Republic of Mining

Ontario’s plan to build new gas plants just got more complicated – by Marco Chown Oved (Toronto Star – November 30, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.thestar.com/

At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant. On Tuesday, Napanee council endorsed a bid by Atura power to build a new gas plant in their community.

Local municipal councils in Eastern Ontario rejected one new gas plant but welcomed another this week, complicating the province’s plan to build new fossil fuel projects. At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant, with councillors saying they could not support energy projects that both pollute local air and make climate change worse.

OPINION: First Quantum’s Panama saga shows Canada must treat copper, a vital metal, more seriously – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Globe and Mail – November 30, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Heather Exner-Pirot is director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Copper is the metal of electrification. It’s essential for power transmission, batteries, renewables and more. Most net-zero scenarios require a doubling of production for the red metal, an unlikely task made impossible without greater dependence on Chinese supplies.

Events in Panama this week with Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd. show how a world opposed to more copper extraction will fail to displace fossil fuels.

41 rescued workers emerge dazed and smiling after 17 days trapped in collapsed road tunnel in India (Associated Press – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://apnews.com/

UTTARKASHI, India (AP) — Forty-one construction workers emerged dazed and smiling late Tuesday from a collapsed tunnel where they had been stranded the last 17 days — a happy ending to an ordeal that had gripped India and involved a massive rescue operation that overcame several setbacks.

Locals, relatives and government officials erupted in joy, set off firecrackers and shouted “Bharat Mata ki Jai” — Hindi for “Long live mother India” — as happy workers walked out after receiving a brief checkup by doctors. Officials hung garlands around their necks as the crowd cheered.

Cat Lake First Nation is ready to take on Doug Ford’s government over unsustainable mining development – by Matteo Cimellaro (National Observer – November 27, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

When the chief of Cat Lake First Nation gave a button to Ontario’s minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development, he apologized. “This is what the activities up until now have amounted to,” said Chief Russell Wesley to Greg Rickford. “I told him: ‘It’s on. I’m sorry, but it had to come to this and here’s a button.’”

The button, presented by Wesley to Rickford, was displayed Wednesday in a Cat Lake First Nation press release. It shows lynx standing tall over a caricature of Ontario Premier Doug Ford on a bulldozer. The art is a dig at Ford’s promise to develop mining in the North, even if he had to “hop on a bulldozer myself.”

New high-grade copper find in DRC similar to Kakula, Ivanhoe says – by Staff (Mining.com – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) announced on Tuesday that geologists made a significant high-grade copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) similar to the massive orebody it is mining at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex.

The discovery, named Kitoko — meaning “beautiful” or “gift” in several local languages — was made on Ivanhoe’s recently acquired joint venture licences in the Western Foreland, about 25 km west of the ultra-high-grade to Kamoa-Kakula mine.

Australians confident in the future of idled White River gold mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 27, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

More gold, more mines to be discovered at Sugar Zone, says Silver Lake Resources

Australian miner Silver Lake Resources is keeping the faith in its idled Sugar Zone gold mine, north of White River.

At its Nov. 25 AGM, the company regards Sugar Zone to be in its relative infancy and believes there’s “significant runway” to prove up more gold while they take a year of down time to tune up the mine’s performance.

The Salton Sea has even more lithium than previously thought, new report finds – by Sammy Roth (Los Angeles – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.latimes.com/

Want to produce a huge amount of lithium for electric vehicle batteries — and also batteries that keep our homes powered after sundown — without causing the environmental destruction that lithium extraction often entails? Then the Salton Sea may be your jam.

Companies big and small have been swarming California’s largest lake for years, trying to find a cost-effective way to pull out the lithium dissolved in scorching hot fluid deep beneath the lake’s southern end. Now a new federal analysis suggests even more of the valuable metal is buried down there than we previously understood.

Canadian critical minerals miner Foran raising $200-million, a rare financing for a junior company – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Foran Mining Corp., a Canadian company with a promising copper and zinc project in Saskatchewan, is raising $200-million to fund its next stage of development, a rare financing for a junior miner in a tough market for share sales.

