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BHP signals it is willing to walk away from bid for OZ Minerals – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 16, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BHP Group Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company by market value, appears willing to walk away from its latest major takeover proposal. After the release of the miner’s quarterly earnings Tuesday, BHP chief executive Mike Henry said in a call with media that OZ Minerals Ltd. would be “nice to have” but is not a “must have.”

Earlier this month, Melbourne-based BHP proposed a US$5.8-billion takeover of its fellow Australian copper and nickel producer. While the offer was 30 per cent above OZ’s market price, it was well below its peak share price, reflecting the sharp sell-off across the mining sector over the past few months. OZ Minerals rejected the offer, calling it “highly opportunistic.”

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Baffinland promotes proposed production increase at Nunavut regulator meeting – by Jane George (Eye On The Arctic/RCI.ca – August 17, 2022)

https://www.rcinet.ca/

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. says it will stop production at its Mary River iron mine, end shipping and cut jobs to about 80 on site if its request to increase its 2022 production isn’t approved by the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

About 300 Inuit are now employed at the mine, the company said. “That’s a lot of lives that will be impacted,” said Baffinland’s vice-president Megan Lord-Hoyle Tuesday at the review board’s community roundtable in Pond Inlet.

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‘We have to do better’: Why Canada’s main mining lobby wants its members to get serious about workplace culture – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – August 17, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Failure to do so could exacerbate a chronic shortage of skilled labour, says the Mining Association of Canada

Canada’s biggest mining association wants its members to try harder to diversify their workforces and to tackle issues related to workforce trauma, warning that failure to do so could exacerbate a chronic shortage of skilled labour.

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC), whose nearly 60 members including Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd., is receiving comments on a draft equity, diversity and inclusion protocol, which it posted last week for review. The association aims to get sign-off from its board of directors in March 2023.

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‘Right material’ to efficiently remove mercury from water shows promising results – by Staff (Mining.com – August 17, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Researchers at Drexel University have found the right material to efficiently catch mercury —even at low levels— and clean up contaminated bodies of water. According to lead researcher Masoud Soroush, adsorption —the process of chemically attracting and removing contaminants— seems to be the most promising technology for removing mercury from water, due to its relative simplicity.

“Modern adsorbents, such as resins, mesoporous silica, chalcogenides, and mesoporous carbons, have higher efficiencies than traditional adsorbents, such as activated carbon, clays, and zeolites that have a low affinity toward mercury and low capacities,” Soroush said in a media statement.

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Last Stelco blast furnace demolished on Hamilton bayfront – by Matthew Van Dongen (Toronto Star – August 17, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

The towering structure was felled by a controlled explosion just after 9 a.m.

Goodbye Big “E” — it was a blast. The last Stelco blast furnace in Hamilton was demolished Wednesday using a controlled explosion that cut out the supports under the towering steelmaking relic that dominated the western bayfront skyline for more than half a century.

A massive boom that echoed around the harbour was followed by a slow collapse of the roughly 200-foot-tall “E” blast furnace built in 1968 on Pier 16.

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Russia Fights Efforts to Declare It an Exporter of ‘Blood Diamonds’ – by Dionne Searcey (New York Times – August 17, 2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/

As a major diamond producer, Russia earns billions of dollars that other nations say help finance war. The clash exposes the many loopholes in regulation of conflict diamonds.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to global soul-searching about overreliance on Russian oil and gas, but a new drama is unfolding over another of Russia’s major exports: diamonds.

Russia is the world’s largest supplier of small diamonds. For years, engagement rings, earrings and pendants for sale in the United States and beyond have included diamonds mined from deep in the permafrost in Russia’s northeast.

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New Brunswick: Caribou Mine near Bathurst stops all production (CBC News New Brunswick – August 17, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/

Mayor says news of layoffs is ‘disheartening’

The owner of the Caribou Mine in northern New Brunswick has suspended the extraction of all minerals at the site while it reviews its operations. Trevali Mining Corp. announced Tuesday it would explore all options for the future of the mine near Bathurst after reporting low productivity rates and a steep drop in revenue.

In an email Wednesday, Jason Mercier, Trevali’s director of investor relations, confirmed the decision to halt production. The news comes after the Vancouver-based company released its second-quarter financial results, which showed it recorded a 44 per cent decrease in revenue compared to the previous quarter.

