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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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‘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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Glencore overhauls embattled Canadian smelters as margins plunge – by Julian Luk and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – March 14, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Glencore Plc is doubling down on a cost-cutting drive at its Canadian copper and zinc plants following job cuts last year, in a further overhaul of its global smelting business following a collapse in processing margins.

The company’s copper plants in Quebec — as well as several recycling sites in the US — will be absorbed into the miner’s global zinc smelting division, with the aim of increasing business synergies and operational efficiency, according to internal memos seen by Bloomberg.

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Tariffs, uncertainty, driving nations to tighten grip on critical minerals – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 14, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Tariffs and markets swings are pushing developing countries rich in critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, gold, and lithium, to tighten their grip on their resources more than ever before, a new analysis from risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft shows.

This trend, which has accelerated over the past five years, poses major challenges for mining companies and coincides with intensifying geopolitical competition for raw materials essential to global industries.

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Forget about rare earth minerals. We need more copper – by Scott Neuman (National Public Radio.org – March 16, 2025)

https://www.npr.org/

In recent weeks, you’ve likely heard a lot about rare-earth substances, thanks to President Trump’s stalled efforts to secure a minerals deal with Ukraine and his talk of annexing Greenland. These vital substances fuel the growing renewables and electric-vehicle industries. However, many experts warn that the shortage of another crucial metal, used in electronics, wiring and even plumbing could be just as concerning.

Copper may be even more crucial to the nation’s shift toward a greener, more efficient economy than rare elements like neodymium or praseodymium. While copper has been mined for thousands of years, the demand for it has surged in the past two decades, driving its price up nearly 75% since 2020.

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With key permits in hand, Gen Mining ‘closer than ever’ to Marathon construction decision -by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 13, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

One provincial permit to go before north shore copper-palladium mine developer can move on $1-billion pit project

Generation Mining is itching closer toward making a final construction decision on its Marathon copper-palladium mine project near the north shore of Lake Superior.

The Toronto mine developer said March 11 it’s finally pocketed three important provincial permits from the natural resources ministry that are key to moving ahead with its proposed open-pit mine, valued at $1.16 billion.

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Dig, baby, dig: the global resources groups betting on a Trump mining revival – by Leslie Hook (Financial Times – March 12, 2025)

https://www.ft.com/

It takes 29 years to get approval for a new mine in the US but the industry is hoping that will change

Deep below the rolling hills near Superior in Arizona, a giant copper deposit lies more than a mile underground. It could be one of the first major mining projects to get the go-ahead as the Trump administration seeks to boost US domestic mineral output.

Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has focused on securing access to critical minerals around the world — from Greenland to Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Panama’s US$10 billion copper mine faces tough road to restart – by Michael McDonald (Bloomberg News – March 03, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino flew over the nation’s flagship copper mine this week, getting a good look at the idled project — and raising investor hopes for a restart of the US$10 billion operation.

It was a “truly impressive” sight, Mulino told reporters in Panama City on Thursday as he vowed to explore “novel ideas” for the mine ordered shut in late-2023 after an eruption of environmental protests and political turmoil.

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Trump makes US copper mining a focus of his domestic minerals policy – by Mead Gruver (Associated Press/MSN.com – March 1, 2025)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking a step toward granting the U.S. mining industry’s biggest wishes by singling out one metal as a focus of his domestic minerals policy: copper.

From talk of acquiring Greenland and its vast mineral wealth to prodding Ukraine for minerals in exchange for help fending off Russia’s invasion, Trump has made the raw materials of modern life a pillar of his foreign policy.

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Anglo American and Codelco strike $5B copper deal – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 20, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON: AAL) and Chile’s state-owned Codelco have signed an agreement to jointly develop their neighbouring Los Bronces and Andina operations, a move that will see the partners produce 2.7 million tonnes of additional copper over 21 years from 2030.

The joint mine plan is projected to generate a net present value pre-tax boost of at least $5 billion, which will be shared equally between the two companies. Despite the collaboration, both Anglo American and Codelco will retain full ownership rights over their respective assets, including mining concessions, plants, and ancillary operations, and will continue to extract resources separately.

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Teck signals it’s open to deal with Glencore around combining QB2 and Collahuasi copper mines – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 21, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. chief executive Jonathan Price indicated he is open to a tie-up with former foe Glencore PLC that would combine its giant QB2 copper mine in Chile with Glencore’s neighbouring Collahuasi operation.

QB2 is the mine that underpinned Teck’s revamp to become a fully focused critical-minerals company after it sold its legacy coal business to Glencore. Glencore co-owns another giant copper mine near QB2 called Collahuasi. Billions in cost savings are potentially on the table if QB2 and Collahuasi can be brought under the same ownership and operated as one gigantic facility.

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China slows rather than halts copper smelting’s breakneck growth (Bloomberg News – February 16, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Chinese government is getting serious about constraining the blind expansion of copper smelters, although its new policy is likely to pause rather than stop development. Eleven ministries signed an order last week to limit capacity in the world’s biggest copper industry, by tying expansions to whether companies also control enough ore supply to feed their smelters.

As China imports most of its feedstock, and ore has gotten scarcer anyway, it’s a condition that’s unlikely to be met by the vast majority of firms. But there could be wiggle room in how the policy is implemented.

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Column: Tariff threat opens up transatlantic rift in copper pricing – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 12, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

US President Donald Trump hasn’t yet imposed import tariffs on copper but the market is already pricing in the likelihood that the red metal will be next on the list after aluminum and steel.

The arbitrage between the CME and the London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts has blown wider in recent days, with the CME premium exceeding $1,000 per metric ton earlier this week. Given that LME three-month copper is currently trading around $9,400 per ton, the transatlantic gap implies the market is expecting a 10% tariff at the very least.

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Proposed bill would bar state permitting of copper-nickel mines near Boundary Waters – by Jimmy Lovrien (Duluth News Tribune – February 13, 2025)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Past federal protections against mining in the BWCAW watershed face challenges.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota legislators have introduced a bill to bar copper-nickel mines from developing within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The bill seeks to ban mining on state-owned land within the Rainy River Watershed and bar the state from permitting any mining or mineral exploration in that watershed.

Mining is banned in the BWCAW, but environmentalists fear, and a federal government study released under President Joe Biden said, that tainted runoff from mining activities outside the wilderness’ boundaries but within the same watershed could harm the downstream wilderness area.

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Trump’s order to end minting of pennies will save taxpayers millions without much impact on Arizona copper mines – by Matthew DeWees (Cronkite News/AZPM.org – February 13, 2025)

https://news.azpm.org/

The cost of producing a penny has far exceeded the value of each coin for the past 19 years.

Most copper mined in the U.S. comes from Arizona. But President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that he will halt production of pennies won’t make a dent in the state’s mining industry. The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year. But since 1982, nearly all of the metal used has been zinc.

So the copper industry can shrug off Trump’s move, which economists have long called a no-brainer because each penny costs more to make than it’s worth – 3.69 cents as of last year – and most end up in jars, piggy banks, and sofa cushions.

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