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Sabina moves closer to kick-starting western Nunavut gold mine – by Jane George (CBC News North – June 22, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Goose mine could be open by 2025 in territory’s Kitikmeot region

By 2025, Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region could see a new gold mine enter into production, Sabina Gold and Silver Corp.’s Goose gold mine. The company has been working toward opening a mine in its Back River project for at least a decade.

Sabina plans to make the decision soon about advancing its project to production, said company vice-president Nicole Hoeller. “We wanted to have our financing in place before,” Hoeller said.

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Hudbay ends Flin Flon era with closure of 777 mine – by Jackson Chen (Canadian Mining Journal – June 22, 2022)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Hudbay Minerals (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) has announced that mining activities at the 777 zinc-copper mine in Flin Flon, Man., have concluded after the reserves were depleted following 18 years of steady production. Closure activities at the mine have commenced, and employees and equipment are transitioning to the company’s operations in Snow Lake.

“777 was a state-of-the-art mine that represented the pinnacle of a century of shared success for Hudbay and Flin Flon,” stated Peter Kukielski, Hudbay’s president and CEO, in a news release. “Though the closure of 777 marks the end of a mining era in Flin Flon, we will continue with exploration activities in the region.

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Lawless South Africa has bulk commodity chrome pirates stripping its wealth – by Schalk Burger (MiningWeekly.com – June 22, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of chrome ore and it is estimated that about 10% of South Africa’s yearly production of chrome is lost to illegal mining. There has been an emergence of a bulk commodity illegal industry in South African chrome mining, said global law enforcement network organisation the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) in its latest Risk Bulletin report.

According to the report, soldiers, police and security guards in April descended on a mine in North West to disrupt a large illegal mining operation. The miners had been excavating chrome ore, which is an essential mineral for manufacturing stainless steel.

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The new Atlantic Canada exploration boom – by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco (CIM Magazine – June 14, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Gold, clean-energy metals and even salt offer the promise of a bright future

Canada’s Atlantic region is experiencing a mining exploration rush the likes of which has not been seen in the area since the 1990s boom that followed the discovery of the nickel-bearing deposit at Newfoundland’s Voisey’s Bay. Once again, Newfoundland and Labrador is leading the way with more than 100,000 mineral claims staked in 2021 – the second largest annual claims total in the province’s history after 1995.

This time, the majority of exploration companies descending on the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are looking for gold instead of nickel. A handful of others, however, are not setting their sights on the precious metal but on critical minerals and metals that are vital for decarbonization of modern technologies.

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The race is on to make EV batteries truly sustainable – by Mike Finelli (Fortune Magazine – June 23, 2022)

https://fortune.com/

The electric vehicle battery supply chain that has been built over the last 20 years will not be the same one that carries us through the next 20 years. With demand for EVs growing rapidly, fundamental changes are needed to address the ethical and sustainable challenges in creating EV batteries.

As a growing number of Americans trade in their gas guzzlers for environmentally friendly EVs, auto manufacturers and those who create EV batteries should prepare to go under the American consumer’s microscope on issues like semiconductor supply chains, carbon footprints in manufacturing, and circularity.

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Are Russian diamonds now conflict diamonds? Depends on who you ask – by Samanth Subramanian (Quartz.com – June 21, 2022)

https://qz.com/

Russia has thwarted a Western effort to have its crude diamonds labeled as “conflict diamonds”—thwarted it so effectively that the Russia-Ukraine war won’t even be discussed at a crucial meeting of diamond producers this week.

The phrase “conflict diamonds” refers to those that finance “violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments,” a definition outlined in its charter by the Kimberley Process, a global watchdog forum set up in 2003 to block the sales of conflict diamonds.

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BHP pivots toward ‘future-facing’ commodities with Saskatchewan potash project – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – June 20, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

In building the world’s largest potash mine in Saskatchewan, BHP CEO Mike Henry looks to heal old wounds and pivot the global giant away from oil and gas

Chief Bryon Bitternose was driving north across the Saskatchewan prairie this week toward two white towers that pierce the landscape – twin elevator shafts that mark the site of what will soon be the world’s largest potash mine. He took a phone call and started laughing.

The source of his amusement? Being asked to sketch the George Gordon First Nation’s history with Melbourne-based global commodities giant BHP Group Ltd. BHP-N, owner of the Jansen mine taking shape near his reserve. Mr. Bitternose chuckled as he said, “The relationship didn’t start real well. We first met in court.”

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Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&A with leader Raphaël Mapou – by Nick Rodway (Mongabay.com – June 22, 2022)

https://news.mongabay.com/

GORO, New Caledonia – Known widely as the “Madagascar of the Pacific,” New Caledonia is coated in remnant Gondwana rainforest and surrounded by reefs rich in marine life that constitute one of the largest marine parks on earth. It is a French territory located approximately 1,470 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of Brisbane, Australia.

