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Quebec Mining

Betting against coal, Rio Tinto taps Quebec’s hydro power to produce green aluminum – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – December 1, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

We’ve got hydropower, and we’ve got the lowest carbon aluminum smelting technology in the world’

Rio Tinto Plc.’s latest investment in a Quebec aluminum smelter is another example of how Canada’s natural resources will remain an investment magnet in the new, more sustainable economy.

Earlier this month, the metal giant announced a $110-million investment its aluminum smelters in Quebec — believed to be the first investment of any scale in any new North American aluminum production following about a decade of stasis, during which China’s sector rose to dominance.

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Osisko Mining raises $154M for Windfall, plans JV with Australia’s Northern Star – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – November 30, 2021)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) has signed an agreement with Australia’s Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) to raise $154 million for continued work on its Windfall gold project 200 km north of Val d’Or, Que. The two companies have also agreed to negotiate the terms of an earn-in and joint venture allowing Northern Star to earn up to a 50% interest in the Windfall project.

The financing agreement will see Osisko issuing a convertible senior unsecured debenture due Dec. 1, 2025, to Northern Star. The debenture bears an interest rate of 4.75% per year payable semi-annually.

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Quebec touts minerals, hydro in push to lure EV battery production – by Michelle Zadikian (Bloomberg News – November 9, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Quebec has “a lot to offer” electric car companies when it comes to establishing a supply chain for battery cells, including sourcing key raw mineral components to cheap power, the province’s economy minister said.

“Quebec has a lot to offer for the supply chain for [electric vehicles]. We’ll start with the minerals – we have lithium, nickel, graphite,” Quebec’s Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said in an interview Tuesday.

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Orford Mining partners with Wyloo Metals to explore West Raglan in Quebec – by Daniel Sekulich (Northern Miner – November 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Well before Wyloo Metals began its fight with BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) for Noront Resources (TSXV: NOT), the Australian company signed a definitive agreement with Toronto-based junior Orford Mining (TSXV: ORM) for its West Raglan nickel project in Quebec’s Nunavik region.

The deal, signed in January, sees Wyloo earning up to 80% of the West Raglan project by spending $25 million on exploration over the next seven years. Wyloo was expected to spend $1 million of the $25 million this year, but has already spent $1.7 million.

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Agnico CEO Sean Boyd says he has ‘no idea’ if competing bid for Kirkland will emerge – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 29, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sean Boyd, the chief executive officer of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., says he’s confident Agnico’s multibillion-dollar bid to acquire Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. will succeed, even if he has little idea whether a competing offer will emerge.

Toronto-based Agnico last month reached a friendly agreement to acquire Kirkland in an all-stock, no-premium takeover valued at more than $13-billion. If it closes, the transaction will see Agnico emerge as the third-biggest gold company in the world, with a portfolio of mines based mainly in Canada and Australia. The deal is the biggest M&A transaction ever attempted by Agnico, and one of the biggest ever in the Canadian gold sector.

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Britishvolt reveals plans for 60GWh Canadian battery cell factory, cathode and anode production and R&D centre – by Emma Jarratt (Electric Autonomy – October 7, 2021)

https://electricautonomy.ca/

In the heart of Montreal’s downtown core at 1 Place Ville Marie — one of the tallest buildings in the city — is the address of Britishvolt Canada Inc.’s headquarters.

Technically, Britishvolt’s Canadian seat doubles as Denton’s senior business advisor Philippe Couillard’s office. But that makes sense as Couillard, along with a small but growing team, is largely responsible for bringing the British technology and manufacturing company to Canada — and which this week revealed to Electric Autonomy Canada in an exclusive interview its plan to build a 60GWh battery cell gigafactory, an R&D centre, and anode and cathode processing set up in Quebec.

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Making Quebec a key accelerator of the global energy transition – by Patrick Bertrand-Daoust (Canadian Mining Journal – October 8, 2021)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Canada has a big goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. That transition is going to require the collective effort of all sectors to enable their energy transitions and strategically work towards building cleaner, more prosperous products and operations.

But turning those plans into reality will heavily rely on the mining and metals sector to provide the raw materials needed to reach ambitious goals. And with the target date around the corner, demand is coming quick.

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Gold miners Agnico Eagle, Kirkland Lake propose $13.5 billion mega-merger – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 29, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd., largest and second-largest gold producers in Canada, on Tuesday announced an all-stock merger, valued at around $13.5 billion that creates a new gold mining giant with its center of gravity in Canada.

The merged entity would keep the Agnico Eagle name and produce about 2.5 of its 3.4 million ounces of gold per year from mines in Canada. The deal comes about one year after gold, a traditional safe haven in times of economic uncertainty, reached an all-time peak at US$2,067 per ounce in August 2020.

