Proposed northern Minnesota nickel mine signs deal with Tesla – by Mike Hughlett (Star Tribune – January 10, 2022)

https://www.startribune.com/

Under the deal, Tesla would buy about half of Tamarack Mine’s projected production.

Talon Metals, the company behind a proposed Minnesota nickel mine, said Monday it has made a major supply deal with Tesla.

The electric vehicle giant has committed to buy 75,000 metric tons of nickel concentrate over six years from Talon’s planned mine in Tamarack, about 50 miles west of Duluth. Tesla would also have rights to go above that amount.

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The Drift: Temiskaming battery metals park should fill missing link in electric vehicle battery supply chain – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 28, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials’ integrated metals processing complex could bring 200 to 300 jobs

Trent Mell and Electra Battery Materials are out to occupy some crucial middle ground in the growing North American electric vehicle industry.

The Toronto company is refurbishing a once-shuttered refinery outside the town of Cobalt that’s 12 months away from the start of production to process cobalt hydroxide coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo into cobalt sulfate, one of the critical materials needed for manufacturing rechargeable batteries for the automakers. But they’re not stopping there.

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RACE TO THE FUTURE: Can a Tiny Territory in the South Pacific Power Tesla’s Ambitions? – by Hannah Beech (New York Times – December 30, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Nickel is vital to electric car batteries, but extracting it is dirty and destructive. A plant with a turbulent history in New Caledonia is about to become an experiment in sustainable mining.

GORO, New Caledonia — From the reef-fringed coast of New Caledonia, the Coral Sea stretches into the South Pacific. Slender native pines, listing like whimsical Christmas trees, punctuate the shoreline.

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Ottawa’s Goal of a World-Leading Battery Supply Chain Faces Daunting Realities Including China – by Rahul Vaidyanath (Epoch Times – January 5, 2022)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Mining CEO suggests feds serve key role as buyer to establish a critical minerals stockpile

Ottawa sees a massive economic opportunity in creating a battery value chain for green energy and electric vehicles (EVs). Canada has a lot of what’s needed to gain a competitive advantage in this supply chain—the natural resources as well as research and industry expertise.

Still, it has a long way to go to overcome challenges including domestic development of the required critical minerals, which are mainly controlled by China, two mining CEOs say.

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West needs to step up supply of copper for the energy transition – by John Dizard (Financial Times – January 7, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Does the energy transition need a “Circular 5”? Back in the late 1940s the US Atomic Energy Commission fretted that it could not procure enough uranium on the private market to meet the requirements of its nuclear weapons production programmes.

The initial supply of Congolese uranium for the wartime Manhattan project had been scavenged in late 1942 from a warehouse in Staten Island, NY, where it had been sent in 1940 by an anti-Nazi Belgian businessman.

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Beardmore-area mine developer cashes up to process Ontario lithium material in Europe – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – Janurary 6, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Rock Tech Lithium, owners of a lithium deposit in northwestern Ontario, are poised to start construction this year on a processing plant in Germany that will be fed by its mine project near Lake Nipigon.

The Vancouver-based junior miner, with strong European connections, announced Dec. 30 that it has raised U.S.$39.6 million (Cdn$50.7 million) of which a portion is earmarked to develop of its spodumene deposit, the Georgia Lake Project, in the Beardmore area. Spodumene is the most widely used lithium because of its high lithium content.

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Rushing headlong into electrification, the West is replacing one energy master with another – by Rick Mills (Ahead of the Herd.com – January 7, 2022)

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The United States and its allies, such as Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, Japan and South Korea, face a dilemma when it comes to the global electrification of the transportation system and the switch from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy.

On the one hand, we want everything to be clean, green and non-polluting, with COP26-inspired goals of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050; and several countries aiming to close the chapter on fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, including the United States which is seeking to make half of the country’s auto fleet electric by 2030.

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Lithium: A year of progress and protests – by Timothy Burmeister (Elko Daily Free Press – January 1, 2022)

https://elkodaily.com/

With the anticipated need for a lot more lithium to put into batteries to help power a greener future, you might think environmentalists would give a pass to some of the negative effects of the proposed lithium mines that are being planned at sites around Nevada. That’s not the case. The opposition to some of the proposed mines has been strong and may even be ramping up.

