(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia says it has the potential to unlock enough copper to ease a looming shortage as the world makes an epic shift to clean energy, but the kingdom faces challenges that established mining countries already have solved.
Key among those challenges as the world’s largest oil producer seeks to unlock an estimated $1.3 trillion in mineral wealth are logistics and water supplies, according to Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd. has renamed Noront Resources Ltd., the junior Canadian exploration company it recently acquired, to Ring of Fire Metals, as the Australian resource heavyweight moves forward in its attempt to build what could be a cornerstone mine for Ontario’s nascent electric-vehicle industry.
Perth-based private equity firm Wyloo acquired Noront this year for $617-million after winning a fierce bidding war against fellow Australia miner BHP Group Ltd. Wyloo chief executive Luca Giacovazzi said in a release that it settled on the Ring of Fire name to recognize both the minerals district in which the nickel project is located, and to pay homage to Noront’s Canadian roots.
LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) – While the rest of the world worries about recession, China is steadily increasing its imports of physical copper. The country’s net call on refined copper from the rest of the world was up by 9.8% in the first eight months of the year. Year-to-date volumes are the strongest since 2020, when China imported a record amount of metal.
China is simultaneously lifting imports of both copper scrap and mined concentrates, suggesting the hunger for refined units is not down to a shortage of raw materials. Strong import flows defy both the broader gloom around China’s debt-laden property sector and the more specific problems at trading house Maike, which is one of China’s dominant copper import channels.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Green Tech Metals strikes strategic alliance with LIthium Americas to establish a northwestern Ontario supply chain for the automakers
An Australian lithium explorer operating in the Armstrong-area is teaming up with a Canadian multi-national to develop a lithium mining and processing business in northwestern Ontario.
Green Technology Metals (GT1) has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) of Vancouver to start a lithium supply chain for the auto sector.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
Canada can play a big role in meeting demand for electric vehicles, analyst says
More than 300 new mines will be needed globally to meet growing demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, according to a new forecast from a mining analyst.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates at least 384 new mines for graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt will be required to meet electric vehicle demand by 2035. If battery materials can be recycled in large enough quantities, the firm says about 336 new mines would be needed.
The deals paint a hopeful picture at a time when demand for EVs has increased and the world looks to shift away from coal
South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. announced three agreements in a span of 24 hours with Canadian miners to source materials required to make batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) as it looks to boost its focus on North America.
After announcing its three-year cobalt deal with Toronto-based Electra Battery Materials Corp. on Thursday morning, the Tesla Inc. supplier announced agreements to source lithium from Toronto-based miner Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. and Winnipeg-based Snow Lake Resources Avalon Advanced Materials Ltd., which is developing a lithium project in Manitoba.
Big Sudbury miners realized safety goals could be better achieved by working together than tackling problems alone
Sudbury’s two large mining companies are working together on the transition to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) to make it safer to operate those vehicles on surface and in underground mines.
The partnership between Vale Canada and Glencore was revealed at the Maintenance, Engineering and Mine Operators Conference in Sudbury held in Sudbury this week. This was one of several sessions that were held in the Innovation and New Technology category.
https://www.mining-technology.com/
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is tasked with effectively protecting the world’s deepest seas and most alien environments, and the body is granting an increasing number of exploration permits to research institutes and private companies alike.
Many of the companies’ efforts are aimed at the Clarion-Clipperton zone in the South Pacific, where fist-sized polymetallic nodules often contain valuable rare earth minerals, and have become an attractive prospect for miners.
The project also illustrates how difficult it is to get lithium out of the ground and break China’s dominance in processing the metal and turning it into batteries.
About 350 miles northwest of Montreal, amid a vast pine forest, is a deep mining pit with walls of mottled rock. The pit has changed hands repeatedly and been mired in bankruptcy, but now it could help determine the future of electric vehicles.
The mine contains lithium, an indispensable ingredient in electric car batteries that is in short supply. If it opens on schedule early next year, it will be the second North American source of that metal, offering hope that badly needed raw materials can be extracted and refined close to Canadian, U.S. and Mexican auto factories, in line with Biden administration policies that aim to break China’s dominance of the battery supply chain.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Appalling prices for oil and natural gas will guarantee Europe’s status as a dark, frozen hell this winter. Manufacturers big and small will fail – are failing already. Unemployment will rise. Countries with gruesome bills for energy imports will sink into recession. And the euro will keep sinking.
This scenario is pretty much accepted as gospel, and most of the data and anecdotal evidence suggests the economic pain will intensify as cold weather boosts energy demand. Almost half the households in the European Union depend on gas for heating, and gas is in short supply as pipelines to Central and Western Europe are cranked shut by the Kremlin in retaliation for the West’s sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
It follows a $3.4B lawsuit filed early this year over the same policy reversal
An Australian coal company is alleging that Alberta is liable for billions after reversing course on policy tied to coal development in the province.
As first reported by the Calgary Herald, Atrum Coal Ltd., along with its subsidiary, Elan Coal Ltd., says it is seeking $3.53 billion, tied to the value of its Elan Project. It is also seeking an additional $300 million for losses to shareholders.
(Kitco News) – Bearish sentiment appears to be finally catching up with the gold market as stronger than expected activity in the manufacturing and service sectors and technical selling pressure keep prices near session lows.
Friday, the S&P Global Flash U.S. Composite PMI reported a healthy rise in activity within and service sector. The report said that the manufacturing PMI data came in at 51.8, up from August’s reading of 51.5. The data was better than expected; according to consensus estimates, economists were looking for a reading around 51.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Avalon Advanced Materials in talks to secure supply agreement with South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solutions
South Korean lithium-ion battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) is looking to Northern Ontario to secure its raw material supply chain.
Hours after inking a three-year cobalt deal with Electra Battery Materials to source cobalt sulfate from its Temiskaming refinery starting next spring, LGES has entered into negotiations with Kenora lithium mine developer Avalon Advanced Materials to supply them with battery-grade lithium hydroxide by 2025.
It could secure a funding partner that will help Avalon build a much anticipated lithium refinery in Thunder Bay by next year.
US-based Nevada Gold Mines (NGM) continues to demonstrate the impact of Barrick Gold’s strategy of combining the best assets with the best people as new projects and prospects secure its future as a high-quality, long-life operation for decades to come, says NGM chairperson Mark Bristow.
Speaking during a visit by a group of equity analysts and investors to the development of the Goldrush underground project, the openpit operations and processing facilities at Cortez, and the Third Shaft project and core shack at Turquoise Ridge, Bristow said NGM had unlocked significant synergies by consolidating mines, teams, processing facilities and landholdings.
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has pushed back the date it was to start letting go its Mary River mine employees. The move came Thursday after the Nunavut Impact Review Board issued a positive recommendation on the company’s application for a higher iron ore shipping limit.
The mining company can prevent “potential significant adverse ecosystemic and socioeconomic effects” if it improves adaptive management and monitoring programs, board chairperson Marjorie Kaviq Kaluraq wrote in a letter to federal Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal Thursday.
