African Development Bank chief criticizes opaque loans tied to Africa’s natural resources – by Taiwo Adebayo (Associated Press – March 12, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The head of the African Development Bank is calling for an end to loans given in exchange for the continent’s rich supplies of oil or critical minerals used in smartphones and electric car batteries, deals that have helped China gain control over mineral mining in places like Congo and have left some African countries in financial crisis.

“They are just bad, first and foremost, because you can’t price the assets properly,” Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview with The Associated Press in Lagos, Nigeria, last week. “If you have minerals or oil under the ground, how do you come up with a price for a long-term contract? It’s a challenge.”

Read more

Fall in battery metal prices a concern for Canada and allies, says Jonathan Wilkinson – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – March 5, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Supply key to three battery plants to be built here in coming years

Slumping prices for the minerals needed in the energy transition away from fossil fuels is a concern for Canada and its allies, says Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, since it is preventing capital from moving into projects the country wants to develop.

“It is a concern for a number of countries like Canada that produce these minerals and hope to produce many more going forward,” he said. “It is something that Australia, Canada, the European Union and others are talking about.”

Read more

‘Vulnerabilities are obvious’ as U.S. moves to build critical mineral supply chain, undersecretary says – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 6, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

U.S., Canada partner to reduce dependence on China by supporting mining, processing and recycling projects

The United States has “no better partner than Canada” as it seeks to build out a global critical minerals supply chain, says undersecretary of economic growth Jose Fernandez.

“Our partnership with Canada in this space is frankly second to none,” he said after speaking at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto on March 4.

Read more

SRG Mining calls off financing deal with China-based buyer after Champagne intervenes – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

SRG Mining Inc. has called off its financing deal with a privately held Chinese company, after Canada’s Industry Minister publicly chastised the miner for trying to skirt a national security review related to the agreement.

Last summer, China-based Carbon One New Energy Group Co. Ltd., also known as C-One, proposed buying a 19.4-per-cent stake in SRG’s Lola graphite project in West Africa for $16.9-million. For the first few months after the deal was announced, Montreal-based SRG told its investors that the deal was subject to a national-security review by the Canadian federal government.

Read more

Canada concerned about critical metals market manipulation, minister says – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 2 (Reuters) – Canada is concerned about market manipulation and dumping in key metals used in electric vehicle batteries, a federal Canadian minister told Reuters, adding the country wants to explore a U.S.-mooted alternative pricing model.

Canada, along with Australia and the U.S., is looking to develop its critical mineral supply chain to break the monopoly of China which controls over 90% of key metals that are crucial for energy transition.

Read more

Closing Canada’s back door: Strategies to control our Arctic critical minerals – by Stephen Van Dine (MacDonald Laurier Institute – February 28, 2024)

Home

Stephen Van Dine writes that Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy not only fails to secure investment but also leaves Canada’s Arctic exposed to security risks.

Chinese balloons, ocean buoys, and ships of all shapes and sizes are navigating through our Arctic waters and over our lands. In response, the coast guards and militaries from both Canada and the United States are increasing their detection and response capability against China’s probes into North America. That response includes scrambling fighter jets to shoot down suspected Chinese spy balloons as was done in February 2023 over Yukon.

Today, there is another kind of Chinese incursion in the Canadian Arctic. This incursion is much less visible than balloons or buoys, and is something that the conventional military is ill-equipped to confront: the acquisition of junior mining companies.

Read more

Canada’s hope to be a global power in the energy transition needs a strategic push – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – February 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s hopes to be a global power in the low-carbon transition could be dashed unless it develops national strategy based on competitive strengths and aligns its diplomacy, trade and public policy, a new report warns.

The country takes its place in the geopolitical pecking order for granted after prospering for decades as a major oil and gas supplier, says the study by the Centre for Net-Zero Industrial Policy, released Tuesday. Without a new plan, Canada risks losing out as clean energy expands as a supply source and developers look for locations to invest capital, it says.

Read more

The ‘critical minerals’ bubble has seemingly burst. What does it mean for Australia’s geopolitical strategies? -by Lian Sinclair and Neil Coe (Australian Strategic Policy Institute – February 26, 2024)

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/

Early 2024 has not been kind to investors in critical minerals. Media outlets across Australia have run with headlines talking of ‘crash’, ‘crisis’ and ‘collapse’, with many blaming China and Indonesia for the slump— especially in nickel prices. This is in stark contrast to the extreme bearishness in 2022 and 2023.

