Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 53

Up to 4,000 Rwandan troops have entered combat in eastern Congo, UN report says – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As many as 4,000 Rwandan troops with high-tech weaponry have secretly crossed the border into eastern Congo to fight battles that have fuelled a vast humanitarian catastrophe across the region, a new United Nations report says.

The fighting, causing heavy casualties with indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, has forced at least a million people to flee their homes in the past nine months, many of them now surviving in one of the more than 100 overcrowded camps for displaced people around the besieged city of Goma, near the border with Rwanda, the report says.

Hedge Funds’ Bullish Copper Bets Run Into China’s Slowdown (Bloomberg News – June 23, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — As copper surged to record highs last month, several senior Chinese traders started trying to contact western hedge fund managers whose names they’d only read in the press. For years, the veteran traders’ privileged insight into their own economy had given them an edge in the copper market, where China accounts for more than half of global demand.

But now they were bewildered. Everything in China pointed to a market that should be slumping, and yet prices were soaring on a wave of speculative money. What were they missing?

Gold and silver prices struggling to find any kind of momentum – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – June 25, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Gold and silver prices continue to churn in the middle of their respective ranges with little momentum on either side of the trade.

Analysts have said that they expect gold and silver to remain range-bound as traders will be hesitant to take any significant positions ahead of Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index.

‘Heap leach failure’ leads to slide at Yukon’s Eagle gold mine, no reported injuries (CBC News North – June 24, 2024)

June 25, 2024

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

Operations halted at Victoria Gold’s Eagle gold mine

A slide after the failure of a heap leach pad at Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine has halted operations at the site in central Yukon.

In a news release on Monday, Victoria Gold confirmed that operations have been temporarily suspended while the situation is assessed. “At this early stage, it can be confirmed that there has been some damage to infrastructure and a portion of the failure has left containment,” the release said.

Pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury wants Canada to ban nickel sales to Israel – by Staff (Sudbury Star – June 22, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Petition also targets those who sell arms to Israel; Israel’s supporters say it will do nothing to bring peace to the region

A pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury wants the federal government to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel and the arms manufacturers supplying weapons to Israel.

The No Nickel For Genocide Working Group of Palestine Solidarity (Sudbury) has also launched a petition campaign to back its demands. Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus launched the petition on the House of Commons website and in its first week, obtained more than 200 signatures, the group said in a release.

Cheap Chinese EVs come at a high cost – by Flavio Volpe (Financial Post – June 21, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://financialpost.com/

Opinion: Ottawa has yet to respond to the threat posed by Beijing and the clock is ticking

Ask yourself this: “Why are they so cheap? Does it make sense?” That is what I have said to everyone who has asked me about Chinese electric cars lately and the questions usually stump my audience. A lot of ink has been spilled over the promise of good quality, cheap Chinese cars, with most of the opinions being of the “bring ’em on” variety.

At a time when the cost of money is still high and inflationary pressures are just coming off a generational peak, every penny counts. The idea that you could get a car like the electric BYD Seagull for less than the cost of a Honda Civic seems compelling on the surface.

Australia’s Paladin Energy to buy Canada’s Fission Uranium for $1.14-billion – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2024)

June 25, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Australia’s Paladin Energy Ltd. has reached an agreement to buy Canadian mining development company Fission Uranium Corp. in a friendly transaction worth $1.14-billion, as Fission lays down a big bet on a uranium project in Saskatchewan. Kelowna, B.C.-based Fission is developing the Patterson Lake South (PLS) project in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan, and hopes to be in production by the end of the decade.

Paladin is offering 0.1076 of its shares for each Fission unit, or $1.30 a share, a premium of just under 26 per cent compared to Friday’s closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Equinox welcomes First Nations, Ontario Premier for gold pour at new Greenstone mine – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – June 20, 2024)

June 21, 2024

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX; NYSE American: EQX hosted First Nation and Ontario government dignitaries at its Greenstone mine for a gold pour on June 18, 2024, at the mine site near Geraldton, Ont.

The Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario; the Hon. Greg Rickford, Minister of Northern Development and Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nation Economic Reconciliation; Yvette Metansinine, Chief of Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek; Sonny Gagnon, Chief of Aroland First Nation; Sheri Taylor, Chief of Ginoogaming First Nation; and Judy Desmoulin, Chief of Long Lake #58 First Nation, were in attendance.

