St. Lawrence is heating up as fluorspar mining set to return to Burin Peninsula town
Major contracts have been awarded, a hiring blitz is underway, demand for accommodations has soared, and optimism is slowly returning to a small Burin Peninsula town as a troubled mine prepares for a restart.
"There is nothing in St. Lawrence you can rent right now. Everybody who has a rental property, it's rented," said an upbeat Kevin Pittman, mayor of the town of just over 1,100 residents.
It's a dramatic turnaround for a community that was down and out in March 2022, when the previous owner of the fluorspar mine and mill shut down the operation, laid off roughly 250 people, and went to the courts to seek protection from a long list of creditors who were owed hundreds of millions.
Fourteen months ago, following a drawn-out insolvency process, a judge approved the sale of Canada Fluorspar Inc. to a Singapore-based private equity firm called AMED Funds for $25 million. The fund has more than $1.4 billion US in assets under management, including a fluorspar mine in South Africa.
Kevin Pittman is mayor of the Town of St. Lawrence, a town of roughly 1,100 residents on Newfoundland and Labrador's Burin Peninsula. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
The deep-pocketed new owners with a proven track record in the mining industry made some big promises during a public event in St. Lawrence in June 2023, and now there are some tangible signs that the dark days may soon be over.
There are mining trucks driving around town again, local businesses are again seeing some spinoffs, and community leaders like the mayor are breathing a sigh of relief.
"People are getting called to put resumes in, they're getting called for potential job hires," he said.
WATCH | Bring it on, says St. Lawrence mayor about mine restart and economic benefits that come with it:
Industry Minister Andrew Parsons has been in regular contact with the new owners, and is encouraged.
"They have the [ore], they have the expertise, and this group has put forward the necessary capital. So I like where we're going," said Parsons.
A construction company is busy preparing the mine for a restart as early as October, said Parsons.
Here are some samples of fluorspar pulled from the earth near St. Lawrence. Fluorspar is a key material used in the production of lithium batteries, solar panels and steel. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
Another company with deep roots in the industry has the contract to operate the mine, with a plan to export the first shipment of high-purity acid grade fluorspar to a hungry market early next year.
Pittman said the new owners are expected to have invested some $40 million into the operation by the end of this year, with a workforce that will eventually grow to nearly 300 people.
In the early going, Pittman said, about half of the jobs will go to local workers from the Burin Peninsula. He's been told that percentage will increase over time as more local workers receive the necessary training.
Rudolph de Bruin of Fluorspar Holdings Pte Ltd., the new owner of the idle fluorspar mine in St. Lawrence, holds up a chunk of fluorspar during a news conference in the Burin Peninsula town in June 2023. Also shown in the photo are town councillor Rodney Doyle Sr. (left) and Paul Pike, MHA for Burin-Grand Bank. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
He described the latest developments as a "breath of fresh air."
The new owners are talking about a 30-year lifespan for the mine, building a new shipping terminal near the site, and for the first time in half a century, returning to underground mining at some point in the future.
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