Outraged by Toronto mining convention, protestors disrupt opening day proceedings – by Alex Flood (Timmins Today – March 4, 2025)

https://www.timminstoday.com/

Mining Injustice members blocked the northside entrance to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for 30 minutes during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention on Sunday

TORONTO – The world’s largest mining convention is well underway inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, but outside, a lively protest denouncing the companies for their alleged unethical roles with international excavation projects has taken shape.

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is expected to bring tens of thousands of representatives from the global mining industry to the city’s downtown core between Sunday and Wednesday.

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PDAC: Canada, Australia risk falling behind in investment race, BHP boss says – by Frederic Tomesco (Northern Miner – March 2, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Canada and Australia could end up trailing emerging mining nations such as Argentina if their governments don’t speed up permitting and lower costs, BHP (NYSE, LSE, ASX: BHP) CEO Mike Henry warned.

Countries such as the United States, Argentina and Saudi Arabia are making “sizeable” efforts to reform their mining sector and attract capital, Henry said Sunday in Toronto. At the same time, established natural-resource powerhouses such as Canada and Australia have seen their global attractiveness erode.

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Exclusive: Canada to extend mineral exploration tax credit for two more years, minister says – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 2, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

March 2 – Canada will extend a tax credit on mineral exploration for two additional years as part of the government’s move to support investment in exploration projects, energy, and natural resources, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said on Sunday.

The mineral exploration tax credit is a capital market tool that offers investors a 15% tax credit to invest in flow-through shares of smaller mining companies. It was set to expire on March 31. Wilkinson said the extension is to ensure that the mining sector has the tools to raise capital for exploration projects.

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Attracting investment into Canadian mining projects – by Sasa Jarvis, Cory Kent and Sharon Singh (Canadian Mining Journal – February 25, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

With the globalization of investment dollars, the regulatory framework for a mineral exploration or mining project plays a key factor in the analysis both foreign and domestic investors make: Can a project get off the ground?

Will permits be obtainable on a timely basis or at all? Who can object and what does that mean? And, perhaps most importantly, will the process be predictable? A regulatory system that functions as a patchwork as opposed to being harmonized lacks certainty and risks alienating capital.

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As tensions rise, Canada to lean on U.S. for uranium enrichment – by Matthew McClearn (Globe and Mail – February 24, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump talks of waging a campaign of “economic force” to persuade Canada to join a political union with the United States, Ontario Power Generation is preparing to construct an American reactor at its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. The reactor’s uranium fuel would be enriched at a facility in New Mexico, a new vulnerability U.S. administrations could exploit.

Canada’s 17 operating reactors are of the homegrown Candu design, which consume natural uranium. Canada possesses uranium in abundance and has long made its own fuel. But nearly all the reactors promoted for construction now require enriched uranium, which Canada can’t produce.

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After Chinese company divested from Calgary lithium firm, mystery firm stepped in – by Darryl Greer (Canadian Press/CBC News Calgary – February 20, 2025)

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

Application filed for order directing Gator Capital Ltd. to dispose of shares in Lithium Chile

The federal government is going to court to force a Toronto company to sell a $34-million stake in a Calgary-based lithium firm that it bought off a Chinese company.

The government had already deemed the previous Chinese owner’s investment in Lithium Chile Inc. to be harmful to national security, and it says in a Federal Court application that the new buyer has failed to co-operate with efforts to prove it isn’t owned or influenced by China’s government either.

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Miners not ‘losing sleep’ over Trump’s tariff threat, but hope it can resolve permit delays – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – Febuary 18, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Ottawa needs to remind Trump that Canada’s critical minerals are more accessible to the U.S., miners say

Some Canadian miners say they won’t be “losing sleep” over the possibility of tariffs being levied by the United States on critical minerals due to the immense demand for them from Europe and other regions, but they do want Ottawa to use these “tense times” to quickly resolve the sector’s permitting troubles.

It takes about 10 to 15 years to build a mine in Canada today, given the time it takes to explore deposits, get the required permits, look for investments, build infrastructure in rural areas and figure out a profitable way to extract the minerals.

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DeepDive: How mining became Canada’s surprising new engine of economic growth – by Philip Cross (The Hub – February 17, 2025)

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Mining is an increasingly rare success story in Canada’s economy. While most public commentary focuses on the economic threat from Donald Trump, Canada’s chronic slow economic growth, and stagnant exports, mining’s buoyancy is a reminder that Canada still can be a beacon for investment and successfully compete in global markets as well as a strategic industry in an era of economic and geopolitical competition.

