Ontario Mining – Page 188 – Republic of Mining

Funds available for grassroots exploration projects – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 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.

It’s a grim market reality for mineral explorationists trying to raise capital for their projects. But there’s one tool available to help prospectors at the grassroots levels with their costs in working their claims.

The Ontario Exploration Corporation (OEC) is a for-profit entity overseen by the Ontario Prospectors Association that allows successful applicants to access as much as $85,000 to fuel their work.

The OEC was established in 2002 to invest in mining lands that may produce prospects with high economic potential. The three-phase program delivers financial assistance in exchange for a royalty on the lands, up to 1.5 per cent net smelter return, which prospectors can buy back up to 11 years after receiving the funds.

The net smelter return (NSR) refers to revenues expected from the mill feed, taking into consideration mill recoveries, transport costs of the concentrate to the smelter, treatment and refining charges, and other deductions at the smelter.

That hitch isn’t always popular in the prospecting community, said Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA), who admits the program is underutilized.

Ring of Fire Bogging Down? – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 2014

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

Ring of Fire Being Frozen in Ontario Ottawa Ice Storm?

THUNDER BAY – BUSINESS – The Ring of Fire is a major mining project that has the potential to make a massive impact across Northwestern Ontario. That potential has taken a number of hits over the past several years. Initially, Cliffs Natural Resourses, KWG Resources, and Noront Resources were the large players in the region. The Ring of Fire often is discussed for its huge chromite deposit potential. There are of course other minerals in the Ring of Fire, nickel being one of those minerals.

Last January, Cliffs Natural Resources pulled their camps out and left the Ring of Fire in a physical presence. More recently, Cliffs is stating that they don’t think it is possible for the project to actually happen in the next half century.

The Ring of Fire presents an opportunity for Canada, for Ontario, and for First Nations. Right now that project is in effect moving far slower than business would like it to move.

Relations Between Ontario and Ottawa Chilly at Best

Part of this appears to be an ongoing impasse between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. A few weeks ago, the Premier wrote the Prime Minister expressing that December 5th marked the one year anniversary of their last meeting. There appears to be a level of ice in the relationship between the PM and the Premier thick enough to safely drive a transport truck over.

Greg Rickford responds to province’s latest Ring of Fire request – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 2014

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

Ontario wants $1B from Building Canada Fund for roads and power to remote mineral deposit

Ontario’s plan for the remote Ring of Fire mineral deposit has “serious structural problems” according to the federal Natural Resources Minister, and that’s why Greg Rickford says Canada is cautious about partnering with the province to build roads and power lines.

Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines wrote to Rickford last week, asking for a meeting to discuss the province’s proposal for $1 billion under the Building Canada Fund.

“We need you to be actively engaged in these discussions as we chart a path forward,” Michael Gravelle wrote in a letter dated Dec. 11. “Your government’s acknowledgement of a matching $1 billion commitment to support infrastructure development is key.”

Rickford said he is happy to meet with Gravelle but is not so happy with the way the province is approaching development of what both levels of government see as a key resource.

“We’re waiting for the province to maybe move beyond the letter-writing and get a submission to us, technically, about a priority and a priority project and we’ll move forward on that,” Rickford said.

He outlined what he describes as three key structural problems with Ontario’s approach that “only the province can resolve.”

Transparency Act : Resource company payments to First Nations unveiled (CBC News Sudbury – December 14, 2014)

December 15, 2014

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

Most First Nations in northeastern Ontario receive funds from a mining, forestry or power company

For the first time, the amount of money northeastern Ontario First Nations receive from agreements with private resource companies has been made public. The figures were included in financial documents posted under the new First Nations Transparency Act.

Many bands have been reluctant to discuss specific figures in the past and the impact benefit agreements often prohibit the companies from discussing payment to neighbouring First Nations without band permission.

Some of the most surprising numbers in the newly released financial records are for Moose Cree First Nation on the James Bay Coast.

Its balance sheet shows $1.5 million coming from Detour Gold last year. Also listed under First Nation revenue is $3 million in company stock. But it also shows Moose Cree losing $6.2 million last year in the sale of Detour Gold shares.

Repeated phone calls and emails to the First Nation’s elected officials and administrative staff were not returned. Most First Nations in northeastern Ontario do get some amount of money from a mining, forestry or power company.

All of the bands along the James Bay Coast receive money from DeBeers, for its Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat.

