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Canada Mining – North of 60

Agnico Eagle explores extending life of Meadowbank, Meliadine mines – by Jeff Pelletier (Nunatsiaq News – April 9, 2025)

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Hope Bay in Kitikmeot Region is also part of company’s future, VP says

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. is looking at extending the lives of its two Kivalliq Region mines beyond their planned closure dates. “It’s safe to say that Nunavut is an important platform for Agnico Eagle,” said Chris Adams, Agnico Eagle’s vice-president for Nunavut, speaking alongside executives from B2Gold Corp. and Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. on a panel Wednesday at the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit.

Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank site, which produced 504,719 ounces of gold last year and employs 1,831 people, is scheduled to close in 2028.

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Why Canada’s long-term fate could hang on unlocking the Arctic — now – by Joe O’Connor (Financial Post – April 9, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Donald Trump has forced a new urgency on the campaign trail and up and down the country to unleash the North’s potential or risk Arctic sovereignty and a northern treasure trove of resources

Brendan Bell knows what it is like to be ignored. It wasn’t so many months ago that the chief executive of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., an Inuit-owned company proposing to build a road and deepwater ocean port in the Arctic, was spending a chunk of each day waiting for non-Arctic people to return his phone calls to discuss the project.

“This road is not a new idea,” he said. “Roads have a long history in the North.” Do they ever. Yet that history can be summarized as roads — and major infrastructure projects of all types — may get proposed for the Arctic, but they generally don’t get built. No surprise then that Bell had been contending with an utterly non-urgent vibe from other people in relation to the Grays Bay Road and Port Project. That is until recently, when a lot of those same people started calling him back.

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OPINION: A bold Canadian Arctic strategy isn’t just good policy – it’s good business – by Gary Mar and Mark Norman (Globe and Mail – April 9, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gary Mar is the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. Vice-Admiral (Ret’d) Mark Norman is a former vice-chief of the defence staff.

Canada is an Arctic nation. It’s about time it started acting like it. Unlike the Scandinavian countries and Russia, Canada has reluctantly viewed itself in this manner, instead considering the North as a sort of national park where development is frowned upon.

The economic value of the region has been played down, and the need to defend that value was discounted under a rosy view of a peaceful world anchored to the benevolent hegemony of the United States. That all changed with the second inauguration of Donald Trump in January, and his rhetoric that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

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Lithium company exploring N.W.T. hopes to refine material in Canada, not China – by Jocelyn Shepel (CBC News North – April 04, 2025)

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

Canada can’t refine the mineral from hard rock right now but companies are looking to change that

A lithium exploration company working in the N.W.T. says getting a mine ready for production could be anywhere from six to eight years away – but already, it’s evaluating how it would get the material refined and battery ready without relying on China.

“It’s likely that Edmonton will be an obvious place for an energy hub for lithium processing in future,” said David Smithson, Li-FT’s senior vice president of geology. According to the International Energy Agency, worldwide demand for critical minerals – like lithium – is expected to double by 2040. Keeping the supply chain within Canada is one of the major tasks ahead.

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Low diamond prices raise risk of early closure of N.W.T. mines, experts say – by Luke Carroll (CBC News North – April 4, 2025)

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

All three N.W.T. diamond mines reported millions of dollars of losses in 2024

All of the N.W.T.’s diamond mines are reporting millions of dollars in losses from last year as they deal with inflation and slumping diamond prices.

With just a short time left in the lifespan of the three mines and more potential economic turbulence ahead, experts believe there is risk the mines could close — and leave the territory with no economic replacement plan — earlier than expected.

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Carney, Trump, and the Arctic mining nexus – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – April 4, 2025)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

A shared vision for North America’s Arctic could help thaw relations; Greenland and minerals may be keys to securing the North.

While relations between Canada and the United States may be the coldest ever recorded, the leaders of both nations have a common vision that could help defrost tensions – investing in the strategic and resource-rich North to help ensure North American security and prosperity as we progress deeper into the 21st century.

“Our government will strengthen Canada’s Arctic security, bolster partnerships with our closest Allies, unleash the North’s economic potential, and reaffirm reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples,” Mark Carney said as he was preparing to travel to Nunavut just four days after being sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister.

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NICO project in Northwest Territories could establish domestic bismuth supply – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – March 31, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Bismuth prices surged to all-time highs on the European spot market in March, a more than six-fold rise since January, as China’s export controls squeeze supplies of the mineral used in atomic research, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

China in February announced plans to impose export controls on five key metals — tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum, indium and bismuth — in response to US President Trump’s import tariffs. Bismuth is a scarce industrial metal that has characteristics similar to lead, but is non-toxic, and the industry is currently developing uses for replacing lead.

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Nunavut hunters urge for reassessment as Baffinland eyes 2026 construction of Steensby rail – by Samuel Wat (CBC News North – April 01, 2025)

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

The project was approved more than a decade ago. Hunters say a lot has changed since then

Baffinland Iron Mines is now looking at 2026 as a start date for its proposed expansion to an iron ore mine in Nunavut, but local hunters are calling for the project to be reassessed before it can go ahead. The mining company wants to ship iron ore from its existing Mary River mine, by building a railway south to a proposed port at Steensby Inlet.

