Mining

With $29 million in exploration and $134 million in project spending budgeted for 2010, this marks the year Lake Shore Gold is set to make the leap from junior to mid-tier.

Coleman and Creighton mines are being prepared to operate at full production, according to media reports. Ore from both operations is needed to feed the now active smelter in Copper Cliff, says Steve Ball, Vale Inco spokesperson.

Xstrata Nickel and the Canadian Auto Workers Sudbury Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union Local 598 successfully renewed a three-year collective agreement with 93 per cent of workers voting in favour of the new contract.

The good news keeps rolling in for Premier Gold Mines in the form of high-grade drill assay results.

Like many in the Timmins business community, Novenco Consultants Limited’s Erik Hoffman sees the impending May shutdown of processing facilities at Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Metallurgical site as an “opportunity to diversify.

After a month and a half of negotiations, CAW Local 598 has reached a tentative collective agreement with the Xstrata Nickel Sudbury Division.

Not everyone got what they wanted, but the long-awaited changes to Ontario’s 100-year-old Mining Act should go a long way toward minimizing conflict on the land on mineral exploration issues.

A Thunder Bay mineral symposium of the Matawa First Nations tribal council in February could be a raucous affair. The aggressive push by Cliffs Natural Resources and Canada Chrome to develop a $1.

FNX Mining Co. Inc. has discovered wide, high-grade deposits of nickel, copper and precious metals at its Victoria property near Sudbury. The company plans to spend about $7.

Noront Resources Ltd. (NOT:TSX) is supporting the actions of its exploration partner Marten Falls First Nation to block exploration in the Ring of Fire area of the James Bay Lowlands.