Newfoundland and Labrador Mining – Page 6

How the madness of Muskrat Falls might finally be fixed – by Tom Adams (Financial Post – April 22, 2016)

April 22, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Mired in controversy, cost overruns, construction delays, politicized decision-making, existential litigation and secrecy, the Lower Churchill Muskrat Falls hydroelectric megaproject in Labrador has just generated the first good news in its history.

The energy-development arm of Newfoundland and Labrador’s government, Nalcor Energy, has this week seen a changing of the guard. Out are Nalcor’s board and CEO. Together, they had an intimate association with the former provincial Progressive Conservative government, which had initiated and shielded the Muskrat Falls project from prying eyes.

In, as of Thursday, is a new CEO, Stan Marshall, recently retired as the head of the private utility powerhouse Fortis Inc. Under Marshall, Fortis rose from its roots as a medium-sized domestic power distributor based in St. John’s to become an extremely successful international multi-energy utility company.

Chance of new life as American buyer eyes Wabush Mines – by Glenn Payette (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – April 13, 2016)

April 14, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

300 to 400 jobs if mine gets back in production

A United States company is looking to buy Wabush Mines with a view to having it re-opened within a year. Virginia-based ERP Compliant Fuels has submitted a bid to Cliffs Natural Resources which owns the mine but closed it in 2014.

“We are very interested and trying to close the transaction this spring,” said ERP co-founder Tom Clarke. Clarke said his company hopes to take full advantage of what the mine has to offer.

“The mine can produce up to six million metric tonnes, and employment would probably be somewhere between 300 and 400 people once we get back to the six million tonne production level.”

[Newfoundland and Labrador] A BOOM GOES BUST – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 19, 2016)

March 21, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After riding the oil boom for more than a decade, Newfoundland and Labrador has fallen on hard times. Multibillion-dollar projects have dried up, iron ore mines have shuttered and the fallout of crude’s price plunge has pushed the deficit to a record $2-billion. How the province is grappling with a return to ‘have-not’ status

ST. JOHN’S – Rick Farrell was among hundreds who lost their jobs in December when the shipyard where they worked finished making a gigantic module for Newfoundland and Labrador’s fourth offshore oil field – Hebron.

Unlike previous years when unemployed tradespeople could easily find work in Alberta, that was no longer an option with oil prices plunging.

The layoffs hit Mr. Farrell’s hometown of Marystown hard and rippled across Newfoundland’s Burin peninsula, hurting the local businesses and small communities that dot the province’s southern coast.

Plans move forward for rare earth elements mine on Labrador coast (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – March 14, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Search Minerals, a mining and exploration company, is making plans for a rare earth elements mine on the southeast coast of Labrador.

The company, based in both British Columbia and Labrador, discovered the Port Hope Simpson Rare Earth Element District, a belt in the area about 70 kilometres long and up to eight kilometres wide.

are earth elements are used to make such things as batteries, electronics and magnets. Search Minerals president Greg Andrews said the company has received a preliminary economic assessment on its “Foxtrot” project, in the Fox Harbour area, to see if it’s economic to move into production.

Wabush mine pension fight continues, says Labrador West MHA – by Katherine Hobbs (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – March 11, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Labrador West MHA, Graham Letto, says the fight continues for pensioners affected by the area’s downturn, but work will also have to be done to diversity the economy.

It’s been two years since Wabush Mines shut down and communities are struggling.

“We have stepped up to the plate with Wabush as a government … we’re working very hard to find some resolutions to the issues that exist up there, especially around the pension plans, finding a new buyer for Wabush Mines,” said Letto.

When the financially troubled mine, owned by Cliffs Natural Resources, closed in 2014, pension plans were underfunded by about $47 million dollars.

Vale making strides towards underground mine in Labrador – by Terry Roberts (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – March 10, 2016)

March 10, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Plans to expand Vale’s mining operations in Labrador are progressing as the Brazilian-based mining giant prepares for construction at the Voisey’s Bay site.

A company official says a project team is being assembled in St. John’s, the procurement process is underway, and the process of selecting an engineering and project management contractor is in the final stages.

Civil construction will begin this summer, Vale’s Bob Carter explained in a statement to CBC News, and the new mine is expected to produce first ore in four years. “Next year we will begin the actual underground mine development work,” he wrote.

Bloom Lake sale ‘bodes well’ for Wabush Mines, MHA Graham Letto says (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – February 02, 2016)

February 2, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

MHA Graham Letto says he’s optimistic about the future of Labrador West, and Wabush Mines, now that the Quebec Superior Court has approved the sale of Bloom Lake.

“I think it’s very positive and it bodes well for any future sale of the Wabush Mines itself,” Letto told CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning.

The shuttered iron ore mine in northeastern Quebec was bought by Quebec Iron Ore Inc., a subsidiary of Champion Iron Ltd., for $10.5 million.

“The fact that the courts and the [Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act] has approved the sale for $10.5 million —

Vale N.L. plant processing Voisey’s Bay concentrate – by Ashley Fitzpatrick (St. John’s Telegram – January 21, 2016)

January 22, 2016

http://www.thetelegram.com/

Company living up to commitments to move off imported material: province

Vale Newfoundland and Labrador is still in the process of ramping up to full production at its new hydromet production facility in Long Harbour, to continue for several years, but the company is using material from the Voisey’s Bay mine.

“The Long Harbour plant began operating on only Voisey’s Bay concentrate in early January,” a provincial Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman stated in an emailed response to questions this week.

In February 2015, a then-Progressive Conservative government announced an amendment to the Voisey’s Bay Development Agreement, allowing the company more time before it would be required to process product from its Labrador mine at the plant.

Bloom Lake ‘bargain’ a long term investment, says iron ore expert (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – December 16, 2015)

December 16, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

The new owners of the Bloom Lake iron ore mining project in northeastern Quebec got a bargain, but a mining analyst says don’t expect production any time soon.

