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Platinum Group Metals

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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Thunder Bay palladium hunter reaches an understanding with local First Nations – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 11, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Clean Air Metals signs agreement with three communities to explore, develop Thunder Bay North Project

A Thunder Bay palladium junior miner has signed an early-stage cooperation and development agreement with three area First Nations in northwestern Ontario.

Clean Air Metals signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Fort William First Nation, Red Rock Indian Band, and the Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (formerly Rocky Bay First Nation) revolving around exploration activity at the company’s Thunder Bay North project.

The almost-30,000 hectare exploration property sits on the traditional territories of these three communities. The company is running a 30,000-metre drill program at its Thunder Bay North Project, where two palladium deposits – Current Lake and Escape Lake – have been identified in the vicinity of Greenwich Lake and Tartan Lake.

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Platinum deficit to reach 1.2 moz in 2020 – report – by Jackson Chen (Mining.com – November 18, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Despite strong quarter-on-quarter recovery in supply, the global platinum market is set to experience a second consecutive year of deficit at just over 1.2 million ounces in 2020, according to the World Platinum Investment Council’s (WPIC) latest quarterly report.

A stellar rebound in automotive demand and sustained strong investment demand for precious metals lifted platinum demand well above supply in Q3 2020, leaving the quarter in a deficit of 709,00 ounces.

Both sides of the market showed strong recovery during the quarter, with supply and demand up by 48% and 75%, respectively, over Q2 2020.

Recovering supply

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Nigerian Billionaire Plans to Dig Platinum Mine in Zimbabwe – by Godfrey Marawanyika (Bloomberg News – November 10, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Bravura Holdings Ltd., owned by Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters, has $1 billion available for the development of a platinum mine in Zimbabwe, its country manager said.

The 3,000 hectare (7,413-acre) concession where it plans to dig the mine is in Selous, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and close to existing platinum mines.

“From where we are now, we will go to resource definition, after that we will go to resource modeling, after mine development and then mine construction,” Lionel Mhlanga, Bravura’s manager in the southern African country, said in an interview at the mine on Nov. 6. “Those are all things that should happen in the next 18 months.”

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Want to have a say on the Marathon mine’s EA? – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 9, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ottawa wants your feedback on a proposed open-pit palladium and copper mine near the north shore of Lake Superior.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (formerly the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency) and the Government of Ontario are resuming an environmental assessment (EA) for Generation Mining’s proposed open-pit palladium mine near the town of Marathon.

The EA was placed on hold in 2014 at the request of Stillwater Canada, then the proponents of the mine project. The federal and provincial review panel that was established to assess the project was disbanded.

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Russian Plan to Dig Biggest Zimbabwe Platinum Mine Advances – by Godfrey Marawanyika (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – September 23, 2020)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — A project that aims to develop Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine has cleared a significant hurdle, with the African Export-Import Bank completing a due diligence study allowing it to proceed with a $500 million syndicated funding program.

While some work has started on the mine, with $100 million spent to date including exploration costs, a significant amount of investment will now be needed if Great Dyke Investments, owned by Russia’s Vi Holding and Zimbabwean investors, is to complete the $2 billion project.

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