Why B.C. is a preferred jurisdiction for mining headquarters – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – March 15, 2024)

https://www.biv.com/

Canadian securities regulations, local expertise makes Vancouver a junior mining mecca

Pick any mining jurisdiction in the world—Mexico, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—and you are likely to find at least one mining or exploration company there that is headquartered in Vancouver. As of 2022, there were 944 publicly listed mining and mineral exploration and development companies headquartered in B.C., according to the BC Securities Commission (BCSC).

Most of these companies don’t have mines or exploration projects in B.C. or even Canada, for that matter. Some operate in far-flung frontiers—places such as Guatemala, Mali and the DRC, which can be politically risky and even downright dangerous.

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OPINION: Coal is dead, or at least was, according to the ESG crowd. Long live coal – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – March 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

For the resources industry, the trick to meeting ESG standards was pretty simple: sell your dirty fuels, especially coal. If you did, investors who cared about the health of the planet would love you, and your company’s valuation would go up.

The formula seemed solid a few years ago, and a big number of mining giants sold or spun off their coal assets. Canada’s Teck Resources was the latest to pursue the black-to-green transition with the sale, announced last year but not yet approved by Ottawa, of its metallurgical coal business to Switzerland’s Glencore.

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Two major mining prospects could put B.C. on the nickel mining map – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – December 6, 2024)

https://www.biv.com/

The Baptiste and Turnagain mines would represent $8 billion in capital investments and would contribute significantly to Canada’s nickel production

Canada is the world’s sixth-largest nickel producer, with roughly 130,000 million tonnes of nickel produced in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Labrador annually. There are currently no nickel mines in B.C., but a growing demand for the metal from the electric vehicle market, and a federal strategy that promotes critical mineral self-sufficiency in Canada, could change that.

There are now two very large nickel mines proposed for B.C., representing a potential investment of roughly $8 billion: The FPX Nickel Corp. (TSX-V: FPX, OTCQB: FPOCF) Baptiste project near Fort St. James and the Giga Metals (TSX-V: GIGA) Turnagain project near Dease Lake in northwest B.C.

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Gold mine with history of contaminating B.C. creek fined $276K – by Betsy Trumpener (CBC News British Columbia – March 15, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Barkerville Gold Mines’ penalty reduced in part because of COVID restrictions on business: report

A gold mining company that discharged contaminants into a B.C. creek more than a thousand times since 2017 has now been fined over $275,000 for its most recent violations of environmental rules, according to a March 2024 report from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

Barkerville Gold Mines, owned by Osisko Development since 2019, operates two gold mines and a processing mill east of Quesnel, B.C., in the mountainous Cariboo region about 440 kilometres north of Vancouver. The environmental violations took place at its underground Bonanza Ledge gold mine.

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B.C.’s multimillion-dollar mining problem – by Francesca Fionda, Jeffery Jones and Chen Wang (Globe and Mail/The Narwhal – February 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The true cost of cleaning up mine pollution in B.C. is growing, a Globe and Mail-Narwhal investigation has found – and if disaster strikes, taxpayers could be stuck with an even bigger bill

When John Morris Sr. is asked where the sacred sites on the Taku River are, his answer comes easily. “This whole place is sacred,” the 84-year-old Elder says. In the spring, all five species of North American salmon fight the current to spawn. In the summer, bright orange salmon berries speckle the landscape.

Mr. Morris, a member of the Douglas Indian Association in southeast Alaska, said his grandparents, aunt, uncle and parents always reminded him that everything they needed was provided by the land there.

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B.C. scraps plans to amend legislation that would give First Nations more say over public land – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – February 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The B.C. government has scrapped its plans to amend the Land Act in the spring legislative session, changes that would have allowed joint decision-making with Indigenous communities about public land, after a hasty public consultation process prompted a widespread backlash.

“This touched a nerve,” said Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, who announced the policy retreat on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. “The path that we are on is the path that we will maintain. The pace at which we do it is an important issue that was raised by hunting and fishing organizations, by resource groups – and we listened.”

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Opinion: Plan to co-manage public land with First Nations will close B.C. for business – by Niels Veldhuis and Jason Clemens (Financial Post – February 8, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Changes to province’s Land Act will be a death knell for investment

In a move that surprised both British Columbians and Canadians across the country, B.C.’s NDP government intends to change the province’s Land Act and essentially establish a co-management partnership with more than 200 First Nations, who will become joint landlords of more than 90 per cent of B.C. and own veto power over any land-use decisions.

The NDP, which holds 56 of 87 seats in the provincial legislature, plans to table the proposal in the spring. If passed, the revised act will represent a massive barrier to infrastructure projects in the province and a death knell for investment. That is the last thing the province needs.

