Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

To attract more investors, shareholders urge gold miners to change compensation practices – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 22, 2020)

September 22, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A coalition of heavyweight investors is calling on the global gold industry to improve its performance in several key metrics, even as the share prices of many gold companies hit multiyear highs amid a soaring commodity price.

This year, the TSX Global Gold Index, which includes many of the biggest gold companies in the world, is up 41 per cent, driven in large part by outperformance of the price of gold bullion.

Historically sought out as a safe-haven investment in times of great upheaval, gold prices recently hit new record highs, driven by extraordinary uncertainty in financial markets owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue Reading →

New technology to help clean and recycle Canada’s mining wastewater (Canadian Mining Journal – September 21, 2020)

September 22, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

As Canada looks to responsibly develop its mining and minerals industry as part of its economic recovery plan from the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has announced a $4.5-million investment in E2Metrix, to help mining operations recycle wastewater and operate more sustainably; Quebec-headquartered E2Metrix specializes in the treatment of wastewater.

Wastewater for mining operations can often contain pollutants and toxic chemicals. E2Metrix’s ECOTHOR technology aims to clean and separate contaminants, such as ammonia and heavy metals, from the wastewater.

According to the government’s release, this process is a more effective, energy-efficient and affordable way to reuse and recycle wastewater from mining operations and is expected to help companies improve water efficiency and reduce their impacts on fresh water. Continue Reading →

Canada’s Wheaton Precious Metals plans London listing amid surge in gold prices – by Kumutha Ramanathan (Yahoo Finance UK – September 21, 2020)

September 22, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://sports.yahoo.com/

Canada’s Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) has announced plans to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) as demand for precious metals from investors has been surging amid turbulence in equity markets of late.

Wheaton, one of the world’s largest companies involved in buying gold and silver, has a market capitalisation of about $23bn (£17.6bn), and is listed in Toronto and New York. On those indices, its shares have risen more than 70% this year.

Gold prices have risen this year by roughly 28% and hit a record high of above $2,000 an ounce in August. Silver has also been gaining, up 50% to $27 an ounce. Continue Reading →

Monday mining massacre as gold, copper, iron ore prices tank – by Frik Els (Mining.com – September 21, 2020)

September 22, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.mining.com/

The gold price fell to its lowest in nearly two months on Monday as the US dollar strengthened and a drop on global stock markets failed to translate into safe-haven demand for the precious metal.

US gold futures fell by as much as $77.50 an ounce, or 3.9% from Friday’s settlement, hitting a low of $1,885.40 on the Comex market in New York before recovering some of those losses to trade above $1,900 by early afternoon. Trade was heavy with nearly 36m ounces exchanging hands by 2 pm.

Copper prices dropped by more than 3% from fresh 2-year highs reached on Friday but managed to stay above the pivotal $3.00 a pound level. Continue Reading →

Tesla “battery day” a possible blow to cobalt miners – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 21, 2020)

September 21, 2020 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

https://www.mining.com/

Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla hosts its annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22, followed by the highly anticipated “battery technology day”, a worldwide live-streamed event during which the firm is expected to unveil its own new type of battery cell.

Speculation points to a cobalt-free battery that uses more of less costly metals such as nickel and manganese.

Tesla currently uses the nickel rich nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode chemistry, which has a low cobalt content of about 5%, for their cars produced outside China. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Chrystia Freeland should heed debt warnings before it’s too late – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – September 19, 2020)

September 21, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland faces growing concerns among some of the country’s leading economic thinkers that she is not taking her job seriously enough.

The nonchalance with which Ottawa is taking on hundreds of billions of dollars in new debt is starting to make business leaders antsy. Opening the floodgates was the right approach in April. Keeping them open indefinitely looks reckless.

Yet, Ms. Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have spent the past few weeks promising just that. In the run-up to next week’s Speech from the Throne, they have given little indication that they intend to heed calls to produce an exit strategy from unprecedented spending levels. Continue Reading →

Mining petition to be aired, should government stand – by Michael Swan (The Catholic Register – September 20, 2020)

September 21, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://www.catholicregister.org/

If the Liberal government stands past the Sept. 23 throne speech, Martin Blanchet’s seven-year battle to get somebody with authority to look into how Canadian mining companies and others treat workers, communities and the environment in poor countries will finally get an airing in the House of Commons.

More than 6,000 people have signed a petition Blanchet launched over the summer through the Parliamentary online petition system. The petition calls for stronger investigatory powers for the Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise and Blanchet’s MP, Edmonton-Strathcona MP and NDP deputy house leader Heather McPherson, is anxious to present it in the House of Commons.

In addition to the petition, McPherson is preparing her own private members’ bill to strengthen the new system for monitoring overseas operations of Canadian companies. Continue Reading →

Millions in mine and forest revenues coming back to northern Ontario and the province promising more to come – by Erik White (CBC News Sudbury – September 18, 2020)

September 18, 2020 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Ontario Mining

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

Deal for cities and towns in the works, while First Nations received $24M in resource revenue last year

At the groundbreaking for a new gold mine near Gogama, Premier Doug Ford didn’t say very much about his promise to give northern Ontario a bigger cut of the money the province makes from its natural resources.

