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NEWS RELEASE: Wyloo Proposes Offer to Participate in Noront’s Future Under New Leadership, While Offering Attractive Cash Alternative (Wyloo Metals – August 30, 2021)

PERTH, Australia, Aug. 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

  • Wyloo Metals’ proposal will provide each Noront shareholder with the option of either accepting a superior price for their shares or participating in Noront’s growth potential by remaining as a shareholder
  • Noront shareholders have a unique opportunity to participate in Canada’s next great mineral hub led by Dr. Andrew Forrest AO, the Founder and Chairman of Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG), who intends to replicate his success at Fortescue with Noront’s Ring of Fire assets
  • Consideration of Cdn$0.70 in cash per share represents a 192% premium to Noront’s unaffected closing price on May 21, 2021 and a 27% premium to BHP’s Cdn$0.55 per share take-over bid price1

Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd (“Wyloo Metals”) has today submitted a proposal (the “Acquisition Proposal”) to the Board of Noront Resources Ltd. (TSXV:NOT) (“Noront” or the “Company”) as part of a comprehensive strategy to rebuild the Company and unlock the future of the Ring of Fire. Under its Acquisition Proposal, Wyloo Metals will provide each Noront shareholder with the option of either participating in Noront’s growth potential by remaining as a holder under a new and proven leadership team, or accepting a superior price for some or all of their shares.

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BHP’s Noront bid hits impasse as Wyloo won’t budge – by Staff (Mining.com – August 19, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Wyloo Metals, the top shareholder of Noront Resources (TSXV: NOT), said on Thursday that it does not intend to support or tender the offer made by BHP to acquire Noront, and is considering making a “superior” offer to acquire the remaining stake in the Canadian nickel miner.

Noront is owner of the early-stage Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper deposit in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire district. It has been billed by Wyloo as the largest high-grade nickel discovery in Canada since the Voisey’s Bay nickel find in Newfoundland and Labrador, with an initial mine life of 11 years.

In late July, BHP announced its offer to buy the Noront at a price of C$0.55 per share for a total value of C$325 million, which represented a premium of 129% based on the stock’s closing price on the day before Wyloo’s proposal two months earlier.

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NEWS RELEASE: Wyloo Metals does not support BHP’s offer to acquire Noront Resources (August 19, 2021)

PERTH, Australia, Aug. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd (“Wyloo Metals”) provides the following update regarding its intentions in relation to the offer by BHP Western Mining Resources International Pty Ltd (“BHP”) to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Noront Resources Ltd (TSXV:NOT) (“Noront”).

Response to BHP’s offer

Noront’s Ring of Fire land package hosts some of the most prospective mineral deposits in the world. These deposits have the potential to become Canada’s next great mineral district, supporting the production of future-facing commodities for multiple generations. Wyloo Metals continues to firmly believe in the immense potential of the Ring of Fire and therefore does not intend to support or tender its Noront shares to BHP’s offer.

Wyloo Metals was disappointed that the Noront Board did not seek to meaningfully engage or negotiate with it prior to accepting the BHP offer. Given Wyloo Metals’ cornerstone interest of approximately 37.5% (partially diluted) of Noront, the minimum mandatory tender condition for BHP’s bid is unlikely to be satisfied without Wyloo Metals’ support and a second step acquisition transaction is impossible.

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Vale unlocks the next phase of Voisey’s Bay – by David Keating (Canadian Mining Journal – August 16, 2021)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The Labrador Aboriginal Training Partnership (LATP), an agreement between
Vale and the Labrador Inuit and Innu of Nunatsiavut, Nunatukavut and Innu
Nation has been instrumental for recruiting and training Aboriginal workers
from the region. Employment numbers from these Aboriginal groups at Voisey’s
Bay is touted as being 50% of the overall workforce.

One of the largest nickel deposits in the world has been given a new lease on life. Vale’s Voisey’s Bay property in northern Labrador, operating as an open pit mine since 2005, was nearing the end of its production life.

Instead, innovations in partnerships and technology will allow Vale to go underground and develop two new orebodies that will extend the life of Voisey’s Bay to 2034.

First ore production on the new underground phase of Vale’s Voisey’s Bay project was announced on June 11, with full production capacity slated to be reached by August.

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EXCLUSIVE Peru’s finance chief says mining taxes can rise without affecting competitiveness – by Marco Aquino and Marcelo Rochabrun (Reuters – August 9, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Peru’s finance minister, Pedro Francke, told Reuters on Monday that the new leftist government can increase mining taxes to fund public spending without affecting private-sector competitiveness, all while reducing the fiscal deficit.

Peru, the world’s No. 2 copper producer, is highly dependent on mining taxes and new President Pedro Castillo has promised to deliver more social programs to lift the country’s poor.

The election of Castillo, a member of a Marxist-Leninist party, as president in June has spooked investors, with Peru’s Sol currency falling to a fresh record low against the dollar on Monday.

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Chilean lawmakers postpone vote on controversial mining royalty bill – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 4, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Chile’s senate has postponed for almost three weeks a vote on an opposition-sponsored bill that could hike taxes on miners by up to 75% depending on the price of copper, the country’s main export.

The bill, first introduced in 2018, calls for a 3% royalty on sales of over 12,000 tonnes of copper productions a year and 50,000t/y of lithium.

Half the funds obtained from the royalty would go into a convergence fund to finance regional and communal development projects. The other half would directly finance projects to mitigate, compensate or repair environmental impacts from mining activity in communities near mining projects.

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Copper Boom Has a Top Zinc Miner Scouring for Red-Metal Assets – by Mariana Durao (Bloomberg News – August 2, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim is on the prowl for copper assets as demand for the metal used in wiring is set to take off in the clean energy transition.

