Republic of Mining

Exclusionary Planning in Ontario [Aboriginal Conflict and Ring of Fire Mineral Development] – Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?

February 17, 2011January 5, 2011

This posting is an excerpt from “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” , a Conference Board of Canada publication written by three nationally renowned Canadian scholars: Thomas Berger , Steven A. Kennett and Hayden King.

“Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” Highlights:

Most of Canada’s natural resources—forests, metals and minerals, hydroelectric sites, oil and natural gas, and untapped resources that can be further developed—are in the North, and a warming climate is making them more accessible. Businesses, Aboriginal communities, and federal, provincial, and territorial governments will all want their share of the benefits of Northern economic development.

Canada’s North: What’s the Plan? draws on the different viewpoints of three nationally renowned scholars to explore the effectiveness of land use planning in Canada’s North from three very distinct perspectives. Their essays are required reading for those seeking to understand this important issue and draw their own conclusions.

Ontario represents the worst type of planning with Indigenous peoples—a seemingly complete disregard for the perspectives and opinions of the people who will be most directly affected by the land use plans. – The Conference Board of Canada Publication – “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” (November, 2010)

Exclusionary Planning in Ontario

While Nunavut and Yukon have pursued land use plans through the relatively recent NLCA and UFA, treaties in Northern Ontario are over 100 years old and make no mention of planning commissions. There are also no stipulations for the co-management of surrendered lands in the North, and there is no consensus on roles and responsibilities. In fact, there is little consensus about who actually has authority in Ontario’s North. The Cree and Ojibwe feel that they agreed to share their territories in treaties 3, 5, and 9. Ontario feels that there was explicit surrender and, thus, the Crown has jurisdiction.

This is the unsteady footing from which planning proceeds in the province. Not evolving from the claims-based co-management common in the territories, Ontario’s experience might be described more as crisis-based, as it is a response to numerous high-profile confrontations. However, despite the differences between Nunavut’s and Ontario’s land use planning regimes, there are similarities—primarily, the exclusion of Indigenous peoples from the planning process. In Ontario’s case, the problem does not lie in the execution of plans, but in the drafting.

Ontario has an inauspicious history with First Nations communities in the province. That history has even occasionally resulted in violent conflict with the Haudenosaunee and Algonquin peoples, often over lands and resources. Of course, the province has witnessed the police shooting death of Dudley George at Ipperwash and the ongoing standoff in Caledonia, but most pertinent have been a number of recent conflicts in the North.

2011 Ring of Fire Update Speech – by Ontario MNDMF Michael Gravelle

January 5, 2011January 5, 2011

This Speech was give by Michael Gravelle Minister Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry at the Thunder Bay Rotary Club (Port Arthur Division) on January 4, 2011.

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

Check Against Delivery

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. It’s a privilege to join you once again. And, I am especially honoured to help launch Port Arthur Rotary’s New Year. On that note, let me offer to each and every one of you my most heartfelt wishes for good health and good fortune in 2011.

Today, I will update you on two of Ontario’s major initiatives:

(1) modernizing the Mining Act; and

(2) the Ring of Fire development in the Far North of Ontario.

Let me start with a brief progress report on MAM — Mining Act Modernization. As you know, the minerals sector is one of Ontario’s major economic drivers.

When we set out to modernize Ontario’s Mining Act, we wanted to strengthen our minerals sector through clear rules and regulations, as well as with streamlined administrative processes. Amending the Act will result in a more balanced approach to mineral exploration and development, and will help keep our mining industry competitive and responsive.

Northeastern Ontario is the Hardrock Mining Heartland of North America – by Dick DeStefano

September 14, 2018January 5, 2011

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca

This column was originally published in the December, 2010 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

The Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) has become a major player in mining centres domestically and globally in the past seven years. Our members’ proximity to a critical mass of mining operations in Central Canada and the quality of their products and services has enhanced their relationship with mining companies both domestically and globally.

John Pollesel, Vale Canada COO & Director for North Atlantic Base Metals Operations, supported this belief in a recent presentation to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce when he said, “(Vale) has one of the best mining supply and service sectors in the world today. This gives us a significant competitive advantage to have access to these supplies and services in our own backyard.

