Republic of Mining

Column: United States targets Russian aluminium and other metals – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 28, 2023)

March 1, 2023March 1, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – The United States has extended its punitive economic measures against Russia into the metals and mining sector. Aluminium will be hardest hit with penal tariffs of 200% on imports of Russian metal, effective March 10, and imports of any third-country product containing Russian metal, effective April 10.

Import tariffs on other metals such as copper and lead will double to 70% and nickel will be subject to a 35% duty. The full package of sanctions and trade measures, announced on the anniversary of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, covers over 100 metals, minerals and chemicals.

Australia blocks Chinese investor from raising stake in rare earths miner – by Staff (Mining.com – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Australian rare earths producer Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) said on Tuesday that the federal government had prevented its largest shareholder, China’s Yuxiao Fund, from raising its stake in the company on grounds of national interest.

Yuxiao Fund needed the Foreign Investment Review Board’s (FIRB) approval to increase its holding in Northern Minerals to 19.9% from 9.92%. Beijing has condemned Australia for previously blocking Chinese investment on national security grounds, saying those moves have contributed to a years-long diplomatic freeze.

ARE WE FINALLY ON THE CUSP OF COMMERCIAL ASTEROID MINING? – by Jamie Carter (Sky and Telescope – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://skyandtelescope.org/

Asteroid mining is back in the news. In January, California-based startup AstroForge announced that in 2023 it will lay the foundations to become the first commercial company to mine an asteroid and bring the materials back to Earth. Two missions launching in April and October 2023, both on SpaceX rockets, will test technology and survey a target asteroid.

It’s an exciting proposition, but haven’t we heard all of this before? Over the years, similarly ambitious companies have claimed to be on the cusp of the impossible, among them Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, neither of whom could ultimately finance their plans. What makes AstroForge different?

Magino Mine construction in the final stretch: Argonaut Gold’s Dubreuilville-area pit project scheduled for first gold pour in May – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontairo Business – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Argonaut Gold has started mining and stockpiling gold ore at its open-pit mining project outside Dubreuilville in anticipation of the first gold pour in mid-May.

The Toronto company is in the final stages of construction at its Magino Mine site. The targeted start of commercial mining operations is in the third quarter of this year. Argonaut released its 2022 fourth-quarter and year-end financials before markets opened on Feb.27.

China lithium probe shuts down chunk of global supply – by Alfred Cang (Australian Financial Review – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Singapore | China’s lithium industry is reeling as its top production hub – responsible for about 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 grapple with a close-up inspection by environment officials from Beijing.

McEwen Copper attracts investments from Stellantis, Rio Tinto – by Mariaan Webb (Mining Weekly – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023

https://www.miningweekly.com/

McEwen Copper, a subsidiary of McEwen Mining, on Monday announced two separate transactions that provide a significant financial boost for its Los Azules project, in Argentina.

The company announced that automaker and mobility group Stellantis had invested 30-billion Argentine peso (about $150-million) to acquire shares of McEwen Copper in a two-part transaction that closed last week.

No more free entry?: A legal challenge by two First Nations threatens BC’s mineral claim system. – by CBA National/ABC National – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.nationalmagazine.ca/

It all used to be so simple. Way back in the Wild West days of mineral exploration in Canada, prospectors searching for surface signs of gold, silver or copper would cut down trees at four corners of a small plot to “stake” a claim. All a claim-jumper had to do was knock down the stumps.

It’s harder now — many jurisdictions have moved their claims online, making claim-jumping much less likely. But the basic model of “open entry” underlying exploration rights — the model that allows virtually anyone to stake an exploration claim simply by clicking on a map and paying a fee — remains the dominant model for mining regulation in Canada. In British Columbia, it’s under attack.

This road could save the planet — and carve up Alaskan wilderness – by David Wolman (Bloomberg News – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The remote Ambler Mining District contains massive lodes of minerals essential to cleantech, but extracting them will likely make an ecological mess.

Coldfoot, Alaska, is a lone truck stop-cafe-bar-motel 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It’s the last spot for northbound semis to gas up on their way to Prudhoe Bay and a place where camo-clad hunters smelling to high hell eat stacks of burgers and swap stories while dead moose lie in pickups parked outside.

