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Canadian Mining Hall of Fame celebrates industry-making feats of five new inductees – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – January 12, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame (CMHF) held its 36th annual induction ceremony on Jan. 11 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, welcoming five new honourees, and bringing total membership up to 208. The celebration, attended by 720 people, was hosted by Northern Miner Group president Anthony Vaccaro. Full bios of all the inductees are available here.

From office workers to standard-makers

The first new members of the night were William E. Roscoe and John T. Postle, joint inductees whose eight decades of combined work formed the system of mining consulting and standards development the industry now relies on. Roscoe, an exploration geologist by training and Postle, a mining engineer, had both developed their own careers in mining before they first met in 1967, at Cominco’s Wedge mine in New Brunswick.

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World’s biggest uranium miner warns of shortfall just as nuclear demand takes off – by Mark Burton (Financial Post/Bloomberg – January 12, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

The setback adds to a list of supply challenges that have helped to catapult spot uranium prices to 15-year highs

Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, warned that it’s likely to fall short of its production targets over the next two years, adding another risk to supply as demand for the nuclear fuel rebounds.

The London-listed company, which is controlled by Kazakhstan’s government via its sovereign wealth fund, said on Friday that shortages of sulfuric acid and construction delays at newly developed deposits are creating production challenges that could persist into 2025. It will outline the likely impact on output in a trading update by Feb. 1, it said.

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2024 is the year the world could reach peak coal use. But it’s a tough habit to quit – by Kyle Bakx CBC News Calgary – January 12, 2024)

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

Forecasters have been wrong before about discounting coal’s staying power

With the COP28 climate summit now in the rearview mirror, some researchers say the moment is here when coal consumption in power plants around the world will finally peak before beginning a perpetual fall. For more than a century, coal has been used to produce electricity, and to this day remains the workhorse of the global power sector and a critical part of the world’s economy.

Coal is the dirtiest, most-polluting fossil fuel, but it has proven difficult for the world to turn its back on the stalwart source of energy. Energy research firm Wood Mackenzie is forecasting 2024 as the year when the world’s consumption of coal will hit a final inflection point before decreasing.

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Uranium jumps to 15-year high as top miner flags shortfall – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 12, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Uranium prices jumped on Friday to an almost 15-year high after the world’s largest producer, Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom (LON: KAP), warned it’s likely to fall short of its output targets over the next two years.

The miner cited shortages of sulfuric acid and construction delays at newly developed deposits as the main factors behind ongoing production challenges, which it said could persist into 2025. A detailed assessment of the potential impacts on output will be released in a trading update by Feb. 1, it added.

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Canada Nickel secures strategic investment from Korea’s Samsung SDI – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (CNC-X) chief executive Mark Selby sees the potential for a major mining company to buy the firm after it attracted yet another strategic investment from a global power player.

Toronto-based Canada Nickel on Friday announced an US$18.8-million equity financing from Korean electric car battery maker Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. The funds will be used to develop an Ontario electric vehicle battery minerals mine that Canada Nickel hopes to have in production before the end of the decade.

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Mining the Northwest: Former Pure Gold shareholders take management to task over Red Lake fiasco – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Investors of insolvent gold mining company expanding class action suit

The former management team and underwriters of a collapsed Red Lake gold mining company are being held to account by out-of-pocket shareholders.

A proposed securities class action suit filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the former directors and officers of Pure Gold Mining of Vancouver is being expanded to seeking compensation for damages and losses incurred from their investments in Pure Gold Mining.

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Conversion facility with links to massive Dumont Nickel project planned for Quebec – by Emma Jarratt (Electric Autonomy Canada – January 11, 2024)

https://electricautonomy.ca/

NiVolt Technologies says it has mixed hydroxide precipitate production capabilities and is scouting locations for a hydrometallurgical facility in Quebec

A new hydrometallurgical conversion facility to process nickel concentrate may be coming to Quebec. The news comes from an announcement by NiVolt Technologies of successful production testing and advancement of a project feasibility study.

NiVolt is a portfolio company of Kinterra Capital, a Toronto-based private equity firm. Kinterra recently closed a US$565-million battery metals mining fund. Its holdings include a stake in the Dumont Nickel project, located about 60 kilometres north of Val-d’Or.

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Australia is ‘no longer competitive’ in nickel: producer – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review -January 11, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

The biggest nickel producer on the ASX says Australia is no longer competitive in the sector and its miners will never attract a so-called green premium for their product.

