(Bloomberg) — Newcrest Mining Ltd. rejected an initial $17 billion takeover bid by US rival Newmont Corp., with the Australian miner’s interim CEO saying the company was “worth a lot more.”
It did offer some hope to its suitor, however, by indicating it’s prepared to provide access to its books on a non-exclusive basis. The all-shares deal would have been the largest globally this year and created the world’s biggest gold miner.
Indonesia has abundant natural resources, especially nickel. Nickel is the raw material for making electric vehicle batteries. Electric vehicles are predicted to be low in emissions or environmentally friendly.
Developed countries are currently competing to produce electric vehicles. Indonesia is not left behind with big plans to form a company producing electric vehicle batteries. This has attracted the interest of foreign mining companies including China to enter and explore for nickel in Indonesia.
Iron ore looks set to continue its surge in 2023 but the rise of green energy is creating massive opportunities for the Pilbara. Rare earth minerals, lithium, wind and solar are just some of the emerging commodities setting the pace in one of WA’s most productive regions.
Pilbara Development Commission chief executive Terry Hill said the changing landscape was exciting for the region. “One of the really significant changes in the region of the last few years is the diversification in the range of exploration and mineral projects,” Mr Hill said. “One of the ones that is going to come through really strongly this year, and will be at the forefront of growth for the next few years is green energy.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Teck Resources Ltd. is exploring a spin-out of its steelmaking coal division, or other ways to exit its largest business, as part of a strategic shift to mining metals that will power a greener economy.
Vancouver-based Teck, the country’s largest coal producer, said on Thursday it is “evaluating alternatives for its steelmaking coal business, including the possible spin-out of an interest in that business to its shareholders.” The announcement came after Bloomberg reported the company could announce a transaction as early as next week.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/
While shopping undercover at some of Canada’s top jewellers, Marketplace journalists came across sales pitches filled with false claims and inconsistent diamond grading reports, all of which could lead consumers to question whether they got what they paid for.
Last year, Canadians who purchased a diamond ring spent on average just over $4,300, according to Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data Ltd. Marketplace journalists posed as secret shoppers to capture the sales pitch on hidden camera at three of Canada’s most popular value retail jewelry chains: Peoples Jewellers, Ben Moss Jewellers, and Michael Hill, visiting three locations for each retailer in Ontario and Alberta.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/
Demand for is driving domestic and foreign direct investment in the country’s minerals sector. But caution is needed.
Indonesia has historically had limited success with industrial policy. That may now be changing, with recent interventionist policies targeting the nickel sector suggesting initial success in developing downstream segments of the value chain. So successful have these industrial policies been that the government is planning to target other minerals in a similar fashion, despite the objections of major trading partners.
After a period of liberalisation following the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia saw strong economic nationalism emerge again in the late 2000s. Nationalistic policies have been particularly strong in the natural resource sector.
https://thenevadaindependent.com/
Nevada, as with other arid parts of the globe such as Chile and Argentina, is awash with lithium. The soft, silvery white mineral is in high demand as a key component of batteries used to power electric vehicles in the transition away from fossil fuel-based economies.
For years, state officials have positioned Nevada as the central node in the domestic lithium supply chain, a place to extract, recycle and market the metal. But the new increasing demand — how it plays out and where mining is permitted — could have major consequences for local communities, the environment, public land and the management of a critical resource: water.
UNITED NATIONS — The prospect of large-scale mining to extract valuable minerals from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, once a distant vision, has grown more real, raising alarms among the oceans’ most fervent defenders.
“I think this is a real and imminent risk,” Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella organization of environmental groups and scientific bodies, told AFP. “There are plenty of stakeholders that are flagging the significant environmental risks.”
Lithium Chile regrets losing ‘an incredible shareholder,’ COO says
Lithium Chile Inc., one of three Canadian miners affected by Ottawa’s snap decision to block Chinese investment in critical minerals, said the order has been satisfied, although it regrets losing an “incredible shareholder” that supplied valuable expertise.
Chengze Lithium International Ltd. had purchased a 19.4 per cent stake in Lithium Chile, making it one of the Calgary-based company’s largest shareholders. Chengze sold its shares to Gator Capital Ltd., a Toronto-based firm that focuses on investment consulting and asset management. The transaction was completed for about $34.5 million, or 91 cents per share.
(Bloomberg) — The cargo trapped for months at the Dutch port of Rotterdam was so precious that the United Nations intervened to mediate its release. The World Food Programme chartered a ship to transport it to Mozambique, from where it’s being taken by truck through the interior to its end destination, Malawi. It’s not grain or maize, but 20,000 metric tons of Russian fertilizer, and it can’t come soon enough.
About 20% of Malawi’s population is projected to face acute food insecurity during the “lean season” through March, making the use of fertilizers to grow crops all the more vital. It’s one of 48 nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America identified by the International Monetary Fund as most at risk from the shock to food and fertilizer costs fanned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Will build a 500,000 square foot factory in Brampton, Ont., to help Ford keep up with surging demand for its F-150 Lightning
Canada’s biggest maker of automobile parts is set to assemble batteries for Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 Lightning pickup trucks — the electric version of the best-selling vehicle in North America and perhaps the most hotly anticipated EV since Teslas hit the market more than a decade ago.
Magna International Inc. said Feb. 15 that it will invest $470 million to build a 500,000 square foot factory in Brampton, Ont., to help Ford keep up with surging demand for its F-150 Lightning and also to retool five existing factories in the province. Aurora-based Magna said the expansion will create more than 1,000 jobs.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Company announces a payout of $7.1 billion to its investors on Wednesday, as high oil and coal prices helped it to post a record annual profit
Glencore announced a payout of $7.1 billion to its investors on Wednesday, as high oil and coal prices helped it to post a record annual profit, but it said the rising costs of producing minerals could dent future earnings.
In preliminary 2022 results, the miner and trader said it cut net debt to $75 million at the end of the year from $6 billion at the end of 2021.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Experts, economists debate the value of development, resource extraction in treaty area
The third stage of the Robinson Superior Treaty annuity trial resumed this week at the University of Sudbury with the testimony of David Hutchings, an economist who specializes in conducting economic analysis in complex tax, securities and antitrust matters.
Presenting his report on behalf of the Anishnaabe people of the Superior area Feb. 13 and 14, and continuing next week, Hutchings offered his report as a reply to the economists who testified on behalf of the Crown.
LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Another year, another nickel scandal as the devil’s metal lives up to its reputation. When German miners first came across the stuff in fifteenth century Saxony, they dubbed it “Kupfernickel”, or “Devil’s Copper” because it looked like copper but wasn’t.
Appearances can be deceptive when it comes to nickel, as Trafigura has just found out half a millennium later. The commodity trader will take a $577 million charge in the first half of 2023 against potential losses arising from what it called a “systematic fraud” involving cargoes of nickel that were not nickel.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Zentek and B.C. numbered company consider partnership to develop the Albany graphite deposit
A southern Ontario healthcare solutions company is looking to spin off its high-grade graphite deposit, west of Hearst, into a separate mine development entity to advance it toward commercial production.
Guelph-based Zentek said in a Feb. 15 news release that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with a numbered company in British Columbia to “transfer” its Albany deposit into the hands of a publicly-listed company to be registered on a Canadian stock exchange.