The group’s Nexa Resources SA unit — the world’s fourth-largest zinc producer — wants to increase exposure to copper and is evaluating expansions of its existing mines, as well as potential new projects and acquisitions, Chief Financial Officer Rodrigo Menck said.

“We have a primary interest in copper, a metal most pursued by investors in the wake of electrification,” he said in an interview.

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Mining the Northwest: Generation Mining plots the path forward in Marathon – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 3, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto mine developer looks to raise $665M to build North Shore open-pit palladium, copper mine

The wheels are beginning to turn in planning the development of an open-pit palladium and copper mine outside the town of Marathon.

Toronto’s Generation Mining had been holding off revealing its plans until its joint venture partner, South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater, decided not to buy back into the mining project it had optioned to Gen Mining two summers ago.

Since appearing on the North Shore of Lake Superior in 2019, Generation has been on an aggressive exploration and development track at Marathon. And it appears nothing has changed based on their upcoming plans over the next few months, as outlined in a web call that company management delivered to investors on July 27. Generation now holds an 81 per cent controlling interest in the project.

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Will This Court Case End the Mining Industry’s 150-Year Dominance of the West? – by Elizabeth Royte (Mother Jones – August 2, 2021)

https://www.motherjones.com/

One legal loophole might change everything.

Early one May morning, I escaped Tucson’s unrelenting grid and drove south through Pima County on Arizona’s state Route 83, into the heart of the Madrean Sky Islands, an almost mythical landscape of shadowy, isolated peaks where several biological zones overlap.

The blue-gray Whetstone Mountains marked the distant eastern horizon, the Patagonias loomed to the south, and to the immediate west rose the camelback ridgeline of the Santa Ritas. There, oaks and junipers stippled upper elevations, and rolling swells of grass blanketed low slopes.

A haven for wildlife and a balm for those seeking respite in nature, this region contains some of the rarest intact ecosystems and the highest-quality streams among the deserts of the Southwest, providing habitat for ocelots, jaguars, and a dozen other endangered species.

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Copper price: After China ban, Australia had no problem finding new concentrate buyers – by Frik Els (Mining.com – July 29, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Copper was an early victim of the increasingly fraught relations between Canberra and Beijing and Chinese imports of concentrate have fallen off a cliff since November last year under a ban that was never made official.

Australia is the fourth-largest producer of copper concentrates globally. The country produced 3.5 million tonnes last year, with just under half of that exported.

Unlike the iron ore market, where the countries’ steel mills and iron ore miners are joined at the hip, Australian concentrate only made up some 5% of Chinese imports. China was Australia’s no. 1 customer, however, and in the past sucked in more than half the country’s exports.

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Mining Boss Sees Fervor Calming With Peru Leftist to Take Office – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Peru’s mining industry is hopeful of avoiding the kind of drastic measures that would stifle investment and future production when Pedro Castillo takes office in the world’s No. 2 copper producer.

While the president-elect may have spoken of taking some extreme measures during the campaign, he may be more measured once in office, according to Victor Gobitz, president of Peru’s Institute of Mining Engineers.

During a tense and polarizing election process, the rural union activist from a Marxist party vowed to nationalize energy assets, block certain projects and take a bigger share of the mineral windfall to fight poverty.

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Copper mining is Opec on crack, so why is the price falling? – by Frik Els (Mining.com – July 13, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Much like the reference in this piece’s headline, it’s a cliché to call a country the Saudia Arabia of something.

The top search suggestion at the moment is the Saudi Arabia of wind. That’s Boris Johnson’s dream for the UK and from a leader with an affinity for hot air, perhaps not unexpected.

The Saudi Arabia of lithium query takes you to a story about Chile, which is wrong. Neither is it Afghanistan as this article in the NYT would have it. It’s Nevada; Elon Musk confirmed it last year.

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Doubting the commodity supercycle? It’s now a cheaper bet – by David Berman (Globe and Mail – July 14, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Commodity prices have been struggling in recent weeks, pausing this year’s remarkable run on materials stocks and raising the question of whether the opportunity for investors has ended.

But some observers remain convinced that a commodities “supercycle” – an extended period of strong demand for raw materials – is continuing, offering a buying opportunity for anyone who missed the first stage of the rally.

“Although most of the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly increasing vaccination rates combined with revved-up economic stimulus has significantly improved the outlook (and sentiment) for commodities,” Orest Wowkodaw, an analyst at Bank of Nova Scotia, said in a report this week.

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Fund managers give copper a wide berth as China cools – by Andy Home (Kitco News – July 13, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) – Fund managers have been reducing their exposure to copper as the market heads into what is normally a seasonally weak spot for demand.

Supercycle bulls will argue that this is just a temporary soft spot before green infrastructure stimulus starts building momentum in Europe and the United States.

Supercycle sceptics counter that copper and other industrial metals haven’t yet escaped the old China cycle, which is currently cooling fast.

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EXCLUSIVE Peru’s Castillo expects mining firms to accept ‘prudent’ tax changes, adviser says – by Marco Aquino (Reuters – July 6, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, July 6 (Reuters) – Peru’s socialist president-in-waiting expects mining firms enjoying high metals prices to be won over to “prudent” plans to hike taxes on mineral resources, a top adviser told Reuters on Tuesday.

In a sign that the gap between the business sector in the world’s no. 2 copper producer and the incoming leftist government is closing, Pedro Francke, Castillo’s economic adviser, said he expected firms would not oppose a planned review of tax rules after dozens of meetings with businesses.

Castillo is set to be confirmed president after a review of ballots from the June 6 vote. The political novice and former teacher has rattled Peru’s elite with plans to redraft the constitution and sharply hike taxes on miners he once said had “plundered” the country’s wealth.

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