Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas – Page 150

Northern Ontario mining projects need province’s support, analyst says (CBC News Sudbury – September 25, 2014)

September 26, 2014

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

A mining industry watcher says the provincial government should do more to help with First Nation consultation, and putting a cap on energy rates. Stan Sudol said recent changes to Ontario’s Mining Act have made negotiations between the industry and First Nation communities more complicated.

The Toronto-based communications consultant and mining policy analyst said that’s hurting the industry, because it’s delaying exploration projects, and increasing the cost. The onus is on the government to improve the negotiation process, Sudol added.

“The government needs to meet with the tribal councils across northern Ontario, along with junior mining companies, and let’s hammer out a blanket, uniform agreement that is good for everybody.” Unless something is done, junior mining companies and prospectors fear the consultation process could become more onerous, he said.

Ontario power costs too high

While the future of the Sudbury Basin mining camp looks promising, Sudol said he’s concerned about climbing power rates due to Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

State of the Basin: industry watcher Stan Sudol (CBC Morning North – September 25, 2014)

September 25, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury We wrap up our series on the state of mining and mineral exploration in Northeastern Ontario. We reached out to blogger [www.republicofmining.com] and mining industry watcher Stan Sudol for his thoughts on what the future holds. Listen audio (runs 7:55) We also have the full interview with Stan Sudol for you, a longer version …

Power grid connection for First Nations to save millions, report says – by Jody Porter (CBC News Sudbury – September 24, 2014)

September 24, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay

Ontario Power Authority report says 21 First Nations to be taken off diesel, connected to grid

The Ontario Power Authority says getting 21 First Nations off diesel generation and onto the provincial power grid will save a billion dollars over the next 40 years. The draft Remote Community Connection Plan outlines the business case for building power lines in the remote north.

The report states: “The $1 billion cost savings reflects only the avoidable cost of diesel fuel and system expansion. It does not reflect the additional economic, societal, developmental and environmental benefits that would also arise from transmission connection of remote communities.”

The federal government would reap the majority of the savings, as it is currently the major source of funding for diesel generation in First Nations.

However, all electricity customers in Ontario would benefit through a reduction in the rural and remote subsidy portion of their bills, according to Power Authority planning analyst Stephanie Aldersley.

“By having transmission connection we’re reducing some of the need for that cost so that’s how Ontario customers stand to benefit from the connection,” she said. Aldersley said there could be additional cost savings if a proposed mining development in the area moves ahead, but the plan doesn’t rely on it.

First Nation leaders call for halt on Ring of Fire permits – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 23, 2014)

September 23, 2014

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.

The chiefs of the Matawa First Nations are demanding a moratorium in the issuance of exploration permits in the Ring of Fire.

In a resolution passed by the leadership of the nine communities in the tribal council on Sept. 17, the chiefs want a regional protocol developed with the Ontario government before any further approvals are granted for mineral exploration activity in the James Bay region.

The chiefs said the province is moving forward on permitting companies which have not consulted with area First Nations.

They insist it breaks the spirit of a regional framework agreement signed last March between the chiefs and Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle. The agreement is supposed to be a foundational document to guide future mining and infrastructure development in the Far North.

The chiefs believed the document was an acknowledgement by the province of their traditional territories and that development wouldn’t proceed without local consent, accommodation and compensation.

The Matawa chiefs are asking for “substantive funding” to negotiate a regional protocol with the province and want the province to share all the permit applications submitted by mining companies operating within the Matawa traditional territory.

Ring of Fire could damage grave, cultural sites, student says – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – September 23, 2014)

September 23, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay

Peawanuck First Nation member Jennifer Wabano launches letter campaign

A member of Peawanuck First Nation near Ontario’s Hudson Bay coast says the Ring of Fire mining development will affect her family’s traditional lands.

Jennifer Wabano said neither her family nor other members of Peawanuck, (also known as Weenusk), have been consulted by the province or the mining companies about the impact the project could have on graves and cultural sites.

“The land use planning that was done is not complete,” Wabano said. “There were no meetings, no presentations on information about it with community members. “With the land use planning and the land use study there are sites, like burial grounds and sacred sites that weren’t included,” Wabano added.

