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NEWS RELEASE: Tariffs or no Tariffs, Genuine First Nation Partnerships must be the Backbone of Sustainable Development in Ontario and throughout Canada (Eabametoong First Nation – May 14, 2025)

Eabametoong, Ontario – “Respect and wisdom go a long way, although they are becoming rare in these days of selfinterest,” reflected Chief Solomon Atlookan and Council from Eabametoong First Nation. “Many politicians are promising change and racing to push new projects without thinking through what positive development is really about – improving quality of life for the long term.”

Yesterday Prime Minister Carney announced his new cabinet, and many in Canadian and Provincial politics have been scrambling to respond to the threats coming from our long time American allies. The leadership of Eabametoong First Nation has written to invite governments and businesses to return their focus to a much deeper and fundamental alliance: Treaty #9 and relationships with First Nations. EFN is calling for a ‘war council’ to be formed with the specific focus of promoting the economic and social sustainability of our shared way of life.

“Our ancestors fought and spilled blood alongside the settler forces in 1812 to preserve our way of life against American expansionism, and we later agreed to a Treaty that promised shared control of our lands and the mutual prosperity of our peoples.

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Burgundy Goes All In on Downstream Deals, Closes Manufacturing Business – by Leah Meirovich (Rapaport Magazine – May 14, 2025)

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Burgundy Diamond Mines will work directly with manufacturers, traders, jewelers and luxury brands to make direct deals for the sale of rough diamonds from its Ekati mine in Canada.

The collaborations are a way for the miner to maximize the value of its diamonds, it said Tuesday. It will also allow the company and its partners to have full traceability on its goods from mine to market, it explained.

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China’s gold market surges in April, but investment demand may cool along with trade tensions – World Gold Council – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – May 14, 2025)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – China’s gold market posted one of its strongest performances of all time in April, with prices, physical and investment demand all sky-high, but demand may wane as U.S.-China tensions ease, according to Ray Jia, Research Head, China at the World Gold Council (WGC).

Jia noted that global gold prices continued their rise in April, and this strength was reflected in the Chinese market. “Our model shows that a weaker dollar, elevated geopolitical/economic uncertainties and strong gold ETF inflows drove gold up,” he said. “While the LBMA Gold Price PM in USD saw its strongest April since 2011, the SHAUPM in RMB recorded its highest April return in 19 years.”

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China Tightens Control of Critical Minerals in Peru and Brazil – by Maria Zuppello (Dialogo-Americas.com – May 13, 2025)

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Driven by its ambition to achieve greater control over key raw materials used in high-tech industries for its own gain and exert geopolitical influence, China has been accelerating its expansion in the critical minerals sector worldwide.

The strategy for monopoly over minerals essential for warfare technologies and military modernization has led Beijing to increase its investment and influence in Latin America, a move experts say poses global and national security concerns, as China could use critical minerals as bargaining chip in conflicts or disrupt supply chains to hinder technological advancements.

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Trump keeps saying the U.S. doesn’t need Canada’s stuff. We asked experts if he’s right – by Jordan Gowling (Financial Post – May 13, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Here’s a look at eight Canadian exports and whether they are essential to America

In his Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney last Tuesday, President Donald Trump repeated his refrain that the U.S. doesn’t need or want anything Canada produces, listing off a litany of goods he said his country would rather make itself. But can the U.S. really do without our stuff?

We checked with economists and industry experts to see just how much the U.S. relies on eight of our biggest exports, and whether Trump is right in thinking they can go it alone. rump made it clear during his meeting with Carney that the U.S. does not want Canadian-made vehicles. “We want to make our own cars, we don’t really want cars from Canada,” said Trump. “At a certain point, it won’t make economic sense for Canada to build those cars.”

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The Taliban and Burkina Faso ambassadors pledge new trade and mining cooperation – by Wilson McMakin (Associated Press – May 2025)

https://apnews.com/

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Taliban’s acting ambassador to Iran has met with his Burkina Faso counterpart in the Iranian capital Tehran as part of a broader outreach effort by the West African country to win new trade partners, according to Taliban-controlled media.

During the meeting between acting Ambassador Maulvi Fazl Mohammad Haqqani and Ambassador Mohammad Kabura, both parties pledged to cooperate on trade, mining and vocational training. The Taliban are the de facto rulers of Afghanistan.

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China’s rare earth curbs have ‘changed psychology’ at US firms (Bloomberg News – May 12, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s weaponization of rare earths in its trade war with the US will spark a much greater focus on American supply security for critical minerals, according to MP Materials Corp., the only US miner of the key materials used in smartphones and defense applications.

“Regardless of how trade negotiations evolve from here, the system as it existed is broken, and the rare-earth Humpty Dumpty, so to speak, is not getting put back together,” the miner’s chief executive officer, Jim Litinsky, said on an earnings call last Friday.

