Twitter

Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas

Snap Lake mine could close if dissolved solid limit not raised: De Beers – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – March 13, 2015)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

Company asking Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to nearly triple limit

De Beers Canada says some recommendations for how to tackle a groundwater problem at its Snap Lake diamond mine could, if implemented, result in the mine closing down early — a move that would put 300 N.W.T. residents out of work.

De Beers has encountered higher than expected volumes of total dissolved solids (TDS) — including mineral salts — in water leaking through the inner walls of the underground mine, located 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

The company treats that water and releases it back into the lake. But to avoid going over the acceptable level of TDS for the lake, the company has also been storing TDS-high water underground since June 2014. De Beers is asking the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to nearly triple the highest allowed level of TDS in Snap Lake to 1,000 milligrams per litre.

“Snap Lake mine cannot continue to operate if a level of [total dissolved solids] is set that is not sustainable,” said Glen Koropchuk, De Beers Canada’s chief operating officer.

Koropchuk said De Beers has already spent $20 million to capture and release TDS-high water at Snap Lake. It’s one of several unanticipated issues Koropchuk says De Beers has faced at Snap Lake since the mine opened in 2008.

Read more

Northern Development and Mines minister takes issue with NDP advisor’s Ring of Fire comments – by Leith Dunick (tbnewswatch.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/default.aspx

Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines on Friday slammed comments made Thursday by former NDP leader Howard Hampton on what he said was a lack of progress developing the Ring of Fire.

Michael Gravelle said he was startled and offended by how “flippant and dismissive” Hampton was in saying the province has done nothing in a decade to move the multi-billion-dollar project forward.

“I had to ask myself the question, ‘Has he actually looked at the regional framework agreement that we have signed and negotiated with the Mattawa First Nations?’”

Calling the framework historic and unprecedented, Gravelle on Friday said the process is anything but superficial and certainly more than just firing off occasional press releases, as Hampton, now a paid Ring of Fire advisor of the federal NDP, intonated a day earlier.

The minister said the Ring of Fire isn’t going to happen overnight and the right steps are being taken. The framework sets in place guidelines for regional infrastructure and takes into consideration enhanced environmental monitory, socio-economic issues and supports and resource revenue sharing.

Read more

Government failing to fuel Ring of Fire, says Ontario Chamber of Commerce – by Mark Sabourin (EcoLog.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.ecolog.com/default.asp

The stink of the Cliffs mining debacle has soured the air around Ontario’s Ring of Fire and has slowed pace of development in the remote but mineral-rich area. Ontario should kick-start development afresh by fast-tracking the most promising proposal on the table and moving aggressively on an infrastructure plan. If it does, dollars will flow into the region from the federal government and the private sector.

So says the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) in its just-released report card on the Ring of Fire. In 2014, it outlined the potential the region holds and laid out a path to further development. This year’s 2015 report card evaluates the provincial government’s progress against that plan and gives it a failing grade.

Stan Sudol, communications consultant, mining columnist and owner/editor of RepublicOfMining.com, calls it “a stunning indictment of government incompetence, both provincial and federal.”

The OCC conservatively estimates that the first 10 years of development of the Ring of Fire will add up to $9.4 billion to the GDP, sustain up to 5,500 jobs annually, and generate $2 billion in government revenue.

The Ring of Fire is everything it’s cracked up to be, Sudol told EcoLog News, and likely more. Once more of the region becomes road-accessible — inevitable once development gets underway — geologists are confident that even more discoveries will follow. If northwestern Ontario is a mineral-rich iceberg, the Ring of Fire may be only its visible tip.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Wataynikaneyap Power ownership grows to 20 First Nation communities and project receives key approval

http://wataypower.ca/

Click here for an updated preliminary business plan: http://wataypower.ca/sites/default/files/Wataynikaneyap%20Preliminary%20Business%20Plan%20-%20November%2028%202014.pdf

To view the map associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/MapWatay.pdf

March 12, 2015 – Thunder Bay: Wataynikaneyap Power today held a press conference announcing that Sandy Lake First Nation and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation will join the Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission Project, bringing the number of communities participating in the First Nation-led company to twenty. Each community is an equal owner in the project to bring grid-connection to remote First Nation communities, currently serviced by diesel generation.

“Having 20 communities come together to own a major infrastructure project at any one time is truly unprecedented,” says Margaret Kenequanash, Chair of Wataynikaneyap Power. “Our communities see the value of controlling infrastructure development in our traditional homelands to ensure responsible development while maximizing benefits to our communities. I would like to welcome both Sandy Lake First Nation and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation as partners and shareholders in this unique and exciting project.”

“It is an honour to join the other First Nations on this very important and much needed infrastructure project,” says Sandy Lake Chief, Bart Meekis. “Grid connection will bring many benefits to our community including the opportunity to develop renewable energy projects.”

