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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Vietnam should seize a ‘rare’ opportunity to take on China – by Tim Culpan (Japan Times/Bloomberg – February 6, 2024)

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/

Vietnam’s hopes of becoming a production hub to rival China are showing momentum. A big boost will come as the nation leans into its untapped reserves of rare earths, even as it struggles to find traction in new sectors such as electric vehicles.

Over the past decade, the country has built a beachhead in manufacturing, ranging from cars to electronics. Computers and accessories are now the largest export, surpassing textiles and footwear. The expansion of foreign assemblers like Foxconn Technology Group, GoerTek and Luxshare Precision Industry mean that Apple products like Macs and AirPods are made locally.

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Battleground Africa: In a world thirsting for its critical minerals, respect is the new currency – by Frank Giustra (Toronto Star – February 2, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Nations desperate for Africa’s minerals, writes Frank Giustra, should find a way to compete with China’s investments in the continent.

“The new scramble for resources on the continent offers an opportunity for Africa to reset its relations with more powerful external actors. Africa’s wealth of critical minerals will be essential to help the world achieve its energy transition. In return, African leaders should negotiate smart deals that ensure the continent draws just recompense for the minerals on its soil — and ensure those benefits are spread evenly to its citizens.”

Dr. Comfort Ero, president and CEO, the International Crisis Group

… The world is already facing an enormous deficit in minerals for our future needs, but with the transition to clean energy, the projected deficit will be almost impossible to fulfil.

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Focus: Western miners lag as oil powers enter race for Africa’s critical metals – by Felix Njini and Clara Denina (Reuters – February 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Risk aversion is likely to leave major Western miners lagging in a race to tap Africa’s reserves of critical raw materials that has gathered pace now Middle Eastern oil powers have begun to emulate China’s years of investment on the continent.

Attracting the capital needed to advance copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium projects in Africa will be high on the agenda when executives, bankers and government officials gather in Cape Town, South Africa, for the annual African Mining Indaba beginning on Monday.

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How a rare earth facility in Canada wants to clean up the dirty side of green energy – by John Lorinc (Corporate Knights – January 30, 2024)

https://www.corporateknights.com/

The plant in Saskatchewan won’t just showcase less environmentally damaging processes. It also wants to take a bite out of a supply chain dominated by China.

At some point this year, in an unprepossessing 120,000-square-foot box on the outskirts of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, technicians will flip the switch in a plant that promises to do something no one else is doing in North America at the moment: transform minerals containing “rare earth elements” (REE) into specialized metal alloys that can be used to make the kinds of “permanent magnets” found in smartphones, hard drives, wind turbines and electric vehicle motors.

The $70-million-plus project run by the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) – will be chockablock with cutting-edge mineral-processing technology, including systems that promise to recycle the water and chemicals used in the plant.

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‘The mining rush for green energy’: Why Ontario chiefs are asking for a moratorium on claims – by Matteo Cimellaro (National Observer – January 29, 2024)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Today, anybody can make a mining claim on the Ontario government’s website as long as they have a few minutes, a computer and $50. The mineral claims process happens in an electronic heartbeat, and claims are marked on a digitized map.

The result is a flood of claims on First Nations territories, huge administrative pileups and frustration among First Nations that say they are not being consulted and have no capacity to deal with the sheer volume of mineral claims.

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Blade runners: how LFP batteries brought EV metal markets back to earth – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 5, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

It’s January 2024, and unfortunately for said cobalt and nickel bulls the blow from the iron fist is even more severe than feared. And the runaway success has become a battery-powered juggernaut.

During that month nearly four years ago when Elon Musk first announced the move to LFP batteries, the cathode chemistry contributed less than 50 tonnes to overall battery metal demand, according to Adamas Intelligence, Toronto-based research consultants tracking demand for EV batteries by chemistry, cell supplier and capacity in over 110 countries.

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Kuya Silver taps into high-grade system in historic Cobalt mining camp – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

What the old silver miners left untouched, Toronto exploration outfit sees opportunity for new deposits

Toronto’s Kuya Silver is discovering new zones of silver veins in its re-exploration of the historic Cobalt mining camp.

High-grade silver is showing up in the assay results from a drilling program the company is running at its Silver Kings Project near the town of Cobalt. Kuya is drilling on the northern part of its 16,000-hectare property, just south of the town, where eight mines produced 60 million ounces of silver between 1905 and 1950 around Kerr Lake.