Noront Resources A Little Giant in the Ring of Fire – Interview by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – December 12, 2014)

December 12, 2014

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

Noront Resources Ltd. Working to Get the Ring of Fire Moving

THUNDER BAY – Noront Resources Limited President and CEO Al Coutts is looking to get mining. The Noront President says that getting moving on the Ring of Fire is important for Ontario.

Coutts shares in an interview with NetNewsLedger, what is key is for Ontario to move forward on the permitting process, while it is working on the Regulatory Framework Agreement.

The Ring of Fire chromite discovery in Northwestern Ontario offers opportunity for the region. “Getting the Ring of Fire right,” has been the message from the province of Ontario and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle.

$4-million investment in golden property – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – December 3, 2014)

December 3, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Another junior mining company is betting it has found a viable gold property in the city with a heart of gold. Gowest Gold Ltd., a firm with solid roots in Timmins, is planning to fast track an exploration program for its Bradshaw gold deposit, located about 40 kilometres north of the built up area of Timmins.

The company held an open house Monday at the McIntyre Auditorium to bring shareholders, supporters and members of the public up to speed on the work the company is planning in the coming year.

One of the first things the company has planned is to prepare the Bradshaw site to remove overburden and create a water management infrastructure. The company has also planned significantly more exploration drilling, according to company president and CEO Greg Romain, a Timmins native.

He said the company is in an enviable position of having closed a $4-million financing deal with Fortune Future Holdings Limited of China, who Romain said has demonstrated significant faith in the project.

‘First of all it is one of the newest deposits, not near an existing mine, to be found what I’ve been told since Hoyle Pond was discovered 25 years ago.

KWG lays out new vision for Ring of Fire – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – December 1, 2014)

December 3, 2014

This article was originally published in the December 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Proposal includes a slurry pipeline, a gas reduction reactor in Nakina, and a stainless steel mill in Sorel

What’s the ideal development scenario for the Ring of Fire? Not what most of the protagonists in the long drawn out saga have proposed to date, according to Frank Smeenk, president and CEO of KWG Resources.

Forget about Cliffs Natural Resources and the $1.8 billion electrically-powered ferrochrome smelter in Sudbury. Ditto for the billion dollar plus railroad from the CN line to the chromite fields of the Ring of Fire, as proposed by Smeenk himself.

The KWG president’s latest grand scheme for the Ring of Fire hinges on a new gasfired production method for chromite, a slurry pipeline bringing the ore south to a gas reduction reactor in Nakina and a second parallel pipeline bringing natural gas north to two gas-fired electrical generating stations.

Also proposed are a single underground shaft to access both Noront Resources’ Eagle’s Nest base metal project and the adjacent Black Horse chromite property, an east-west “forestry road” to Pickle Lake, an extension of the Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) from Hearst to Nakina, and a stainless steel production facility in Sorel, 80 kilometres northeast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.

NEWS RELEASE: WESDOME GOLD MINES TO POUR ITS ONE MILLIONTH OUNCE OF GOLD AT EAGLE RIVER MINE IN WAWA, ONTARIO

December 2, 2014

December 1, 2014 – Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd is pleased to announce that it will pour its one millionth ounce of gold at its Eagle River mine in Wawa, Ontario on December 5, 2014. Since the first gold brick was poured on October 17, 1995, the Eagle River mine has produced 1.0 million ounces of gold from 3.4 million tonnes at a recovered grade of 9.2 grams per tonne, with higher grades realized in recent years and projected in coming years.

Initially purchased in March 1994 and put into production at a cost of $15.5 million, the Eagle River mine’s profitable production enabled the acquisition of the Edwards mine (1997-2002) and the Mishi mine (2002-present), also located in Wawa. High gold grades and an experienced work force have insulated operations during gold price down cycles enabling a 20-year continuous mine life to date. Wesdome emphasizes local and regional vendors through whom it now spends $30 million annually.

Wesdome has had recent drilling success in identifying the potential for another additional high grade mining area at depth and in recently recognized parallel zones within range of existing workings. Further drilling is underway to fully delineate and define two new parallel structures (the 7 Zone and 300 Zone), and their size potential. Prospecting efforts will attempt to trace their projection to surface. Wesdome expects to release additional drilling results later this year.

