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Wyloo – Ring of Fire Metals Looks to decarbonize planet with Ring of Fire critical Minerals (Mining Life – December 15, 2022)

https://mininglifeonline.net/

A new company name, a new political landscape, and a new Ontario Mines Minister have all come together as momentum continues to build swiftly around efforts to develop the multi-billion-dollar Ring of Fire region of Northern Ontario.

Stephen Flewelling, CEO of Ring of Fire Metals, recently rebranded from Noront Resources , gave an update of the projects in the Ring of Fire at the Central Canada Resource Expo conference in Thunder Bay. Flewelling talked about recent changes that are happening and what the future looks like.

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Chinese Companies Are Flocking to Indonesia for Its Nickel – by Yudith Ho and Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – December 15, 2022)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Over a decade, they’ve poured upwards of $14 billion into two ore-rich islands to lock in supplies for battery production.

ABOUT 3,000 miles south of Beijing, Chinese mining companies have set up operations in the heart of the world’s largest known nickel reserves. On the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera, they’ve built refineries, smelters, a new metallurgy school-even a nickel museum.

Together, they’ve plowed US$3.2 billion into the remote islands this year alone, bringing the total to US$14.2 billion in investment over the past 10 years-enough to secure their nickel supply into the next decade.

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Marathon reconnects with its harbour – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 13, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

North shore town puts plans in motion for mixed-use port and recreational development

Marathon is reclaiming its waterfront. Generations ago, the sights, sounds and smells of most working harbours were not the kind of places that attracted strollers and tourists.

Marathon’s history was no different. Industrialization pushed the original town centre inland, away from the natural harbour on the north shore of Lake Superior and the landscape that provided inspiration for the Group of Seven artists in the 1920s.

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Deep Sea Mining: The Biggest Climate Issue You’ve Never Heard Of – by Renee Grogan (Forbes Magazine – December 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/

Renee Grogan is the cofounder and chief sustainability officer at Impossible Metals.

The noise around carbon emissions reduction and the transition to a green economy is deafening, particularly as we observe the progress of COP27. As a result, it can be hard to get a feel for what is going well and what isn’t.

Except when leaders from Pacific nations address COP standing in several feet of water that wasn’t there a few years ago—that seems to send a pretty clear message that whatever’s happening, it’s not really happening fast enough. In the context of this busy and noisy space, deep-sea mining might be one of the biggest issues you’ve never heard about.

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PCs must find way to bring other First Nations on board, or Ring of Fire will stall: Chief – by Alan S. Hale (Politics Today – December 15, 2022)

https://www.politicstoday.news/

Despite the PC government trumpeting the fact it has two nearby First Nations — Marten Falls and Webequie — on board with its plans for the Ring of Fire, the former’s Chief warns the project will continue to struggle to come to fruition if the province can’t draw more FN support.

Many of the other seven Matawa First Nations — which were recently recognized by the Chiefs of Ontario as having the final say over the project — are either skeptical or actively oppose Ring of Fire mining development, their stance casting a dark cloud over its future.

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RCMP searches Ivanhoe Mines Vancouver office in hunt for documents on Swiss bank account transfers – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The RCMP has searched the Vancouver office of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. to seek information on $2.7-million in bank transfers from Ivanhoe to a Swiss bank account in connection with contracts for its Congolese mining operations, The Globe and Mail has learned.

The RCMP obtained the search warrant after saying it had reasonable grounds to believe that Ivanhoe violated Canada’s Criminal Code and Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act between 2014 and 2018, according to a brief disclosure by Ivanhoe in an annual information form.

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Panama Tells First Quantum to Halt Flagship Mine After Talks Fail; Shares Sink – by Elida Moreno and Kylie Madry (U.S. News/Reuters – December 15, 2022)

https://money.usnews.com/

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Panama’s government ordered Canada’s First Quantum Minerals on Thursday to pause operations at its flagship copper mine in the country after missing a deadline to finalize a deal that would have increased payments to the government from the mine.

The government had given Minera Panama, which is majority-owned by First Quantum Minerals, until Wednesday to sign an agreement reached in January to pay $375 million a year to the government from its Cobre Panama mine.

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The Drift: Sudbury mining camp remains active with explorers – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 14, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

New sources of nickel and platinum keep the drills turning this winter

Nickel and base metals continue to drive exploration in the Sudbury mining camp with a handful of junior miners preparing for winter drill programs.

Magna Mining, the redevelopers of a decommissioned INCO property near Whitefish, reported some high-grade nickel hits this week from its first drilling program at the former Crean Hill Mine. The Sudbury junior miner acquired the shuttered underground mine last month and launched a maiden 2,000-metre program this fall.

