The December Rare Earths MMI (Monthly MetalMiner Index) traded sideways for the second month in a row. The index dropped 1.55% and MetalMiner anticipates it will continue sideways, most definitely for the short term and possibly in the long term.
This is mostly thanks to the supply of global rare earth magnets being interrupted by the current events within China, the world’s #1 supplier of rare earth elements.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Two years ago, in this column, I reminded readers of The Northern Miner that the mining industry has a patron saint, Barbara, whose feast day (Dec. 4) is observed by miners and tunnellers around the world, especially in continental Europe.
You might recall that Saint Barbara was an early Christian martyr, with accounts placing her in third century Nicomedia (in present-day Turkey) or in Heliopolis (present-day Lebanon). Although Barbara was declared a saint in 1568 by Pope Pius V, doubts about the authenticity of her legend (there is no reference to Barbara in early Christian writings) led to her removal from the General Roman Calendar in the 1969 revision, although not from the Catholic Church’s list of saints.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
While the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, the year 2022 has been a good year for the “critical mining” sector in Canada supported by several announcements by the federal and provincial governments.
Developed in consultation with provincial, territorial, and industry experts, Canada now has a list of minerals it considers to be “critical.” Currently, it consists of 31 minerals; however, the list will be reviewed every three years and revised if needed.
(Kitco News) – Global economic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions will create a “worldwide war economy” that prioritizes domestic supplies and price caps, ensuring that inflation will remain persistently high through 2023.
Taken to its extreme, this scenario will be very good for gold, with Saxo Bank offering an “outrageous” forecast of $3,000 an ounce. “2023 is the year that the market finally discovers that inflation is set to remain ablaze for the foreseeable future,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at the Danish bank, said in the report.
Philipe Henriques has always had reservations about the diamond industry. “I’m pretty sure a lot of us have seen the movie Blood Diamond,” the high school social studies teacher said.
The 2006 film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a diamond smuggler in civil war-era Sierra Leone, where warlords force captive men to sift for the precious stones through muddy water at gunpoint. “I don’t think it’s always like that,” he said. “But I still think there are a lot of injustices.”
Glencore Plc added its voice to a chorus of miners warning of coming copper shortages, arguing that a “huge deficit” is looming for the crucial industrial metal.
Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle said that while some people were assuming that the industry would lift supplies as it had in previous cycles to meet a forecast increase in demand driven by the energy transition, “this time it is going to be a bit different.”
(Bloomberg) — The world’s fastest-growing lithium producer is lobbying hard to gain access to President Joe Biden’s new electric vehicle tax credits, despite Argentina not meeting the requirement of being a US free-trade partner. So far, it’s being rebuffed.
Designed to end China’s overwhelming dominance of the critical metals sector and passed in August, Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act has been welcomed as a landmark climate law that will boost EV manufacture and uptake in the US. But to qualify for the credits, it requires 80% of the battery metals in each vehicle to be “extracted or processed” in the US or a country with US free-trade agreement by 2027.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
PM: Creating secure battery minerals supply chains ensure Canada’s reliability as an international partner
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made no apologies for cracking down on Chinese investment in Canadian mining projects that produce the coveted critical minerals needed to power the clean energy economy.
In a Dec. 5 news conference showcasing Canada’s first full-scale electric vehicle plant at General Motor’s CAMI Assembly complex in Ingersoll, Trudeau emphasized the importance for Canada to have “control” of its own sources of critical minerals, like nickel and lithium, and the downstream processing facilities that produce the battery-ready material used in electric vehicle production.
https://www.yukon-news.com/
The Geoscience 50th Anniversary conference recently took place at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre. Chatting with old friends and meeting new ones was a lot of fun. It was fascinating to hear about new mining technology and mineral discoveries made since the last in-person Geoscience way back in the before times.
And it was heartwarming to meet the children and grandchildren of Yukon geologists, diamond drillers and mining lawyers who are now starting their own careers in the business. I’d last seen some of these young Yukoners on the minor soccer fields of Whitehorse. They are now, literally, the future of Yukon mining.
The town of Tonopah, Nev., was born out of a silver rush. A frantic race to extract a natural resource created a town of more than 10,000 people — for a while. Today, Tonopah is home to a little over 2,000 people. But there’s a new mining boom in town.
You can see it when you check in at the old Mitzpah Hotel, all faded glory, ghost stories and tales about Wyatt Earp. Above the cash register, next to a chandelier, a screen advertises a lithium exploration company. And forty minutes outside of town, Silver Peak lithium mine is in the process of doubling production.
For the second time this year, Mongolians are protesting against the government in significant numbers. In April, protests seemed to primarily grow out of younger Mongolians’ disappointed expectations with the government.
Today’s protests were sparked by apparent revelations about grand corruption, involving coal deliveries by state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, one of the country’s largest mining companies, to China.
The Swiss-based mining company, Glencore, has said it will pay $180m (£147m) to the Democratic Republic of Congo to settle corruption claims. The agreement covers an 11-year period from 2007 to 2018.
It is the latest in a series of corruption cases which has seen Glencore agree to pay out more than $1.6bn in fines this year. In May it admitted bribing officials in several African nations including DR Congo (DRC). The Congolese government has told the BBC it is not commenting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
A Russian mercenary group that has gained international attention for its role in the war in Ukraine is also active in one of Africa’s poorest countries, using violence and extortion in an effort to corner its extremely lucrative diamond industry, according to a new report issued by European-based researchers.
Individuals linked to the Wagner Group, which is most infamous for its brutal tactics in eastern Ukraine, have set up a shell company in the Central African Republic (CAR) to secure and sell diamonds, say researchers from two groups, France-based All Eyes on Wagner and the London-based Dossier Center, sponsored by exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and European Investigative Collaborations, a network of news organizations.
There is much pointing of fingers across the developed world as to who or what is to blame for the sudden dire economic conditions that confront us. Is the current malaise the result of the war in Ukraine and high oil prices?
Is it to do with the sudden and, to some, surprising appearance of inflation? In the United Kingdom some blame a risky “dash for growth” by a now deposed administration and of course there is always Brexit to blame for everything that goes wrong.
The first electric delivery vans rolled off the line Monday at a General Motors Co. plant in Ingersoll, Ont., that has been making gas-powered vehicles for more than three decades. The CAMI assembly plant was retooled to make the BrightDrop Zevo 600, making it Canada’s first full-scale electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility.
GM received $259 million each from the Ontario and federal governments in April for the conversion and aims to manufacture about 50,000 EVs a year at the plant by 2025.
