TV Ontario’s The Agenda host Steve Paikin interviews J.P. Gladu, Virginia Heffernan, Alishia Hiyate and Stan Sudol.
Canadian Media Resource Articles
JV Article: Hudbay Minerals’ long and successful history in Manitoba continues with its Lalor mine near Snow Lake – by Staff (Northern Miner – May 16, 2022)
The city of Flin Flon in Manitoba has a rich and storied history of mining that began when gold was discovered around Amisk Lake at the start of the 20th century — the first major discovery of gold west of Ontario since the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s.
The focus then shifted to base metals when, according to local legend, in 1915, a prospector named Tom Creighton discovered a massive copper-zinc orebody in the area. He registered the strike under the name Flin Flon after Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, a character from a science fiction novel published a decade earlier.
OPINION: So much for the electric vehicle revolution. You cannot make the machines without the metals that power them – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 13, 2022)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Any successful politician is adept at finding the one bit of good news floating in the ocean of despair, then gushing about it to try to drown our worries.
So it is with U.S. President Joe Biden. A few weeks ago, when the war in Ukraine was propelling gasoline and diesel prices ever higher – regular gas hit a record average of US$4.43 a gallon on Friday – he suggested that painful pump prices will speed the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), fear not. Voila – no more hard decisions about filling your SUV or feeding your kids.
Indonesia’s Jokowi meets Tesla’s Musk after nickel talks – by Stanley Widianto, Ed Davies, Norihiko Shirouzu, Gavin Maguire, Fransiska Nangoy and Kevin Krolicki (Mining.com/Reuters – May 15, 2022)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo met Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk on Saturday in Texas to discuss potential investments and technology, Indonesia’s government said in a statement.
The meeting between Musk and Widodo, better known as Jokowi, came after a round of working-level discussions on a potential investment in Indonesia’s nickel industry and supply of batteries for electric vehicles, Indonesian officials told Reuters.
Mining Indaba: Robert Friedland: ‘World economy can’t change unless we develop a lot more mines’ – by Henry Lazenby (Mining.com – May 11, 2022)
Global mining personality and financier Robert Friedland has singled out Africa and the Arabian Shield as the venues where the world’s future-facing minerals and metals will be responsibly produced. “This is where humanity is going to make it or break it,” he told the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba currently underway in Cape Town, South Africa.
He points out that the large copper mines in Latin America are aging and declining in grade, requiring increasing amounts of fossil-fuel-derived energy to process ever-increasing tonnages to keep up with historical production.
Nunavut hunters urge Baffinland mine to stop icebreaking, citing narwhal decline (CBC News North – May 11, 2022)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Nunavut hunters and environmental groups say shipping activity from Baffinland’s Mary River mine is having a real and potentially lasting effect on narwhal numbers in the area.They’re calling on the mining company to, again, alter its shipping plans this year as a precaution.
In a letter to Nunavut regulators last week, the Pond Inlet-based Mittimatalik Hunters & Trappers Organization (HTO) says the abundance of narwhal summering in Eclipse Sound has been in steady decline in recent years and that Baffinland is responsible.
OPINION: Hi, my name is Canada. I’m an oil superpower – by Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2022)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Canada’s latest export data put a clear spotlight on just how big a role oil still plays in our country’s economy. Exports of all goods in March reached a new monthly record of $63.6-billion, Statistics Canada reported, surpassing the previous high of $58.7-billion, set in February.
The surge is powered by oil. Energy now accounts for more than a quarter of Canada’s exports, a level last hit in 2014, when crude prices were also on a tear. Back then, Stephen Harper was a vocal booster of the oil industry, and not much interested in talking about climate change.
How Canada hopes to buy its way on to the factory floor of the EV revolution – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 10, 2022)
Billions in government subsidies are going to keep automakers in the country — and so far it’s working
To the surprise of some, if not many, all five of the global automakers who assemble cars and trucks in Canada have committed to making electric vehicles and hybrids here — or “the cars of the future” in the words of federal industry minister François-Philippe Champagne.
