Wheel [Vale Thompson Job Cutbacks] – Winnipeg Free Press Editorial (November 20, 2010)

The Winnipeg Free Press is the oldest newspaper in western Canada and has the largest readership in the province of Manitoba.

It appears that a better expenditure of the $1 billion is the one Vale
plans — to sink it into new mining operations that will at least protect
1,000 of the 1,500 jobs Vale currently supplies. (Winnipeg Free Press Editorial)

Mines Minister Dave Chomiak is heading to Toronto on Monday to talk to Vale SA officials about the mining giant’s plan to wind down smelting and refining activities in Thompson over five years, moves that will cost the city 500 jobs. The trip will be a continuation of the frantic to-ing and fro-ing that Mr. Chomiak and Premier Greg Selinger have been engaged in since news broke Wednesday that Manitoba’s third largest city was going to take a very hard economic hit.

It might be that the hand-wringing and dashing-about is simply what politicians always do in the face of bad news — they must be seen to be “doing something,” no matter how ineffectual. Or it might be what it seems to be, that the government was caught completely off guard by the news. And that raises the question that Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen has raised: Has the government been asleep at the wheel?

It was, after all, only seven years ago that Inco Ltd., which was subsequently bought by Vale for $20 billion, threatened to shut down all operations in Thompson because the price of nickel had fallen so low that the Thompson operations were no longer viable. So it might have been expected that the government was keeping a close eye on Thompson, which has long been represented by Steve Ashton.

Read more

Done Deal: Vale Stands Firm as 500 Thompson, Manitoba Smelter and Refinery Jobs Disappear by 2015 – by Ryan Flanagan

This article was originally published in the Thompson Citizen which was established in June 1960. The Citizen covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000.

Martins asks for Thompson to start looking to the future

January 27, 2011 – by Ryan Flanagan
news@thompsoncitizen.net

Tito Martins, president and chief executive officer of Vale Canada, was in Thompson Wednesday night to address the Thompson Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting, where he delivered a blunt message about Vale’s plans for Thompson’s smelter and refinery.

“The past has passed, it’s time to move on,” he said. “Let’s talk about the future. Let’s move on to find something else to be the important pillar of the Thompson economy.”

Although many – including provincial officials such as Dave Chomiak, minister of innovation, energy and mines, and Thompson MLA Steve Ashton – have been holding out hope that a deal could be negotiated to save the processing facilties, Martins was dismissive of that possibility.

“We don’t see any possibilities to actually change our decision, unless something really new comes up,” said Martins. “It was the obvious decision. The picture we have in front of us today doesn’t show us any alternative.” Martins did note that Vale is “obligated” to look at any proposals that might be sent their way, but added that a relaxing of environmental restrictions – the federal standards for sulphur dioxide, or SO2, emissions would require a reduction of 88 per cent from the current Thompson levels – would still not give them enough reason to leave the smelter and refinery open, as the opening of the Long Harbour refinery in 2013 will see feed from Voisey’s Bay sent there rather than Thompson, putting the feed levels at Thompson’s smelter and refinery well below the line of profitability. “Of all the scenarios we ran, there were some where we looking at bringing feed to Thompson,” said Martins. “There’s none available anywhere.”

Read more

Mattawa First Nations News Release: Government & Industry Steam Ahead on Ring of Fire Developments, While First Nations are Left Waiting on the Platform

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Thunder Bay, ON, January 13th, 2011 – With daily news releases being issued by Ontario, the mining industry and regional municipalities about developments in the Ring of Fire, the local Matawa First Nations seriously question why they have not been consulted about decisions that directly impact their people, communities and way of life.

The nine Matawa First Nations Chiefs, including Marten Falls, Webequie and Neskantaga First Nations, recently held an emergency meeting to discuss the lack of government and industry consultation in the planning and development processes taking place in the Ring of Fire. “To our knowledge, there is not one single advanced exploration or mining agreement in place between any of our First Nations and any mining company that is exploring in the Ring of Fire area.“ says Chief Roy Moonias.

Continues Chief Sonny Gagnon of Aroland First Nation; “While regional municipalities from Thunder Bay to Sudbury compete for site selection for the smelter facility and construction route of a transportation corridor into our traditional territory, our First Nations who actually live in the Ring of Fire, have not yet been invited to the table to even initiate discussions over community impacts.”

Currently Aroland First Nation is lobbying to get the smelter near the First Nation community, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Greenstone. Chief Gagnon says; “It only makes sense to build a smelter near our community and to benefit the immediate region from where the minerals are being taken out of. It is viable to generate electricity to run this mining facility in the area, but we need the Government’s support to make it a reality.”