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Magna Mining looks to revive former Sudbury nickel, copper mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 17, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Company acquiring former Crean Hill Mine on its path to become a mid-tier Canadian nickel miner

A Sudbury junior miner, with big ambitions to become a major Sudbury-area nickel producer, has picked up a choice piece of ground.

Magna Mining has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire all of the shares of Lonmin Canada in a deal worth $16 million.

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Column: U.S. hits the EV accelerator to cut Chinese metals ties – by Andy Home Reuters – August 16, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) – The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes the “largest investment ever in combating the existential crisis of climate change”, according to President Joe Biden, who will sign the bill into law later on Tuesday.

Around $369 billion of federal funds will flow into climate change and energy security, boosting domestic capacity to produce wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles. However, the green investment comes with a metallic sting in the tail. The IRA extends and expands the existing electric vehicle (EV) subsidy of up to $7,500 but conditions the tax credit on the sourcing of the mineral content of the battery.

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Canadian, German business groups call for stronger partnership on energy and minerals ahead of Scholz visit – by Claudia Scholz (Globe and Mail – August 16, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ahead of a visit to Canada next week by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German and Canadian business groups have issued a joint statement calling for a stronger partnership between their two countries on liquefied natural gas, hydrogen and critical minerals.

Germany has been looking for ways of reducing its Russian energy imports as tensions have risen over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. But Canada’s ability to help replace that Russian supply is limited, because this country currently has no operational export terminals for LNG.

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Pope worried about pollution of rivers with mercury used by gold miners in the Amazon – by Bruno Kelly and Anthony Boadle (Mining.com/Reuters – August 9, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Pope Francis will install the first cardinal of Brazil’s Amazon region this month in a sign of his concern for the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants, the man whom he picked for the role said.

Dom Leonardo Steiner, archbishop of the Brazilian city of Manaus, said in an interview that Francis, the first pope from Latin America, is worried about deforestation, threats to indigenous cultures and pollution of rivers with mercury used by gold miners in the Amazon.

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Inflation doesn’t halt company’s hopes for its Temiskaming cobalt refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 15, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials aims for spring 2023 plant startup

Inflation and supply chain issues are pumping up the price tag for Electra Battery Materials to bring a Temiskaming refinery back to life. It will delay the plant’s startup, originally scheduled for December, moving the commissioning to the spring of 2023.

Toronto-based Electra is feeling the domino effect of the industry-wide price and supply-chain pinch, especially coming out of Asia. The original capital budget of US$67 million to refurbish and expand the former Yukon refinery is now looking more in the range of US$76 million to US$80 million.

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BHP Hits Profit Record And Sees Demand Healing in China – by James Fernyhough (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – August 2022)

https://www.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, posted its highest ever full-year profit on record commodity prices, and will push ahead with growth options on a stronger demand outlook in China.

The producer will study plans to expand its top-earning iron ore unit to 330 million tons of production a year, and is continuing to assess options to lift volumes in copper and nickel, Melbourne-based BHP said Tuesday in a statement. A giant new potash mine in Canada remains on track to begin out in 2026.

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Giga Metals, Mitsubishi to jointly develop Turnagain nickel deposit in Canada – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 15, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Junior Giga Metals (TSX-V: GIGA) and global trading and investment firm Mitsubishi Corporation agreed on Monday to form a joint venture company, Hard Creek Nickel Corp, to develop the Turnagain nickel-cobalt deposit in northern British Columbia.

As part of the deal, Mitsubishi will acquire a 15% equity interest in the joint venture firm for C$8 million ($6.2m) cash. Giga will receive an 85% equity interest in Hard Creek in exchange for contributing all related assets for the Turnagain project, its core asset. It will also be the project administrator.

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About 50kg of nickel goes into each Tesla battery but the world isn’t producing enough to keep up with demand – by Rachel Pupazzoni (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – August 15, 2022)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Mining companies in Australia are racing to find the next big reserve of one of the world’s most in-demand metals. Nickel is a critical metal in batteries, and as the world keeps moving toward renewables, more batteries are needed to store energy.

In fact, there’s a strong case that much more of it is needed than lithium — a commodity many people know of, because it is in the name of lithium batteries. But there are a variety of batteries made with different metal compositions and, as Elon Musk puts it, batteries need a sprinkle of lithium compared to nickel.

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