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Ring of Fire access roads may not be complete until 2040 – by Alan S. Hale (The Trillium – March 2, 2025)

https://www.thetrillium.ca/

Two of the three Indigenous-led environmental assessments of the access roads to the Ring of Fire are nearly complete, but the third is expected to take three more years, followed by a decade of construction

Despite the Progressive Conservative government’s promises to fast-track the building of roads to the proposed Ring of Fire mining development in northwestern Ontario as a way to build “Fortress Am-Can” with the United States, current estimates suggest the final leg of the all-season road to the project site won’t be completed until sometime between 2035 and 2040.

At the same time, significant progress is being made on all three access roads needed to connect the Ring of Fire, Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation with the TransCanada Highway.

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Norway House chief says First Nations can help Manitoba’s potential to be global ‘Costco of critical minerals’ – by Ozten Shebahkeget (CBC News Manitoba – March 02, 2025)

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

Manitoba, Canada neglect First Nations mining despite clear benefits, Chief Larson Anderson says

The chief of the only First Nation to fully own a mining company in Manitoba says he wants the provincial and federal governments to recognize his community’s role in boosting critical mineral exploration as a global race to secure those materials heats up.

Norway House Cree Nation Chief Larson Anderson says his community took full ownership of the Minago nickel project on the Thompson nickel belt in November. The mine could enter production within the next five years, he said.

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Attracting investment into Canadian mining projects – by Sasa Jarvis, Cory Kent and Sharon Singh (Canadian Mining Journal – February 25, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

With the globalization of investment dollars, the regulatory framework for a mineral exploration or mining project plays a key factor in the analysis both foreign and domestic investors make: Can a project get off the ground?

Will permits be obtainable on a timely basis or at all? Who can object and what does that mean? And, perhaps most importantly, will the process be predictable? A regulatory system that functions as a patchwork as opposed to being harmonized lacks certainty and risks alienating capital.

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Trump, Zelenskyy nix minerals deal – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – February 28, 2025)

Global mining news

United States President Donald Trump and his Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy cancelled a mineral rights and security agreement at the White House on Friday after a news conference degenerated into a rare spectacle of raised voices and name-calling.

The deal would have been a showpiece for Trump’s transactional presidency and another sign of the resource nationalism that’s swept the globe in recent years as countries transition away from fossil fuels. The scrubbed signing comes as overt U.S. support for Nato declines and Trump pushes for a stronger European role in its own defence.

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David Eby’s green goals at odds with his plan to fast-track B.C. mines – by Rob Shaw (National Post – February 27, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

He’s going full steam ahead with his plan to harness critical minerals — despite Indigenous and environmentalist resistance

Deep in deficit, wrestling with a stalled economy and under the threat of American tariffs, B.C.’s eco-focused New Democratic government has turned to an unlikely economic ally: the mining sector.

Premier David Eby has peppered his speeches over the last two months with support for new and expanded mines. His government is poised to introduce legislation within weeks to fast-track at least four major mining projects, with the rationale they’ll generate much-needed jobs and revenue.

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Indigenous Affairs Minister is nowhere to be seen – by Jon Thompson (Ricochet Media – February 26, 2025)

https://ricochet.media/indigenous/

Greg Rickford’s opponents wanted the opportunity to debate him on the Ring of Fire mining development

Ontario’s election is entering the final stretch and Greg Rickford is nowhere to be found. The Kenora-Rainy River riding incumbent, who was most recently the minister of both northern development and Indigenous affairs, has not submitted to any media interviews or public debates. His NDP opponent finds it familiar.

When Rudy Turtle led the River Run demonstration to march on Queen’s Park in September, the former Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows First Nation) Chief was hoping to meet with the Minister and the Premier.

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Sibanye walks away from Rhyolite Ridge lithium project on weak prices – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 26, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

South African precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW)(NYSE: SBSW) has scrapped its planned investment in the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in the US state of Nevada, due in part to weak prices for the battery metal.

In 2021, Sibanye reached an agreement with Australia’s ioneer Ltd (ASX: INR) to form a joint venture for the project. The Johannesburg-based company was set to invest $490 million for a 50% stake, contingent on various conditions, including a final investment decision by its board.

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No harm from tailings, says McEwen Mining about First Nation allegations – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 26, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Matheson miner argues no share compensation arrangement exists with First Nation

Matheson gold producer McEwen Mining contends there’s no cause for concern regarding its mine waste tailings storage facility that a nearby First Nation claims is causing environment harm and is a human health risk.

In a news release, McEwen responded to a lawsuit that was launched this month by Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (AAN) against the Toronto gold company for allegedly violating an impact benefit agreement (IBA) between the two parties.

