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Platinum Group Metals

Miner Earns Eightfold Gain Striking Palladium on City’s Doorstep – by James Thornhill (Bloomberg News – May 17, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Sometimes buried treasure can be hiding right under your nose. Just ask Alex Dorsch, whose company found what could be Australia’s first major palladium resource on the fringes of Perth, the nation’s mining hub.

“It’s a fascinating bit of serendipity,” said Dorsch, managing director of Chalice Mining Ltd., which has seen its shares rise more than eightfold since confirming the Julimar discovery just over 12 months ago. “It is quite amazing that it wasn’t found in the 1960s or 70s to be honest,” he said in a phone interview.

Chalice, whose shareholders include mining magnate Robert Friedland and Blackrock Inc., plans to add supply to a palladium market that’s been in deficit for years due to high demand for the metal, used in catalytic converters to curb emissions in gasoline-powered vehicles.

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Drill rigs turning for gold, palladium discoveries on Superior’s North Shore – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 14, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Exploration boom in the northwest continues for precious, industrial and ‘green’ metals

Gold and palladium exploration continues to dominate activity along the north shore of Lake Superior.

A mix of junior miners are either securing an initial foothold in northwestern Ontario, drilling off deposits, or approaching environmental and regulatory milestones in advancing their projects toward production.

Sudbury’s Manitou Gold is picking up the pace of exploration at its Goudreau Project, outside Dubreuilville. Since raising $5 million in financing last month, the company boosted its drill program from 10,000 metres to 30,000 metres.

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Mining the Northwest: Impala Canada looks to open doors wider to Thunder Bay mining suppliers – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 29, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Lac des Iles Mine prepares to boost production, adopt new technologies, go exploring for new deposits

Mining in northwestern Ontario has become a huge part of Thunder Bay’s economy, much of that attributed to the resurgence of the Lac des Iles Mine (LDI), 90 kilometres northwest of the city.

In the five years since the once-struggling palladium mine made an impressive operational turnaround. A total of $1.7 billion has been invested in capital and operational spending, half of that with Ontario companies and a good chunk within the Thunder Bay business community where LDI has contracts with about 300 service and supply companies.

While LDI has a current 11-year mine life, Tim Hill, CEO of Impala Canada, the owners of the mine, implied the operation looks to have some longevity for years to come based on the resource potential of their expansive land holdings.

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Palladium hits record as supply shortage deepens on auto demand – by Yvonne Yue Li and Eddie Spence (Bloomberg News – April 21, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Spot palladium surged to a record high on bets that rebounding economies will fuel automaker demand, deepening supply shortfalls of the precious metal.

Palladium, used in catalytic converters to curb emissions in gasoline-powered vehicles, rose as much as 4.8 per cent to US$2,895.96 an ounce on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record set in February 2020. Prices have climbed more than 17 per cent this year, building on five straight annual gains.

The palladium market has been in a production deficit for several years, and tighter pollution standards in Europe and China are spurring demand for the metal from automakers. Disruptions at Russian mines run by MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, the world’s largest producer, have added to supply concerns.

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Norilsk, Russia is closer to Thunder Bay than one might think – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 26, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Discovery of massive sulfides considered a breakthrough at Clear Air Metals’ Thunder Bay North project

The proponents behind a plan to build a high-grade palladium mine north of Thunder Bay are pressing the reset button. But with good reason.

Exploration drilling by Clean Air Metals at its Thunder Bay North project recently hit massive sulfide material at one of its deposits, 40 kilometres north of the city. In a recent news release, the Thunder Bay-based junior mining company is calling this a “potential gamechanger.”

The company has been drawing comparisons between the geology of Thunder Bay North to that of Norilsk, a prolific mining area in Russia’s High Arctic that’s been in production for more than a century. It’s considered one of the world’s richest and most minerally well-endowed mining camps.

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Marathon plans to reap the benefits from palladium, copper mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 17, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The Town of Marathon is banking on preparation paying off. A proposed open-pit mine on the outskirts of the north shore community of 3,300 could attract as many as 2,000 people over the next two to three years.

Earlier this month, Toronto’s Generation Mining released a positive feasibility study of its Marathon Palladium and Copper Project, projecting a 13-year mine life with an aggressive timeline to begin mining by 2024.

The $1-billion development is expected to bring 1,100 construction jobs to town, employ close to 400 miners when in operation, and generate many more indirect and spinoff positions.

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Gold, battery metals exploration brisk in the Sudbury district – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 4, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Winter drilling campaigns underway for properties with open-pit potential

The Sudbury Basin is known as one of the world’s most prolific mining camps for nickel and base metals. But on underexplored ground in the outlying areas many exploration-stage junior miners continue to actively drill and sample for gold and metals related to the electric vehicle battery revolution.

East of Sudbury, New Age Metals reported it’s found rhodium at its River Valley Palladium Project. The company is in the advanced stages of planning for an open-pit mine, 60 kilometres east of the city.

In a March 2 news release, New Age calls rhodium is the “rarest and most valuable” of all the platinum group metals. Recent spot prices have reached highs of more than US$24,000 per ounce, the company said.