The promises required billions of dollars of enticement from the federal and Ontario governments, but there’s no denying that the decision of Stellantis NV to retool its manufacturing operations in Windsor and Brampton to produce EV’s and hybrids signalled a change in the weather for Canada, a relatively high-cost producer which for decades has been losing auto investments to the southern United States and Mexico.
Authorities hope to reach survivors trapped in Canadian-owned mine in Burkina Faso – by Georgie Smyth (CBC News World – May 10, 2022)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/
The race to reach eight workers trapped in a flooded, Canadian-owned zinc mine in West Africa is making progress. Trevali Mining Corp. says access to its Perkoa Mine in Burkina Faso is improving after more than 32 million litres of water were pumped out of the shaft.
Workers became trapped more than 500 metres below the surface on April 16, after heavy rain caused flash flooding which breached two embankments outside the mine, said Trevali in a statement to CBC News on Tuesday. Sixteen other workers underground at the time were able to escape.
OPINION: Anglo American’s departing CEO Mark Cutifani anticipated mining’s move to ESG principles – and saved his company along the way – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 7, 2022)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Mark Cutifani stepped down as the chief executive officer of Anglo American last month a happy man, having saved one of the world’s biggest mining companies from almost certain destruction.
But his swift overhaul did more than rescue debt-ridden, accident-prone Anglo. The shakeup helped to position the company for a low-carbon future. The global mining industry was turned on its head in the past decade. The old formula – gouge great holes in the ground and damn the financial and environmental consequences – worked fine. Until it didn’t.
Eight miners still trapped at Canadian mine in West Africa after three weeks of search efforts – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – May 8, 2022)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A desperate search for eight miners who are trapped by flood waters more than half a kilometre underground at a Canadian-owned zinc mine in West Africa is turning into an international effort, as new equipment arrives at the site.
The workers have been trapped for more than three weeks at the Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso, after heavy thunderstorms triggered flash flooding on April 16. They are believed to be about 550 metres below the surface, with possible access to an emergency chamber at a depth of 580 metres.
Nova Scotia: March, memorial service to mark 30th anniversary of Westray disaster – by Paul Palmeter (CBC News Nova Scotia – May 9, 2022)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/
26 men died in underground explosion at Pictou County mine
Joe MacKay will never forget the explosion at the Westray mine 30 years ago today. The underground explosion in Plymouth, N.S., killed 26 miners. One of them was MacKay’s brother, Mike. “He loved his bikes, including a chopper he just thought the world of,” said MacKay. “He loved his family. His kids meant everything to him.”
Mike MacKay was 38. He was the father of two young children. Like the other men who worked at the mine, he had only been working there for nine months after it opened in September 1991.
JV Article: The mining industry ‘needs to do a better job telling its story on climate-related risks and opportunities,’ says Manifest Climate’s Pete Richardson – by Staff (Northern Miner – May 9, 2022)
Increasingly, financial regulators and investors are focused on ensuring that mining companies are prepared for the risks and opportunities of climate change.
However, the consequences of climate change for the mining industry “are informed by a complex and evolving dynamic, which presents both threats to the way the industry operates and significant business opportunities as the world pushes toward decarbonization,” says Pete Richardson, head of research at Manifest Climate.
EPA deals fresh blow to PolyMet’s $1 billion copper-nickel mine – by Editor (Mining.com – May 5, 2022)
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has dealt a fresh blow to PolyMet Mining’s (TSX: POM) plans to build an open pit copper-nickel mine in Minnesota, by recommending the US Army Corps of Engineers not re-issue a key water-related permit.
The agency said this week the $1 billion NorthMet project, the first large-scale project to be permitted within the Duluth Complex in northeastern Minnesota, risked increasing levels of mercury and other pollutants in the St. Louis River downstream from the proposed mine.
Plunging metals prices expected to rebound in H2 – report – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – May 6, 2022)
Enduring Covid-19-linked lockdowns in the world’s largest metal consumer, China, are negatively impacting demand from end-use industries and sentiment towards the complex, resulting in lower metals prices, a new report by Fitch Solution Country Risk & Industry Research notes.
Nevertheless, market analysts at Fitch maintain their 2022 metal price forecasts as prices generally remain above levels seen before the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Fitch analysts also expect Chinese demand to eventually pick up in the second half, which will bring more stability to metals prices.