KGHM to proceed with development of Victoria Mine
The way is finally clear for the development of KGHM International’s Victoria project in Sudbury following the recent conclusion of an agreement with Vale Canada.
Under the new arrangement with Vale, KGHM International will build and operate Victoria as the sole owner of the project and Vale will receive a royalty and off-take on all future production from the project.
Victoria was one of five so-called “non core” properties acquired by FNX Mining from Inco in 2001.
Discussions with Vale concerned processing terms and the back-in right to the project.
With the agreement in place, KGHM will continue to progress towards approval and granting of the required permits, arrangements with First Nations, and prepare for infrastructure construction and shaft development in the second half of the year.
“This agreement sets the foundation for the development of the Victoria project and KGHM International’s growing presence in the region,” said Derek White, president and CEO. “This project will not only create significant value for the KGHM group, but also for Vale as the offtaker.”
Rezplast partners with Swish Maintenance to serve North
Sudbury-based Rezplast Manufacturing has partnered with Swish Maintenance Limited, a cleaning and sanitation supply company based in Peterborough, Ontario, to serve the Northern Ontario market.
Rezplast, a manufacturer and service provider specializing in process equipment using advanced composite materials, signed up as a distributor of Swish products for the Sudbury market last year, but “things were going so well that they asked us to partner with them,” said Rezplast vice-president of operations Sandro Spadafora.
The resulting 50:50 partnership called Swish North will supply the full range of Swish cleaning and sanitation products across Northern Ontario.
The new company brings together Swish’s expertise and Rezplast’s knowledge and contacts in the region, said Spadafora.
Products will be warehoused in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay and distributed through sister company Sling Choker, which has eight locations across Northern Ontario and northern Manitoba.
Swish North serves the resource sector and heavy industry, as well as hospitals, schools, municipalities and other businesses.
New industrial park addresses shortage of serviced land
ARG-DEVCO, a division of Interpaving Ltd., has announced plans to develop 33 acres of serviced industrial land off Duhamel Rd. in Sudbury.
The Silver Hills Industrial Park will help to relieve a chronic shortage of serviced industrial land in the city, said ARG-DEVCO development manager Celia Teele.
“We just started to test the market and we’ve had a few inquiries already and we’re not even in a position to roll out lots,” she said.
The park will be subdivided into two-, three-, four-, or five-acre parcels to suit potential buyers, and will be supplied with water, sewer, gas, and electricity services.
Teele is hoping the lots will be serviced and ready for sale before the end of the year, or in the first quarter of 2014.
Dixon Electric launches electronic product catalogue for Vale
Dixon Electric, a Sudbury-based electrical distributor with branches in Timmins, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, has launched an electronic product catalogue for mining giant Vale Canada. The 383-page catalogue provides a comprehensive listing of electrical products and related information.
The catalogue “will make it easier for everyone to make more informed purchasing decisions,” said Kevin Bain, manager, Dixon Electric. It offers “a leaner procurement process and positions all the key product knowledge and specifications right at the fingertips of anyone who needs it.”
The online catalogue also contains educational, safety and new product videos and links to manufacturer and distributor social media sites for news updates. Customers can share the catalogue, email it, download it or contact a Dixon Electric representative instantly.
The catalogue contains more than 4,200 Vale-approved products and can be loaded onto a PC from a CD or USB key. Once installed, the catalogue icon appears on the desktop, allowing any individual access to the data through a search enabled system by manufacturer, product number or product name. It can also be viewed over the Internet.
Kirkland Lake Gold reports fiscal year results
Kirkland Lake Gold has reported a let loss before income taxes of $2.8 million for the year ending April 30th. Operating costs for the year were $1,119 per ounce of gold. compared with $804 the previous year. Unexpected delays affecting the mine’s Service Cage Project resulted in less ore being produced at a lower grade than expected. At the same time, the company increased hiring in anticipation of an imminent increase in production.
With the completion of the Service Cage Project, daily hoisting capacity has increased from 1,000 tons per day to 1,800 tons per day, noted company chairman Harry Dobson. “During fiscal 2014,” he said, “the company will continue to implement its expansion plans to reach production of 2,200 tons of ore per day.