Thacker PassLithium Americas’ Thacker Pass lithium mine may be the biggest project on the horizon, and it is facing lots of opposition. Lithium Americas has been working for years on plans for Thacker Pass, which is about 60 miles northwest of Winnemucca.

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Australia’s Wyloo Metals hopes to have Ring of Fire nickel mine, access road by 2026 – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 23, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd., the winner of a fierce bidding war for Noront Resources Ltd., hopes to have a large nickel mine in operation in the Ring of Fire, and an access road built into the remote minerals district in northern Ontario, within five years.

Earlier this week, BHP Group Ltd. said it was not willing to improve upon Wyloo’s offer of $617-million ($1.10 a share) for Noront, ending a seven-month battle. Wyloo, a private equity firm based in Perth, Australia, that specializes in investing in large resource projects, is backed by billionaire Andrew Forrest, founder of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group.

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It’s a Wyloo world in the Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 22, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australian mining investor expects to develop ‘Canada’s next great mineral district’

Wyloo Metals’ looming acquisition of Noront Resources and its James Bay region mineral assets is being called a “significant milestone” that “paves the way” for new leadership to “responsibly develop” the Ring of Fire.

The Perth, Australia-headquartered said in a news release that it plans to enter into a binding agreement with Noront’s board and will provide Noront shareholders with more information at a special meeting in early January to vote on a plan of arrangement.

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Young environmentalists plan a rewrite of Chile’s copper mining rules – by James Attwood and Alvaro Ledgard (Bloomberg News – December 22, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Environmental activists like Constanza San Juan have been peripheral figures at best in Chile’s emergence as the dominant supplier of copper over the past few decades. Now, she and others like her are rewriting the rules, with tens of billions of dollars in investments riding on the outcome.

The 35 year old, who’s been fighting mining ever since Barrick Gold Corp. arrived to her region two decades ago, is on a committee that will decide how the environment and natural resources will figure in a new constitution to replace the one that dates back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

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U.S. faces tough choices in 2022 on mines for electric-vehicle metals – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – December 22, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

Dec 22 (Reuters) – The United States has enough reserves of lithium, copper and other metals to build millions of its own electric vehicles (EVs), but rising opposition to new mines may force the country to rely on imports and delay efforts to electrify the nation’s automobiles.

The tension underscores the dilemma facing the United States going into 2022, a year in which U.S. policymakers hope to see groundbreakings on a raft of EV manufacturing facilities from Ford Motor Co(F.N), General Motors Co(GM.N) and others.

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Sudbury junior miner raises $12 million for northwestern Ontario lithium project – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 17, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Frontier Lithium seeks to mine PAK project to supply electric vehicle sector

A Sudbury junior mining company has cashed up to do more exploration of its high-grade and open-ended lithium property in northwestern Ontario.

Frontier Lithium announced Dec. 15 that it’s raised $12 million in flow-through shares to boost the resource numbers at its PAK project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake, near the Manitoba border.

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The World Wants More Lithium But Doesn’t Want More Mines – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Misha Savic (Finacial Post/Bloomberg News – December 18, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — Prices for lithium, the building block of electric-vehicle batteries, shot to a record this year, amplifying concerns there won’t be enough of the metal to fuel the switch away from combustion engines. In that climate, now should be a prime time to build a mine.

Rio Tinto Group is finding out otherwise. Within months of unveiling plans for a $2.4 billion mine in western Serbia, local opponents organized a movement that’s rocked the government and brought cities to a standstill as thousands of protesters march in the streets. Authorities subsequently suspended a land-use plan for the proposed mine, though they didn’t reject the project completely.

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China is buying up the critical green-revolution minerals sector in Canada and elsewhere. Enough already – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 18, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A week ago, the shareholders of Canada’s Neo Lithium approved the sale of the TSX Venture Exchange-listed company to China’s Zijin Mining for about $960-million. The announcement received little coverage and appears to have bothered almost no one in the federal government. It should have.

While Neo Lithium is hardly a household name, and the company is relatively small, its purchase should have raised a stink not just in Ottawa but in Washington and among North America’s electric-car makers.

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