Gold investors ‘give up hope’ as biggest short in history builds – by Ranjeetha Pakiam, Elizabeth Burden, Yakob Peterseil and Eddie Van Der Walt (Toronto Star/Bloomberg – August 21, 2018)

https://www.thestar.com/

Gold is hitting new milestones of misery. Exchange-traded funds tracking the metal have bled assets for 13 consecutive weeks, the longest run in five years, investors have placed the biggest gold short on record, and bullion’s chief foe — a strong U.S. dollar — is extending its market grip.

Gold’s 9 per cent tumble this year belies the turmoil in emerging markets and jitters over technology companies, the anchor of the U.S. equity bull market.

“The long suffering holders of ETFs have finally given up hope of the yellow metal returning to its former glories and have decided there is better protection in the dollar, the stock market and pretty much anything other than gold,” David Govett, head of precious metals at Marex Spectron, said by email.

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Search Minerals aims for larger rare earth elements mine in Labrador (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – August 19, 2018)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Company wants to mine elements for permanent magnets, electric cars

The company behind a proposed mining project in southeast Labrador hopes its project is much larger than originally thought with the capacity for more production for a growing industry.

Search Minerals has been working in Labrador since 2010 and wants to mine for rare earth minerals near the community of St. Lewis in two deposits the company calls Foxtrot and Deep Fox.

The company’s president and CEO Greg Andrews says they have already found more than a decade of mine life in the Foxtrot deposit, but the second deposit could more than double that time.

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Losing its lustre: Why investors are shunning gold – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August18, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Nothing is going right for gold. Many of the factors that drove gold to a record high seven years ago, including a frightening environment for stocks, a precarious U.S. dollar and fears over runaway inflation have reversed course and are now working against it.

This week, gold futures slid to their lowest level in 18 months. Since peaking at just less than US$1,900 in late 2011, gold has lost 37 per cent of its value. Since April alone, it’s down 12 per cent. An ounce of gold sold for about US$1,190 late on Friday.

Much of the weakness is due to the strengthening U.S. dollar, a lack of investment demand, the loss of its appeal as a safe haven investment and the rise of alternative currencies such as bitcoin.

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Lithium price: Chile giant’s scorched earth strategy – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 17, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

SQM this week sold its 50%-share in an Argentinian brine joint venture, leaving the world’s number two producer of lithium with a single project outside its core Chilean operations.

The $12.8 billion Santiago based company can afford to let assets go – its pipeline is choc full already.

Production startup for the 40,000 tonnes per year Mt Holland project alongside Kidman Resources in Western Australia is 2020. The spodumene mine will begin producing lithium carbonate and hydroxide a year later.

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THE BATTLE OVER GOLD BURIED IN A COLOMBIAN MOUNTAIN – by Bram Ebus (Vice News – August 13, 2018)

https://news.vice.com/en_ca/

Some 1,300 metres above sea level, where millennia-long tectonic movements pushed golden veins to the upper crusts of the earth, sits an ancient town.

It’s mining that dictates the clock in Marmato, nestled in the Central Cordillera, the highest of three mountain ranges in the Colombian Andes. At night, lights appear on the hillside where processings mills are grinding stones that contain precious gold. At first daylight, vehicles start to climb the winding roads, up to the higher parts of the mountain where a new day of hacking away in the narrow tunnels begins.

About 80 percent of the village population depends on mining activities to survive, and it’s typically not on any sort of contract. Organized in cooperatives, independent miners say they can earn about US$300 a month. Since almost everybody relies on their luck in the mines, people help each other out when a mine does not produce.

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‘The north is truly hurting’: Thompson mayor frustrated he can’t get meeting with premier (CBC News Manitoba – August 16, 2018)

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

Dennis Fenske says city’s economic crisis warrants face time with Brian Pallister

The mayor of Thompson says he’s frustrated that he can’t get a meeting with the premier despite the grave economic challenges his community is facing.

Dennis Fenske says he and his council have been trying to arrange a sit down Premier Brian Pallister for months.

They put in a request to meet with Pallister when the premier was in Thompson last week for an announcement that Bell MTS would be awarded the contract to connect first responders across the province.

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DeBeers CEO calls for ‘next evolution’ in relations between industry, Indigenous peoples – by Eric White (CBC News Sudbury – August 16, 2018)

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

Some on the James Bay still believe DeBeers will go ahead with mothballed Tango project

Kim Truter called it a “bittersweet” birthday party for Victor Mine.​The DeBeers Canada CEO gushed with pride at some moments during the 10th anniversary celebrations for Ontario’s first diamond mine on Wednesday, which come as the mine is set to shut down early next year.

And something else seems to have left a bad taste in his mouth as well. Truter says he is proud of the work DeBeers has done with the Mushkegowuk people of the James Bay Coast, with millions of dollars flowing to nearby communities through impact benefit agreements.

But it’s not hard to find someone on the coast who feels those deals were not fair. “Perhaps some of the communities felt that everyone would benefit directly and perhaps they haven’t seen that,” says Truter.

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Call for three-year renewal of Canada’s exploration tax scheme to arrest signs of decline – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 16, 2018)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

The Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC), which incentivises exploration financing by providing individuals investing in companies exploring for minerals in Canada with a 15% tax credit on eligible expenditures, has to be renewed for at least three years to provide greater certainty and boost confidence for investors in Canadian projects.

