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Scratch that: feds to rethink Ring of Fire environmental assessment after First Nations criticism – by Emma McIntosh (TheNarwhal – March 7, 2023)

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‘There is no access to critical minerals in Canada without Indigenous Peoples being at the table in a decision-making position,’ Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has agreed to scrap a draft framework for a regional assessment in the Ontario Ring of Fire region and start over, working with First Nations.

For over a decade, governments and companies have sought to mine in the remote and environmentally-sensitive area known as the Ring of Fire. Accessible only by plane, or ice road in the winter, it’s located in the James Bay Lowlands and has deposits of key minerals that some people want to mine to fuel the production of electric vehicles.

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Ontario approves environmental assessment terms of reference for 3rd and final road to Ring of Fire – by Logan Turner (CBC New Thunder Bay – March 6, 2023)

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

Plan co-developed and submitted by 2 First Nations in the area, but faces pushback from others in region

The province has approved the terms of reference for an environmental assessment (EA) on the third and final road leading to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario.

The terms of reference lay out the work plan — including the scope and issues to be considered — for the EA on the Northern Road Link, a proposed two-lane, all-weather road.

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Curiosity spurred Virginia Heffernan to write a Ring of Fire book – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 4, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto mining journalist hits PDAC 2023 with a primer on arrested development in the Far North

“Keep the faith.” It was an oft-used phrase by Richard “Dick” Nemis, a Sudbury native and colourful mining promoter whose company, Noront Resources, secured one of the largest land positions in the mineral-rich area of the James Bay known as the Ring of Fire.

Nemis clung to that motto even as he was being ousted by shareholders as the president of the junior mining company he helped establish in October 2008. It was personal blow since the exploration outfit was named after his father’s industrial fabrication company, started in the Nickel City in 1945, and still in operation today.

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The Drift: Glencore hopes to attract ‘best and brightest’ to Sudbury mining electric vehicle lab – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – March 3, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Glencore Sudbury INO’s $350,000 donation to Cambrian College will be ‘transformative gift’ in advancing BEV innovation

Growing up, Matteo Neville was the kind of kid who spent his time taking apart motors and engines just so he could figure out how they worked.

He was fascinated by robotics and technology, electronics and programming, so when he decided to return to school as a mature student, he was immediately drawn to Cambrian College’s mechatronics program.

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Column: United States targets Russian aluminium and other metals – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 28, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – The United States has extended its punitive economic measures against Russia into the metals and mining sector. Aluminium will be hardest hit with penal tariffs of 200% on imports of Russian metal, effective March 10, and imports of any third-country product containing Russian metal, effective April 10.

Import tariffs on other metals such as copper and lead will double to 70% and nickel will be subject to a 35% duty. The full package of sanctions and trade measures, announced on the anniversary of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, covers over 100 metals, minerals and chemicals.

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Federal government has resumed talks with Ontario about the Ring of Fire: document – by Emma McIntosh (The Narwhal – February 27, 2023)

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Internal emails obtained by The Narwhal appear to show a shift in relations between the two governments on the Ring of Fire. But some First Nations leaders say they’re still being left out

After a years-long stalemate over the far northern Ring of Fire, the federal government appears to have extended an olive branch to Ontario, resuming talks over the region’s future.

The province has asked with increasing impatience for the federal government to chip in about $1 billion for a road to the remote and environmentally-sensitive Ring of Fire region, 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. — a move that could enable mining there.

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Base and battery metals Snapshot: Eight companies targeting critical minerals – by Staff (Northern Miner – February 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The growing demand for clean energy technologies is driving exploration and development of critical mineral deposits around the world. Here’s a look at eight companies on the hunt for everything from cobalt and copper to graphite, lithium and nickel.

ACME Lithium

ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME; US-OTC: ACLHF) is focused on battery metal projects and its flagship asset is the Clayton Valley lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nev., 145 km northwest of Las Vegas. ACME Lithium has the option to earn 100% of 122 claims of the 9.9-sq.-km project, which sits contiguous to the northwest of Albemarle’s (NYSE: ALB) Silver Peak lithium mine, and borders Pure Energy Metals’ Clayton Valley lithium brine project, a joint-venture with Schlumberger Technology Corp.

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Former Sudbury nickel, copper mines yield new discoveries – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 28, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining pushing the boundaries to find additional resources at Crean Hill and Shakespeare mines

Magna Mining, an aspiring metals producer in Sudbury, has tapped into a new mineral zone near the surface at the site of a former Inco mine.

