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

“It’s a very high-quality chromite, which is a very important strategic metal,”
said Stan Sudol, a communications consultant and blogger at republicofmining.com.
“There are no substitutes for it. And there are only three major countries in the
world that produce it: South Africa, Kazakhstan and India.” … The trillion-dollar
Sudbury Basin is by far Canada’s biggest resource discovered to date, having
yielded base metals for more than 100 years, Mr. Sudol said. (Financial Post)

The government of Ontario took a big step toward unearthing the geological treasures of the province’s Far North in announcing an investment to develop the first mine in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire.
 
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. plans to invest $3.3-billion to establish a chromite mine west of James Bay and build a $1.8-billion smelter near Sudbury, the province said Wednesday.
 
And since the Ring of Fire is inaccessible by road or rail, hundreds of kilometres of new all-season road will be built to truck the ore south.
 
Improving access to Ontario’s northern expanses could lead to the discovery of additional base-metal deposits with immense economic potential. Read the rest of this entry »

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

According to SAMSSA source, Stan Sudol, the demand for resources in developing
nations, like China, will continue to place upward pressure on commodity prices,
and Canada is the top country in the world for mining project development. It is
estimated that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as
many minerals as has consumed since the beginning of time.
(Stan Sudol, Mining Analysist)

The booming mining sector has the suppliers and service companies scrambling to keep up with the demand and opportunities.

Dick Destefano, Executive Director, Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA), said the group has switched gears from connecting his members with work to helping them meet the overwhelming demand.

The organization represents the interests of 115 members providing the largest concentration of expertise in mining supply/products and services from within the most recognized centre of excellence worldwide. For the past nine years SAMSSA has been monitoring the mining sector and Destefano predicts that we are not even close to finishing the super cycle. Read the rest of this entry »

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

“But, let’s remember, Sudbury still has enormous geological potential, is
polymetallic — copper, platinum group metals, cobalt and others — in addition
to nickel, has established mining infrastructure, skilled workforce and is
one of the top, politically risk-free and mine-friendly jurisdictions in a
resource-starved world.” (Stan Sudol – Mining Analyst/Columnist/Blogger)

Though the talks of a merger between two enormous mining giants has been going on for many years in secret, it wasn’t until Feb. 7 that mining company Xstrata and commodities dealer Glencore agreed to a $90B US merger that will create the world’s fourth largest natural resources company.

The combined company will control a chain of businesses from mining to refining, storage and shipping of basic commodities like coal, copper and corn.

Under the terms of the deal, Xstrata shareholders would receive 2.8 Glencore shares for each of their shares. That represents a premium of 15.2% based on recent closing prices. Glencore already had a 34% stake in Xstrata.

The merger is projected to yield cost savings of $500 million in the first full year, primarily in marketing. It will also give the combined company greater leverage to borrow money for its operations — a key advantage in the high-volume, low-margin commodities business. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/03/29/tby-miners-united.html
 
Exploration companies form new group to share concerns about First Nations

A lawyer who represents junior mining companies in disputes with First Nations says some exploration companies feel they’re not being heard by their industry association.
 
Neal Smitheman said the Prospectors and Developers Association is trying, and sometimes failing, to represent both industry and First Nations.
 
Smitheman said that ignores the fact the two are often in conflict. Neal Smitheman, lawyer representing junior mining companies in disputes with First Nations.

“Some people think that PDAC, by trying to accommodate both First Nations and the industry, finds itself in an unresolvable conflict from time to time,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Taking the lead

When Glenn Nolan first attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual spring convention in 2004, there were a couple dozen Aboriginal faces in the crowd among the world’s mining heavyweights.
 
The agenda set aside for First Nations discussion was small, and was reflective of the state of the mining industry’s relations with Canada’s indigenous people.
 
“When we started doing Aboriginal sessions, it was all about conflict,” said Nolan, who serves as Noront Resources’ vice-president of Aboriginal relations. Things are decidedly different heading into this month’s show in Toronto.
 
PDAC corporate membership rolls list about 400 who are self-identified Inuit, Metis and First Nation delegates. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Stan Sudol, a long-time mining issues writer, said
a special legislative body isn’t the answer and
suggested there’s already enough representation
both federally and provincially.

“We shouldn’t need to do this,” Sudol said. “We have
two prominent northerners — Rick Bartolucci from
Northern Development and Mines and Claude Gravelle
from Natural Resources — who are the chief voices
of northern Ontario at the cabinet table.”

