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Symbol of Ontario legislative authority goes on a summer vacation to the James Bay coast

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.

The ceremonial Mace from the Ontario Legislature, which is adorned with two diamonds from De Beers Canada’s Victor Mine near Attawapiskat, went on a summer vacation earlier this month.  This symbol of authority at Queen’s Park made its first trip outside the Legislature since 1867 and toured the Victor Mine and communities on the James Bay coast. 

The first and second diamonds mined, cut and polished in Ontario, which were donated by De Beers Canada, were encrusted in the Mace when it was refurbished in 2009.  Accompanying the Mace on its rare summer vacation were Speaker of the Ontario Legislature Steve Peters, his Sergeant-at-Arms, Queen’s Park officials and the local MPP for Timmins-James Bay Gilles Bisson.

“Visiting the Victor Mine was an excellent opportunity to bring the diamonds, which grace the Ontario Legislature’s Mace, back to the people who mined them and the First Nations whose lands the diamonds came from,” said Mr. Peters, who also served as Ontario’s Minister of Labour from 2005 to 2007.  “The health and safety practiced by De Beers is commendable and something every organization and company should aspire to attain.”  

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What would change if employees owned ONR? – by John R. Hunt (North Bay Nugget – July 19, 2011)

The North Bay Nugget, established in 1907, is the daily newspaper for the northeastern Ontario community of North Bay.

What is wrong with the ONR? Ask this question anywhere in Northern Ontario and you will likely get at least a dozen answers. Ask it in Southern Ontario and you will discover no one has ever heard of the ONR and few give a hoot about Northern Ontario.

The current furor over the ONR repair shops losing a contract to a non-unionized Quebec outfit deserves much more fundamental thinking than it is getting.

The McGuinty mob is being pilloried because it did not intervene to protect the ONR. No one has pointed out how McGuinty and company would be excoriated if GO Train passengers discovered they had to pay extra so that North Bay jobs were protected. At the same time in this rough, tough and brutal world, no one asks the ONR why it is not more competitive?

The Nugget ripped the Band-Aid off a sore point when it revealed the ONTC is comprised of a gaggle of health care bureaucrats and educators. It also has a retired cop presumably charged with keeping them safe from outraged citizens.

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[Timmins] Miners dig deal – by Kristine MacDougall (Timmins Daily Press – July 20, 2011)

The Daily Press is the newspaper of record for the city of Timmins

Goldcorp, Xstrata Copper finalize partnership agreement

A new partnership agreement between Xstrata Copper and Goldcorp is providing a sustainable future for both operations in Timmins. “We’ve been working on this agreement for over a year, and to finally see it be signed is a great accomplishment,” said David Yaschyshyn, Xstrata Copper’s superintendent of environment and industrial Hygiene.

“It truly is a win-win for both operations.” The announcement came Tuesday morning at Goldcorp’s Hoyle Pond Mine Site, just east of the met site property in Hoyle Township.

“We’ve secured a long-term supply of tailings for the paste filling operations at the Kidd Mine for its life. As well as being able to secure a supply of rock for our construction activities at the Kidd Concentrator site,” said Yaschyshyn.

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Movie looks at Timmins’ first 100 years Movie looks at Timmins’ first 100 years – by Kristine MacDougall (Timmins Daily Press – July 20, 2011)

The Daily Press is the newspaper of record for the city of Timmins.

The history of Timmins is coming to the big screen.

Timmins: The first 100 is an independently produced film about the city’s rich history. “It struck me about three or four months ago that we’re having the 100th year celebrations and there was no film,” said producer Kevin Vincent.

The 90-minute movie provides a look at life in the Porcupine Camp, the men and women who fought their way into the camp in search of gold, and the devastating 1911 fire. It also chronicles the bitter labour battles, the folklore of hotel life, Timmins rich multicultural heritage, and Timmins highgrading industry, and related crime, as a result of gold mining in the area.

Work and research for the movie was compiled over the last two and a half decades.

