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How Canada supplied uranium for the Manhattan Project – by Peter C. van Wyck (CBC Documentaries – January 10, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/

Ore mined in the Northwest Territories was transported to Port Hope, Ont., then used to develop the bombs that

In the past couple of years, the public imagination has been taken up with all things nuclear — the bomb, energy and waste. The film Oppenheimer recasts the story of the bomb as a Promethean and largely American narrative, while the series Fallout depicts a post-nuclear world. Russia has repeatedly emphasized its readiness for nuclear conflict. Nuclear energy has been regaining popularity as a hedge against climate change.

And yet, the story of Canada’s nuclear legacy — and our connection to the bombs that the U.S. military dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands in an instant — is rarely told.

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Column: Tariff threat opens up transatlantic rift in copper pricing – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 12, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

US President Donald Trump hasn’t yet imposed import tariffs on copper but the market is already pricing in the likelihood that the red metal will be next on the list after aluminum and steel.

The arbitrage between the CME and the London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts has blown wider in recent days, with the CME premium exceeding $1,000 per metric ton earlier this week. Given that LME three-month copper is currently trading around $9,400 per ton, the transatlantic gap implies the market is expecting a 10% tariff at the very least.

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[BHP and Canada] Up and Down Under – by Trevor Cole (Globe and Mail/Report on Business Magazine – February 18, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Why Mike Henry, the Canadian CEO of the world’s biggest mining company, is investing big in Canada

No one should have been surprised, five years ago, when Mike Henry rose to the top of the Australian mining giant BHP. When it comes to mining, Canadians have some game, and the University of British Columbia alum had built a 30-year career touching every aspect of the industry, from marketing to technology to operations.

What might have opened some eyes is how decisively the understated Henry, who’d been at BHP since 2003, moved to change things up. He eliminated BHP’s complicated dual listing on the London and Sydney exchanges, boosting the company’s ability to make acquisitions.

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Rio Tinto clears final hurdles for $6.7B Arcadium Lithium buy – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 14, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto has secured all regulatory approvals to proceed with its $6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium, with the transaction set to close in early March.

The US-based lithium producer confirmed on Friday that Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the United States have approved the deal under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

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Severe Cyclone Makes Landfall Near Australia’s Iron Ore Hub – by Keira Wright and Paul-Alain Hunt (Bloomberg News/Financial Post – February 13, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Severe Cyclone Zelia has made landfall near Australia’s iron ore export hub, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts, with the system threatening big mines and crucial rail links as it tracks inland.

(Bloomberg) — Severe Cyclone Zelia has made landfall near Australia’s iron ore export hub, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts, with the system threatening big mines and crucial rail links as it tracks inland.

The powerful cyclone crossed the coast to the east of Port Hedland, the nation’s biggest iron ore export harbor, packing very destructive wind gusts of up to 290 kilometers (180 miles) per hour near its center, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Winds that strong flatten structures and buckle power lines.

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STLLR Gold wants to shake its money maker at a Timmins tailings site – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 13, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto company sifting through Hollinger mine waste looking for leftover gold

A Matheson-area gold mine developer wants to sift through the tailings of the historic Hollinger Mine in Timmins to look for leftover gold.

STLLR Gold is heralding its Hollinger tailings project as a “gamechanging” and “strategic” opportunity that the Toronto company believes can yield significant amounts of untouched gold that can be reprocessed very cheaply and deliver some cash.

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Are critical minerals trump card in US-China chip showdown? – by Francesca Price (S&P Global – February 13, 2025)

https://www.spglobal.com/

On Dec. 3, 2024, China’s Ministry of Commerce implemented export bans on key semiconductor materials, including gallium and germanium, to the US. While these minerals had already been subject to existing export restrictions introduced in July 2023, this is the first time China has specifically targeted the US.

To date, US legislation has focused on strengthening the downstream part of the semiconductor supply chain, leaving US technologies vulnerable to upstream supply chain disruption.US-China tensions centered on semiconductors and critical minerals are apt to continue rising as each government deploys the levers at its disposal, including restrictions on the upstream supply of materials key to the chip sector.

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Proposed bill would bar state permitting of copper-nickel mines near Boundary Waters – by Jimmy Lovrien (Duluth News Tribune – February 13, 2025)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Past federal protections against mining in the BWCAW watershed face challenges.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota legislators have introduced a bill to bar copper-nickel mines from developing within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The bill seeks to ban mining on state-owned land within the Rainy River Watershed and bar the state from permitting any mining or mineral exploration in that watershed.

