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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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The US should get serious about mining critical minerals for clean energy – by Saleem H. Ali (Nature.com – March 21, 2023)

https://www.nature.com/

Green technologies cannot advance without a secure supply of essential metals.

We are living in a time of a mineral impasse. Crucial green technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines and electric-vehicle batteries, require increasing amounts of metals, such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare-earth elements.

Yet the current US administration is in a bind. The climate movement, a core part of President Joe Biden’s base, wants clean energy and electric cars. But it doesn’t want mining of the minerals required — certainly not close to home.

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DRC says Rwandan mineral smuggling costs it almost $1bn a year – by Tom Wilson and Andres Schipani (Financial Times – March 21, 2023)

https://www.ft.com/

Kinshasa has long accused Kigali of plundering its resources by supporting insurgent M23 group

The Democratic Republic of Congo said it was losing almost $1bn a year in minerals that were being illegally smuggled into Rwanda, as it restated its call for international sanctions to be placed on the Kigali government.

Nicolas Kazadi, the DRC’s finance minister, said that Rwanda last year exported close to $1bn in gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten, even though the country has few mineral deposits of its own. “It’s all coming from DRC — that’s obvious,” he told the FT’s Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne. “It’s not only allegations, it’s evidence.”

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Electric Vehicle Battery Makers Test a Future Without Lithium – by Yayoi Sekine (Bloomberg News – March 21, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A year and a half ago, China’s CATL put on a flashy event to make an announcement significant enough that Zeng Yuqun, the founder and chairman of the world’s biggest battery maker, served as emcee.

Zeng, who had just passed up Alibaba’s Jack Ma in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, revealed that CATL was working on battery packs that would use lithium-ion and sodium-ion cells. While sodium is more abundant and offers potential safety benefits over lithium, the latter is dominant in EV batteries. Lithium-ion chemistries offer superior energy density, enabling drivers to travel further between charges.

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Ontario calls on Ottawa to match $1-billion for Ring of Fire critical minerals in federal budget – by Laura Stone and Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – March 25, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ontario’s Finance Minister is calling on Ottawa to match $1-billion in investment in the Ring of Fire critical minerals sector in next week’s federal budget, urging Canada to send a message to visiting U.S. President Joe Biden that the province is a welcome place to invest in the mining industry.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, who released his $204.7-billion budget Thursday, said Ontario is looking to further collaborate with the federal government to develop the country’s critical minerals sector and promote it abroad.

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I’m an underground miner making as much as $160,000 a year without a college degree. The job saved my life. – by Aaron Mok (Business Insider – March 26, 2023)

https://www.businessinsider.com/

Cory Rockwell’s Tik Tok channel: @coryrockwell

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cory Rockwell, a 38-year-old underground miner at Nevada Copper, a copper mine based in Yerington, Nevada. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Growing up in Los Angeles, I knew I didn’t want to work in the Hollywood entertainment industry. Now, I’m an underground miner — and the job saved my life. During my 20s, I was lost and had no idea what I wanted to do.

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Canada must now build on EV investments – by Matthew Fortier and Bentley Allan (Toronto Star – March 27, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

We need to define what success looks like for the future Canadian EV sector.

The past two years will be remembered as the moment when the global electric vehicle market achieved hockey-stick growth, with year-over-year sales tripling from 2020 to 2022. Capital investment in the global EV supply chain has similarly surged as governments around the world offer a range of incentives in the scramble to secure vehicle production mandates, new battery plants and critical minerals.

Canadian governments, to their credit, have not been left on the sidelines in this global race. In the past year, Ottawa and Ontario, have deployed incentives to attract multibillion-dollar investments from Stellantis/LGES, Honda, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Umicore.
Governments across Canada, meanwhile, are building charging infrastructure and supporting EV-focused innovation in both university labs and accelerators. The Volkswagen announcement this month is a testament to that work.

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Lil Baby Catches Heavy Criticism After Flexing Blood Diamond Earrings – by Soje Leslie (Urban IslandZ – March 24, 2023)

https://urbanislandz.com/

Lil Baby caught some heat from fans after showing off his natural diamonds aka blood diamonds and thus contributing to forced child labor in Africa

Rapper Lil Baby is facing heat from fans on social media after he showed off new “blood diamond” earrings that sparked condemnation that he was knowingly or unknowingly endorsing the bloody war and slavery that is involved in mining the diamonds.