“With expansion capital spending and activities 90 per cent behind us, and exploration spending and activities also reducing to a more sustainable level, the management team is focused on delivering increasingly solid quarters of operational performance going forward."
Gold sales for fiscal 2014 are forecasted to range between 150,000 and 180,000 ounces.
Impact crater buffs gather in Sudbury
The fifth in a series of Large Meteorite Impacts (LMI) and Planetary Evolution meetings took place at Laurentian University in Sudbury August 5 to 8. The four-day event drew scientists from around the world and included short courses, presentations and field trips.
The process of impact cratering, its planetary effects and its environmental implications have been the subject of four previous LMI conferences. Two previous coferences were hosted in Sudbury, which has one of the oldest, largest and best exposed meteor impact sites on Earth.
Since LMI IV, several major international drilling and field projects of terrestrial impact structures, as well as new spacecraft missions to the Moon, neighboring planets, asteroids and comets, have begun to deliver important new insights into cratering processes within the solar system. LMI V provided a forum for discussion of these results as well as recent advances based on experimental and numerical simulation studies.
Lake Shore Gold predicts cash operating costs of $700/oz.
For the six months ending June 30th, Lake Shore Gold processed 428,560 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 4.1 g/t and recovered 54,000 ounces of gold. For the quarter ending June 30th, the company reported record quarterly production of 30,800 ounces of gold, an increase of 33 per cent from the first quarter.
The company is in the midst of completing a mill expansion project that is boosting capacity to 3,000 tonnes per day. As a result of the expansion, gold production is expected to increase to 140,000 ounces a year.
"We achieved strong operating results in the second quarter, including record quarterly production, average mill throughput in excess of current design capacity and higher grades that increased as the quarter progressed,” commented Tony Makuch, president and CEO of Lake Shore Gold. “We are now fast approaching a major turning point. Once we reach 3,000 tonnes per day in early September, our production will increase, our cash operating costs will improve to around US$700 per ounce and the majority of this year's capital for building Timmins West Mine and expanding our mill will be invested. At that point, we will begin generating net free cash flow at the current gold price for the balance of the year."
Rubicon Minerals releases new PEA for Phoenix project
A new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and updated mineral resource estimate released by Rubicon Minerals Corp. indicates an after-tax internal rate of return of 27 per cent and a 5 per cent discounted after tax net present value of $531 million for its Phoenix Gold Project in Red Lake.
The PEA projects average annual gold production of 165,300 ounces, peaking at 242,000 ounces in 2022.
"My primary objective when I took the leadership role at Rubicon was, and remains, building our flagship Phoenix Gold Project to be the best that it can be," said Michael A. Lalonde, Rubicon's president and CEO. "We are very pleased with the results of the updated mineral resource and the new PEA, which demonstrates that the project has the ability to generate strong cash flow. The updated mineral resource estimate exhibits significant improvement in continuity and greater horizontal thickness over the previous mineral resource estimate, making it easier to plan and schedule future potential mining.”
Detour Gold about to declare commercial production
A second quarter operational update released by Detour Gold in July indicated the company is on schedule to declare commercial production at its Detour Lake mine in the quarter ending September 30th.
Gold production during the second quarter totaled 57,897 ounces, while mill throughput averaged 31,500 tonnes per day, peaking at 56,000 tonnes on June 30th.
The Detour Lake open pit mine is expected to produce an average of 657,000 ounces of gold annually over a period of 21.5 years.
As of June 30, 2013, the company had approximately $207 million in cash and short-term investments. The Detour Lake mine is located 185 kilometres northeast of Cochrane in northeastern Ontario.
Kelly Strong elected as the OMA's 78th chairman
The Ontario Mining Association's (OMA) Board of Directors has appointed Kelly Strong as the new chairman of the industry organization. Strong, vice-president of Vale's Ontario and U.K. Operations, succeeds Marc Boissonneault, Xstrata Nickel's vice- president for Sudbury Operations.
Strong joined Inco in 2001.