Mining is banned in the BWCAW, but environmentalists fear, and a federal government study released under President Joe Biden said, that tainted runoff from mining activities outside the wilderness’ boundaries but within the same watershed could harm the downstream wilderness area.

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Diamond market ‘still missing a spark:’ Zimnisky – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – February 14, 2025)

Global mining news

After two difficult years marked by falling prices, where does global demand for diamonds go from here? Independent diamond analyst and consultant Paul Zimnisky weighs in. What’s the general outlook for the diamond industry this year? Do you see a recovery or consistent challenges?

We could see a modest recovery in natural diamond demand and prices in 2025. Given the difficult conditions the last two years, the comparative base has come down quite a bit. All it would take is a stable U.S. and a slightly better China to yield a moderate recovery as industry inventories improve throughout the year.

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Labrador stuck in ‘wait-and-see’ approach over looming impact of U.S. steel tariffs – by Elizabeth Whitten (CBC News Newfoundland-Labrador – February 14, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Labrador mines produce components used in steel manufacturing

In the wake of newly announced U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, one Labrador mayor says businesses in the mine-heavy region will have to wait and see how their bottom lines are impacted.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 30-day reprieve for tariffs on Canadian goods, only to announce he was slapping a 25 per cent tariff on all of the country’s steel and aluminum imports, scheduled to come into effect on March 12.

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[Critical Minerals] Ukraine’s Best Hope for Creating Lasting Security – by Oleksandr Kubrakov (Time Magazine – February 13, 2025)

https://time.com/

U.S. access to Ukraine’s vast and largely untapped rare earths and other critical minerals in exchange for a “security shield” is the latest twist in the potential peace plan for the war in Ukraine. And it is picking up steam with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv and President Donald Trump stunning Europe by revealing he has already begun talks with Vladimir Putin.

But while U.S. investment in this underdeveloped sector would be an important positive development for both Ukraine’s economy and immediate security, it’s only one element in an absent economic strategy that Ukraine needs to create a lasting security guarantee from future Russian aggression.

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Barrick considering redomiciling to the U.S. and Trump could make it happen faster, says CEO Mark Bristow – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 14, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is considering redomiciling to the United States from Canada, and under a Donald Trump administration that could happen sooner rather than later, Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board.

On Thursday, he mapped out several reasons why a move to the U.S. makes sense, including access to a more efficient marketplace, and the ability to attract a bigger pool of shareholders. Redomiciling to the U.S. could put Barrick in the S&P 500 index, which would attract automatic buying from scores of mutual funds and exchange traded funds that track indexes.

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Trump’s order to end minting of pennies will save taxpayers millions without much impact on Arizona copper mines – by Matthew DeWees (Cronkite News/AZPM.org – February 13, 2025)

https://news.azpm.org/

The cost of producing a penny has far exceeded the value of each coin for the past 19 years.

Most copper mined in the U.S. comes from Arizona. But President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that he will halt production of pennies won’t make a dent in the state’s mining industry. The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year. But since 1982, nearly all of the metal used has been zinc.

So the copper industry can shrug off Trump’s move, which economists have long called a no-brainer because each penny costs more to make than it’s worth – 3.69 cents as of last year – and most end up in jars, piggy banks, and sofa cushions.

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Exclusive: China’s BYD holds mining rights in Brazil’s Lithium Valley, documents show – by Fabio Teixeira (Reuters – February 14, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO-Chinese electric carmaker BYD acquired mineral rights for two plots of land in a lithium-rich part of Brazil in 2023, entering the mining business in its biggest market outside of China, according to public records reviewed by Reuters.

The EV producer’s acquisition of mineral rights in Brazil is its most concrete step so far toward mining strategic minerals in the Western Hemisphere. The previously unreported acquisition of the mineral rights in late 2023 was made by BYD subsidiary Exploracao Mineral do Brasil, which was created in May of that year, documents showed.

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Ecuador’s mining future uncertain as socialist party gains traction – by Staff (Mining.com – February 11, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Ecuador’s mining industry is bracing for potential changes as the nation’s main socialist party gains momentum in the presidential race.

Luisa González, a protégé of former President Rafael Correa, is leading a strong push fuelled by public discontent over a struggling economy, gang violence, and widespread blackouts. Her platform, which reflects the policies of the influential Citizen Revolution movement, could significantly reshape mining policies if she wins the runoff on April 13.

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