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Canada Mining

Chinese takeover of Vancouver gold miner unlikely to be blocked by government, analyst says – by Naimul Karim (National Post – April 22, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

In recent years, the government blocked deals involving Chinese companies and Canadian miners developing critical minerals

A Chinese company’s subsidiary is buying a Vancouver-based gold miner for about $581 million amidst rising gold prices, subject to approval by the Canadian government, among others.

Lumina Gold Corp., which is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, isn’t producing gold yet but is developing the Cangrejos project in Ecuador, which it describes as that country’s “largest primary gold deposit,” based on a study conducted in 2023. The project is being sold to a Singaporean entity of China’s CMOC Group Ltd.

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Is Canada the new mecca for raw materials? – by Insa Wrede (DW.com – April 19, 2025)

https://www.dw.com/en/

China is halting the export of certain critical raw materials that are essential for future technologies and the defense industry. It’s a move that will hit the US and the EU hard. Could Canada fill the gap?

The New York Times reported recently that the Chinese government was to halt exports of six rare earth elements that are refined entirely in China. It will also cease to export certain specialized powerful rare earth magnets currently manufactured almost exclusively in China, which is responsible for 90% of global production.

The raw materials and specialized magnets are key for high-tech sectors such as the manufacture of cars, robots, and military equipment like drones and missiles.

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Canada’s Rare Earth Opportunity: Can Canada Dethrone China’s Global Dominance? – by Jimmy Peterson (Top News – April 21, 2025)

https://topnews.in/

In an era defined by supply chain volatility, geopolitical friction, and the race for technological supremacy, the global demand for rare earth elements (REEs) has taken on strategic urgency. Following China’s latest move to impose export controls on a host of critical rare earth materials—minerals integral to advanced electronics, electric vehicles, and defense systems—the West has been forced to accelerate its search for reliable alternatives.

Enter Canada: a nation with vast mineral reserves, a robust mining heritage, and the potential to challenge China’s rare earth monopoly—if it can overcome significant hurdles.

China’s Export Controls Reshape the Strategic Minerals Market

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What should Canada do with the critical minerals Donald Trump wants? – by Sharif Hassan (Canadian Press/Calgary Herald – April 19, 2025)

https://calgaryherald.com/

U.S. trying to ‘soften us up’ for deal on important resources, says University of Calgary expert

An ongoing trade war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s hunger for critical minerals have brought Canada’s rich mineral deposits into the spotlight, with federal and provincial politicians promising to accelerate natural resource projects.

Interest in the country’s critical minerals surged after Trump started musing about annexing Canada, experts say, and grew as the president’s global trade war intensified. “This is now a domestic conversation about how we treat natural resources or natural resource development projects here in Canada,” said Elizabeth Steyn, a mining and finance law expert at the University of Calgary.

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The New Great Game: How the race for critical minerals is shaping tech supremacy – by Shaz Merwat (Royal Bank Wealth Management – April 16, 2025)

https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/

Bedrocks of a Fourth Industrial Revolution

Minerals are the bedrock of any industrial economy. From steel to copper to aluminum, they lay the foundation of economic, civil, and defence infrastructure. And increasingly, a growing cohort of minerals underlie the critical components of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution — an era of disruptive technological forces driven by human-machine interaction across research, manufacturing and an ever-expanding data economy.

In this new age, the demand for that cohort of “critical minerals” will be driven by a growing use of semiconductors and data processing machines, increased adoption of battery technologies and new energy sources, and advancements in defence and aerospace technologies.

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The billion-dollar standoff: Alamos Gold versus Türkiye – by Gordon Feller (Canadian Mining Journal – April 15, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

An important mining dispute is playing out in The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which is considered to be the world’s leading institution devoted to international investment dispute settlement. It has administered the majority of all international investment cases.

Almost all member states of the U.N. have agreed that ICSID should serve as the forum for investor-State dispute settlement — and they have encoded this into most international investment treaties, as well as in numerous investment laws and contracts. As of today, 165 countries have signed the ICSID Convention, with 154 of these having ratified it, thereby becoming contracting member states.

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One of the strangest chapters in copper mining is drawing to a close – by Frik Els (Mining.com – April 10, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

With so much happening in copper – from all-time highs mixed with price collapses – it’s easy to lose sight of the giant hole that exists in the industry where dynamite meets bedrock. Cobre Panama has now been sitting idle for 18 months, ordered to shut down by a supreme court ruling following months of protests that rocked the Central American nation.

The massive First Quantum Minerals mine, which entered production in 2019 is an increasingly rare phenomenon in copper mining. The mine’s global porphyry peers in terms of output have histories often dating back to the 19th century.