Alarmingly, some players are using this ‘crisis’ to call for government bailouts and softer regulation. Others, including Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia Madeleine King, are pushing for global green mining standards and a premium price for nickel produced with higher environmental standards.

Read more

The world needs more critical minerals. Governments are not helping (The Economist – February 22, 2024)

https://www.economist.com/

Just obtaining a permit takes a remarkably long time

Mining companies have always mattered. Without the iron ore and copper they unearth, there would be no steel to build with and no wiring to carry electric power. Today miners have an extra responsibility.

If the world is to decarbonise, it will need 6.5bn tonnes of metals between now and 2050, according to the Energy Transitions Committee, a think-tank—and not just lithium, cobalt and nickel, the much-talked-about battery metals, but steel, copper and aluminium, too. Because that output is several times greater than today’s capacity, producing it will require miners to invest more and dig faster.

Read more

Critical minerals mining, conservation in Ontario’s Far North can go hand in hand: Mushkegowuk director – by Maija Hoggett (Northern Ontario Business/Timmins Today – February 22, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The feasibility study approved for the James Bay national marine conservation area

KASHECHEWAN — The proposed national marine conservation area (NMCA) continues to make a splash on the James Bay coast. The feasibility study for the NMCA was formally accepted Feb. 21, allowing the project to move on to the next steps, which include negotiating with Parks Canada.

“We’re going to continue doing engagement on the feasibility study … that we have done, make sure everybody understands that has any questions. If there’s any changes to be done, we will alter and do some editing,” said Lawrence Martin, Mushkegowuk Council’s lands and resources department director.

Read more

Iron ore boom of the 2000s repeating – this time with critical metals – by James Cooper (Northern Miner – February 22, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

A headline published in The Age back in July 2003 reads: “[Andrew] Forrest has a grand $1.2bn plan for tiny Perth mining company.” That company was called Allied Mining and Processing and you’ve probably never heard of it. But from small roots this tiny outfit grew into one of Australia’s largest listed companies with a market cap exceeding A$88 billion.

Twenty years ago, Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest renamed this micro-cap stock to Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG). The rest is history, but it was quite the story behind Twiggy’s road to immense wealth. Fortescue was perhaps the single biggest success story from the last mining boom. A stock that grew from a measly A2¢ per share back in 2003 to more than $10 a share just five years later.

Read more

Optimism for metals clashes with reality for juniors ahead of PDAC – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining.com – February 18, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Increasing funding for battery metal and uranium projects versus gold brings home the global energy transition but big financing deals for preproduction companies have almost disappeared, new figures show ahead of the country’s largest mining showcase.

The data, from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) which holds its 92nd annual convention Mar. 3-6 in Toronto, shows just how much junior miners are struggling, despite a growing international recognition of mining’s importance.

Read more

The Boom in Battery Metals for EVs Is Turning to Bust – by Rhiannon Hoyle (MSN.com/Wall Street Journal – February 19, 2024)

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

When the world’s most valuable lithium company last year announced plans for a $1.3 billion plant in South Carolina, local officials hailed it as transformative for the Palmetto State.

The high-tech project from Charlotte, N.C.-based Albemarle was designed to process different sources of lithium, including from recycled batteries, and serve as a supplier of the critical mineral for South Carolina’s burgeoning electric-vehicle industry.

Read more

Mines Minister calls for economic support for critical minerals – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – February 17, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

George Pirie said investment and support of exploration and development of critical minerals mining is essential for the future economy of Northern Ontario

When it comes to critical minerals for the battery electric vehicle industry, Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie is telling people to stay away from Chinese-financed nickel, to stay away from cobalt from the Congo and to buy Canadian products. Pirie said he is taking that same message to Washington, D.C. when he visits the U.S. in April.

He was in Sudbury on Thursday at the Workplace Safety North forum on the safety of battery electric vehicles in mining. Pirie spoke at Cambrian College on the importance of the supply chain of Canadian minerals for the manufacture of batteries.

Read more

Why the world’s mining companies are so stingy (The Economist – February 18, 2024)

https://www.economist.com/

The energy transition requires vast quantities of metals. But miners are reluctant to invest

Mining companies have spent much of the past decade in investors’ bad books. Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s the industry, betting that the surge in commodity prices brought on by China’s economic rise would persist, splurged on investments and racked up hefty debts in the process.

At the height of the frenzy in 2013 the combined capital expenditure of the world’s 40 largest mining firms by market value reached $130bn, according to pwc, an advisory firm, nearly four-fifths of their earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda). That spending spree left mining bosses red-faced as economic growth in China slowed, causing commodity prices—and the industry’s profits—to plummet.

Read more