"I am excited and humbled to serve in this new role as chair of the OMA," he said. "Ontario's mining industry has so much to offer, and I look forward to working together with our industry partners to maximize the potential of our industry now and in the future."
Strong has more than 20 years experience in the mining industry. Prior to joining Vale, he worked as a chief mine engineer and a mine captain in Red Lake. Originally from Espanola, 70 kilometres west of Sudbury, he graduated from the Haileybury School of Mines with a mining engineering diploma and from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology as a mining engineer.
New Gold acquires Rainy River Resources
New Gold Inc. has acquired Rainy River Resources Ltd. and its advanced stage Rainy River gold project 65 kilometres northwest of Fort Frances in northwestern Ontario.
A feasibility study released by Rainy River Resources in April estimated four million ounces in proven and probable reserves and 6.2 million ounces in measured and indicated resources, inclusive of reserves.
Under the terms of the agreement, New Gold offered, at the election of each holder of Rainy River common shares, 0.5 of a common share of New Gold or $3.83 in cash. The offer represented a premium of 42 per cent over the closing price of Rainy River shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 30th.
New Gold is an intermediate gold miner with four producing assets and two development projects. The company is projecting gold production of between 440,000 and 480,000 ounces this year from mines in Canada, Mexico, the United States and Australia. In Canada, New Gold owns the New Afton Mine near Kamloops and the Blackwater development project 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
Rail-Veyor Technologies wins Bell Canada Innovation Award
Rail-Veyor Technologies has won the 2013 Bell Canada Innovation Award for its material haulage solution.
“It’s an honour to be recognized by our peers in the community,” said Rail-Veyor president and CEO Ron Russ at the awards ceremony. “It is rewarding to see the technology developed by the Rail-Veyor team attract so much interest from so many industries world-wide.”
Rail-Veyor provides a simple solution to handle complex industrial material haulage problems by offering the best of conveyors, truck haulage and heavy rail haulage in one complete package. Rail-Veyor is an electrically powered series of two-wheeled interconnected mini rail cars that can operate 24/7 and travel along a light rail track at speeds up to 18 mph. The remote controlled Rail-Veyor technology is comprised of simple components that allow continuous material haulage without diesel emissions and with significantly less capital and maintenance costs than other options.
Vale installed the Rail-Veyor system in Dec 2011 at its Copper Cliff 114 Orebody in Sudbury.
Golder announces new office in Thunder Bay
Golder Associates Ltd., a consulting, design and construction services firm, has announced the opening of its newest office in Thunder Bay, Ontario to serve clients in the mining, power and other industries.
"We are both proud and excited to increase our presence in the heart of Ontario's north," said Sean McFarland, managing principal for Ontario operations. "Aligned with our presence in Sudbury and Timmins, the Golder team is well positioned to build stronger ties locally and deliver engineering and environmental solutions that help our clients successfully achieve their objectives."
The opening of Golder's office in Thunder Bay follows a series of investments made within Ontario, including expansion of Golder's Laboratory Services in nine locations.
The new office will be led by Caitlin Burley.
Aecon announces strategic partnership with Matawa First Nations
Aecon Group Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Matawa First Nations’ Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment & Training Services (KKETS)
to expand training and development programs for First Nations in northern and remote areas surrounding Ontario’s Ring of Fire mining development.
Under the agreement, Aecon and KKETS will work collaboratively to develop remote training centres to provide local access to community-based education, trades and apprenticeship training.
“Our relationship with the Matawa First Nations and KKETS is an important component of Aecon’s strategic approach to community engagement and skilled labour development,” said Teri McKibbon, Aecon’s president and COO. “Education and training is a priority for Aecon. Remote training centres are an innovative response to the future demand for labour in remote areas, and will make positive contributions to surrounding communities.”
KKETS is the Aboriginal skills and employment training strategy provider for Matawa First Nations and is committed to delivering programs that meet the needs of employers and trainees for all Matawa First Nations.
Aecon Group Inc., a Canadian leader in construction and infrastructure development, provides integrated turnkey services to private and public sector clients.
