Six Ring of Fire First Nations communities have warned the companies hoping to develop the area’s rich chromite and nickel-PGM deposits, including international iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF-N), that they’re about to be evicted.
In a press release on June 22, several communities warned that they were in the “final stages of issuing a 30-day eviction notice to all mining companies with exploration and development camps in the region” of northern Ontario’s James Bay lowlands.
“We are sending a strong message to Ontario and Canada that we need to negotiate a process for First Nation participation in the mining projects that will be changing our lives forever,” said Neskantaga First Nation Chief Peter Moonias in a statement. “Unless and until we have a table for government to government negotiations we will evict the intruders from our lands.”
Asked if the eviction could be avoided, Moonias said yes, and outlined several issues that first need to be addressed by government.
First, Moonias says that the relationship between governments and First Nations must be treated as a government to government relationship, adding that First Nations are not “stakeholders.”
Day: July 3, 2012
Noront keeps its cool under First Nations eviction threat – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – June 28, 2012)
Like all the companies working in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire, Noront Resources (NOT-V) may be about to receive an “eviction notice” from a coalition of six First Nations communities in the remote area of the James Bay lowlands.
On June 22, six northern Ontario First Nations communities issued a press release, warning that they were in the “final stages of issuing a 30-day eviction notice to all mining companies with exploration and development camps in the region.”
But for now, Noront president and CEO Wesley Hanson says it’s “business as usual,” noting that consultations regarding the company’s advanced-stage Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-PGM project are ongoing. “In fact, the day after they issued the (warning of an) eviction notice, we were in one of the communities doing our consultations,” Hanson said in an interview yesterday, after a Richmond Club luncheon presentation in Toronto.
“Nothing’s official yet, so we’re going to basically conduct business as usual until we get an official notice,” Hanson said. “The government of Ontario is certainly aware of the threat of the eviction notice. My hope would be they would be proactive and try to nip it in the bud and address the concerns as quickly as possible.”
Field trips bring Ontario mine reclamation symposium down to earth
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.
Two field trips helped to bring the realities of successful mine rehabilitation to life while complementing the scientific papers presented at the fifth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium. The event was held in Thunder Bay at Lakehead University in late June and it attracted more than 60 participants.
Sessions at the workshop dealt with topics such as the geology and mining history of Thunder Bay, wet peat mining, soil chemical properties in peat bogs, historic tailings disposal in lakes and forest floor species in areas near smelters.
Fifteen people went on the field trip to the nearby Shebandowan Mine, which operated as a nickel producer from 1973 to 1998. Reclamation activities have been successfully completed and the facility is now in a state of long-term care and maintenance.
Thirty two people went on the more extensive field trip to Beardmore and Geraldton and the Sturgeon River gold belt, where mining activity began in 1925. This expedition included a tour of the former MacLeod-Cockshutt gold mine. This site has been converted into and found new life as an interpretive centre and golf course, adding credence to the reality that mining is a temporary land use.
Don’t blame resource sector for lack of innovation: study – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – June 29,2012)
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.
OTTAWA – Canada has an innovation problem, but it can’t be pinned on the performance of the booming oil sands and mining industries.
The resource sector scores higher than most other Canadian industries when it comes to innovation, concludes a report released Friday by the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
“It’s not inconsistent to have an innovation problem and also have sectors that do well,” said Andrew Sharpe, the centre’s director. “And that’s the case in Canada.” While the resource sector is vital to the Canadian economy, it generates a relatively modest share of the country’s employment and economic output.
So the innovation problem lies elsewhere, most likely in the large service industry, which dominates the Canadian economy and generally suffers from weak productivity, Mr. Sharpe suggested.
Asbestos mine loan gives Charest ‘good reason to be ashamed’ – by Les Parreaux (Globe and Mail – July 3, 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.
MONTREAL — The announcement was described as a national embarrassment, the crass political manoeuvre of a desperate Quebec government trying to hold on to a Liberal seat at the cost of public health.
Critics lined up with speed and in number on the long weekend to blast Premier Jean Charest for green-lighting a $58-million loan to Canada’s last asbestos mine late on the Friday of the unofficial start of summer vacation season.
The loan stunned environmentalists, the medical community and cancer-fighting groups while promoters of the controversial relaunch of the Jeffrey Mine were more difficult to find. Even the province’s own public-health doctors are outraged.
Mr. Charest “has good reason to be ashamed,” said Yv Bonnier Viger, head of Quebec’s association of public-health specialists. “He is relaunching the exploitation of an extremely dangerous material that will cause the suffering and death of thousands of people in poor countries, at only marginal benefit to a desperate community.”