Republic of Mining

Billionaire Forrest ‘Can’t Wait Forever’ for $80 Billion Congo Hydro Deal – by Matthew Hill (Bloomberg News – June 16, 2023)

June 16, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest warned he “can’t wait forever” to seal a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo for a hydropower and green hydrogen project that would be the biggest investment in Africa yet.

The proposed development on the Congo River would produce at least 40 gigawatts of power — equivalent to almost a quarter of Africa’s total current capacity — and construction could start about 18 months after an agreement is signed, Forrest said in an interview Tuesday.

Rio Tinto invests $1.4-billion to expand Quebec aluminum manufacturing operations – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – June 13, 2023)

June 16, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Rio Tinto PLC is investing $1.4-billion to expand its aluminum manufacturing operations in Saguenay, Que., breathing new life into the industrial centre after years of uncertainty.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant said Monday it will build out a smelter that uses lower-carbon AP60 technology at its Complexe Jonquière site, adding 96 new pots to the existing 38 and increasing capacity to about 220,000 metric tonnes of primary aluminum per year. Pots are deep shells lined with carbon and insulating bricks in which aluminum is made through electrolysis.

Inside the race to remake lithium extraction for EV batteries – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – June 16, 2023)

June 16, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana, June 16 (Reuters) – The global battle to reshape the lithium industry is sucking in oil producers, tech startups and entrenched mining giants, each jockeying to be the first to reinvent how a metal key to the green energy transition is produced.

A fleet of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies are on the verge of tapping salty brine deposits across Europe, Asia, North America and elsewhere that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates are filled with roughly 70% of the world’s reserves of the metal.

Feds say Agnico Eagle has failed to protect caribou at Nunavut gold mine as promised (CBC News North – June 15, 2023)

June 16, 2023

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

Company ordered to comply with its permits to operate, or face penalties

The federal government says Agnico Eagle Mines is not doing what it has promised to protect migrating caribou at the Meadowbank gold mine in Nunavut.

An order issued last month by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) says the company has failed “on multiple occasions” to meet its obligations under its project certificates for the mine, and under the Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act. The order requires the company to comply with its permits to operate or face potential penalties.

Northern Manitoba First Nation says deal with mining company Alamos is golden opportunity (CBC News Manitoba – June 15, 2023)

June 15, 2023

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

Deal means mining company and Marcel Colomb First Nation will share revenues as well as other benefits

A northern Manitoba First Nation hopes to reap the benefits of a golden opportunity after signing a deal with a Canadian mining company.

Marcel Colomb First Nation officially signed what’s called an impact benefit agreement on Wednesday with Alamos Gold Inc. on the Lynn Lake gold project — a gold mining project that consists of five near-surface deposits that are in the traditional territory of Marcel Colomb, according to Alamos Gold’s website.

Florida’s fertilizer industry funds research that prompts phosphorus-friendly laws – by Fernando Figueroa and Serra Sowers (Miami Herald – June 15, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.miamiherald.com/

When The Mosaic Co. wanted to study using phosphogypsum — a waste byproduct of the phosphate industry now heaped into small mountains — in road construction, it turned to the Sustainable Materials Management Research Laboratory at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.

Environmental engineering professor Timothy Townsend works in Florida and around the world on sustainable solid and hazardous waste management. Mosaic, a Tampa-based Fortune 500 company that mines phosphate for fertilizer, has sponsored roughly $500,000 in research funding for his lab over the past three years for projects that seek to find beneficial uses for phosphogypsum.

OPINION: Mining the Arctic’s critical minerals is vital for Canada’s sovereignty, Northern prosperity – by Sean Boyd (Globe and Mail – June 12, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sean Boyd is executive chair of the board of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.

Canada launched a new Arctic and Northern Policy Framework in 2019, supported by $700-million in dedicated funding. It correctly calls on all of Canada to strengthen our sovereignty, while building the kind of economic future northerners want, and doing it in a way that protects the environment. This was a positive first step.

But it is missing a component: the development of the Arctic’s abundant mineral resources, including critical minerals crucial for the decarbonized economy of the future. That must be an essential element of any Arctic strategy.

Appian seeks location for Brazil graphite processing, ‘supercycle’ continues: CEO – by Diana Kinch (SP Global – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.spglobal.com/

UK-based private equity company Appian Capital Advisory is seeking a downstream location to process material produced at the graphite project it is developing in Brazil, as demand for the commodity grows apace, CEO Michael Scherb said in an interview.

Graphcoa, with various graphite deposits in Brazil, is moving into pilot production this year and should be in full production in two years, producing for the electric-vehicle batteries industry, Scherb said this week.