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[Tim Hudak’s] Changebook North must be more than wish list – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – July 19, 2011)

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

OPINION: Conservatives must be committed to following through

The Progressive Conservatives won’t have a problem selling their platform in Northern Ontario this provincial election. The big question mark for the Tories is whether or not most Northerners will believe the sales pitch. As the saying goes: If an offer seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak revealed the platform, changebook North, last week. It reads like a political wish list for Northern Ontario.

It includes promises things such as the cancellation of the Far North Act, giving all municipalities a share of the gas tax, letting Northern communities decide how they should grow, and ensuring First Nations are real partners and will benefit from the wealth creation in the North. From reduced hydro bills to cutting HST on home heating, a promise is in there.

“The people calling for change the loudest are from the North, and with good reason,” the document’s intro states. “If Ontario is the engine of Confederation, then Northern Ontario is the fuel — the lumber, the minerals and the minds that power us forward. But for too long, the needs of the North have been ignored.

“The Southern Ontario special interests, with their fantasy view of what Northern living really is, have far too much say of the decisions that affect actual Northern families. The North needs change.”

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Ontario gold producer Wesdome’s expansion supports new opportunities in Algoma

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.

Like people, mine developments come in all shapes and sizes.  They are diverse.  Gold producer Wesdome’s recently announced re-starting of its Mishi Pit near Wawa on a year-round basis is an example that proves even small operations can offer major positive contributions to host communities. 

Wesdome recently had its amended closure plan for the Mishi open pit approved, which gave the green light to expanding production from the Mishi pit to a 12-month-a-year operation.  Ore from the Mishi surface mine will be shipped two kilometres to the Eagle River Mill and mine complex.

The initial five year expansion plan will boost Eagle River production by 1,000 ounces of gold per month and the $48 million expenditure for labour and equipment will be a boost to Wawa.  Donovan Pollitt, Wesdome President and Chief Executive Officer, says the expansion will lead to 16 new people being hired at the mine and a second shift will be run at the mill.  He added that a contractor has been hired to drill, blast and haul the ore to the mill and it is expected 10 to 15 people will be added to its payroll for this project. 

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Northern Ontario Policy Advice for Tim Hudak – by Livio Di Matteo (July 14, 2011)

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak is in Thunder Bay today and along with an appearance at The Hoito will also be addressing a luncheon being sponsored by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.  According to the most recent poll by Ipsos-Reid, Mr. Hudak’s Conservatives hold an 11 point lead over the Liberals overall but have even stronger support outside of the GTA.  Even Northern Ontario apparently has Mr. Hudak in the lead.  However, it is only July and the election is not until October and given the voting tradition in the North, red and orange rather than blue are the usual autumn colours. Perhaps, Mr. Hudak will prove them wrong.  Nevertheless, internal party polling must have revealed this trend earlier, which is why this week also saw more aggressive Liberal ads attacking Tim Hudak.

Mr. Hudak, should he become premier, will certainly have his hands full given Ontario’s productivity challenge, Ontario’s infrastructure challenge and Ontario’s fiscal challenge.  Moreover, there is also Ontario’s northern economic development challenge.  What policy suggestions would Northern Economist like to leave with Mr. Hudak?

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NEWS RELEASE: Message to Mines Ministers: Booming Mining Sector Offers Opportunities Coast to Coast to Coast

OTTAWA, July 18, 2011 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) today released a submission to Canada’s ministers of natural resources in advance of the annual meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers, being held July 18-19 in Kananaskis Alberta.   The submission was prepared by MAC on behalf of the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation, a grouping of the 15 national, provincial and territorial mining industry associations, and highlights the significant economic opportunity for new mining investment.

With strong and, in some cases, record commodity prices, the global mining industry is enjoying a period of growth and expansion not seen in many years.  In Canada, this is leading to the expansion of existing facilities, the development of new projects and increased exploration, with Canada continuing to attract the largest percentage of global exploration spending.  Over the next five years, MAC has estimated that over $110 billion could be invested in existing and new projects, creating thousands of high-paying jobs in every region of the country.

