Twitter

IAMGOLD pours its first gold bar in northern Ont. – by Dan Bertrand (CTV News Northern Ontario – April 3, 2024)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

The new Côté Gold Mine in Gogama, Ont., has officially poured its first gold bar. After more than four years of construction and 15 million plus hours of work, IAMGOLD has achieved a memorable milestone at its newest open pit mine that has become the flagship of its Canadian operations.

Company president and CEO Renaud Adams said the achievement represents the culmination of years of hard work by the project team. “An incredible effort for the team on the ground as the project cost to first gold remains in line with the updated budget estimate while maintaining a near impeccable safety record(opens in a new tab),” he said.

Read more

Gold’s on track to hit $2,400 this year, less dependent on Fed rate cuts – Bank of America – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – April 3, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Bank of America was one of the bullish banks on gold heading into 2024, and everything they have seen this year has only added to their conviction.

In a note published Tuesday, commodity analysts, led by Michael Widmer, reiterated their call for gold prices to push to $2,400 an ounce this year. In December, Widmer said that he was expecting a gold rally when the Federal Reserve actually started cutting interest rates. That stance has only changed slightly.

Read more

War a real threat and Europe not ready, warns Poland’s Tusk – by Paul Kirby (BBC News – March 2024)

https://www.bbc.com/

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has delivered a blunt warning that Europe has entered a “pre-war era” and if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, nobody in Europe will be able to feel safe.

“I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past,” he told European media. “It’s real and it started over two years ago.” His remarks came as a fresh barrage of Russian missiles targeted Ukraine. Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks.

Read more

Russia’s Nornickel: Some EU clients refuse to buy products made of Russian metal (Reuters – March 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW, March 29 (Reuters) – Russia’s Nornickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a major producer of high-grade nickel, said on Friday that some clients in the European Union had refused to buy products made with Russian metals.

Although Nornickel itself and its metals is not a target of Western sanctions some consumers are voluntarily shunning deals for its metals and of products made from Russian raw materials, said Anton Berlin, vice president for sales.

Read more

The Sahel’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ – by Pepe Escobar (The Cradle – April 1, 2024)

https://thecradle.co/

The African Sahel is revolting against western neocolonialism – ejecting foreign troops and bases, devising alternative currencies, and challenging the old multinationals. Multipolarity, after all, cannot flower without resistance paving its path.

The emergence of Axes of Resistance in various geographies is an inextricable byproduct of the long and winding process leading us toward a multipolar world. These two things – resistance to the Hegemon and the emergence of multipolarity – are absolutely complementary.

The Axis of Resistance in West Asia – across Arab and Muslim states – now finds as its soul sister the Axis of Resistance spanning the Sahel in Africa, west to east, from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea.

Read more

Gallium Has More Than Doubled in Price on China Export Curbs (Bloomberg News – April 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Prices for gallium are close to their highest since 2011 as China’s export restrictions crimp global supply and hurt buyers of the metal used in a swathe of high-tech applications.

Beijing last year placed gallium and germanium under stricter government oversight — largely seen as a tit-for-tat response to the US-China trade war on technology. Gallium exports ground to a halt in August and September of 2023 and, while flows have restarted since then, volumes are still significantly lower.

Read more

Canada needs to act with a sense of urgency on critical minerals – by Abbas Ali Khan (Canadian Mining Journal – April 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

What will it take for Canada to reach its ambitious critical minerals goals? I was asked that question in Houston at a conference attended by lawyers from across the world on the future of energy.

My answer was that Canada’s preliminary steps towards a viable strategy will require much more significant involvement by the government, including financial support, streamlining approval processes, and removing regulatory barriers, if meaningful progress is to be made.

The following three areas that need prompt attention:

-Reducing overregulation.
-Far greater investment by all levels of government.
-Responding to geopolitical tensions and protectionism.

Read more

First gold pour at Gogama mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 1, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

IAMGOLD targets third quarter for commercial production at Côté

The new Côté Gold Mine has poured its first gold bar. Almost four years after the sod-turning to begin digging out the open pit, IAMGOLD is marking a memorable milestone of its now flagship operation outside Gogama.

“This achievement represents the culmination of over 15 million hours of work over four years of construction — an incredible effort for the team on the ground as the project cost to first gold remains in line with the updated budget estimate while maintaining a near impeccable safety record,” said company president-CEO Renaud Adams in a March 31 news release.

