First Nation wants ‘ultimate say’ on mine project, chief says – (CBC Radio Thunder Bay – June 12, 2012)

 
http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Marten Falls First Nation Chief Eli Moonias says province must recognize their voice
 
When the Chief of Marten Falls First Nation met with the Ontario mining minister Tuesday, he planned to tell him it’s time for the province to follow through on its treaty promises.
 
Minister Rick Bartolucci was expected to explain the province’s proposed framework for moving ahead with the Ring of Fire mining development and what benefits it might bring the First Nation. Chief Eli Moonias said the people in Marten Falls are looking for a lot more than the small amount of money each band member receives on treaty day.

“Since 1905, all we have had with the province is the four dollars per year that they pay,” Moonias said. “Now, here is an opportunity to do treaty implementation.” Moonias said that means the province must recognize First Nations will have the ultimate say in how — or even if — a mine is built.

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Coal is big business in B.C. – (Canadian Mining Journal – May 2012)

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

Coal is the second most important resource exported from British Columbia next to wood products. But ask someone in the province how well the forestry industry is doing and you’re likely to be faced with an icy stare. Coal is big business as the world­wide demand for coal grows and shows no sign of slowing, particularly in rapidly industrializing and developing economies. Asia in particular is hungry for B.C.’s hard coking coal, used in steelmaking, and almost four years of a soft economy have not slowed the demand.
 
This demand has led to greater interest in British Columbia’s resources from inter­national corporations, including the diver­sified mining giant, Xstrata Coal, which is located in Switzerland, and JX Nippon Oil & Gas (JX), based in Japan. Xstrata and JX recently announced a joint venture to acquire metallurgical coal properties in the Peace River region of northern Alberta. Xstrata Coal British Columbia will retain the significant share of the venture at 75% with JX purchasing a 25% for $435 million.
 
Xstrata and JX will be focusing their exploration and development efforts on three main deposits in the Peace River coal­fields. The 3,800-ha Lossan coal deposit has an estimated resource of 240 million tonnes that was acquired from Cline Mining in 2011. The Sukunka coal deposit, acquired from Calgary-based Talisman Energy in March 2012, is contiguous with the Lossan prop­erty, and has an estimated resource of 236 million tonnes. Finally, Xstrata also acquired First Coal Corporation’s assets, which rep­resented over 100,000 ha of contiguous coal licenses and applications.

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Keystone XL: How Canada’s pipeline splits the U.S.- by Mitch Potter (Toronto Star – June 9, 2012)

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.

WHITEWATER, MONTANA—Three years ago, when the Canadian pipeline people first came round Bob Math’s cattle ranch in northernmost Montana, the conversation was brittle.
 
The TransCanada emissaries were pleasant enough. But it soon became apparent their Keystone XL pipeline was more than a proposal. They were talking fait accompli.
 
“It wasn’t a request, it was an announcement: ‘This is what we’re going to do on your land,’” Math says of that initial overture to trench through his 600-head Black Angus operation tucked up tight on the Saskatchewan border.

Fast-forward to 2012 and Math is onside, having palmed a TransCanada cheque to seal the deal. And so the Canadians have this most important of neighbours — the first one on the American side — on board. And thousands more besides.
 
Two factors swayed Math to surrender permission on land homesteaded by his great-grandfather in 1915: The promise of KXL taxes for his local county government, which badly needs the help; and the fact that there is already a natural gas pipeline running beneath his property, one that hasn’t given him a speck of trouble since it was laid in the 1980s.

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Sudbury plays host to world’s miners – by Heidi Ulrichsen – (Sudbury Northern Life – June 11, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mass mining makes low grade deposits profitable

The fact that Laurentian University is hosting the International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining June 10-14 is a pretty big deal, according to the chair of the conference.

“Getting this conference into Canada is a huge deal,” Greg Baiden, a Laurentian University engineering professor and the owner of a local mining technology firm called Penguin Automated Systems, said. “The fact that Sudbury and Laurentian got to host it is an even bigger deal. All the big mining schools were vying to get access to it.”

About 700 delegates and exhibitors from more than 30 countries are attending the conference, which is being held in Canada for the first time. Federal Minister of Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was on hand to open the conference.

He highlighted the importance of the mining industry to Canada’s economic growth and long-term prosperity, adding that Greater Sudbury is a centre of job creation and innovation in the mining sector.

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Deep dive on mining innovation [Sudbury mining research]- by Denise Deveau (National Post – June 12, 2012)

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

{ISSUE} Deep mining has been identified as one of few means to meet the unprecedented demand for base metals over the next 25 years, but the practice comes with risks

{SHIFT} Engineers, academics and mining companies are collaborating to develop new means of monitoring underground rock activity to make deep mining safer

The mining industry is looking deep for reasons that have everything to do with supply and demand. Despite a wealth of reserves on the planet, easy-to-access reserves in open-pit and shallow, underground mines are declining.

It’s the shift to deep mining that is drawing a team of the country’s best mining researchers and leading mining operations to the table in an Ontario-based project that members say could dramatically improve global mining activities.

The SUMIT (Smart Underground Mining and Integrated Technologies) for Deep Mining project was launched in 2010 under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).

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EU shouldn’t throw stones at Canada – by Matthew Fisher (National Post – June 12, 2012)

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

As for the suggestion that Canada’s ambitious plans for the oil sands would turn
it into a second-tier country, this man , who is not given to hyperbole, laughed
out loud. Canada’s resource sector was, he said, one of the few things creating
any economic excitement these days.

A U.S. energy advisor to the European Union declared last week that Canada had made “a really, really historic mistake” by backing the oil sands. Europeans, who had made green power their priority, now regarded Canada as “a bad guy” that “could potentially become a second-tier country,” the EU consultant said.

Days later Germany’s ambassador to Ottawa said his country was annoyed with Canada for being slow to contribute to an International Monetary Fund bailout package for Europe.

That anyone with an EU connection today would dare to venture a critical opinion about Canada’s economic policies or its energy priorities takes some gall. Here on the sunny, unhappy shores of the Aegean Sea there are fears of serious public disorder if, as seems likely, the continent’s colossal economic woes worsen.

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Cost of water [in Marten Falls FN] – byJeff Labine (tbnewswatch.com – June 8, 2012)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The federal government has spent millions of dollars shipping bottled water to a remote First Nation community with an ineffective water treatment plant.

Marten Falls First Nation has had a boil water advisory since 2007. Bottled water is the community’s only access to clean drinking water, and as a result the First Nation has had to rely on that bottled water being shipped from Thunder Bay about twice a week.

These shipments have been coming in for nearly five years and the shipping costs are estimated to be more than $300,000 annually. The situation is also costing Marten Falls, which has to send discarded water bottles to the community’s landfill. Most of what remains has been burned up along with other thrown away items such as stoves and fridges.

Deon Peters is the head operator at the treatment plant and said the community has outgrown the facility since it was built in 1997. For the past 10 years, officials at the plant have noticed a decline in water quality. “It’s not running as well as it should,” Peters said.

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First Nation wants to slow the pace of mining activities – CBC Radio News Thunder Bay (June 11, 2012)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Webequie residents say process needs to slow down so they can participate in Ring of Fire

A mining development in northern Ontario, dubbed the Ring of Fire, is expected to be one of the first tests of the federal government’s streamlined environmental assessment.
 
An American company, Cliffs Natural Resources, plans to open a chromite mine in the James Bay lowlands by 2015. Chromite is the main ingredient in stainless steel, and Ontario is said to a quarter of the world’s supply.

Both the provincial and federal governments are keen to see the development go ahead quickly, but the people who live on the Webequie First Nation — a community closest to the proposed mine — want a slower approach. ‘What is going to happen?’

Elder Emily Jacob said she worries that deals are being made with mining companies behind closed doors. “We need to know what is being said to them — you know, the people who are making the decisions — about what is going to happen in this Ring of Fire,” Jacob said. “We need to know that.”

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‘Misunderstanding’ [between Webequie and Noront]- by Jeff Labine (tbnewswatch.com – June 11, 2012)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The chief of Webequie First Nation says the situation with junior mining company Noront Resources Ltd was all a misunderstanding.

Webequie Chief Cornelius Wabasse voiced his disappointment when Noront announced they would be delaying their feasibility study following Cliffs Natural Resources decision to move its ferrochrome plant to the Sudbury area.

Noront had been working on a feasibility study for its deposit containing copper and nickel. The company was proposing an east-to-west, all-season road that would run from Pickle Lake to the Ring of Fire area. But the company believes the province might be making an eventual commitment to the north-south road proposed by Cliffs.
That decision is a major factor in the delay.

While the series of events may have led to some friction between the First Nation community and Noront, Wabasse said they will remain open to development and continue to work with the company.

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