Foran, which is based in British Columbia, is selling up to $190-million worth of new shares at $4.10 apiece through a private placement, as well as $10-million worth of “flow-through” shares that carry a special tax treatment.

Soft China and India may undermine gold’s rally hopes – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 28 (Reuters) – The spot price of gold has climbed to a six-month high, buoyed by hopes that monetary tightening in western countries is largely done and dusted.

While signs that the U.S. Federal Reserve and other western central banks have finished increasing interest rates are a definite positive for the precious metal, they’re not the only factor. China and India make up more than 50% of the physical gold market, giving the two Asian heavyweights a major influence on the likely price trajectory.

A bumpy road for metals and mining – by Alex Brinded (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining – November 27, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.iom3.org/

Post London Metal Exchange Week 2023, Wood Mackenzie hosted a briefing on the risks and opportunities for metals and mining amid accelerated energy transition pressures.

‘The current metals super-cycle, which is a major component of the global energy transition, could stall due to a gloomy global macroeconomic environment, geopolitics and a lack of investment in new production facilities,’ according to analysts from Wood Mackenzie.

Speaking at a briefing in London, Nick Pickens, Research Director of Global Mining at the firm, highlighted that US$200bln of new mining projects are required by 2030, as well as more efficient and creative methods of recycling existing scrap metals.

Three of Canada’s major critical mineral projects are in Sudbury – by Staff (Sudbury Star – November 22, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

They are Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, Vale’s Copper Cliff Deep project and KGHM’s Victoria Mine project

The federal government has launched a $1.5-billion fund for critical minerals infrastructure, while simultaneously highlighting close to 500 projects nationwide that are generating jobs and growing a greener economy. The funding announcement this week coincided with the release of an annual report on major projects underway across the country in the fields of energy, forestry and mining.

Three of the big mining projects are in Sudbury: Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, with an estimated capital cost of $1 billion to $2.5 billion; the Copper Cliff Deep project being pursued by Vale, pegged at $750 million to $1B; and a revived Victoria Mine project being undertaken in the Whitefish area by Polish company KGHM, at a projected cost of $1B to $2.5B.

Trudeau’s green energy policy means more mining – by Lorrie Goldstein (Toronto Sun – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://torontosun.com/

A typical electric vehicle and its battery requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle

One of the many ironies of the Trudeau government’s clean energy strategy is that it means dramatically increasing the number of mining operations in Canada and approving them far more quickly than in the past.

What’s driving the need for a mining boom is the Trudeau government’s edict that 60% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in Canada must be electric by 2030, increasing to 100% in 2035, along with 35% of new medium and heavy-duty vehicles by 2030 and, where feasible, 100% by 2040.

Mining tycoons battle over lithium’s ‘corridor of power’ in Australia – by Nic Fildes and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

Local billionaires disrupt consolidation as industry positions itself for boom in mineral vital to electric cars

The vast tracts of desert in Western Australia, which have yielded gold, nickel and iron ore to prospectors in decades past, have now become a major battleground for miners of lithium, a key raw material for batteries as the world transitions to greener energy.

A struggle for control of the resource has been ignited this year as multinational companies have clashed with Australian mining billionaires over a series of takeover attempts in two of the remotest parts of the state.

Ivanhoe to start copper exploration in Angola – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 27, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) said on Monday it planned to kick off exploration activities in Angola next year as it has secured rights over an area the size of Switzerland for an initial period of five years.

The Canadian miner has been granted 22,195 square kilometres of prospecting rights for exploration in the country’s Moxico and Cuando Cubango provinces, covering what Ivanhoe calls “highly prospective”, greenfield copper exploration ground. Activities are expected to commence following team mobilization in early 2024, the company said.

BHP looks to take potash plant nuclear – by Matthew Cranston (Australian Financial Review – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Washington | BHP is considering nuclear energy to power what will be the world’s biggest potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada, in a move that would help the Australian mining giant achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050.

A decision to pursue nuclear generation in a country where it has long been part of the energy mix raises further questions about Australia’s own interest in the clean but controversial energy alternative.