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These Metals Are Soaring on a Green Frenzy and Global Recovery (Bloomberg News – February 19, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Industrial metal prices are powering to the highest in years on bets an economic recovery from the pandemic and worldwide push for cleaner, greener energy will unleash vast amounts of pent-up demand.

From base-metal bellwethers to essential inputs for batteries and home electronics, post-crisis consumption threatens to outstrip near-term supply.

Governments and companies globally are announcing net-zero emissions goals, Europe is rolling out a package of environmental initiatives as part of its growth plan, and President Joe Biden has pledged $400 billion on clean energy research and development over 10 years.

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Thieves Nationwide Are Slithering Under Cars, Swiping Catalytic Converters – by Hiroko Tabuchi (New York Times – February 9, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The pollution-control gadgets are full of precious metals like palladium, and prices are soaring as regulators try to tame emissions. Crooks with hacksaws have noticed.

Michael Kevane, an economics professor in San Jose, Calif., didn’t give a second thought to parking his 2005 Prius in his driveway one rainy evening last month. But the next morning, when his son Elliot went to start up the car, “it sounded like a jackhammer,” Mr. Kevane said. “The whole block could hear the noise.”

The reason for the ruckus: A thief in the night had made off with the car’s catalytic converter, a critical emissions-control device that contains precious metals more valuable than gold.

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US climate change drive bodes well for platinum, says WPIC – by Tasneem Bulbulia (MiningWeekly.com – January 27, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Vowing to ‘build back better’, US President Joe Biden has placed climate change high on his administration’s agenda, with plans to achieve 100% clean energy and to commit to net zero by 2050.

Underlining its intent, the US re-joined the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty on climate change with a goal to limit global temperature rise to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Biden has promised a $2-trillion accelerated investment over his first term aimed at building modern, sustainable infrastructure to support the transition to a clean energy economy.

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Gold, palladium mine projects show progress and promise on Superior’s north shore – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 25, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Harte Gold boosting production, Clear Air Metals reaches a mineral milestone, Orion seals the deal at Greenstone

A White River mine is expanding and two gold and palladium projects are advancing along the north shore of Lake Superior in a roundup of recent news releases. Harte Gold is pressing ahead with a $21-million expansion of its Sugar Zone Mine.

With an abundant base of gold at its underground operation north of White River, the Toronto-headquartered miner released a feasibility study providing the spark to expand production capacity from 800 tonnes a day to 1,200 tonnes by the first quarter of 2023.

This will amount to a 58 per cent increase in yearly gold production that will drive production to 102,000 ounces by 2023, and will deliver sustainable production of 98,700 ounces a year from 2023 to 2027.

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Platinum group metals demand set to overwhelm supply balance – Davis – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – January 21, 2021)

https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Long-serving precious metals consultant Dr David Davis has reached the conclusion, after a comprehensive study, that the demand for platinum group metals (PGMs) is poised to outstrip stagnant supply.

Davis, who has spent several months carrying out a ‘deep dive’ into the future of PGMs for precious metals researchers in Singapore, Australia and the UK, has concluded that demand for the metals will overwhelm the balance in as few as two to three years. Projected platinum production, Davis asserts, has been over-estimated and the global increase in demand underestimated.

His detailed analysis of South Africa’s PGMs mining companies Impala Platinum, Sibanye-Stillwater and Anglo American Platinum points to a potentially severe decline in the next ten years, the upgrades at Nornickel in Russia and the Darwendale project in Zimbabwe notwithstanding.

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How Palladium Became a Really, Really Precious Metal – by Ranjeetha Pakiam and Eddie Van Der Walt (Bloomberg News – January 15, 2021)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — Palladium is the most valuable of the four major precious metals, with an acute shortage driving prices to records in recent years.

A key component in pollution-control devices for cars and trucks, the metal’s price has been on a tear, more than tripling in the four years through the end of 2020 — lifting it above the price of gold.

1. What is palladium?

It’s a lustrous white material one of the six platinum-group metals (along with ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, iridium and platinum itself). About 85% of palladium ends up in catalytic converters in car exhausts, where it helps turn toxic pollutants into less-harmful carbon dioxide and water vapor.

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Mining company collaborates with Thunder Bay-area First Nations – by Gary Rinne (tbnewswatch.com – January 14, 2021)

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

THUNDER BAY —A company that’s exploring mining claims in the Greenwich Lake and Tartan Lake area northeast of Thunder Bay says it has advanced its working relationship with three area First Nations.

Clean Air Metals Inc. hopes to develop platinum/palladium/copper/nickel deposits around its Thunder Bay North Project, about 50 kilometres from the city.

The property is accessible via logging roads branching off Highway 527, and is roughly 70 kilometres from Impala Platinum’s Lac des Iles mine.

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The essential role of platinum group metals in ‘greening’ the world needs highlighting – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – January 12, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The ‘greenness’ that South Africa can help bestow on the world needs hard sell now, Mining Weekly can today report.

While South Africa’s amazing platinum group metals (PGMs) continue their decades-long task of cleaning the air of the world’s cities in the autocatalytic convertors of vehicle exhausts, their elevation to an even higher zero-emission role inside fuel cells and green hydrogen electrolysers has begun.

At the same time, virtually every major global investor has been mandated to direct investments towards making the world a ‘greener’ place.

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