Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery – Page 119

Accent: Ring of Fire – Miles to go before we dig [Part 1 of 2] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – January 5, 2013)

January 5, 2013

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

It may be a cliche, but over the past six months, how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same in the Ring of Fire.

There may be some ongoing activity or discussions behind the scenes, but without a doubt, the declining state of the global economy, First Nations issues and Ontario politics seem to have halted any progress on a variety of issues.

First let’s look at the fragile nature of the world economy. The U.S. is still struggling; Europe is worse, with skyrocketing unemployment rates in many countries; and China’s past double-digit expansion is gone. It is estimated that their economy will “only” grow 7% this year.

The price of commodities and the value of resource companies have plummeted. Many mining projects are being put on hold or cancelled, while layoff notices are being handed out. Funding for junior exploration companies — the source of future discoveries like the Ring of Fire — has become almost impossible to find, putting many on life support.

The stock price of Cliffs Natural Resources has plummeted from US$100 per share a year and a half ago to a little under US$30 recently.

Cliffs has publicly stated that they are looking for a partner to help develop their Northern Ontario chromite deposits. Recently, the company has put their Bloom Lake iron ore expansion project in Quebec’s Labrador Iron Trough on hold and stopped production at two of their U.S. iron ore mines.

Male Newsmaker of the Year [Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias]- by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – January 3, 2013)

January 4, 2013

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias burst into the national media’s attention in the spring when he announced to the world that he would stop a bridge to the Ring of Fire from being built over the Attawapiskat River, by any means possible.

“They’re going to have to cross that river, and I told them if they want to cross that river, they’re going to have to kill me first. That’s how strongly I feel about my people’s rights here,” Moonias said in May.

Since then Neskantaga has become a thorn in the side of Cliffs Natural Resources, the mining giant that Moonias has pegged an “American mining bully.” Moonias’ efforts have brought international attention to the First Nations fight to be consulted and accommodated on what may be the biggest development ever in northern Ontario.

For those efforts he has earned Wawatay’s male newsmaker of the year. The First Nation is making true its claim to use any means possible to oppose the Ring of Fire until proper consultation gets completed.

In May the chief sent a series of letters to the Ontario government, demanding consultation and expressing his concerns over Cliffs’ announcement that it was going ahead with its Ring of Fire chromite mine, along with a north-south highway and a smelter in Sudbury.

Shaky investment markets [in Northern Ontario] forces driller offshore – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 2, 2013)

January 3, 2013

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.

Although some companies and the province laud Ontario as being one of the best mining-friendly
jurisdictions in the world, Courte said that perception has changed. In conversation with her
industry colleagues, Ontario is considered a “risk area” for investment, based on some high-
profile First Nations-industry conflicts, along with the uncertainty of how the new Mining Act
plans and permits regulations will play out.

A Thunder Bay drilling company boss said exploration work is drying up in Northern Ontario and she’s finding greener pastures in the Caribbean. Barb Courte, president of Cobra Drilling and North Star Drilling, is dispatching four drills to the Dominican Republic this fall for a project with Unigold, a Canadian junior company.

“I’m getting calls from other companies in the Dominican to do more work.” While 2012 has been a solid year for her two companies, she has major trepidations for what lies ahead. “I think we’re going to have a very hard year ahead of us.”

A tepid investors’ market means exploration budgets for junior miners’ drilling programs are being slashed or the companies aren’t doing anything. “If they have any money, if they were going to do a 5,000-metre contract, they’re doing a 1,500-metre.”

Thunder Bay and the challenge of seniority – by Joe Friesen (Globe and Mail – December 26, 2012)

January 3, 2013

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

THUNDER BAY, ONT. — The history of Canadian wealth is written on the land here north of Lake Superior: the fur trade post that supplied Europe’s beaver pelts, the forest that yielded billions in lumber, the towering grain elevators, the smoking pulp mill, the railway that opened the West.

Fortunes have been made and lost in Thunder Bay through periods of boom and bust. In 2013, another challenge looms, one that it shares with the rest of the country: Thunder Bay is aging, and it may get old before it can get rich again.

