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Lithium Miners Shake Up Trading to Tackle Wild Price Swings – by Annie Lee and Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – May 19, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s lithium miners — facing an unprecedented demand surge and wild price swings — are shaking up the way the commodity is bought and sold. As lithium emerges as a linchpin of the global energy transition, the industry is in the grip of a slow-motion revolution that earlier upended commodities like iron ore: a push for more transparent and industry-wide pricing.

Albemarle Corp., the No. 1 lithium supplier, has held a series of auctions since March where potential buyers compete for cargoes via bids. These sales are a significant step for lithium, which until relatively recently was largely sold at prices fixed in long-term contracts.

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Solaris abandons proposed financing with Chinese company after deal stalled in national security review – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian critical minerals company Solaris Resources Inc. has called off its financing deal with China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. after failing to receive regulatory approval from Ottawa, which had been vetting the transaction on national security grounds. Vancouver-based Solaris in January said that Zijin intended to pay $130-million for a 15-per-cent equity stake in the company.

Solaris had planned to use the funds to advance its early-stage Warintza copper project in Ecuador. If the deal had been approved, Zijin would have been entitled to a seat on Solaris’s board, giving it influence over the strategic direction of the company. Copper, along with nickel, lithium and graphite, is used in electric-vehicle batteries and other low-carbon energy sources.

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Why a Small Pacific Island Territory Is Upending Nickel Prices – by Rishi Iyengar (Foreign Policy – May 21, 2024)

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Violent riots in New Caledonia are having an outsized global impact on critical mineral supply chains.

The tiny Pacific island territory of New Caledonia entered its second week of deadly riots on Monday, with protesters blocking roads and shutting down the airport. At least six people have been killed so far, and dozens of businesses have been looted and burned, prompting France—which governs the archipelago—to impose a 12-day state of emergency.

New Caledonia has been under French control since 1853, and it voted to remain that way as recently as 2021 despite a growing pro-independence movement. However, that movement exploded into violence last week after France approved a constitutional amendment to the island territory’s voting rules that critics say will dilute the representation of the island’s Indigenous Kanak people.

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Feds lean on B.C. to produce more critical minerals – by David Carrigg (Vancouver Sun – May 22, 2024)

https://vancouversun.com/

B.C. has large tapped and untapped reserves of minerals deemed critical to Canada’s economic future

B.C. is playing a crucial role in the federal government’s plan to ensure Canada produces 31 minerals deemed critical to the economic future. During a Conversations Live project hosted by Stuart McNish on Wednesday night, an expert panel outlined how these important minerals are part of a larger geopolitical movement and that B.C. has huge prospects for growth and job creation in mining.

As an example, Michael Goehring, President and CEO of the Mining Association of B.C., said that B.C. produces 80 per cent of Canada’s copper and that mineral is turned into the “electrification metal.”

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OPINION: Make no mistake, there’s an economic war happening, and the West is losing – by George Salamis and Mike St-Pierre (Globe and Mail – May 23, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

George Salamis, Lieutenant-Colonel (Hon) of the Royal Westminster Regiment, is executive chair of Integra Resources, a Canadian-based mining company that develops gold and silver mines in Canada and the U.S. Mike St-Pierre is a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy.

A global race is under way to secure critical minerals essential to power the next generation of civilian and military technology and to electrify the future. Control of global supply chains has become the new strategic centre of gravity, where access to minerals and metals are strategic weapons. The West is losing the resource war that targets our core social and political values. At stake is the national security of the West.

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Critical minerals need insulation from China’s market manipulation – by Angus Barker (Australian Strategic Policy Institution – May 21, 2024)

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

Investors can handle lots of different risks. They can price risks in construction, interest rates, weather and, with hedging, price movements in product markets. But the one risk they can’t price is political risk, the chance of some government action ruining profits. You can’t hedge against it.

How should we respond when, as the chief executive of critical-minerals company Iluka said this month, when accusing China of rigging rare earths prices, ‘monopolistic production, combined with interference in pricing … is resulting in market failure’? How should we respond when price risk is political risk?

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Focus: Copper’s record run at risk as US shipments calm speculator frenzy – by Eric Onstad and Julian Luk (Reuters – May 20, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – Copper’s lightning rally to record highs may not be sustainable in the coming weeks, with action concentrated on the shipment of material to cover exposed short positions in the U.S. Comex futures market rather than tepid demand in top consumer China.

Prices on the CME Group’s Comex hit a record last week, while benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rocketed on Monday to an all-time peak of $11,104.50 a metric ton, having surged 28% so far this year.

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The Promise of Nuclear Energy Brings the West to Mongolia – by Charlie Campbell (Time Magazine – May 14, 2024)

https://time.com/

The Gobi Desert, once revered by Mongolian poet Dulduityn Danzanravjaa as hiding a cosmic portal to the heavenly kingdom of Shambala, was transformed in the 20th century from spiritual energy center to fossil-fuel hub. Wild rabbits and donkeys share the windswept dunes with rusting oil pumps, while an endless caravan of soot-stained trucks haul coal south to the border with China. Now, the Gobi is on the cusp of another reincarnation, one that its supporters believe could help future-proof the global energy landscape.

