Twitter

Canadian Media Resource Articles

Alberta municipality appeals regulator’s decision to accept coal exploration – by Bob Weber (CBC Calagary/Canadian Press -June 3, 2024)

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

The project has previously been denied by federal and provincial environmental reviews

An Alberta ranching community is fighting a planned hearing on proposed coal exploration in the Rocky Mountains, saying the province’s arm’s-length energy regulator shouldn’t have heeded a letter from its energy minister suggesting an application from Northback Holdings be accepted.

The information is contained in documents released last week by the Alberta Energy Regulator. They outline the Municipal District of Ranchland’s request to appeal the regulator’s ruling that Northback’s plans for Grassy Mountain in southwest Alberta are exempt from an order blocking such development.

Read more

Editorial: Mining EV halo dims – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – May 31, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Mining’s association with planet-saving EVs was supposed to make mining, if not cool, at least more acceptable. Maybe even virtuous.

But EVs have come under attack from both the political left and right — showing that mining can’t count on a halo effect from EVs to rehabilitate its image.

Read more

NexGen CEO optimistic about future of Rook I uranium project as ‘unprecedented’ era dawns – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – May 29, 2024)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Northern Saskatchewan uranium mine is currently the largest development stage project in Canada

The chief executive of a company looking to build a large uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan says it’s getting closer to final approval for the project.

Leigh Curyer, who founded NexGen Energy Ltd. in 2011, said the company has been given provincial approval for its Rook I project and has also reached agreements with local governments around the site. He said environmental approval from the federal government is still pending, though that process is starting to wrap up.

Read more

OPINION: BHP’s failed pursuit of Anglo American does not mean mining megadeals are dead – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 1, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BHP Group’s botched bid for Anglo American brings the curtain down on the greatest takeover attempt in global mining in more than a decade. The megamerger game will not end here. BHP’s lunge for its smaller rival highlighted a hard truth: Copper is in short supply and any big mining company without it will pay the price as economies strive for low-carbon futures.

The desire to own Anglo’s copper assets, including its 44-per-cent stake in Chile’s Collahuasi mine, one of the world’s biggest copper reserves, propelled BHP’s pursuit of Anglo. Copper is the metal considered most critical to the energy revolution.

Read more

Mining skills shortage looms as Ontario gears up for EV boom – by Darius Snieckus (National Observer – June 4, 2024)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Ontario’s mining industry risks a shortfall of over 3,500 skilled green-collar workers by 2040, unless it jump-starts education and training for the new generation of technicians needed as Canada’s critical minerals-hungry electric vehicle (EV) sector gears up this decade, according to a new strategy report unveiled by the government.

The province last week launched its Critical Minerals Talent Strategy, a multi-department initiative developed by the government’s Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) to head off this employment bottleneck as mining deepens its focus on extracting the cobalt, lithium, nickel and other materials key to manufacturing EV batteries.

Read more

Canada now ‘a little bit of a laughingstock in NATO’ – by Donna Kennedy-Glans (National Post – June 2, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Canadian business titan Larry Stevenson is a former soldier who knows what’s wrong with the Canadian Armed Forces. It’s not the personnel

“Canada, you are freeloading!” That’s how businessman and former Canadian soldier Lawrence (Larry) Stevenson interprets last week’s letter from 23 U.S. Democratic and Republican senators to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The American lawmakers urged Canada to uphold its NATO commitments, and speed up efforts to increase defence spending to two per cent of GDP.

A NATO summit is planned for July in Washington. It’s not business-as-usual for American senators to publicly deliver such a blunt message to a NATO ally and neighbour in advance of a summit; I’m more than a little curious to understand its timing and meaning.

Read more

OPINION: Honouring the nation born in the fires of Juno Beach – by Tim Cook (Globe and Mail – June 1, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

D-Day was the moment that Canada became a country that mattered. How can we do justice to that story 80 years later?

Tim Cook is chief historian at the Canadian War Museum and the author or editor of 18 books of military history.

Eighty years ago this month, an American, British and Canadian armed force set off from Britain to launch a fraught assault on Northwest Europe to liberate the oppressed people from their Nazi overlords. And the Allied generals were worried.

They had been sweating for months over multiple drafts of the operation, gathering military assets and formulating complex deceptions to trick Adolf Hitler’s forces about the location of the real attack. Even then, the generals felt that the amphibious landing force had only about a 50-per-cent chance of surviving the coming battle on the beaches at Normandy in France.

Read more

Anglo American refuses to extend takeover talks with BHP, signalling end of mining megamerger attempt – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 30, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BHP Group Ltd. BHP-N, the world’s biggest mining company, is seeing its megamerger proposal with Anglo American PLC fall apart, with the smaller company rejecting BHP’s call to extend the takeover talks.