Lil Baby’s boasting backfired after he attempted to shame his competitors by telling them that his rocks were pricey and not grown in a lab as most stones are nowadays. According to the rapper in a video shared on Tuesday, his dazzling earrings were mined by hand from the rough and naturally occurring minerals.

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EU’s new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict – by Larisa Stanciu and Lotte Hoex (EU Observer – March 24, 2023)

https://euobserver.com/

Last week, the European Commission unveiled the Critical Raw Materials Act to reduce its dependence on third countries for key raw materials deemed indispensable for the green and digital transitions.

The proposed legislation seems to be a first step in trying to decouple the EU from its dependencies on third countries for critical and strategic raw materials. However, the continent will never be fully autonomous because of its limited reserves.

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Column: Funds dump copper amid financial market turbulence – by Andy Home (Reuters – March 27, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – Funds have dumped their bets on higher copper prices as the turbulence triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continues to roil financial markets. Early-year enthusiasm for copper as a proxy for China’s re-opening from stringent lockdown has succumbed to the contagious fear spreading from the banking sector to other risk asset classes.

The investment community has turned net short of CME copper for the first time in five months, while funds have cut their long exposure on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Investors’ negativity towards Doctor Copper contrasts with the bullish headlines generated by the FT Commodities Global Summit.

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What happened to the atomic test dummies? – by Glen Meek (Nevada Independent – March 17, 2023)

https://thenevadaindependent.com/

St. Patrick’s Day always rocks in Las Vegas, but not like it did 70 years ago when a 16-kiloton atom bomb detonated atop a tower at the Nevada Proving Grounds, 65 miles north of the city.

The March 17, 1953 above-ground nuclear test destroyed or damaged various test objects placed at differing distances from ground zero, including houses, cars and mannequins meant to simulate real people who might get caught in a nuclear blast. The explosion sent a shock wave through southern Nevada and left behind an atom-age mystery: What happened to the life-like mannequins used in the test?

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Unlocking Northern Ontario’s Economic Potential (2023 Ontario Budget Papers – March 23, 2023)

2023 Ontario Budget Papers Document

Building the Corridor to Prosperity

Critical minerals are key to the economy of the future. These important resources are critical to products that the people of Ontario rely on, including cell phones, electric vehicles (EVs), and the semiconductors in countless goods. Critical minerals are some of the most sought after commodities in the global economy and Ontario happens to be one of the rare places on earth with many of these natural resources available.

Ontario’s endowment in critical minerals can be leveraged to encourage domestic mining and processing that support the high‐value downstream activities in the electric vehicle supply chain such as automotive and battery manufacturing. This is a competitive advantage that cannot be ignored.

Ontario is helping to build a strong critical minerals sector in the province. Through investments and support, the government is unlocking Northern Ontario’s economic potential in critical minerals and connecting these resources to the world‐class manufacturing capabilities in Southern Ontario. Ontario has tremendous opportunities for critical minerals to support future economic prosperity.

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Gold price jumps as Fed’s Powell explains latest change in Fed speak – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – March 22, 2023)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) With the banking crisis hitting the markets, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy might have less work to do, according to U.S. central bank Chair Jerome, who leaned dovish during his press conference, sending gold prices higher.

The biggest change in the Fed’s language after the Silicon Valley Bank fallout was a shift from expectations of “ongoing rate increases” to “some additional policy firming.” “We no longer state that ongoing rate increases will be needed to quell inflation. Instead, we now anticipate that some additional policy firming may be appropriate,” Powell told reporters Wednesday.

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Will a Road Make the Ring of Fire a Reality? – TV Ontario’s The Agenda host Steve Paikin interviews Kristan Straub, Virginia Heffernan and Stan Sudol (March 21, 2023)

https://www.tvo.org/theagenda

For the better part of 15 years, the Ring of Fire, the biggest mining prize in a generation, or more, has confounded those who would develop it. One of the key issues is how to get to and from the remote area. But the province may have presented a solution with a recently announced agreement on the terms of reference for a First Nations-led plan for a permanent road to the Ring of Fire.

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