Read more

Marten Falls Planning Ring of Fire Blockade – Wawatay News Online

Wawatay News is Northern Ontario’s First Nation Voice with offices in Sioux Lookout, Timmins and Thunder Bay. This article was posted on their website on January 26, 2011. James Thom is the Editor – jamest@wawatay.on.ca

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Marten Falls First Nation is planning another blockade in the Ring of Fire over concerns of a work camp set up near the community.

Chief Eli Moonias said protestors from his community will likely have the blockade set up within a week. The Ring of Fire is a chromite deposit in the James Bay lowlands. “This is our territory,” Moonias said. “If you want to set up a camp there you have to come and see us.”

Moonias said his community is concerned about a 40-man camp built on muskeg along Koper Lake and being used by mining companies KWG Resources Inc. and Fancamp Exploration Ltd.

Webequie Logistics, a company providing on the ground support for mining exploration companies working in the Ring of Fire area, built the camp. The company isn’t owned by Webequie First Nation, but is based out of Thunder Bay and owned by Clayton Downton and Sam Lapagge.

“Last fall they built a new camp by the lake … right on top of the water,” he said. The location of the camp is more suited for a temporary two- or three-man set up, Moonias said, adding the location is near a caribou herd.

Read more

Fate of Vale, Petrobras CEOs [Roger Agnelli, Jose Sergio Gabrielli] Hinges on [Brazil] Politics – by Brian Ellsworth and Guillermo Parra-Bernal

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on January 25, 2011.

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva harshly criticized Agnelli for slashing
investment and firing 2,000 workers after the 2008 financial crisis. Vale raised
capital spending again following heavy government pressure.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Markets dictate that corporate managers who create the most value for shareholders keep their jobs. But for Brazil’s two biggest companies, state-controlled oil firm Petrobras and mining giant Vale, the reality may shape up to be exactly the opposite.

Roger Agnelli, who over a decade helped transform Vale into the world’s leading iron ore producer, is under fire for not creating enough jobs in Brazil and rumors are swirling that President Dilma Rousseff could lobby for his ouster.

In contrast, Jose Sergio Gabrielli may stay on as Petrobras CEO despite a US$38-billion tumble in market value last year sparked by a plan that boosted government control over the company despite complaints from private shareholders.

Although Brazil is still a hot destination for emerging market investments, the apparently diverging fate of the two chief executives is a reminder that political interference is still a risk in Latin America’s largest economy.

As Brazil flexes its economic muscles and boosts its global influence, investors fear its companies could be vulnerable to government pressure to lead economic development efforts at the expense of private shareholders.

Read more

Ring of Fire Warning Issued [by First Nation] – by Kris Ketonen (January 26, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This article was published on January 26, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“As the ring of fire co-ordinator and with support of the leadership and their respective
First Nations, I can truthfully state that no longer will foreign corporations pillage our
lands, wildlife, waters and desecrate our way of life without the inclusion and
maximum benefits for our people.” Raymond Ferris (January 26, 2011)

Matawa First Nations’ new Ring of Fire co-ordinator says the provincial government is handling development in the northern chromite deposit “very badly.”

Raymond Ferris of Constance Lake First Nation began his new job with Matawa on Monday, and said the government and mining companies alike need to do a better job consulting with First Nations as development in the Ring of Fire — a potentially-massive chromite deposit in the James Bay Lowlands — proceeds.

Ferris will be responsible for co-ordinating the relationship between government, the mining industry and First Nations as it pertains to developments in the Ring of Fire.

“So far the First Nations have been acting in good faith, and the governments and industry have been taking advantage of our generosity,” Ferris said during his introduction Tuesday at the Matawa offices in Thunder Bay.

Read more

[Peter Munk Donation] Biting the Hand That Feeds Them – Financial Post Editorial

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This column was originally published in the Financial Post on January 22, 2011.

In 2006, he [Peter Munk] announced a donation of $37-million to Toronto General Hospital, for support of the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre … That was the largest gift ever made to a Canadian medical institution … (Financial Post, January 22, 2011)

Peter Munk is donating $35-million to the University of Toronto. But all left-wing activists see is the evil spectre of ‘corporatization’

Today, the University of Toronto is the site of a major protest event, which will be led by academics flown in from California, and by Toronto Star writer Linda Mc-Quaig. What’s the object of the activists’ ire — Aboriginal rights? Stephen Harper? Israel? The United States? The contested territorial status of the land-locked Central Asian region of Nagorno-Karabakh?

Nope. None of the above. The seven-hour “Anti-Corporatization teach-in” scheduled to take place at U of T’s Sidney Smith Hall will target the decision of an alumnus to give the university $35-million. Oh, the horror.