This is the view of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), which on Wednesday published a document containing its recommendations for the 2019 federal Budget.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau renewed the METC for one year in the 2018 federal Budget, but the PDAC feels that companies require a longer time frame as exploration programmes are carried out in stages over an extended period of time.

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Canada needs to focus on infrastructure in the North, Nunavut tells ministers’ conference – by Michelle Pucci (CBC News North – August 15, 2018)

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

Ministers responsible for energy and mining across Canada wrap up meetings in Iqaluit

Canada says it wants to increase mining and development in the North, as discussed at a conference in Iqaluit this week, but Nunavut is calling for better infrastructure to make it happen.

Ministers responsible for energy and mining from across the country met in Iqaluit for the Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference from Aug. 12 to 14.

Delegates from across Canada, except Ontario and Saskatchewan, came to an agreement that natural resources industries need to be more competitive globally while also considering environmental sustainability and ecosystems in the Arctic that are vulnerable to climate change.

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Yukon safe, possibly filled with treasure, unearthed in Gold Rush capital – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – August 15, 2018)

https://nationalpost.com/

A crew in Dawson City, Yukon, was digging what is delicately termed a “lifting station” — essentially, a pumping facility designed to move the community’s human waste from one place to another.

Until, an excavator struck something with a clang. “Two metres deep, they hit something hard and metallic,” said Mark Dauphinee, the town’s public works superintendent.

Digging up strange things is relatively common for Dawson City work crews. The community owes its existence to buried gold, of course, but the region is also home to a rich trove of Ice Age fossils. A uniquely pungent aroma wafting over a work site is often all that’s needed for crews to realize that they stumbled upon the long-buried carcass of a prehistoric horse.

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Massive Barrick-Novagold gold mine project in Alaska receives key U.S. environmental permits – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 15, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. have been given a key governmental green light to build a massive new gold mine in Alaska, but uncertain economics amid a weakening gold price mean it’s unclear whether the capital-intensive project will ever see the light of day.

In a joint release, Barrick and its junior joint-venture partner Novagold said that they had received a number of U.S. federal government environmental permits that would pave the way for the development of the Donlin Gold project, which the duo first teamed up on more than a decade ago.

Donlin, in southwestern Alaska, is one of the world’s biggest undeveloped gold projects with 39 million ounces of gold held in the economically uncertain “resources” category.

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Canada eyes unprecedented safeguard tariffs on steel imports – by Naomi Powell (Financial Post – August 15, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

HAMILTON — Finance Minister Bill Morneau is launching formal consultations on whether to impose unprecedented trade measures to block a surge of steel imports diverted into Canada because of U.S. tariffs.

Morneau, who said an import surge has already been detected, announced Tuesday a 15-day consultation period during which he will evaluate possible safeguards on seven steel products, including plate, concrete reinforcing bar used in construction, hot-rolled sheet, wire rod and tubes for the energy industry.

If the consultations provide evidence of harm or threat of harm to producers, the federal government will impose immediate provisional safeguards to shield the industry while the issue is referred to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) for inquiry.

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Why something as seemingly minute as sand is as critical to modern life as cells are to the human body – by Vince Beiser (National Post – August 11, 2018)

https://nationalpost.com/

Sand has been used for construction since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. In the 15th century, an Italian artisan figured out how to turn sand into fully transparent glass, which made possible the microscopes, telescopes, and other technologies that helped drive the Renaissance’s scientific revolution.

But at the dawn of the 20th century, almost all of the world’s large structures — apartment blocks, office buildings, churches, palaces, fortresses — were still made with stone, brick, clay, or wood. The tallest buildings stood fewer than ten stories high. Roads were mostly paved with broken stone, IF at all. Glass in the form of windows or tableware was a relatively rare and expensive luxury.

The mass manufacture and deployment of concrete and glass changed all that, reshaping how and where people lived in the industrialized world. Decades later, digital technology, powered by silicon chips and other sophisticated hardware made with sand, began reshaping the global economy in ways gargantuan and quotidian.

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CHARTS: Warning for bears as gold price drops through $1,200 – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 13, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

Gold fell to fresh 18-month lows on Monday as the attractiveness of the hard asset continues to wane on the back of rising interest rates in the US and a strengthening dollar.

December futures trading in New York declined 1.5% to $1,201 a troy ounce, the lowest since February last year and now down more than 12% from its 2018 high reached in January. Spot prices dropped through the psychologically important $1,200 level with a dip to $1,193.15 an ounce.

Gold usually moves in the opposite direction to the greenback and has a strong negative correlation to interest rates as the metal produces no income and investors have to rely on price appreciation for returns.

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Jagmeet Singh might as well send Rachel Notley a cake shaped like a middle finger – by Kelly McParland (National Post – August 14, 2018)

https://nationalpost.com/

Jagmeet Singh’s days as federal NDP leader have been so ill-starred you almost feel sorry for the guy.

That’s not a good thing. Politicians want to look bold, decisive and successful, not confused, unlucky and accident-prone. Singh can’t get a break. The last good thing that happened to him was winning the New Democratic Party leadership race 10 months ago, and so much has gone wrong since then you have to wonder whether he wishes he’d never entered.

He’s young, articulate, and has a pleasant personality. Yet so hapless has his tenure become that the embarrassments are coming in pairs. Friday was meant to be a good day, in which he revealed he’d finally settled on a site to seek election to the House of Commons — Burnaby, B.C., where the local MP is quitting. Yet the announcement only sparked new questions. Lots of questions.

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