Twitter

Junior Exploration Sector

China the Centre of the Lithium Universe – by Kirill Klip (Renewables International – December 7, 2016)

http://www.renewablesinternational.net/

Maybe you missed it, but China is now “The Center of the Lithium Universe”. China is already the world’s largest electric vehicle market, says Kirill Klip, President of International Lithium Corp.

The recent Volkswagen scandal has once again shed light on polluting vehicles and the health hazard they pose to the public and environment. In hopes of ending this tainted legacy governments have began implementing regulations to phase out emission causing vehicles. Respectively, all major automakers have followed suit and pledged to build dozens of electric vehicles in years to come.

BYD, the Chinese company backed by Warren Buffet, is the largest EV manufacturer in the world, thus the Chinese companies are producing the largest amount of lithium chemicals for the batteries required to make them. The market is booming, there are currently 25 companies making 51 models of electric cars in China. Over 500,000 EVs will be sold in China this year alone.

Read more

Wallbridge Mining ventures into the unexplored: Drilling commences on Sudbury joint venture (Northern Ontario Business – November 21, 2016)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The Wallbridge Mining Company is breaking unusually new ground in the Sudbury Basin. The Sudbury-based junior mining company started another round of drilling on their Parkin Properties, on the northeast edge of the basin, in October.

The site is practically virgin territory compared to nearby areas, according to Joshua Bailey, vice-president of exploration at the Wallbridge Mining Company.

“It hasn’t had as much exploration as elsewhere,” said Bailey, adding that “if this project has a fraction of what is elsewhere in the basin, it would be a success.” This isn’t the first drilling in the area for Wallbridge.

They completed promising drilling between 2008 and 2012 as part of a joint venture with Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats), after which they re-purchased Implat’s nearly 50 per cent interest in the properties.

Read more

‘No roads, no problem’: How blimps could help northern Quebec’s miners overcome their infrastructure woes – by Kristine Owram (Financial Post -November 21, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Who needs roads or railways when you have blimps? A small Montreal-based mining exploration company called Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. thinks it may have found a solution to the lack of transportation infrastructure in Canada’s North: a blimp-like hybrid airship made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that can land virtually anywhere for a fraction of the cost of a regular airplane.

Quest plans to use a fleet of seven Lockheed airships to transport supplies and personnel to its Strange Lake mine on the boundary between Quebec and Labrador, 1,100 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. Once the mine is up and running, it will also use the helium-filled airships to transport ore out of the mine as far as the town of Schefferville, Que., where it can be loaded onto railcars.

Residents of northern Quebec shouldn’t expect to see the hybrid airships, which resemble a giant piece of meringue, floating overhead anytime soon.

Read more

Nemaska Lithium’s Whabouchi project to ship lithium hydroxide in first quarter – by Lara Smith (InvestorIntel.com – November 8, 2016)

http://investorintel.com/

Nemaska Lithium Inc. (TSX: NMX | OTCQX: NMKEF) is a producer of the compound in Quebec, Canada, and is aiming to supply to the rapidly growing market. The company wholly owns the Whabouchi Mine project, a deposit believed to rank second in the world for size and lithium concentration. The company has developed a commercial process of producing lithium hydroxide (patent pending), which is the compound anticipated to lead demand in batteries.

The Whabouchi project is the flagship of this company, but not only for its size and quality of material. Officially authorised by the Quebec and Canadian Federal Governments in 2015, the project is being funded by over $69 million in investment raised in an offering in July 2016, from when the company began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The Company has previously ranked as “Top Company Overall” of the 2016 OTCQX® Best 50 and performed second best out of the mining sector on the 2016 TSX Venture 50®. Nemaska Lithium has further attracted a significant grant from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, receiving a second installment of $2.12 million in June.

Read more

Indigenous people find employment in Ontario’s Ring of Fire – by Jeff Walters (CBC News Thunder Bay – October 20, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Noront Resources has over half of its staff comprised of Indigenous employees

The one company in the Ring of Fire still doing active exploration said it has already made a positive impact on neighbouring Indigenous communities. Noront Resources has set a target of having over half of its staff comprised of Indigenous employees. So far, the company has met the target.

