The amount of bank financing going to mining coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel of them all, remains at surprisingly high levels. Most of it is coming from China.
A new report from researchers at BloombergNEF shows that all funding for coal projects and coal-exposed companies needs to drop precipitously to limit the chances of global temperatures rising more than 1.5 °C by midcentury.
https://www.cochranetimespost.ca/
Phasing out fossil fuels is going to cost way more than ordinary people will accept. Delegates to COP28 clearly didn’t understand that
It’s tempting to dismiss the outcome of COP28, the recent United Nations climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates, as mere verbiage, especially the “historic” UAE Consensus about transitioning away from fossil fuels.
After all, this is the 28th such conference and the previous ones all pretty much came to nothing. On a chart showing the steady rise in global CO2emissions since 1950 you cannot spot when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol entered into force (2002), with its supposedly historic language binding developed countries to cap their CO2 emissions at five per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, which they didn’t do.
(Bloomberg) — The world’s two biggest diamond miners are selling stones again after the industry all but halted supplies in a desperate attempt to stop a collapse in prices.
This year’s rout that was driven by swelling inventories forced the sector to take radical steps to support the market. Russia’s Alrosa PJSC in September halted all sales for two months, and was followed by buyers in India — the dominant cutting and trading center — voluntarily banning imports. De Beers allowed its customers to refuse all gems they’re contracted to buy.
The Liberals don’t like to characterize their policies as causing potentially irreparable divisions between Eastern and Western Canada. Yet nothing screams “Laurentian elite looking out for their own at the expense of everyone else” quite like the recent press conference announcing the government’s new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard.
On Tuesday, about a dozen Liberal MPs braved gridlocked traffic to make their way to George Brown College in downtown Toronto, where senior party members extolled the virtues of phasing out gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
Vancouver-based Teck Resources sacrifices most profitable assets on altar of ESG
One of the biggest B.C. business news stories of 2024 was the announcement Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TEK), B.C.’s biggest miner and Canada’s only diversified mining major, will sell its most profitable assets – its B.C. coal mines – to an even bigger diversified mining major: Switzerland’s Glencore plc (LSE:GLEN).
For $9 billion, Glencore will acquire a 77 per cent interest in Teck’s four steelmaking coal mines in B.C., collectively called Elk Valley Resources (EVR), with Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO owning the balance in a deal totalling $12 billion. EVR will also own 46 per cent of Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
When George Pirie, Ontario’s mines minister, closes his eyes and imagines what a resurgent northern Ontario mining industry will look like five years from now, he might see new nickel mines in Sudbury and Timmins, a battery industrial park in Cobalt, haul trucks transporting nickel concentrate on the recently completed road from the Ring of Fire, and multiple lithium mines and processing facilities in northwestern Ontario.
It is a good bet that much of the scenario will indeed materialize. The drills are confirming that the resources are there, the environmental assessments are progressing, and meetings with battery manufacturers and the automobile industry are resulting in offtake agreements.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Toronto gold company raises $85 million in share raise to fund future expansion
Toronto’s Argonaut Gold has raised $85 million to fund future expansion at its Magino Mine, outside Dubreuilville, and another mine in Nevada. The financing was done through a public offering of more than 223,000 common shares that closed on Dec. 12.
In a news release, the company said the proceeds are earmarked to “fund development and optimization” at Magino and its Florida Canyon Mine in Nevada. The company didn’t specify how much will be individually allocated between Magino and Florida Canyon.
https://www.northernminer.com/
AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), the fourth-largest gold producer, is buying a stake in Guyana-focused G2 Goldfields (TSXV: GTWO; US-OTC: GUYGF) even as neighbouring Venezuela vows to seize the land where its main project sits.
Denver-headquartered AngloGold is paying $22.5 million for 11.7% of G2, AngloGold said on Tuesday. G2 plans to update its resource next year for the OKO project which lies 120 km west-southwest of the South American country’s capital city, Georgetown.
Would you like a US$2,000 gold bar at Costco with your $4.99 rotisserie chicken? Yes, Costco sells more than just toilet paper, office supplies and food items, and the company is quite effective at it.
A 24-karat 1 oz. Gold Bar PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan was listed as sold out on Costco’s site this week and bars usually sell out hours after being posted on Costco’s website, according to chief financial officer Richard Galanti.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
By next fall, Teck Resources Ltd. chief executive officer Jonathan Price will likely be sitting on US$9-billion in cash, the payout for selling its coal mines in British Columbia.
The CEO of the country’s largest mining company will also have a long list of projects to spend that money on, including planned new mines in Mexico, Peru, Chile, the United States and Canada that will triple Teck’s copper production and make it one of the world’s largest metal producers.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Terry Lynch began to notice unusual price movements in Power Nickel (TSXV: PNPN; US-OTC: PNPNF)’s stock (then called Chilean Metals) years ago. The shares consistently traded down at the end of the day, regardless of news, with late day trades often made anonymously.
Now the stock is stuck in a range of 25¢ to 30¢ — despite a recently released initial nickel-sulphide resource for the company’s optioned Nisk project in Quebec, and a staged deal with battery and defence supplier CVMR to fund engineering studies.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed a decision by a state agency to grant a major permit for the proposed NewRange copper-nickel mine, saying regulators adequately considered the possibility that developers might expand the project in the future.
It was a win for NewRange Copper Nickel, which remains stalled by court and regulatory setbacks. The $1 billion open-pit mine near Babbitt and processing plant near Hoyt Lakes would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. It’s a 50-50 joint venture between Swiss commodities giant Glencore and Canada-based Teck Resources. The project was renamed NewRange Copper Nickel in February but it’s still widely known by its old name, PolyMet.
After October 2025 at the latest, the Conservatives could be in the position to reverse many of the Liberals’ policies
It’s fair to say that corporate Canada has been less than enthusiastic about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions in the nation’s oil and gas sector. Responses to the announcement, which was made Dec. 7, ranged from outright rejection (Canadian Chamber of Commerce) to skeptical (Pathways Alliance) to, at best, silence.
This may or may not have been a surprise to Trudeau and his two top lieutenants driving the policy, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Japan’s Nippon Steel clinched a deal on Monday to buy U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion in cash, prevailing in an auction for the 122-year-old iconic steelmaker over rivals including Cleveland-Cliffs and ArcelorMittal.
The deal price of $55 per share represents a whopping 142% premium to Aug. 11, the last trading day before Cleveland-Cliffs unveiled a $35-per-share, cash-and-stock bid for U.S. Steel. It is a bet that U.S. Steel will benefit from the spending and tax incentives in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.
It’s not clear that sufficient capacities will be available to produce enough EVs to achieve the mandates being imposed on Canadians and Americans, nor is it clear consumers are willing to spend their own money to purchase them.
According to reports, the Trudeau government will soon unveil regulations meant to phaseout the sale of new internal combustion vehicles and compel Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles. The Biden administration is also mandating a similar shift.