Timiskaming-Cochrane New Democrat MPP John Vanthof hopes minority government will help give life to motion

The issue of northern alienation is being raised once again in Queen’s Park.

Timiskaming-Cochrane New Democrat MPP John Vanthof is calling on MPPs to support a bill that would create a new legislative committee comprised of just northern MPPs.

Timiskaming-Cochrane New Democrat MPP John VanthofVanthof said, although this isn’t the first time MPPs have expressed concern about northern alienation, he said this time is different. He said he is counting on the reality of a minority government to make things better for the north. Read the rest of this entry »

This column was published in today’s  Sudbury Star , the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. It is the start of a monthy mining column for the Sudbury Star.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and columnist who blogs at www.republicofmining.com ; stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Last year the global population reached seven billion. More than half of us now live in urban centres and experts estimate that figure will climb to 70% by 2050. China is witnessing the largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind in its stampede to industrialize and modernize. China also has become the world’s second largest economy and currently needs to build the equivalent of two cities the size of Toronto and Sydney Australia every year to accommodate this rapid growth. India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and other developing countries are following in its footsteps but at a less frenzied pace.

According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, “up to three billion more middle-class consumers will emerge in the next 20 years compared with 1.8 billion today, driving up demand for a range of different resources.” Notwithstanding the current depressed prices of some metals, most analysts feel that the current mining commodity super-cycle will last for decades. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of time. Read the rest of this entry »

Inside Queen’s Park is an insider newsletter which offers widely respected analysis of, and insight into, the inner workings of Ontario government and politics.  It is published by G.P. Murray Research Limited which provides Ontario Government relations and information services.

As a devout generalist, ready to splash around in puddles that are a mile wide provided they are not more than an inch deep, IQP defers to and relies upon the many specialists who drill deeply in one field or even more. One such is Stan Sudol, a talented writer and energetic researcher whose long experience of all things mineral is evident to those who keep up with his RepublicOfMining.Com web-site and blog postings.

A self-professed Sudbury Inco-brat – he worked for the company’s Clarabell Mill in 1976-77 and underground at the Frood-Stobie mine in 1980 – he now calls Toronto home but still keeps a close eye on northern Ontario and mining issues. He also worked at various Queen’s Park ministries in the late nineties and early part of this decade as a communications consultant.

 The blog is a combination of Sudol’s columns, industry news releases, speeches, opinion pieces and an aggregator of mainstream media mining news. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Re: “Community leaders share hopes for 2012″ — Dec. 31.

Reading the story, I anticipated some insight or vision. The mayor sees environmental knowledge as an economic generator because she has spoken to many international mining interests from around the world.

Former mayor Jim Gordon continues to wail about youth out-migration. It is no longer a worthwhile conversation after some 25 years and still no solution after many studies.

The first study, which I facilitated about 20 years ago for the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, stated that youths leave for many reasons, not just jobs. They will return for a job when it kicks into their 30- something heads, as they become parents themselves and begin to think that perhaps it would be nice to raise their kids in an environment similar to what they grew up in. Read the rest of this entry »

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

… mining analyst Stan Sudol would like to see the consolidation
of the province’s post-secondary mining engineering and geology programs at Laurentian University. Sudol isn’t the most popular man among University of Toronto and other academic types from southern Ontario. But the creation of an international “Harvard of hard-rock mining” in Sudbury … “By relocating mining and geology programs from Queens, in Kingston, and the University of Toronto — neither city has any mines — to Laurentian, the province would save money and further enhance Sudbury’s global expertise in mining research and education.”

Focus on the city’s strengths and think outside the box. These ideas are part of the economic blueprint for Sudbury’s growth in 2012, say community leaders.

It’s no surprise that job creation is at the top of Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk’s wish list for the city in the New Year. Although she’s rooting for Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite processing plant here and create 400 to 500 jobs, Matichuk said it’s important to build and support the businesses already here.

“We also need to take advantage of some of our unique opportunities,” she said. “If you look at us as world leaders, you look at our environmental rehabilitation.” Read the rest of this entry »

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

Mining analyst Sudol said the high-tech nature of mining
in 2011 is not well understood. “We all talk about high
tech in Kitchener-Waterloo and Silicon Valley in California
and we are sort of ignoring an extraordinarily interesting
concentration of mining technology, research and education
in Sudbury.”

The same thing killing jobs in southwestern Ontario is creating them by the thousands in Northern Ontario.

