Chamber of Mines News Briefs – Week of September 27, 2010
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Chamber of Mines News Briefs – September 8 - 10, 2012 [Note: News headlines are hyperlinked to their stories in this document.] Nunavut News ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Agnico-Eagle, GN’s education department, bring mining into Kivalliq classrooms .................................. 1 NWT News..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Giant Mine Remediation team prepares for environmental assessment ................................................ 2 Northern aboriginal groups face federal funding cut ............................................................................... 2 One last trip home .................................................................................................................................... 3 The Murders in the Mine .......................................................................................................................... 4 Resource Development and Energy News .................................................................................................. 10 GN responds to Makita’s questions on Nunavut’s Kiggavik uranium project ........................................ 10 Six ministers on the shin-dig in Charlottetown ....................................................................................... 11 Zinc giant submits Izok plan .................................................................................................................... 15 The Last Man Staking .............................................................................................................................. 16 China plan boosts miners; TSX at fourth-month high ............................................................................. 18 National energy ministers meeting in P.E.I. ............................................................................................ 19 Federal-provincial energy ministers to skirt talk of a national strategy ................................................. 20 NUNAVUT NEWS Agnico-Eagle, GN’s education department, bring mining into Kivalliq classrooms "To have Agnico step up and understand the connection to education is huge" Nunatsiaq News - September 07, 2012 SAMANTHA DAWSON Students at the Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School in Baker Lake are back in class. But there’s something new this year for high school students: the program for students in Grade 10 to Grade 12 includes a week of class time during which they’ll learn about trades from workers at Agnico- Eagle Mines Ltd., which owns the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake and the Meliadine gold mine project near Rankin Inlet. The week will also offer students course credits as part of a new joint pilot project between Agnico- Eagle, said Shelly Pepler, the executive director of Kivalliq school operations. In addition to the week-long crash course in trades, two groups of students attending Grade 9 to Grade 11 in other Kivalliq communities will visit the Meadowbank gold mine site or the Meliadine camp for an overnight trip to meet and talk with Agnico-Eagle employees. The program will rotate, so that next year, groups from other communities will participate. All this flows from a memorandum-of-understanding that was signed last April at the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit between Agnico-Eagle and the Government of Nunavut’s education department. That agreement sees the company contributing $400,000 a year over three years towards in-school programs. The hope is that these programs will inspire students to prepare for future jobs with Agnico-Eagle. “It takes life and puts it into a classroom,” Pepler said. Chamber News Briefs 1 “Mining Matters,” a science course used across Canada to teach younger students about mining, is also being tailored to become more Nunavut-specific so there’s more of a focus on rocks and minerals that are found in the territory. The Department of Education also wants to develop ways to reach even younger kids, who could, for example, learn how to fit pipes together. A community career fair is also planned for Baker Lake, to help students understand what careers are available in mining and mining-related fields. “To have Agnico step up and understand the connection to education is huge,” Pepler said. “We see them as vested in these communities.” As the partnership continues to develop, there will be more opportunities for students, Pepler said. “I think we’re off to a good start,” she said. NWT NEWS Giant Mine Remediation team prepares for environmental assessment CJCD Radio News – September 7, 2012 Yellowknife, N.W.T. - The Giant Mine Remediation Project is about to enter perhaps the most important phase of its existence. The Mackenzie Valley Review Board will be holding an environmental assessment on the project beginning next week and a full house is expected at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre. The project's acting manager, Adrian Paradis, said his team has been spending the last couple of weeks getting ready for one of the biggest moments of the process to date. "It's the culmination of five years of work for the team. So it's a major milestone, not only for us, but also for YKDN, the city, and other parties in the environmental assessment, including the Review Board." Topics for the review run the gamut, including freezing and underground reports, water treatment and monitoring and oversight, which will take up the final two days. Paradis said that's because there's a lot of information to go over. "It encompasses all aspects of the overall remediation plan, so it's really wrapping up five years of the E.A." Parties in attendance will include the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Alternatives North and the North Slave Metis Alliance. Northern aboriginal groups face federal funding cut Core funding to be cut by at least 10 per cent in 2014 CBC News – September 8, 2012 The Dene Nation found out this week that they, along with every other federally-funded aboriginal organization in Canada, will see funding cuts of at least 10 per cent. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada announced on Tuesday changes to the funding formula for all national and regional aboriginal representative organizations that will take effect in 2014. Under the new formula, core funding for national organizations will be cut by 10 per cent, while regional organizations face either a 10 per cent cut to their core funding or a ceiling of $500,000. But Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus says legally Canada cannot make the cuts. Chamber News Briefs 2 “Canada doesn't have the authority to do what they are attempting to do,” he said. “They are proposing to make unilaterally-made decisions. That money is legally there in a treasury board for our purposes and they can’t just say 'Hey, in two years, we will cut you.’ We won’t let that happen.” Other Northern aboriginal organizations including Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Council of Yukon First Nations are also affected. Erasmus said he is speaking with other chiefs across the country about how to address this latest round of cuts. One last trip home Reunion held at Tungsten Deh Cho Drum – September 5, 2012 Roxanna Thompson As Mike Chemerys drove through a mountain pass and waited for his first glimpse of Mirror Lake and the CanTung Mine beyond that, he knew he was almost home. "The hairs started standing up on the back of my neck in apprehension," he said. Chemerys, who used to live in Fort Simpson but is now in Dawson Creek, B.C., was one of 23 people who participated in a trip titled Going Back Home One Last Time from Aug. 2 to 5. For the participants, home was Tungsten. Located in the NWT approximately 300 km by road northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, Tungsten was a bustling mining community in the 1970s built around a tungsten deposit and mine. When the mine closed in 1986, however, the residents of Tungsten left as well. Most have never had the opportunity to come back. After hearing that North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd., the current owner of CanTung Mine, was doing reclamation work at the mine, including demolishing many of the old houses and buildings, former residents began thinking about holding a reunion at their former hometown. After the corporation gave permission for the gathering, Chemerys helped organize the event. Twelve former residents were able to make the trip. They brought along their children and in some cases, grandchildren. The group met in Watson Lake and drove in together. The trip was like one big family reunion, said Chemerys. "There were so many stories," he said. Chemerys lived in Tungsten from 1976 to 1981, attending grades 7 to 9 there. Chemerys made the move from Whitehorse with his dad, Norman, who got a job as an above-ground heavy duty mechanic. When the living facilities for families were ready, Chemerys' mom Hilda and his two sisters followed. "It took a special kind of person to live in Tungsten because you were so isolated," he said. Being back and seeing the town again was in many ways bittersweet, said Chemerys. All of the old houses and many of the other buildings have red tape over their doors and signs warning people not to go in for safety reasons. Chemerys wasn't able to see his family's former home, a trailer, because the mine's tailings pond has expanded over top of where it was once located. "We knew full well it wouldn't be like it was when