Skip to content

June date set for junior miner’s lawsuit against Ontario

A Sudbury junior miner has nailed down a date to take the Ontario government to court for failing in its legal duty to carry out consultation with First Nations.
Northern-Superior-Resources-(Thorne-Lake-2)_Cropped
A Sudbury junior miner has nailed down a date to take the Ontario government to court for failing in its legal duty to carry out consultation with First Nations.

A Sudbury junior miner has nailed down a date to take the Ontario government to court for failing in its legal duty to carry out consultation with First Nations.

Northern Superior Resources announced that a Superior Court judge overseeing the company’s litigation has set June 1, 2015 for the trial date.

Four weeks have been set aside for the proceedings.

The company is suing the Ontario government for $110 million for failing to consult with First Nations after a series of disputes with the Sachigo Lake First Nation led to the company abandoning work on its mining claims in northwestern Ontario in 2011. The company was evicted from the area by the First Nation.

The company wants compensation for the $15 million invested in exploration since 2005 and the estimated value of its three gold properties located near the Manitoba border.

The government contends it’s not liable for any damages incurred by the company and any decision to stop exploration was theirs alone. The Crown further said it’s not responsible for any demands made on the company by Sachigo, or the company’s decision to reject them.

"I am obviously pleased that a fixed date for the trial has been set,” said company president-CEO Tom Morris in a Nov. 4 news release. “This clearly provides some finality to what has been a long process. Northern Superior looks forward with confidence to the trial date."

At an October 30 case conference, the sixth one in the case, the company said it “proposed an aggressive timetable for getting the case ready for trial.”

Part of the process in the pre-trial stage agreed upon includes holding mediation before an independent third party in early February.