Cliffs moves Canadian chromite project to feasibility stage

US diversified miner Cliffs Natural Resources on Wednesday said its board decided to proceed with a feasibility study for a $3.3-billion chromite mine in northern Ontario, adding it selected Sudbury to host a planned ferrochrome smelter. The...

First Nickel resumes operations at Ontario mine

Canadian miner First Nickel said it resumed operations at its flagship Lockerby nickel-copper mine in Ontario, nearly a week after the labor ministry ordered it to stop work at the site citing safety issues. The Lockerby team has resolved the...

Kolomela project passes 18-million LTI-free hours

Engineering Consultancy Hatch reports that it has just passed 18-million lost-time injury- (LTI-) free hours at iron-ore producer Kumba Iron Ore’s Kolomela mine, in the Northern Cape, for which it is the engineering, procurement and construction...

First Nickel hatches plan to repair Lockerby shaft

TSX-listed First Nickel on Thursday said it had established a plan to address deficiencies at its Lockerby mine and that expected to resume normal operations at the Sudbury operation “as soon as practical”. “Based on the plan, the company...

First Nickel to address deficiencies at Lockerby

TSX-listed First Nickel on Tuesday said it intended to address deficiencies at its Lockerby mine, in Sudbury, within days, after the Ministry of Labour issued a stop-work order on Monday afternoon following an inspection. The miner said...

Liberty Mines ships first nickel concentrate since restarting

After restarting operations at its Redstone mill on March 31, TSX-listed Liberty Mines reported it had shipped its first 128 t load of nickel concentrate in April, “marking an important step of its turnaround strategy”. CEO Chris Stewart told...

Prophecy Platinum, Ursa Major sign merger agreement

Mining junior Ursa Major Minerals and explorer Prophecy Platinum have signed a definitive agreement to merge, the companies announced on Monday. Under the agreement, Prophecy would issue one common share for every 25 common shares held in Ursa....

Impairments lead to $105.4m Q4 loss for Franco-Nevada

Franco-Nevada Corporation, the biggest gold royalty and streaming company, swung $105.4-million into the red for the fourth quarter, after the Toronto-based firm suffered $169.9-million in impairment charges. Stripping out the one-time charges,...

Prophecy Platinum to buy Ursa Major in all-share deal

Shares in Ursa Major Minerals nearly doubled in value on Friday, after the junior nickel producer agreed to merge with TSX-V-listed peer Prophecy Platinum. Under the proposed all-scrip deal, Ursa shareholders will get one Prophecy share for each...

Vale OKs $2bn project to curb Sudbury emissions

Vale, the biggest miner globally after BHP Billiton, has approved a $2-billion project to cut sulphur dioxide emissions at its Sudbury smelter by 70%, the company said on Thursday. The smelter will operate normally during the upgrade, expected to...

Vale confirms no production impact from Sudbury work stoppage

Vale reiterated on Tuesday that the temporary work halt at its Sudbury nickel mines following a January 29 fatality would not impact annual production, as the operations ramped up to full production by the end of the month. On February 9,...

Vale Sudbury mines to restart output this weekend

Vale plans to have most of its Sudbury copper-nickel mines producing again by the end of next week, after a worker’s death on January 29 led to temporary closures. “We have set out a plan to begin to ramp up production, starting with Copper...