The Dirty, Deadly Price We Pay for Clean Cars – by Janet Paskin, Yang Yang, Naomi Ng and Jessica Beck (Bloomberg News – June 17, 2024)

June 21, 2024

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Never miss an episode. Follow The Big Take Asia podcast today.

Indonesia’s nickel business is booming. The metal is a key component in electric car batteries, but its success has a dark side. The country’s nickel mines and processing plants have a history of fatal accidents, with workers being run over by forklifts and burnt to death in smelter fires.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host Janet Paskin speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Matt Campbell about his investigation into the mines. He found that nickel sourced from these plants are present in the supply chain that feeds virtually every major seller of EVs, and is an indispensable part of the car industry’s green revolution.

US lithium clay projects secure backing despite extraction hurdles – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – June 20, 2024)

June 21, 2024

Global mining news

The United States’ great hope for domestic lithium supply could lie in the massive-scale, long-life sediment-hosted deposits in its southwestern region. And even with tricky metallurgy to overcome and higher price tags than brine or hard rock deposits, experts say that with federal backing, these operations could become the continent’s energy transition backbone.

Most of the country’s sediment-hosted lithium projects are in Nevada. Projects like Lithium Americas’ (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC) Thacker Pass, Ioneer’s (NASDAQ: IONR; ASX: INR) Rhyolite Ridge, and Century Lithium’s (TSXV: LCE) Clayton Valley have big potential that’s drawing strategic investment.

Copper Frenzy Draws Mining Giants to Argentina After Milei’s Reforms – by Jonathan Gilbert and James Attwood (Bloomberg News – May 22, 2024)

June 21, 2024

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Global mining heavyweights including Lundin Mining Corp., Glencore Plc and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. are piling into Argentina as a new government intent on luring foreign investment propels the companies closer than ever to opening up vast copper deposits in the red-hued Andes.

It’s part of a colossal wave of spending needed worldwide to prevent a supply crunch for the metal, a critical component of the electrification push to slow climate change.

Federal gov’t, Saskatchewan swipe sale of N.W.T. rare earth metals from Chinese buyer – by Rose Danen (CBC News North – June 19, 2024)

June 20, 2024

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

Vital Metals sells stockpile to Saskatchewan Research Council for $3.3M

Vital Metals announced Monday that it’s selling its stockpiled rare earth material to the Saskatchewan Research Council for $3.3 million. This material comes from the North T deposit at the Nechalacho mine, 110 kilometres from Yellowknife.

Natural Resources Canada, along with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, directly facilitated this transaction, which has the effect of keeping rare earth materials out of Chinese hands.

Sean Boyd built Canada’s largest miner. Now he’s fighting for the nation’s Arctic sovereignty – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 20, 2024)

June 20, 2024

https://financialpost.com/

The longtime leader of Agnico Eagle is newly focused on his vision of how industry and government can partner to develop the North

Sean Boyd has spent the past four decades building Toronto-based Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. into Canada’s largest mining company and the world’s second-largest gold miner.

Now, having “retired” in December and transitioned to company chair from executive chair, he is making frequent visits to Ottawa to push the federal government to more aggressively assert sovereignty over the Canadian Arctic, where Agnico has built three mines (two are currently producing) and is planning a fourth project.

Study finds coal mine contaminants blown onto snowpack in Alberta, British Columbia – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press – June 19, 2024)

June 20, 2024

https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/

Study finds coal mine contaminants in snowpack

Cancer-causing chemicals are being blown downwind from coal mines in southern British Columbia in concentrations that rival those next to oilsand mines, newly published research has concluded.

“Our results reveal, for the first time, clear evidence that coal mining contaminants are spread far downwind from their sources,” says the paper, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

London bullion market drops bid to block U.K. trial over allegations against Barrick mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2024)

June 20, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

London’s bullion market association is abandoning a jurisdictional challenge to a lawsuit by Tanzanian claimants, setting the stage for a British trial into allegations that the association is wrongly giving human-rights clearance to gold products from Barrick Gold Corp.’s controversial North Mara mine.

The lawsuit was filed in London in 2022 by relatives of two Tanzanian men allegedly killed by security forces at the North Mara gold mine, but the jurisdictional argument had delayed the trial for nearly a year.