“Even at an early stage, where we are today in terms of exploration, we want the communities to realize some of those benefits through jobs, through training,” said Ryan Weston, the VP of Exploration with Noront Resources. “So that in a longer term scenario, they will ultimately be believers in the benefits, the positive benefits that a mine would create here in the Ring of Fire.”

Although the camp itself has few staff at the moment, half of the workforce is comprised of Indigenous workers. Kevin Jacob is a member of Webequie First Nation, the nearest community to the Ring of Fire’s Esker exploration camp.

Read more

[Ontario] Boost to mining at the first level – Editorial (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – October 17, 2016)

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

Mining is a very important industry in Northwestern Ontario, always has been. It employs many hundreds of people from Marathon to Red Lake, more in related industries. It is a business that creates wealth literally right out of the ground. That’s why it is important that government help make the sector sustainable.

Case in point, the announcement late last week by Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle of $1.2 million in funding to prop up the junior exploration assistance program. The fund helps these companies claim up to $100,000 on specific projects that seek new mining possibilities.

It’s part of a $5 million investment that the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund made to put together the second round of a junior exploration assistance program. “We’ve recognized that times are tough and commodity prices aren’t great,” said Gravelle.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Positive Signs Put Junior Miners in a Good Position for Recovery – PwC report

Read the full report, which is now available at: https://www.pwc.com/ca/en/mining/publications/223176_JuniorMineReport_final_web.pdf

TORONTO, OCTOBER 12, 2016 – Mining companies once again make up over 50 % of the total market capitalization on the TSX Venture Exchange, up from 36% on June 30, 2015, according to PwC Canada’s 2016 Junior Mine report, Signs of Life. For the past 12 month period between June 2015 to June 2016, cash flows from financing activities increased significantly and cash flows from debt and equity financing increased to 45 % and 48 % respectively.

According to the report, investors have seen a rise in the market capitalization of top junior mining companies on the TSX Venture Exchange by more than 100% compared to last year.

Read more

BHP Billiton and Newcrest Mining battle for SolGold stake – by James Wilson (Financial Times – October 10, 2016)

https://www.ft.com/

BHP Billiton has joined Newcrest Mining in trying to take a stake in a little-known copper and gold explorer in a sign of miners’ renewed appetite for low-cost entry into promising projects.

The battle between two of the world’s best-known miners for a stake in SolGold, whose prize asset is in Ecuador, shows how large companies are stepping up efforts to forge partnerships with smaller rivals to restock production pipelines.

So-called “junior” companies in mining have suffered a dearth of investment since the commodities cycle turned down from 2011, while larger companies have slashed budgets for capital spending and for exploration over the same period.

Read more

Avalon planning for Kenora lithium open-pit mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 3, 2016)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Avalon Advanced Minerals has development plans for a Kenora-area lithium mine

The economics look good so far for Avalon Advanced Materials to begin mapping out their plans for an open-pit lithium mine and processing plant near Kenora. Company president Don Bubar is said to be “delighted” with the positive results coming from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Separation Rapids lithium project.

Micon International’s report said the minerals in the ground and the rechargeable battery markets look favourable enough for the company is press ahead with a more detailed feasibility study for an open-pit capable of a producing 950,000 tonnes a year with an annual yield of 14,600 tonnes of lithium hydroxide for a 10-year mine life.

The purpose of the PEA is to evaluate the potential mineral recoveries of a lithium product that might be suitable for the rechargeable battery market. Micon reports the company has positive economics and a technically viable process for a battery-grade lithium hydroxide product.

Read more

RNC focuses on free cash generation – by Salma Tarikh (Northern Miner – September 21, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX; US-OTC: RNKLF) — formerly Royal Nickel Corp. — has gone from a single-asset firm to a gold, nickel and copper producer, by taking advantage of the market downturn earlier this year to buy two producing assets.

RNC picked up a 100% interest in the Beta Hunt gold-nickel mine in Western Australia’s Kambalda district by acquiring private firm Salt Lake Mining in two transactions, completed in March and May.