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Report reveals huge impact from mining in Prince George – by Sam Bennison (CKPG Today – January 18, 2024)

https://ckpgtoday.ca/

PRINCE GEORGE— A new report by the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) and the Mining Suppliers Association of BC (MSABC) shows that in 2022, Prince George received $237 million through mining and smelting sector purchasing goods and services from business in the area.

In total, British Columbia’s mining and smelting sector contributed $3.7 billion to 200 local and First Nations communities by purchasing goods and services from nearly 4,000 BC-based businesses in 2022.

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New critical mineral mines in British Columbia could generate nearly C$600 billion, study says – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – January 8, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

In the province of British Columbia, 16 proposed critical mineral mines, worth C$36 billion in near-term investment, 300,000 person-years of employment and C$11 billion in tax revenues, are at a critical juncture, a new independent economic impact analysis conducted for the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) has found.

There are currently 10 metal mines, seven steelmaking coal mines and two smelters operating in BC, which is regarded as a key global mining jurisdiction. BC is Canada’s leading producer of copper and steelmaking coal, second largest producer of silver, and only producer of molybdenum, MABC said.

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Teck ditches coal, flags lower copper output in Chile – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 4, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B) (NYSE: TECK) has kissed coal goodbye after closing the sale of its minority stake in steelmaking coal operations to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. and South Korean steelmaker Posco.

Nippon Steel now has a 20% interest in Teck’s coal business, known as Elk Valley Resources. In exchange, the Japanese firm gave up its prior 2.5% stake in one of Teck’s coal operations and has paid $1.7 billion in cash.

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Newsmakers 2023: End of an era for Vancouver mining giant Teck – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – December 21, 2023)

https://biv.com/

Vancouver-based Teck Resources sacrifices most profitable assets on altar of ESG

One of the biggest B.C. business news stories of 2024 was the announcement Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TEK), B.C.’s biggest miner and Canada’s only diversified mining major, will sell its most profitable assets – its B.C. coal mines – to an even bigger diversified mining major: Switzerland’s Glencore plc (LSE:GLEN).

For $9 billion, Glencore will acquire a 77 per cent interest in Teck’s four steelmaking coal mines in B.C., collectively called Elk Valley Resources (EVR), with Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO owning the balance in a deal totalling $12 billion. EVR will also own 46 per cent of Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver.

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OPINION: Teck Resources is amassing the cash to slowly triple its copper production – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – December 19, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

By next fall, Teck Resources Ltd. chief executive officer Jonathan Price will likely be sitting on US$9-billion in cash, the payout for selling its coal mines in British Columbia.

The CEO of the country’s largest mining company will also have a long list of projects to spend that money on, including planned new mines in Mexico, Peru, Chile, the United States and Canada that will triple Teck’s copper production and make it one of the world’s largest metal producers.

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Glencore’s prized Canadian coal mines come with rising environmental scrutiny – by Nia Williams and Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – December 14, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

Dec 14 (Reuters) – A Glencore-led (GLEN.L) consortium’s successful $9 billion bid for Teck Resources’ (TECKb.TO) steelmaking coal unit could face tougher environmental clean-up obligations, as water pollution from the mines comes under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. and Canada.

Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Reuters that Ottawa and Washington are close to requesting a study of selenium contamination from Teck’s Elk Valley mines in southeast British Columbia.The research would be carried out by International Joint Commission (IJC), a bi-national organization set up under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between the U.S. and Canada to prevent and resolve disputes over shared waters.

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OPINION: Teck’s inessential coal sale makes it smaller and more vulnerable to takeover – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 24, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After two decades of evisceration, the Canadian diversified mining industry had one big name standing – Teck Resources. The company was not among the half-dozen giants that dominate the global mining industry, but it was the biggest we had left. With a smart strategy, disciplined spending and more than a little luck, Teck could emerge as a homegrown champion, perhaps not among the industry’s A-team players, but near the top end of the B list.

That was the vision, at least. What happened instead was self-evisceration. On Nov. 14, Teck sold its vast coal assets, all of them in Canada, to Glencore of Switzerland, Japan’s Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO, in an US$8.9-billion deal. The sale of Teck’s coal made sense on one level, perhaps, and no sense on others.

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‘Easier deal to swallow’ — B.C. politicians soften their stance as Glencore buys Teck’s coal mines – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 22, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Two dozen commitments agreed by the Swiss mining giant reassure community leaders

The mayors of two towns in British Columbia’s southeastern Kootenay region weren’t too happy when Glencore PLC first tried to buy Teck Resources Ltd. and its four steelmaking coal mines.

Six months on, however, both mayors seem to have changed their point of view now that Glencore is set to take over most of Teck’s coal mines for about US$7 billion. One of them even hopes the Swiss mining giant can help build more homes to address the region’s housing shortage.

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