With 7 per cent of its population aged 60 to 64, Thunder Bay has a greater proportion of people nearing the traditional retirement age than almost any other Canadian city. Rebecca Johnson, a local councillor who led the push to make Thunder Bay officially Age Friendly, has seen so many retirement parties she swears she won’t attend another.

But as the first wave of the baby-boom generation nears retirement, Thunder Bay is also on the cusp of a potential economic boom. There are 13 mines planned in the next six years for the region north of here, many in the area known as the Ring of Fire. Thunder Bay will be the hub for all that development, which includes building roads, camps, mines, as well as services for the influx of workers. An economic-impact study estimates that 16,000 new jobs will be created through the first nine mine projects.

Aboriginal Ring of Fire director Michael Fox sees opportunity in mining – by Lindsay Jolivet (Yahoo News Canada – January 1, 2013)

January 3, 2013

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/

A mineral deposit in Ontario’s far north is a source of excitement and controversy for the province’s mining industry. Named the Ring of Fire — after the Johnny Cash song — the area contains a Nickel deposit and the largest deposit of chromite ever discovered in North America. Chromite is a key ingredient in stainless steel. Two companies, Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront, are in talks to mine the region.

Dalton McGuinty has suggested the Ring of Fire could rival Alberta’s oil sands, creating thousands of jobs near reserves that are plagued by unemployment. But its economic potential is matched only by its hurdles and risks. Environmental damage, sustainable infrastructure, and the well-being of nearby aboriginal communities are at stake.

Michael Fox is the Ring of Fire senior director for Webequie First Nation, a fly-in community 540 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. He’s a liaison between the community and those seeking to exploit its resources. Fox spoke with Yahoo! Canada News about the complex process of developing a remote region and the challenges of ensuring that Webequie benefits from the Ring of Fire as much as the companies planning to mine it. This is a condensed version of that discussion.

Yahoo! Canada News: What are your biggest challenges as a liaison between the community, the companies, and the government? It sounds like a big job.

Michael Fox: There are two visions of the two distinct mines that the two companies have. Noront has a nickel deposit that is going to be an underground mine. And their project description has an east-west road. The Cliffs project is an open pit mine, it has a north-south road.

‘Rugged’ first year as MPP [Vic Fedeli Northern Ontario issues] – by Gord Young (North Bay Nugget – December 29, 2012)

December 29, 2012

http://www.nugget.ca/

The ongoing saga of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission will remain this riding’s top issue in the new year, says Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

In a year-end interview, Fedeli said he believes rail will likely be the next division to be sold after Ontera, the ONTC’s telecommunications division.

“I think they’re scrambling to sell Ontera as quickly as possible,” said Fedeli, noting the provincial Conservatives have called for the rail freight division to remain public, plus a strategic review of the remainder of the Crown agency.

A request for proposals was issued Dec. 17 for the purchase of Ontera to firms that pre-qualified as potential buyers in October; and the province has said the successful bidder will be announced in the spring. The province has also indicated it hopes to complete rest of the divestment process by spring as well.

Fedeli said it’s difficult to say what the strategic review his party has promised would involve because it’s unclear what ONTC assets will be left by the time there’s a provincial election.

He said the Conservatives would also move the ONTC from under the Ministry of Northern Development to the Ministry of Transportation. In addition, Fedeli said he signed a petition supporting the proposed New Deal to revitalize the ONTC involving the creation of federal ports authority because it involves keeping the rail freight division in public hands, as well as the transporting of ore from the Ring of Fire chromite find in the James Bay area via rail.

[ONTC Railway] New Deal tops priority list – by Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles (North Bay Nugget – December 28, 2012)

December 29, 2012

http://www.nugget.ca/

Advancing a proposed New Deal to revitalize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Jay Aspin’s top priority heading into 2013.

“It’s got to move ahead . . . everybody has got to get behind this – everybody,” said Aspin, suggesting the ONTC and its assets are too important to be piece-mealed or lost altogether.

