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Canada is sitting on a critical minerals mother lode. But is it ready for the new gold rush? – by Christian Paas-Lang (CBC News Politics – April 8,2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Proponents say Canada must do more to turn aspiration into action

Drive two hours north of Ottawa, put on a hard hat and bright orange vest, descend into a pit — and you find yourself on the frontline in the fight to be part of the new, green economy.

A mining project might not be what comes to mind when you think of the transition to a lower emissions economy. But embedded in electric vehicles, solar panels and hydrogen fuel storage are metals and minerals that come from mines like the one in Lac-des-Îles, Que.

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Will Washington Halt the Global Renaissance of Nuclear Power? by Ted Nordhaus and Adam Stein (Foreign Policy – April 8, 2023)

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Hopes to slash emissions using nuclear energy are being dashed by U.S. regulators.

For anyone hoping to reboot the nuclear power sector as a source of zero-carbon energy in the age of climate change, the news has not been good. On Feb. 28, the staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) forwarded a proposed licensing framework for next-generation reactors to the agency’s five politically appointed commissioners. That proposal came little more than a year after the NRC summarily rejected Oklo Power’s license application for its Aurora reactor. The application was the first attempt to obtain a license to operate an advanced nuclear reactor in the United States.

The new rules, mandated by the U.S. Congress, were supposed to provide a modern, streamlined licensing process for the new small reactors in advanced stages of development by multiple U.S. and international companies. Instead, the NRC staff simply cut and pasted the existing rules for large conventional reactors into a mammoth 1,200-page regulation for new reactor types.

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Rio Tinto’s Ivan Vella on why Canada needs to get its act together on regulation — fast – by Kevin Carmichael (Prince George Post – April 2023)

https://www.princegeorgepost.com/

Kevin Carmichael’s Conversations: New urgency is about climate change, not about maximizing profit for shareholders

Check your priors, economists say. Facts change. You’re asking for trouble if you assume the “laws” John Maynard Keynes set out in the 1930s, and the ones Milton Friedman devised in the 1970s, still apply today. It’s a good rule for writing, too. “We’ve got to go fast,” said Ivan Vella, who runs Rio Tinto Ltd.’s aluminum business out of Montreal. “I feel it every day when I get up. There’s a huge amount of pressure on us.”

We’d been talking about growth, one of Vella’s three primary objectives. That dialogue — as it tends to when you ask an executive about the obstacles to growing a business in Canada — had arrived at a critique of the country’s disinterest in doing anything about the thicket of federal, provincial and local regulation that keeps big things from getting done.

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Australia and Germany to partner on critical minerals – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – April 11, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australia and Germany will collaborate on new opportunities for critical mineral projects, with Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King signing a joint Declaration of Intent with Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dr Franziska Brantner.

The Declaration will support a joint study to help Australia meet its ambitions to develop value-added industries around critical minerals, from extraction to refinement and recycling, and to help Germany secure reliable supplies of critical minerals to underpin its manufacturing and recycling activities.

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Province needs better dialogue with First Nations on mining: NDP – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – April 2023)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Hearing in Sudbury told that Bill 71 would amend the Mining Act aimed at shortening the time it takes to open new mines in Ontario

Northern Ontario New Democrats have accused the provincial government of reverting to a divide-and-conquer strategy that echoes the colonial past while consulting with First Nations on resource development such as the Ring of Fire.

Sol Mamakwa, MPP for Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario and NDP critic for Northern Development, as well as Indigenous and Treaty Relations, was in Sudbury on Thursday for public hearings on Bill 71, the Building More Mines Act.

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[Teck Resources] Norman B. Keevil’s last stand – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 9, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian mining companies have a long history of selling out to foreign buyers, but this past week one man with unique powers to fight back drew an indelible line in the sand.

Taking a fiercely nationalistic stand against Glencore PLC’s US$23.1-billion proposed takeover of Teck Resources Ltd., controlling shareholder Norman B. Keevil told The Globe and Mail that the big Swiss miner can hike its price all it wants, but he will not play ball. “Canada is not for sale,” he said.

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Battery Metals Snapshot: Eight juniors on the hunt – by Marilyn Scales (Northern Miner – April 7, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Without adequate supplies of battery metals, the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 cannot be reached. Here are eight companies who are on the hunt for the metals in North and South America.

Brunswick Exploration

Brunswick Exploration (TSXV: BRW) is a junior on a mission to find and develop a hard rock lithium source. This company concentrates its efforts on greenfield exploration, looking for new and undiscovered deposits. It has land packages in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces that host at least 125 pegmatite dykes.

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Opponents to Mining Act changes accuse government of ‘politicizing’ the permitting process – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 10, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Neskantaga chief will only meet with Premier Doug Ford to discuss the Ring of Fire

Neskantaga Chief Chris Moonias said he’ll only deal with Ontario Premier Doug Ford when it comes to having a dialogue on the Ring of Fire.

