July 27, 2011 – Republic of Mining

Cliffs Natural Resources endorses Ring of Fire railroad plan – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 2011)

July 27, 2011July 27, 2011

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Rails to Ontario’s Ring of Fire

With a $2 billion pricetag for a proposed Ring of Fire railroad, KWG Resources is searching for innovative ways to finance it. Building a Ring of Fire railroad to move millions of bulk tonnes of chromite is a certainty, said a senior official with Cliffs Natural Resources.

Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, who is overseeing the Ohio miner’s project development in the James Bay lowlands, said rail is an inevitability as more mines come onstream in the remote district.

In last winter’s base case for its high grade Black Thor chromite deposit, Cliffs proposed a permanent year-round haul road between the mine site and railway connections near Nakina in northwestern Ontario. But Boor clarified that one mine alone doesn’t support the investment of a railroad.

However, establishing a transportation corridor will improve the economics of other nearby deposits. Once that “scale” is built up, Boor said, “the right answer is to put a railroad in place.

Digging in: Proves bigger can be better [Ontario mining] – Peter Koven (National Post – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

Detour Lake, Ontario – It will soon be Canada’s largest gold mine. For now, it is simply one of its busiest construction sites.

More than 900 people and 14 different contracting companies are hard at work at the mosquito-infested Detour Lake site at Northern Ontario, where construction on Detour Gold Corp.’s $1.3-billion gold mine is moving at impressive speed. It is the biggest of several promising gold projects that promise to make Ontario a much bigger player in the global gold sector as the metal continues to hit record highs.

“Managing 14 contractors to stay on time and on budget is always challenging. But so far, so good,” says Gerald Panneton, Detour Gold’s chief executive.

Like many other mining projects in Canada and around the world, Detour Lake is a past-producing property that is being revitalized as a new operation because of high prices. But what makes Detour unique is the stunning exploration success that its new owners have managed in a brief period of time. In five years, Mr. Panneton’s team has identified almost 15 million ounces of gold reserves, with more being added on a regular basis. Including resources, the project holds more than 25 million ounces.

Digging in: Beating the bad rap [British Columbia mining] – Peter Koven (National Post – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

For all the criticism that British Columbia’s mining industry receives, Jim O’Rourke will tell you that it is a good place to do business.

He should know. Mr. O’Rourke is the chief executive of Copper Mountain Mining Corp., which is holding the grand opening of its namesake mine in B.C. next month. It is the most promising new operation to open in B.C. in years. He was also involved in a number of prior B.C. projects, including the Endako mine in the 1960s and the Gibraltar mine in the 1970s.

“The whole Copper Mountain project went very well. From the time of buying the mine, completing our preliminary assessment in the first year, we went right into the feasibility study and met all of our targets over the past four years,” he says. “I think things have gotten a little more complicated [in B.C.] but, overall, it went well.”

New chair at [Sudbury’s] CEMI [mining research] – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. hcarmichael@thesudburystar.com

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation at Laurentian University now has a Research Chair for Holistic Mining Practices. Douglas Morrison, who had been Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation’s vice-president, will head the new post announced Tuesday.

The position is being created thanks to $823,000 from the province’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation’s Emerging Technology Program.

“I do know it’s going to create a better milieu for mining,” said Sudbury Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci, who announced the money at a press conference at the Willet Green Miller Centre on the Laurentian campus. “This research, this innovation is going to create greater numbers of jobs.”

Morrison, who has 30 years experience in the mining field, including time with both Falconbridge and Inco, has also worked for Golder Associates, serving as the company’s Global Mining Sector leader from 2005-10 before joining the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation.