[Duluth Metals Ltd.] Company boosts projections for mine near Ely, Minnesota – by Associated Press (Canadian Business Magazine – June 13, 2012)

Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-publishing business magazine in Canada.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — New data suggest that a proposed mine near Ely contains one of the world’s largest deposits of copper, nickel and precious metals, along with some of the largest platinum and palladium resources outside South Africa, the company planning the mine told analysts Wednesday.

Duluth Metals Ltd., the Canadian-based parent of Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, significantly boosted its estimates of what could be pulled from the mine based on the data projections, which are measured two ways.

The company said the site has “indicated resources” of 8 billion pounds of copper, 2.5 billion pounds of nickel and 12.1 million ounces of palladium, platinum and gold. The company is highly confident in those estimates because they are based on samples taken from a high number of drill sites.

Duluth Metals separately projects “inferred resources” of 13.5 billion pounds of copper, 4.6 billion pounds of nickel and 15.8 million ounces of precious metals. Those estimates are less certain because they’re based on fewer bore holes.

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[Minnesota] Ely copper deposit estimate doubles – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – June 14, 2012)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Already reported as the world’s largest untapped deposit of copper, the Twin Metals mine exploration area near Ely contains even more copper, nickel, platinum and other valuable metals than previously estimated, the mine’s parent company said Wednesday.

Already reported as the world’s largest untapped deposit of copper, the Twin Metals mine exploration area near Ely contains even more copper, nickel, platinum and other valuable metals than previously estimated, the mine’s parent company said Wednesday.

Toronto-based Duluth Metals released an updated resource estimate that’s double its 2009 estimate, though the new findings aren’t likely to change the already developing plans for Twin Metals mining operations.

Data gathered from exploratory drill sites, including 170 new drill core samples reviewed in the past nine months, indicate a staggering 8 billion pounds of copper, 2.5 billion pounds of nickel and 12 million ounces of palladium, platinum and gold underground at the site along Highway 1 near the Kawishiwi River.

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New report confirms enormous potential of Duluth base metals/pgm/gold resource – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – June 14, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

A new independent technical report from AMEC confirms the vast tonnages and economic grades in the Duluth Metals/Antofagasta Twin Metals base and precious metals project in Minnesota.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – We have always been very aware of the enormous potential of the ground held by Duluth Metals in eastern Minnesota on the edge of the old iron range which contains literally many billions of tons of complex ore grade material with significant copper, nickel, platinum group metals and gold content.

It has to be one of the world’s great mineral deposits – the major problems are permitting and finding the funding to mine it – neither necessarily an easy task nowadays, although one suspects the funding may be the easier of the two given that Duluth has brought in a base metals mining major, Antofagasta, to help it develop and mine a significant part of the resource under the Twin Metals jv (60% Duluth and 40% Antofagasta) banner.

On the permitting front there is bound to be considerable opposition to mine development there from environmentalists given it borders on the Boundary Waters recreational area.  However Twin Metals reckons it can meet the environmentalists’ concerns using modern mining standards, mining the deposit underground to reduce the surface impact and use brownfield sites from old iron range operations to locate some of the key surface facilities. 

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Echoing Obama, let’s have more fracking and faster – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – June 14, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Something good is happening in the United States. All of a sudden, energy is getting much cheaper and cleaner. Dirty old coal-fired plants are shutting down because they no longer make economic sense. In fact, the U.S. appears to be the only major emitter that’s actually reducing emissions.

Since 2006, U.S. emissions have fallen by 7.7 per cent, according to the International Energy Agency – despite the absence of a global carbon treaty, or stiff new regulations, or a cap-and-trade regime. To be sure, the recession helped. But even when the economy comes back, greenhouse-gas emissions are set to fall even more.

You’d think that environmental groups would rejoice at this great news. Instead, they’ve gone to war. The main reason for the fall in greenhouse gasses is a new technology known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), which they claim is a menace to the planet. Fracking promises to unlock vast new reserves of shale gas, which emits roughly half as much CO2 as coal, and 30 per cent less than conventional oil. But environmentalists warn that fracking will poison the water, pollute the air and trigger earthquakes that will bring doom and destruction raining down on us all.