In October, the French state-owned nuclear firm Orano signed a $1.7 billion deal to extract and process uranium from the Zuuvch-Ovoo mine, not two hours by car from the landmarked site of Danzanravjaa’s cosmic portal. Mongolia’s first uranium mine is expected to produce about 2,750 tons annually for three decades, some 4% of global production; it’s currently one of the top 10 unexploited deposits worldwide.

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Boeing, Airbus Working With Saudi Arabia on Metals for Planes – by Fahad Abuljadayel and Matthew Martin (Bloomberg News – May 20, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia said it’s working with top airplane makers Boeing and Airbus to get its aluminum and titanium approved for use in their planes as part of a push to get more manufacturing done inside the kingdom.

Achieving certification would potentially help the jet manufacturers overcome supply hurdles, including difficulties securing some raw materials. Saudi Arabia is also discussing making more aircraft components locally, according to the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation.

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Canada’s at the front of the pack in the EV race — but there’s a weak link – by David Olive (Toronto Star – May 21, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

China still boasts the largest EV ecosystem. But like other EV contenders including India and Indonesia, it is reliant on fossil fuels for power, David Olive writes.

Two months before Honda Motor Co. announced in April that it will build $15-billion worth of electric vehicle (EV) factories in Ontario, Canada had already eclipsed China as the country with the greatest potential to build a leading “global lithium-ion battery supply” chain.

That’s the finding of BloombergNEF (BNEF), a leader in monitoring global EV initiatives. It’s worth quoting at length why BNEF says Canada, among the 30 countries it surveys, is at the front of the pack in the race to create EV ecosystems.

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Discover the History of Place Vendôme in Paris – by Laura Beaney (Tatler Asia – October 31, 2019)

https://www.tatlerasia.com/

Few destinations stir up a sense of unparalleled luxury and cinematic history like Place Vendôme. From its seminal maisons to its storied clients and the magnificent jewels they covet, we pinpoint the exceptional moments that left a lasting imprint on the legacy of high jewellery

At the epicentre of exceptional jewellery lies one Parisian address: Place Vendôme. Its history, punctuated by war, revolt and the rise and fall of dynasties is almost as dazzling as the pieces its workshops produce. Completed in 1699 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, whose design stamp can be traced across France’s architectural high points, from the Palace of Versailles to Notre-Dame, the ambitious feat of urban design was initiated to frame the statue of then ruler Louis XIV.

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U.S. tariffs on the EV supply chain pose policy dilemma for Canada – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 21, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Canadian companies now have more incentive to sell south of the border than in their own country

Eric Desaulniers, chief executive of Montreal-based Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc., figured it was spam when he received an email inviting him to the White House for a vague policy announcement.

But his IT department told him the email was authentic, and days later, on May 14, United States President Joe Biden announced sweeping tariffs on China’s electric-vehicle supply chain that affect everything from EVs themselves to critical minerals, including a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese graphite beginning in 2026.

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OPINION: The transition from the U.S.-led global order will be rocky – by Robert Muggah and Misha Glenny (Globe and Mail – May 18, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Robert Muggah is a co-founder of the Igarapé Institute and the SecDev Group and a senior adviser to the United Nations. Misha Glenny is a British journalist and currently serves as rector of the Institute for Human Sciences.

The rise in doomscrolling is a morbid sign of the times. The obsessive consumption of negative news isn’t just bad for physical and mental health, but our very survival. Recent studies confirm that overexposure to social media short-circuits the brain’s natural self-defences, leaving us disoriented and depressed. It turns out that optimism is good for us. People fortified by an optimist mindset are less prone to conspiracy theories and are generally happier, healthier and live longer.

Yet there are reasons why optimism is in short supply. Widespread screen addiction is partly to blame for headline anxiety, especially among young people. Another reason the algorithms are winning is because the world is objectively more volatile today than at any time since the Second World War.

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Loved ‘Heeramandi’ on Netflix? 6 things you didn’t know about its Mughal-inspired jewellery – by Amrita Katara (Tatler Asia – May 22, 2024)

 

https://www.tatlerasia.com/

Indian filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest Netflix series, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar has been making waves since it released earlier this year. Set in 1920s Lahore, in pre-independent India, it depicts the lives of tawaifs (courtesans or dancing girls who performed exclusively for the nobility), amid India’s fight for freedom from British rule. The eight-episode saga is not only a study in culture, colour and historical grandeur, but it is also a visual feast of outfits and exquisite jewellery infused heavily with Mughal influences.

As the intricate storyline of Heeramandi unfolds, so do the layers of ornate costumes and breathtaking jewels. The task of bringing these historical adornments to life was entrusted to jewellery designers Vinay and Anshu Gupta of Shri Paramani Jewels of New Delhi. The duo, who created 10,000 pieces of high jewellery for the show, belongs to a family who in the old times were the treasurers of the Mughals themselves.

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Tarnished Wawa gold company out to ‘rebuild the trust’ of shareholders – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 17, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Red Pine Exploration takes no questions during webcall but still touts Wawa exploration project

Though Red Pine Exploration’s reputation has taken a severe hit, the Toronto gold company still believes in the untapped mineral potential of its Wawa Gold Project, said board chair Paul Martin.

In a May 15 webcall to shareholders, the Wawa gold explorer began the campaign to dig itself out of an emerging scandal involving published drill assay results that the company alleges were tampered with by former CEO Quentin Yarie.

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