Around the North

Mayor Lynn Watson, mayor of the Township of Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional, located in the District of Algoma, has been bestowed a long-service award by the province.

A long service award has been given to Heather Pelky, former mayor of the Township of the North Shore, for her contributions to public service in Northern Ontario.

Two new cell towers will be erected on the North Shore of Lake Huron, enabling better mobile phone coverage and broadband services in the area. The towers will be erected along Highway 17 in Echo Bay and Desbarats in the Algoma District.

A group of mechanical engineering students from Laurentian University will compete in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition later this month.

The province has announced it will be conducting an inspection blitz throughout the month of May to ensure safe practices at low-rise residential construction sites.

Vale and Xstrata are teaming up on a new copper mining initiative that will extend the life of the Fraser Mine in Sudbury by an estimated seven years and return 75 laid-off employees to work.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) will begin formal consultations to update the province's Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) with a web-enabled teleconference on May 17.

International mining company Quadra FNX is reporting a boost in its first-quarter earnings for 2011, citing $168 million (88 cents per share) in profits compared to $55 million (55 cents per share) in 2010.

Shares of Pele Mountain Resources Inc. have begun trading in the U.S. on the OTC market's OTCQX International tier under the GOLDF trading symbol.

The next generation of geoscientists are converging in Sudbury over the next two weeks to learn about the exploration industry.