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Canada Mining – North of 60

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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The afterlife of Pine Point – by John Sandlos (Canadian Mining Journal – December 13, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The gravel highway leading east from Hay River, Northwest Territories, features a relatively uniform (some might say monotonous) landscape of flat, spruce and jack pine forest. About 40 kilometers outside of the highway’s terminus at Fort Resolution, a few rock piles near the side of the highway stand out in bold relief.

A quick left turn on an unmarked paved road, and one enters a grid of streets, sidewalks, and parking lots — but there are no buildings anywhere. Travel around the site, and it is not hard to stumble on one of the many large open pits that have filled with water, often coloured a brilliant azure blue.

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Opinion: Instead of joining the U.S., Greenland should join Canada in an economic union – by Bart Edes (Globe and Mail – Janaury 13, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Bart Édes is a professor of practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University, and a distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He is the author of Learning from Tomorrow: Using Strategic Foresight to Prepare for the Next Big Disruption.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is apparently in an expansionist mood. Coercing Canada to become part of the United States through “economic force” is not the only such threat he has made. Mr. Trump has also revived his idea of taking over the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland, which during his first term he had mused about buying. On Jan. 7, Donald Trump Jr. travelled to Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, to bring attention to his father’s expressed wish to take over the world’s largest island.

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Looking ahead in B.C. and Yukon – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – December 16, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Recent strong gold and metal prices have many mine-makers looking to western Canada for opportunity

Seemingly, North Americans look to the west for opportunity. And when we in Canda look left, we see British Columbia and Yukon. Opportunities abound there for miners, so let us jump in. Where better to begin than with one of the world’s largest copper, gold, and silver resources all wrapped up in the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project belonging to Seabridge Gold.

With reorganization and a new focus on gold, the company bought what is now the KSM project from Placer Dome in 2000. The property is located 65 km northwest of Smithers, B.C. Exploration began in earnest in 2006, and by 2010 a prefeasibility study (PFS) was released estimating there were 8.5 million oz. of gold, 7 billion lb. of copper, and 133 million oz. of silver in the ground.

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Premiers push Ottawa to build Northern infrastructure after Arctic foreign policy – by Nick Murray (Canadian Press – December 15, 2024)

https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/

OTTAWA – Canada’s Northern premiers are pitching the federal government to dip into its defence budget as a way to bolster Arctic infrastructure and help meet the NATO spending target in the process.

The calls come after Canada released its new Arctic foreign policy earlier this month, which committed to promoting investment in a wide range of sectors — including critical mineral development, transportation and energy — but didn’t specifically make funding commitments in those areas.

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Opinion: When resource companies leave a toxic mess, First Nations are stuck with the consequences – by Tanya Talaga (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation Elder Jimmy Johnny no longer fishes in the waters that generations of his family members have relied on since memories are remembered.

This past summer, 68 dead fish were found in beautiful Haggart Creek, downstream from the site of an environmental disaster that occurred on June 24 at Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold mine, on the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun traditional territory, near Mayo in central Yukon.

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Obituary: Diamond hunter Chris Jennings played a key role in finding Diavik deposit in Northwest Territories – by Matthew Hart (Globe and Mail – December 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On Nov. 12, 1991, the Australian minerals giant BHP issued a spare, eight-sentence press release that dropped like a bomb on Canadian mining. At a tiny lake 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, the company and its Canadian partners had discovered microdiamonds.

Canada would become a major diamond producer, but at the time the news stunned the mining community. Diamonds in the Arctic? A group of men and women who had spent their lives ransacking Canada for minerals gathered for a late-night meeting in Toronto as they tried to understand the news.

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Mining continues to power Nunavut’s economy – by Darrell Greer (Nunavut News – November 29, 2024)

https://www.nunavutnews.com/

Rapid industry expansion has led to the territory being first in Canada in economic growth

Mining continues to play a pivotal role in Nunavut’s economy and that isn’t about to change anytime soon, according to Annie Cyr-Parent, director of minerals and petroleum resources for Nunavut’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation.

Cyr-Parent said a mixed economy is characterized by relatively large mining and public sectors, while other industries hold great potential for growth, such as fisheries, the arts and tourism.

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Regulatory ‘overkill’ a barrier to new mines, CEO says – by Devon Tredinnick (NNSL.com – November 2024)

https://www.nnsl.com/

There’s plenty more gold buried near Yellowknife — whether any of it gets mined is still up in the air

Regulatory “overkill” surrounding mine remediation can guarantee two things: a mine is absolutely going to get remediated and, in the last few decades, no new gold mines have come on stream in the NWT, pointed out Dave Webb, president and CEO of 60 North Gold Mining.

And that’s despite gold climbing to more than $2,750 an ounce recently and Yellowknife having a long history of producing the precious metal.

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Opinion: The future of mining in Canada depends on Northern infrastructure investment – by Richard Burguess (i-Politics – November 19, 2024)

https://www.ipolitics.ca/

In an era of increasing demand for critical minerals and clean energy, strategic investments in northern infrastructure will be essential for securing Canada’s position as a global leader in sustainable mining.

Mining is set to play a pivotal role in Canada’s economic future. As outlined in the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP) and the Critical Minerals Strategy, the sector is key to building a low-carbon economy. But, without significant investment in northern infrastructure — especially in energy — Canada’s mining potential will remain untapped, putting the country at risk of stagnation in a sector critical to both our economy and climate goals.

Several projects are aimed at addressing the North’s energy challenges, but none are as advanced as the Atlin Hydro Expansion Project (Atlin). As the government prioritizes reducing carbon emissions, fostering Indigenous participation in the resource sector, and ensuring Canada’s mining industry remains globally competitive, Atlin represents the type of solutions we must pursue.

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