It’s a plan that was approved by the federal government in 2012. For years, it was put on the back burner with Baffinland favouring a railway to be built from the mine north to Milne Inlet — an option it said would be less costly. That was rejected by the federal government in 2022, causing Baffinland to switch back to the Steensby Inlet track.

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A Thrilling Yellow Diamond Discovery at Rio Tinto’s Diavik Mine – by Jane Asher (Natural Diamonds – April 1, 2025)

https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/

This exciting new discovery is sure to make natural diamond history.

A new diamond discovery from Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories has been unearthed, a thrilling discovery for the natural diamond industry. The 158.20-carat rough diamond is one of the largest gem-quality yellow diamond ever discovered in Canada, the third-largest natural diamond producer in the world. Rio Tinto’s yellow diamond discovery is sure to make history.

The rough diamond is only one of five yellow diamonds weighing over 100 carats ever discovered at Diavik in its 22-year history. The mine, located just 200 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle, primarily produces white gem-quality diamonds. This yellow diamond discovery falls into the less than 1% category of yellow diamond production from Diavik, making it an ultra-rare gemstone.

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Prime Minister Carney commits to the North – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – March 20, 2025)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Just four days after being sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney flew to Nunavut to reaffirm Ottawa’s commitment to strengthening Arctic security and unlocking the economic potential across Canada’s mineral-rich North.

“Our government will strengthen Canada’s Arctic security, bolster partnerships with our closest Allies, unleash the North’s economic potential, and reaffirm reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples,” Prime Minister Carney said ahead of his trip North. “Canada will remain a strong, secure, and sovereign nation.”

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New urgency over Arctic defence can’t come soon enough for major gold miner – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 18, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Northern development could ultimately unlock big growth for Agnico Eagle

Warming temperatures are opening the Northwest Passage as a shipping lane and raising so many concerns about who controls the Arctic that one of Mark Carney’s first trips as Canada’s new prime minister was to Iqaluit on Tuesday as part of an effort “to reassert Canada’s sovereignty in the North.”

It followed a visit over the weekend by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who also talked about shoring up Arctic sovereignty in the face of threats from United States President Donald Trump. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also visited last September to make his own remarks on the same subject.

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Despite record-high gold prices, mining exploration in Canada’s North declines – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News North – March 03, 2025)

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

High gold prices aren’t resulting in higher spending, report finds

For years, gold has been the focus of Canadian mining exploration spending: the financing that backs efforts to find, assess, and potentially develop mineral deposits into mines. These efforts have established Canada as a top gold producer worldwide.

And over the course of 2024, the price of gold shot up by 38 per cent, reaching historic heights. But a B.C. report says skyrocketing value didn’t necessarily lead to more investment last year – it found overall exploration spending in the province was down 14 per cent from 2023, and exploration spending targeting gold dropped by 24 per cent.

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How Canada supplied uranium for the Manhattan Project – by Peter C. van Wyck (CBC Documentaries – January 10, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/

Ore mined in the Northwest Territories was transported to Port Hope, Ont., then used to develop the bombs that

In the past couple of years, the public imagination has been taken up with all things nuclear — the bomb, energy and waste. The film Oppenheimer recasts the story of the bomb as a Promethean and largely American narrative, while the series Fallout depicts a post-nuclear world. Russia has repeatedly emphasized its readiness for nuclear conflict. Nuclear energy has been regaining popularity as a hedge against climate change.

And yet, the story of Canada’s nuclear legacy — and our connection to the bombs that the U.S. military dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands in an instant — is rarely told.

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Arctic energy and mineral race heats up – by Maureen McCall (Troy Media – February 12, 2025)

https://troymedia.com/

Nations scramble for Arctic oil, gas and minerals amid rising global demand

“Go West, young man, go West… and grow up with the country” is a phrase  attributed to Horace Greeley from the New York Daily Tribune back in 1865.In 2025, the phrase might be updated to “Go North, young man, go North” as optimism rises about the potential of oil and gas and critical minerals in the Arctic.

Optimism about the size of the prize of Arctic hydrocarbons rose in 2012 when the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) assessed that the Arctic holds an estimated 13 per cent (90 billion barrels) of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and 30 per cent of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources. The EIA has estimated that the Arctic may hold most of the world’s remaining untapped oil and gas reserves.

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‘World’s largest undeveloped gold mine’ faces legal challenges from Canada and Alaska tribal nations – by Jack Darrell (Alaska Public Media – January 28, 2025)

https://alaskapublic.org/

A major Canadian mining prospect upstream from Southeast Alaska is drawing legal challenges from both sides of the border, as tribal groups fear the project could pollute their ancestral waterways.

At the river’s mouth

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, or SEITC, is worried about the region’s rivers. The commission represents 15 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian nations that came together because they believe mining in British Columbia poses a threat to their spawning salmon and hooligan habitats, like the Unuk and Stikine Rivers.

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