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So much for ‘drill, baby, drill’? – by Matt Egan (CNN.com – May 12, 2025)

https://www.cnn.com/

America’s oil industry is facing immense pressure during Trump 2.0. Even though President Donald Trump vowed to usher in a period of American energy dominance, the administration’s trade war and OPEC’s production hikes have cast a shadow over the oil patch.

In fact, once-gangbusters US oil production growth is now at risk of grinding to a halt — or even going in reverse. Hurt by weakening demand and depressed prices, US oil output is now expected to shrink in 2026, S&P Global Commodity Insights projected on Monday. S&P estimates that US oil production will dip to 13.3 million barrels per day in 2026, a 130,000-barrel decline from its 2025 forecast.

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State of Diamonds: What’s Next for Lab-Grown Diamonds? – by Avi Krawitz (National Jeweler – May 14, 2025)

https://nationaljeweler.com/

While the product has entrenched itself in the market, retailers and consultants are assessing the next phase of the category’s development.

Being late to the party can be an advantage, says Constance Polamalu while relating her journey on the road to selling lab-grown diamonds. As chief operating officer of Zachary’s Jewelers in Annapolis, Maryland, Polamalu took time during the pandemic to assess opportunities in the lab-grown market.

“Our area tends to be a bit delayed in following trends and there wasn’t a big advocate for lab grown here at the time, but it was looming,” she recalls.

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Mining the Northwest: Orla spends to elevate Musselwhite to ‘next level’ production – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 14, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vancouver miner invests $115 million to upgrade, expand and lengthen mine life of northwest operation

Vancouver’s Orla Mining is delivering as originally advertised when it comes to investing and rebuilding in its latest catch at the Musselwhite Mine.

The upstart mid-tier gold company is investing $115 million into the remote northwestern Ontario underground operation to plunk into mine development, procure new equipment, and launch an aggressive round of exploration drilling this year.

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Federal government appoints first Indigenous Minister of Indigenous Services Canada – by Willow Fiddler (Globe and Mail – May 14, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The first Indigenous person ever to be appointed Minister of Indigenous Services Canada has a big job ahead of them and high expectations to meet, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations says. Mandy Gull-Masty, from the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi in Quebec, was sworn in on Tuesday to lead the ministry, which administers services and programs for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse told The Globe and Mail that Ms. Gull-Masty will be held to a higher standard because she is a First Nations woman, but that she will prove her leadership to the country.

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France’s Orano files lawsuit over staff detention in Niger – by Anna Peverieri, Forrest Crellin and Portia Crowe(Reuters – May 13, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

French uranium miner Orano said on Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit with the Niger courts over the “arbitrary arrest, illegal detention and unjust confiscation of property” involving its staff and assets in the country.

Niger and neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have been stepping up pressure on foreign mining companies over the past year, seizing assets and removing permits as all three Sahel countries look to assert more sovereignty over their natural resources.

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‘Diamonds are forever,’ but not necessarily so for northern mining industry – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Sudbury – May 13, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

DeBeers renews focus on natural diamonds after closing lab-grown business

DeBeers recently renewed its focus on natural diamonds after experimenting with lab-grown ones. But that probably won’t be enough to revive diamond mining in northern Ontario, according to some working in the sector.

In a news release last week, the mining giant pointed to a sharp decline in prices for lab-grown diamonds and said that trend underpinned the company’s “core belief in rare, high value and natural diamond jewelry.” DeBeers started its lab-grown diamond business around the same time it closed its only diamond project in Ontario — the Victor Mine near Attawapiskat First Nation in the province’s far north.

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A Double-Whammy Of Politics And Science Knocks Gold – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – May 12, 2025)

https://www.forbes.com/

Politics and science have combined to wipe $225 an ounce off the price of gold in three weeks with worse to come if peace takes hold in war zones and if an experiment in man-made gold moves out of its laboratory phase.

The fall from a peak of $3433 an ounce on April 22 to around $3208/oz today was caused largely by the promise of peace in Ukraine and Gaza and an easing of tariffs in the U.S. v China trade war.

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Could Trump use wartime emergency law to boost Montana metals mining, curtail Russian imports? – by Mike Sunnucks (Fairfield Sun Times – May 12, 2025)

https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/

President Donald Trump invoked a wartime and emergency law in March to bolster critical materials and rare-earth metals mining production in the U.S.

“The Defense Production Act (DPA) will be used to expand domestic mineral production capacity,” reads the order, referring to the federal law that was established during the Korean War, invoked during the Cold War to help bolster U.S. aluminum and titanium industries, and most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase manufacturing of masks and ventilators.

Now, there could be an effort by Trump to use his emergency powers under the DPA to bolster platinum and palladium mining in Montana and curtail Russian imports of the precious metals. Montana is the only state where platinum and palladium (the latter used mostly in catalytic converters for cars and trucks) is mined.

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