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Carney and Poilievre have promised they’ll get major resource projects done faster, but is that actually possible? – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – April 13, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The federal Conservatives and Liberals are in a bidding war to cut red tape for major resource projects that will help Canada weather the economic storms brought by the U.S. tariff war.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have both promised to fast-track approval processes: Mr. Carney says regulatory reviews for projects should take no more than two years, while Mr. Poilievre says he would set a maximum of one year.

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America Together, or America Alone? A mining to metals viewpoint – by Lyle Trytten (The Oregon Group – April 6, 2025)

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Lyle Trytten (The Nickel Nerd) has 30 years of experience in the base metals and fertilizer industries, working on projects across multiple continents, technologies, and roles, from R&D and engineering to commercialization and operations.

This is an article that I – a Canadian – never thought I would have to write, but these are strange times. With the capricious nature of the current US administration – breaching signed treaties and contracts, threatening and imposing tariffs that change every week, annexation threats, and dramatic escalation in the restrictions and burdens placed on immigrants and visa holders – one country is trying to radically reshape the integrated nature of the global economy.

Is re-shoring entire manufacturing chains feasible or desirable?

The USA has been a manufacturing and innovation powerhouse for more than a century. The availability of vast amounts of resources – land, energy, minerals, and hard-working people from across the world – has created a country that leads the world in many important areas.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney vows to speed permits, make Canada energy superpower – by Laura Dhillon Kane and Thomas Seal (Bloomberg News – April 9, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to make Canada the world’s “leading energy superpower” through a plan that includes establishing a single office that would decide on major projects within two years.

The Liberal Party leader said at a campaign stop in Calgary that his government would create a Major Federal Project Office with a “one project, one review” mandate. The aim would be to eliminate duplication of federal and provincial environmental assessments, speeding up reviews.

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Mine electrification in Canada: An industry in transition – by Amanda Fitch (Canadian Mining Journal – April 9, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Canada’s mining sector is making strides in electrification, driven by technological advancements, policy support, and infrastructure investments. The increase in demand for critical minerals in Canada is evident and is the result of mining companies integrating electrified solutions.

These solutions include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and electrified infrastructure to enhance sustainability and efficiency while balancing innovation with operational realities. Canadian mines have been pioneers in integrating BEVs into their operations with over a decade of use in the industry.

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Unlocking lithium: Pairing technology and expertise to increase project value – by Victoria Martinez (Canadian Mining Journal – April 7, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The number of batteries used in energy storage is rising as the world adopts more advanced technologies, particularly green energy and electric vehicles (EVs), thus increasing the demand for critical minerals such as lithium.

Lithium extraction, like many resources, can be a complicated and expensive proposition for mining companies. Typically found in low concentrations, lithium deposits vary from rock to clays to brines with unique impurities from location to location. Lithium supply chains also require high degrees of purity.

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Mining dominates Poilievre’s speedy permits list – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – April 7, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Mining investments make up nearly all the resource projects Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would approve within a year if elected Canadian Prime Minister this month. Campaigning in British Columbia on Monday for the April 28 election, Poilievre said he would start a “one-and-done” approvals process to accelerate 10 projects. These would need one application and one environmental review, he said.

His list includes NexGen Energy’s Rook 1 uranium project in Saskatchewan, and several in Ontario: First Mining Gold’s Springpole project, Agnico Eagle Mines’ Upper Beaver underground gold and copper mine and roads to access Wyloo Metal’s Ring of Fire project.

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Who Stands to Win in Poilievre’s Canada: Mining Companies – by Philip Preville (MACLEAN’S Magazine – April 7, 2025)

https://macleans.ca/

An aggressive, dig-baby-dig attitude to extraction will benefit the minerals sector

In 2021, the federal government established an official list of 34 critical minerals and metals—including nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium—that are essential to Canada’s economic security and our role in global supply chains.

They’re found in almost every province and territory and used in products like smartphones, photovoltaic cells, semiconductors and electric vehicles. Their extraction is the missing link in Canada’s multi-billion-dollar investment in EV battery plants: the whole idea is for Canada itself to supply those critical minerals, not import them.

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Op-Ed: Mining alone won’t lead to critical minerals independence — processing will pave the way – by Erik Groves (Mining.com – April 7, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Erik Groves is Corporate Strategy and In-House Counsel at Morgan Companies.

There is a growing chorus of voices championing increased exploration and resource discovery in the global scramble to secure critical minerals. From copper to rare earth elements (REEs), policymakers often fixate on the belief that establishing new ore sources will lead to self-sufficiency.

At first glance, this is a logical approach—after all, production starts with the extraction of raw minerals. However, this approach is misguided if our true goal is to achieve long-term critical mineral self-sufficiency and independence.

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