This DeepDive essay provides an overview of recent developments in Canada’s mining industry. It documents mining’s expanding output, incomes, and jobs, fuelled by the recent surge of investments and export demand for most metals and minerals.

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[BHP and Canada] Up and Down Under – by Trevor Cole (Globe and Mail/Report on Business Magazine – February 18, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Why Mike Henry, the Canadian CEO of the world’s biggest mining company, is investing big in Canada

No one should have been surprised, five years ago, when Mike Henry rose to the top of the Australian mining giant BHP. When it comes to mining, Canadians have some game, and the University of British Columbia alum had built a 30-year career touching every aspect of the industry, from marketing to technology to operations.

What might have opened some eyes is how decisively the understated Henry, who’d been at BHP since 2003, moved to change things up. He eliminated BHP’s complicated dual listing on the London and Sydney exchanges, boosting the company’s ability to make acquisitions.

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Barrick considering redomiciling to the U.S. and Trump could make it happen faster, says CEO Mark Bristow – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 14, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is considering redomiciling to the United States from Canada, and under a Donald Trump administration that could happen sooner rather than later, Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board.

On Thursday, he mapped out several reasons why a move to the U.S. makes sense, including access to a more efficient marketplace, and the ability to attract a bigger pool of shareholders. Redomiciling to the U.S. could put Barrick in the S&P 500 index, which would attract automatic buying from scores of mutual funds and exchange traded funds that track indexes.

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Unlocking Canada’s mining potential – by David Hunter, Bernard Roth, and Mary Su (Canadian Mining Journal – February 12, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Strategies to attract investment in the sector

Canada is facing an investment and productivity crisis, and its onerous and lengthy regulatory approval processes are compounding the problem. There is a common misconception that shortening regulatory approval process timelines must come at the expense of environmental oversights and affected Indigenous groups.

Canadian regulatory approval processes can and should be implemented in a way that allows projects to proceed in a timely manner, without sacrificing necessary environmental requirements and Indigenous interests.

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Mining industry warns critical minerals stockpiles useless without processing plants – by Darius Snieckus (National Observer – February 13, 2025)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Government-backed strategic reserves of lithium, nickel, copper and other minerals and metals seen as key to Canada’s national security and its energy transition would be a non-starter without a cross-country network of processing facilities, mining sector executives said Tuesday.

Calls for an emergency stockpile of 34 critical minerals in Canada have grown in recent weeks as a way to reduce investment risk for mine developers and leverage against U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex the country for its wealth of natural resources.

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As Trump eyes Canada’s resources, Ottawa scrambles to form critical mineral plan B – by John Woodside and Darius Snieckus (National Observer – February 10, 2025)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to turn Canada into the 51st state was real, fresh annexation concerns were sparked. However, not everyone is in a total panic.

“Trudeau is not a fool. He’s been at this for a long time, and he’s not going to make a statement even in this context that he doesn’t think is going to get out to the media and public,” said Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “This was not an ‘Oops I got caught moment,’ this was a statement he was prepared to make.”

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Trudeau’s comments that Trump wants critical minerals highlights U.S. reliance on Canadian resources – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 8, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s assertion that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to take over Canada to gain access to its critical-minerals riches underlines how much the U.S. depends on this country for its immense resource needs.

Mr. Trudeau made the comments about Mr. Trump’s motivations for annexing Canada on Friday to hundreds of business executives, trade experts and union representatives who gathered in Toronto to try to figure out how to boost growth and attract new investment in the face of continuing tariff threats on Canadian imports.

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Trudeau suggests Trump’s serious about making Canada ’51st state’ to secure minerals – by Tom Blackwell (National Post – February 8, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

‘Canada is sovereign, Canada will choose its own destiny, thank you very much,’ one minister said

TORONTO — Federal cabinet members stressed Friday there will be “no messing” with the Canada-U.S. border, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that President Donald Trump is serious about making this country the 51st state to secure Canada’s critical mineral reserves.

Transport Minister Anita Anand and Employment Steve MacKinnon said the overwhelming mood in the country is to stand firm on Canada’s independence, regardless of pressure from Trump’s threatened 25-per-cent tariffs.

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