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Saskatchewan Mining

What you need to know about Trump’s tariffs on Canadian potash on ‘Liberation Day’ – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – April 02, 2025)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

The White House has indicated that any new tariffs announced will stick, even if they affect American farmers

United States tariffs on Canadian potash may be going up on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump moves to impose reciprocal tariffs on all its trading partners, including Canada, just as a previous exemption limiting the levy to 10 per cent expires.

Trump has hailed April 2 as “Liberation Day” for the U.S. and said the new round of tariffs will match surtax charges countries impose on American imports. The White House said on Monday that reciprocal tariffs would go into effect immediately.Meanwhile, April 2 is also the date an exemption reducing potash tariffs to 10 per cent from 25 per cent are set to expire.

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Canada exempts Paladin’s PLS from non-resident ownership policy (Mining Weekly – March 17, 2025)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Uranium miner and developer Paladin Energy has been granted an exemption from Canada’s Non-Resident Ownership Policy (NROP) for its Patterson Lake South (PLS) uranium project in Saskatchewan. The exemption allows Paladin, which is listed on the ASX and TSX, to maintain a 100% controlling interest in PLS as it moves toward commercial production.

The exemption was secured in connection with Paladin’s acquisition of Fission Uranium, which was completed in late December.

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NexGold announces positive feasibility study update for Goliath gold complex – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – March 13, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

NexGold Mining announce potential positive outcomes as itworks towards the completion of its feasibility study for its Goliath gold complex located in the Wabigoon Greenstone belt in northwestern Ontario. NexGold Mining is a gold-focused company with assets in Canada and Alaska. The company expects the feasibility study in the second quarter of this year.

The Goliath gold complex project utilized a combination of open-pit and underground mining methods to extract gold ore. The company’s feasibility study is being prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

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What is potash and why is the U.S. dependent on Canada for it? – by Kenn Oliver (National Post – March 9, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

Rare mineral found primarily in Saskatchewan, home to the world’s largest mines and deposits

Anyone following the on-again, off-again trade war between Canada and the U.S. will have seen potash mentioned among major Canadian exports to the U.S. subject to President Donald Trump’s new tariffs. But what is potash and why is it integral to the neighbouring nations’ trade relationship? Here’s a guide to understanding the rare earth mineral and its part in the dispute.

What is potash and what is it used for?

Potash is a group of minerals and chemicals that contain potassium – K on the periodic table. Its main form, after deep-earth mining and milling, is as potassium chloride (KCl), almost all of which is used as a fertilizer to improve crop root strength, disease resistance, water retention and yield by protecting and restoring soil fertility, making it essential to global food security.

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Canada has to develop uranium enrichment if wants to succeed in the new nuclear era – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – February 28, 2025)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

A number of steps need to be taken, including in legislation, to lay the groundwork to build up Canada’s enrichment capacity

In the push to decarbonize power generation in Canada, many provinces have begun to explore deploying nuclear power to help eliminate carbon-emitting sources, just as many countries are doing.

The looming expansion of nuclear power generation is leading to growth in the uranium mining industry in northern Saskatchewan, but some industry observers are pointing to another pressing area in need of further development: the enrichment of uranium.

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[Saskatchewan Potash] Pink Gold – by Kate Helmore (Globe and Mail – March 1, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Trump said Canada has nothing the U.S. needs. When it comes to potash, the president couldn’t be more wrong

In Saskatchewan, 1,000 metres below the surface of the earth, in a cavern heated to a sweltering 27 C by geothermal energy, a machine is boring into the ground, searching for a compound that is critical to worldwide food production and crucial in Canada’s current trade battle with the United States. Launched just a few weeks ago, this boring machine is hooked up to a fibre-optic connection, and operated from a climate-controlled office on the surface.

This single tunnel, called a face, was sunk at a cost of $30-million. And it is just one in a network spread across six mines owned and operated by Nutrien Ltd. , Canada’s largest mining company and a major supplier of agricultural inputs worldwide. However, the company jewel – and a source of US$3-billion in net sales last year – was a single nutrient: potash.

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As tensions rise, Canada to lean on U.S. for uranium enrichment – by Matthew McClearn (Globe and Mail – February 24, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump talks of waging a campaign of “economic force” to persuade Canada to join a political union with the United States, Ontario Power Generation is preparing to construct an American reactor at its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. The reactor’s uranium fuel would be enriched at a facility in New Mexico, a new vulnerability U.S. administrations could exploit.

