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Fueling the Future: Sudbury conference focuses on critical minerals – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – June 5, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Those who attended also talked about the supply chain to deliver them

Once again, Cambrian College was the site of the BEV In-Depth: Mines to Mobility conference. This third annual conference, held last week, gathered players in the Battery Electric Vehicle future of Ontario to listen, learn and exchange ideas.

“It is a natural fit for us – and Sudbury – to step forward into this future,” said Shawn Poland, Cambrian’s vice president of External Partnerships, Strategic Enrollment. “Cambrian and other Sudbury institutions can play an important role in research and development.”

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Traders Are Desperate for Copper Deals and Miners Are Cashing In – by Archie Hunter and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A heated competition for copper among some of the biggest commodity traders is creating opportunities for miners to negotiate favorable terms ranging from huge upfront payments to extra-long contracts.

Recent moves by cash-flush energy traders including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. to expand in metals — a market long dominated by Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group — are raising tensions and sparking a scramble for contracts, at a time when the industry is already facing an unprecedented supply squeeze in copper ore.

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The figures show Canada needs more LNG projects – by Philip Cross (Financial Post – June 5, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

The economic benefits from building facilities and exporting gas at a premium price are substantial and it helps to reduce coal use in Asia

After years of planning and construction, the first major liquified natural gas (LNG) project in British Columbia — LNG Canada’s export terminal in Kitimat — is about to be completed. The $18-billion investment is supplied by a pipeline from northeastern B.C.

The terminal’s imminent completion is already stoking interest in other LNG projects, including the Cedar LNG project also at Kitimat (a joint venture of the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corp.), the Woodfibre LNG terminal near Squamish, Ksi Lisims LNG on Pearse Island, a floating export facility, as well as a possible Phase 2 of the LNG Canada project.

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South Korea, Africa leaders pledge deeper ties, critical mineral development – by Hyonhee Shin (Reuters – June 4, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

GOYANG, South Korea, June 4 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and the leaders of African countries agreed on Tuesday to forge deeper trade and business cooperation and launched a “critical minerals dialogue” aimed at sustainable development of the continent’s resources.

Hosting a first-ever summit with the leaders of 48 African nations, Yoon said South Korea would increase development aid for Africa to $10 billion over the next six years as it looks to tap the continent’s rich mineral resources and potential as a vast export market.

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At an emotional D-Day ceremony at Canadian War Cemetery in France, relatives, veterans remember those lost – by Paul Waldie and Irene Galea (Globe and Mail – June 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

They came from Pimicikamak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba with a flag and prayers, to honour one of their own, a young soldier who died taking the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

The tombstone in the Canadian War Cemetery in Bény-sur-Mer is marked simply “R. Beardy, gunner.” He enlisted in the army with his brother, Sandy, and they were among the roughly 14,000 Canadians who participated in the D-Day landing on June 6, 1944, and the months-long campaign that liberated France.

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Not All Diamonds Are Forever, Says De Beers – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – June 4, 2024)

https://www.forbes.com/

A six-year synthetic diamond experiment by De Beers is being abandoned in the first aftershock of the failed $49 billion attempt by BHP to buy mining rival Anglo American, the current owner of the diamond industry leader.

The controversial decision to make and market synthetic, or laboratory grown diamonds, was an attempt by De Beers to be a player at the cheap end of the gem business, a place in which it has never been comfortable. Lured by the opportunity to sell man-made gems to a mass audience there was always the risk that De Beers would get trapped in a race to the bottom in both quality and price.

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Mining tour allows Sudbury to show off expertise, technology – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – June 3, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Municipality and MineConnect team up to show off mining points of interest for out of town reporters and VIPs who attended the battery electric vehicle conference

The Sudbury-based MineConnect organization showed off during last week’s battery electric vehicle conference. MineConnect, in collaboration with the City of Greater Sudbury, hosted out-of-town mining journalists and others connected with mining and battery electric vehicles as part of the conference.

The mine supply and services association is a not-for-profit agency that represents hundreds of Northern Ontario businesses and services that provide supplies and support to every sector of the mining industry.

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Russia Said to Seek Takeover of France’s Uranium Assets in Niger (Bloomberg News – June 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Russia is seeking to take over uranium assets in Niger held by a state-controlled French company, according to people informed about the matter, in a further challenge to Western interests in Africa.

Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear company, has had contacts with Niger’s military-led authorities about acquiring assets held by France’s Orano SA, according to a person in Moscow familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. A western diplomat based in the region said talks were likely centered around mining permits. Niger accounted for about 4% of global uranium mine production in 2022, according to the World Nuclear Association.

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India repatriates over 100 tonnes of gold from BoE to RBI vaults, amount could double in coming months – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 3, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Over 100 tonnes of gold have been moved from the United Kingdom to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) vaults in one of the most ambitious transfers of the precious metal ever undertaken, and that amount could double in the coming months, according to a report from the Times of India published Friday.

Up until now, over half of the RBI’s gold reserves were being held with the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) overseas, but the Indian government has begun the process of repatriating the country’s bullion holdings.

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De Beers to Stop Producing Lab-Grown Diamonds for Jewelry – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – June 2, 2024)

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De Beers will cease creating synthetic diamonds for its Lightbox consumer brand in a strategic revamp that will also see it manufacture and sell natural polished. “We believe the value of lab-grown diamonds lies in technology rather than in jewelry,” De Beers CEO Al Cook said Friday at the company’s JCK Las Vegas breakfast event.

The miner’s Element Six business will streamline its three chemical vapor deposition (CVD) plants, merging them all into its $94 million facility in Portland, Oregon. That plant will pivot into a technology hub that produces diamonds for industrial applications, executives explained.

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Ottawa’s EV mandate is in trouble and that’s a good thing – by Gwyn Morgan (Financial Post – June 4, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

All the new electrical generation and metal mining required means EVs

The federal government has mandated that all new light duty vehicles be electric by 2035. Achieving that goal would require vastly more electrical generation capacity and an enormous expansion of charging stations.

A Fraser Institute study published in March found that handling the higher load would require either 13 large new gas plants or the equivalent of 10 new mega-dams the size of B.C.’s $16-billion hydro Site C. Just one problem: almost all viable hydro sites have already been dammed. Plus: it took 10 years to get environmental approval for Site C and another 10 to build it. That leaves the natural gas plants. But powering EV’s with natural gas puts the kibosh on zero emissions.

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Low nickel prices exerting drag on Sudbury economy: Report – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 4, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Employment should surpass pre-pandemic peak next year, however, and construction seems to be picking up

Nickel prices are down and the residential market in Sudbury has cooled, but the city’s population is expected to keep growing and lower interest rates will eventually spur more housing starts, a new report predicts. “The slowing national economy and soft commodity prices foreshadow weakness in Sudbury, home of the Big Nickel,” states an economic outlook from the Conference Board of Canada.

Worries about the near-term prospects for electric cars and their nickel-consuming batteries, along with rising Indonesian supply, have “pummelled nickel prices,” the board states. “Prices peaked in March 2022 and were roughly half that in March 2024.”

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Why the U.S. is heading for hyperinflation — and what will happen when it arrives – by Frank Giustra (Toronto Star – June 4, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Bonds will be losers, stock picking trickier and high-priced tech stocks a sell, writes Frank Giustra. So how can you protect yourself from the coming disaster?

In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate. – Charles de Gaulle

In the opinion piece I wrote last week, I warned of a looming financial crisis in the U.S. (and other Western nations) fuelled by spiralling debt, money printing and a broken political system — and that most people will be unprepared.

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Alberta municipality appeals regulator’s decision to accept coal exploration – by Bob Weber (CBC Calagary/Canadian Press -June 3, 2024)

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

The project has previously been denied by federal and provincial environmental reviews

An Alberta ranching community is fighting a planned hearing on proposed coal exploration in the Rocky Mountains, saying the province’s arm’s-length energy regulator shouldn’t have heeded a letter from its energy minister suggesting an application from Northback Holdings be accepted.

The information is contained in documents released last week by the Alberta Energy Regulator. They outline the Municipal District of Ranchland’s request to appeal the regulator’s ruling that Northback’s plans for Grassy Mountain in southwest Alberta are exempt from an order blocking such development.

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Editorial: Mining EV halo dims – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – May 31, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Mining’s association with planet-saving EVs was supposed to make mining, if not cool, at least more acceptable. Maybe even virtuous.

But EVs have come under attack from both the political left and right — showing that mining can’t count on a halo effect from EVs to rehabilitate its image.

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