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Exclusive: Chinese lithium producers set price floor as demand evaporates, sources say – by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton (Reuters – March 31, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

BEIJING, March 31 (Reuters) – China’s top lithium producers agreed this week to set a floor price of 250,000 yuan ($36,380) per tonne of lithium carbonate, six people familiar with the matter said, in an effort to slow a plunge in the price of the battery raw material.

The price was agreed on Tuesday by around 10 companies including Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) and Ganfeng Lithium (002460.SZ) that met on the sidelines of a conference in Nanchang in southern China, said one person who attended the meeting and five others briefed on the discussions.

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UN body mulls deep sea mining amid demand for minerals – by Dánica Coto, (The Associated Press – March 31, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Pressure is mounting on an obscure U.N. body based in Jamaica to hit pause on plans to potentially open the world’s deep seas to mining as companies push for permission to extract metals from seabeds in international waters.

The International Seabed Authority on Friday closed two weeks’ worth of negotiations without approving rules and regulations to oversee deep sea mining amid growing calls to pause, ban or place a moratorium on the quest to extract minerals from the Earth’s watery depths that are used in green technology like electric car batteries.

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Supporting development a focus of Sudbury mayor – by Ian Campbell (CTV News Northern Ontario – April 2, 2023)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

City officials said there are nine working mines within the city limits right now and that
could easily jump to 15 in the coming years.

Greater Sudbury’s mayor wants supporting development to be a priority for the city as he looks to create a new committee of council. Mayor Paul Lefebvre recently announced that he’ll be creating a committee that looks at supporting the city’s policies and processes around both residential and non-residential development.

“It’s about trying to attract more businesses here and we need more residential development so how can we ensure that we have the best practices here in Greater Sudbury,” he said. “Looking around the province, best practices when it comes to municipal bylaws, investments and when it comes to permitting processes as soon as we can.”

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Copper ore analyses reveal deep connections between ancient African civilizations – by Staff (Mining.com – April 2, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

An international team of researchers ran chemical and isotopic analyses of copper artifacts from southern Africa and discovered new cultural connections among people living in the region between the 5th and 20th centuries.

In a paper published in the journal Plos One, the researchers explain that people in the area between northern South Africa and the Copperbelt region in central Africa were more connected to one another than scholars previously thought.

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How China is winning the race for Africa’s lithium – by Harry Dempsey and Joseph Cotterill (Financial Times – April 2, 2023)

https://www.ft.com/

The country already dominates processing of the metal for use in electric vehicle batteries and is now investing heavily in mines, leaving western operators scrambling to keep up

The settlement of Uis in a remote part of Namibia seems an unlikely hotspot for a mineral cold war over the future of electric vehicles.

Uis lies in the arid hills of Erongo, a large and sparsely populated province of the south-west African country. For decades the only signs of its mineral wealth were the gemstones sold to tourists by artisanal miners, who scrabbled a living in the shadow of a disused tin mine.

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Chile Copper Output at Six-Year Low Underscores Market Tightness – by James Attwood (Bloomberg New – March 31, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Mines in the biggest copper-producing nation are struggling just as demand for the wiring metal is expected to accelerate in the shift away from fossil fuels.

Chile, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s mined copper, posted its lowest monthly production in six years on Friday. Hours later, state-owned behemoth Codelco said its output woes of 2022 will only get worse this year as it strives to tap new areas of its aging deposits after decades of underinvestment.

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Conversations: Nutrien’s Ken Seitz on how Canada can seize its spot on the world stage – by Kevin Carmichael (Financial Post- April 3, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

The game has changed and Canada, via Nutrien, could win it

If you were drafting a team to confront this age of climate, technological and geopolitical disruption, Ken Seitz might be a first-round pick.

The company Seitz leads, Nutrien Inc., is the world’s biggest producer of potash and the largest agricultural retailer. That puts the Saskatoon-based company in the middle of the climate fight since agriculture is both a significant source of greenhouse-gas emissions and export revenue.

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More companies hunting for lithium in northern Saskatchewan – by Doug Lett (Prince Albert Now – March 31, 2023)

https://panow.com/

Northern Saskatchewan is well known for producing uranium that’s used around the world, and has been home to a number of gold mines. But there’s a push now for critical minerals demanded by the energy transition— and one of them is lithium— a soft silvery white metal that is critical for batteries and electric vehicle production.

“Lithium is the hottest exploration commodity in the world right now,” said Warren Stenyer, CEO of Vancouver based ALX Resources. “Hotter than uranium, gold, nickel, copper,” he said.

