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Fired Endeavour CEO had checkered work history before joining British mining company – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ousted chief executive Sébastien de Montessus had a history of going behind the backs of his superiors and conducting unauthorized business, well before the British gold mining company fired him for cause this week.

London-based Endeavour on Thursday said it terminated Mr. de Montessus after accusing him of “serious misconduct” related to a payment he authorized without the board’s knowledge. Mr. de Montessus admitted he authorized a payment of US$5.9-million to a creditor in exchange for security services without getting permission from the board, and called it a “lapse in judgment.”

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Teck ditches coal, flags lower copper output in Chile – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 4, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B) (NYSE: TECK) has kissed coal goodbye after closing the sale of its minority stake in steelmaking coal operations to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. and South Korean steelmaker Posco.

Nippon Steel now has a 20% interest in Teck’s coal business, known as Elk Valley Resources. In exchange, the Japanese firm gave up its prior 2.5% stake in one of Teck’s coal operations and has paid $1.7 billion in cash.

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Government funding expected soon to complete Temiskaming refinery build – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials ponders Quebec invite to build refinery in Becancour

Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming. The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.

Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.

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Nevada has the most abandoned mines in the nation. Why is it taking so long to seal them? – by Amy Alonzo (Nevada Independent – January 4, 2024)

https://thenevadaindependent.com/

The state needs hundreds of millions of dollars to seal roughly 50,000 hazardous, abandoned mines. At current funding levels, it will take another century.

Rob Ghiglieri pauses his walk across a dusty hillside on the outskirts of Virginia City to look at a tangled web of footprints weaving in circles around the ruins of the abandoned Forman Shaft. Once a massive, seven-story-tall structure, it boasted some of the deepest shafts in the West. Decades later, the shaft remained an accessible open pit plunging hundreds of feet into the ground.

The Forman Shaft has since been closed off — visitors can still drive to the site and wander around, but the entrance has been covered by a massive steel grate. Ghiglieri, administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals, said he still worries when he sees so many footprints around old mine sites.

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Barrick considering new takeover offer for First Quantum, report says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is reportedly considering a fresh takeover bid for embattled Canadian copper miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd., after making an earlier approach in the middle of last year.

According to a report on Wednesday, Toronto-based Barrick contacted some of First Quantum’s biggest shareholders late last year to ascertain their interest in a takeover. Barrick would need their support in the event of a transaction.

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Ontario chiefs seek halt to online mining claim-staking – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Chiefs of Ontario resolution calls for year-long moratorium pending review

Indigenous leaders in Ontario are calling for a moratorium on the virtual staking of mining claims while they review the process to ensure that impacted First Nation communities are being properly consulted.

In a resolution passed last November during the organization’s annual fall assembly, the Chiefs of Ontario say the Mining Lands Administration System (MLAS) puts pressure on First Nations to participate in potential mineral development opportunities while also reducing the amount of land available for land claim settlements that are already underway.

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Barrick sounds out First Quantum holders on possible bid – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – January 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Barrick Gold Corp. has spoken with some of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s major investors to gauge their support for a potential takeover, after the sudden closure of its flagship mine left the Canadian copper producer reeling and wiped out more than half its market value.

Barrick chief executive officer Mark Bristow approached some of First Quantum’s largest investors late last year, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified as the talks were private. It wasn’t immediately clear if Barrick has made a fresh approach to First Quantum, and there’s no guarantee it will make a formal offer.

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2024 belongs to an offbeat pairing — uranium and gold – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining.com – January 2, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

As demand for EV and base metals is expected to slow along with global growth in 2024, two very different metals are likely to stand out from the commodity pack: gold and uranium.

Gold, prized throughout human history, is virtually indestructible. That means most of the over 6.7 billion oz. of the metal the World Gold Council estimates has ever been mined is kicking around somewhere, whether as a wedding ring or in a 400-troy-oz. gold bar stored behind blast-proof gates at the ultra-secure Fort Knox gold vault in Kentucky.