“We think it’s a great deal,” said Garrett Nelson Tuesday in an interview with CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning.

“We think this asset will have significant value, longer term.” Quebec Iron Ore Inc., a subsidiary of Champion Iron Ltd., said Friday it had agreed to pay $10.5 million for the mine, railway and mineral claims just across the border from Labrador.

It will also assume responsibility for nearly $42 million in environmental liabilities.

Another blow for Labrador as IOC delays Wabush 3 project – (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – December 9, 2015)

December 10, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador

The Iron Ore Company of Canada is blaming a weak outlook in the commodities market for a decision to delay development of the Wabush 3 project in Labrador West.

The project has been described as “critical” to the ongoing viability of the operation, but company officials said in a memo to employees Tuesday that it must limit capital spending in 2016.

With iron ore prices now at a 10-year low, and no signs of a rebound on the horizon, IOC officials said tough decisions have to be made.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government gave its approval for the new open pit mine in September, bringing some much-needed good news to an area hard hit by a prolonged slump in iron ore prices.

Moving forward [Iron Ore Company of Canada] – by Ty Dunham (St. John’s Telegram – September 16, 2015)

September 17, 2015

http://www.thetelegram.com/

IOC’s Wabush 3 project approved for development

The Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has received approval for the expansion of the Wabush 3 pit.

The Iron Ore Company of Canada in Labrador City received the long awaited approval for the Wabush 3 open mining pit development. — Photo by Ty Dunham/The Aurora

The provincial government gave the green light to the environmental assessment last week, giving company the go-ahead on a critical project that will provide sustainability over the amount of ore that goes to the plant to meet the rate of production.

Marsha Power Slade, senior adviser for external relations and corporate affairs for IOC, said while IOC started focusing on the project 2 1/2 years ago, discussions on the expansion began five to seven years ago.

She added the additional pit would allow for greater ore flexibility due to its low strip ratio.

Vale green-lights underground mine at Voisey’s Bay – by John Cumming (August 19, 2015)

August 26, 2015

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists. jcumming@northernminer.com

The natural resources industry of Newfoundland and Labrador — beaten down as it is by the steep decline in iron ore and oil prices — has received a most welcome board-level confirmation from Vale that it will indeed pursue underground mining at its Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt mine in northern Labrador, once the open pit is exhausted in 2020.

Based on current resources, that would add at least another 15 years of life to the mine, which started operations in 2005.

The Voisey’s Bay site consists of a 6,000-tonne-per-day open pit and a concentrator that produces nickel-copper-cobalt concentrate, plus a copper concentrate, at a rate of 40,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate per year. The remote, coastal site is accessible by air and sea, with concentrate stored and shipped out on a seasonal basis before the site is locked in by ice.

The decision to go underground at Voisey’s ensures a steady feed of nickel concentrate to Vale’s new US$4.3-billion Long Harbour Processing Plant (LHPP) in the town of Long Harbour on southeastern Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.

Wabush pensioners angry about prospect of reduced incomes – by Terry Roberts (CBC News Newfoundland – August 18, 2015)

August 19, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Former mine workers fearful of a hit if Cliffs Natural Resources winds up Canadian operations

Retired workers at the now closed Wabush Mines in Labrador West say they are facing a cut in their pension incomes as their former employer, U.S-based Cliffs Natural Resources, goes through the bankruptcy protection process for its Canadian operations.

More than 100 former workers filed into the Catholic church in Wabush Monday for an information session with pension experts from the provincial government, which oversees the Pensions Benefits Act.

The closed-door meeting lasted nearly three hours into Monday evening, and was described as a tense, emotional affairs as retirees sought answers about the fate of their pensions.

Ron Barron, who worked 27 years at the mine prior to its closure in 2014, said there’s a growing level of frustration, and people want answers.

It’s a double-dose of uncertainty for Labrador’s iron ore industry – by Terry Roberts (CBC News Newfoundland – August 11, 2015)

August 12, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Canadian analyst says IOC in danger of closing, while hope fades for Alderon’s Kami Project

here’s more unsettling news for the iron ore industry in Labrador West after a Canadian investment firm suggested IOC is in danger of closing, while hope continues to fade for Alderon’s much-hyped Kami Project.

A report by Raymond James Ltd., suggested that mining giant Rio Tinto, majority owner of the Iron Ore Company of Canada, is losing money at its Labrador City operation, which employs an estimated 2,000 workers.

“Iron ore prices continue to weaken and by our estimates are below the operating cost at the mine,” the firm wrote in an investment overview published in late April.

Analysts at Raymond James estimate IOC will receive an average price of US$62.50 per tonne this year while costs are estimated at $US68.50.

One analyst said the operation is a “drain” on Rio Tinto and “we believe there is a risk IOC may close if its costs and productivity do not improve.”

UPDATED: Vale sanctions underground mine at Voisey’s Bay (CBC News Newfoundland – August 10, 2015)

August 10, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Will extend mine life to 2035 and nearbly double workforce to 850

Mining giant Vale has approved construction of an underground mine at Voisey’s Bay that will extend the life of the northern Labrador mine by about 15 years and provide hundreds more jobs.

A company spokesman said construction will begin next year, and is timed to ensure a continuity of supply for the new multi-billion-dollar nickel processing plant in Long Harbour.

“For us it’s a natural evolution of the mine there,” said Cory McPhee, vice-president of corporate affairs for Vale’s base metals business.

“We’ve always known that the open pit was going to be exhausted at some point. And going underground was the next natural step. And that’s the key to exploiting the resource that’s available to us.”

It will take about five years to complete the underground mine, which is about the same time the surface mine is expected to reach the end of its lifespan.