The submission highlights the important role played by the Canadian mining industry in contributing to national prosperity – such as contributing $35 billion to GDP, generating prosperity in remote areas as well as our major cities, accounting for 21% of total Canadian goods exports, and paying almost $10 billion annually to Canadian governments. 

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2011 mineral industry recommendations to Canada’s Energy and Mines Ministers Conference – Kananaskis, Alberta, July 2011

The PDAC, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and members of the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation (CMIF) were invited to provide federal, provincial and territorial mines ministers with views and recommendations regarding policy issues of importance to our industry. The CMIF members represent the majority of companies engaged in mineral exploration, mining, and processing – accounting for most of Canada’s production of base and precious metals, uranium, diamonds, metallurgical and thermal coal, potash and mined oil sands.

Tens of Billions of Dollars in New Investment – A Course of Action for Ministers

A Brief to the 68th Mines Ministers’ Conference, Kananaskis Submitted by the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation, July 2011

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC), the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the fifteen other mining-related associations that are members of the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation (CMIF) appreciate this opportunity to provide federal, provincial and territorial Mines Ministers with views and recommendations regarding policy issues of importance to our industry. The CMIF members represent the majority of companies engaged in mineral exploration, mining, and processing – accounting for most of Canada’s production of base and precious metals, uranium, diamonds, metallurgical and thermal coal, potash and mined oil sands.

1.0 OVERVIEW OF CANADA’S MINERALS INDUSTRY

The Canadian Economy

After seven years of strong performance from 2000 to 2007, a global recession took hold in late-2008 and served to reduce Canadian GDP by 2.5% through 2009. Mineral prices fell in most commodities, operations in mines and smelters were reduced and mineral exploration spending curtailed. However, global economic growth, again led by China, resumed in the final quarter of 2009 and has continued to be strong through 2010 and the first two quarters of 2011.

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NEWS RELEASE: KWG Applauds Unity Declaration of Matawa Chiefs

Montreal, Canada, July 15, 2011 – KWG Resources Inc. (TSXV: KWG) welcomes the announcement yesterday of the Unity Declaration made by the Chiefs of the nine First Nations of the Matawa Council of First Nations.

“This is an exceedingly encouraging development”, said KWG President Frank Smeenk. “There has been a lot of jockeying amongst all the players affected by the Ring of Fire discoveries, and the Chiefs are demonstrating their profound wisdom in determining to act together to confront those opportunities for all of their communities and people.”

“We are in complete agreement with Chief Moonias of the Marten Falls First Nation when he observed, in the press release announcing the Unity Declaration:   ‘Our First Nations do not oppose responsible development but as the people of the land, we want to benefit from these potential mining developments and negotiate meaningful employment and business opportunities for our communities, while ensuring the environment is not at risk’.”

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Ontario Marches North – by Douglas Lapham (Maclean’s May 1, 1931)

Thirty years ago North Bay was “Far North” in Ontario. Now the railway builder is reaching out 400 miles still farther north to a “back-door” ocean port and the power engineer is taming mighty torrents in the heart of the wilderness

Two big acts of a drama of winter are drawing to a successful close in the bleak wilderness that stretches north of Cochrane in Northern Ontario, in that No Man’s Land which lies between the Canadian National transcontinental line and James Bay, downthrust spur of Hudson Bay.

They are unrelated scenes in a panorama of development which for years has been changing this once distant North into an annex of the industrial South. But the same man is behind them both. The same dynamic figure is pulling the strings, urging , striving, fighting. He is Harry Falconer McLean, president of the Dominion Construction Company, Ltd., a twentieth-century figure as picturesque as any of the Dominion builders Canada has known.

But first let us get the two acts straight. One is the damming of the east branch of the Moose River at Murray Island, less than fifty miles from Moose Factory, the erection of seventeen concrete piers across the west branch of the same river for a million-dollar steel bridge, so that the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway – Ontario’s publicly owned railroad – may reach Moose Factory and tidewater before fall.

