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QUEEN’S PARK – In advance of a trip to the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association’s Annual General Meeting with Tim Hudak, Northern Development and Mines Critic Norm Miller demanded that the Minister explain his government’s lack of progress in the region during Question Period on Tuesday.

“We have at our fingertips one of the most lucrative resource finds in our province’s history,” Miller explained. “The government is eager to talk about the Ring of Fire and boast about the Ring of Fire, but won’t take any action beyond expanding an already bloated and uncoordinated bureaucracy.”

In his question to the Minister, Miller also asked about the lack of progress on the proposed road to the mining sites.

“This is such a basic requirement,” Miller argued. “If we can’t access it, we can’t mine it. Communities, miners, and First Nations groups are waiting. They’re getting impatient, and rightfully so. The government has been spinning its wheels for far too long.” Read the rest of this entry »

This article came from Wawatay News: http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Nibinamik First Nation is the fourth First Nation to sign a training agreement with Noront Resources that intends to help band members get mining jobs if the Ring of Fire goes ahead as planned.
 
Nibinamik chief Johnny Yellowhead signed the agreement with Noront during the community’s mining week, held from April 10-13.

“If mining is done with inclusion and respect for people on the land, everyone will win,” Yellowhead said during the signing ceremony. “That’s our main purpose with the 4-nation partnership is to try to work together and try to understand each other.”
 
Nibinamik, Webequie, Neskantaga and Eabametoong First Nations signed the 4-nations partnership during the Prospectors and Developers Association conference in Toronto in March. The bands’ initial move was to throw their support behind the East-West transportation corridor that would connect each of the communities to the southern road and power line network.
 
Now each of the four Matawa First Nations have agreed to work with Noront on pushing the federal government for skills and education training to prepare band members for jobs at the mine. Read the rest of this entry »

It may take more than a few James Cameron blockbusters to help fund a space exploration program to send robo-geologists to the nearest geologically prospective asteroid to search for PGMs.

www.mineweb.com

RENO (MINEWEB) - A press conference scheduled Tuesday morning at the Seattle Museum of Flight hopes to jump-start what investors–such as Titanic director James Cameron, Google’s Larry Page, Ross Perot Jr. and Intentional Software co-founder Charles Simonyi–hope will be the first “space rush”, opening a new frontier for mining.
 
Ironically, Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster film Avatar used precious metals mining in the fictional land of Pandora as its setting, and portrayed miners as the villians who would wipe out the pristine habitat of a local tribe of indigenous people in the name of mining the ficticious precious metal “unobtainium”.
 
Planetary Resources, a venture founded by Eric Anderson of space tourism company, Space Adventures, and a former manager of a NASA mission to Mars, and Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation for advanced technology development–intends to mine near-earth asteroids for PGMs and water, using swarms of robots.
 
A news release announcing the press conference says, “The company will overlay two critical sectors-space exploraiton and natural resources-to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.” Read the rest of this entry »

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

A Ministry of Labour inspector issued a stop-work order for First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine on Monday after a random inspection showed there were problems with the No. 2 shaft.

 About 100 production and maintenance workers, represented by Mine Mill Local 598/C AW, work at the mine. The day shift was sent home Monday and night shift was to be cancelled as well. Workers were to learn today if they were to report for work for the day shift.

 Richard Paquin, president of Mine Mill Local 598/CAW, said the No. 2 shaft is the access point for all areas underground at the mine formerly owned by Falconbridge (now Xstrata Nickel).

 Labour ministry spokesman Matt Blajer said all mines in Ontario must have two access and egress points. With the No. 2 shaft out of operation at Lockerby, the mine had to cease production. Read the rest of this entry »

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

“We are not opposed to development, but we must be involved at the outset.
First Nation rights and responsibilities demand that we are full partners
in discussions about exploration, ownership, participation in production,
and long-term sustainability of our environment, our communities and our
futures.” (Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations)

TORONTO — The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations brought a metaphorical carrot and stick to deliver his message of reconciliation to corporate Canada, saying the country faces “an aboriginal tsunami” and mending its relationship with the “newcomers” can only be achieved if they “smashed the status quo.”
 
But if any of the evocative language by Shawn Atleo caused concern among the audience of what he called “the suits of Toronto,” it seemed to be mollified by the entreaty he offered in return.

Co-operation with First Nations will avoid intractable disputes over hugely valuable resource development projects across the country, he said.
 
“Currently, First Nations are often the last to know about major resource development. This relegates our communities to few options, usually resulting in confrontation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Former NASA scientists backed by high-profile billionaires including Canadian filmmaker James Cameron, Google co-founder Larry Page and U.S. businessman Ross Perot Jr. appear poised to unveil the world’s first commercial space mining venture.

Speculation is that the company will map out plans to mine metals from asteroids captured in orbit near the Earth.
 
A California startup company has issued an invitation to a press briefing Tuesday at Seattle’s Museum of Flight to unveil a project that will “create a new industry and new definition of natural resources . . . to expand Earth’s resource base.”

While the invitation from Planetary Resources Inc. keeps details under wraps, it says the project “will overlay space exploration and natural resources . . . to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column appears every other week.

For once the outcome of an Alberta election was completely unpredictable. Right up until the end the two leading contenders — Alison Redford’s PCs and Danielle Smith’s Wildrose party — were locked in a bitter battle for control of government. But one outcome was entirely predictable.

No matter which party won there would be no sudden changes when it came to oil sands development and all the risks and rewards that go with it, not just for Alberta but for the rest of Canada. The oil sands and energy policy in general were simply not on the election agenda.

Party leaders barely mentioned the oil sands; it wasn’t a big issue in the news media; at the public forums I attended not one person questioned candidates about oil sands policy. Official oil industry voices were noticeably silent for the entire campaign. Read the rest of this entry »