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Build nickel sulfate processing capacity in Sudbury, mayor says – by Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury Star – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury and Canada’s supply of critical minerals could be our trump card in trade war with the Americans, Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre says

Sir Winston Churchill purportedly once quipped that one never wants to see “a good crisis go to waste.” Fortunately then for Ontario and Canada, we’ve got a whopper. Under President Trump, the United States is upending decades of partnership with Canada and many other allied nations.

American support for Ukraine is now apparently subject to the fledgling democracy providing $500 billion worth of rare earth as a “back payment” for U.S. military support.

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CMJ Feature: Can Idaho’s SPEED Act serve as a model for mine permitting reform? – by Joseph Quesnel (Canadian Mining Journal – March 17, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Canadian mining companies and most domestic mining associations seem to agree on one idea: The permitting and approvals process in Canada needs to be vastly improved so that mining projects come into production much quicker than they do now.

Canada’s focus on securing critical minerals to overcome the Chinese monopoly has led many politicians and policy makers to give mining approvals a second look. Critical minerals are low hanging fruit. The International Energy Agency says demand for copper, nickel and zinc will explode over the next 15 years.

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Mine tailings in Sudbury, across Canada worth billions – by Darius Snieckus (Sudbury Star/National Observer – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Waste not, profit much: toxic tailings in Canada could ’re-mined’ for billions of dollars in critical minerals, report says

Toxic tailings discarded at some 10,000 abandoned mines together with those currently being produced by 200 others in operation across Canada could hide a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity as demand for critical minerals explodes globally in the coming decades, a new study has concluded.

Tailings – a byproduct of large-scale mining operations – could be changed “from a liability into asset” by monetizing recovered minerals and metals from current waste for use in renewable energy technologies, data centres, and defence applications, said the report from Action Canada, a leader development programme.

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Can Toxic Mining Waste Help Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere? – by Moira Donovan (Yale Environment 360 – March 13, 2025)

https://e360.yale.edu/

On the coast of Newfoundland, waste from a shuttered asbestos mine has been a troubling source of contamination for decades. Now, a company plans to process the waste to draw CO2 from the air — one of several projects worldwide that aim to turn this liability into an asset.

Just outside Baie Verte, a tiny town on Newfoundland’s rocky north coast, a 50-ton toxic liability lingers like a bad dream. In the mid-20th century, a local prospector discovered asbestos in the hills above the bay. The Advocate mine opened in 1963 and became one of Canada’s largest asbestos producers, providing mineral fiber for insulation and fire-resistant materials.

But as asbestos’s health risks — which include mesothelioma and other lung diseases — became clear, global demand for the mineral dropped, and in 1995 the mine closed. “There’s a stigma now to the town,” says Trina Barrett, who grew up in Baie Verte. As a child, her father worked in the mine, as did most of their neighbors. When the mine shuttered, those jobs disappeared.

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How Canada can unlock its economic superpower potential – by Tej Parikh (Financial Time/National Post – March 17, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

‘With an ambitious policy agenda, the G7 nation can become a major economic force’

The near-term outlook for the Canadian economy isn’t great. The U.S.’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada could lower its GDP growth by around four percentage points over two years (assuming they come into force and Canada retaliates), according to a Bank of Canada estimate.

But in this column I take a decades-long view, arguing that with an ambitious policy agenda, the G7 nation can become a major economic force. First, a word on its potential.

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UBS and ANZ raise their gold target to $3,200/oz as bullion gets a further boost from geopolitics, tariffs and rate cuts – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – March 18, 2025)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Banking giants UBS and ANZ both raised their gold price targets well above the key $3,000 per ounce threshold in the latest sign that financial institutions believe the yellow metal’s rally can run higher as geopolitical conflict and trade wars loom large.

The Chief Investment Office of Swiss banking behemoth UBS said in a report on Monday that “[t]he defensive asset has benefited from geopolitical and trade frictions, and renewed expectations for US rate cuts on growth fears.”

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Quebec aluminum towns aren’t feeling the sting of 25 per cent U.S. tariffs – by Joe Bongiorno (The Canadian Press – March 17, 2025)

https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/

MONTREAL – Mayors of Quebec aluminum towns say they are confident their regions can withstand the 25 per cent tariffs imposed on the metal by U.S. President Donald Trump, with many saying it’s business as usual.

Layoffs aren’t expected at Aluminerie Alouette in Sept-Îles, Que., a major aluminum producer with some 950 employees, says the town’s mayor, Denis Miousse. The company, which describes itself as the biggest aluminum smelter on the continent, can find new export markets if demand weakens in the U.S., he said.

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Public pushes back against government bill that would lift N.S. ban on uranium mining, fracking – by Michael Gorman (CBC News Nova Scotia – March 17, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

Presenters call out premier’s claim that ban was the result of lazy policy-making

There was nothing lazy about a former government’s decision to ban fracking in Nova Scotia, MLAs heard on Monday.