Nickel Industries managing director Justin Werner issued the dire warning with more than 1000 jobs in the balance in Australia after a plunge in nickel prices and forecasts Indonesia will flood the market with supply for years to come.

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Should Ottawa look to Chinese imports in meeting its EV targets? – by David-Olive (Toronto Star – January 11, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

It might not need come to that in the EV transition if global automakers can narrow the value gap with their Chinese competitors, David Olive writes.

The revolution in electric vehicles (EVs) appears to have stalled. “Appears” is the operative word, since most of the factors holding back expected rapid growth in EV sales are short-term in nature.

But the stall raises questions about Canada’s ability to meet its target of EVs and long-range plug-in hybrids accounting for at least 20 per cent of all new vehicle purchases by 2026 and 100 per cent by 2035.

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BMI lowers outlook for nickel price – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – January 11, 2024)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Research firm BMI has revised downward its nickel price forecast for this year to $20 000/t from $20 600/t as the market remains in a supply glut. Simultaneously, weak Mainland Chinese demand and a limited growth outlook across major markets will place a cap on prices.

Nevertheless, BMI foresees some support from the weakening of the dollar throughout this year, which will prevent prices from falling back to pre-pandemic levels.

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Norway becomes first country to back deep-sea mining despite environmental concerns – by Rosie Frost (Ero News – January 11, 2024)

https://www.euronews.com/

According to a study by the Environmental Justice Foundation published on the day of the vote, deep-sea mining is not needed for the clean energy transition.

Norway has become the first country in the world to greenlight the controversial practice of deep-sea mining. A bill passed in the Norwegian Parliament on Tuesday (9 January) will accelerate the undersea hunt for minerals needed to build green technology such as batteries for electric vehicles. It authorises opening up parts of the country’s sea to mining exploration.

Around 280,000 square metres of the country’s national waters could gradually be opened up – an area nearly the size of Italy located in the Arctic between Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland.

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Alcoa set to end 60 years of production at Kwinana alumina refinery, impacting 1,000 workers – by Amanda Jasi (Chemical Engineer – January 10, 2024)

https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/

ALUMINIUM producer Alcoa will fully curtail production at its 2.2 t/y alumina refinery in the Kwinana Industrial Area in Western Austria (WA) this year, after 60 years of operation. Matt Reed, chief operations officer and executive VP at Alcoa, said the decision was based on a variety of factors including age, scale, operating costs, current bauxite grades, and current market conditions.

It will see employees at the site phased down from around 800 at the start of 2024 to 250 by Q3, when all alumina production will cease. Alcoa said “certain processes” will continue until about Q3 of 2025, when the number of employees at the site will be further reduced to 50.

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Chinese investment in Canada’s critical minerals sector ramps up as Zijin Mining aims to take 15% stake in Solaris Resources – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 12, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

China-based resource giants are once again making inroads into the Canadian critical minerals sector, despite a crackdown by Ottawa over national security concerns that had made it almost impossible for such transactions to occur.

Solaris Resources Inc. SLS-T on Thursday said that Zijin Mining Group of China plans to take a 15-per-cent stake worth $130-million in the Vancouver-based copper development company.

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Grupo Mexico weighs bid for First Quantum’s Spanish mine – by Jacob Lorinc, Dinesh Nair and Archie Hunter (Bloomberg News – January 11, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Grupo Mexico is among several firms considering bids to buy a Spanish copper mine from First Quantum Minerals Ltd., as the Canadian metals producer seeks to bolster its balance sheet after its flagship mine in Panama was ordered to shut down.

First Quantum initiated a process to sell its Las Cruces mine in southern Spain in December after the sudden closure of the Cobre Panama mine left the company facing financial uncertainty, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Las Cruces, one of First Quantum’s smallest operations, is valued at less than US$1 billion, the people said.

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Russia Steps Up the Competition in Africa – by Raphael Parens (Foreign Policy Research Institute – January 11, 2024)

https://www.fpri.org/

Amidst the smoldering wreckage of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane, it appeared that Wagner Group would suffer without its senior leadership, putting its African projects in jeopardy. Yet, Russia is stepping up in Africa after the demise of Prigozhin. What will it mean for West Africa, a region plagued by ethnic violence and a recent rash of juntas, remains to be seen.

Russia’s behavior increasingly looks like competition with the West, whether it may be clashing with Ukrainian special forces in Sudan, engaging in diplomatic and intelligence operations in Burkina Faso, and alleged US strikes on Russian aircraft in Libya. Russia is even picking up where the West left off in Mali, becoming the new target of jihadist forces there.

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