He pledged to share mine and forest revenues with northern communities in the 2018 election and says his “all-star” minister of Northern Development and Mines Greg Rickford is working on it.

“He has a strong plan moving forward to have resources shared among Indigenous communities,” Ford says. Continue Reading →

Missed the gold bounce? Some observers believe the rally has legs – by David Berman (Globe and Mail – September 17, 2020)

September 18, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gold producers have been among the biggest winners during the pandemic, as investors bet that ultralow interest rates, massive government debt loads and an uncertain global economic recovery will keep the price of gold buoyant.

Missed the rally? Some observers expect that precious metals producers will continue to perform well in the year ahead. Continue Reading →

Canada ranked 4th, US 6th in lithium-ion battery supply chain (Mining.com – September 16, 2020)

September 18, 2020 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.mining.com/

A new ranking for 2020 by Bloomberg’s clean energy, new materials and commodity research arm (BloombergNEF) shows China dominating the global lithium-ion battery supply chain, quickly surpassing Japan and Korea, leaders for most of the previous decade.

China’s dominance is based on its large domestic battery demand, 72GWh, and control of 80% of the world’s raw material refining, 77% of the world’s cell capacity and 60% of the world’s component manufacturing, according to data from BNEF.

Kwasi Ampofo, BNEF’s lead analyst covering battery raw materials, says China’s large scale investments into mining and refining has given it the advantage over Japan and Korea: Continue Reading →

OPINION: Score one for Canada: On aluminum tariffs, the U.S. bully blinks – by Lawrence Martin (Globe and Mail – September 17, 2020)

September 18, 2020 in Aluminium/Bauxite, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, United States Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The situation was rife with potential conflict. In the throes of a U.S. election campaign, Canada was preparing to announce major retaliation against President Donald Trump’s administration for the levies it proposed last month against Canadian aluminum imports.

The countermeasures could have affected votes in battleground states, and the likelihood was that Mr. Trump would strike back, escalating tensions as he fought for his political livelihood and drawing Canada into election hostilities.

But unless Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is out-and-out lying, the bully has backed off, having run away with its tail between its legs. Just a couple of hours before Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs were to be imposed, Mr. Trump withdrew his aluminum levies, thus ending the dispute. Continue Reading →

EDITORIAL: We can’t afford more green energy failures (Toronto Sun – September 17, 2020)

September 18, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs

https://torontosun.com/

We don’t know how much Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to earmark for so-called “green” energy when Parliament resumes on Sept. 23.

It’s unlikely the amount will be in the Throne Speech because typically that’s when governments announce their “big ideas” for the coming parliamentary session.

We do know many of the people Trudeau listens to are advocating spending tens of billions of dollars we don’t have to finance a so-called green and resilient economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession. Continue Reading →

Innovation acceleration: COVID-19 and today’s new business realities spark activity at mining innovation hubs – by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco (CIM Magazine – September 14, 2020)

September 16, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

As Canada went into lockdown to fight the spread of COVID-19, mining accelerators and research hubs – the organizations created to support and foster innovation in the industry – expected their activities to come to a grinding halt.

At first, these predictions appeared to come true, but after a few weeks, the exact opposite began to happen. Interest in their services and projects boomed as mining and technology companies began reaching out looking for new partners and opportunities.

Sudbury’s NORCAT, for example, which runs the world’s only operational underground mine devoted to training and technology innovation as part of its mission to become a global one-stop shop that connects start-ups and creators of new technologies with mining companies, saw a 500 per cent increase in the number of enterprises wanting to showcase their products and technologies. Continue Reading →

Concerns raised over open-pit mining in Crowsnest Pass – by Tyler Barrow (CTV News – September 15, 2020)

September 16, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/

CROWSNEST PASS, ALTA. — After the UCP government announced in May it was rescinding the 1976 Coal Mining Policy that prohibits open-pit operations in the Rocky Mountains and foothills, several proposals have been put forward, which officials say could lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs in the Crowsnest Pass area.

“As long as we follow the environmental policies, I absolutely, fully support industry because it’s creating jobs, it’s giving out kids a future,” said Garett Schmidt who uses the area to quad. “We can’t have people jobless and homeless, we’re resource-rich.”

An Australian company has bid to build the Grassy Mountain Coal project — a 2,800-hectare coal mine north of Blairmore, Alta. Continue Reading →

EU deal could forge shiny future for Canada’s low-carbon metals – by Chris Turner (Corporate Knights – September 16, 2020)

September 16, 2020 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Junior Exploration Sector, Nickel, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.corporateknights.com/

he Canada Nickel Company is a fledgling Ontario mining firm with a handful of leases in mineral-rich northern Ontario and ambitious plans to dig for nickel, cobalt and iron.

So it represents a particularly audacious move that the company recently announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary called NetZero Metals, charged with the task of mining those metals without a carbon footprint.

Green boasts can be a little suspect, especially since the net-zero goal is one that established players in industries like steel and oil have placed at the far end of a 30-year ramp. Continue Reading →