Mr. Rolly Uloth, President and CEO commented, “I would like to thank the entire team at Wesdome as well as our suppliers, whose hard work, dedication to mine safety, and commitment to productivity has made this significant milestone possible.

Project could create 1,000 jobs – by Jeff Labine (Timmins Daily Press – November 29, 2014)

December 1, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Things are looking good for Timmins’ new talc and magnesium mine, which could create more than a thousand jobs.

William Quesnel, president and CEO of General Magnesium Corp., told The Daily Press the demand for magnesium has doubled over the past few years. Magnesium is a light weight metal and highly sought after in the auto industry. Quesnel said the auto industry is pulling out all the stops to continue to make vehicles like SUVs with the lighter material, which is good news for the company.

“The project is really moving ahead,” he said. “Things take time to do. The thing is, people who are looking at the project to purchase our material have gone above and beyond on their due diligence. Their consultants say we will be a very low cost producer in the world. When you have low costs like that you are able to create jobs that are sustainable because you can deal with the fluctuation in metal prices.

“We have three phases we’re looking at and the jobs could be over a 1,000, which I think is a fairly strong impact for Timmins.”

The Daily Press learned from a source close to the project that the lifespan of the mine could be a hundred years. The three phases will be broken up into building a talc plant, followed by a magnesium concentrator and finally a magnesium thermal reduction plant. Quesnel said that will be the real job creator because it turns the magnesite material into a metal.

‘Significant progress’ on Ring of Fire: Gravelle – by Darren MacDonald (Sudbury Northern Life – November 26, 2014)

November 26, 2014

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Responding to a sea of criticism over its handling of the Ring of Fire, the province’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines insisted Tuesday his government’s strategy will make the chromite discovery a success.

Michael Gravelle said he’s pleased with the progress his government has made, despite comments from opposition politicians and business that the $60-billion project is languishing under the Liberal guidance.

“We have a clear plan and we’re implementing it,” Gravelle said, who said they have made significant progress in recent weeks.

But the biggest stakeholders in the project is considerably less optimistic. In an interview last week, Cliffs Natural Resources CEO Lourenco Goncalves told the ‘Financial Post’ there’s “zero” hope infrastructure and other issues plaguing the deposit will be resolved in his lifetime. He said had he been in charge at the time, the company never would have gotten involved with the project.

“And I plan to stay (alive) another 50 years,” he said in the article. “The Ring of Fire is a remote land with no railroad, no road, nothing … Without the infrastructure, there’s nothing we can do.”

Gravelle said Goncalves’ comments were “startling … and just plain unhelpful,” he said.

Ontario lecturing Harper on good government is laughable 133 – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – November 25, 2014)

November 26, 2014

http://www.torontosun.com/

TORONTO – They’re the terrible twins of Confederation: Ontario and Quebec. Yet like two wayward, know-it-all teenagers, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Quebec counterpart, Philippe Couillard, have taken to lecturing the grown-ups about what they’re doing wrong.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, like a bemused dad, rolls his eyes and ignores them — which as any parent will tell you is the best way to deal with kids who act out.

Except these two aren’t just seeking attention. They want his money. Quebec and Ontario are the two most indebted provinces. It’s almost as if they’re competing with each other. Who can dream up the costliest program to drive their province deeper in the red? Quebec comes up with $7-a-day daycare? We’ll raise that — and see you with full-day kindergarten.

Wynne and her government use any opportunity they can to slam Harper. Clearly, they’re trying to help federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as we head into next year’s federal election. Don’t forget, some of Trudeau’s advisers are the people who brought former premier Dalton McGuinty to power.

NEWS RELEASE: Rubicon and Wabauskang First Nation Reach a Settlement Agreement and an Exploration Accommodation Agreement

November 26, 2014

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Nov. 24, 2014) – Rubicon Minerals Corporation (TSX:RMX)(NYSE MKT:RBY) (“Rubicon” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that is has entered into a Settlement Agreement (“Settlement”) and an Exploration Accommodation Agreement (“EAA”) with Wabauskang First Nation (“WFN”).

Under the Settlement, WFN has agreed to discontinue its appeal against Rubicon regarding the August 28, 2014 decision made by the Ontario Divisional Court to dismiss the application for judicial review in respect of Rubicon’s production closure plan for its fully-permitted Phoenix Gold Project (the “Project”). In turn, an EAA has been signed and terms of a potential benefits agreement are outlined in the Settlement.

