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Canadian Media Resource Articles

Equinox Gold to buy Calibre for $2.56B – by Staff (Northern Miner – February 24, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Equinox Gold  agreed to buy Calibre Mining  for about $2.56 billion in stock to become Canada’s second-largest gold producer. Calibre shareholders will receive 0.31 Equinox common share for each Calibre common share held immediately before the transaction, according to a joint statement issued Sunday. At closing, existing Equinox shareholders would own about 65% of the combined company’s outstanding shares, compared with 35% for their Calibre counterparts.

The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, sets the stage for the creation of a Canadian mining powerhouse with two low-cost assets under the same roof – Equinox’s Greenstone property in Ontario, which achieved commercial production in November and is one of the country’s largest open-pit mines; and Calibre’s Valentine mine, which is nearing construction completion.

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Ontario PCs pledge $500-million for critical minerals processing but spending questions loom – by Darius Snieckus (Hamilton Spectator – February 25, 2025)

https://www.thespec.com/

Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives have pledged to set up a $500-million critical mineral processing fund to invest in “strategically located” facilities to develop the province’s vast resources of lithium, graphite, zinc, cobalt and other key minerals and metals.

The fund, a central economic plank in the party’s re-election platform released on Monday, is the biggest government pledge so far to build a network of refining facilities mining experts say are needed to ensure Canada reaps the benefits of producing minerals and metals important for the global energy transition.

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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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Ontario election: Make Laurentian University Ontario’s mining champion – by David Robinson (Sudbury Star – February 24, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

It’s one of David Robinson’s four pillars as the Green Party candidate for the Sudbury riding

My job as Sudbury’s Green candidate is to get climate change on your agenda and convince you it is part of a real economic development strategy for our city.

My job as your MPP would be to bring together political factions and leading institutions in the city in a unified campaign to get what Sudbury needs. No other candidate has the knowledge, experience or the proven record of working for Sudbury. No other candidate has the contacts and the respect in every corner of the city.

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Mining industry, business groups in NWO call for better support for mining from next Ontario government – by Kris Ketonen (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 24, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

More power generation, meaningful consultations with First Nations needed if projects are to move forward

Whichever party is elected as the next provincial government needs to show better support for northwestern Ontario’s mining industry if some of the region’s major developments are to move forward, industry and First Nations groups say.

“We need Queen’s Park to actually recognize us more,” said Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association. “We need more money put into exploration to move things forward.”

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OPINION: Arctic security must be a top priority for Canada – not an afterthought – by Ranj Pillai and Ken Coates (Globe and Mail – February 24, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ranj Pillai is the Premier of Yukon. Ken Coates is the director of Indigenous affairs at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Canada’s Arctic policy has long been founded on delayed and partial responses to American challenges. It started with the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897-98, when the arrival of tens of thousands of American stampeders threatened Canada’s tenuous hold on the Far Northwest.

It hit again in 1942, when the United States launched the construction of the Alaska Highway and other Northwest defence projects in a region almost devoid of effective Canadian governance. The pattern continued after the Second World War, as Canada joined in developing radar defence systems during the Cold War and responded, again half-heartedly, after the American oil tanker SS Manhattan navigated the Northwest Passage in 1969 to test using the seaway to take Alaskan oil eastward.

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The complex legacy of Viola MacMillan – by Ashley Fish-Robertson (CIM Magazine – February 19, 2025)

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

A new book explores the life and scandal of a controversial pioneer in Canada’s mining industry

Viola MacMillan’s life, shaped by remarkable accomplishments and the gripping Windfall scandal that took place in the 1960s, forms the heart of Toronto-based author Tim Falconer’s latest book, Windfall: Viola MacMillan and Her Notorious Mining Scandal.

Born in 1903 in Dee Bank, Ontario, MacMillan left school at the age of 12 to support her impoverished family, working as a cleaner with her mother. After the First World War, MacMillan returned to school and later moved to Windsor, Ontario, where she saved up money for business college by working as a telephone operator and live-in maid. After graduating, she was hired as a stenographer.