The college student in Timmins has written letters to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Mushkegowuk Council expressing her concerns. Now she’s launching a petition, seeking signatures from other community members in affected First Nations.

Aboriginals building a road to career success – by Kathryn Boothby (Regina Leader-Post – September 22, 2014)

September 23, 2014

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

Stories about making our way to school in the depths of winter have been a staple of family conversations for centuries. As Trevor Grandjambe of the Fort McKay First Nation tells the tale, his experience was a special test of endurance. He completed Grade 9 in his home community, but subsequently he had to face an hour-long trip to Fort McMurray every day to attend high school. But that didn’t stop him from graduating.

“Aboriginal people have many obstacles to overcome, but helping yourself goes a long way to helping you succeed,” he says. “You have to work hard and keep your goals in sight.”

Grandjambe, 35, is a senior site supervisor with Bouchier Group, one of the largest aboriginal-owned and operated construction and facilities maintenance companies in the oil sands. He joined the company nine years ago as an entry level operator working the night shift, after working as a labourer in the oil and gas sector for a number of years.

Continually upgrading his skills, learning on the job, and being proactive about leadership training helped Grandjambe reach his current position. “From supervisory and behaviour-related courses I learned how to react to situations and how to manage people in the workforce,” he says. “Getting that training helped my career tremendously. Being a supervisor is not simply about being the boss. There’s a lot of responsibility in ensuring everyone on your team gets home safely each day.”

NEWS RELEASE: Court authorizes 900 M$ lawsuit by the Innu against IOC / Rio Tinto

September 23, 2014

UASHAT MAK MANI-UTENAM, QC, Sept. 22, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ – The Innu First Nations of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam and Matimekush-Lac John, whose traditional territory (Nitassinan) covers a large part of North-eastern Quebec and Labrador, celebrated on September 19, 2014 an important legal victory in their 900 million dollar lawsuit targeting the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC), whose majority shareholder is Rio Tinto (see press release of March 20, 2013 for more information on the suit).

IOC had tried to have the case dismissed by attempting to convince the Court that the Innu did not have the right to sue IOC and had to rather sue the government. On September 19, 2014, the Honourable Justice Marc-André Blanchard of the Superior Court of Montreal rejected IOC’s motion to dismiss.

Without a doubt, governments played a role in authorizing IOC’s projects despite the lack of consent of the Innu of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam and Matimekush-Lac John, but IOC’s projects are not some form of public undertaking.

It was IOC, and now Rio Tinto, therefore private investors, who made the decision, without any consideration for the two Innu peoples living on the land since time immemorial, to build and operate a mining megaproject totalling thirty or so gigantic mining pits, a railway 578 km in length and what ended up being toxic port facilities which still contaminate today an area greater than 30 football fields.

“It was not the government that carried out racial discrimination against Innu employees. It was not the government that expelled our women, children and elders from their homeland to make way for IOC’s mines.

NEWS RELEASE: BAFFINLAND BEGINS MINING IRON ORE – September 22nd, 2014

September 23, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: On September 8, 2014, Baffinland began mining and transporting ore to the port site where construction of its Milne Port continues, on schedule, with the intent of shipping first product during the open water season of 2015. Baffinland’s Mary River Project reached this milestone without a single Lost Time Injury during the last three years.

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO, September 22, 2014 – The Mary River Project is located on northern Baffin Island, in the Territory of Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic. It is considered one of the best iron ore projects in development in the world with an ore grade of approximately 67%. Due to the quality of the ore, no processing is required before shipping it to market, reducing overall impact to the environment and keeping production costs low.

An important milestone was reached on September 8, 2014 when Baffinland transported its first load of iron ore to its port site at Milne Inlet. On September 19 there was another reason to celebrate as Baffinland reached a 3 year anniversary without a single Lost Time Injury (LTI).

“This is excellent news,” said Tom Paddon, Baffinland President and CEO. “I am extremely pleased to say that we are now truly a mining company; we have drilled, blasted, crushed and transported final iron ore product to the port at Milne and we have done this with a record of no Lost Time Injuries over a 3 year period; a significant achievement particularly when you consider that we are operating in the high Arctic.