The EAA governs the Company’s exploration work on WFN lands, which includes the continuing exploration work being done at the Phoenix Gold Project. The key features of the EAA include the following:

WFN will support Rubicon’s exploration work, including support of the application for licenses and permits for such work;

The Company will provide certain benefits to WFN based on exploration expenditures incurred by Rubicon on its mineral claims within lands used by WFN;

Quebec superior to Ontario for exploration, says junior miner [Northern Superior Resources] – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 26, 2014)

November 26, 2014

A million dollars doesn’t stretch as far as it once did; not if you’re in the exploration business in Ontario.

The province may be lauded for its rich mineralogy, but the president of a Sudbury-based junior mining company said it’s become a tad pricier and more risky to find new discoveries compared to Quebec.

“To actually make a discovery takes a huge effort and a lot of money, and you’re going to get a lot farther with that money in Quebec than you are in Ontario right now,” said Tom Morris of Northern Superior Resources. The exploration community is in dire straits with many junior miners struggling to raise project financing and their stocks trading below 10 cents.

The situation doesn’t appear to be getting any easier based on Morris’ recent presentation at a Sudbury mineral symposium describing the myriad obstacles that small mining firms face to operate in Ontario that go beyond just proving up geology.

Based on his company’s experiences in both provinces, Morris delivered a part-business analysis, part-cautionary tale on where the money is spent on a hypothetical million-dollar exploration budget.

Goldeye Groundwork: Hoping & preparing for Ontario’s next major gold discovery – by Bryan Phelan (Onotassiniik Magazine – Fall 2014)

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014

http://issuu.com/wawatay/docs/ono_winter_2014_layout/

The mineral exploration agreement between Goldeye Explorations and Sandy Lake First Nation had been a long, long time coming.

Robin Luke Webster was just four years old when his father, Blaine, first staked claims near Sandy Lake in 1986. So much time had passed that Robin had gone from bring a pre-schooler to manager of corporate affairs and community relations at Goldeye, where Blaine is chief executive officer.

Sandy Lake hadn’t supported the initial exploration work that followed Goldeye’s claim staking in the ’80s – line cutting, surface geophysics, an airborne geophysical survey and a limited amount of drilling – so the project was put on hold. Goldeye tried to re-activate the project in the early 2000s, but Sandy Lake still wasn’t ready to endorse it. Representatives of the First Nation and Goldeye began to talk with each other at that time, however, and by 2004 the band council had assigned one of its members for liaison with Goldeye.

Finally, in the summer of 2013, Goldeye got the go-ahead to channel sample some of its claims in the Sandy Lake Greenstone belt, part of the First Nation’s traditional lands, and the results showed “significant gold values.” At the suggestion of a Sandy Lake resident, the exploration project name became “Weebigee,” Oji-Cree for the goldeye fish in area waters. And on Nov. 18 that year, Chief Bart Meekis of Sandy Lake and Blaine Webster signed a formal, five-year exploration agreement for Weebigee project activities.

Robin, who joined his father at Goldeye as an advisor in 2012, attended the signing, which took place in the council chamber at the Sandy Lake band office.

Sandy Lake blessing for gold exploration – by Bryan Phelan (Onotassiniik Magazine – Fall 2014)

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014

http://issuu.com/wawatay/docs/ono_winter_2014_layout/

Robin Luke Webster, president of Goldeye Explorations, figures he spent about three months of a recent one-year period in Sandy Lake First Nation. It has been an extraordinary but necessary investment of time, Webster has found.

With the First Nation’s blessing, Goldeye has been exploring for gold on its mining claims south of Sandy Lake since 2013. The junior exploration company is based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, part of the Greater Toronto Area.

“First Nations and exploration companies need to understand each other better,” Webster says during a presentation at the Ontario Mining Forum in June. “In Sandy Lake, community members had no idea what exploration is and on our first visits there we had no idea what a remote First Nation is.”

Webster helped the learning process along by spending 92 days in Sandy Lake during the preceding year, when he held the titles of manager and then vice-president of corporate affairs and community relations for Goldeye. “None of that is project related; it’s just talking to people,” he says of that time in the community. “It’s not easy. A junior (exploration company) can’t really afford that time but that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Webster’s outreach activities in Sandy Lake have included hosting an information booth during Treaty Day and a community feast, supporting participation of youth hockey teams in the regional Little Bands tournament and making home visits to local elders.