“Although we have embarked on a global procurement strategy, in order to have services and materials delivered as soon as possible, buyers are encouraged to check first with local vendors. In fact, between September 2009 and August 2010, 97 per cent per cent of purchases for goods alone for our Sudbury operations were from vendors located in Ontario.

“Eighty per cent of those transactions were with Sudbury supply and service companies, worth approximately $60 million.”

Mining Has Become the World’s Most Popular Profession – by Russell Noble

January 3, 2011

Russell Noble is the editor of the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. This editorial is from the December, 2010 issue.

Thanks to a cave-in, mining is now the world’s most popular profession.

Forget about doctors and firefighters for a moment because, to paraphrase, the word popular means: “known to the general masses of people,” and with that, who can argue that the recently televised rescue of 33 miners in Chile didn’t make mining popular?

No other event in the history of the industry has brought more attention to the profession than the rescue of those miners. That single event taught more than a billion people around the world just what mining is all about.

They learned about the earth and where minerals are found, they learned about the research and engineering that’s involved with getting at those minerals and, most importantly, they learned about the people who risk their lives to retrieve those minerals.

In all, no other profession has been so vividly showcased before the eyes of the world.

Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North – Chapter 3: Metal and Non-Metallic Mineral Mining

January 12, 2011January 3, 2011

The Conference Board of Canada is the foremost independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada. It is not a government department or agency and conducts, publishes, and disseminates objective and non-partisan research on economic trends, as well as organizational performance and public policy issues. Click here for Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North.

Please note that charts and maps are omitted from this posting.

The metal and non-metallic mineral mining industry has a long history of providing wealth and employment to Canadians. From the Klondike gold rush in the late 1800s, to the large-scale development and production of potash in Saskatchewan, to diamonds in the Northwest Territories, the industry has maintained its lustre on the global stage.

The industry has endured many boom-bust cycles in its history. In the 1960s, metal and non-metallic mineral mining directly accounted for over 2 per cent of the Canadian economy; by 2009, the industry’s share had shrunk to 0.5 per cent. But the situation is expected to turn around in the coming years as mining continues to be developed— particularly in Canada’s North.

The metal and non-metallic mineral mining industry
has a long history of providing wealth and employment
to Canadians.

Even in 2009—the worst year for mining in recent history—the industry contributed $6.5 billion to the
Canadian economy (in real terms) and continued to export a diverse variety of resources. There are many
spin-off benefits not included in the $6.5 billion: construction, transportation, utilities, warehousing, and
communications are some of the other industries that benefit directly from the development and production
of a single mine.

News Release: Conference Board of Canada – Mining And Related Support Industries Offer The Greatest Economic Potential For Northern Canada

January 12, 2011January 3, 2011

Ottawa, December 17 —The natural resources sector – and the industries that support it – provide the strongest potential for Northern Canada’s future economic development, The Conference Board of Canada concludes in a study for its Centre for the North, released today.

This report, Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North, is one of a series of foundational studies for the Centre for the North. It is intended to provide a launch pad for further inquiry into the future economic development potential of the North.

“The economic potential of Northern Canada is highly dependent on its mining and oil and gas resources,” said Len Coad, Director, Environment, Energy and Technology Policy, The Conference Board of Canada. “These primary industries also drive growth in other sectors of Northern economies, including communication, electricity and transportation infrastructure, and commercial services. They can contribute to the prosperity of northern communities by providing jobs and supporting local businesses.”

The Conference Board uses the Northern Development Ministers Forum’s definition of the North as the basis for this research. Based on this definition, the North comprises the three territories and the northern parts of seven provinces – 80 per cent of Canada’s land mass in all, but it makes up less than seven per cent of the population. This study identified a collection of seven key industries—oil and gas, mining, forestry, fishing, utilities, construction, and tourism.

Breakaway Country [Northwestern Ontario] – by Livio Di Matteo

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on September 06, 2006.

Livio Di Matteo is professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and a co-author of a recent paper in Canadian Public Policy dealing with “Mantario.”

How can we empower people in these regions to help solve their own problems rather than wait for a supplicated solution from a pharaoh in a distant capital? In an act of supreme neglect, the Canadian federation has allowed its vital “zone of transit” [Northwestern Ontario] to decline to the point where an errant moose could choke the lifeblood of the nation. – Livio Di Matteo (Sept/06)

The isolated residents of northwestern Ontario are tired of life as a resource extraction colony. One option would be to create a new province – Mantario

The northwestern portion of Ontario, comprising the Districts of Thunder Bay, Kenora and Rainy River, represents 60% of Ontario’s land and an area the size of France. It was an imperial acquisition of the 19th-century when the province viewed itself as “Empire Ontario.”

