Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 128

A new century of mine production: Porcupine Gold Mines considers new pit in Timmins – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – June 29, 2017)

June 29, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

As Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM)-Goldcorp’s mining reserves become more depleted in Timmins, the company is embarking on a new project to take its operations into the next century. The proposed Century Project would expand the original Dome open-pit operation, which was mined between 1996 and 2004, to the northeast, and operate for 10 or more years.

PGM’s Dome underground and Hollinger open-pit mines have limited resources left, and so the Century Project is a way for the company to extend its longevity in the Timmins camp, said Marc Lauzier, general manager at Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM)-Goldcorp.

“If we just stay with the one underground concept, then at some point we’ll disappear; we won’t survive,” he said. “If we want to be economically viable and if we want to continue to contribute to Timmins, we need projects like this to make that happen, and so this is just an example of some of the ideas we have to take PGM into a second century in the Timmins camp.”

99 Ways To Die In Mineral Exploration – by Rob McLeod (CEO.ca – June 15, 2017)

June 29, 2017

http://blog.ceo.ca/

I recently heard a great story about the safety culture that has permeated the mining industry over the past decade, with probably a bit of overkill within the major miners. At an alleged meeting between 50+ mining execs from each side of Newmont and Barrick in New York City, discussing a possible business combo, the Newmont chair of the meeting started it off with a safety share: “when walking the streets of New York, make sure you put your blackberries away, since you might step in to the street and get hit by a car”.

Getting struck and killed while walking and trolling Facebook is a risk that transects all industries, but particular to the mining industry, there are no shortage of ways to meet your maker in mining or exploration. Oh, and the Newmont-Barrick merger didn’t happen!

A short list of hazards, in no particular order, include: helicopter or fixed wing crashes, rolling ATV’s, getting shot, avalanches, kidnapping, malaria and all manner of tropical diseases, freezing to death, boiling to death, mauled by a large carnivore, bitten by a small, poisonous critter, falling, or drowning.

Why a B.C. court is hearing a Guatemala mining case – by Hayley Woodin (Business Vancouver – June 27, 2017)

June 27, 2017

https://www.biv.com/

Three years of legal wrangling lands Tahoe Resources lawsuit back in BC Supreme Court

It took three years and three courts to determine where to sue Tahoe Resources Inc. (TSX:THO; NYSE:TAHO) for battery and negligence. The original lawsuit – a response to a violent altercation at a Tahoe subsidiary’s Guatemalan mine site – was filed in June 2014, then set aside, as lawyers on both sides of the case argued whether British Columbia or Guatemala was the more appropriate forum for the suit.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled it was the latter; earlier this year, the BC Court of Appeal decided it was the former. Most recently, Tahoe applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. The court’s decision not to hear the case means the lawsuit will proceed in British Columbia.

“We’re of course disappointed that the Supreme Court took a pass,” said Edie Hofmeister, vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel at Tahoe. “We’re kind of at Square 1 here, really.” Square 1 meaning Tahoe will now respond to the original notice of claim filed three years ago, though with one notable difference: three of the seven plaintiffs who first filed the suit settled with the company in April.

Cambrian College receives $2.1M research grant: A collaboration with mine business partners for the next five years – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – June 26, 2017)

June 26, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The future is looking more secure for several innovation projects at Cambrian College in Sudbury with a large grant coming their way.

Cambrian Innovates, the applied research division at the college, and three mining industry partners will benefit from a $2.1-million grant aimed at supporting a five-year Mine Environmental Stewardship Initiative.

The grant is coming from the federal government’s National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) College and Community Innovation (CCI) program. The funds were secured through an Innovation Enhancement grant that will support a five-year Mine Environmental Stewardship Initiative.

Arsenic to be removed from Sudbury’s Long Lake – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 24, 2017)

June 26, 2017

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Residents of Long Lake will notice some extra activity around their shores in coming months — and next year, especially — but chances are they’ll welcome the temporary annoyance of noisy equipment over the lingering presence of a deadly poison.

A tender is going out this summer for reclamation work on the former Long Lake Gold site, which has been leaching arsenic into the southwest corner of the lake for years, with a contract to be awarded in the fall and the work apt to commence in earnest early in the new year.

Stephen Butcher, chair of Long Lake Stewardship, said it’s been a long wait for a remediation project to get the go-ahead but “we’re ecstatic it’s finally getting done.” It was Butcher’s stewardship group that first detected elevated levels of arsenic, which has been filtering down from old tailings deposits, through water testing done back in 2011.

