New St. Lawrence fluorspar mine owner eyes November for long-awaited restart

Hiring is expected to begin in a few weeks, and production could resume by November, as a new owner predicts a bright future for the idle fluorspar mine in St. Lawrence.

"I've got one of the highest hit rates in the industry, meaning taking on a project and taking it through to success," Rudolph de Bruin boasted when asked by reporters Tuesday whether he can succeed in St. Lawrencewhere others have failed.

"I'm not working hard to have failures," he added.

All eyes were glued to de Bruin as he walked to the microphone during a much-anticipated news conference at the St. Lawrence town hall.

The South African lawyer and well-connected mining executive is a director with a Singapore-based private equity firm calledAfrican Minerals Exploration & DevelopmentFunds, which has more than$1.4 billion US in assets under management, including a fluorspar mine in South Africa that will be operated in tandem with the mine in St. Lawrence.

De Bruin said operating both mines as a "partnership" will make AMED"a world-class player in fluorspar."

AMED, through a newly created subsidiary called Fluorspar Holdings PTE Ltd.,has purchased Canada Fluorspar Inc.,the former operator of the St. Lawrence mine, for $25 million. The sale was approved last week inNewfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court following a 15-month insolvency processand was formalized just prior to the official announcement Tuesday in St. Lawrence.

"We're here for a long time," de Bruin said.

'You can come home'

The St. Lawrence mineclosed in February 2022 and was granted bankruptcy protection after the company ran out of cash. At the time, it employed roughly 280 people, mostly residents of the Burin Peninsula.

Many of those workers have since left the province for work, and Burin-Grand Bank MHA Paul Pike said he's confident many of them will soon be able to get jobs at the reactivated mine.

"He said all I wanted to hear," Pike said of de Bruin's pledge to operate the mine for at least two decadesand search for other deposits that would extend the lifespan even longer.

"You can come home," Pike said of the many former mine workers who have dispersed across Canada.

St. Lawrence Mayor Kevin Pittman said Tuesday's announcement was positive.

"We are very happy about the completion of the sale process."

Andrew Parsons, minister of industry, energy and technology, said the provincial government took exceptional steps to ensure a new owner was found for the mine, and that its restart will bring benefits and jobs to St. Lawrence and beyond.

De Bruin said AMED plansto invest "tens of millions of dollars" into the mine, beginning with a fresh assessment of what he called a world-class fluorspar deposit, and preparing the processing plant and the open pits for a restart.

He said there will be a "sizable number" of jobs createdbut could not give an exact figure.

The provincial government invested nearly $4million to help fund the sales process and protect the site. That money will be recovered from the proceeds of the sale.

However, Parsons announced that as part of the deal, the province will pay roughly $3.8 milliontoward the costs of a water treatment management plan at the site to assist with the restart of the mine.

Parsons said these funds "will help ensure the restart of the mine and the return of jobs and economic activity to the region."

The province was also a secured creditor, having loaned Canada Fluorspar $17 million in 2017. That money will not be repaid, but Parsons said the most important thing is that the mine will reopen.

"The difficult part is that there are many, including the province, includingunsecured creditors, that are out money," said Parsons.

The fluorspar mine in St. Lawrence is the only mine of its kind in North America. Fluorspar is integral to lithium batteries, solar panels and steel.

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