It is a region rich in natural resources but sparse in population, and yet it is vital to the Canadian federation as an east-west transport corridor for road, ship and rail. Indeed, one can only imagine how different Canadian history might have been had northwestern Ontario become part of Minnesota. While alienation from Southern Ontario has affected all of Northern Ontario, sparking periodic calls to separate, the feeling has become particularly acute in the region stretching from White River to Kenora.

Thirty-Eight Years of Progress [Timmins History]– by Norman E. Green

January 2, 2011January 2, 2011

A Brief History of the Porcupine District

Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines Limited: Public Relations Section – Timmins (This document was published between 1947 and 1949.

More than two hundred years before gold was discovered in the Porcupine, a narrow winding trail made its way from Porcupine Lake to the Mattagami River. Indians and Trappers, carrying canoes and heavy packsacks on their backs, crossed this trail many times, intent only on reaching their destination at either end and continuing their journey.

Little did they realize that beneath their feet, in places close enough to be marked by their boots, lay unmeasured wealth, gold which has since played a prominent pat in all phases of the history of our country.

Following the discovery of silver at Cobalt, and the development of that area, interest in the possibility of similar deposits in the Porcupine district was aroused. In 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1905, and 1906, parties of government surveyors working in the district were impressed by the nature of the country and the possibilities it offered. In 1908, Dr. W. A. Parks, of Toronto University, examined the district and in his report stated: “I regard the region south of Porcupine Lake as giving promise to the prospector.”

The 2010 Tom Peters Memorial Reclamation Award

January 2, 2011

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.

This posting came from the Ontario Mining Association’s 90th Anniversary Publication (October/2010): http://www.oma.on.ca/en/resources/OMAat90three.pdf

The 2010 Tom Peters Memorial Reclamation Award was given to the Penokean Hills Field Naturalists (PHFN), the City of Elliot Lake and Rio Algom Limited for the work they did in converting the Milliken tailings management area (TMA) into a 182-ha wetland that includes marsh, bog and shoreline, as well as mature mixed forest.

The Milliken mine and mill operated from 1958 to 1964, producing 5.7 million tonnes of tailings to the Stanleigh TMA. During this period an estimated 76,500 tonnes of tailings were released to Sheriff Creek in an area later rehabilitated to form the Milliken TMA, This 17-ha area was remediated in the late 1970s. Drainage channels were installed on part of the tailings. The flat area that remained was covered by three feet of sandy gravel to form a ball field while the rest of the tailings area was flooded to form a wetland. The field was transformed in 1978 into an equestrian practice and competition field. In 1997, a berm was constructed at the outlet of the wetland to ensure the tailings remained saturated. In 2000, the berm and spillway were upgraded to safely cope with a probable maximum precipitation event.

In 1990, Erwin Meisner of the Penokean Hills Field Naturalists, asked Rio Algom whether it would consider transforming Sheriff Creek Park into the Sheriff Creek Bird Sanctuary. (The naturalists recognized the diversity of bird habitats that had evolved in the area.) With the support of Rio Algom, the PHFN secured support from the city and established a bird sanctuary at the park. In 1996, PHFN and Rio Algom entered into a “Stewardship Agreement” that identi¬fied operational objectives and prescribed activities for the sanctuary.

Ontario’s First Nations Have Become Key Stakeholders in the Mining Sector

January 2, 2011

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.

This posting came from the Ontario Mining Association’s 90th Anniversary Publication (October/2010): http://www.oma.on.ca/en/resources/OMAat90three.pdf

The Aboriginal Relations Committee was formed in 2006 to improve communications between the mining industry and First Nations, and to assist the government to develop consultation models to match evolving court decisions.

Jeremy Wyeth, De Beers’ representative at the Ontario Mining Association, was the first to suggest that the association set up the committee and served as its first chair. He later went on to be the OMA Executive Director for 2007 and 2008. The current chair is Jonathan Fowler, a geologist who has worked at De Beers for 42 years, 28 of which have been spent in Canada.

