Republic of Mining

OPINION: Teck’s coal spinoff is greenwashing and a blow to the ESG movement – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

If the ESG movement had one target, it was coal, the grubbiest of the fossil fuels. Mining companies in the Western world eventually succumbed to ESG pressure when they realized that sending their coal operations packing would not only clean up their acts but create value, as investors would reward them for having done good for the planet.

So out went the coal, and the share multiples of the companies behind the spinoffs or sales of the fuel climbed. But coal not only refused to die a polite death, it became hugely profitable after Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, triggering an energy crisis that sent many countries, from Germany to Pakistan, scrambling for the product they once vowed to downgrade to fringe status.

Canada has firepower to invest billions in green transition, analysts say – by Steve Scherer (Reuters – February 24, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

OTTAWA, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Canada has the firepower to invest billions of dollars in the green transition over the coming years to make it more competitive with the United States, analysts said, while also ensuring its public finances stay on a sustainable path.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fiscal room in this year’s budget because tax revenue has held up, COVID-19 pandemic supports have ended and the economy is performing better than previously expected, said Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins.

China Investigates Mining Violations in Lithium-Rich City (Bloomberg News – February 26, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

China’s lithium industry is reeling as its top production hub — responsible for around a 10th of the world’s supply — faces sweeping closures amid a government probe of environmental infringements.

The crackdown in Yichun, Jiangxi province, follows a local lithium frenzy over the past year as miners raced to feed rampant demand for the battery material — and to benefit from record global prices. Now, they’re grappling with a close-up inspection by environment officials sent from Beijing.

Former Sudbury nickel, copper mines yield new discoveries – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining pushing the boundaries to find additional resources at Crean Hill and Shakespeare mines

Magna Mining, an aspiring metals producer in Sudbury, has tapped into a new mineral zone near the surface at the site of a former Inco mine.

The local company launched a drill program this winter to look into how much life is left in the once-producing Crean Hill mine on the southeast corner of the Sudbury basin.

Seabed Mining Will Help Break China’s Grip on Critical Minerals – by Tom LaTourrette (Real Clear World – November 18, 2023)

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023

https://www.realclearworld.com/

Tom LaTourrette is a senior physical scientist and interim director of the Community Health and Environmental Policy program at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. The views expressed are the author’s own.

China dominates global supply chains for nearly all critical mineral resources. Especially important are elements such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, copper, and the rare earths that power decarbonization technologies such as batteries, electric motors, and turbines. The rapidly increasing demand for these minerals has rekindled interest in extracting polymetallic nodules from the deep seabed.

China controls the supply of these resources through extraction, either within its borders (especially in the case of rare earths) or through ownership of critical foreign mineral resources (for example, cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Mount Isa celebrates 100 years of mining history and outback life in north-west Queensland – by Emily Dobson, Zara Margolis and Larissa Waterson (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – February 22, 2023)

February 25, 2023

https://www.abc.net.au/

Mount Isa, one of Queensland’s longest-running mining towns, has this week turned 100. Founded on the land of the Kalkadoon people, it is renowned for mine stacks that rise from red-dirt country at the foothills of the Selwyn Ranges. But as locals celebrate a rich and varied past, many look toward a future where the town’s lifeblood is sustained by more than mining.

A chance discovery

On February 22, 1923, John Campbell Miles and his horses stopped to camp during a journey through the arid Queensland outback to the Northern Territory. Curiosity led the prospector to a particularly large outcrop where he knapped off a piece of rock that, according to his writings, he instantly recognised “contained mineral from its weight”.

What On Earth: As EV batteries consume more lithium, report warns against increased mining of it – by Jason Vermes (CBC Radio – February 25, 2023)

February 25, 2023February 25, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whatonearth/

Reducing reliance on personal vehicles, more public transit can cut emissions faster: author

The growing need for lithium — a mined metal used in batteries to power electric vehicles (EVs) — could have significant international environmental and social impacts if the U.S. doesn’t reimagine its transportation policy, according to a recent report.

Lithium, listed as a “critical mineral” by several governments and agencies, is an integral part of the transition away from fossil fuels. While demand is exploding because of EVs, it’s also used in batteries for energy storage systems, and smaller products like smartphone and e-bike batteries.

GMS: Wyloo hopes to integrate Ontario-based Ring of Fire nickel supply chain – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – February 24, 2023)

February 25, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

Multinational Wyloo Metals has reiterated its commitment to establishing an Ontario-centric integrated critical minerals supply chain, CEO Luca Giacovazzi told The Northern Miner’s recent Global Mining Symposium.

