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Canada Mining

PDAC 2024: Some junior miners must die so others may live, panel says – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – March 8, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Canada’s once-mighty junior mining sector crumbled after governments squeezed the middle class and let multinationals buy the country’s big miners, a panel of finance experts told mining’s biggest conference this week.

Large Canadian miners such as Falconbridge, Inco and Noranda (all gone by 2007) would use much as $200 million each a year to shepherd perhaps 100 junior level companies because they made half of the discoveries, Franco-Nevada (TSX: FNV; NYSE: FNV) co-founder Pierre Lassonde said on a panel at the Prospectors and Developers of Association of Canada convention in Toronto on Tuesday.

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Nickel from China, Indonesia could face tariffs over market manipulation concerns, Ottawa says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says Canada and other Western countries could consider imposing tariffs against Indonesia and China because of the potential for market manipulation stemming from their stranglehold on the global nickel market.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global supply of nickel to 55 per cent in the past decade, with much of that new production controlled by China-based mining companies with ties to the authoritarian Beijing government.

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Romania wins legal battle against a Canadian miner over failed plans to open a gold mine (CTV/Associated Press – March 9, 2024)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA – The Romanian government has won a yearslong legal dispute with a Canadian mining company seeking damages over failed plans to open a gold and silver mine in the Eastern European country.

Gabriel Resources was seeking US$4.4 billion (four billion euros) in damages from the Romanian state, which owned a 20 per cent stake in the mining project in Rosia Montana, a mountainous western region that contains some of Europe’s largest gold deposits. The Romanian government withdrew its support for the project in 2014.

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OPINION: Has Canada gone too far in blocking mining investments from Chinese companies? – by Patrick Leblond (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

SRG Mining announced this week that it was putting an end to Carbon One New Energy Group’s proposed $16.9-million investment in the Canadian miner. Although the company did not officially say so, the belief is that a national security review by the federal government was going to scupper the transaction between SRG and C-One of China.

Under the Investment Canada Act, the federal government has the right to review foreign investments in Canadian companies to protect our national security. One of the factors used by the government when assessing national security implications, as per the Guidelines on the National Security Review of Investments, is “the potential impact of the investment on critical minerals and critical mineral supply chains.”

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PDAC 2024: Junior miners see short-selling ‘epidemic’ – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining.com – March 6, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Junior miners at this week’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention say recently proposed new rules on short-selling could help stem the bleeding in their stocks, which are especially vulnerable to the practice.

The January proposal by a Canadian regulator would apply to “hard-to-borrow” stocks like junior miners. Before shorting such securities, traders would be required to confirm there is stock available to borrow or the short sale would be prohibited.

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Fall in battery metal prices a concern for Canada and allies, says Jonathan Wilkinson – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – March 5, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Supply key to three battery plants to be built here in coming years

Slumping prices for the minerals needed in the energy transition away from fossil fuels is a concern for Canada and its allies, says Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, since it is preventing capital from moving into projects the country wants to develop.

“It is a concern for a number of countries like Canada that produce these minerals and hope to produce many more going forward,” he said. “It is something that Australia, Canada, the European Union and others are talking about.”

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‘Surprisingly big deals get done here’: how much of the mining business is done over beers – by Erik White (CBC News Sudbury – March 5, 2024)

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

The legendary ‘hospitality suites’ at the Royal York have now given way to ‘social’ events in Toronto bars

Every day at 5 p.m. the PDAC mining conference closes down and the some 30,000 people who have spent the day in the downtown convention centre are sent out onto the streets of Toronto. And some would say that’s when things really get started. The annual gathering of the global mining industry, hosted by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, is legendary for its parties.

Every night this week, there were multiple invite-only events held across downtown Toronto, with drink tickets being handed out and servers circulating with trays of finger foods, all sponsored by one mining company or another.

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Chinese Money Can’t Be Solution for Cash-Strapped Canadian Miners, Minister Says – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – March 5, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Chinese investment can’t be the solution for cash-strapped Canadian miners seeking financial backing, according to Canada’s natural resources minister.

