May 4, 2013 – Republic of Mining

How many mines can a government open? None – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – May 4, 2013)

May 4, 2013

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

Brian MacLead is the managing editor of the Sudbury Star.

It is a bit rich for politicians to announce the potential opening of new mines, but they’ve taken it on as a hobby. During the 2011 election campaign, Sudbury Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci announced his government could “facilitate the process” so that eight new mines can open in the province over 10 years.

And this week, Sudbury Progressive Conservative candidate Paula Peroni topped that with an announcement that 10 new mines could open over the next five years by removing red tape and killing the Far North Act.

No word whether the NDP can beat that, but it doesn’t matter. Governments don’t make mines happen, private companies do.

What governments can do — as Bartolucci said –is “facilitate” a process, but isn’t that the government’s job? (Unless you’re an NDP government in B.C., perhaps.)

As a former mines minister, Bartolucci would, of course, have had insight into which mining companies were at certain stages in their exploration and permitting and development processes, but a lot of things have to go right in the world before these properties become a mine.

Xstrata on track to open two zinc mines in Sudbury area – by Sebastien Perth (Sudbury Star – May 4, 2013)

May 4, 2013

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

Xstrata Zinc is on track to reopen two mines in the Sudbury region by 2016 that would employ more than 250 people at its peak.

The Errington-Vermillion mines, which have been closed for decades, are proving to be attractive again with a number of large zinc mines closing around the world. Brad Ryder, of corporate affairs for Xstrata, said there is still work to be done, but if everything goes as it should, construction should start by 2014.

“It’s a $350 million capital project, with 250 direct jobs and more jobs during construction. The mine life, right now we’re looking at between seven and ten year and what we would do is mine the sites sequentially. We’d mine the Errington deposit first and then the Vermillion deposit.”

The Errington mine is the bigger of the two sites, with a six million tonne deposit there, and a three million tonne deposit at the Vermillion site.

“Errington is roughly 5.8 million tonnes ore body with a 4% zinc, 1.4% copper, 1% lead, 50 grams per tonne of silver and 0.7 grams of gold per tonne. We would be looking at a yearly concentrate of around 74,000 tonnes of zinc, 40,000 tonnes of copper, 12,000 tonnes of lead.” Ryder said.

Darfur gold mine collapse kills 100, traps rescuers (Japan Times – May 4, 2013)

May 4, 2013

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/

KHARTOUM – Around 100 miners are estimated to have died inside a collapsed gold mine in Sudan’s Darfur region, and nine of the rescuers trying to free them have become trapped as well, a miner said Friday.

“Nine of the rescue team disappeared when the land collapsed around them” on Thursday said the miner, who had visited the scene.

The unlicensed desert gold mine in the Jebel Amir district, more than 200 km northwest of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, began to cave in Monday.

The stench of death is now seeping out of the baked earth, the miner said. “Yesterday (Thursday) eight bodies have been found and still they are looking for the others,” he said. “According to a count by people working in the mine, the number of people inside is more than 100.”

On Thursday, the Jebel Amir district chief, Haroun al-Hassan, said “the number of people who died is more than 60,” but added it was unclear whether anyone might still be alive.

Ontario’s finances in a mess thanks to Liberals’ make-believe budgets – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – May 3, 2013)

May 4, 2013

http://www.torontosun.com/home

“Let’s point the finger directly at the two real culprits — former premier Dalton McGuinty
and former finance minister Dwight Duncan…. The damage they did to the economy of this
once-great province will live in infamy. Your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s
grandchildren will still be paying for their massive incompetence.” (Christina Blizzard)

TORONTO – Cost of cancelling two gas-fired power plants? $585 million. Cost of sucking up to the NDP? Billions. Price of keeping this arrogant, incompetent, deceitful, wasteful Liberal government in power? Endless — and pointless.

Trouble is MasterCard expects you to pay your bills. Being a Liberal means never saying you’re sorry — and never paying your debts.

These Liberals just keep racking up more debt and driving this province into an abyss that will make Greece look like a well-managed paradise.

Make no mistake. Thursday’s budget wasn’t about fiscal responsibility or a prosperous Ontario. It was about keeping a shamelessly inept government in power.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s first budget was a total capitulation to outrageous NDP demands to meddle dangerously in the auto insurance industry — by forcing private companies to reduce premiums 15%. Liberals also pledged to hike welfare rates and to throw more money at home care.

Northern Ontario mayors frustrated with Growth Plan (Sault Star – May 3, 2013)

May 4, 2013

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

The mayors of Northern Ontario’s largest cities say they are frustrated by the slow pace of the province’s regional growth plan and intend to come up with their own strategy paper.

“We want to quit talking about it and we want to look at the strengths of our respective areas and get plans in place that develop us,” said Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Debbie Amaroso on Thursday.

Mayors from Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Thunder Bay and Timmins met in the Sault over two days this week to discuss the province’s progress in rolling out the Northern Growth Plan it launched in 2011.

Amaroso said the Growth Plan offers a good foundation but implementation has been “frustratingly slow” and the mayors have agreed to come up with a strategy paper to be presented to provincial ministers in August at this year’s Association of Municipalities Ontario meeting in Ottawa.

“As municipalities, we are prepared to do the required work and take the lead on this,” she said. North Bay Mayor Al McDonald said the five cities know what needs to be done to help development in Northern Ontario, and are bringing forward a united front from the region the province has so far been unable to do.