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Agnico Eagle deal to buy Kirkland Lake Gold criticized – by Niall McGee and Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – September 29, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. plans to acquire Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. in an all-stock transaction that the companies say will create a “true Canadian mining champion,” but the deal garnered a lukewarm reception on Bay Street, with some investors questioning the strategic rationale.

Toronto-based Agnico said on Tuesday it intends to pay 0.7935 of its shares for each Kirkland share, or about 1 per cent higher than Kirkland’s average close over the 10-day period as of last Friday, essentially making it a nil-premium deal valued at more than $13-billion.

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Agnico’s low-premium Kirkland deal propels stock drop – by Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – September 28, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Shares of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. fell after the two Canadian miners announced a “merger of equals” that offered investors a lower deal premium than other gold combinations.

The $13.4 billion (US$10.6 billion) transaction creates one of the world’s biggest bullion producers and follows other large takeovers in recent years that reshaped the industry.

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Agnico Eagle buying Kirkland Lake Gold in $13.4-billion deal – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 28, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Companies seek to find operational, exploration synergies in Abitibi gold camp of northeastern Ontario, western Quebec

Agnico Eagle and Kirkland Lake Gold are merging to create a Canadian and global mining powerhouse.

The gold mining companies are framing this proposed $13.4-billion all-share acquisition by Agnico Eagle as creating a “merger of equals” to establish a “best-in-class gold mining company” built around each other’s mining assets and the considerable exploration potential in the historic and fertile Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec.

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OPINION: The asbestos industry is fanning the flames of resentment. We must make them stop – by Kathleen Ruff (National Observer – August 17th 2021)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

The asbestos issue is back on the agenda of the Quebec and Canadian governments, with multibillion-dollar projects to extract magnesium and other minerals from the mountains of waste left by asbestos mining companies. According to Quebec government health authorities, the waste contains up to 40 per cent asbestos. Houses, schools and public buildings are nearby.

The projects require moving the waste, thus disturbing the asbestos fibres and presenting a serious health risk to workers and the community. A pilot project is underway. The final decision from the Quebec government is pending.

All 17 Quebec directors of public health asked the federal government to include asbestos mining waste in its regulations to ban asbestos. The government rejected their request, exempted the mining waste and invested $12 million in the projects.

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NEWS RELEASE: The Minister of Environment and Climate Change approves the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Mining Project (August 10, 2021)

OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 10, 2021 /CNW/ – The Government of Canada conducts rigorous impact assessments based on science and Indigenous knowledge.

Following a thorough environmental assessment conducted by the Joint Assessment Committee, comprised of representatives from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (the Agency) and the Cree Nation Government, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, has agreed with the conclusions of the Committee’s Environmental Assessment Report and has decided that the proposed Rose Lithium-Tantalum Mining Project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects when mitigation measures are taken into account. Therefore, the project is allowed to proceed.

Today, Minister Wilkinson issued a Decision Statement to this effect under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012). The Minister’s Decision Statement establishes 221 legally binding conditions with which the proponent must comply throughout the life of the project. These conditions include measures to protect fish and fish habitat, migratory birds and birds at risk, wetlands, woodland caribou, bats at risk and the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes by the Crees.

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As lithium booms again, new players hope to avoid ‘horror’ show of predecessors – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 21, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Mining lithium not only generates environmental concerns, but chemical conversion for battery use is a major challenge

In the middle of July, as COVID-19 restrictions relaxed, Guy Laliberté, chief executive of Sayona Quebec — the company that aims to be the next lithium producer in Canada — was meeting with an opponent of his project.

Last month, the company announced a Quebec Superior Court approved a deal for Sayona Quebec to purchase North American Lithium’s former assets, which includes the La Corne mine, a concentrator and a chemical plant for $94 million in cash plus a range of conditions — pennies on the dollar given the company says previous owners invested around $400 million.

The deal is not expected to close until August, but Sayona aims to start producing lithium by early 2023, a tight time schedule that will require a range of work.

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Pallinghurst makes billion-dollar bet on Quebec as global battery hub – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – July 5, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

European private equity investor Pallinghurst Group is making a billion-dollar bet that Quebec will recover from its early blunders in battery materials and become a dependable pillar for supply in North America, as the global shift to electric transportation accelerates in the years ahead.

London-based Pallinghurst has invested more than US$500-million to date in two key battery-mining and material-processing projects in the province, with plans for more.

The company scooped up mining company Nemaska Lithium Inc. out of bankruptcy protection in a partnership with the Quebec government’s investment arm and built up a 15-per-cent position in another supplier, Nouveau Monde Graphite.

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