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Alberta on the cusp of another resource boom – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – March 28, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Alberta may end up leading the world’s transition to lithium batteries

The most important date in 20th-century Canadian economic history took place on Feb. 13, 1947, on a farm near Edmonton, when Imperial Oil made one of the largest oil discoveries in the world.

A plume of oil and flames reached 15 metres toward the sky and Leduc No. 1 ushered in Alberta’s incredible oil industry. Within weeks, 500 oil companies were formed, launching Alberta and Canada into the energy big leagues and becoming a major contributor to the Canadian economy and our standard of living.

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Column: Europe turbo charges its critical minerals drive – by Andy Home (Reuters – March 26, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – The European Union has unveiled the accelerator in its drive to reduce the bloc’s import dependency for critical minerals and metals.

The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) “will significantly improve” Europe’s domestic extraction, processing and recycling capacity for metals such as lithium and rare earths, according to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

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Tuesday’s federal budget to offer cleantech credit worth more than $3-billion – by Bill Curry, Marieke Walsh and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 28, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Tuesday’s federal budget will announce a clean-tech manufacturing tax credit aimed at encouraging the mining of critical minerals in Canada, a credit that will be worth more than $3-billion over five years, according to a senior government official.

The 30-per-cent clean-tech manufacturing tax credit can be used to offset the cost of equipment used for mining and processing critical minerals, which are key to the green transition because they are the building blocks of clean-energy technology such as batteries.

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China’s ironic reticence on land grab in Ukraine – by Jeff Pao (Asia Times – February 25, 2023)

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Reviving map use of old Chinese names for Russian-conquered territory, Beijing won’t call out Moscow over Donbas

China’s newly-released plan to promote peace talks between Ukraine and Russia conspicuously fails to say clearly whether Moscow should withdraw its troops from the Donbas region now.

China’s foreign ministry released a 12-point statement on Friday, the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling on both sides to cease fire and open a dialogue to resolve their conflicts politically. The statement does not go beyond saying in generalized language that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries should be protected in accordance with international laws, including the UN Charter.

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US, Japan Strike Deal on Supply of Minerals for EV Batteries – by Shoko Oda and Eric Martin (Bloomberg News – Mar 27, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The US agreed to boost cooperation with Japan on critical mineral supply chains and to expand access to tax breaks as President Joe Biden aims to counter China’s dominance of the electric vehicle battery sector.

Following the pact, EVs that use materials that have been collected or processed in Japan will be eligible for incentives under the US Inflation Reduction Act, Japanese Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Tuesday in Tokyo.

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Excerpt from Ring of Fire: High-Stakes Mining in a Lowlands Wilderness – by Virginia Heffernan (March 27, 2023)

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A valuable discovery under the world’s second-largest temperate wetland and in the traditional lands of the Cree and Ojibway casts light on the growing conflict among resource development, environmental stewardship, and Indigenous rights

When prospectors discovered a gigantic crescent of metal deposits under the James Bay Lowlands of northern Canada in 2007, the find touched off a mining rush, lured a major American company to spend fortunes in the remote swamp, and forced politicians to confront their legal duty to consult Indigenous Peoples about development on their traditional territories. But the multibillion-dollar Ring of Fire was all but abandoned when stakeholders failed to reach a consensus on how to develop the cache despite years of negotiations and hundreds of millions of dollars in spending. Now plans for an all-weather road to connect the region to the highway network are reigniting the fireworks.

In this colorful tale, Virginia Heffernan draws on her bush and newsroom experiences to illustrate the complexities of resource development at a time when Indigenous rights are becoming enshrined globally. Ultimately, Heffernan strikes a hopeful note: the Ring of Fire presents an opportunity for Canada to leave behind centuries of plunder and set the global standard for responsible development of minerals critical to the green energy revolution.

EXCERPT: Ring of Fire – Geological Richness on a World-Class Supersize Scale – by Virginia Heffernan

Geologists now speculate that the only way Nemis’s ring could contain so much mantle-derived (or ultramafic) magma and metal is if some cataclysmic geological event, such as two continents colliding or separating, had cracked open the basement rocks….

Now cast your mind back 2.7 billion years. The crust is splitting apart just west of the current imprint of Hudson Bay. The crust is thinner and the core hotter than now, creating a lot of melted mantle with nowhere to go. So as soon as a rift opens up, the restless magma lets loose and ascends….

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U.S. offers cash to Canadian critical minerals projects during Biden’s visit – by Alexander Panetta (CBC News Politics – March 24, 2023)

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

The president seemed to suggest at one point that the value-added jobs would go to the U.S.

There was a pot of gold at the end of President Joe Biden’s jaunt to Canada. It’s going to Canada’s mining sector. The U.S. military will deliver funds this spring to critical minerals projects in both the U.S. and Canada. The goal is to accelerate the development of a critical minerals industry on this continent.

The context is the United States’ intensifying rivalry with China. The U.S. is desperate to reduce its reliance on its adversary for materials needed to power electric vehicles, electronics and many other products, and has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars under a program called the Defence Production Act.