Aspin has thrown his support behind the General Chairperson’s Association’s proposal which calls for the transfer of ONTC assets to a new ports authority. And he has been helping the group, which represents unionized workers at the ONTC, gain support for the plan.

But Aspin said his role will also be to advocate for approval in the House of Commons to make the James Bay and Lowlands Port Authority a reality once the application is to the federal government has been completed.

The plan, which also requires provincial approval, includes establishing a rail line rather than a road to ship thousands of tons per day of chromite, nickel and other materials from the Ring of Fire site.

In a year-end interview Thursday, Aspin said the next item on his priority list is to make way for the arrival of the North Bay Battalion hockey team by securing a federal contribution toward the $12-million in renovations at Memorial Gardens.

Northern Ontario chromite mining has first nation worried for water safety- Heather Socffield (The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – December 27, 2012)

December 29, 2012

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

MARTEN FALLS, ONT. — The Canadian Press – Water has consumed the daily routine of Chief Eli Moonias, and it’s making him visibly agitated. His small, fly-in reserve in Northern Ontario has had a boil-water advisory for seven long years, and there is no end in sight.

Now he feels the long-term quality of the water that surrounds his reserve may well be at risk, too. Mining companies have flooded into the James Bay lowlands, into the area now dubbed the Ring of Fire. They’ve found an enormous expanse of chromite, enough nickel for a mine and other metals that may hold potential in future years.

The mining holds the promise of thousands of jobs over the next decade, if not longer – as long as the proposals can pass environmental muster and garner the support of the region’s first nations. But chromite also poses significant challenges to the environment that can be difficult to manage.

“We know we’re going to get some benefits once they start development. We know that in some ways, we’ll be involved as well. The issue is the environment,” says Mr. Moonias.

He looks at development in the oil sands and hears about the inedible fish and the poisoned Athabaska River. He vows never to let anything like that happen to the Albany and Ogoki rivers that flow through the muskeg and meet at Marten Falls.

Ring of Fire: Can struggling First Nations benefit from mineral bonanza? – by Heather Scoffield (iPolitics – December 26, 2012)

December 28, 2012

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

FORT HOPE FIRST NATION, Ont. — Roland Okeese is watching with keen interest as mining companies from around the world stake claims in the area around his remote northern Ontario reserve.

The 36-year-old father of six and grandfather of two is in his prime — strong, healthy and hopeful for a new career supporting the mining activity in the Ring of Fire. For Okeese and so many other community members, however, the path from here to there is difficult.

Okeese knows the wild country well. He’s good with a power saw. He has a few months’ experience doing contract work for Noront Resources. But for much of his adult life, he was wrestling with an addiction to the prescription painkiller OxyContin. He didn’t graduate from high school. And his formal training is minimal.

“I’d like for the (mining) to happen. I’d choose to be working,” he said defiantly, recognizing that some in his community don’t share his view. “But I don’t have the skills.” It’s a problem that needs to be resolved soon if a local workforce is to benefit fully from the mining activity poised to take off in the Ring of Fire.

Indeed, there is a newly formed consensus among federal and provincial officials, native communities and major companies that aggressive training programs need to be set in place now.

[Ring of Fire] Resource development could help peel away ‘layers and layers of trauma’ – by Heather Scoffield (The Canadian Press/Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal – December 27, 2012)

December 27, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

The people at Cliffs Natural Resources have been around, and know the challenges of mining in difficult conditions.
But this is a first: the multinational has had to extend deadlines on its environmental assessment process in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire because of a suicide crisis.

Another young man took his life a couple of weeks ago, prompting a spiral of despair in Neskantaga First Nation. Twenty young people in the small community of about 300 were put on suicide watch. The chief and council went to ground.
And the chances of them completing their feedback on time for Cliff’s environmental assessment terms of reference faded to zero.

“Neskantaga asked for some extra time on that, and given the circumstances, we figured that was right to do,” Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been clear with people that we’re going to be the operator of this project long-term, assuming it goes forward. We plan to be there for a long, long time.”