“We need to be working to solve access to capital issues, but the answer cannot be investment from Chinese state-owned industries,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday in an interview.

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‘Vulnerabilities are obvious’ as U.S. moves to build critical mineral supply chain, undersecretary says – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 6, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

U.S., Canada partner to reduce dependence on China by supporting mining, processing and recycling projects

The United States has “no better partner than Canada” as it seeks to build out a global critical minerals supply chain, says undersecretary of economic growth Jose Fernandez.

“Our partnership with Canada in this space is frankly second to none,” he said after speaking at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto on March 4.

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Senior business leaders support proposal asking pension funds to invest more in Canada – by Andrew Willis and James Bradshaw (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

More than 90 top business leaders and chief executive officers, representing some of Canada’s largest companies, are putting their names behind a campaign to increase Canadian pension plan investments in domestic businesses, an initiative that has drawn strong opposition from some of the country’s largest pension fund managers.

The executives supporting the campaign – who come from industries that include auto parts, oil and gas, airlines, telecommunications, banking and grocery retail – made their case in an open letter sent Wednesday to federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and her provincial counterparts. The letter urges the politicians to “amend the rules governing pension funds to encourage them to invest in Canada.”

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SRG Mining calls off financing deal with China-based buyer after Champagne intervenes – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

SRG Mining Inc. has called off its financing deal with a privately held Chinese company, after Canada’s Industry Minister publicly chastised the miner for trying to skirt a national security review related to the agreement.

Last summer, China-based Carbon One New Energy Group Co. Ltd., also known as C-One, proposed buying a 19.4-per-cent stake in SRG’s Lola graphite project in West Africa for $16.9-million. For the first few months after the deal was announced, Montreal-based SRG told its investors that the deal was subject to a national-security review by the Canadian federal government.

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Some minerals are ‘critical’ to the digital economy, but current prices don’t reflect that – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Subury – March 04, 2024)

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

Junior mining companies struggle to raise money as prices for nickel, lithium, graphite sink

For almost a century now, players from across the mining industry — big or small, Canadian or international — have been gathering in Toronto annually to talk about capital, technical innovations, and market trends.

This year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention is no different, with some of Canada’s critical mineral explorers hoping to close deals that will help overcome a tough year in the capital markets.

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Indigenous organization levels complaint against Canadian mining company – by Natasha Bulowski (Yahoo/National Observer – March 6, 2024)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

As the world’s largest mining conference unfolds in Toronto, a Canadian company is facing a complaint about a proposed copper mine in Ecuador. The complaint against Vancouver-based Solaris Resources Inc. by an association of Indigenous communities is asking the British Columbia Securities Commission to investigate the company for allegedly failing to give shareholders a complete picture of the strong public opposition and legal risks facing its planned mine in southern Ecuador.

Meanwhile on Monday, Ecuador President Daniel Noboa pitched his country as the next mining destination at the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference. He indicated attracting foreign mining investment is a priority for his administration.

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Western miners hope superior ESG credentials can revive their fortunes amid devastating nickel crash – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Nickel was one of the hottest commodities on the planet as recently as 2022. Analysts and mining executives then predicted blue-sky fundamentals for the critical mineral, based on the belief that demand for the electric car battery input would far outstrip global supply.

But after a short-lived trading frenzy drove nickel to a record high in March, 2022, the commodity went into a steep decline. In the last year alone, nickel has tumbled almost 30 per cent to around US$17,500 a tonne.

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Canada concerned about critical metals market manipulation, minister says – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 2 (Reuters) – Canada is concerned about market manipulation and dumping in key metals used in electric vehicle batteries, a federal Canadian minister told Reuters, adding the country wants to explore a U.S.-mooted alternative pricing model.

Canada, along with Australia and the U.S., is looking to develop its critical mineral supply chain to break the monopoly of China which controls over 90% of key metals that are crucial for energy transition.

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