“It’s a 40-year-old nickel mine, but a brand-new gold mine. There are few opportunities that you’d come across, where the first public news release on an asset is that it’s in production,” Mark Selby, RNC’s president and CEO, said in a webcast from the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Read more

Tsilhqot’in First Nation says no to mineral exploration by Amarc Resources on its Ike prospect – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – September 20, 2016)

http://vancouversun.com/

Above the tree line on a mountain in the Southern Interior is a spot most people have never heard of, but is increasingly the centre of attention for a mining exploration company and communities of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation.

It is a mineral claim being prospected by the Vancouver-headquartered company Amarc Resources Ltd. And the property is already spoken of in glowing terms for resembling the mineralization that formed the basis of Teck Resources Ltd.’s mighty Highland Valley copper mine. However, the property known as Ike is also in the last place that the Tsilhqot’in communities want a mine.

The location is above the watersheds of the Taseko and Chilcotin rivers and not that distant from Fish Lake (known to the Tsilhqot’in as Teztan Biny), where the First Nation fought a decades-long battle against the Prosperity and then New Prosperity mine proposals of Taseko Mines Ltd.

Read more

Cost-conscious major miners look to agility of junior explorers – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters U.S. – September 21, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Tight budgets and nervous investors have convinced major miners that a cheap, timely way to ensure a strong pipeline of quality assets is to team up with junior, more nimble exploration firms.

Miners have slashed costs by delaying projects, sold assets and cut exploration budgets to free up cash to pay down debt, much of it acquired during and after the commodity price supercycle, which started in 2002.

Now, with prices of commodities such as copper and iron ore at multi-year lows, capital expenditure is expected to remain subdued and investors reluctant to sanction large acquisitions or projects.

Read more

[Pacific North West Capital Corp.] Sudbury Accent: Slump easing for exploration company – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 17, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Say you’re a barber who runs your own shop, and you haven’t had a customer in your chair for five years. You may be tempted to give up, to literally throw in the towel, even enter another line of work. But you hang in there.

Finally, after a half-decade of inactivity, customers begin to return, slowly at first, but growing in number as word spreads you’re back and in business, and offering a good product. Harry Barr used that analogy this week at a town hall meeting in Sudbury intended to drum up interest in Pacific North West Capital Corp.’s River Valley Platinum Group Metal Project.

After a brutal five-year period, in which low commodity prices spooked investors away from sinking money into mineral exploration, interest in the River Valley project began to grow again. The presentation at the Holiday Inn, hosted by Barr, capped off two days of tours in which 30 or more people toured the River Valley property and visited the core shed for the project 100 kilometres northeast of Sudbury.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Wallbridge Announces Fully-Funded $4.0 Million Exploration Program on Sudbury Joint Ventures

http://www.wallbridgemining.com/

Toronto, Ontario — August 30, 2016 – Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM, FWB: WC7) (“Wallbridge”) announces that the Exploration Committees for the Lonmin funded joint ventures in Sudbury have approved programs totalling $3.958 million for approximately 20,000 metres of drilling and other work to start October 1, 2016. The approved programs of joint venture committees are subject to the usual final approval by Lonmin’s board of directors.

“The exploration program for 2016-2017 is exciting in that it not only follows up on this year’s success at expanding the near-surface mineralization at Parkin, but also will test other exploration targets at depth” said Marz Kord, President and CEO of Wallbridge, “This exploration program will advance Wallbridge’s exploration stage assets in Sudbury and complements Wallbridge’s current efforts in acquiring an advanced stage gold asset, the Fenelon Mine Property, from Balmoral Resources, which the company is planning to rapidly advance to a production decision by mid-2017”.

Read more

Sudbury miner ordered to pay $440,000 – by Staff (Sudbury Star – August 30, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

A Sudbury-based mining company has been ordered to pay more than $440,000 in legal costs after it unsuccessfully sued the provincial government. However, in a statement, Northern Superior Resources Inc. said it is appealing the outcome of the trial and the cost awarded by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

“The company will not be required to pay any amount to the province until the appeal has been heard and a decision rendered,” Northern Superior said in a release. “If the appeal of the trial decision is successful, the cost award will most likely be vacated. In addition, even if the company is not successful in overturning the trial decision, the Court of Appeal could still reduce or even vacate the cost award in any event.”

Northern Superior sued the province in 2013 for $110 million, claiming the government failed in its duty to consult with First Nations about its mining claims. It later said it would settle for $25 million.

Read more