Ontario Mining Association Program shows educators the realities of modern mining

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.

The Ontario Mining Association will be involved in the week-long program for the third annual Teachers’ Mining Tour, which is being held at the Canadian Ecology Centre, near Mattawa, Ontario.  Thirty five teachers from across the province will participate in the educational workshop being held August 6 to 10, 2012.

OMA President Chris Hodgson is scheduled as the kick-off speaker for the opening night.  He will present information on the importance of mining in Ontario, industry support for the teachers’ tour and provide a glimpse of the potential and opportunity offered by the Ring of Fire area in the province.  The goal of the workshop is to help educators learn more about the realities of modern, high-tech, solution-providing, environmentally responsible mining in Ontario.

“Seeing is believing. This professional development opportunity presents informed choices for educators,” said George Flumerfelt, President of North Bay based mine contractor and OMA member Redpath.  “The Teachers’ Mining Tour brings modern mining into the classroom curricula.” 

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SOLID GOLD RESOURCES CORP. PRESS RELEASE: Ontario Shuts Down Mining

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jul 18, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Solid Gold Resources Corp. (“Solid Gold”)

Mission: Regional Gold Exploration at Lake Abitibi, Ontario, Canada

“Certainty of title and access to Crown land is paramount to our industry, but only the Crown can provide the certainty required to secure major investment to develop projects like the potential new gold camp at Lake Abitibi, Ontario”, states Darryl Stretch, President of Solid Gold. “No obstacle should stand in the way because, like the Ring of Fire, the Solid Gold project may be a once-in-a-century economic opportunity to the benefit of all Canadians.”

The Government of Ontario (the “Crown”) distributed a draft set of guidelines for its Ministries to properly consult and accommodate aboriginals where required.

A rising gold price, an unequivocal ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada (Haida) confirming that third parties have no duty to consult First Nations, and encouragement from the Crown formed the basis for Solid Gold’s decision to conduct a regional exploration program at Lake Abitibi, Ontario, Canada.

Over several staking campaigns, beginning in the fall of 2007 through the summer of 2010, Solid Gold acquired mineral rights to a 200-square-kilometer property on Crown land at Lake Abitibi (the “Property”).

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Federal agency finds holes in Taseko mine’s draft environmental report – by Dirk Meissner (Vancouver Province/Canadian Press – July 17, 2012)

http://www.theprovince.com/index.html

VICTORIA — Taseko Mines has been ordered to rewrite an environmental impact statement about a proposed gold and copper operation in British Columbia’s central Interior after a federal agency concluded a draft was riddled with gaps, deficiencies and missing information.
 
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency detailed its complaint in a report earlier this month dealing with Taseko’s controversial, $1.1 billion mine proposal near Williams Lake.
 
“The draft EIS does not meet the requirements of the EIS guidelines,” said the July 6 report. “There is substantial information missing from this draft EIS. The quality of all figures in the draft EIS is very poor.”
 
Williams Lake-area First Nations immediately seized on the report, saying the critical response from the federal agency confirms their view that the proposed project should be rejected. Tsilhqot’in Nation Tribal Chief Joe Alphonse said in a statement First Nations have known from the start the mine could not work.

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Swansong of a sunset industry or the rise of an SA gold mid-tier? – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – July 17, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Just like the landscape of Johannesburg, South Africa’s gold mining sector is undergoing a dramatic change, the question is: what will it end up looking like?

GRONINGEN (Mineweb) –  Mine dumps loomed large over my childhood. Growing up in the east rand of Johannesburg, a stone’s throw away from the ERPM mine operations, they were a part of my skyline. When we were kids we went to the drive-in on top of them and, later on, tried to “dune board” down them. But, in the last few years they have gradually begun to disappear.
 
As the gold price has risen and mines have got deeper, so many of these dumps have been re-drilled and reprocessed but, it is not just the landscape that is changing – the industry that gave birth to Africa’s “city of gold” is changing right along with it.
 
“The cynical among us might describe it as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” says Bernard Swanepoel, Joint CEO of Village Main Reef, one of the new class of junior gold miners coming up in South Africa at the moment.

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Diamonds hit rough patch as demand falls – Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 18, 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.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp. is grappling with rising diamond inventories and falling prices, as the slack global economy prolongs a year-long slump.

The Toronto-based gem company said on Tuesday that it would likely not sell all of its production in the fiscal second quarter ending this month, and that it expects to have higher-than-normal inventories as diamond cutters encounter difficulties arranging affordable financing.

“The rough diamond market has experienced softened demand since the beginning of the year,” Harry Winston said in a report. The premier diamond jeweller and luxury retailer – with locations in fashion capitals from New York and Beverly Hills to Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong – estimated that market prices have dipped 8 per cent since April.

Diamond prices are still struggling to recover since falling off a cliff over a year ago, when the global economic outlook darkened suddenly, spoiling the plans of speculators who had stocked up in anticipation of a stronger economic recovery after the 2008-09 crisis.

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Timmins plans for the future – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – July 2012)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Timmins 100th anniversary special

While Timmins marks its 100th anniversary this year and celebrates its past, its future is being guided by current needs and challenges. In 2011, a strategic plan – Timmins 2020 – was conceived to provide long-term direction for the city’s economic and community development.
 
“From a timing perspective, it originally started because it related to the loss of Xstrata (Copper’s Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site),” said Mayor Tom Laughren. “We really need to diversify and this plan will give us a bit of a template as we move forward planning for the next 100 years.”
 
The Met site’s closure in 2010 resulted in the loss of more than 600 jobs. “One time in Timmins we had both mining and forestry and that was good since when one was down, the other was up. But forestry has been down for a long time,” he said.

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Carney warns falling oil price could grease economy’s slide – by Jeremy Torobin (Globe and Mail – July 18, 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 – The Bank of Canada is adding the downward drift in prices for oil and other commodities to its catalogue of threats to economic growth.

In a one-page statement on his latest interest-rate decision Tuesday, Governor Mark Carney mentioned oil or commodity prices four times. To many economists and analysts, this was a clear hint of growing concern as oil prices, while still historically high, inch downward to $80 (U.S.) a barrel – considered an unofficial breaking point at which investment in energy projects could stall, putting jobs at risk.

Mr. Carney, who left his main interest rate at 1 per cent Tuesday and will release a full quarterly forecast on Wednesday, noted that the “sizable reduction” in commodity prices owing to slower global growth is keeping inflation in check and could mean cheaper gasoline well into next year. However, he also cut his 2012 and 2013 projections for the economy, in part because the consumption and business investment he is counting on to drive growth will be held back by “the effects of lower commodity prices on Canadian incomes and wealth.”

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Native leaders ponder the path of most resistance – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – July 18, 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.

The Assembly of First Nations, in conclave, inhabits a world not easily recognized by those outside the native community: one of occupation, sovereign rights and resistance. Native leaders passionately embrace that world, which informs the campaigns of the seven challengers seeking to unseat Shawn Atleo as national chief.
 
But the odds appear to favour Mr. Atleo nonetheless, for the reason expressed by one chief from a Prairie province who was listening at the back of the room. “We have to live with what we’ve got,” he said.

Chiefs speaking candidly in exchange for not being on the record criticized Mr. Atleo for acting as though the AFN were a government and he its first minister, able to speak on behalf of the first nations in negotiations with Ottawa.

He has too often co-operated with the Harper government, they said, when the national chief should be asserting the treaty rights of first nations and their rightful claim to a share of any natural resource wealth.

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