Newcrest Mining (ASX, TSX: NCM) and Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY) said Thursday they have signed a framework agreement with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government that sets key terms to jointly develop the Wafi-Golpu copper and gold project.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlines the main aspects to be included in the mining development contract, a prerequisite for obtaining a special mining lease for the project, equally owned by both miners.
TORONTO – Canada is poised to play a big role in global food production as climate change makes farming more difficult and the world’s food supply chain is rendered fragile by political and economic uncertainty, said Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz. Seitz made the remarks in Toronto at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada.
He said climate change is redrawing the map of global food production and Canada has an opportunity to be a key player in addressing food insecurity. The world faces a double-barrelled problem, said Seitz: “To feed a rapidly growing world, we’ll need to produce more food and we’ll need to do it sustainably.”
(Bloomberg) — Like so much in our modern era, Australia’s high-stakes gamble on renewable energy starts with an Elon Musk Twitter brag. South Australia’s last coal-fired power plant had closed, leaving the province of 1.8 million heavily reliant on wind farms and power imports from a neighboring region.
When an unprecedented blackout caused much of the country to question the state’s dependence on clean power, Tesla boasted — on Twitter, of course — that it had a solution: It could build the world’s biggest battery, and fast. “@Elonmusk, how serious are you about this,” replied Australian software billionaire and climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes. “Can you guarantee 100MW in 100 days?”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., a major holder of Teck Resources Ltd.’s super-voting Class A shares, is refusing even to take a meeting with Glencore PLC to discuss the Swiss mining giant’s unsolicited takeover proposal for Teck. Sumitomo and the Keevil family jointly control Teck’s Class A shares that carry 100 votes each. Unless both are on board with Glencore’s US$23.1-billion takeover proposal, it can’t move forward.
Earlier in the week, Keevil family patriarch Norman B. Keevil told The Globe and Mail that he had no interest in allowing Vancouver-based Teck to be sold to Glencore, no matter what the price.
Guatemala may have become the latest battleground in America’s bid to gain a foothold in the race for strategic metals dominated by China amid a remarkable proposed acquisition of a notorious nickel mine worth $1 billion, Newsweek can reveal.
A memo obtained by Newsweek indicates that, with the support of the U.S. government, the Guatemalan assets of the Switzerland-based Solway Investment Group—which were put under U.S. sanctions amid allegations of Russian influence peddling and ecological devastation—are in line for acquisition by a Canadian company for a “substantial discount.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/
Chrystia Freeland touts new budget’s incentives at nickel processing plant
The head of mining giant Vale Canada says the most recent federal budget will be a “game changer” for her company’s operations — including its nickel processing plant in Long Harbour, N.L., which Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and deputy prime minister, toured on Wednesday.
Vale Canada president and CEO Deshnee Naidoo said the credits and announcements in the budget will be key for the mining industry’s race to lower carbon emissions even further. “It’s an absolute game changer for us,” Naidoo said.
Takeover target Mincor has confirmed its nickel supply deal with BHP contains a “change of control” clause that gives BHP the right to terminate the supply contract in certain circumstances and, by extension, trigger a default on Mincor’s debt.
Confirmation the clause exists came on page 55 of the target statement published by Mincor this week in response to a $760 million takeover bid from billionaire Andrew Forrest’s private company Wyloo Metals.
Global uranium mine production decreased by nearly 12% from 2018 to 2020 with major producing countries including Canada and Kazakhstan limiting total production in recent years in response to a depressed uranium market, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency.
In the latest edition of Uranium Resources, Production and Demand, known as the Red Book, the NEA says uranium production cuts deepened suddenly with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation gauging level of interest from miners and bankers in lunar investment
A mining area formed by an impact from space could now have an impact on how resources are extracted in space. Scientists seem a bit divided on whether it was a comet or meteorite that accounts for the Sudbury basin, but folks at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation are pretty confident that local companies can contribute expertise and eventually investment capital to the harvesting of materials on the moon and other balls of extraterrestrial rock.
The centre, headquartered on Maley Drive, recently distributed a survey among the “mining investment ecosystem” — a field that ranges from prospectors and exploration outfits to banks and major miners — to gauge their level of interest in lunar investment.
Brazil’s Minas Gerais state is fast-tracking the development of a “lithium valley” that it hopes will rival Latin American “lithium triangle” jurisdictions Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
The state government’s lithium valley initiative aims to “make the connection between the potential production of lithium” and pro-mining policies, said Fernando Passalio de Avelar, economic development secretary of Minas Gerais.
Teck-Glencore clash represents contrast in strategies for confronting energy transition
Teck Resources Ltd. had a novel rationale for rejecting Glencore Plc‘s US$23-billion takeover proposal this week: the Vancouver-based miner said the Swiss commodities giant was too dirty and Teck’s leaders didn’t want Glencore’s commitment to fossil fuels rubbing off on the long-term value of the company.
As chief executive Jonathan Price put it in a press release, Glencore’s thermal coal assets and oil trading would “negatively impact the value potential of Teck’s business.”
(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s efforts to break into the ranks of global uranium suppliers — and feed a nascent nuclear power program — are coming up short, with exploration investments failing to find any significant deposits of the heavy metal.
The amount worth developing is smaller than that found in Botswana, Tanzania or the US, according to an assessment published by the Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is the first time the Saudi government submitted data for the biennial Red Book, which is used by geologists prospecting for the commodity that fuels nuclear reactors.
SAULT STE. MARIE — The federal government is in talks with Ontario about funding support for a road to the Ring of Fire, but Transport Minister Omar Alghabra isn’t committing to a specific date about when cash is coming to help gain access to the site’s critical minerals.
The Ring of Fire, located within the James Bay lowlands, contains chromite, copper, nickel and palladium. There is no road access. “Critical minerals are an integral part of the economy of the future and our government recognizes that,” Alghabra told The Sault Star following an announcement at PUC Services on Wednesday touting his government’s 2023 budget.
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – The problems around artisanal cobalt mining in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will take “a coalition to solve”, according to Microsoft (MSFT.O). The $1.9 trillion U.S. tech giant was recently in the DRC to see what the other end of the consumer electronics supply chain looks like.
Microsoft chief of staff, tech and corporate responsibility Michele Burlington paid a visit in December to the Mutoshi artisanal mining site, where up to 15,000 miners, including children, are working in highly dangerous conditions.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Canada’s reputation as a good place to do business is suffering serious damage, as the fate of resource projects are determined by the whims of politicians.
It is not enough for promoters of multibillion-dollar projects in Canada to meet among the most stringent environmental and social criteria on the planet; their projects are doomed if they do not fit the particular narrative the politicians seek to spin.
