OTTAWA – Federal Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is selling Canada’s battery-supply chain prowess in Asia again this week, but this time he has a new boast in his back pocket.
Research firm BloombergNEF pushed Canada’s position in its annual global ranking of battery-producing countries ahead of everyone else but China. “That’s something I’m going to use very much on my trip in Asia, to say we have what Asia needs,” Champagne said.
(Bloomberg) — Equity investors hoping for a better year in 2023 will be disappointed, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists, who said the bear market phase is not over yet.
“The conditions that are typically consistent with an equity trough have not yet been reached,” strategists including Peter Oppenheimer and Sharon Bell wrote in a note on Monday. They said that a peak in interest rates and lower valuations reflecting recession are necessary before any sustained stock-market recovery can happen.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Silver Lake Resources invests in new buildings, processing equipment at Sugar Zone Mine
The new Australian owners of the Sugar Zone Mine continue to sink investment into the underground operation near White River.
Silver Lake Resources reported it’s made “significant progress” at the mine with expenditures of almost $9 million the company’s past September quarter. Most the spending has been on processing equipment and new buildings.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The federal government has blocked Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s plans for a massive production increase in Nunavut, sending a strong message to the mining industry that any future large resource development in the Far North must be offset by sufficient environmental damage mitigation and proper consultation with the Inuit.
Baffinland, based in Oakville, Ont., had hoped to double its production of iron ore at its Baffin Island mine in Nunavut to 12 million tonnes a year, from six million tonnes.
Bullion major Barrick Gold’s portfolio of gold and copper assets is projected to show strong growth over the next five to ten years, president and CEO Mark Bristow said at an investor meeting in New York on Friday.
The unlocking of value at the Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic, following the finalisation of the location for the new tailings storage facility, would support that growth, he said.
Canada’s nickel producers are hoping to differentiate their products as cleaner and purer
Mining industry veteran Mark Selby has for years been telling anyone who would listen that the production of nickel — a metal key to batteries and the energy transition — was getting so concentrated in just a few countries that a cartel-like organization to control supply was inevitable.
A slide in the PowerPoint deck he’s shown at investment conferences since 2019 predicted an “ONEC” — the Organization for Nickel Exporting Countries — consisting of Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia, the top three nickel producers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
‘There has to be that constant dialogue, in order to fully work together in collaboration,’ says Paul Quassa
Baffinland Iron Mines is not giving up hope that it can win over Nunavut communities, along with the hunters and trappers groups. After the company’s proposed mine expansion project was rejected by the federal minister this week, Baffinland’s Paul Quassa says the company will head to communities before Christmas for more talks.
“We’re constantly going to the communities,” said Quassa, a senior advisor with the company and an Iqaluit city councillor. He said it’s all about “having good communications” with people and the hunters and trappers in each of the communities.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Peter Marrone has few regrets as he prepares to walk away from the big Canadian gold mining company he founded and is now poised to sell to a pair of Canadian precious metals companies.
Last week, Toronto-based Yamana YRI-T agreed to sell itself to Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Pan American Silver Corp. for US$4.8-billion. That offer topped an earlier and deeply unpopular bid by South African miner Gold Fields Ltd., which was originally worth US$6.7-billion.
(Bloomberg) — An Indonesian proposal to create an OPEC-like group of nickel suppliers has raised eyebrows among Australian miners.
Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia floated the idea of an alliance that he said would help to unite government policies on the in-demand battery metal — and push the development of the downstream industry — at the Group of 20 Summit in Bali this week. The plan has been discussed with both Canada and Australia.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Quantifying, in dollar terms, the effect of the mine on the economy, environment and people is complicated
Last week, the federal government revealed that cleaning up Yellowknife’s Giant Mine is now projected to cost $4.38 billion instead of $1 billion. This is, by one measure, greater than the mine’s total estimated revenues during its operation.
Quantifying, in dollar terms, the impact of the mine on the local economy, the environment, and the people who live on and use the area’s land and water is complicated, if not impossible.
Former President Trump, and others in the US including some Democrats as well as Republicans, have criticized continued US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. They have called for military and financial support to Ukraine to be cut, even ended. They downplay the risk from Russia and argue that the money should be spent at home.
Yet from numerous perspectives, when viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, US and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment. Altogether, the Biden administration received Congressional approval for $40bn in aid for Ukraine for 2022 and has requested an additional $37.7bn for 2022. More than half of this aid has been earmarked for defense.
When it comes to future prosperity, Canada talks fast but moves slowly, Heather Scoffield writes.
Here’s a new slogan to sum up Canada’s approach to boosting prosperity: Welcome to Canada, where we hesitate instead of hustle. Our industrial strategy, vaunted but not clearly defined. Our China policy, much hinted at but not yet published. Our critical minerals, heavily marketed but not yet mined. Our zero-carbon efforts, subsidized but not likely to remain competitive.
Those are the building blocks of not just our economic direction, but also the politics that motivate both the Conservatives and Liberals. Our leaders definitely talk a good game though.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The war in Ukraine has reshaped the world’s energy markets. Canada hasn’t kept up.
As Highway 27 winds around Calcasieu Lake in southwest Louisiana, massive storage tanks tower over the wetlands in what is shaping up to be a new global epicentre for exports of liquefied natural gas.
Near the town of Hackberry, Cameron LNG is eyeing expansion of its already-huge terminal, which opened in 2019. Along the highway and down other roads, there are three new proposed export terminals fronting the lake, which is just south of the small city of Lake Charles. One, Driftwood LNG, has more than 200 people working on early-stage site preparation.
MELBOURNE, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) said on Friday it would plough ahead with a $3.3 billion bid to buy the 49% of Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ.TO) that it does not already own, after it ended separate talks with dissenting minority shareholders.
The Anglo-Australian miner is seeking to simplify its management of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia that it operates, but shares ownership through Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government.
Although the grand opening of the K+S Potash Canada (KSPC) mine in Bethune was greeted with cheers from across the province in 2017, there are still plenty of reasons to celebrate as the company plans to continue increasing production at the facility over the coming decades. KSPC is targeting to one day reach four million of tonnes of potash production per year, which is double the current production from the mine.
KSPC is in the midst of a feasibility study which will lay the framework for future milestones of growth and timelines for the Bethune mine. Sam Farris, president of KSPC, said this process will enable the company to become a world-class potash producer and future leader in climate change responsibility while sustainably feeding the growing world’s population.
