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Canadian Media Resource Articles

Sudbury, Ont., mayor not fazed over what tariffs could mean for nickel mining – by Jonathan Migneault (CBC News Sudbury – March 21, 2025)

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

The U.S. only has one nickel mine and it would take years to start new ones

Sudbury’s mayor says he’s not worried that an ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States will hurt the city’s nickel exports to the south.

“I believe critical minerals, which obviously we are endowed with here in Greater Sudbury, play a role to maybe bridge that divide that we are currently living with the U.S. administration,” said Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre. “For them to realize the importance that they can’t source this in the U.S.”

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China flexes rare earth dominance with million-tonne discovery – by Staff (Mining.com – March 19, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

China solidified its global dominance in rare earth elements mining with a new discovery that its experts say is likely to be the largest middle and heavy rare earth deposit in the country. The discovery was first reported in the Chinese paper Workers’ Daily late January, then confirmed and published by the China Geological Survey (CGS) under the Ministry of Natural Resources.

According to the CGS, the deposit could host as much as 1.15 million tonnes of resources containing key rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which are being sought after globally. Once tapped, it would yield about 470,000 tonnes of these strategic minerals, it estimated.

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[Ring of Fire] For the love of peat — how Liberals let moss block development of the ‘oilsands of Ontario’ – by Jesse Kline (National Post – March 21, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

The Grits have mired the development of vast wealth in a bureaucratic nightmare. The Tories pledge to change that

A video posted by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday highlights one of Canada’s enduring problems: our chronic inability to get anything done and, by extension, our propensity to handicap our own economic prosperity.

In the video, and at a pre-campaign stop in Sudbury, Ont., Poilievre highlighted a story that should have sparked a modern-day gold rush. In 2007, prospectors found vast deposits of critical minerals — including chromite, which is used to produce stainless steel, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum — in a remote part of northern Ontario, about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, that came to be known as the “Ring of Fire.”

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Trump to expand critical mineral production using wartime powers – by Ari Natter and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – March 20, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

President Donald Trump is invoking emergency powers to boost the ability of the US to produce critical minerals — and potentially coal — as part of a broad effort to ramp up the development of domestic natural resources and make the country less reliant on foreign imports.

An executive order signed by the president Thursday taps the Defense Production Act as part of an effort to provide financing, loans and other investment support to domestically process critical minerals and rare earth elements, according to a White House official. The US International Development Finance Corporation, working with the Department of Defense, will provide financing for new mineral production projects.

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Poilievre criticized for pledging to fast-track Ring of Fire without Indigenous consultation – by Rajpreet Sahota, Faith Greco, Kate Rutherford (CBC News Canada – March 19, 2025)

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

Conservative leader’s ‘proposed shortcuts ignore our rights and our connection to the land’: Alvin Fiddler

Pierre Poilievre’s pledge on Wednesday that a Conservative government would fast-track development of the Ring of Fire has been criticized by Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s (NAN) grand chief, who accused the federal party leader of ignoring First Nations’ rights.

Alvin Fiddler was among those responding to Poilievre’s comments on the mineral-rich area of northwestern Ontario during his visit to Sudbury. NAN is a political organization representing 51 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 areas of northern Ontario.

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Deep-sea miners are set to dig for critical minerals, even if rules aren’t done – by Todd Woody (Bloomberg News – March 19, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/

As companies seek to extract critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies from the deep sea, a showdown is underway over when and whether to allow mining of untouched, biodiverse ecosystems.

For more than a decade, delegates from the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) have been negotiating regulations to allow deep-sea mining as required by a 1982 UN treaty. Those deliberations are continuing this week during a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, in advance of a July deadline to finish the job.

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It’s time for Canadians to challenge the American domination of the LNG space – by Susan McArthur(Financial Post – March 19, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Canada is now among the top 10 countries with natural gas reserves. It’s time to take advantage of that

Canadians are starting to understand the Americans ate our breakfast, lunch and dinner when it comes to selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the global market while simultaneously undermining our national security.

They are finally waking up to the importance of the urgent request by oil and gas CEOs to all federal party leaders calling for the removal of legislation and regulation impeding and capping the development of our resources.

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Pierre Poilievre blasted over pledge to fast-track Ring of Fire permits – by Alex Ballingall and Raisa Patel (Toronto Star – March 19, 2025)

https://www.thestar.com/

The grand chief of a group of northern Ontario First Nations is blasting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over his promise to fast-track approvals and pump money into the Ring of Fire mineral region.