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Uncovering the history of Nova Scotia’s Black miners – by Francesca Fionda (The Narwhal – February 25, 2025)

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A researcher in Canada’s Atlantic region uncovers ‘striking’ similarities between the historic treatment of Black miners and modern-day attitudes toward immigrant labourers

Maurice Ruddick waited for nearly nine days near the bottom of a 4,300-metre-deep coal mine before he was rescued. An underground earthquake brought down ceilings and pillars and shifted debris into tunnels, trapping Ruddick and several other miners. Stuck in the darkness, with limited food and water Ruddick lifted his fellow miners’ spirits by leading them in prayers and song.

In 1958, Nova Scotia’s Springhill mine disaster killed 75 men and trapped dozens in the tunnels. The world kept vigil for survivors as they were slowly rescued. Ruddick, a descendant of enslaved Black people, was among the last miners to be brought back to the surface. A media circus followed and the survivors’ stories were broadcast around the world.

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Column: Massive Simandou mine can end Australia’s golden iron ore age, or start new one – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – February 25, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

The term gamechanger is often over used enough to be rendered meaningless, but the huge Simandou mine in the West African country of Guinea is going to be just that as its start up is set to rock the seaborne iron ore market.

The first cargoes from the project may arrive by the end of this year and it’s expected that it will ramp up to its full capacity of 120 million metric tons per annum fairly quickly. The four blocks of Simandou are impressive in their scale and infrastructure challenges, boasting a 620 kilometre (384 mile) rail line, a new port with dedicated trans-shipment vessels that will load bulk carriers offshore.

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[Saskatchewan Potash] Pink Gold – by Kate Helmore (Globe and Mail – March 1, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Trump said Canada has nothing the U.S. needs. When it comes to potash, the president couldn’t be more wrong

In Saskatchewan, 1,000 metres below the surface of the earth, in a cavern heated to a sweltering 27 C by geothermal energy, a machine is boring into the ground, searching for a compound that is critical to worldwide food production and crucial in Canada’s current trade battle with the United States. Launched just a few weeks ago, this boring machine is hooked up to a fibre-optic connection, and operated from a climate-controlled office on the surface.

This single tunnel, called a face, was sunk at a cost of $30-million. And it is just one in a network spread across six mines owned and operated by Nutrien Ltd. , Canada’s largest mining company and a major supplier of agricultural inputs worldwide. However, the company jewel – and a source of US$3-billion in net sales last year – was a single nutrient: potash.

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Congo offers US, Europe minerals in exchange for peace – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 24, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

In a bold diplomatic move, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi has reportedly proposed granting the United States and Europe access to the country’s vast mineral resources — on the condition that they intervene to end the ongoing conflict ravaging the nation.

Speaking on Sunday, Presidential Spokesperson Tina Salama urged the US to “directly buy critical minerals” from Kinshasa rather than sourcing “looted” and “smuggled” resources through Rwanda. She extended the same appeal to Europe and other buyers, emphasizing that the DRC is the “true owner” of these valuable commodities.

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Putin Dangles Rare Earths Deals for U.S. in Russia and Occupied Ukraine (New York Times – February 24, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

In an interview broadcast on Monday, President Vladimir Putin said U.S. companies stood to profit in Russia, but suggested a Ukraine peace deal was still far off.

President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday said American companies could do lucrative business deals in Russia and even help mine rare earths in Russian-occupied Ukraine, further amplifying the Kremlin’s message to President Trump that there was money to be made from a better relationship with Moscow.

Mr. Putin, in an interview with Russian state television that was released late Monday, said that Russia had an “order of magnitude” more rare earth metals than Ukraine and that Moscow was “ready to work with our foreign partners, including the Americans,” in developing those deposits.

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Mining and the idea of Canada – by John Sandlos (Canadian Mining Journal – February 24, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

For me, every January begins with another trip through the key events of Canadian history since 1867, courtesy of a course I have taught for nearly 20 years at Memorial University of Newfoundland. As I write, I just stepped out of a class on Confederation, where we examine all the reasons that four tenuously related colonies decided to become the nation we call Canada.

As most teachers do, I covered off some key factors that produced a new political union: political gridlock and instability in the two Canadas (present-day Ontario and Quebec), fears of an attack from the U.S., dreams of a transcontinental nation, and the mania for railroads that might knit British North America together as a powerful, integrated industrial economy.

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First Nation says McEwen Mining breached agreement, owes almost $1M in unpaid shares – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Sudbury – February 24, 2025)

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

Apitipi Anicinapek Nation is taking the matter before an Ontario court

The Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (AAN) has launched a lawsuit against McEwen Mining Inc., alleging breach of contract and environmental damage.The lawsuit centres around an Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) signed in 2011 between AAN and Brigus, the then-owner of the Black Fox Mining Complex near Matheson, Ont.

IBAs are agreements between resource extraction companies and Indigenous communities intended to mitigate the impacts of development on traditional territories and ways of life. In this case, the IBA promised AAN financial compensation in the tune of 25,000 shares of the mining company annually.

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