The industrialization and urbanization of China, Brazil and India is causing the flight of well-paid industrial jobs to those emerging economies. The fallout is unemployment in Ontario’s industrial sector and unemployment rates soaring to 9.8% in London and 10.8% in Windsor.

But the loss for the south is a gain for the north.

Unemployment is low in places such as Kirkland Lake and Sudbury. Mines and mine-related businesses are clamouring for workers.

“The industrialization and urbanization of China, India and Brazil and many other developing countries will be ongoing for many generations to come,” says respected mining consultant and analyst Stan Sudol. Read the rest of this entry »

570 News listeners have come to know the “Gary Doyle Show” as a voice for better living in the community. Each day from Noon to 3:00pm, Gary brings a non-controversial and non-confrontational approach to topics of lifestyle, money, health, finances and more.

With the big news stories of the day in mind, Gary will also ask special guests and newsmakers the questions that need to be answered and will give 570 News listeners a chance to learn more or even weigh in with their own questions.

Click Here for interview: http://www.570news.com/listen/listenplayer/308070–2pm-does-the-far-north-act-need-a-re-write

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

Is Ontario’s Far North Act anti-aboriginal?

De Beers Canada and its Victor diamond mine is currently in the media spotlight regarding the poverty in the nearby First Nations community of Attawapiskat. Many are questioning why the community is not significantly benefiting from this diamond mine, located on its traditional territory. The Victor deposit — which is the smallest of Canada’s four diamond mines — just started production in July 2008 and has an expected life of 11 years. The mine employs about 500 people, half of whom are of First Nations background and 100 come from Attawapiskat.

This controversy highlights the widespread problem of aboriginal poverty, much of which lies at the feet of Premier Dalton McGuinty, environmentalism and the product of this marriage — the much-detested Far North Act. Praised by the south’s many well-funded and powerful environmental movements, this legislation cuts off half of the Far North to resource development — 225,000 square kilometres or roughly 21% of the province’s land mass — and turns it into parks.

The horrific downside to this green ideology is that mineral exploration and potential mines — the only form of economic development that could reduce the impoverished, Third World living conditions in First Nations communities — is being reduced or stopped in the affected territory. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver-based Jack Caldwell is a mining engineer/consultant with Robertson GeoConsultants. His blog www.ithinkmining.com was the only other Canadian mining blog to be included in the Top Ten Mining Blog list by the Australian company Mining IQ. This posting was in response to my recent blog essay titled “The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector.”

Jack Caldwell

Republic of Mining is another great Canadian blog about mining. Stan Sudol is the fellow behind the blog.  I met him once in Toronto.  He is younger than me, although most people are, more energetic than me, and he is more passionate than I am.

His latest major piece on the Republic of Mining is called The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector.  He is stirring up a hornet’s nest with this posting.  I must admire him for his courage.  While I am cynical, and not afraid to call a spade a spade, I am not sure I would have the courage to hit as hard as he hits in this piece.  Here are selected strikes from his piece:

“How things change and how they stay the same! The mining sector has done a terrible job of clearly and transparently explaining the economic benefits and environmental sustainability of their current projects. This increases their costs of doing business through increased red tape, litigation, project slowdowns and potentially bad and unexpected government policies like the Ontario Diamond royalty on DeBeers Canada and the revisions to the province’s mining act. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

“How many more trillion-dollar Sudbury Basins are up
there waiting to be discovered?” Sudol said Queen’s
Park must partner with Ottawa to build a Far North
railroad, road network and transmission lines. “This
financial investment would generate tens of thousands
of jobs in both the North and the struggling south as
well as contribute badly needed tax revenue.” (Mining
Analyst Stan Sudol – RepublicOfMining.com)

All eyes on Cliffs Natural Resources to advance Far North deposit

It’s a real cliffhanger. Anyone with a stake in the Far North’s Ring of Fire is waiting on Cliffs Natural Resources to formally give the greenlight to develop its Black Thor chromite deposit in the James Bay lowlands.

Aside from petitioning for more competitive power rates in Ontario, the Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered international miner has been careful not to expand upon this pan-Northern mine, mill, transportation and refining project beyond its base case released last spring.

Until Cliffs decides to move the project into a full-blown feasibility study, the drama and suspense will continue. While the multi-billion dollar, multi-generational project will be regional in scope, it hasn’t stopped the communities from doing some smokestack chasing to land the ferrochrome production. Read the rest of this entry »