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Budget 2023: Offhanded comment by Biden shows Ottawa can’t take mining boom for granted – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – March 27, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Apparent difference of opinion on critical minerals during U.S. president’s visit

When Justin Trudeau’s government announced plans to invest $3.8 billion to develop its critical minerals sector in the last budget, many in Canada’s mining sector believed the industry was finally going to get the attention it deserves amidst rising global demand for the minerals used to power electric vehicles.

Some had called the allocation by the federal government a “game changer,” while others described it as an “exceptionally positive” move for the industry.

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UM graduate student learns deeper history of Anaconda Smelter Stack – by Staff (NBC Montana – March 25, 2023)

https://nbcmontana.com/

MISSOULA, Mont. — A University of Montana Ph.D. student set out to study superfund cleanup in Anaconda, and her conversations with residents often turned to the smelter stack in town. Megan Moore interviewed residents and looked into how memories can offer more insight into mining legacies and cleanup. She found that in Anaconda, people often talked about the 585-foot smelter stack, which closed in 1980.

“I think there’s a tension between some community members about the stack, and that’s something that came through in our interviews and surveys. But what really was important was that people are very connected to it, often in different ways, but it’s something that should be paid attention to here in Anaconda and in other communities,” Moore told NBC Montana.

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Northern Ontario First Nations claim up to $150 billion over ‘flagrant disregard’ of 1850 treaty – by Betsy Powell (Toronto Star – March 24, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

The Robinson Treaty gave the First Nations groups an annual payment that was supposed to increase over time, but was last raised to $4 per person in 1875.

After years of litigation, a court case is nearing an outcome that will put the Canadian or Ontario governments — or both — on the hook for a multibillion-dollar payout to First Nations groups for failing to abide by the terms of a 173-year-old treaty.

The Indigenous bands from north of Lake Superior signed the Robinson treaty in 1850, giving the province access to their natural resources in return for an annuity starting at $1.60 per person. That was supposed to escalate over time, in keeping with rising land values, but the annual payment has remained at $4 per person since 1875.

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OPINION: Electric car makers want to buy mines. Good luck with that – China is way ahead on the supply lockup game – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – March 25, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Tesla, the top electric vehicle maker, and Glencore, the mining company that is the world’s largest commodities trader, came up with an idea two or three years ago that would resurrect the spirit of Henry Ford: Tesla would buy a big stake in Glencore, a deal that would replicate the Ford Motor Company’s model of owning its supply chain.

The negotiations, which were acknowledged by neither side but mentioned in media reports, ultimately went nowhere for unknown reasons. Perhaps Tesla boss Elon Musk did not fancy himself a miner, a business alien to his tech fanaticism. Perhaps he considered the price excessive or realized that his ego would ensure clashes with Ivan Glasenberg, the hard-charging boss of Glencore at the time.

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Newmont Gets Newcrest Data Access in Gold Takeover Tussle – by Jacob Lorinc, Yvonne Yue Li and Harry Brumpton (Bloomberg News – March 22, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Newmont Corp. has gained partial access to the corporate books of Australian rival Newcrest Mining Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that the US company could make a revised offer to seal what would be the world’s largest gold takeover.

Newmont is undertaking limited due diligence on Newcrest weeks after management of the Melbourne-based miner dismissed a $17 billion proposal from the world’s top bullion producer, according to people who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public.

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Industrial policy is back in vogue in push for Canada to win on green economy – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 23, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Freeland being urged to create framework to guide billions promised to companies to accelerate shift to greener economy

Toronto – An economic idea that fell out of fashion with stonwashed denim in the 1980s appears to me making a comeback: industrial policy, or the idea that the free market alone won’t save the economy.

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland hosted a hybrid meeting in Toronto with leaders from several environmental non-profits and think tanks, including Clean Prosperity, the Transition Accelerator, Clean Energy Canada, the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Climate Institute, to discuss how Canada can compete with the United States, as its government pours hundreds of billions of dollars into the energy transition.

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Reflections on the Inco Superstack – by Jonathan Migneault (CBC News Sudbury – March 14, 2023)

Stan Sudol PhotoStan Sudol Photo

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

Built in 1972 to clean up Sudbury’s environment and decommissioned in 2020, Canada’s onetime tallest freestanding structure is still standing

For Matteo Campagnaro, working on the Inco Superstack — Canada’s tallest structure for a brief time — was a pleasure. Campagnaro, who immigrated to Canada from Italy in 1965, said his time on the Superstack, from 1969 to 1972, made him fall in love with northern Ontario.

“The hunting, the lakes, the fish, the atmosphere, the outdoors, the friendly people — this is the best place in the world,” he said. Thanks to his job as a welder, he met his wife in Sudbury. They have two children and a grandson, and still live in Sudbury’s south end.

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Countries’ reporting fails to tell full story of mercury pollution – by Staff (Mining.com – March 26, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

A recent study of baseline mercury emission estimates by artisanal gold mining reported by 25 countries—many in developing African, South American and Asian nations—found that these estimates rarely provide enough information to tell whether shifts in the rate from one year to the next were the result of actual change or data uncertainty.

Key variables—like how the country determines the amount of its gold production—can result in vastly different baseline estimates. Yet, countries often don’t report this range of possible estimates.

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