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Greenpeace co-founder shares predictions of dire future at Ideacity conference – by Christopher Hume

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.

It’s hard to say at this point just how many times the world has ended. We’ve killed it off so often, it’s hard to keep up. Certainly, we have been predicting its demise since we’ve been around.
 
Depending on whom you believe, it’s apocalypse now, then or tomorrow. These days, the doomsayers tend to be environmentalists as well as religious cranks. Although one can dismiss the latter, not so the former.
 
The truth is that to deny global warming in 2012 no longer makes sense. The evidence is everywhere around us, like it or not. The effects are already catastrophic. But does that mean the end of life as we know it?
 
“We’re destroying the planet,” declared journalist, author and Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler. In Toronto to address the 13th annual Ideacity conference, he painted a bleak picture of the Earth’s condition. Running through a checklist, he made it clear we’re in bad shape.

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Province open to mining inquiry: Lougheed – by Darren MacDonald (Sudbury Northern Life – June 13, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Joins with former mayor to call for review of Ontario’s mining industry

Two heavyweights in Sudbury’s political life are putting politics aside to fight together for a provincial inquiry into Ontario’s mining industry. Jim Gordon, a former Sudbury mayor and Progressive Conservative MPP, and Gerry Lougheed Jr., a prominent Liberal supporter, are asking Sudburians to support a postcard campaign calling on Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey to launch the inquiry.

Lougheed said he believes the province will move forward if the public shows they support it. He has printed up 10,000 postcards and would love to print up 10,000 more.

“I’m very confident the minister is open to hearing all voices on this,” Lougheed said Wednesday morning. “In fact, I think they’re giving us this window to let the public show its support.”

It has been more than 30 years since the last inquiry, and Lougheed said mining has undergone huge changes since then, including radical changes in technology that has revolutionized the way miners work, as well as ownership changes. Both major mining operations – Vale and Xtstrata – are owned by huge, multinational corporations.

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Federal minister’s comments cause First Nation backlash – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – June 13, 2012)

 http://www.wawataynews.ca/

The federal government’s minister of FedNor has ignited a backlash from First Nations leaders around the Ring of Fire by saying that delaying development is ‘inexcusable.’
 
Conservative MP Tony Clement told reporters in Thunder Bay on June 11 that while the government takes its obligation to consult with First Nations seriously, it will not give First Nations communities a veto over development.
 
Clement was answering questions about comments made by Neskantaga First Nation Chief Peter Moonias that he would die before allowing a Ring of Fire road to cross the Attawapiskat River.
 
“There’s going to be headlines here or there when somebody walks away from the table and then marches back to the table,” Clement told TB Newswatch. “But at the end of the day we find ways where the private sector can work with First Nations, can work with governments to ensure these projects can go ahead in a sensible manner.”

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Grassy Narrows and the priorities of Joe Oliver – by Peter Andre Globensky (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 11, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Peter Andre Globensky, a resident of Thunder Bay, is the former CEO of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, the intergovernmental agency responsible for advancing and harmonizing environmental protection in Canada. He was also an ex-officio member of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

Forty years ago I had the privilege of securing financial resources for First Nation representatives seeking redress from Dryden Pulp and Paper (Reed) for the suffering inflicted on the residents of Grassy Narrows and the destruction of their life-sustaining ecosystem.

Beginning in 1962 and without the benefit of environmental regulation, the company dumped nearly 10 tons of methyl mercury, a lethal neurotoxin, into the Wabigoon River. Bio-accumulating in fish, it poisoned First Nation residents dependent on this vital food source.

Four decades later as recent protests at Queen’s Park will attest, the suffering in Grassy Narrows continues. Back then, it was all justified in the name of job creation and legitimate profit. Or, as Joe Oliver and Greg Rickford would have us believe, the price of progress.

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