As an exploration geologist, Fowler was usually one of the first people De Beers sent in to investigate remote areas. In the field, he would talk to hunters and trappers and tell them about the work De Beers was planning. This practice evolved into communicating with local communities then with community leaders. Due to the remoteness of the exploration projects, the locals Fowler dealt with were usually First Nations.

Ontario Mining: From the Past to the Future – by OMA President Chris Hodgson

January 2, 2011

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.

This posting came from the Ontario Mining Association’s 90th Anniversary Publication (October/2010): http://www.oma.on.ca/en/resources/OMAat90three.pdf

Perhaps no industry plays a greater proportionate role in helping to develop First Nation capacity than mining. In Ontario there are in excess of 40 Impact Benefit Agreements

that have been signed between First Nations and mining companies. The industry is playing an expanding role in providing employment and entrepreneurial

opportunities for Aboriginals. – OMA President Chris Hodgson, Oct/2010

This year, the Ontario Mining Associ¬ation is celebrating its 90th anniver¬sary – a worthy measure by any yardstick. We thank The Northern Miner for this special publication to acknowledge the OMA’s anniversary and for sharing in the association’s landmark occasion.

Celebrating important anniversaries provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on the past for individuals and organizations. These anniversaries also give impetus to look where we are today and to measure accomplishments of how much progress has been made. However, they should also be used to look to the future and predict where we may be at anniversaries yet to come.

The OMA is one of the longest-serving trade organizations in the country and its strength rests with its dedicated member companies.

Since 1920, there have been 15 different Canadian prime ministers, 17 different Ontario premiers and 32 different Ontario mines ministers. In 1920, we lived in a world without televisions, computers, internet, satellite communi¬cations, high-level medical diagnostic equipment, cell phones, super highways and global airline routes. Mankind has provided the ingenuity, and mining has provided the materials to create these advances in modern society.

News Release: Sherritt Provides Update on the Ambatovy Project

January 2, 2011

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Click here to view: Sherritt International Corporation 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

TORONTO, December 17, 2010 – Sherritt International Corporation (“Sherritt) (TSX:S) announced today the approval of increased capital costs for the Ambatovy Project to a total budget of US$4.76 billion, which includes a contingency of US$50 million. Sherritt intends to fund its 40% share of the capital cost increase directly.

During second-quarter 2010, the construction of the power plant, which was being executed under a turn-key contract, was identified as having high potential for delay in completion. The
slower construction progress on the power plant attracted additional costs in terms of management and engineering personnel and is the major contributing factor to the higher expected capital cost. During third-quarter 2010, Sherritt and the EPCM contractor assumed control of construction of the power plant.

Ian W. Delaney, Chairman and CEO of Sherritt commented, “We have thoroughly reviewed every facet of this Project and I am confident the required steps have been taken to keep it on track to produce metal by the summer of 2011. While the variance from our original capital projection is 5%, we felt the steps taken were necessary to ensure that the plant will operate as designed, and that we can ramp up production at a rate which will enable nickel to be delivered to customers as early as possible.”

News Release: Sherritt to acquire a controlling interest in the Sulawesi Nickel Project

January 2, 2011

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Click here to view: Sherritt International Corporation 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

TORONTO, December 1, 2010 – Sherritt International Corporation (“Sherritt” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: S) today announced it has executed an earn-in and shareholders agreement with a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Limited (“Rio Tinto”) whereby Sherritt will acquire an interest in the Sulawesi Nickel Project (the “Sulawesi Project”) in Indonesia. Subject to satisfaction of certain conditions, Sherritt will acquire a controlling 57.5% equity interest in the holding company that owns the Sulawesi Project, and Rio Tinto will continue to hold the remaining 42.5%. Sherritt has been appointed as the Operator and will license its commercially-proven, proprietary technology to the Project. As consideration for its interest, Sherritt has committed to fund US$110 million towards producing a feasibility study from which a development decision will be made.

In compliance with Indonesia’s Mining Law, local Indonesian interests are expected to acquire a 20% interest in the Project. Following that event, Sherritt and Rio Tinto together will indirectly own and control an 80% interest in the Sulawesi Project, which will give Sherritt a controlling interest and a 46% economic interest with Rio Tinto maintaining a 34% economic interest.