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Hec McQuarrie’s Wedding [Cobalt History] – by A.E. Alpine (Northern Miner – July 17, 1989)

My father-in-law, “Ole Hec” McQuarrie was a colourful, ebullient hardrock shaftman and nowhere was this more evident than at table No. 7 (Ole Hec’s table) at Albert’s Hotel, Timmins, Ontario.

George Hector McQuarrie was born in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, was orphaned at an early age and raised by a doting aunt. He was educated in private school where he excelled in mathematics. Things went smoothly until the summer he turned 18 and got a job in a gold mine in Moose River Nova Scotia. He liked mining and would not return to school. By 19 he was working in the shaft.

Cobalt was the hot spot in mining then so Hector said goodbye to Moose River and headed to silver. He started in a shaft being sunk by the well-known shaft contractor Foghorn MacDonald and it wasn’t long before he was leading a shift. When Foghorn was awarded the contract to sink the shafts and do the connecting work for the world famous compressed air plant at Ragged Chutes, he named Hec as leader of the “Nova Scotian” unit. Foghorn always kept the Cape Breton ex-coal miners on one shift and the Nova Scotian “herring chokers” on another shift to avoid dissension (and broken heads).

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Hudak promises change for the North – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – July 15, 2011)

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

“I understand why people would be cynical. For years the government has put
the wish list of Southern Ontario special interest groups ahead of Northern
Ontario….We need to demonstrate to all Ontarians the vital need to develop
the Ring of Fire….This is a once in a century opportunity.”
(PC Leader Tim Hudak – July 15, 2011)

www.changebook.ca/north

Tory leader says Kidd Creek smelter shutdown was avoidable

Tim Hudak says the closure of the smelter at the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site was completely avoidable. It was a matter of government priorities.

The provincial Progressive Conservative Leader unveiled his election platform for Northern Ontario this week. Dubbed changebook North, Hudak claims his party will create an environment that will allow the region to prosper.

High hydro costs and taxation, he said, are two of the reasons that companies like Xstrata Copper take jobs out of province. “(Premier Dalton) McGuinty failed to provide the leadership necessary to keep those jobs,” Hudak said in an interview with The Daily Press on Friday. “This was a catastrophic loss for not only Timmins, but for all of Ontario.

“We want to make Northern Ontario attractive for investment. High taxes and hydro rates have moved Ontario to the bottom of the list for investment.”

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The [global] race for rare metals – by Geoffrey York and Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – July 16, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. Brenda Bouw is the Globe’s mining reporter.

VANRHYNSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA, VANCOUVER – Filled with radioactive waste, its buildings gutted and crumbling after 48 years of disuse, the abandoned Steenkampskraal mine would seem to hold little value to anyone.

Until recently, the decaying apartheid-era mine in a remote patch of South African desert was mainly of interest to scientists studying the effects of high radiation on the thousands of bats that hibernate in the empty mine shaft.

But soon the bats will be evicted, the radioactive waste will be buried and the shaft refurbished. The Canadian owners of this mine are scrambling to tap the mine’s rare-earth minerals – possibly the hottest commodity on the planet these days, with immense strategic and technological significance, and pivotal to a global geopolitical rivalry.

As prices soar, there is a frantic global rush to develop new sources of rare earths. These obscure minerals – 17 different elements with futuristic names such as neodymium, samarium, yttrium and lanthanum – are crucial for everything from guided missiles and hybrid cars to flat-screen televisions, iPods and BlackBerry phones.

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Tories roll out Northern Ontario platform – Star Staff (Sudbury Star – July 15, 2011)

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

www.changebook.ca/north

A Progressive Conservative government would hold one cabinet meeting a year in Northern Ontario and fork over a portion of the taxes generated by new mines to northern municipalities.

A PC government would also let Northern Ontario’s towns and cities decide how they should develop and grow, the party’s candidate for Nickel Belt said Thursday.

“I’m hoping that every Northerner will read what the (Tim) Hudak government has planned for the future of the North,” Peroni said in a release.

“They will clearly see that changebook North is the result of listening to thousands of northerners in our Have Your Say Ontario survey, that it protects the Northern way of life and that it keeps wealth in the North.

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