Mining

A warm Chilean wind blew through Northern Ontario as senior officials from Minera Esperanza visited Greater Sudbury and North Bay to source the region’s expertise and supplies in mining.

It is unlikely the markets will ever see $20-per pound nickel again now that China can produce nickel pig iron at single digit costs, says Jim Lennon, executive director in commodities research with Macquarie Bank Limited in London.

The arsenic-laden tailings scattered throughout the Cobalt region may be an environmental quandary, but it might translate into a $20 million facility for one Toronto-based company.

The fall of 2008 was one to remember for North Bay's Cementation Canada and President/CEO Roy Slack.

Never before has the business world felt so vulnerable to other countries' economies and yet this is the situation as global nickel demand has come to a grinding halt.

Sudbury junior miner Canadian Arrow Mines is building an all-weather road into the site of its Kenbridge Nickel Project in northwestern Ontario.

While the banks continue to perform extensive due diligence and project review for Apollo Gold's proposed Black Fox gold mine near Timmins, a $15 million interim financing has been proposed to allow development work to continue on schedule.

Drilling at West Timmins Mining Inc.'s fully-owned Thorne Property in Timmins has continued to yield sufficient positive gold results to expand the Golden River West Zone.

Shutdowns and early retirement packages for Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador's nickel operations have been announced by Vale Inco as the company responds to global economic uncertainties in the market.

A mining conference took place at the Travelodge Hotel Airlane, an initiative of the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce (NOACC) and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM).