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Gold, silver down as bulls run out of gas – by Jim Wyckoff (Kitco News – December 5, 2023)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Gold and silver prices are lower in midday U.S. trading Tuesday, on follow-through technical selling following big losses suffered Monday. On Monday gold spiked to a new record high of $2,152.30, basis February Comex futures.

Silver hit a seven-month high Monday. Monday’s price action in gold and silver suggests the bulls quickly became exhausted and that near-term market peaks are in place. February gold was last down $9.30 at $2,032.90. March silver was last down $0.492 at $24.41.

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Electric Vehicle Push Returns North Carolina to Its Lithium Mining Roots – by Alan Rappeport (New York Times – November 30, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

After decades of stagnation, the Tar Heel State is the beneficiary of a lithium rush fueled by demand for car batteries.

The Kings Mountain hiking trail known as Cardio Hill overlooks a pit full of rainwater the size of a lake, but the craggy terrain situated about 30 miles west of Charlotte is now one of the most precious pieces of real estate in the United States.

Beneath that ground is a mine that has been stagnant since the 1980s and is believed to contain one of the nation’s largest deposits of lithium, a critical ingredient in the batteries needed to power electric vehicles.

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COP28 will ignore net-zero’s atrocious waste of money – by Bjorn Lomborg (National Post – December 1, 2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

Global climate summit will almost certainly be another failure

The spectacle of another annual climate conference is getting underway in the United Arab Emirates (Nov 30 – Dec 12). Like Kabuki theater, performative set pieces lead from one to the other: politicians and celebrities arrive by private jets; speakers predict imminent doom; hectoring NGOs cast blame; political negotiations become fraught and inevitably go overtime; and finally: the signing of a new agreement that participants hope and pretend will make a difference.

This circus has repeated since the 1990s. Despite 27 previous conferences with iterations of ominous speeches and bold promises, global emissions have inexorably increased, punctuated just once, by the economic shutdown of COVID-19. This year is likely to see higher emissions than ever before.

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Insight: Western start-ups seek to break China’s grip on rare earths refining – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – December 4, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Start-up tech firms are racing to transform the way rare earths are refined for the clean energy transition, a push aimed at turbocharging the West’s expansion into the niche sector that underpins billions of electronic devices.

The existing standard to refine these strategic minerals, known as solvent extraction, is an expensive and dirty process that China has spent the past 30 years mastering. MP Materials (MP.N), Lynas Rare Earths (LYC.AX) and other Western rare earths companies have struggled at times to deploy it due to technical complexities and pollution concerns.

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Dreams collide for Trudeau as First Nations bet big on oil and gas – by John Ivison (National Post – December 4, 2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

Climate zealots will likely have more influence on deciding project loan guarantees than the wishes of Indigenous communities will

Justin Trudeau’s top priorities ever since his election in 2015 have been action on climate change and a “renewed nation-to-nation relationship” with Indigenous people. But what happens when your top priorities crash headlong into one another?

In the recent fall economic statement the government said it is “determined to ensure that Indigenous communities can share in the benefits of major projects in their territories on their own terms” (emphasis mine).

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Area covered by mining claims in Ontario’s ‘Ring of Fire’ increased by 30 per cent in one year – by Krista Hessey (Global News – December 4, 2023)

https://globalnews.ca/

The so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ in Ontario’s far north is expanding in size as mining claims spike in the area. More than 31,000 mining claims have been registered to date, an increase of 28 per cent in a year, according to analysis by Wildlands League, a non-profit conservation group.

The rise in the number of mining claims coincides with more land being taken up by surface rights owners. The claims now cover 626,000 hectares of the remote northern landscape, up 30 per cent from September 2022. The area is now nearly 10 times the size of the City of Toronto or double the Greater Sudbury area, the group says.

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Critics slam N.S. Labour Department over lack of Donkin coal mine inspections – by Tom Ayers (CBC News Nova Scotia – December 4, 2023)

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

Province says its 3 dedicated inspectors are capable, but outside expertise was needed this summer

Nova Scotia’s Labour Department is coming under fire for not inspecting the underground coal mine in Donkin after it shut down following two roof falls in the main access tunnel in July. Instead, the province’s inspectors did site visits and relied on two third-party reviews before saying the Cape Breton mine can reopen.

Critics say the use of outside expertise has dragged out the shutdown unnecessarily. “We just have one problem and that is a regulator that is not equipped to regulate this mine,” said Dawson Brisco, CEO of Morien Resources, a company with a royalty stake in the Donkin mine.

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The U.S. Strategic Minerals Situation Is Critical – by Christina Lu (Foreign Policy – June 30, 2023)

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Desperate to diversify away from Beijing, Washington is ramping up efforts to jump-start its struggling domestic industry.

