July 6, 2012 – Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: Northern Superior Resources, Neskantaga First Nation Re-Affirm Commitment to Continued Development on Ontario Properties

July 6, 2012

press release

July 6, 2012, 8:31 a.m. EDT

SUDBURY, ONTARIO, Jul 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Northern Superior Resources Inc. /quotes/zigman/507849 CA:SUP -5.26% (“Northern Superior” or the “Company”) and Neskantaga First Nation (“Neskantaga”) wish to assure the Northern Superior shareholders that both the Company and Neskantaga remain committed to advancing the Ti-pa-haa-kaa-ning (TPK), New Growth and New Growth Annex gold properties within Neskantaga’s traditional territory in northwestern Ontario. This, after Northern Superior’s name inadvertently appeared on a list of Company’s slated to receive eviction notices from the “Ring of Fire” of Northwestern Ontario, by a group of First Nations (including Neskantaga) opposed to the development of a chromite deposit in that area.

Chief Peter Moonias of Neskantaga First Nation comments: “Northern Superior and Neskantaga have a long-standing tradition of working closely towards the exploration and potential development of resources in Neskantaga’s traditional territory. We regret Northern Superior’s name appearing on this eviction list. Under the current agreement we have with Northern Superior, Neskantaga looks forward to their continued progress of exploration within our Traditional Lands.”

The crash, the trapper and a plane load of missing gold – by Josh Wingrove (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2012)

July 6, 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.

EDMONTON — The flight began uneventfully, with the hulking DC-4 propeller plane, loaded down with gold, rising up from a remote airstrip near a northern B.C. mine.

It was headed to nearby Alaska where its 16,600 pounds of gold concentrate would be processed. It’s a coarse, grainy substance of varying quality – nothing like solid gold, but nonetheless valuable.

At 460 metres (1,500 feet) above sea level, things went wrong. The No. 2 engine whined, cut out and fell off the left wing altogether. The plane banked right to return to the airstrip, but the other three engines couldn’t support the weight, sending it crashing onto a sandbar along the raging Iskut River, not far from the mine, on Aug. 14, 1996. The pilot’s body was never recovered, while the two other crew members made it to shore.

So began a mystery of a doomed B.C. plane and its load of gold, a tale emerging again after the plane reappeared – empty. Barrick Gold, which had since bought up the smaller outfit that owned the now-closed mine, rushed to the remote crash site and, this week, reported that the plane had already been stripped clean. The company does not know where the gold is.

Ontario’s Ring of Fire: Politics and Intrigue (Part One of Two) – Stan Sudol

December 27, 2012July 6, 2012

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, speechwriter and columnist who blogs at www.republicofmining.com stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

This column was published in the Sudbury Star on July 14, 2012. http://www.thesudburystar.com/2012/07/14/the-ring-of-fire-politics-and-intrigue and posted on the Canadian Mining Journal website: http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/news/guest-perspective-politics-and-intrigue-in-the-ring-of-fire-part-one/1001537458/

On May 9th Cliffs Natural Resources announced that the company was advancing its massive $3.2 billion chromite project in the isolated and infrastructure-challenge Ring of Fire region to the feasibility stage. Sudbury was selected as the best location for the proposed $1.8 billion smelter for a wide range of reasons including rail, transportation, power supply and skilled workforce.

If you think that such a positive announcement should bring collective cheers across the north and an economically imploding southern Ontario, you would be wrong. The ensuing flurry of anguished and angry news releases from First Nations, environmental organizations, and some politicians was enough to make any reader despair that the Ring of Fire will ever be developed!

First some essential background info before I continue. Discovered in 2007, the Ring of Fire mining camp, located 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, in the James Bay lowlands, will probably go down in the history books as one of the most significant Canadian mineral finds of the past century. It is estimated that the chromite deposits are so large that we could be mining up there for the next hundred years and that the total mineral potential of the region – chromite, nickel, copper, PGMs, vanadium, gold – could easily exceed the legendary trillion-dollar Sudbury basin!

NAN Chiefs-in-Assembly support the position of Matawa First Nations Council (Netnewsledger.com – July 5, 2012)

July 6, 2012

http://netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – Mining Now – Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose showed support for Neskantaga First Nation’s legal challenge to Ring of Fire development during today’s hearing by the Ontario Mining and Land Commissioner.

“I am pleased to support Chief Moonias and Neskantaga First Nation as they exercise their right to provide free, prior and informed consent before any resource development can occur in their traditional territory, as this is the international standard that NAN First Nations have demanded that the governments of Ontario and Canada must uphold,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose, who attended today’s hearings in Toronto.