Multiple presenters to the legislature’s committee on public bills said the Houston government’s plan to lift the ban on uranium exploration and mining and the moratorium on fracking for onshore gas, as proposed in the omnibus legislation Bill 6, should not happen without robust public consultation — if it happens at all.

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Global silver market faces strains as Trump’s tariffs hit (Bloomberg News – March 18, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The silver market faces mounting stress as trade-war concerns intensify, with higher rates to borrow metal adding to signs of global dislocation.

A surge in lease rates for the precious metal has become the latest sign of alarm, with anxiety building over the impact of further tariffs from US President Donald Trump. That’s sparked a dash to ship silver into the US in a bid to capture premium prices in New York, possibly causing a squeeze in London.

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Rwandan refinery and mining CEO facing EU sanctions for Congo war role – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – March 18, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The European Union is imposing sanctions on Rwanda’s only gold refinery and its top mining executive for allegedly dealing in smuggled Congolese minerals, the latest sign of how the mining industry has become embroiled in one of Africa’s deadliest wars.

The EU is sanctioning the Gasabo Gold Refinery on accusations of illegally trading in trafficked gold from sites controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel militia in eastern Congo, where Rwanda has reportedly sent thousands of troops to support the rebels.

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What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History – by Abby Lee Hood (Smithsonian Magazine – August 25, 2021)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

Its legacy lives on today in the struggles faced by modern miners seeking workers’ rights

Police chief Sid Hatfield was a friend to the miners of Matewan, West Virginia. Rather than arresting them when they got drunk and rowdy, he’d walk them home. For his allegiance to the unionized miners of southwestern West Virginia, rather than the say, the nearby coal companies who employed them, Hatfield was gunned down on August 1, 1921, on the steps of the Welch, West Virginia, courthouse, alongside his friend Ed Chambers as their wives looked on in horror.

Their murder catalyzed a movement, the largest labor uprising in history, that remains resonant to this day. The Battle of Blair Mountain saw 10,000 West Virginia coal miners march in protest of perilous work conditions, squalid housing and low wages, among other grievances. They set out from the small hamlet of Marmet, with the goal of advancing upon Mingo County, a few days’ travels away to meet the coal companies on their own turf and demand redress.

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Gold’s safe-haven bid strengthens amid recession fears, global silver coin sales collapse – Heraeus – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – March 17, 2025)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – The stock market selloff and mounting fears of a recession are driving demand for gold, while sales of silver coins are in freefall as high costs and markups discourage buyers, according to precious metals analysts at Heraeus. In their latest precious metals update, the analysts noted that the market’s current risk-off posture is boosting gold’s safe-haven appeal.

“Concerns over a potential US recession are back in focus, with equity markets showing signs of strain,” they wrote. “The S&P 500 is now 2% lower than at 5 November 2024, when Donald Trump was elected, as persistent uncertainty over trade relations weighs on investor sentiment. On 7 March, hedge funds unwound single-stock positions at levels comparable to March 2020, reflecting a notable shift toward risk reduction.”

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Northwestern Ontario’s Ring of Fire central in U.S.-Canada trade war: experts – by Michelle Allan (CBC News Thunder Bay – March 17, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

How a remote peat bog became a key figure in a global political conflict

The Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario has become a key figure in the battle to control critical minerals, which experts say is the heart of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada.

While a remote Ontario peat bog may not be the stage that first comes to mind when picturing the geopolitical conflict, the critical minerals beneath it are essential to renewable energy and digital technology.

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Lefebvre to lead delegation in tour of Korea, Japan in support of mining – by Tyler Clarke (Sudbury.com – March 4, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The trip has been in the planning stages since before the threat of U.S. tariffs, which took effect March 4, began looming

A delegation of approximately 10 local political and industry leaders have scheduled an April 7-11 tour of Korea and Japan, “to strengthen economic partnerships.” Mayor Paul Lefebvre announced the delegation during the 2025 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto on March 3.

“We were already planning this last year — this hasn’t happened overnight — but I think the timing couldn’t be better,” he told Sudbury.com on the eve of the United States imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports, which strengthens the need to diversify export markets. “It’s about diversifying.”

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Glencore overhauls embattled Canadian smelters as margins plunge – by Julian Luk and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – March 14, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Glencore Plc is doubling down on a cost-cutting drive at its Canadian copper and zinc plants following job cuts last year, in a further overhaul of its global smelting business following a collapse in processing margins.

The company’s copper plants in Quebec — as well as several recycling sites in the US — will be absorbed into the miner’s global zinc smelting division, with the aim of increasing business synergies and operational efficiency, according to internal memos seen by Bloomberg.

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