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China Cobalt Buyers Use Global Glut to Challenge Pricing – by Annie Lee, William Clowes and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – January 16, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — China’s battery industry has seized on a glut in the global cobalt market to push through a change in the way the commodity is priced.

A rapid expansion of cobalt mining in Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia has output racing ahead of demand, dragging down global prices. It’s also prompted a push by squeezed Chinese refineries to win changes in how cobalt is bought and sold.

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Chinese investment in Canada’s critical minerals sector ramps up as Zijin Mining aims to take 15% stake in Solaris Resources – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

China-based resource giants are once again making inroads into the Canadian critical minerals sector, despite a crackdown by Ottawa over national security concerns that had made it almost impossible for such transactions to occur.

Solaris Resources Inc. SLS-T on Thursday said that Zijin Mining Group of China plans to take a 15-per-cent stake worth $130-million in the Vancouver-based copper development company.

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New critical mineral mines in British Columbia could generate nearly C$600 billion, study says – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – January 8, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

In the province of British Columbia, 16 proposed critical mineral mines, worth C$36 billion in near-term investment, 300,000 person-years of employment and C$11 billion in tax revenues, are at a critical juncture, a new independent economic impact analysis conducted for the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) has found.

There are currently 10 metal mines, seven steelmaking coal mines and two smelters operating in BC, which is regarded as a key global mining jurisdiction. BC is Canada’s leading producer of copper and steelmaking coal, second largest producer of silver, and only producer of molybdenum, MABC said.

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Government funding expected soon to complete Temiskaming refinery build – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials ponders Quebec invite to build refinery in Becancour

Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming. The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.

Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.

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Agnico Eagle invests $23M for 12% of Canada Nickel – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – January 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) made a $23.1-million investment in the recent flow-through offering from Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; OTCQX: CNIKF). Agnico acquired 19.6 million units at a price of $1.18 per unit for a total consideration of slightly more than $23.1 million. This gives Agnico a non-diluted equity interest in Canada Nickel of 12% or 15.6% on a partially diluted basis.

Canada Nickel raised a total of $34.7 million. Each unit consists of one flow-through share and 0.35 of one flow-through share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share at a price of $1.77 any time prior to Dec. 29, 2026, or the expiry date.

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Two approaches we could take here at home to ease the world’s critical mineral shortages – by David Olive (Toronto Star – January 3, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Canada is the world leader in financing mineral exploration across the planet. It’s just that about 57 per cent of that money, or $10.5 billion in 2022, was invested abroad, David Olive writes.

It’s commonly assumed in Canada that we are laggards at critical mineral production. There are a couple of new approaches we could take in helping the world ease its critical mineral shortages.

They are a new continental “corridor” extending from Canada to Chile of critical mineral producers that share common values. And second, we need a new model of financing the junior mining companies that make up most of Canada’s mining sector, account for most mine discoveries — and are starved for capital. First, though, Canada is not, in fact, a laggard.

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Why Every Western Automaker Is Visiting This Remote Part of South Africa – by Alexandra Wexler (Wall Stret Journal/MSN.com – December 29, 2023)

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

MBOMBELA, South Africa—A half-century-old company on the outskirts of South Africa’s Kruger National Park has found itself in a fortuitous spot as Western automakers push to move their electric-vehicle supply chains away from China.

Manganese Metal Co., based in the sleepy town of Mbombela, is the largest of just a handful of refiners of battery-grade manganese located outside China. Used mostly for making steel, manganese is increasingly replacing more expensive and harder-to-source minerals such as cobalt and nickel in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars, smartphones and laptops.

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March: Updates on critical mining in northern Ontario – by By Norm Tollinsky (Canadian Mining Journal – December 21, 2023)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

When George Pirie, Ontario’s mines minister, closes his eyes and imagines what a resurgent northern Ontario mining industry will look like five years from now, he might see new nickel mines in Sudbury and Timmins, a battery industrial park in Cobalt, haul trucks transporting nickel concentrate on the recently completed road from the Ring of Fire, and multiple lithium mines and processing facilities in northwestern Ontario.

It is a good bet that much of the scenario will indeed materialize. The drills are confirming that the resources are there, the environmental assessments are progressing, and meetings with battery manufacturers and the automobile industry are resulting in offtake agreements.

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