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Anglo American and Codelco strike $5B copper deal – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 20, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON: AAL) and Chile’s state-owned Codelco have signed an agreement to jointly develop their neighbouring Los Bronces and Andina operations, a move that will see the partners produce 2.7 million tonnes of additional copper over 21 years from 2030.

The joint mine plan is projected to generate a net present value pre-tax boost of at least $5 billion, which will be shared equally between the two companies. Despite the collaboration, both Anglo American and Codelco will retain full ownership rights over their respective assets, including mining concessions, plants, and ancillary operations, and will continue to extract resources separately.

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American farmers will bear cost of Trump’s tariffs on potash, says Nutrien CEO – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Financial Post – February 21, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Company hikes dividend, though earnings fall 33% on lower prices

Farmers in the United States will be the ones absorbing any additional expenses if Donald Trump’s planned tariffs take effect next month, says Nutrien Ltd. chief executive Ken Seitz.

“The costs of this would be borne by the U.S. farmer; the tariff cost and tariff impact will be passed onto the U.S. farmer,” he said on a fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts, adding that American farmers are very dependent on Canadian potash. “Canadians supply over 80 per cent of that market.”

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Teck signals it’s open to deal with Glencore around combining QB2 and Collahuasi copper mines – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 21, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. chief executive Jonathan Price indicated he is open to a tie-up with former foe Glencore PLC that would combine its giant QB2 copper mine in Chile with Glencore’s neighbouring Collahuasi operation.

QB2 is the mine that underpinned Teck’s revamp to become a fully focused critical-minerals company after it sold its legacy coal business to Glencore. Glencore co-owns another giant copper mine near QB2 called Collahuasi. Billions in cost savings are potentially on the table if QB2 and Collahuasi can be brought under the same ownership and operated as one gigantic facility.

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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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China-Backed $3 Billion Indonesia Nickel Smelter Risks Shutdown – by Eddie Spence and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News/Financial Post – February 20, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

One of the biggest nickel smelters in Indonesia has slashed production and is close to shutting down completely, just months after the collapse of its Chinese parent company.

(Bloomberg) — One of the biggest nickel smelters in Indonesia has slashed production and is close to shutting down completely, just months after the collapse of its Chinese parent company.

PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry, which is affiliated with bankrupted stainless steel giant Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry Co., is delaying payments to local energy suppliers and is unable to procure nickel ore, according to people familiar with the situation.

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Buried treasure: Ontario’s new regulation aims to facilitate the recovery of minerals from mine waste, but many hurdles remain, experts say – by Kelsey Rolfe (CIM Magazine – February 20, 2025)

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

Ontario is becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to have a dedicated regulatory pathway for projects aimed at recovering residual metals and minerals from mine waste. Experts said the move is a promising step, but technical and economic hurdles still stand in the way of wide-scale waste re-mining efforts.

The province announced a regulatory change to the Mining Act in late November 2024 to create a permit process specifically for recovering metals and minerals from tailings and mine waste at open, closed or abandoned mine sites in the province.

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Elon Musk casts doubt on $425 billion U.S. gold reserve at Fort Knox ahead of personal DOGE audit – by Ernest Hoffman (kitco News – February 18, 2025)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Fresh off his recent forays into the Treasury Department’s payment systems, tech billionaire Elon Musk is now gearing up to conduct an in-person audit of the United States’ gold reserves at Fort Knox on behalf of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk announced his intentions on Monday afternoon through a pair of posts on his X platform, implying that he doubts whether the $425 billion in bullion is really there. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the state where Fort Knox is located, said in an interview with Fox News on Monday that he invited Musk to review the gold reserve after failing to gain access to the facility for a decade.

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GRAPH: The critical minerals to watch in the US – by Frik Els (Mining.com – February 17, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Statements that Trump’s plans to make Canada the 51st state is all about metals and minerals, a deal for Ukraine’s rare earths (now rejected) being included in peace talks, and the current US administration reiterating its desire to buy Greenland, have thrust critical minerals into the public view like never before.

Amid all this talk it’s easy to forget that anything to do with metals and minerals – whether deemed critical or not – is really about one country. China.

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