KoBold Metals, a California-based metals exploration company backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said it has discovered a vast copper deposit in Zambia.
The rare discovery of a large-scale copper deposit could help in the global race to secure a supply of materials critical to the energy transition. Copper is in high demand due to its use in renewable energy and electric vehicles.
Apivotal nuclear showdown is simmering behind Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, as Kyiv pushes its international partners—primarily the U.S.—to kneecap one of Moscow’s most influential and lucrative strategic industries.
While Ukraine’s troops weather fresh Russian winter offensives in the south and east of the country, Kyiv’s energy minister is advancing a long-term plan to pivot away from Russian-designed and fueled nuclear energy reactors, the export of which has given the Kremlin powerful leverage over a raft of European nations.
The Nisga’a Nation in northwest BC is forming Canada’s largest Indigenous-majority owned public royalty company, demonstrating the increasing power of First Nations in resource development.
A new agreement announced Thursday gives the Nisga’a a majority stake in the newly formed Nations Royalty. Vega Mining will acquire from the Nisga’a the rights to five existing annual benefit payment entitlements with projects in the Golden Triangle, in exchange for common shares in Vega’s capital. The privately-owned Vega — about which little public information is available — will be renamed Nations Royalty Corp.
When Ellen Rice-Hogan discovered that someone had bought a mining claim under her farm, she was shocked. “There’s no mining around the Township of Low, Que., about 40 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, where she raises sheep and cattle.
“It was shocking, surprising, all of the above,” she said. “We’re a small community. The potential of this is huge and it’s going to have a huge negative impact, I feel, on our territory.” There is a boom in mining claims in Quebec as prospectors anticipate explosive demand for minerals used in electric batteries.
https://indiginews.com/
Charles Hookimaw’s submission to the international organization aims to hold ‘Canada’ accountable: ‘It’s been dragging on too long’
An Attawapiskat member has submitted a 500-page human rights complaint to the United Nations over his First Nation’s lack of access to clean drinking water. For months, Charles Hookimaw has been working with lawyers to draft a document and recently mailed it to Geneva, where it is set to be considered by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
In the complaint, he details his community’s decades-long struggle with tainted water — and he’s hoping to speak on the matter before their permanent forum on Indigenous People. As “Canada” vies for a spot on the UNHRC, experts say the complaint could be a small step towards more equitable access to drinking water.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Clean Air Metals on the hunt for ‘distressed’ mineral projects in northwestern Ontario
It’s a lousy financing environment in junior mining, but Thunder Bay’s Clean Air Metals sees a strategic opportunity to go big. The owners and mine developers of the Thunder Bay North palladium-platinum project are out to enlarge its mineral holdings and are scanning the North for acquisition targets and partnership deals.
Northwestern Ontario is the place to be, the company said in a recent news release. Given the significant nickel, copper and palladium group metals showings, it “remains one of the best places in the world to explore for this suite of metals.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A Canadian-owned gold mine in central Africa has emerged as a key source of financing for Russia’s global military operations, leaving its owners fighting for compensation.
Four years after its biggest African gold mine was seized by Russian mercenaries, Vancouver-based Axmin Inc. is seeking a cash settlement and a possible share of the mine’s royalties from the government of the Central African Republic (CAR), which allegedly allowed the mercenaries to grab the mine.
Nations desperate for Africa’s minerals, writes Frank Giustra, should find a way to compete with China’s investments in the continent.
“The new scramble for resources on the continent offers an opportunity for Africa to reset its relations with more powerful external actors. Africa’s wealth of critical minerals will be essential to help the world achieve its energy transition. In return, African leaders should negotiate smart deals that ensure the continent draws just recompense for the minerals on its soil — and ensure those benefits are spread evenly to its citizens.”
Dr. Comfort Ero, president and CEO, the International Crisis Group
… The world is already facing an enormous deficit in minerals for our future needs, but with the transition to clean energy, the projected deficit will be almost impossible to fulfil.
(Bloomberg) — Just 18 months ago, the world’s biggest mining company was in a nickel frenzy. BHP Group, to much fanfare, had struck a deal with Tesla Inc. to supply it with the crucial ingredient for electric vehicles. It was about to go toe-to-toe with Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest for control of one of the globe’s most prospective mines.
For BHP, nickel offered a bright spot. Its management had earmarked the material as a key pillar of growth, a future-facing commodity that would help offset its exit from fossil fuels and let it tap into new demand driven by the world’s race to decarbonize.
Forced shutdown of $10-billion mine signals to companies: invest in rule-of-law countries only
Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, sixth largest copper producer in the world, has learned the hard way: a US$10-billion mining project can be cancelled after several years in operation with the support of several successive governments.
In December, the Panamanian government ordered the closing of FQM’s Cobre Panamá mine, which produced 350,000 tonnes of copper in 2022. This represents 1.5 per cent of global copper supply and five per cent of Panama’s GDP, neither a trivial number.
Risk aversion is likely to leave major Western miners lagging in a race to tap Africa’s reserves of critical raw materials that has gathered pace now Middle Eastern oil powers have begun to emulate China’s years of investment on the continent.
Attracting the capital needed to advance copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium projects in Africa will be high on the agenda when executives, bankers and government officials gather in Cape Town, South Africa, for the annual African Mining Indaba beginning on Monday.
Five of the world’s major carmakers aren’t sufficiently mapping their supply chains to stamp out links to forced labor programs in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The area in China’s northwest is an important aluminum producer, accounting for about 9% of global supply, and the industry has ties to state-sponsored labor transfer programs that have been accused of coercing Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into jobs, it said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The problem with government mandates aimed at manipulating free markets is they are typically based in political expediency, not commercial reality.
As more potholes appear on the road to electric-vehicle nirvana, edicts by lawmakers in Canada and states such as California and New York to require all new-car sales be EVs by 2035 are proving the point: Politically motivated virtue signals rarely withstand pressure testing from real-world market forces.
Approximately 60 kilometres north of Ottawa, a small Quebec municipality is taking a stand against mining exploration in the area. After hearing feedback from locals, the municipality of Low, Que., decided during a January 8th council meeting to support its population in resisting mining development.
The decision came after the municipality noticed a “proliferation of mining claims on private land as well as on public land, on the territory of the Municipality of the Township of Low and neighbouring municipalities,” council said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/
Provincial government rejected request for pause in 2022, won’t say if position has changed
First Nations leaders say they’ll up their protests and consider legal action if the Ontario government refuses to address their concerns with the province’s online system for staking mining claims. A 2018 move to digitize this process, which previously had prospectors physically hammer posts in the ground, has prompted an “unprecedented” and overwhelming surge in claims, the Chiefs of Ontario said last week.
The organization, which advocates for 133 First Nations province-wide, outlined demands for a one-year moratorium on new claims in a letter sent to provincial leaders.