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Canada, other G7 nations launch sustainable mining alliance at COP15 nature meeting – by Jacob Serebrin (Canadian Press/Moose Jaw Today – December 12, 2022)

https://www.moosejawtoday.com/

MONTREAL — Canada and other G7 countries have formed a new alliance to compel mining companies to adopt more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible standards, as the Western world ramps up its critical mineral supply chains.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced the agreement on Monday at the COP15 biodiversity talks in Montreal. The deal involves countries that are trying to reduce China’s dominance in the critical mineral field.

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The view from England: Coal mine approval a seasonal gift from UK government – by Chris Hinde (Northern Miner – December 2022)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Gifts have been exchanged in England during December since before the building of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago. Back then our Neolithic ancestors were celebrating the midwinter solstice (Dec. 21) with feasts and offerings.

The parties became more formal following the landing of Roman legions in AD43, with their festival of Saturnalia (Dec. 17-23) and its tradition of banquets and the giving of gifts. In the first half of the 4th century, Emperor Constantine amalgamated the Empire’s various mid-winter festivals into a celebration of the birth of Christ (choosing Dec. 25 as it corresponded with the winter solstice in the Roman calendar).

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What happens when electrification and reconciliation collide? (Indigenous Success – December 7, 2022)

https://www.indigenoussuccess.ca/

New study shows 54 percent of global mining projects are located on Indigenous territories. Finding a collaborative path forward has never been more important.

What happens when the energy transition and Indigenous rights collide? The transition to a low-emissions, electrified future requires vast quantities of minerals, including lithium, copper and iron. However, a new study found that 54 percent of mining projects for these transition minerals are located on or near Indigenous peoples’ lands.

According to The Conversation, 85 percent of the world’s lithium, 75 percent of magnesium, 66 percent of copper and 57 percent of nickel reserves overlap with Indigenous peoples’ lands. As demand for these minerals is projected to grow significantly in the coming years, it is important that Indigenous peoples have a say in where and how they are extracted. Charting a collaborative path forward is critical.

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KWG still pursuing the Ring of Fire Holy Grail, hoping a railway is the solution (Mining Life – December 15, 2022)

https://mininglifeonline.net/

“It was nice to emerge from the fog we’d been in due to COVID in in the last two and a half years”, stated Moe Lavigne, Vice President of Exploration and Development for KWG Resources while opening his presentation during the CEN CAN Expo in Thunder Bay in September 2022. Moe was invited to bring the audience up to speed on where KWG is and where they are going in the Ring of Fire mining region.

KWG Resources primary chromite holdings are located on several parcels of land in the Koper-McFaulds Lake area, one of the most dynamic parcels located in the Ring of Fire. Its most hopeful property is the Black Horse Project. This past October, KWG bought the property they had under option which contains its largest chromite resource, the Black Horse property.

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Rio Tinto talks up lithium M&A; investors hunt for targets – by Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood (Australian Financial Review – December 14, 2022)

https://www.afr.com/

It’s Rio Tinto’s turn to pull out the chequebook and summon a beauty parade, after BHP’s move on OZ Minerals. The big miner broke tradition this week when it took analysts through its technical backroom in Melbourne’s Bundoora and, in particular, talked up its lithium ambitions.

Knowing Rio’s on the prowl with its $15 billion cash wad (and more coming thanks to its huge free cash flow, with analysts tipping close to $US20 billion this year), resources investors and executives spent Wednesday trying different companies for a fit.

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OPINION: Global banks look down market for new business [Frontier Lithium] – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – December 12, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

To steal a phrase from supermodel Linda Evangelista, who wouldn’t wake up for photo shoots that paid less than $10,000 a day, investment bankers at global platforms such as RBC Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. don’t typically get out of bed to split a $1-million fee.

Yet RBC and Goldman – firms built for billion-dollar financings – put their muscle and brands behind a $23-million stock sale last month for junior miner Frontier Lithium Inc. The bought deal, initially pitched as a $20-million offering then upsized because of investor demand, earned the two lead dealers and four other banks just $1.1-million.

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Teck’s new CEO looks to tap cash from coal to fuel copper expansion – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – December 12, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Teck Resources Ltd.’s new chief aims to leverage his company’s booming coal business to get bigger in copper and become a “significant” miner of the metal behind the global energy transition.

“We’re so focused on copper just because of the critical role that the metal is going to play in decarbonization through electrification,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Price said in his first interview since taking the top job in September. “It’s really the cornerstone of what we’re doing.”

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