Despite its size, New Caledonia punches far above its weight ecologically. It houses the longest continuous barrier reef in the world and is internationally renowned for its plant species, over 80% of which are endemic. The territory is also one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and holds a quarter of the earth’s known reserves.

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What is Australia doing about sexual harassment in mining camps? – by Praveen Menon (Reuters – June 21, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, June 21 (Reuters) – Australia will release on Thursday a state government report on sexual harassment in the country’s mineral-rich west after more than a year of investigations, as the sector tries to fix a culture of sexism and bullying.

Women have long complained of sexual harassment in “fly in, fly out” (FIFO) mining camps. Major miners including BHP Group (BHP.AX), Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) and Fortescue (FMG.AX) have made submissions to the inquiry, which is expected to recommend steps to address the issue.

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1911 Gold begins tailings reprocessing at True North complex in Manitoba – by Jackson Chen (Canadian Mining Journal – June 23, 2022)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

1911 Gold (TSXV: AUMB; OTC: AUMBF) has begun tailings reprocessing operations at the True North complex at Bissett, Man., where it expects to process between 170,000 and 190,000 tonnes of historical tailings this year to recover approximately 3,500 to 4,000 oz. of gold.

Early in 2022, the company completed a sampling program to characterize the grade, thickness, grain-size and moisture content of the tailings in the targeted resource blocks to quantify the expected gold recovery.

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PDAC 2022 features a heavy emphasis on optimizing the mining world for the EV revolution – by Mehanaz Yakub (Electric Autonomy – June 20, 2022)

https://electricautonomy.ca/

As the world moves toward electrification and electric vehicles, many discussions at PDAC, the annual international mining conference in Toronto, centred around Canada’s opportunity to leverage its unique resource base and policy environment to supply the critical minerals that will drive the revolution forward

After going virtual for the previous two years, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention, one of the mining industry’s largest annual conferences, returned in person this year, with thousands of executives, suppliers, investors and government officials attending the three-day event.

With stakeholders flooding to the conference from around the world, PDAC 2022 offered the first real in-person opportunity to marry the mining industry and the electric vehicle transition with Canada at the centre of the conversation.

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Lithium Battery Valley emerges in Quebec – by Shane Lasley (Metal Tech News – March 16, 2022)

https://www.metaltechnews.com/

Becancour, a small Quebec town along the shores of the St. Lawrence River about midway between Montreal and Quebec City, is rapidly emerging as an epicenter for producing the advanced materials needed for lithium-ion batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution.

This rural Canadian town of around 12,800 people surfaced in the battery space about a year ago when Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. announced plans to build a facility there to produce the coated spherical purified graphite that goes into the anodes of lithium-ion batteries. Now, General Motors, POSCO Chemical, and BASF are setting up shop to produce cathode active materials and lithium battery recycling in this strategic Quebec locale.

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Europe turns back to coal as Russia cuts gas supplies – by ELENA SÁNCHEZ NICOLÁS (Euobserver.com – June 21, 2022)

https://euobserver.com/

With Russia reducing natural gas supplies to Europe, several EU countries are considering burning further carbon-intensive coal to secure energy supplies for next winter. Germany and Austria this weekend announced emergency measures to cope with lower Russian gas flows, including the potential use of coal-fired power plants to produce energy.

The move comes after weeks of gas-supply cuts and reduced flows to Europe, which has prompted EU governments to seek alternative supplies and build up reserves. Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom has turned off supplies to several EU countries for refusing to pay for gas in roubles — including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and the Netherlands.

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Mining company promotes copper in public spaces to kill bacteria at PDAC (CBC News Sudbury – June 22, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Copper has properties that stops bacteria from reproducing

A Vancouver-based mining company wants to see copper in more public spaces due to its antimicrobial properties. Teck Resources Limited will make that pitch to delegates at the on-line portion of the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference in Toronto, June 28th and 29tt.

The company has started to work with hospitals, daycares and public transit authorities to install copper on surfaces that are touched frequently. Catherine Adair, the company’s manager of community development, said many studies have found copper kills 99.9 per cent of harmful bacteria within two hours.

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Junk Science Week: Net Zero Edition — Vaclav Smil: Why net-zero 2050 really won’t work – by Vaclav Smil (Financial Post – June 21, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Complete decarbonization of the global economy is only conceivable at the cost of unthinkable economic retreat

How will we deal with unfolding climate change? There is now a widespread consensus that we need to do something to prevent many highly undesirable consequences. But what kind of action, what sort of behavioural transformation would work best?

For those who ignore the energetic and material imperatives of our world, those who prefer mantras of green solutions to understanding how we have come to this point, the prescription is easy: just decarbonize — switch from burning fossil carbon to converting inexhaustible flows of renewable energies.

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