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Gold rush grips Asia despite near-record prices – by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Brijesh Patel (Reuters – June 11, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE, June 12 (Reuters) – Demand for gold in Asia is surging despite prices hovering near the record highs it hit in May, industry officials say, as buyers snap up the metal to hedge against geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Spot gold is trading a little over $2,300 per ounce, up about 12% year-to-date and only about 6% shy of the record high it hit last month. Lower confidence in other investment options, such as real estate and equities, is also a factor behind the demand for gold, analysts say.

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[Bre-X Gold Scandal] Bay Street in the shade – by Rita Trichur (Globe and Mail – June 11, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

What do phony gold, a Russian godfather and a crypto scam have in common? They all illustrate how The Globe plays an important role in exposing corporate malfeasance

It was surely one of the clumsiest attempts ever to rewrite history. In 1996, Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd. spent months assuring investors it owned most of Busang, a mammoth gold deposit in Indonesia. But the following February, CEO David Walsh flipped the script.

“Some have mistakenly thought that we somehow owned 90 per cent of this property,” Walsh said at the time. “This was never the practical reality, nor was it ever a basis for the valuation of Bre-X stock.”

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Opinion: The U.S. has a 3D problem with Canada — Dairy, defence and digital tax – by Goldy Hyder (Financial Post – June 12, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement is up for review in 2026. We need progress on three irritants that unite American politicians

Back in 2022, I wrote on this page that American political leaders from across party lines were increasingly viewing Canada through “3D” glasses. Their perception of Canada was being coloured and distorted by three cross-border disagreements: dairy quota allocation, digital taxes and defence spending. The analogy was intended as a warning.

These same 3D irritants have taken on added urgency in what has become an extremely contentious 2024 U.S. election cycle. At a time when American political divisions are widening, groups of Republicans and Democrats are joining together to voice shared frustration with Canada’s refusal in these areas to align itself with its most important ally.

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Sudbury column: Geopolitics, global warming make the Ring of Fire as important as ever – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – June 8, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Construction of a road to the mine site needs to start now

Without a doubt, the Ring of Fire camp and its many strategic minerals that include nickel, copper, platinum group metals, chromite and titanium – just to mention a few as explorers have just scratched the proverbial surface – is the most important mining discovery in Canadian history. It may even exceed the legendary Sudbury Basin someday.

Discovered in 2007, the region is located approximately 450 km northeast of Thunder Bay in the isolated and vast peatlands of Hudson Bay, which itself is roughly the size of Norway but with only about 10,000 people. Contrary to fanatical ENGOs, sustainable mineral development and exploration practices will have minimal impact on the environment and provide the critical minerals needed to stop global warming.

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The True Story Behind the Hulu Documentary The Jewel Thief – by Mariah Espada (Time Magazine – July 13, 2023)

 

https://time.com/

The Jewel Thief, a documentary out July 13 on Hulu, details the life of Gerald Blanchard, once called the “world’s most ingenious thief.” The film goes beyond the details of Blanchard’s notable crown jewel robbery, uncovering his complex, world-spanning decades of crimes and the story of the detectives who finally caught him.

Filmmaker Landon Van Soest first learned about Blanchard around 2007, when he made national headlines for returning an Austrian crown jewel known as the Sisi Star that he had stolen in 1998. In making the documentary, Van Soest aspired to dig deeper than what meets the eye about Blanchard and his crimes.

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Ten million trees really made a difference to Sudbury’s landscape – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – June 8, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

And about half those trees came from seedlings grown by Vale and its greenhouse in Copper Cliff

More than 10 million trees have been planted as part of Greater Sudbury’s regreening efforts, and Vale (formerly Inco) is responsible for nearly half of those seedlings. They started out tinier than a thumbnail, but 50 years later, the first trees that were planted are now soaring into the sky, covered in needles or leaves, and providing shade, nourishment and homes to all kinds of critters.

About five million of those seedlings got their start at the Vale greenhouse in Copper Cliff. A large group, including children from the nearby elementary school, gathered at the greenhouse on Thursday to celebrate its 50th birthday.