New planning tool could lead to ‘better results, less confrontation’ – by Bryan Phelan (Wawatay News – September 18, 2014)

September 19, 2014

http://wawataynews.ca/

Representatives of environmental groups and Matawa First Nations Management (MFNM) had preliminary talks earlier this year about Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (R-SEA) as a new planning tool for the Ring of Fire.

The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment once praised R-SEA as “an inherently proactive approach” and “a means to ensure that planning and assessment for a region support the most desired outcomes rather than the most likely one.”

There are numerous examples from around the world where R-SEA has been used successfully, including in Vietnam, Mauritius, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, says Anna Baggio, director of conservation planning for Wildlands League. “It produces better results and helps avoid confrontations and legal challenges.”

Baggio organized a meeting in February when informal discussion of an R-SEA for the Ring of Fire took place. In addition to Wildlands League, other environmental groups represented at the gathering were Mining Watch, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) Canada, and Ecojustice. Also present were various Matawa advisors and experts, Baggio said.

She anticipated a follow-up meeting after the nine chiefs of the Matawa tribal council and the Ontario government signed a framework agreement in March for negotiations on development in the Ring of Fire.

Environmental groups pitch planning solution for Far North – by Bryan Phelan (Wawatay News – September 18, 2014)

September 19, 2014

http://www.wawataynews.ca/radio

Ontario’s three major political parties promised during the 2014 provincial election campaign to speed mining development in the Ring of Fire.

At the same time, however, two environmental groups were making finishing touches on a report calling for the province to put the brakes on that development, at least for now.

Just four days after the Liberals were re-elected to power in June, the environmental groups Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada and Ecojustice released a report suggesting Ontario needs a whole new approach to planning for the Far North. In the meantime, no Ring of Fire projects should be approved, the groups said in their report, titled Getting it Right in Ontario’s Far North: The Need for Strategic Environmental Assessment in the Ring of Fire (Wawangajing).

The existing legal framework for industrial development in the region is “broken,” said Anastasia Lintner, a lawyer and economist who co-authored the report on behalf of Ecojustice along with a conservation scientist from WCS, Cheryl Chetkiewicz. Part of the problem, they showed, is that planning taking place now is piecemeal and narrowly focused on individual projects or pieces of projects. “The Far North faces uncoordinated resource development with little consideration for cumulative impacts (of multiple projects),” the co-authors wrote in the report’s summary.

Ontario’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ In Limbo: Cliffs Resources Says It Wants Out – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – September 18, 2014)

September 18, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/staking-claim/

The largest player in the efforts to develop large-scale mining in Ontario’s Ring of Fire is signalling that it is looking to unload its $3.3-billion project in the region.

Cliffs Natural Resources said Thursday that it sent a letter to the Marten Falls First Nation to alert the band that it is exploring “strategic alternatives,” which could include a sale of its stalled Black Thor chromite project. The U.S. mining giant has been struggling with debt amid low commodity prices in recent years.

Marten Falls is one of nine First Nations that will be most affected by development in the 5,000 square kilometre crescent believed to contain $50 billion worth of mineral deposits. “We should expect there will be a change, with a sale of the project one of the potential outcomes,” Cliffs executive Bill Boor said in the letter, The Globe and Mail reported.

Cliffs spokeswoman Patricia Persico said the letter was sent only to the Marten Falls First Nation to update them on the company’s situation, as it directs resources to focus on its iron ore business.

“Marten Falls First Nation is an important stakeholder to Cliffs and this business update is part of our normal course of business with them,” she told Huffington Post Canada.

KWG Resources, which already has a chromite project in the area, said Thursday that it is in talks with Cliffs to acquire the stalled Black Thor project and is looking into how to finance a deal.

[Canada] Mines ministers talk transparency in Ontario (Northern Miner – September 17, 2014)

September 17, 2014

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Sudbury played host to this year’s Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference in late August. The annual gathering of federal and provincial mining and energy ministers is meant to foster discussion and collaboration to advance development across the country.

