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Is Canada the new mecca for raw materials? – by Insa Wrede (DW.com – April 19, 2025)

https://www.dw.com/en/

China is halting the export of certain critical raw materials that are essential for future technologies and the defense industry. It’s a move that will hit the US and the EU hard. Could Canada fill the gap?

The New York Times reported recently that the Chinese government was to halt exports of six rare earth elements that are refined entirely in China. It will also cease to export certain specialized powerful rare earth magnets currently manufactured almost exclusively in China, which is responsible for 90% of global production.

The raw materials and specialized magnets are key for high-tech sectors such as the manufacture of cars, robots, and military equipment like drones and missiles.

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U.S. action led to reopening of Toronto-listed company’s tin mine in Congo, Trump adviser says – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – April 17, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Trump administration obtained help from Rwanda to secure a rebel retreat and allow Toronto-listed Alphamin Resources Corp. to reopen a shuttered tin mine in eastern Congo, a U.S. official says.

Massad Boulos, senior Africa adviser to President Donald Trump, said the Rwandan move was a “good faith” gesture in response to U.S. concerns about private mining investments, which he relayed in his eight-day trip to Africa this month.

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EU Decoded: Is the EU losing the geopolitical race for critical raw minerals? – by Mared Gwyn Jones (Euro News – April 22, 2025)

https://www.euronews.com/

The EU wants to cut reliance on powers like China for mineral supplies by the end of the decade. As geopolitical tensions boil, EU Decoded asks whether the bloc can keep up with its competitors. World powers are scrambling to get ahead in the race for the minerals needed to produce new technologies such as microchips, solar panels and electric cars.

US President Donald Trump has invoked wartime powers to boost American production, and has contemplated the use of economic, military and diplomatic force to gain access to Canada, Greenland and Ukraine’s mineral wealth.

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Trump Fast-Tracks 10 Mineral Projects: Perpetua’s Stibnite Gold to Boost U.S. Antimony – by Saptakee S (Carbon Credits – April 22, 2025)

https://carboncredits.com/

The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) took a major step to speed up approvals for domestic mineral production. In response to President Trump’s executive order, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, the Council named 10 mining projects that will now benefit from a faster, more transparent federal permitting process.

These projects, targeting minerals like copper, antimony, lithium, and potash, have been granted FAST-41 status. This designation falls under a 2015 federal initiative that streamlines permitting for major infrastructure projects. The White House confirmed more projects will be added soon.

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Canada’s Rare Earth Opportunity: Can Canada Dethrone China’s Global Dominance? – by Jimmy Peterson (Top News – April 21, 2025)

https://topnews.in/

In an era defined by supply chain volatility, geopolitical friction, and the race for technological supremacy, the global demand for rare earth elements (REEs) has taken on strategic urgency. Following China’s latest move to impose export controls on a host of critical rare earth materials—minerals integral to advanced electronics, electric vehicles, and defense systems—the West has been forced to accelerate its search for reliable alternatives.

Enter Canada: a nation with vast mineral reserves, a robust mining heritage, and the potential to challenge China’s rare earth monopoly—if it can overcome significant hurdles.

China’s Export Controls Reshape the Strategic Minerals Market

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Putin, Trump and the Arctic prize: Why a peace deal in Ukraine could change everything – by Donna Kennedy-Glans (National Post/MSN.com – April 2025)

https://www.msn.com/

Arctic nations are shoring up their security and sovereignty in the Far North. It’s even a ballot box issue in Canada. But what’s quietly unfolding in the Russian Arctic also warrants our full attention; the stakes are higher than one might expect.

Russia’s Arctic is resource-rich; the remote region has vast reserves of hydrocarbons, immense deposits of rare earth minerals and metals and provides access to the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s northern coast, a far shorter shipping route between Asia and Europe.

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Trump’s steel, aluminum tariff impacts start to build 1 month in – by Ian Bickis (Canadian Press/Global News – April 21, 2025)

https://globalnews.ca/

The costs and chaos being caused by metal tariffs are starting to build up after a month in effect, and there’s little hope they’ll be removed in the foreseeable future. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum on March 12, raising significant concerns for a sector that exported around $35 billion of metal to the U.S. last year.

It’s still not clear how much higher the tariffs will push consumer prices and translate into reduced demand, but industry insiders say the risks are building. The aluminum tariffs alone add about $3,000 to the cost of an F150 truck, Aluminum Association of Canada CEO Jean Simard said. Add in the steel tariffs, and auto tariffs, and it means about $12,000 more in input costs.

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What should Canada do with the critical minerals Donald Trump wants? – by Sharif Hassan (Canadian Press/Calgary Herald – April 19, 2025)

https://calgaryherald.com/

U.S. trying to ‘soften us up’ for deal on important resources, says University of Calgary expert

An ongoing trade war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s hunger for critical minerals have brought Canada’s rich mineral deposits into the spotlight, with federal and provincial politicians promising to accelerate natural resource projects.