The alumnus in question is gold magnate Peter Munk, and his donation will go toward funding the U of T’s Munk School for Global Affairs. If the school’s name sounds familiar, it could be because of the global acclaim won by its Citizen Lab, which in 2010 helped uncover a network of 1,294 computers in 103 countries that had been compromised by a virus originating in China. Or it could be because of the work of renowned scholars such as director Janice Stein, who has co-authored the definitive book on Canada’s deployment to Afghanistan.

Read more

Leading Pollster Nik Nanos to Address OMA’s Annual Meet the Miners Invitees

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.
 

More than $10 billion in capital expenditures are planned by Ontario’s mining sector.
We are not sure other private sectors of the economy can match this level of recent
activity on the capital spending front. (Ontario Mining Association – January, 2011)

One of Canada’s leading public opinion analysts Nik Nanos will be the luncheon speaker at Queen’s Park for the Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners day on Tuesday, March 29, 2011.  The Meet the Miners event involves OMA member companies and their employees and it is designed to help shine the spotlight on the industry in provincial government circles.

The mining industry can’t take the members of the Legislature to the mines but, in a fashion, it can take the mines to the members of the Legislature at least one day a year.  Mining is extremely important to the future prosperity of Ontario.

Ontario electors will be going to the polls on Thursday, October 6, 2011 for the next provincial election.  Mr. Nanos is recognized as a top-flight public opinion pollster.  He is president and founder of Nanos Research, the successor company to SES Research, which he started in 1987.

Read more

[Innovation Cluster Theory] Saguenay: Next-Gen Aluminium – by Brian Banks (National Post/December 1, 2009)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This column was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine on December 1, 2009.

No. Of Companies: 70, R&D Jobs: 350, Production Jobs: 7,000

The Aluminium industry cluster in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region of Quebec, about 200 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, is a success story born of adversity. The first seeds were sown at a 1984 provincial economic summit when Alcan (now Rio Tinto Alcan, or RTA), a key employer and the region’s primary aluminium producer, announced plans for job cuts. New technology and the need to reduce costs left it no choice.

Rather than surrender, local entrepreneurs, civic leaders and Alcan itself hit upon a critical job-creation strategy — build upon Alcan’s massive presence and technical expertise by establishing companies to pursue value-added secondary and tertiary aluminium-related opportunities. Within two years, a $10-million venture capital fund had been established — with $5 million coming directly from Alcan — and the diversification had begun. Twenty-five years and several waves of private-sector, university and government-backed incentives and investments later, more than 70 spin-off companies, employing more than 7,000 workers — making everything from specialized heavy equipment to tubing and other fabricated products to world-class casting technologies for domestic and international markets — call the “Aluminium Valley” home.

While every firm is unique, the story of Mecfor Inc., based in Chicoutimi, is representative of the region’s evolution and the ways in which the cluster concept can foster success. Founded as a small forestry services firm in 1987 and later absorbed as an operating unit within a larger, local engineering and consulting firm, Mecfor took aim at the aluminium business in the late 1990s.

Read more

[Innovation Cluster Theory ]Fields of Dreams – by Karen Mazurkewich (National Post/December 1, 2009)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This column was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine on December 1, 2009.

Economic shifts and recession have brought innovation cluster theory to the forefront. Will it deliver? Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and governments are saying, ‘yes’

It was the little conference that could.

On a cloudy day this past June, a tight group of technology nerds met in Stratford, Ont., to discuss their ambitious new digital media plan. What started as a small meeting of minds mushroomed to 1,000 delegates as momentum gathered. “It surprised us, it snowballed,” organizer Tom Jenkins, executive chairman and chief strategy officer of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text Corp., would later comment. Whether motivated by fear over where the economic crisis was taking the country, or simply the chance to hobnob with Canada’s top innovation executives like Michael Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion, the conference ended on a high with a proclamation from above: the gurus — Jenkins and Lazaridis — decreed that this pastoral town (known mostly for its annual Shakespeare festival) would be transformed into Canada’s new digital media centre. Just as they had built nearby Kitchener-Waterloo into a vibrant hub for information and communication (ICT) technologies, they now planned to reshape Stratford, starting with the construction of the proposed Stratford Institute, a digital media innovation centre to be housed at the University of Waterloo.

It was as if the local dream team were channelling fiction by positing: “If we build it, they will come.” Only in this case the “they” are entrepreneurs, and the “field of dreams” a vibrant new industry to help drive the faltering economy in southern Ontario. Even the chosen leader of the project, Ian Wilson, a 66-year old retired librarian and archivist who has never written a line of code, is an unlikely saviour. But he has a vision that the new technology push into interactive digital media will be driven by creativity not just algebra. “[Firms like Open Text] know that the future means they need employees that have both the creativity of an artist and the knowledge of technology,” says Wilson, the former chief librarian and archivist of Canada, who embraced a Sisyphean task of digitizing all national publications.

Read more