Read more

AUDIO: Chambers’ Ring of Fire report card ‘not applicable’ to the north (CBC News Sudbury – March 12, 2015)

http://www.cbc.ca/news

A professor at Laurentian University calls a new report card on the Ring of Fire unfair. The report released this week by the Greater Sudbury and Ontario Chambers of Commerce gives the project a failing grade for development.

The report cites the absence of an agreement with First Nations, problems with permits and a lack of federal funding as the most significant barriers to development.

But David Pearson said the expectations for the project are too great and it’s unreasonable to think that all First Nation communities in the far north can speak to the project with one voice.

“I think the standards that you’ve used to put your F’s on and your C’s and your D’s and so forth are not standards that are applicable to the far north,” he said. Some industry experts have defended the findings, saying the point of the report is to draw a sense of urgency to the project.

A panel discussion on the subject was held in Sudbury Wednesday night at Dynamic Earth. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Josh Hjartarson said he wants to talk about the project, but government officials aren’t returning his phone calls.

He’s said he’s trying to pressure the government to take action. “What I’m trying to say is that we’re spending some political capital,” he continued.

Read more

Ring of Fire producing mostly press releases, says federal NDP advisor – by Jamie Smith (tbnewswatch.com – March 12, 2015)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/default.aspx

THUNDER BAY — Nothing has happened in the Ring of Fire in nearly a decade and nothing will until the federal and provincial governments manage and make decisions with First Nations. That’s according Howard Hampton, former Ontario NDP leader and current paid adviser on the Ring of Fire for the federal New Democratic Party.

Hampton, during an interview with tbnewswatch.com Thursday, said both levels of government have completely missed what First Nations have been saying all along, that all three need to co-manage the development and make decisions together.

“We’ve had about eight year about press releases about the Ring of Fire,” Hampton said in Thunder Bay Thursday after returning from a trip to several Matawa communities.

“But if you look at the situation not much has happened.” Announcements like the development corporation and Cliffs’ one-time plan to put a processor near Sudbury were done unilaterally, without any consultation with First Nations Hampton said.

The $1 billion for infrastructure was nothing more than a nice pre-election promise while a recent plan to get Matawa a feasibility study for an all-weather road is actually a re-announcement from 1999 when the federal government outlined a plan to build all-weather routes to several Northern communities. Both levels of government to this point have handled the Ring of Fire badly.

Read more

Poor grades for Ring of Fire don’t surprise key players – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – March 11, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Panelists say little progress made after years of work

Key industry players in the Ring of Fire mineral deposit said they were not surprised by an Ontario Chamber of Commerce report card that criticized the glacial pace of progress in the region.

During a panel discussion the chamber organized in Sudbury Wednesday, Paul Semple, the chief operating officer with Noront Resources, a junior miner that owns stakes in the Ring of Fire, said the failing “F” grade for the development of the Ring of Fire was warranted.

“We’ve done some good things, there has been a framework agreement with the province for $1 billion, but you don’t win a hockey game with a couple of good shifts,” Semple said. “We haven’t really done anything with that billion dollars, we haven’t done anything with the development corporation, and the framework hasn’t honestly given any benefits to the First Nations.”

George Darling, the mine technical services director with engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, who also sat on the panel, said he was disappointed by the speed at which the project has progressed.

Darling said a “huge smelter” his company is building in Madagascar – a project worth $2.5 billion – took only two years to get going. “What I’m very nervous about is the amount of time it takes in North America to develop project, compared to countries like Madagascar that are really developing right now,” he said.

Read more

Ring of Fire: Turning an ‘F’ into an ‘A’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 12, 2015)

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

The Canadian government has a history of investing in “transformational projects” such as the Alberta oil sands and the Churchill Falls hydroelectric project, says an Ontario Chamber of Commerce spokesman.

It should now provide a “hard commitment” to develop Ontario’s Ring of Fire chromite deposits, says Josh Hjartarson, vice-president of policy and government relations for the Ontario chamber. “Northern Ontario is just in demanding a similar level of investment,” Hjartarson told 150 people at the Ring of Fire Report Card launch Wednesday at Dynamic Earth.

The report card, “Where Are We Now?” graded the federal and provincial governments on the action they have taken — or not taken — since the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s first report last year on the economic benefit of developing the Ring of Fire.

The federal government received an F for not making the Ring of Fire a national priority, and that has generated headlines this week, said Hjartarson. The report was presented to business leaders in Toronto on Tuesday.

While the intent of the report was not to blame the federal government, the chamber is acting in its capacity as an advocacy group to ensure there are “political costs” to ignoring the issue, he said.

Read more

Northwestern Ontario’s Resourceful Economy [Ring of Fire Episode] (The Agenda with Steve Paikin – March 10, 2015)

http://theagenda.tvo.org/ Northwestern Ontario’s resource economy seemed poised for a game-changing resurgence with the “Ring of Fire” multi-billion dollar mining find. But after a few key delays and departures, the rapid expansion in other mining deposits, including gold, may hold the most immediate promise. The Agenda with Steve Paikin stops into Thunder Bay to survey the …

Read more

College celebrates mining program, strikes new one at PDAC – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 10, 2015)

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.