Interest in the country’s critical minerals surged after Trump started musing about annexing Canada, experts say, and grew as the president’s global trade war intensified. “This is now a domestic conversation about how we treat natural resources or natural resource development projects here in Canada,” said Elizabeth Steyn, a mining and finance law expert at the University of Calgary.

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Barrick exits Alaska with Donlin Gold sale – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – April 22, 2025)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

To sell its 50% stake in the 39-million-oz gold project to Paulson and Novagold for $1 billion.

After nearly two decades of exploration, engineering, and permitting, Barrick Gold Corp. has sold its 50% joint venture ownership of the world-class Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska to hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and Novagold Resources Inc. for $1 billion in cash.

“The Donlin agreement allows Barrick to exit the Donlin Gold Project at an attractive valuation, while allowing NOVAGOLD and Paulson to pursue the development of the project,” Barrick Gold President and CEO Mark Bristow said in an April 22 statement announcing the sale.

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The New Great Game: How the race for critical minerals is shaping tech supremacy – by Shaz Merwat (Royal Bank Wealth Management – April 16, 2025)

https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/

Bedrocks of a Fourth Industrial Revolution

Minerals are the bedrock of any industrial economy. From steel to copper to aluminum, they lay the foundation of economic, civil, and defence infrastructure. And increasingly, a growing cohort of minerals underlie the critical components of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution — an era of disruptive technological forces driven by human-machine interaction across research, manufacturing and an ever-expanding data economy.

In this new age, the demand for that cohort of “critical minerals” will be driven by a growing use of semiconductors and data processing machines, increased adoption of battery technologies and new energy sources, and advancements in defence and aerospace technologies.

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OPINION: Trump’s approach to China is backfiring – and that puts all investors at great risk – by David Rosenberg (Globe and Mail – April 22, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

“Everybody wants to make a deal and if they don’t want to make a deal, we’ll make the deal for them. We’re the one that really sets the deal, and that’s what we’ll be doing.” – President Donald Trump, April 17, 2025

How’s that for instilling confidence? If you don’t make a deal with us, we’ll make a deal for you. Wasn’t that deal supposed to have been arranged when tariffs were imposed on some 180 countries on April 2, what the White House dubbed “Liberation Day?” It got kiboshed by a 90-day reprieve because investors got “yippy,” as the President put it. So, it looks like the S&P 500 is really the final arbiter of what happens here because despite all Mr. Trump’s bravado, it was a slide in the stock market that seemed to give him cold feet.

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Federal election 2025: Ring of Fire as Canada’s front line vs Trump – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – April 19, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Most agree developing Northern Ontario’s mineral riches a key economic imperative but not at the expense of Indigenous rights or the environment

Between the trade war being waged by the U.S. and a federal election coming fast on the heels of a provincial one, a mineral-rich region located some 800 kilometres northwest of Sudbury, is suddenly getting a lot of attention, and not because it shares a name with a Johnny Cash song.

It’s because of the cash it could inject into the Canadian economy, while also acting as a bulwark or bargaining chip in protecting our national autonomy. “It’s amazing that before (Donald) Trump took power, nobody down here in southern Ontario knew what the Ring of Fire really was,” said mining analyst Stan Sudol, who grew up in Sudbury but now calls Toronto home. “It meant something to the people in Northern Ontario and the mining industry, but the general population was mostly oblivious.”

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Gold is overbought, but remains well supported as US dollar weakens – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – April 17, 2025)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – With markets closed on Friday for the Easter long weekend, investors took some profits off the table on Thursday after gold reached a new record high above $3,350 an ounce. And while gold continues to look overbought, some analysts have said that the market remains in a solid uptrend.

Despite the selling pressure, gold has held solid support around $3,300. Spot gold last traded at $3,316.90 an ounce, up nearly 2.5% for the week. David Morrison, Senior Market Analyst at Trade Nation, described gold’s price action this week, including Wednesday’s $100 rally, as a blowoff top.

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Ontario to OK mines in half the time: Ford – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – April 17, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is proposing new legislation to cut mining permit times in half, designate geographic areas for speedy treatment like the Ring of Fire by September and limit foreign ownership.

The new legislation announced on Thursday mentions Wyloo Metals’ Eagle’s Nest project by name. The proposed battery metals mine would be within a Ring of Fire special economic zone northeast of Thunder Bay and have its environmental assessment (EA) process, which the company had voluntarily advanced nearly 15 years ago, entirely removed because it’s out of date.

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The billion-dollar standoff: Alamos Gold versus Türkiye – by Gordon Feller (Canadian Mining Journal – April 15, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

An important mining dispute is playing out in The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which is considered to be the world’s leading institution devoted to international investment dispute settlement. It has administered the majority of all international investment cases.

Almost all member states of the U.N. have agreed that ICSID should serve as the forum for investor-State dispute settlement — and they have encoded this into most international investment treaties, as well as in numerous investment laws and contracts. As of today, 165 countries have signed the ICSID Convention, with 154 of these having ratified it, thereby becoming contracting member states.

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