Read more

Canada’s coal exports up again in 2023 as government’s promised ban elusive – by Mia Rabson (Kitchener City News/Canadian Press – March 29, 2024)

Homepage

OTTAWA — Canadian exports of thermal coal increased another seven per cent last year, reaching the highest level in almost a decade. The boom in exports of the kind of coal burned to make electricity comes as Canada leads a charge to end the use of coal as a source of power worldwide, including at home.

The Liberals also promised three years ago that all thermal coal exports will stop from Canada by 2030, but exports have risen almost 20 per cent since that promise was made.

Read more

Uranium mined near Grand Canyon as prices soar, US pushes more nuclear power – by Susan Montoya Bryan (Associated Press/Arizona Capital Times – March 31, 2024)

Arizona Capitol Times

The largest uranium producer in the United States is ramping up work just south of Grand Canyon National Park on a long-contested project that largely has sat dormant since the 1980s. The work is unfolding as global instability and growing demand drive uranium prices higher.

The Biden administration and dozens of other countries have pledged to triple the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in their battle against climate change, ensuring uranium will remain a key commodity for decades as the government offers incentives for developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and new policies take aim at Russia’s influence over the supply chain.

Read more

Like Jewels, Will Travel – by Amy Elliot (New York Times – April 2, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Gem- and jewelry-themed tours and excursions mix treasure hunting with adventure and cultural experiences.

Last year, when Roberto Ruiz visited the Carbonera mine in Querétaro, Mexico, he cracked open a grapefruit-size piece of rhyolite with a hammer. When he looked inside, “it was like finding a fire fossil,” he said during a recent phone interview from his home in San Antonio. Inside was an orangey-red fire opal that he likened to a flame, forever preserved in the sphere of igneous rock.

Mr. Ruiz and his wife, Erika Rodriguez, are among the few people who have traveled to the mine, a desolate spot located in Carbonera in central Mexico, a destination that’s well off the beaten tourist track, some 20 miles from the nearest city.

Read more

Barrick settles lawsuit with Tanzanian villagers who alleged security abuses – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – March 29, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. says its subsidiaries have settled a British court case with 10 Tanzanian villagers who alleged that police and security guards had caused deaths and injuries near the company’s North Mara gold mine.

The two subsidiaries in Tanzania did not admit any liability in the case at the High Court of Justice in London, Barrick said in a terse one-sentence statement on its website this week. It gave no other details.

Read more

Indonesia vows to speed up nickel output despite global glut – by A. Anantha Lakshmi (Australian Financial Review – Apr 1, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

Jakarta | Indonesia will press on with plans to expand nickel output despite a supply glut that is forcing rivals to shut down mines, as the world’s top producer aims to keep prices low and protect long-term demand for the metal crucial to electric car batteries, a senior government official has said.

The country’s production capacity for battery-grade nickel was expected to quadruple to 1 million tonnes by 2030, said Septian Hario Seto, the deputy co-ordinating minister for investment and mining. Capacity for nickel pig iron, which is used to make stainless steel, was projected to expand by up to 15 per cent in three years from the current 1.9 million tonnes, he added.

Read more

Canada’s mild winter disrupts key ice road to remote Arctic diamond mines – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) – An unusually warm winter in Canada this year has delayed the opening of a 400-kilometer (250-mile) ice road that is rebuilt every year as the main conduit for Rio Tinto, Burgundy Mines, and De Beers to access their diamond mines in the remote Arctic region.

The Winter Road, which serves the region accessible only by air for 10 months of the year, opened with a two-week delay in the middle of February, disrupting movement of goods along the ice road built over 64 frozen lakes.

Read more

Hitler’s Avatar – by Diane Francis (Sub-Stack – April 1, 2024)

https://dianefrancis.substack.com/

The Czechs have never forgotten that allies handed over their Sudetenland Province to Hitler in 1938 after the German dictator promised it would be “the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe”. Months later, Nazis occupied their country and waged war in Europe and around the world for seven more years, killing tens of millions.

To many today, Ukraine is the next Sudetenland as it fends off another war criminal with imperial ambitions who promises he will stop once it is occupied. The synchronicity is obvious and is why one of the most hawkish and driven leaders in Europe is Czech President Petr Pavel, a retired general and former NATO advisor. He has been as outspoken and blunt about Putin’s ruthless intention to swallow Ukraine and Europe as was Winston Churchill in the 1930s.

Read more