Thunder Bay’s Confederation College celebrated a successful mining industry training alliance at the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention and confirmed a new one.

Its industry partner, Noront Resources, received the PDAC’s Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for its work with the Ring of Fire Aboriginal Training Alliance (RoFATA), along with other community initiatives with remote First Nation communities.

The award recognizes outstanding leadership in environmental protection and/or good community relations.

“We celebrate this incredible achievement of our community partner and are proud to have played a small part in their success,” said Confederation president Jim Madder in a March 9 news release. “Noront Resources has provided extensive support and leadership within the RoFATA program and has consistently demonstrated its commitment to education and providing pathways to employment in the mining industry.”

Launched in October 2013, RoFATA is training partnership between the college; Matawa First Nations and its training agreement holder, Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services; and Noront.

Read more

Chamber report slams government inaction on Ring – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 10, 2015)

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

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has given the federal government a failing grade — an F — for not recognizing that the Ring of Fire should be a national economic opportunity.

The Ontario umbrella group and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce coreleased a report today saying little progress has been made in the year since they issued a first report, “Beneath the Surface: Uncovering the Economic Potential of the Ring of Fire.”

That report said the Ring of Fire would generate $25 billion in economic activity and create thousands of jobs in Ontario in its first 32 years.

The report is being presented this afternoon in Toronto to movers and shakers whom the Ontario Chamber of Commerce is trying to interest in development of the vast chromite deposits in the James Bay Lowlands.

The new report, “Where Are We Now? A Report Card on the Ring of Fire,” concludes permitting delays, a lack of infrastructure and “intergovernmental quarrelling” have stalled development in the Ring.

The report evaluates progress in seven key barriers to developing the region and concludes it will be years before a first mine is opened in the Ring.

Read more

[Ontario Chamber of Commerce] Business Group Gives Failing Grade on Development of Ontario’s Ring of Fire

Click here for the report: http://www.occ.ca/Publications/ReportCardonRingofFire.pdf

Little progress made on development of resource-rich region in Ontario’s Far North

TORONTO, March 10, 2015: A new report from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce finds that permit delays, an absence of infrastructure, and intergovernmental quarrelling have stalled development in Ontario’s Ring of Fire, the mineral resource-rich region in the province’s Far North.

The report, Where are we Now? A Report Card on the Ring of Fire, evaluates progress against seven key challenges to development in the region. It finds that it will be years before a first mine is opened in the region.

The provincial government receives a failing grade when it comes to clearing the regulatory logjam. Delays in issuing exploration permits and approving environmental assessments are preventing mining firms from breaking ground on their projects.

The federal government also earns a failing grade, as it has yet to demonstrate that the Ring of Fire is a national economic development priority. Ottawa has declined to match the provincial government’s commitment of $1 billion for the development of transportation infrastructure.

The report also rebukes the lack of transparency in the negotiations between the Government of Ontario and the Matawa-member First Nations, which will outline an approach for resource extraction in the First Nations’ traditional territories.

Read more

Ontario Chamber blames Ottawa for Ring of Fire delays – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 10, 2015)

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.

Although the report cautions that the intent of the report was “not to point the finger,” the federal government was criticized for not committing funds for mining-related infrastructure.

The chamber lamented the current state of affairs which has seen the departure of Cliffs Natural Resources this past year, leaving the mineral camp without a major mining company capable of spending private capital on infrastructure.

But the chamber also points to other factors in the glacial pace of development including the absence of foundational agreements with First Nations and government permitting delays. The chamber also is calling for more transparency on the pace and progress made on the First Nations front.

Despite the province signing a framework agreement with the Matawa First Nations tribal group last spring, the chamber remarked it’s largely unknown to the general public if any further progress has been made beyond the signing ceremony.

Creating a climate of “openness” would ease the uncertainty which is hindering the ability of companies operating in the Ring of Fire to raise money.

Read more

Province renewing mineral development strategy – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – March 09, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Ontario late to notice mining downturn, says prospectors association

The province’s decision to renew its mineral development strategy – first established in 2006 – comes at a time when the sectors is in a downturn, says the executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association.

When the strategy was developed nine years ago, Ontario’s mining sector was on an upturn, but the timing for the renewed strategy will give the province a very different picture, said Garry Clark.

“They have to understand – and they are coming to grips with the fact – that the only way we stay as a vibrant mining province is to have lots of things in the pipeline coming up from prospectors and junior companies to look at and put into production,” he said.

While Ontario’s mining sector has been in a downturn for two years, Clark said the province has only taken notice over the last six months.

Their statistics, he said, are usually a year behind. In a discussion paper meant to inform the renewed mineral development strategy, the province admits “Ontario could face many challenges in the years ahead.”

Read more