Can We Mine the World’s Deep Ocean Without Destroying It? – by Richard Schiffman (Yale Environment 360 – June 15, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://e360.yale.edu/

The U.N. body charged with regulating deep-ocean mining will soon consider whether to permit the first project to move forward. But ecologist Lisa Levin, who has long studied the deep sea, worries that in the rush for key minerals, a pristine and important ecosystem will be lost.

Few people know the deep ocean as intimately as Lisa Levin, an ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Not content with doing pure science, Levin, who has participated in more than 40 oceanographic expeditions, founded the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative, a global network of more than 2,000 scientists, economists, and legal experts that seeks to advise policymakers on managing the ocean’s depths.

Of particular concern to Levin now is the prospect of deep-sea mining. The tiny island nation of Nauru has notified the International Seabed Authority on behalf of its Canadian partner, the Metals Company, of its intent to seek a permit to mine in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a 1.7- million-square-mile region of the Pacific where polymetatallic nodules are scattered that have high concentrations of cobalt and other valuable minerals.

Critical minerals stocks are now worth more than gold – by Peter Ker and Vesna Poljak (Australian Financial Review – June 13, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Tony Rovira was about to board a plane from Perth to Melbourne when laboratory tests of eight lithium drill holes sent shares in his company, Azure Minerals, soaring more than 40 per cent. “I will definitely have a glass of champagne on the plane to celebrate the great work of our exploration teams,” he told The Australian Financial Review from Perth Airport on Tuesday.

They can afford the expensive champagne in Perth these days; the city is at the epicentre of a boom that has lifted the value of major, ASX-listed critical minerals companies to $86.2 billion from $8.6 billion in the past decade.

Timmins nickel deposit doubles in size – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

EV Nickel’s high-grade deposit at its Shaw Dome Project has ‘further room to grow’

One of northeastern Ontario’s emerging nickel players has posted a new resource estimate for a Timmins-area deposit that could have open pit and underground mining potential by 2026 or 2027.

After a raft of diamond drilling at its Shaw Dome Project, EV Nickel said its high-grade W4 deposit has more than doubled in size from an earlier estimate performed 13 years ago by previous exploration company.

Lithium boom comes to Brazil’s ‘misery valley’ (France 24 – June 15, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.france24.com/en/

Araçuaí (Brazil) (AFP) – In a cloud of gray dust, a heavy-duty excavator loads a truck with stone blocks containing lithium, the “white gold” of the clean-energy revolution, which some hope will transform this parched, impoverished region of Brazil.

Sun-scorched and drought-prone, the Jequitinhonha valley, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, is one of the poorest places in the country. But the region, nicknamed “misery valley,” is on the cusp of a boom: it is home to around 85 percent of the lithium reserves in Brazil, the world’s fifth-biggest producer of the metal, an essential ingredient in electric vehicle batteries.

First Quantum rebuffs informal approach from Barrick Gold – by Dinesh Nair, Thomas Biesheuvel, Jacob Lorinc and Vinicy Chan (Bloomberg News – June 15, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. recently rebuffed an informal takeover approach from Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s second-largest producer of the precious metal, as miners scour the globe for deals, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Barrick made overtures to First Quantum in the last few months as part of its search for ways to expand in copper, the people said. First Quantum indicated it wasn’t keen on a combination and declined to enter any substantive talks, according to the people.

Red tape may strangle natural resource opportunity – by Kenneth Green (Toronto Sun – June 13, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://torontosun.com/

Canada has a problem, nowadays, in getting Big Things Done

The “Ring of Fire” mining project is in the news again. And it’s looking eerily familiar to the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project, which went through interminable on-again-off-again cycles of regulatory approvals and delays before the company that proposed the project withdrew and the federal government purchased the project. The pipeline is now being (slowly) completed at a wildly inflated cost.

The Ring of Fire is an area in northern Ontario some 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, covering 5,000 square kilometres. The Ontario government’s website lists five metals (including chromite and nickel), which are plentiful in the area and of potential use in making good on the federal government’s plans to “transition” Canadians into battery-electric vehicles.

Queensland Budget built on the back of coal – by Timothy Bond (Australian Mining – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

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The Queensland Government’s controversial coal royalty system has contributed to an enormous $12.3 billion in revenue and a record surplus, giving the State’s budget the vitality it needs to tackle a range of cost of living issues.

Delivering his fourth budget to parliament, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick announced an $8.2 billion cost of living relief program, including $550 electricity rebates for households (more for vulnerable households); $650 electricity rebates for small businesses; as well as an additional investment of $645 million over four years for free kindergarten for all four-year-olds.