“We kind of balance our interest in holding to a schedule with a very high level of interest in making sure we’re doing it right. And it’s not to our benefit to be solely schedule driven.”

It’s a small delay, but it comes at a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it a priority to ramp up the pace of mining and energy extraction.

The challenge of our time [First Nations Poverty] – Thunder Bay Chronicle Editorial (December 23, 2012)

December 27, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

ANOTHER protest by First Nations has led to another round of accusations and counter-accusations. Chiefs and band members say government is ignoring treaty obligations and violating traditional lands. The federal government insists it is acting on a number of fronts to improve the lot of First Nations. Canadians from all walks of life share a variety of opinions, some of them valid while others repeat old misconceptions.

The Idle No More movement follows other native protests rooted in similar claims and counter-claims. Some of these protests have led to violent confrontations; others have simmered for years.

In general, the efforts of reasonable First Nation leaders has led reasonable Canadian and provincial government leaders to act on legitimate grievances and legislate improvements. And yet, conditions on many First Nations remain impoverished and relations with most governments remain strained.

This situation has endured for decades and is both a stain on Canada’s name and a sign that something isn’t working. In this modern country with a solid Charter of Rights and Freedoms, how can there not have been a solution to this by now? Either the First Nations are right and governments are failing them badly, or governments are doing their best but cannot have the conversation that First Nations want to hear.

Liberal hopeful backs [Ring of Fire] rail system – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – December 21, 2012)

December 21, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Charles Sousa is a strong supporter of rail systems and believes more needs to be done to enhance the service throughout the province.

During a stop Thursday in Timmins, Sousa’s declared support for Ontario Northland Transportation Commission fell short of offering to reverse the government’s current plans to privatize the ONTC if he succeeds in being elected provincial Liberal leader.

“I have advocated for increases in transportation,” Sousa said during an interview with The Daily Press. “I have said we need high-speed rail throughout the southern corridor and we need the ONTC or the rail system going up the North, to the spine up to the Ring of Fire. We need to have these transportation systems in place.”

Partnership with private enterprise is the key to developing enhanced rail systems, Sousa said.

Sousa is one of seven candidates running for the Ontario Liberal leadership. He is at least the third candidate to have come through Timmins during this current campaign. The party will elect its new leader to replace Premier Dalton McGuinty at a convention being held in Toronto Jan. 25-27.

The Mississauga South MPP was asked what he would do to address the overriding sense in the region that Queen’s Park is out of touch with Northern Ontario.

Ring of Fire mining prospects empower Canada’s most disenfranchised natives – by Heather Scoffield (Canadian Press/Global News -December 20, 2012)

December 20, 2012

http://www.globalnews.ca/

MARTEN FALLS, Ont. – For Christmas, Chief Eli Moonias received a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey autographed by Wendel Clark. His remote northern Ontario community of Marten Falls got 50 turkeys and a visit from Santa, laden with children’s gifts.

And in March, the 61-year-old chief will be granted his wish of travelling to China – if he can get his passport in time. They’re all gifts from mining companies who need the chief’s support to develop what could be a world-class base-metal discovery.

Moonias’s community sits next to what has become known as the Ring of Fire. Marten Falls is a small, fly-in reserve — just three streets of houses for about 300 people at the junction of the Albany and Ogoki rivers. It’s in the middle of one of the only forests in the world that has never been touched by industry, an area that hosts six of Canada’s biggest rivers.

When trapping for furs lost its lustre several decades ago, nothing replaced it in Marten Falls. Unless the residents are working for the band office or a government-run social service, they’re almost certainly unemployed — and more often than not, addicted to prescription painkillers at the expense of putting food on the table for their families. Never have they felt more empowered.

“If you don’t reassure me, that’s when I say No,” Moonias says in an interview at the band’s resource office, wallpapered with maps and surveys. About 130 kilometres to the north of the reserve, multinational miner Cliffs Natural Resources wants to develop a huge chromite mine to make a key ingredient in stainless steel. The firm brought Marten Falls the Christmas turkeys.