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Board recommends against proposed mining road in central Yukon – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News North -January 3, 2024)

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

TMM Goldcorp Inc.’s proposed road west of Pelly Crossing could be bad for caribou, says YESAB

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) is recommending against a proposed mining road in central Yukon, citing concerns about potential adverse effects on caribou in the area.

TMM Goldcorp Inc. first submitted the proposal for the Casino-Rude Project in March 2023. The road would be built in a forested area about 100 kilometres west of Pelly Crossing, Yukon, or 380 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse.

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EU adds Russia’s biggest diamond-mining company and CEO to sanctions list – by Mared Gwyn Jones (Euronews – January 3, 2024)

https://www.euronews.com/

PJSC Alrosa, which is owned by the Russian state, accounts for over 90% of all Russian diamond production, representing a highly valuable revenue stream for the Kremlin.

The EU said Wednesday that Alrosa and its CEO Marinychev had been added to the list of sanctioned persons and entities for “actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” “The company constitutes an important part of an economic sector that is providing substantial revenue to the government of the Russian Federation,” it added.

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Agnico Eagle invests $23M for 12% of Canada Nickel – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – January 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) made a $23.1-million investment in the recent flow-through offering from Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; OTCQX: CNIKF). Agnico acquired 19.6 million units at a price of $1.18 per unit for a total consideration of slightly more than $23.1 million. This gives Agnico a non-diluted equity interest in Canada Nickel of 12% or 15.6% on a partially diluted basis.

Canada Nickel raised a total of $34.7 million. Each unit consists of one flow-through share and 0.35 of one flow-through share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share at a price of $1.77 any time prior to Dec. 29, 2026, or the expiry date.

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Northeastern Ontario nickel miners not threatened by flood of the metal from Indonesia – by Kate Rutherford (CBC News Sudbury – January 03, 2024)

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

Environmentally sound production increasingly important factor in sourcing the critical mineral

Low nickel prices partly attributed to a flood of the metal coming onto the market from Indonesia aren’t deterring nickel miners in northeastern Ontario from moving forward in the coming year.

The price of nickel per pound was hovering around $7.42 US on January 1, 2024 compared to just under $14 a year prior. Paul Fowler is vice president of Magna Mining which owns the Shakespeare mine near Espanola and the Crean Hill mine near Whitefish.

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Two approaches we could take here at home to ease the world’s critical mineral shortages – by David Olive (Toronto Star – January 3, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Canada is the world leader in financing mineral exploration across the planet. It’s just that about 57 per cent of that money, or $10.5 billion in 2022, was invested abroad, David Olive writes.

It’s commonly assumed in Canada that we are laggards at critical mineral production. There are a couple of new approaches we could take in helping the world ease its critical mineral shortages.

They are a new continental “corridor” extending from Canada to Chile of critical mineral producers that share common values. And second, we need a new model of financing the junior mining companies that make up most of Canada’s mining sector, account for most mine discoveries — and are starved for capital. First, though, Canada is not, in fact, a laggard.

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Society Watch: Across the globe, indigenous rights are being trampled in lithium goldrush – by Mark Hillsdon (Reuters – January 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

January 2 – Lithium has been called the new white gold, a mineral seen as key to global decarbonisation, thanks to its use in lithium-ion batteries and their role powering EVs. But mining the mineral is proving controversial, as indigenous groups question what they stand to gain in the push for a just energy transition.

Standing outside the Palace of Justice in Buenos Aires, Olmos Desiderio feels betrayed. “We have been let down by the government for the last five hundred years, since colonisation,” he says. “Indigenous people are not properly consulted.”

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Italian Grading Lab Warns of Synthetic-Diamond Scam – by Leah Meirovich (Rapaport Magazine – December 26, 2023)

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Italian gemological lab Gem-Tech has warned the trade that a number of lab-grown diamonds circulating in the country are being sold as natural.

Three stones were submitted to the lab accompanied by certificates from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stating they were natural, Gem-Tech said last week. Gem-Tech weighed the stones and found them to be nearly identical to those recorded on the GIA certificates.

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