Washington’s focus on plugging strategic vulnerabilities amid worsening U.S.-China relations has also reignited U.S. efforts to control crucial, yet often overlooked, materials: critical minerals. It’s not just rare earths, with all their applications for clean energy and fast jets: Entire forests have been felled with legislation meant to jump-start the U.S. foray into rare earths, to little avail so far.

The critical minerals race is about simpler things such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and, according to the U.S. Defense Department, about two dozen other key ingredients for everything needed to make the country safer, cleaner, and more prosperous. The problem is where to get them all.

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To achieve a green transition, do we need more mining? – by Zachary Gan (Hamilton Spectator – November 30, 2023)

https://www.thespec.com/

As we build more electric vehicles, Ontario’s government must recall what we stand to lose in the climate crisis.

We all know that swapping our gas-guzzling cars for electric vehicles is a crucial step in the fight against climate change.

But how much should we sacrifice in the name of getting more EVs on the road? For Ontario’s government, the answer: quite a lot. In fact, the government’s latest actions call into question whether the EV transition is about fighting climate change at all.

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Gold soars past $2,100 to new record — and analysts don’t expect it to stop there – by Lee Ying Shan (CNBC.com – December 3, 2023)

https://www.cnbc.com/

Gold prices notched a new record on Monday for a second day in a row — with spot prices touching $2,100 as the global rush for bullion appears set to continue. Gold prices are on course to hit fresh highs next year and could remain above $2,000 levels, analysts said, citing geopolitical uncertainty, a likely weaker U.S. dollar and possible interest rate cuts.

Prices of the yellow metal have risen for two consecutive months with the Israel-Palestinian conflict boosting demand for the safe-haven asset, while expectations of interest rate cuts have provided further support. Gold tends to perform well during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty due to its status as a reliable store of value.

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Canada must do more to connect the electric vehicle supply chain, industry executives say – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – December 4, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian ambition to be a force in electric vehicles could be driven off course by insufficient support for key segments within the supply chain, including critical-mineral processing, or the lack of a strategy to attract capital with incentives from government, senior industry executives say.

The country is already playing catch-up with Europe, the United States and China, which have plowed ahead with massive investments as demand for zero-emission transport trends higher.

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Glencore’s ties to Sudbury run deep. So is its future here – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – December 2, 2023)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Top company official tells chamber of commerce deep mining is the key to Glencore’s future operations in Sudbury

The man who leads Glencore’s Sudbury operations told the city’s business leaders this week that his company remains committed to this region, Canada and mining. Peter Xavier, a company vice-president, acknowledged that Glencore Sudbury’s Integrated Nickel Operations will soon close its Nickel Rim South mine, but that should not be a surprise.

Nickel Rim South Mine will close in late March as it goes into care and maintenance mode. The Skead-area mine’s employees will be reassigned to other Glencore operations in Sudbury, such as the Craig/Onaping project. “Mines have a life,” Xavier told the 128th annual general meeting of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. “We all know mining one site is finite.

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Sask. government approval brings new biggest uranium project in Canada closer to reality – by Pratyush Dayal (CBC News Saskatoon – November 28, 2023)

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

Mine will produce more than 23 per cent world’s uranium production once running, says NexGen Energy

Saskatchewan is moving closer to being the location of the new biggest uranium mining project in Canada. On Nov. 8, Canadian company NexGen Energy Ltd. received ministerial approval under the Environmental Assessment Act of Saskatchewan to proceed with the development of the Rook I Project, slated to be located 130 kilometres north of La Loche, Sask. It still requires federal approval.

NexGen is the first company in more than 20 years to receive full provincial environmental assessment approval for a greenfield uranium project in Saskatchewan.

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More headwinds expected for miners as First Quantum faces shutdown in Panama – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 30, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Miners will need to focus more on building trust with local communities to retain their licence to operate, analysts say

As First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s lucrative copper mine faces a shutdown in Panama, some analysts warn that such events may occur more often as the energy transition away from fossil fuels focuses government and public attention on certain key metals.

Going forward, analysts say, miners will need to focus more on building trust with local communities to retain their licence to operate in their respective regions, especially in Latin America, which has abundant reserves of copper and lithium and whose leaders routinely gauge public opinion on mining-related issues.

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Electric-Car Makers Can Stop Worrying So Much About Lithium – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – November 29, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium’s price slump over the past year has been as dramatic as its climb — and it’s probably not finished yet. The battery material’s benchmark price in China is now down about 80% from its November 2022 record high. At that time, lithium miners were enjoying soaring profits and carmakers were bemoaning surging costs.

Now, lithium’s sharp decline, together with steep drops for nickel and cobalt, are driving battery prices to all-time lows, according to BloombergNEF.

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