VANCOUVER — The federal minister responsible for innovation and industry says Canada could be at risk of losing out on attracting green industries if it doesn’t consider all options for renewable electricity, which he says include nuclear power.
François-Philippe Champagne said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he considers nuclear power part of the renewable energy portfolio that needs to grow to support the country’s lean into “the economy of the 21st century.”
(Bloomberg) — Stabilizing the gold market has become a pressing issue for Vietnam with smugglers taking advantage of higher local prices to slip in the precious metal, leading to exchange rate distortions and weakness in the dong that’s hurting the economy.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and members of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council are among top authorities who have been urging for solutions in recent months.
(Kitco News) – The gold market continues its unstoppable run to record highs as it touches an all-time high of $2,350 an ounce ahead of the weekend.
Gold’s latest rally comes after the U.S. economy created 303,000 jobs in March, significantly beating expectations. At the same time, unemployment dropped to 3.8%. Despite the robust job growth, wages were relatively muted, rising 0.3%, in line with expectations.
Ford Canada announced Thursday that it would postpone all electric vehicle production at its Oakville assembly plant by two years until 2027 due to softening demand.
Queen’s Park and Ottawa, which have jointly pledged billions in electric vehicle manufacturing subsidies, were jolted by Ford Canada’s move to delay domestic EV production. Ford Canada announced Thursday it would postpone all electric vehicle production at its Oakville assembly plant by two years until 2027 due to softening demand.
That move came in the wake of the provincial and federal governments ponying up $295 million each in 2020 to boost EV production there. Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the federal industry department officials were given any advance warning of the car company’s decision, with officials learning of it in the news.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Confusion about whether Chinese investment is welcome in the Canadian critical minerals sector is fuelling investor uncertainty and jeopardizing this country’s position as a leading source of capital for the mining industry, executives and analysts say.
In late 2022, Ottawa said it would allow investment from China only under exceptional circumstances, but it didn’t specify what those circumstances would be. In the absence of clarity over what is and isn’t allowed, Chinese investors have continued to attempt deals with Canadian mining companies. Meanwhile, some transactions that Ottawa has permitted have baffled experts, as have some that were blocked.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Something hopeful is stirring among the Omushkego communities in Northern Ontario. The communities, along with Fort Severn and Weenusk First Nations, have hatched a plan to save one of the last vast, untouched areas of the planet from an industry quickly advancing northward to mine critical minerals, blasting through ecologically sensitive areas to do so. They know all too well how hard it is to stop the hungry mouths of the South, with their insatiable need for the resources of the North.
It’s a reflection of the weird contradiction in which the world finds itself: In order to cool a warming planet, the argument goes, we have to mine the Earth for critical minerals to make electric vehicles that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, destroying the peatlands of the far North – giant storehouses for an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon – in the process.
(Kitco News) – Bank of America was one of the bullish banks on gold heading into 2024, and everything they have seen this year has only added to their conviction.
In a note published Tuesday, commodity analysts, led by Michael Widmer, reiterated their call for gold prices to push to $2,400 an ounce this year. In December, Widmer said that he was expecting a gold rally when the Federal Reserve actually started cutting interest rates. That stance has only changed slightly.
Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX)(NYSE:GOLD) ongoing push to expand its global portfolio has prompted the company to revisit its presence in the Latin American market.
The world’s second largest gold miner has in the past year been particularly interested in Peru, where it was the second top gold producer until 2018. According to local newspaper Gestión, Barrick recently submitted a request to obtain a mining concession for 400 hectares in the southern Puno district.
Pick axes and coal dust aren’t selling a new generation on jobs in mining. Can the industry clean up its reputation — and act — to meet the demand for critical minerals?
When Courtney Onstad was out in the field collecting samples and searching for gold, it wasn’t the thrill of the find she was after. What excited her most was the science behind everything.
Geoscience is “all around” us. It’s something you can literally reach out and touch — “so much more than rocks,” she said. It explains how mountains form and water and ecosystems interconnect, it can help us understand hazards and weather patterns and reveals the Earth’s evolving history in fossils and formations. At 29, Onstad represents one of the most sought-after resources in the mining and exploration industry today — young talent.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Construction timelines remain fuzzy but proponents are still optimistic two and half years into studying roads to serve the Ring of Fire critical minerals region in northern Ontario.
Three all-season roads totalling 362 km are planned for the area 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay. The main highway would start at the end of a forestry road north of Aroland First Nation and the village of Nakina and head to the Ring of Fire. One branch would run to the Marten Falls First Nation to the east while another would connect to the Webequie First Nation to the west.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
The demand for critical metals and minerals is advancing dramatically as energy transition gathers momentum globally. Rare metals and minerals are essential to many clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, electricity transmission, and electric vehicles (EVs).
But when comparing fossil fuel-based resources such as hydrocarbons with the metals and minerals needed to meet emerging needs to build renewable power generation assets and energy storage devices, the numbers are staggering. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it takes six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car to power an EV and nine times more for a wind plant than its gas-fired counterpart.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Canada’s quest for critical minerals has led to an astonishing promise: The federal government says it can slash the time it takes a proposed mine to get through the regulatory review process from 12 to 15 years – to just five.
Without access to a supply of pixie dust or a time machine, this commitment will demand a phenomenal amount of goodwill and co-operation from industry, First Nations and the provinces and territories.
Esprit de Corps Canadian Military Magazine
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The federal government has become strangely surreal. Each day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces new initiatives that are some combination of (a) unnecessary, (b) outside federal jurisdiction and (c) unlikely to be realized before the next federal election. Meanwhile, the government remains silent on the most pressing issue, and one for which it is 100 per cent responsible: shoring up Canada’s defences in a world growing more dangerous by the day.
Several recent announcements have been about housing. The Liberals are making large sums available to accelerate housing construction, provided provinces and municipalities meet federal requirements to loosen zoning restrictions, accelerate approvals and increase density.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Low prices dampen investment for development
Natural Resources Canada barely got its invite out the door to the critical minerals industry in January when more bad news hit. Plummeting prices for metals such as lithium and nickel pushed the ministry’s pitch for help updating the criteria of Canada’s list of 31 critical minerals list to the back burner. Instead, some in the industry were demanding government intervention, up to and including the feds spending taxpayer money on new critical minerals projects.
How bad was the hit to lithium and nickel prices? Enough for companies to capitulate and begin shutting down capacity and production, said Canada Nickel Company CEO Mark Selby (and former head of commodities research). This occurred most recently on Feb. 12 when Glencore announced it was transitioning its Koniambo Nickel operation in New Caledonia into care and maintenance.
(Bloomberg) — A third of Africa’s gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees are at risk because they live in areas that overlap with mining operations for metals critical to the global clean energy transition.
Nearly 180,000 great apes in Africa are under threat as mining activities drive deforestation, according to a study published on Wednesday in Science Advances. The true impact might be even higher because mining companies are not required to make biodiversity data public, the researchers wrote.