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Exploring the mystery of the man embroiled in a Canadian mining company’s billion-dollar gold scam – by Lucy Wallis (CBC News – June 7, 2024)

 

https://www.cbc.ca/

New podcast digs into the history of Bre-X Minerals’s claims of gold deep in the Indonesian jungle

On the morning of March 19, 1997, Michael de Guzman, chief geologist at Canadian mining company Bre-X Minerals, boarded a helicopter flight to travel to a remote jungle site in Indonesia. It was a journey he had made many times before, to a place where he had reported finding huge deposits of gold.

But this time, de Guzman never arrived. Twenty minutes into the journey, a rear door on the left-hand side of the helicopter opened and de Guzman plummeted to his death into the dense foliage below.

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Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm may have to change strategy as company enters new round of upheaval – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 8, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Extrovert or introvert, buyer or builder, opportunistic or judicious. These are the existential questions that Rio Tinto must answer for itself as the global mining industry enters a new round of upheaval, driven by the lunge for metals critical to a low-carbon future. Which way will Rio, a primarily iron ore and aluminum producer, go?

No one knows, and there are enormous risks in both playing the mergers and acquisitions game and avoiding it. Rio knows it needs more copper – it is ranked a lowly eighth in terms of production. At the same time, its reputation for capital discipline and conservative thinking might make it shy away from bidding wars and hostile deals, perhaps even big mergers and acquisitions of the friendly variety.

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Wall Street throws in the towel on gold after Friday’s rout, Main Street optimism likely a pre-selloff snapshot – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 7, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – This week, precious metals markets saved all their drama for the grand finale. Spot gold opened the week trading at $2,325.26, and spent much of the first four days trading in a relatively narrow $25 range.

The expected 25 basis point rate cuts from the ECB and the Bank of Canada came and went, with spot gold eventually setting its weekly high of $2,386.75 just after midnight on Friday.

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Communities on the Move: Sudbury’s mining landscape ‘never been more exciting,’ says exec – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – June 7, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Stakeholders champion city as leader in critical minerals production

The Sudbury Basin has been a mining hotspot for more than a century, but as demand grows for critical minerals like nickel, there’s never been a more exciting time for the industry than right now.

That’s according to Gord Gilpin, the director of Ontario operations for Vale Base Metals, who led off a Sudbury-themed panel discussion at the BEV In Depth: Mines to Mobility conference May 30 at Cambrian College.

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New Caledonia crisis: Does France fear China will dominate Pacific colonies? – by Christine Rovoi (Pacific Media Network – June 7, 2024)

https://pmn.co.nz/

If you think the French Empire – powerful in the 19th and 20th centuries – no longer exists, you may want to think again. Thirteen colonies fly the French flag and speak the French language today. Independence has not yet come to these territories, and New Caledonia is among them.

Located less than 2400km north of Aotearoa New Zealand, New Caledonia has a population of 272,000 (2019 Census) with 40 per cent the Indigenous Kanaks. The Pacific island nation is reeling from political unrest following the 13 May protests, led by pro-independence supporters, in the capital Noumēa last month.

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China’s control and coercion in critical minerals – by Ian Satchewell (Australian Strategic Policy Institute – June 7, 2024)

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/

Markets for critical minerals are no longer shaping up to be the next components of the global economy to be dominated by China. They already are.

While Western nations were sleeping, China built vertically integrated supply chains for several critical minerals vital to the energy transition and high technology applications, including defence equipment.

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Nigeria turns to lithium as its oil industry struggles (Euro Dayfr.com – June 6, 2024)

https://euro.dayfr.com/

As Nigeria’s oil reserves begin to run out after decades of crude oil exploitation, the West African country is turning to another valuable resource – lithium. There is a growing global demand for this “white gold”, necessary for the production of batteries for electrical appliances, electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

Nigeria is estimated to have significant lithium resources, but the country’s mining industry is currently underdeveloped. Furthermore, the government must tackle the problem of resource theft, support the sustainable development of the mining industry and ensure that foreign players add value to the domestic market. rian of lithium to guarantee its success.

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Ranchers to fight coal bid in Alberta court – by lair McBride (Northern Miner – June 6, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Applications to drill for metallurgical coal in southwestern Alberta are pitting ranchers against an exploration company backed by Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

Calgary-based Northback Holdings, a subsidiary of Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, submitted applications last year to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for permits to drill at its Grassy Mountain project in the Crowsnest Pass region.

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What to know about Russia’s growing footprint in Africa – by Mark Banchereau and Jessica Donati (Associated Press – June 6, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa’s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States. Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

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