Laurentian students making a name in mining – by Harley Davidson (Sudbury Star – June 24, 2017)

June 26, 2017

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Two St. Catharines natives are part of winning teams in this year’s MINED Open Innovation Challenge, offered by the Ontario Mining Association to mining and engineering students.

Adam Grinbergs and Sarah Bulanda, Laurentian University students, are members of the first and second place teams, respectively. The program tasked engineering students to come up with solutions to hypothetical mining problems.

Their case study presented them with the challenge of cooling down underground mines. Grinbergs’ team came up with a concept called Deep Water Cooling, in which cool water from the bottom of the Great Lakes is pumped into the mine and misted into the air. Grinbergs says the process of cooling deep mines is essential, with temperatures in mines rising an average of 1 degree Celsius per 100 metres depth.

The world seeks Sudbury’s mining expertise – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – June 23, 2017)

June 23, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Export forum brings supply companies and international investors together to talk

With over a century of mining supply expertise in Sudbury, companies and nations are turning to this region to help them develop their mining sectors, particularly Mexico, South America and the American Southwest.

To make it easier to connect, Ontario’s North Economic Development Corporation (ONEDC) played host to the Northern Ontario Exports Forum 2017 on June 22. The forum at the Holiday Inn allowed mining service supply companies to meet and get a better idea on export marketing, strategic planning, and the sales landscape in their own backyard and beyond.

“It’s an opportunity for the supply and service for mining to look at export opportunities,” said forum chair Tom Palangio, president of WipWare, and the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association.

A breath of fresh air for deep mining: Century-old technology readapted to cool air in ultra-deep mines – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – June 22, 2017)

June 23, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A new attraction on display at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury is bringing a century-old invention to the modern age with the aim reducing the costs of deep mining. The Hydraulic Air Compressor (HAC) demonstrator was unveiled at the tourist attraction with much fanfare on June 21.

The 100-foot-tall industrial scale system for testing and demonstrating air compression was installed in its own headframe in a former elevator shaft that used to be a part of Big Nickel Mine. “This project is going to do so much more than develop a new air circulation system, it’s going to rewrite the textbook on thermodynamics,” said project lead Dean Millar in an interview.

“This will make deep mining here in Sudbury, and ultimately the rest of the world safer, more cost efficient and greener.” The HAC Demonstrator project is a joint undertaking of a Sudbury research consortium involving the Ultra-Deep Mining Network (UDMN), MIRARCO Mining Innovation, Laurentian University, Electrale Innovation, Reasbeck Construction, Independent Electricity System Operator, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and Dynamic Earth.

Forget Ring of Fire: Cobalt mining camp is ready to roll – by PJ Wilson (North Bay Nugget – June 23, 2017)

June 23, 2017

http://www.nugget.ca/

COBALT – As much attention as the Ring of Fire has garnered, the expected resurgence of the Cobalt Camp is a bigger story. “The Ring of Fire . . . is too much pie in the sky,” Gino Chitaroni says. “There are too many working parts. You don’t need millions of dollars there. You need billions. There is no way in hell it will be developed anytime soon.”

Chitaroni, president and manager of PolyMet Labs in this old mining town, says political problems are delaying the Ring of Fire project in northwestern Ontario even more. It will be at least a decade – probably more – before anything comes out of it, he believes. But the Cobalt Camp, he says, is ready to roll again.

“Even with China involved directly, and they have very, very deep pockets, the infrastructure requirements there means Ring of Fire is many, many years off,” says Chitaroni, who also is president of the Northern Prospectors’ Association. “It’s sad that the government has put all its (mining) eggs in one basket when there are so many other, much better projects.”

The Town Silver Built may have new lease on life – by PJ Wilson (North Bay Nugget – June 23, 2017)

June 23, 2017

http://www.nugget.ca/

COBALT – Renewed interest in the historic Cobalt Camp mining site is reason for “cautious optimism,” according to this small town’s mayor. But Tina Sartoretto warns against “full-throttle optimism.”

“You can easily be over zealous,” says Sartoretto, who has been mayor since 2010. Over the past few months, prospectors, surveyors, drilling crews and others have descended on the region that stretches from just across the Quebec border to as far west as Espanola. But Cobalt is at the heart of the attention.

“It’s not like the heyday,” Sartoretto admits. “We had the stock exchange, we had banks, hotels, restaurants . . .” The years have been tough on this old town. The population now, according to the 2016 national census, is 1,118 people. The stock market is long gone, as are the banks.