On one of Coldfoot’s brisk September mornings, a rumble grows into steady thunder. Man-made wind sends grit whipping across the dirt driveway where someone, a few weeks earlier, placed a wooden sign with red-stenciled letters: “Helicopter Parking Only.”

NEWS RELEASE: Resource Sector Provides Highest Paying Jobs for Indigenous Workers in Canada (Indigenous Resource Network – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://indigenousresourcenetwork.ca/

CALGARY, AB, Feb. 27, 2023 /CNW/ – Data from Census 2021 show that the extractive resource sectors, and the oil and gas sector specifically, provide the highest paying average wages for Indigenous workers in Canada.

Indigenous people in Canada make almost three times more working in the oil and gas extraction sector than the average Indigenous worker ($140,400 vs $51,120 average employment income) and almost twice as much working in mining ($93,600). Forestry also paid higher than average ($56,100).

Toronto-based Li-Cycle gets conditional commitment for US$375-million U.S. Department of Energy loan – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – February 28, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The U.S. Department of Energy is providing Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. with a US$375-million loan to help it complete North America’s first major refinery for recycling battery-grade lithium, a major step in the Toronto-based company’s growth plans, it said on Monday.

Li-Cycle plans to start operations at its US$485-million Rochester processing hub in Western New York late this year. The project, located in Greece, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, will include a plant that will use the company’s hydrometallurgical system to process up to 35,000 tonnes of black mass – e-waste from crushed and shredded battery cells – per year, for use in new lithium-ion batteries. That is equivalent to about 18 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity.

Federal government has resumed talks with Ontario about the Ring of Fire: document – by Emma McIntosh (The Narwhal – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

Home

Internal emails obtained by The Narwhal appear to show a shift in relations between the two governments on the Ring of Fire. But some First Nations leaders say they’re still being left out

After a years-long stalemate over the far northern Ring of Fire, the federal government appears to have extended an olive branch to Ontario, resuming talks over the region’s future.

The province has asked with increasing impatience for the federal government to chip in about $1 billion for a road to the remote and environmentally-sensitive Ring of Fire region, 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. — a move that could enable mining there.

Glencore Must Pay Almost $30 Million to Bribery Victim Crusader Health – by Chris Dolmetsch (Bloomberg News – February 27, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc was told to pay almost $30 million in restitution to the founders of a company that provided healthcare related services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was forced to shut down as a result of the commodities giant’s global bribery scheme.

US District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in New York on Monday ordered Glencore to pay $29.6 million to the company, Crusader Health, for bribing a public official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in exchange for dismissing a lawsuit brought by Crusader against a Glencore subsidiary. Crusader had sought more than $50 million.

Base and battery metals Snapshot: Eight companies targeting critical minerals – by Staff (Northern Miner – February 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

The growing demand for clean energy technologies is driving exploration and development of critical mineral deposits around the world. Here’s a look at eight companies on the hunt for everything from cobalt and copper to graphite, lithium and nickel.

ACME Lithium

ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME; US-OTC: ACLHF) is focused on battery metal projects and its flagship asset is the Clayton Valley lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nev., 145 km northwest of Las Vegas. ACME Lithium has the option to earn 100% of 122 claims of the 9.9-sq.-km project, which sits contiguous to the northwest of Albemarle’s (NYSE: ALB) Silver Peak lithium mine, and borders Pure Energy Metals’ Clayton Valley lithium brine project, a joint-venture with Schlumberger Technology Corp.

The time young Jimmy Carter helped save Canada from nuclear disaster (National Post – February 20, 2023)

February 28, 2023

https://nationalpost.com/

Jimmy Carter, who entered hospice care at home on the weekend, has had long and surprising connections to Canada, including the time he helped save us from a nuclear meltdown.

fter Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, he was assigned to the early American nuclear submarine program when an accident at Canada’s NRX nuclear research reactor at Chalk River, Ont., caused a loss of coolant to the reactor and the core was left significantly damaged.

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.