“NAN Chiefs-in-Assembly support the position of Matawa First Nations Council that the development of the Ring of Fire will not proceed until a trilateral environmental assessment process is established, resource benefits and revenue are negotiated and the fundamental question of First Nation jurisdiction is addressed.”

Neskantaga has intervened in a dispute between Cliffs Natural Resources and junior mining company KWG Resources over the development of a road to access a proposed $3.2-billion chromite mine in the Attawapiskat River watershed, the homeland of Neskantaga First Nation.

Ontario Regional Chief Beardy – His way is quiet, but solid steady and forward – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – June 27, 2012)

July 6, 2012

http://netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – His way is quiet, but solid steady and forward. Once again, Stan Beardy has likely surprised many with his election to the position of Ontario Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. Likely many people thought that the (now) former Grand Chief at the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) would have a tough time being selected as the Ontario Chief. Likely many of those were also the people who thought that Stan Beardy would not win a fourth term as Grand Chief of NAN.

However, Chief Beardy has steel behind his sometimes quiet ways. However his goal is bringing a louder voice from the North to Queen’s Park and Ottawa. In seeking to run for Ontario Chief, Beardy stated that “As a leader, I have been shaped by the direction of the Chiefs, the advice of the Elders, conversations with women and youth in our communities; and by the wisdom of leaders of First nations and indigenous people, in Ontario, across Canada and as far away as New Zealand”.

“As Regional Chief, I will fight for each First Nation and for all First Nations while respecting their autonomy and assisting them to build the protocols that will make their joint streghth greater”.

Chief Beardy was born and raised on a trap line at Bearskin Lake First Nation. He attended high school and college in Thunder Bay where he also worked as a welder-fitter for several years.

Argentine ruling won’t stop project, Barrick says – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2012)

July 6, 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.

A law banning mining around glaciers in Argentina will not derail development of one of the world’s largest new gold projects, Barrick Gold Corp. said. The Pascua-Lama project is on track to go into production in 2013 after years of fighting over its environmental impact.

Argentina’s Congress passed the law – which also bans drilling on oil rigs – about two years ago in an effort to protect water reserves, but opponents held it off with an injunction that was overthrown by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, driving Barrick Gold stock lower amid concerns Pascua-Lama may be halted.

“The impact of the law on Barrick is nil,” said Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd, pointing out that there are no glaciers near the mine on the Argentine side of the cross-border project with Chile, where 70 per cent of the mine is being built.

Barrick stock stumbled on news of the ruling earlier this week because it raised alarm bells that Pascua-Lama might be thwarted by the same environmental concerns it already faced down nearly a decade ago, when a media storm echoed from Andean capitals in Buenos Aires and Santiago to Barrick headquarters in Toronto.

Neskantaga takes ‘American mining bully’ to court [over Ring of Fire road] – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – July 5, 2012)

July 6, 2012

http://wawataynews.ca/

Neskantaga’s fight to slow down the Ring of Fire and get First Nation consultation over mining hits a Toronto mining court today.

In a case with serious implications for the speed at which Ring of Fire development occurs, Neskantaga will argue to the Ontario Mining Commissioner that First Nation consultation has to happen before industry can buy and sell land on Neskantaga traditional territory.

The specific case revolves around a mining claim dispute between Cliffs Resources and KWG Resources. Cliffs wants to buy land claims from KWG on which to build its proposed Ring of Fire transportation corridor, but Neskantaga argues that First Nations hold rights to the land superseding those of industry.

“This is about a small First Nation in Northern Ontario standing up against an American mining bully hell bent on making a road and a mine no matter what First Nations say,” said Chief Peter Moonias of Neskantaga in a press release. “The McGuinty government continues to ignore First Nations and is desperate to see this northern Ontario mega project go ahead. We have Constitutional and Aboriginal and treaty rights on our side and we hope the Mining Court can help us put this project on hold so a proper consultation process can begin.”

Chief waits for MPPs’ replies [about Sudbury chromite smelter] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 6, 2012)

July 6, 2012

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

The chief of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Whitefish Lake) First Nation is waiting for replies from several Ontario cabinet ministers before weighing in on Cliffs Natural Resources’ plan to build a $1.8-billion ferrochrome smelter near Capreol.

Chief Steve Miller said he has asked Premier Dalton McGuinty and at least three of his ministers for meetings to discuss the possible impact of the smelter on his First Nation, located about 20 km west of downtown Sudbury. Miller has concerns about the environmental impact on the Vermillion River Watershed, which he said “flows right in front of our First Nation.”

He has written Sudbury MPP and Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci, Environment Minister Jim Bradley and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne for meetings to get more information on the smelter.

What he reads about processing chromite ore is troublesome, said Miller. That cabinet ministers not getting back to him has only increased his anxiety.

“There’s so much on the Internet about chromite and nobody knows exactly the effect of it,” he said.