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Old Flooded Coal Mine in England Produces Geothermal Heat in the Winter – by Rich Co (Nature World News – April 02, 2023)

https://www.natureworldnews.com/

An old coal mine that has been flooded in England may still be useful because it generates geothermal heat in the winter. Old coal mines might still be used to heat homes, but not by burning fossil fuels this time. Martha Henriques investigates the structures warmed by the heat coming from the long-abandoned mine workings.

Old Flooded Coal Mine

Towers of wine cases that seem to reach the sky are stored in a vast warehouse outside of Gateshead, North East England. In general, maintaining these enormous stacks of alcohol at a comfortable temperature throughout the year would result in a staggering energy bill, especially during the brutal northeastern winters.

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Australia sees lithium exports matching thermal coal by 2028 – by James Fernyhough (Bloomberg News – April 2, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Australia sees its booming lithium sector matching thermal coal’s importance within five years as the world increasingly shifts from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Exports of the battery metal are seen at A$19 billion ($13 billion) in the year to June 2028, matching the record seen for the current financial year, according to government projections released Monday. Meanwhile, the value of power station coal shipments will drop 71% in the period.

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Canada-China trade not expected to change much amid critical mineral protectionism – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – March 31, 2023)

https://biv.com/

China is a trade partner and export market that is simply too big to lose – including when it comes to Canadian copper

The federal government’s decision last November to order Chinese companies to divest from three Canadian lithium junior exploration ventures may have sent a chill up the Canadian resource sector’s spine.

“What’s next?” mining and energy companies might well ask. “Will Chinese investors in Canadian uranium, potash or copper miners also be told to pack their bags and take their billions with them?”

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‘Canada is not for sale’: Keevil family has no intention of selling Teck to Glencore no matter what the price – by Niall McGee and Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 4, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The patriarch of the family that controls Teck Resources Ltd. says he has no intention of allowing the sale of Canada’s biggest diversified miner to a much larger Swiss competitor because he says the company must remain in Canadian hands.

On Monday, Glencore unveiled an unsolicited all-share takeover proposal for Teck worth US$23.1-billion, which was a 22-per-cent premium to the Vancouver-based mining company’s close on Friday. Teck’s board said in a statement that it had no interest in being acquired, calling the offer “opportunistic,” not environmental, social and governance (ESG) friendly, and fraught with execution risk.

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Yes, China Can Quit Coal. Here’s How. – by Seaver Wang and Lauri Myllyvirta (The Diplomat – March 31, 2023)

https://thediplomat.com/

China must begin to challenge its coal dependence, starting by dismantling particularly inefficient policies that have encouraged new coal construction.

Fifty-three miners remain missing or dead after a vast section of wall collapsed at an open-pit coal mine in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on February 22. The wave of earth and rock – over a third of a kilometer wide by one geologist’s estimate – buried dozens of heavy mining vehicles and their operators in a landslide tens of meters deep.

The tragedy shines a spotlight on China’s coal mining sector, where hundreds of coal miners perish each year in accidents. Combined with the toll that coal use in China exacts upon public health, climate, and the environment, this accident reaffirms the wider benefits of shifting the Chinese economy away from coal-fired energy.

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First Nations lay claim to all critical minerals and rare earth elements in Saskatchewan – by Will McLernon (CBC News Saskatchewan – March 30, 2023)

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

Province’s new critical mineral strategy infringes on Inherent and Treaty rights: FSIN

First Nations are laying claim to all critical minerals and rare earth elements in Saskatchewan in light of the province announcing its new critical mineral strategy on Monday.

Saskatchewan has 23 of 31 critical minerals on the Canadian Critical Minerals List. The government’s strategy aims to increase Saskatchewan’s share of Canadian mineral exploration spending to 15 per cent and double critical minerals being produced by 2030. It also intends to grow Saskatchewan’s production of potash, uranium and helium in addition to establishing the province as a rare earth mineral hub.

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Ford signs nickel smelter deal with Vale Indonesia, Huayou (Nikkei Asia – March 31, 2023)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Equity investments are part of $4.5bn development of Sulawesi block

JAKARTA — Ford Motor has signed a definitive agreement with the Indonesian unit of Brazilian mining giant Vale and Chinese battery materials producer Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt for joint investments in a nickel smelter project in Indonesia.

The three companies are making equity investments in the development of a high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant in Pomalaa Block, Vale’s nickel mining and processing complex on the southeastern part of Sulawesi island that broke ground in November. Vale earlier said that investments are estimated to reach up to 67.5 trillion rupiah ($4.5 billion) to develop the block’s mining operations and refinery.

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