The Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatoon will receive more federal funding to help commercialize some of the processes at the facility.
Federal Minister for PrairiesCan Dan Vandal said $6 million will improve the process to separate unrecovered rare earth oxides from radioactive monazite tailings. He said these oxides would normally be disposed of and that more rare earth material will be recovered from these processes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden came out in opposition to the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, saying on Thursday that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers.”
In a statement, Biden added: “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”
The Trudeau government’s mandate that all new passenger vehicle sales must be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035 could cause chaos because Canada’s electricity grid isn’t close to having the capacity needed to charge them, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.
The fiscally conservative think tank estimates in a report released Thursday that to meet the higher demand for electricity will require increasing electricity generation nationally by up to 15.3% within 11 years.
‘We won’t have electric cars,’ say local communities ravaged by lithium mining for car batteries.
Calcha K, Bolivia – Teófila Cayo Calcina, 56, stands among her rows of quinoa plants, pointing towards the horizon. “The lithium plant is 50km in that direction. We are worried that the mining could leave us with not enough water to survive,” she says, clearly disheartened.
Calcina lives with her husband in one of the houses overlooking the central square of the tiny village of Calcha K, an hour’s walk from her quinoa fields, where she grows quinoa real, a variety which is native to the Uyuni region of Bolivia and is considered a “superfood” in Western countries such as the US and Europe.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
It will cost at least $6.4-billion to tackle selenium contamination from Teck Resources Ltd.’s Elk Valley coal mines, according to a new report – far exceeding a $1.9-billion security bond required by the B.C. government to cover cleanup costs.
The report, commissioned by environmental group Wildsight, bases its price tag on calculations of what it would cost to implement Vancouver-based Teck’s current plan of building water treatment plants through to 2027 and then running them for 60 years.
March 18 (Reuters) – Northern Dynasty Minerals, the developer of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska, has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking to overturn the agency’s veto of the project.
The developer on Friday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Anchorage challenging the EPA’s 2023 final determination prohibiting the discharge of mining waste in the state’s Bristol Bay over concerns the materials would degrade the watershed and harm important fishing ecosystems.
Hundreds of bright young technologists have landed in California this weekend for a two-day hackathon — a quintessential start-up contest in which teams of coders race to build software. But rather than a posh, snack-laden San Francisco office, they’ll work in a cavernous 6,000 square-foot warehouse in El Segundo, a refinery town southwest of Los Angeles.
And instead of building mobile apps or AI chatbots, competitors will hack together surveillance tools, electronic warfare systems, or drone countermeasures for the front lines in Ukraine — battlefield technology driving a funding frenzy among tech investors.
(Bloomberg) — The commodity trading industry reaped its second-best year ever in terms of profits, banking over $100 billion and building up a mountain of cash to spend on assets and breaking into new markets.
While earnings fell from 2022’s blockbuster records, profits across the sector still easily eclipsed prior highlights such as in 2008-2009, according to analysis from consultancy Oliver Wyman LLC.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Magna Mining moves into advanced exploration at Crean Hill Project
Magna Mining, a home-grown Sudbury mine developer, is putting the paperwork in place to test mine a former INCO mine. The company said it filed an amended closure plan for its Crean Hill Project with the provincial mines ministry in late February.
This opens the door for Magna to begin an advanced exploration program that will shape the project’s economics and life of mine. Crean Hill is located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury basin. Under the Inco flag, it ran from 1900 to 2002. Magna acquired the asset from Vale in November 2022 and put 19,000 metres of drilling into the property last year.
Canadian securities regulations, local expertise makes Vancouver a junior mining mecca
Pick any mining jurisdiction in the world—Mexico, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—and you are likely to find at least one mining or exploration company there that is headquartered in Vancouver. As of 2022, there were 944 publicly listed mining and mineral exploration and development companies headquartered in B.C., according to the BC Securities Commission (BCSC).
Most of these companies don’t have mines or exploration projects in B.C. or even Canada, for that matter. Some operate in far-flung frontiers—places such as Guatemala, Mali and the DRC, which can be politically risky and even downright dangerous.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
For the resources industry, the trick to meeting ESG standards was pretty simple: sell your dirty fuels, especially coal. If you did, investors who cared about the health of the planet would love you, and your company’s valuation would go up.
The formula seemed solid a few years ago, and a big number of mining giants sold or spun off their coal assets. Canada’s Teck Resources was the latest to pursue the black-to-green transition with the sale, announced last year but not yet approved by Ottawa, of its metallurgical coal business to Switzerland’s Glencore.
Investors shave nearly $900 million off market cap in one of swiftest, largest single-day losses for a Canadian junior miner
Yukon-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. once harboured ambitions to build one of Europe’s largest gold and silver mines in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, which has been mined by humans for at least 2,000 years. But the proposed mining area is now on the UNESCO World Heritage list and Gabriel just lost an eight-year legal battle with Romania that has left the company’s future uncertain.
Gabriel’s experience is a cautionary tale that shows how shifting attitudes around resource extraction and an evolving global financial system have changed the business of mining.
Hopes of US rate cuts alone are unlikely to have driven latest leg higher, say strategists
The price of gold has surged 7 per cent in just over a week to hit record highs, leaving longtime market watchers struggling to explain what has been one of the yellow metal’s most curious rallies.
The sudden price move has lifted the haven asset above its previous peak reached in December to hit nearly $2,195 per troy ounce on Friday, according to LSEG data. Some commentators have attributed the move to growing expectations of US interest rate cuts, which would make the non-yielding asset relatively more attractive.
What goes through your mind when you see some of hip-hop’s heavy hitters sporting exorbitant jewelry everywhere they go? Do you think they’re just living their best life, or they’re being irresponsible with their money?
The world of hip-hop is unique in many ways. It is one of the most expressive art forms available today. It’s common, expected even, to see some of the biggest names in the genre donning expensive diamonds, gold studs, rings, bracelets, grills, and watches. And with shows like Youtube docuseries, “Ice Cold,” where stars like Migos, A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, and French Montana show off their bling, it seems they’re clamoring for every opportunity to exhibit their collections.
The Baptiste and Turnagain mines would represent $8 billion in capital investments and would contribute significantly to Canada’s nickel production
Canada is the world’s sixth-largest nickel producer, with roughly 130,000 million tonnes of nickel produced in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Labrador annually. There are currently no nickel mines in B.C., but a growing demand for the metal from the electric vehicle market, and a federal strategy that promotes critical mineral self-sufficiency in Canada, could change that.
There are now two very large nickel mines proposed for B.C., representing a potential investment of roughly $8 billion: The FPX Nickel Corp. (TSX-V: FPX, OTCQB: FPOCF) Baptiste project near Fort St. James and the Giga Metals (TSX-V: GIGA) Turnagain project near Dease Lake in northwest B.C.