Canada’s 17 operating reactors are of the homegrown Candu design, which consume natural uranium. Canada possesses uranium in abundance and has long made its own fuel. But nearly all the reactors promoted for construction now require enriched uranium, which Canada can’t produce.

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American farmers will bear cost of Trump’s tariffs on potash, says Nutrien CEO – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Financial Post – February 21, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Company hikes dividend, though earnings fall 33% on lower prices

Farmers in the United States will be the ones absorbing any additional expenses if Donald Trump’s planned tariffs take effect next month, says Nutrien Ltd. chief executive Ken Seitz.

“The costs of this would be borne by the U.S. farmer; the tariff cost and tariff impact will be passed onto the U.S. farmer,” he said on a fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts, adding that American farmers are very dependent on Canadian potash. “Canadians supply over 80 per cent of that market.”

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Saskatchewan looks to run conventional coal for power well beyond Ottawa’s 2030 phaseout deadline – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – February 12, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Saskatchewan is looking to refurbish its fleet of coal-fired power stations, extending their lives well past a federal 2030 phase-out deadline and locking the province into decades of reliance on the fossil fuel.

Jeremy Harrison, the minister responsible for SaskPower, the Crown corporation that oversees electricity supply in the province, says the reliability and affordability of power are at the heart of the policy rethink.

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U.S. hurting itself, not Canadian uranium producers, with tariffs on energy – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – February 12, 2025)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Canadian producers are in a good position to handle the tariffs, expert says

United States President Donald Trump is only biting the hand that feeds his country’s nuclear power system if he follows through on his threat to impose a 10 per cent tariff on uranium and other energy-related imports.

Devan Mescall, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business, said the uranium industry is better positioned to deal with tariffs in the short term than other industries, in part because there are no available alternatives.

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CanAlaska Uranium posts top grade at West McArthur – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – February 6, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

CanAlaska Uranium cut its highest grade intersection yet at the West McArthur project it holds in a joint venture with Cameco in northern Saskatchewan.

Hole WMA076-01 in the Pike zone cut 14.5 metres grading 12.2% uranium oxide (U3O8) from 790.1 metres depth, including 5 metres at 34.38% U3O8, CanAlaska reported Thursday. That result, among the first five holes completed in the company’s winter program, expands the Pike zone’s ultra-high grade footprint at the unconformity by at least 15 metres to the east.

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Cameco hopes to repeat its 2018 success in fending off Trump uranium tariffs as threat looms once more – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 28, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s Cameco Corp. fought off U.S. tariffs on uranium during President Donald Trump’s first term and it hopes to do so again as the global uranium heavyweight pushes for cooler heads to prevail in Washington.

After he was elected for a second term last fall, Mr. Trump said he was planning to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all imports of Canadian goods. On the day he was inaugurated, he said those tariffs could take effect on Saturday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday confirmed that Mr. Trump’s Saturday timeline for tariffs against Canada is still in the cards.

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Canada aims to become world’s biggest uranium producer as demand soars – by Ilya Gridneff, Jamie Smyth and Camilla Hodgson (Financial Times – January 4, 2025)

https://www.ft.com/

Demand for emissions-free power and energy security mark a turnaround for the resource-rich

Canada is racing to become the world’s biggest uranium producer as prices for the radioactive metal surge in response to soaring demand for emissions-free nuclear power and geopolitical tensions threaten supplies.

Cameco, the country’s largest producer, said that production of uranium would jump by almost a third in 2024 to 37mn pounds at its two mines in the heartland of the country’s uranium industry in northern Saskatchewan.

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Australian uranium company given go-ahead to absorb Canadian counterpart – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – December 30, 2024)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Paladin Energy gets green light from federal government to take over Fission Uranium

A major acquisition in Canada’s uranium sector is going forward after getting approval from the federal government.

Paladin Energy Ltd., which is headquartered in Perth, Australia, has been given the green light to take over Kelowna, B.C.-based Fission Uranium Corp., which has been developing its Patterson Lake South Project (PLS) in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin. The mine there is set to begin production in 2029.

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Cameco ‘disappointed and surprised’ by sudden suspension of its Kazakhstan mine – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – January 03, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

The mine was expected to contribute 4% of global uranium production this year

Cameco Corp. kicked off the new year with a surprise for its investors: Its joint-venture mine in Kazakhstan suspended production without warning. “We are disappointed and surprised by this unexpected suspension and we will be seeking further clarification on how this transpired,” Cameco said in a press release on Thursday.

The Saskatoon-based company owns 40 per cent of the mine through Inkai LLP; Kazatomprom JSC, the national atomic company of Kazakhstan, owns the other 60 per cent.

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