Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal is a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury.

The successful demonstration of Sudbury-based Rail-Veyor Technologies’ innovative material handling system at Vale’s 114 Orebody could lead to a significant change in mine design, enabling smaller openings, improved safety and faster advance rates.
 
A surface demonstration of the rail-veyor at Vale’s Stobie Mine proved that the technology worked, but it had to be put to the test in an actual mining operation before the company could specify it for future mine developments.
 
“We proved the ore-handling capability of the rail-veyor at Stobie,” said Alex Henderson, Vale’s general manager of underground technology for base metals. “This demonstration is more about how we integrate it into our development and production processes.”
 
Assuming the final verdict is positive – and all indications suggest it will be – the rail-veyor can be classified as proven technology and considered as an option in feasibility studies for new mine developments in Sudbury and elsewhere across Vale’s global footprint. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

With the future of mining in Sudbury dependent on finding ways to extract ore from deeper underground, a local invention offers hope that it can, one day, be done safer, cheaper and more quickly.
 
The Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization – CAMIRO – is developing a spray-on liner that would take the place of the shotcrete and screens traditionally used to hold underground tunnels in place. Four millimetres of the bright orange, polyurethane compound would be sprayed onto the walls and ceilings underground by a robot adapted for mining use from the automotive industry.
 
CAMIRO is a Sudbury-based not-for-profit organization run by the mining industry to manage collaborative mining research. Originally built to spray paint onto cars, the $60,000 robots would be upgraded with scanning and other software so it could coat the area with the liner without any humans being present.
 
MTI Inc. of Sudbury has been given the job of coming up with a carrier for the robot, which is currently transported using a scoop tram. Charles Graham, managing director of CAMIRO, said the liner has several potential advantages over current practices. Unlike shotcrete, the polyurethane liner is flexible. Read the rest of this entry »

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 Denver Gold Forum should be a happy, happy place, what with the precious metal on a multiyear run to levels above $1,700 (U.S.) per ounce. But the forum is not a convention of hoarders of coins and bars; it’s an investment conference for the companies who pull the stuff out of the ground.

And since gold-producer equities have badly lagged gold’s gains over the past couple of years, there was less celebrating, and more head-scratching and soul-searching, in Denver this week.

Even Franco-Nevada Corp.’s Pierre Lassonde, known widely as an off-the-charts bull on the gold price, titled his talk “The best of times, the worst of times” – with gold prices the former, and gold equities the latter.

Why the disconnect? Well, as one company’s director of investor relations explained to me, it wasn’t so long ago that the typical buyers of the stocks were gold bugs who preferred production capability to profitability. Read the rest of this entry »

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS - MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) foresees a clash between First Nations and mining companies within the Ring of Fire. He believes the federal government has a role to play in helping to prevent it.
 
“We could end up with clashes on the ground and it seems to be a lot opportunity to have conflict over this,” Angus said Wednesday. “I’ve talked to First Nations and I’ve talked to mining companies in the North who are both very frustrated about the fact when it comes to these negotiations, the feds are not at the table.
 
“We need to be partners together for development. What we want to see is the feds sitting down at the table” along with the province, First Nation communities and mining companies. The Daily Press asked Angus about building tensions within the James Bay lowlands during a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday in advance of the fall session of parliament which begins Monday.
 
Among the key concerns for Angus is the plan to increase size of the Timmins-James Bay federal riding which is already larger than some European countries. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

JOHANNESBURG — Rampaging protesters are wreaking havoc in the world’s leading platinum sector, forcing the closure of another major mining operation as South African workers grow increasingly militant in the aftermath of a deadly police crackdown.

Anglo American Platinum Ltd., the top global producer, decided to shut down four of its shafts on Wednesday when about 1,500 protesting mine workers – many waving machetes and sticks – blockaded roads and marched to the company’s gates near Rustenburg in South Africa’s platinum belt.

Amplats said it closed the mines temporarily because it feared for the safety of its 19,000 workers, who were already facing threats from the protesters on Wednesday. South Africa produces about 80 per cent of the world’s platinum, and Amplats alone is responsible for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s production.

The wildcat strikes have also begun spreading into South Africa’s gold industry, with 15,000 workers off the job at Gold Fields Ltd., the world’s fourth-biggest gold producer. Security guards fired tear gas at thousands of protesting workers on Wednesday when the workers tried to stop a passing train at the mine site. Read the rest of this entry »

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

The Township of Pickle Lake wants the province to reconsider its support for a proposed north-south road corridor to Nakina from the Ring of Fire mining camp.

“The businesses in our community stand to lose 30 to 40 per cent of their business due to the north-south route decision,” Mayor Roy Hoffman said Wednesday. “The impact of this could potentially put these businesses ‘out of business’ and put extreme pressure on a community that is already struggling to survive.”

Hoffman explained that a north-south route would impact a supply chain developed over decades through Pickle Lake, which acts as a distribution point for building supplies, fuel, groceries, mail and medical supplies.

“To fundamentally change the flow of traffic to (remote) First Nation communities will have a negative economic impact on the community,” he said, noting that the community prefers that a north-south rail line be constructed to get minerals to market from the Ring of Fire, south to Nakina and the CN Railway main line. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Just weeks ago, Vale Ltd. was advertising to hire 400 new employees at its Canadian operations. Today, a hiring freeze is in effect at Vale operations worldwide — including Sudbury — while the Brazil-based miner deals with “challenges” associated with a huge drop in commodity prices.
 
Peter Poppinga, chief executive officer of Vale Canada Ltd. and executive director of its base metals operations, wrote to top-level managers last week, saying Vale base metals leaders are reviewing “every aspect of our business as we speak.”
 
In an email obtained by The Star, Poppinga tells top-level managers the key to short-term and long-term stability is to “reinvent, reshape and turn around” the business.
 
Poppinga stressed safety must always come “at the forefront,” but he said high-level executives are examining performance across all operations — looking at Vale’s ability “to deliver and be competitive, placing renewed emphasis on value over volume.” The company will have to make some “tough decisions,” said Poppinga, which will be announced in the next four to six weeks. Read the rest of this entry »