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Anglo Suspends Production at Australian Steelmaking Coal Mine – by Paul-Alain Hunt and Victoria Cavaliere (Bloomberg News – June 30, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A fire at Anglo American Plc’s biggest metallurgical coal project in Australia halted production, with the miner saying it may take months for it to be extinguished. Anglo, which is seeking to sell the mine as part of a turnaround plan, fell as much as 4%.

A methane explosion on Saturday caused the fire at the Grosvenor underground mine, which accounts for about 30% of the company’s annual production of coking coal in Queensland state, Anglo said in an emailed statement Monday. No one was injured.

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Effort to ban nickel sales to Israel has pacifist intentions – by Tyler Clarke (Sudbury.com – June 29, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Retired Cambrian College mathematics instructor and longtime peace advocate David Starbuck is behind a petition which aims to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel

Condemning the State of Israel’s sustained bombardment of Gaza, local man David Starbuck helped launch a federal petition to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel. Nickel, he clarified in conversation with Sudbury.com, is used in armaments.

Through the local mining of nickel, there’s no telling how much the Greater Sudbury area has inadvertently aided in Israel’s “unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza,” as United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese put it earlier this year in finding reasonable grounds to determine Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

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Can Niger’s military junta seize the country’s uranium opportunity? – by Jason Mitchell (BNE Intellinews – July 2, 2024)

https://www.intellinews.com/

Niger — one of the world’s poorest countries — could become considerably wealthier if its uranium resources were fully exploited, but political instability is hampering its development.

The land-locked country’s uranium resources total 311,000 metric tonnes (mt), the third highest in Africa after Namibia (470,000 mt) and South Africa (320,000 mt), according to Statista. It has the continent’s highest-grade uranium ores. In 2022, it produced 2,020 mt of uranium, down from 2,991 mt in 2020, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

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Obituary: James M. Franklin (Jim) – November 9, 1942 – June 19, 2024 – Ottawa Citizen

James (Jim) M. Franklin, FRSC, a distinguished geologist known for his groundbreaking contributions to mineral exploration and the understanding of hydrothermal ore deposits, passed away peacefully with family by his side on June 19th, 2024 at the age of 81. Born on November 9th, 1942 in North Bay, Ontario, to Jessie Jane (née Cumming) and Richard Eben Franklin, Jim led a life of scientific curiosity filled with rich experiences, travel, and accomplishments that had a profound impact on the field of geology.

Jim’s passion for geology was ignited through his studies at Carleton University earning a B.Sc. (1964) and M.Sc. (1967). At the University of Western Ontario, his Ph.D. (1970) research on mineral deposits of the Proterozoic rocks of the north shore of Lake Superior laid the groundwork for his subsequent career as Canada’s preeminent expert on the origin of Precambrian ore deposits.

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Don’t let politicians misinform you. Learn about Canada’s true history for yourself – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – July 1, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Our nation’s history is not only fascinating — it’s key to reconciliation

The surest way to make me treasure something is to take it away. So it was with Canada Day, whose annual appearance I’d once greeted with scarcely more excitement than the Ontario Civic Holiday and Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week.

Then came 2021, when the high priests of social justice demanded that we cancel Canada’s birthday celebrations, so that we might spend July 1 in morbid contemplation of our original sin. Not being one for rituals of confession and penitence, I instead began to think harder about why I love this country, despite its flaws — even if expressing such sentiments in public was now viewed as hate speech.

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First Nation concerned Victoria Gold, Yukon government playing down impact of Eagle mine rockslide – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 29, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Dawna Hope, chief of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation, is particularly worried about possible contamination of drinking water

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun is concerned that Victoria Gold Corp. and the Yukon government are soft-pedalling the impact of a suspected large-scale cyanide spill this week at a gold mine in the territory.

Giant piles of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed on Monday at an outdoors heap leach gold processing facility at the Eagle gold mine in central Yukon, triggering a landslide that likely released the toxic chemical into the environment.

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Gahcho Kué diamond mine surpasses $2 billion spent with NWT and Indigenous businesses – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – June 26, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

De Beers Group and Mountain Province Diamonds announced that their joint venture Gahcho Kué diamond mine has surpassed the $2-billion spending threshold with Northwest Territories and Indigenous business.

The milestone represents 61% of the total $3.2 billion spent on the project since 2015 when construction began. Local businesses supply welding, transportation logistics, trucking, passenger and cargo flights, labour, and camp catering.