Moonias made his position clear in a virtual presentation with provincial politicians sitting on the Standing Committee for the Interior at an April 6 gathering in Sudbury on Bill 71, the Building More Mines Act, a raft of amendments being proposed for Ontario’s Mining Act.

Moonias said he won’t talk with the mining companies, not with any proponents, not with government staff, not even with cabinet ministers like Mines Minister George Pirie. “I’m only going to talk to the premier.”

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Lithium: A white gold rush excites Cornwall – but who gains? – by Joshua Nevett (BBC.com – April 10, 2023)

https://www.bbc.com/

Towering over a high street in a former mining heartland, a statue of a pitman reminds Cornwall of its industrial past. In this part of south-west England, the mining industry used to be an economic powerhouse and in recent years, it’s been making a tentative comeback.

A new generation of miners is hoping the natural resources that put Cornwall on the map will once again bring wealth to the county. This time, the miners are using cutting-edge technology to get their hands on lithium – a metal used to make batteries for everyday electronic devices we all rely on, from laptops to smartphones.

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Ring of Fire book sheds new light on conflict in James Bay Lowlands – by Gary Rinne (SNNewsWatch.com – April 10, 2023)

https://www.snnewswatch.com/

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Author Virginia Heffernan feels the Ring of Fire can still be a global model of sustainable resource development

The author of a new book about Northwestern Ontario’s Ring of Fire mineral zone believes a way can be found to overcome the obstacles that prevent its development. Virginia Heffernan feels no mine can be constructed without First Nations having a stake in it and unless the necessary measures are taken to protect the delicate environment of the James Bay Lowlands.

But in Ring of Fire – High Stakes Mining in a Lowlands Wilderness – the exploration geo-scientist turned mining journalist writes that she doesn’t think sustainable development is necessarily “an oxymoron in this fragile land.”

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Liberals promise to speed up regulatory process on critical minerals mines, green power projects – by Ryan Tumilty (Financial Post – April 6,2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

Ottawa plans to spend $1.3 billion over the next six years to improve the impact assessment process

OTTAWA – Worried that the same process that has held up oil and gas projects will slow critical minerals projects and wind farms, the Liberals are again promising more funding to ensure Canada’s environmental assessment process works faster.

In last week’s budget, under the title “Getting Major Projects Done,” the Liberals promised to spend $1.3 billion over the next six years to improve the impact assessment process they first put in place when they came to office.

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Newmont plumps final bid for Australia’s Newcrest to $19.5 bln – by Melanie Burton (Reuters – April 11, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, April 11 (Reuters) – Newmont Corp (NEM.N) laid down a best and final offer for Australia’s Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM.AX) on Tuesday at A$29.4 billion ($19.5 billion) to close a deal that would extend Newmont’s lead as the world’s biggest gold producer.

If successful, the deal would lift Newmont’s gold output to nearly double its nearest rival Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO). The merger is set to be the third-largest deal ever involving an Australian company and the third-largest globally in 2023, according to data from Refinitiv and Reuters calculations.

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Gold Rush: Alaska’s Jimmy Dorsey Doesn’t Feel He Was Portrayed 100% Accurately – by Brandon Shoaff (Looper.com – April 9, 2023)

https://www.looper.com/

Mining gold in remote locations isn’t a profession that many can just stumble into. Besides the long hours, the isolation, and physical toll, mining gold requires a certain amount of steely resolve and hopeful optimism, which is front and center in Discovery’s “Gold Rush” franchise.

Appearing in the first season of “Gold Rush,” back when it was still called “Gold Rush: Alaska,” Jimmy Dorsey represented the essential gold mining newbie as his job previously had been that of a realtor.

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Ukraine’s Coal Miners Dig Deep to Power a Nation at War (Voice of America/Associated Press – April 8, 2023)

https://www.voanews.com/

DNIPROPETROVSK OBLAST, UKRAINE — Deep underground in southeastern Ukraine, miners work around the clock extracting coal to power the country’s war effort and to provide civilians with light and heat.

Coal is central to meeting Ukraine’s energy needs following the Russian military’s 6-month campaign to destroy power stations and other infrastructure, the chief engineer of a mining company in Dnipropetrovsk province said.

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OPINION: Teck and the Keevil family: Canadian nationalism’s fraught last resources battle – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 8, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Peter Munk would be thigh-slapping proud of Norman B. Keevil, the chairman emeritus of Teck Resources: the last big diversified mining company standing in the graveyard of Canadian mining companies.

Mr. Keevil (“Norm” to his friends and colleagues) is the son of Norman Bell Keevil, the prospector who, over a century ago, used a gold discovery in northern Ontario to launch what would become an international player in copper and zinc, with a market value of $30-billion.

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