OTTAWA — The grand chief of a group of northern Ontario First Nations is blasting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over his promise to fast-track approvals and pump money into the Ring of Fire mineral region.

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Gates-Backed Explorer Makes Play for Congo Lithium Deposit – by Michael J. Kavanagh and William Clowes (Financial Post/Bloomberg – March 21, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

KoBold Metals Co., backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has told the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo it wants to develop one of the world’s biggest hard rock lithium deposits.

(Bloomberg) — KoBold Metals Co., backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has told the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo it wants to develop one of the world’s biggest hard rock lithium deposits.

It’s the first major offer by a large US mining company to invest in the central African nation amid early-stage conversations about a potential minerals and security partnership between the two countries.

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Conservative leader vows action on Ring of Fire within six months – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontario – March 19, 2025)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/northern-ontario/

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced Wednesday that within six months of taking power, he would green-light all federal permits for the Ring of Fire and commit $1 billion to build new roads.

Poilievre, who is holding a rally in Greater Sudbury on Wednesday evening, said progress on the Ring of Fire is key to “unlocking billions of dollars in resources and taking back control of our economy from the Americans.” The long-delayed mineral project 500 kilometres east of Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario includes large deposits of high-grade chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum.

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New urgency over Arctic defence can’t come soon enough for major gold miner – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 18, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Northern development could ultimately unlock big growth for Agnico Eagle

Warming temperatures are opening the Northwest Passage as a shipping lane and raising so many concerns about who controls the Arctic that one of Mark Carney’s first trips as Canada’s new prime minister was to Iqaluit on Tuesday as part of an effort “to reassert Canada’s sovereignty in the North.”

It followed a visit over the weekend by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who also talked about shoring up Arctic sovereignty in the face of threats from United States President Donald Trump. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also visited last September to make his own remarks on the same subject.

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Federal Conservative leader stops in Sudbury with promises of ‘unlocking’ Ring of Fire – by Faith Greco and Kate Rutherford (CBC News Sudbury – March 19, 2025)

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

Pierre Poilievre vowed to approve all federal permits in Ring of Fire within 6 months

The federal Conservative leader is in Sudbury today making promises, if elected, to unlock access to critical minerals in the Ring of Fire and build a new road into the remote mining camp in northwestern Ontario.

“[The Ring of Fire] could make Canada very rich. It would be life changing for northern Ontario towns, galvanizing thousands of paycheques and modern infrastructure,” Pierre Poilievre said at a news conference Wednesday.

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‘At Sudbury, we are nowhere near having found it all’ – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Magna Mining’s critical mineral transformation in the Sudbury Basin to create new wealth, jobs

From American President Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland and perhaps Canada, and his recent confrontation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Premier Doug Ford’s determination to get Ring of Fire infrastructure built, the general public is now acutely aware of the strategic and geopolitical importance of critical minerals.

And yet, Canada’s largest critical mineral mining camp – the legendary Sudbury Basin, which has been in operation for slightly over 140 years and controlled by two of the world’s largest miners, Brazilian-based Vale and Swiss-owned Glencore – seems to have been largely ignored by the mainstream media.

Since both Vale and Glencore have historically controlled much of the land package in the region, few juniors have thrived.

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Build nickel sulfate processing capacity in Sudbury, mayor says – by Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury Star – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury and Canada’s supply of critical minerals could be our trump card in trade war with the Americans, Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre says

Sir Winston Churchill purportedly once quipped that one never wants to see “a good crisis go to waste.” Fortunately then for Ontario and Canada, we’ve got a whopper. Under President Trump, the United States is upending decades of partnership with Canada and many other allied nations.

American support for Ukraine is now apparently subject to the fledgling democracy providing $500 billion worth of rare earth as a “back payment” for U.S. military support.

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CMJ Feature: Can Idaho’s SPEED Act serve as a model for mine permitting reform? – by Joseph Quesnel (Canadian Mining Journal – March 17, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Canadian mining companies and most domestic mining associations seem to agree on one idea: The permitting and approvals process in Canada needs to be vastly improved so that mining projects come into production much quicker than they do now.

Canada’s focus on securing critical minerals to overcome the Chinese monopoly has led many politicians and policy makers to give mining approvals a second look. Critical minerals are low hanging fruit. The International Energy Agency says demand for copper, nickel and zinc will explode over the next 15 years.

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