BUILDING A MINER IN THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE – by James Kwantes (Resource Opportunities – September 16, 2016)

June 23, 2017June 22, 2017

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IDM Mining (IDM-V) site visit

Getting to IDM Mining’s Red Mountain gold project in northwestern British Columbia wasn’t quite “planes, trains and automobiles,” but it was close. First I flew from Vancouver into Smithers. There’s some family history in the neighbourhood — down the road is Houston, where my grandfather settled with his family after emigrating from the Netherlands. There’s some family history for IDM CEO Rob McLeod, as well.

From Smithers it was into a rental car for the 330-kilometre trek to Stewart, nestled beside the Alaska panhandle. Jagged mountain peaks and tall waterfalls make the final approach beautiful.

A helicopter picked me up for the last leg to Red Mountain, 15 kilometres northeast of Stewart. It was a cloudy day, so the pilot had to take the “long way,” threading his machine through the Bitter Creek Valley to the site. It’s the same route the road will take from Stewart — in the helicopter, it was still only about 10 minutes.

Memorial marks 1984 Falconbridge tragedy and all workplace deaths – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – June 20, 2017)

June 21, 2017

https://www.sudbury.com/

2015 death of Richard Pigeau at Nickel Rim South especially raw for speakers

On June 20, 1984, a seismic event measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale struck Falconbridge Mine, leading to the deaths of four miners — Sulo Korpela, Richard Chenier, Daniel Lavallee and Wayne St. Michel. Every year since the tragedy, Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor has held a Workers’ Memorial Day gathering on June 20.

This year’s service was held at the union’s campground on Richard Lake, and featured a long list of guest speakers, including politicians, union and company officials and labour community representatives.

Although specifically commemorating the 1984 Falconbridge mining disaster, the event also remembers other workers who have died at the company, which, as a result of several buyouts, now goes by the name Glencore. It also honours the lives of all those who have lost their lives due to on-the-job accidents or industrial disease in Sudbury and around the world.

Noront looks for smelter landing spots in Sudbury, Timmins – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 20, 2017)

June 21, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Nickel City puts “best foot forward” to host Ring of Fire chromite processor

Noront Resources’ search for a home for a potential ferrochrome smelter took them to Sudbury and Timmins in mid-June. The largest claim holder in the Ring of Fire recently tweeted photos of visits to the northeastern Ontario cities as part of a pan-Northern Ontario scan to find a suitable landing spot for a $600-million to $800-million processing plant.

Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay-Fort William First Nation are in the mix to host the facility which could be years away from construction given the slow pace of development talks between the Ontario government and First Nation communities in the James Bay region.

Greater Sudbury Development Corporation (GSDC) director Ian Wood said the plant could create “several hundred” construction and permanent jobs, but he remained cautious about heightening local expectations.

A real world education: Temagami pit reopening for aggregate production – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 19, 2017)

June 20, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A once-dormant Temagami aggregate pit could become a beehive of activity this year. Randy Becker, a member of the Temagami First Nation and the new operator of the Frontenac pit, has ambitious plans to use the property as an active exploration site for base metals, establish an aggregate extraction operation, and utilize the site as a training ground for future Indigenous diamond drilling assistants and heavy equipment operators.

The former municipal pit is located just south from the Town of Temagami and west of Highway 11 at the 12-kilometre mark of the Lake Temagami Access Road. The permit to operate the pit was transferred to one of Becker’s companies, Nimkie Mining Services.

To advance the multi-faceted development, Becker has struck a number of agreements with business partners including Asabanaka Drill Services, a majority First Nation-owned outfit out of Kasabonika Lake First Nation, to assist with the startup of a 10-week diamond driller training course.

Sioux-to-Sault partnership forms for Ring of Fire – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – June 19, 2017)

June 20, 2017

http://www.saultstar.com/

The proposal calls for a trans-load facility to be established in Sioux Lookout, where raw materials can be trucked and transported via rail across the region. Sault Ste. Marie was selected as the ideal partner for the project because of its location, history and infrastructure, said EDC CEO Tom Dodds.

Dodds was recently in Sioux Lookout to tour the proposed trans-load facility location and discuss integrated transportation systems and the commercial and industrial networks that could benefit from the proposal. “Our concept is the same and we see the synergies that could be created from an east west route,” Dodds said.

That east-west route, would run along an old winter road system that is already in place to service communities to Pickle Lake. The closest community with reliable infrastructure becomes Sioux Lookout, which currently serves as a hub for that region’s remote communities, includes a hospital and the necessary infrastructure for a staging point, Dodds said.