Anglo’s rejection almost certainly kills BHP’s proposal to put the two companies together, which would have created the world’s biggest producer of copper, a metal considered critical to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Only a few days ago, it seemed the two sides were on the verge of an agreement.

Read more

Wyloo Canada to build Ring of Fire facility in Sudbury (updated) – by Staff (Sudbury Star – May 29, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Wyloo CEO Canada Kristan Straub says the facility would provide the missing piece in Canada’s aspirations to develop a domestic EV battery supply chain

Wyloo Canada announced this morning that it plans to build a downstream battery materials processing facility in Sudbury. It will cost up to $900 million to build and will create several hundred jobs, officials said at the EDome this morning.

It will cost up to $900 million to build and will create several hundred jobs, officials said at the EDome this morning. Wyloo said it has an agreement with the City of Greater Sudbury to secure land to build the battery materials processing facility. The new facility will fill a critical gap in Canada’s electric vehicle battery supply chain by establishing Canada’s first mine-to-precursor cathode active material (pCAM) integrated solution.

Read more

Glencore to consult investors on coal spinoff after Teck deal – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – May 29, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Glencore Plc will start consulting with shareholders on the future of its coal business as soon as its deal to buy Teck Resources Ltd.’s mines closes later this year. Crucially, Glencore said that should the majority of shareholders support keeping its coal mines, the company will not proceed with a vote.

Glencore’s coal business is one of its most profitable units, driving record returns in recent years, and the plan to exit the fossil fuel and list a new company in New York represented a major strategic pivot under current boss Gary Nagle.

Read more

BHP walks away from proposed $49bn takeover of Anglo American – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 29, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX: BHP) has withdrawn its proposal to buy Anglo American (LON: AAL) after the takeover target rejected early on Wednesday the world’s largest miner’s request to extend talks, and said that while it believes its bid was “compelling”, the company is committed to a “disciplined approach” to mergers and acquisitions.

“BHP will not be making a firm offer for Anglo American,” chief executive Mark Henry said in a statement published minutes before the 5 p.m. UK time deadline for the mining giant to make a formal bid. “While we believed that our proposal for Anglo American was a compelling opportunity to effectively grow the pie of value for both sets of shareholders, we were unable to reach agreement with Anglo American on our specific views in respect of South African regulatory risk and cost,” Henry noted.

Read more

Indonesia buying record amounts of Philippine nickel ore due to quota delays, sources say (Reuters – May 29, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Indonesia has bought record volumes of nickel ore from the Philippines since April as smelter demand increases, while delays by Jakarta in issuing mining quotas and heavy rains have hurt local supply, people familiar with the matter said.

Indonesia’s nickel ore imports from the country likely hit around 500,000 metric tons in April and will again in May, more than double March volumes, two local smelters and a trader told Reuters. Such monthly totals would also top imports from the Philippines for all of last year which came in at 374,454 tons.

Read more

Uranium is booming, and Canada must seize the bull by the horns – by David Morrison (Globe and Mail – May 29, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

David Morrison is the chief executive of Eight Capital, one of the largest independent investment banks in Canada.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to ban Russian uranium imports, and President Joe Biden signed off on it. The ban involves a phase-in period, until the end of 2027, to allow domestic production and supplies from allies to ramp up. Given that Russia supplied the U.S. with roughly a quarter of its uranium needs in 2022, this is no small task.

According to U.S. officials, Washington is counting on Canada to step up and fill the gap. We have just three years to prepare – less if the Russians retaliate by pre-emptively restricting their exports. Our usual glacial pace will not cut it.

Read more

America is determined to keep Chinese electric vehicles out. Should Canada follow suit? – by David Olive (Toronto Star – May 25, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Canada is determined to create a comprehensive EV supply chain whose viability could be diminished by Chinese EV imports, David Olive writes.

Canada’s place in a global electric vehicle (EV) industry that will be worth an estimated $12 trillion by 2030 is at risk of becoming a flashpoint in the U.S.-China trade war. U.S. President Joe Biden last week roughly quadrupled tariffs on imported Chinese EVs to 102.5 per cent.

That puts Canada in an awkward position. Canada can join Biden in defending a Fortress North America, imposing high tariffs that put otherwise low-priced Chinese EVs out of reach of Canadian buyers. Or it can potentially undermine a nascent Canadian EV ecosystem by not protecting it from a surge of cheap Chinese imports.

Read more

In uncertain times, gold jewellery offers financial security – by Yumna Iftikhar (Globe and Mail – May 29, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As a child, Adiba Ahmed didn’t understand why her mother loved gold jewellery. But when her family came under financial stress and her mother sold the gold to keep them afloat, Ms. Ahmed realized that gold jewellery could be a reliable emergency fund.

Gifting gold jewellery on special occasions is a prominent tradition in many South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, from where Ms. Ahmed’s family moved to Canada. Other countries where gold gifting is popular include Pakistan and India.

Read more