The local company launched a drill program this winter to look into how much life is left in the once-producing Crean Hill mine on the southeast corner of the Sudbury basin.

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GMS: Wyloo hopes to integrate Ontario-based Ring of Fire nickel supply chain – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – February 24, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Multinational Wyloo Metals has reiterated its commitment to establishing an Ontario-centric integrated critical minerals supply chain, CEO Luca Giacovazzi told The Northern Miner’s recent Global Mining Symposium.

The privately-held Australian company, part of billionaire Andrew Forrest’s business empire, has made an early commitment to see the nickel and concentrate produced out of its Eagle’s Nest project in Ontario’s emerging Ring of Fire (RoF) nickel-chromite mining camp processed and beneficiated in Canada.

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Having nickel in Timmins ‘extremely attractive’, says CEO – by Maija Hoggett (Timmins Today – February 23, 223)

https://www.timminstoday.com/

‘We think we’re in the early phase of unlocking an entire nickel district’

A mine developer says Timmins is in the early phase of unlocking a nickel district. Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby gave an update on its Crawford Project today at the Timmins Chamber’s State of Mining event.

Crawford is a proposed open-pit mine 40 kilometres north of the city. It’s slated to be a zero-emission operation. “This would be one of the largest nickel sulphide mines globally. Based on the scale of the resource that’s there it has the potential to be even larger.

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Stacy Kennedy first woman appointed as permanent head of Vale Manitoba Operations – by Ian Graham (Thompson Citizen – February 22, 2023)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Vale’s Manitoba Operations will be permanently overseen by a woman for the first time come March 1, when Stacy Kennedy takes over the top job in Thompson.

Kennedy, who has previously served as interim general manager of Manitoba Operations and interim mine manager, inherits the role from Gary Annett, who is returning to his home of Sudbury, Ontario, where he will continue to work for the company, said a Feb. 22 Vale Canada press release. “I’m really excited to be taking on this role at a time when there’s a real shift happening in the mining industry,” said Kennedy in a press release.

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General Motors Digs Into Mining Business to Lead Race for EV Metals – by David Welch (Bloomberg News – February 17, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg Businessweek) — General Motors is trying to speed ahead in the race for metals underpinning the industry’s shift to electric cars. The US automaker is competing for a stake in Vale’s base metals unit, people familiar with the matter said this month. A deal may give GM access to the Brazilian mining giant’s copper and nickel resources that are key to making EV batteries.

GM has made several such wagers recently, buying equity while rivals mostly sign supply deals. Last month, it bought a $650 million stake in Lithium Americas to help develop Nevada’s Thacker Pass mine, which may support output of as many as 1 million EVs a year.

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Clean nickel or cheap nickel? You can’t have both – by Anthony Milewski (Northern Miner – February 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Nickel price trends have become hard to predict. Ever since the London Metals Exchange (LME) crash, in March 2022, and the subsequent canceled trades, a number of banks pulled out and took with them the Exchange’s liquidity. Nickel prices on the LME have since become so volatile that suppliers no longer view them as representative of nickel’s market value.

Today, most of the nickel being sold – particularly by the Chinese – is direct to producers and at prices based on nickel sulphate and therefore disconnected from the disgraced LME. It’s possible that the LME may eventually recover.

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Glencore posts record profit for 2022, warns of higher mining costs (Sudbury Star/Reuters – February 16, 2023)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Company announces a payout of $7.1 billion to its investors on Wednesday, as high oil and coal prices helped it to post a record annual profit

Glencore announced a payout of $7.1 billion to its investors on Wednesday, as high oil and coal prices helped it to post a record annual profit, but it said the rising costs of producing minerals could dent future earnings.

In preliminary 2022 results, the miner and trader said it cut net debt to $75 million at the end of the year from $6 billion at the end of 2021.

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Column: The devil’s metal strikes again in Trafigura nickel fraud case – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 19, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Another year, another nickel scandal as the devil’s metal lives up to its reputation. When German miners first came across the stuff in fifteenth century Saxony, they dubbed it “Kupfernickel”, or “Devil’s Copper” because it looked like copper but wasn’t.

Appearances can be deceptive when it comes to nickel, as Trafigura has just found out half a millennium later. The commodity trader will take a $577 million charge in the first half of 2023 against potential losses arising from what it called a “systematic fraud” involving cargoes of nickel that were not nickel.

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