In a statement released after the meeting, the attendees affirmed their commitment to the following principles:

• The responsible development of Canada’s energy and mines sectors is critical to our economic competitiveness, job creation and long-term prosperity

• Provincial and territorial governments will work with the federal government in support of Canada’s commitment to establish new mandatory reporting standards for Canadian extractive companies, with a view to enhancing transparency of payments made to governments

• The continued advancement of energy infrastructure (e.g., oil, gas, electricity, etc.) projects is fundamental to gain access to new markets and generate economic growth and revenue for critical social programs

• Progress is being made by all levels of government in implementing regulatory reform in a way that ensures the environment is protected

Hard-luck aboriginal community to get unusual Royal visit — the first since its treaty was signed in 1929 – by Adrian Humphreys (National Post – September 17, 2014)

September 17, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Hunters in 14 boats pushed off Tuesday from the isolated northern reserve of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, fanning out across Big Trout Lake and down its myriad tributaries, looking to bag moose, caribou, geese — anything delicious enough to serve to the Royal Family.

Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, who is the youngest son of the Queen and Prince Philip, is making a highly unusual, two-day visit this week to the remote, fly-in only aboriginal community in northern Ontario. It’s a reserve struggling with poor housing, unemployment, drug addiction and inadequate education facilities.

Joining her will be a high-powered entourage of women: Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne; Lieutenant Governor-designate Elizabeth Dowdeswell; Ruth Ann Onley, wife of David Onley, the lieutenant governor; Vicki Heyman, wife of the U.S. ambassador to Canada; and others.

“We are just trying to grasp it now. The last time anyone came here from the Crown was in 1929 when we signed our treaty,” said Chief Donny Morris of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, known as KI.

“To have someone from the Royal Family, representing that, reliving that, I think that’s what we’re excited about — somebody actually coming here 85 years after we signed the treaty with the Crown.” It will be an unusual few days for the VIPs.

Ring of Fire development picture looks no clearer, strategist – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 15, 2014)

September 15, 2014

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A management shakeup at Cliffs Natural Resources has some mining analysts believing the possible departure of the Cleveland-based mining giant from the Ring of Fire camp could open the door for other international producers to make a move.

But that’s not the opinion of Bill Gallagher, a leading mining strategist. With competing and divergent stakeholder agendas at play, combined with a muddled development picture, the overall uncertainty in the remote James Bay mineral exploration camp may drive off any new investment or mining entrants.

“You could not get a more polarized set of opinions around a non-existent project,” said Gallagher. “How many (news) reports have to come out that show that everybody’s on a different page? There’s nobody singing a unifying theme.”

Gallagher is a former federal negotiator, a strategist specializing in mining and First Nations negotiations, and a published expert on Native empowerment in the Canadian resource industry.

Cliffs won a major court ruling in July to gain overland access to its Black Thor chromite deposit. But the timing of the decision may be too late for the Ohio iron and coal miner to see its proposed $3.3-billion Black Thor chromite mine and Sudbury refinery project come to fruition.

De Beers studies [Ontario] Victor extension as end of mine life looms (Northern Miner – September 12, 2014)

September 15, 2014

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

With a mine life that ends in 2018, the ore is running out at Ontario’s only diamond mine — De Beers’ Victor mine, 90 km west of Attawapiskat.

The open-pit mine, which began production in 2008, produces around 600,000 carats of high-value diamonds a year from a single 15-hectare kimberlite. But with 15 other diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes at the project, there is potential for an extended mine life at Victor.

De Beers has already started an environmental assessment on the Tango Extension kimberlite, the most promising of the other pipes in the Victor cluster. Situated about 6.5 km northwest of the Victor mine, the company believes it could extend Victor’s mine life by seven years.

The company is studying the potential to mine Tango Extension as an open-pit operation at a rate of 3 million tonnes per year. However, the project is not yet economic. The Tango Extension kimberlite is smaller, lower-grade, and contains less valuable diamonds than Victor.

While Victor is a low-grade mine at around 0.23 carat per tonne, its diamond values are among the highest in the world at more than US$400 per carat. So far, samples from Tango Extension indicate the quality is good, but they won’t fetch the same kind of price per carat as Victor diamonds, says Tom Ormsby, De Beers Canada’s director of external and corporate affairs,