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‘Cold War 2.0’ just one reason why gold will outperform silver, base metals in H2 2024 – Bloomberg’s McGlone – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 25, 2024)

https://kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – The ramping up of “Cold War 2.0” between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea against the United States and its allies is a big reason why gold will likely outperform the broader metals complex in the second half of 2024, but there are plenty of other indicators which also support this view, according to Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“That copper made a new high in 1H and crude oil didn’t may show the tilt of the metal outperforming the fossil fuel in the longer term,” McGlone wrote in his Midyear Metals Outlook on Tuesday. “Yet gold appears to have the upper hand vs. most commodities in 2H.

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Beyond Prince Harry: Securing Botswana’s Diamond Legacy – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – June 27, 2024)

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Tourism could be central to the country’s post-mining plans, says Debswana executive.

What connects Prince Harry and Kim Kardashian? Probably quite a lot of things, but among them is that they have both been to Botswana.

Harry famously vacationed with Meghan Markle in the southern African country, while Kardashian has visited the Jwaneng diamond mine. The latter might not have been the most glamorous place in which the celebrity has set foot: Jwaneng, like most diamond mines, is a massive pit in the ground.

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Washington Wants a White Gold Rush – by Christina Lu (Foreign Policy – June 26, 2024)

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The Biden administration looks to domestic lithium mining to boost U.S. energy security and counter China.

Thousands of miles west of Washington, D.C., in the sprawling, lithium-rich expanses of Nevada, the Biden administration is pushing for a mining boom that it hopes will boost the country’s energy security.

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Reclaiming the future: Innovative paths for post-mining prosperity – by Chih-Ting Lo (Canadian Mining Journal – June 26, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The mining and metals sector ranked lowest in the 2021 Globe-Scan report of attitudes toward all major sectors in 31 countries. Some U.K. universities have banned mining companies from recruiting on campus, and the number of geology and mining engineering graduates continues to slide.

Much of the issue stems from some newsworthy poor historical performance, including the sector’s impact on land, air, water, and biodiversity, as well as a perceived inability to prepare communities to thrive after operations close.

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A tale of two territorial economies: Generator versus stabilizer – by Derek Neary (NNSL.com – June 27, 2024)

https://www.nnsl.com/

Nunavut’s qamutik hitched to growing mining revenues; NWT accentuates upside of big government

The tale of two territories remains divergent. Nunavut’s 3.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product in 2023 was the strongest in the country, according to initial data from Statistics Canada in May.

The usual players were front and centre. Mining’s share of Nunavut’s GDP continues to expand, reaching a record high 46.7 per cent in 2023, up significantly from 28.5 per cent in 2019. All of that gold and iron extraction — and the related spin offs — represented $1.37 billion for the economy last year, a slight increase from $1.33 billion in 2022.

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Japan finds over 200 million tonnes of battery metals in seabed – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 25, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Japanese researchers have found more than 200 million tonnes of manganese nodules rich in battery metals in the Pacific Ocean, within the country’s exclusive economic zone. The team of experts from the University of Tokyo and the Nippon Foundation said the fist-sized nodules cover an extensive area of the seabed near Minamitorishima, a remote Tokyo Island.

These metals-rich rocks are located at depths of about 5,500 metres and are thought to be very similar to the polymetallic nodules found in the Clarion-Clipperton zone in the Pacific, as they hold cobalt, nickel and copper in addition to manganese.

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Failure of Victoria Gold processing plant in Yukon spurred by rock collapse inside gold mine – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

An internal rock collapse at a gold mine in the Yukon was a major factor in the collapse of a gold processing plant operated by Victoria Gold Corp., The Globe and Mail has learned.

Whitehorse-based Victoria Gold on Monday said that its heap leach pad had failed at its Eagle gold mine, and that part of the infrastructure had breached the containment region, raising the possibility of environmental damage from cyanide leaking into the environment.

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Norway to award Arctic blocks for seabed mining in 2025 (Reuters – June 26, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

OSLO, June 26 (Reuters) – Norway offered large areas of the Arctic region for its inaugural seabed mineral licensing round on Wednesday and aims to award exploration permits during the first half of 2025, the country’s energy ministry said.

Norway may become the first country in the world to start commercial deepsea mining, hoping to extract minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric car batteries needed to replace fossil fuel energy.

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