The privately-held Australian company, part of billionaire Andrew Forrest’s business empire, has made an early commitment to see the nickel and concentrate produced out of its Eagle’s Nest project in Ontario’s emerging Ring of Fire (RoF) nickel-chromite mining camp processed and beneficiated in Canada.

How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier – by Royce Kurmelovs (BBC.com – November 10, 2022)

February 25, 2023February 25, 2023

https://www.bbc.com/

As demand soars for electric vehicles and clean energy storage, Australia is rising to meet much of the world’s demand for lithium. While this helps reduce the need for fossil fuels, it raises another question – how can we source lithium sustainably?

Roughly a three-hour drive south of Perth, Western Australia, off the South Western Highway and behind the historic mining town of Greenbushes, the land beyond the town’s primary school falls away to reveal a deep, grey scar.

This is the site of an old tin mine known as the Cornwall Pit. At roughly 265m (870ft) deep, the terraced wall of the pit represents a century’s worth of work that began in 1888 when a pound of tin was lifted out of a nearby creek. When the surface-metal was scoured from the landscape, methods changed eventually giving way to open-cut mining in the host pegmatite vein – an igneous rock with a coarse texture similar to granite.

Agnico Eagle raising the gold production bar in the Abitibi – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 21, 2023)

February 23, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mine expansion at Detour Lake and Kirkland Lake figure prominently in gold production plans

There are more ounces to be pulled from the Abitibi gold belt, says Agnico Eagle. The Toronto gold company maintains it can produce more than two million ounces out of this region of northeastern Ontario and western Quebec by 2025, an area where Agnico got its start in the late 1950s. Agnico has five mines within this 32,000-square-kilometre area.

In a Feb. 17 conference call with analysts, Agnico management said it believes 2023 is an exciting year to advance a pipeline of projects and start to expand production at its existing operations while keeping production and total costs down to a low of $800 an ounce.

Having nickel in Timmins ‘extremely attractive’, says CEO – by Maija Hoggett (Timmins Today – February 23, 223)

February 23, 2023

https://www.timminstoday.com/

‘We think we’re in the early phase of unlocking an entire nickel district’

A mine developer says Timmins is in the early phase of unlocking a nickel district. Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby gave an update on its Crawford Project today at the Timmins Chamber’s State of Mining event.

Crawford is a proposed open-pit mine 40 kilometres north of the city. It’s slated to be a zero-emission operation. “This would be one of the largest nickel sulphide mines globally. Based on the scale of the resource that’s there it has the potential to be even larger.

Morningstar crowns world’s top lithium stock plays – by Tom Richardson (Australian Financail Review – February 23, 2023)

February 23, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Lithium investors are hoping a retreat in lithium carbonate prices in China has passed after a torrid February for the ASX’s green energy darlings. The sector leaders, including Pilbara Minerals, Mineral Resources, Allkem and IGO Ltd, all firmed on Thursday as investors monitor the collateral damage to lithium demand from China’s decision to end electric vehicle subsidies for consumers from the start of this year.

Lithium carbonate prices in China fell 7500 yuan ($1595) to a one-year low of 410,000 yuan a tonne on Wednesday and have shed around 30 per cent from highs in November 2021.

A critical look at critical minerals – by Philippe Tortell, Nadja Kunz, Allen Edzerza, Dave Porter (Policy Options – February 21, 2023)

February 23, 2023

Policy Options

Canada needs to modernize its mining legislation and draw on Indigenous leadership to truly achieve its global mineral ambitions.

In late 2022, the federal government released its much-anticipated critical minerals strategy. This is the latest in a series of national plans aimed at securing minerals vital for renewable energy, electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies.

The strategy aims to position Canada as a globally significant supplier of copper, nickel, lithium and other elements whose demand is expected to increase over the coming decades.

Australian explorers rush to join Canada’s lithium boom – by Tim Treadgold (Small Caps – February 23, 2023)

February 23, 2023

https://smallcaps.com.au/

The call of Canada is being heard clearly by Australian lithium hopefuls, with some of the best-known names from the Aussie mining boom heading north to ride a wave driven by the US Government’s trade protection policies.

Ken Brinsden, the key man in growing Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) from penny dreadful to $13 billion member of the ASX’s top 50, is the leading Australian lithium export as chairman of the Quebec-focussed Patriot Battery Metals.

First Quantum halts copper processing in Panama as dispute spirals – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 23, 2023)

February 23, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) said on Thursday it had halted ore processing operations at its giant Cobre Panama copper mine, in the latest escalation of a dispute with Panama’s government over tax and royalty payments.

Negotiations between the Toronto-based miner and the country’s government over a new contract for the mine turned sour in December, when the President announced a plan to halt the operation.