https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Exploration efforts steady among resource sector
While the price of gold has been climbing steadily, now selling for more than $2,600 USD per ounce, one mining CEO says financing is still hard to come by.
The future of the N.W.T.’s mining industry remains far from certain. Current exploration projects are focused on gold and lithium. Both had company representatives in Yellowknife this week for presentations and to strengthen community relationships.
Paladin Energy’s (ASX: PDN) proposed takeover of Canadian explorer Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) has hit a roadblock after receiving a notice from the Canadian government informing the company the deal is now the subject of a national security review.
The Australian miner entered in June into an agreement with Fission Uranium to acquire it for C$1.14 billion ($846m), as strong prices for the fuel used in nuclear reactors has lit fire under market consolidations and deals.
The impact of the above and below-ground operations at Nutrien’s potash mines span multiple generations, fuelling the local economy and feeding the world. Celebrating 65 years in the Saskatchewan potash industry, Nutrien gave a special tour of its Allan mine east of Saskatoon.
Building started in 1964, and the first tonne of raw ore was pulled up to the surface in 1968. Over the last six decades, it’s seen giant leaps in technology which have further improved safety and productivity.
(Kitco News) – Even as the market signals overbought conditions and Asian demand dries up, the increasing chances of a direct military confrontation between Iran and Israel is driving safe-haven inflows into gold, according to Daniel Ghali, commodity analyst at TD Securities.
“Selling activity in Gold has been a bit limited, but the top traders still liquidated nearly 5t of notional Gold over the last week,” Ghali said in a research note. “This contrasts with Western investor sentiment. Our read of macro fund positioning remains at its highest levels since the Brexit referendum in July 2016; re-levering from risk parity and vol-target funds is supporting a reaccumulation from CTAs and prices continue to rally without challenge.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Saskatchewan Research Council is attempting to go head-to-head with China and prove the case for private investment in rare earth minerals by building North America’s first rare earths processing plant.
Rare earths are mined in vanishingly small quantities worldwide, but owing to their magnetic, fluorescent and conductive qualities, they have crucial uses in tech, robotics, low-carbon power and military applications.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/
Delegation to meet with federal leaders in Ottawa amid talks on proposed free trade deal
Indigenous women from Ecuador are in Ottawa this week raising concerns a proposed free trade agreement could enable human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies operating on their ancestral lands.
The delegation travelled thousands of kilometres from the rural reaches of the Ecuadorian Amazon to Canada’s capital city, bringing what they say is an urgent message of grave concern to the doorstep of Parliament Hill.
(Bloomberg) — A spat between two wealthy South Korean families over the future of an $11 billion zinc empire has descended into a bitter battle for control that could hamper efforts to diversify the global supply of energy-transition metals.
The power struggle over Korea Zinc Co. — founded by two friends who fled North Korea, and still held by the Choi and the Chang families — has captured headlines. Even in a country of large conglomerates, where inheritance fights are common, few involve private equity backers stepping into the ring to stand against wealthy establishment names.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Several big companies planning to launch or expand operations in city
Sudbury’s role as a vital mining hub was highlighted during a three-day conference last week, and the city was proud to be part of it. “The conversations we’ve been having this week at MINExpo confirm what we’ve always known – Greater Sudbury is a critical player in the global mining industry,” said Mayor Paul Lefebvre in a release. “Hearing first-hand from these industry leaders that we are vital to their expansion plans is a testament to the strength of our community and the sector.”
Lefebvre and city representatives met with a number of key industry leaders, including original equipment manufacturers, potential national and international investors, as well as local organizations, to explore collaboration and expansion opportunities.
(Kitco News) – After hitting record highs for the last six days, the gold market is taking a breather as it experiences some technical selling pressure heading into the weekend.
Solid buying momentum briefly pushed gold above $2,700 an ounce on Thursday. However, some analysts express growing concerns that the precious metal’s rally may be a bit overdone. December gold futures last traded at $2,669 an ounce, down nearly 1% on the day; however, prices are up nearly 1% from last Friday.
In 2017 Germany brought home nearly $31 billion of gold bars that had been stored in New York and Paris after World War II. The Financial Times gives a good account of how Germany amassed, lost and then got its gold back.
Perhaps no other country (except maybe Zimbabwe) understands the value of bullion as a store of value than Germany. Hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s had citizens piling near-worthless Deutsche marks into wheelbarrows just to buy bare necessities.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Company also asking N.W.T. gov’t to reduce burden of ‘onerous’ mining regulations
The company that owns the Ekati diamond mine in the N.W.T. has paused a plan to develop an underground project at one of the mine’s pits — a plan it previously said was critical to Ekati’s future.
Burgundy Diamond Mines notified the Wek’èezhìı Land and Water Board Tuesday that it would be withdrawing its application for the Sable Underground development. It previously said its entire business could hinge on that project, and without it, Burgundy “risks the financial viability and sustainability of the business.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Four senior employees of Barrick Gold Corp. have reportedly been arrested in Mali in the latest sign of rising tensions between the Toronto-based mining company and the authoritarian military regime that runs the West African country.
The four Malian employees of Barrick were arrested for alleged financial crimes, according to a report by Reuters, but no details have emerged.
In Ontario’s hinterlands, a battle is brewing between First Nations, prospectors and the provincial government over a multi-billion-dollar motherlode of metals
Coleen Moonias grew up in the 1980s in Lansdowne House, a tiny Ojibwe community in northwestern Ontario. In winter, when the temperature plunged to 50 below zero, the interior walls of her home glittered with frost. Her parents hung blankets as insulation.
In summer she foraged with her cousins for berries, fending off swarms of mosquitoes that rose from the surrounding peatlands. The nearest neighbouring community was nearly 100 kilometres away; Coleen’s entire world was this small place bound by blood and marriage. But Lansdowne House was sinking into Attawapiskat Lake, and so, when Coleen was eight years old, its residents moved to a new location nearby, which became Neskantaga First Nation, home to about 400 people.
Vancouver-based miner Lucara found a 2,492-carat diamond in August. Since then, the company’s CEO has urged patience in the hunt for a buyer as the sector looks to dig itself out of a price slump
The morning of Aug. 19 started off much like any other at Lucara Diamond Corp.’s Karowe mine in Botswana, a roughly 270-metre deep open pit on the edge of the Kalahari desert that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But on that day, a 2,492-carat diamond — believed to be the second largest ever held by a human — completed a journey from hundreds of kilometres inside the Earth’s mantle up to the planet’s surface.
After billions of years of travel, its fate upon arrival fell into the hands of William Lamb, chief executive of Lucara, whose sector has been going through its own upheaval amid a collapse in the price of diamonds in recent years.
(Bloomberg) — Several terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remained closed Friday after a tractor-trailer overturned on a vital artery for cargo and a fire among its payload of lithium batteries burned for a second day.
“The batteries have been damaged, and are on fire and off-gassing, with reports of one battery exploding,” the LA Fire Department said in an alert about the incident that began Thursday.
