Mechanical diggers are hard at work in the bleak landscape of the Moanda open-cast mine in Gabon, using giant jaws to rip out manganese and then dump the ore into trucks with a crash.
“We’re lucky here in Moanda. We find it about five to six metres (about 18 feet) below the surface,” said manager Olivier Kassibi, whose mine yields 36 tonnes of manganese each day.
When fully built and commissioned in the first half of 2024, Greenstone Gold Mines, located in northwestern Ontario – a 60-40 partnership between Equinox Gold and Orion Mine Finance Group – will be one of Canada’s largest gold mines.
Located in the municipality of Greenstone, some 250 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay – an area that was home to numerous underground mines from the 1930s to the 1970s – the US$1.225 billion project is expected to produce an average of 366,000 ounces of gold annually over its 14-year mine life. Its all-in sustaining cost is calculated to be US$803 per ounce, putting it in the lower third of the industry average.
Local and foreign-backed forces are waging a deadly offensive in the mineral-rich heart of Africa
Some residents of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo simply call it la guerre sans fin — the war without end. One morning in August, Abigael Bahati felt it in her skin as she searched for cassava leaves close to the village of Kanombe.
“I was hungry and I had gone to look for food but I was caught,” says the 28-year-old mother of an 18-month-old baby. “They took me away and raped me,” she recalls, adding that others fled in fear of their lives.
Developers of a proposed nickel mine in northern Minnesota plan to move construction of its processing plant to North Dakota because of environmental concerns.
Talon Metals has been under pressure from environmental groups and the tribal bands of the Lake Superior Chippewa about a plan to build the processing plant in Tamarack, about 50 miles west of Duluth.
https://dianefrancis.substack.com/
Imagine posing for a selfie with your “bestie”, Vlad Putin, uploading it globally, and days later he invades Ukraine where you have billions invested. Then he murders tens of thousands and plunges the world into hyper-inflation, food and energy shortages, and a global economic downturn.
That’s exactly what has befallen President Xi Jinping of China this year. Chinese officials maintain that the invasion plans were not disclosed by Putin, but Xi has remained silent publicly about what was said or not said, nor has he criticized his partner’s murder and mayhem.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The top gold fund manager with the firm that owns the largest amount of shares in South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd. GFI-N and Toronto’s Yamana Gold Inc. is denouncing the proposed merger of the two companies as Gold Fields struggles to win shareholder support for the deal.
Joe Foster, portfolio manager with New-York-based Van Eck said in an interview the deal is “poorly structured,” received a “horrible market reaction” and he cannot comprehend the rationale for the multibillion-dollar transaction from the viewpoint of either the acquirer or the target.
Poland, one of the most coal-dependent nations in the world, has slowly and steadily been working its way toward decarbonization. In 2010, 86.6% of Poland’s energy mix came from coal-fired power. In 2021 that number had dipped to 70.8%.
On the one hand, this is a major improvement which deserves recognition. On the other hand, 70.8% is still very, very high, and poses a major hurdle for the European Union’s decarbonization goals – not to mention the entire world’s progress toward meeting the targets set by the Paris agreement in 2015.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Jonathan Wilkinson wants to get on the same regulatory page with Ontario to advance mining projects
With a global critical minerals supply gap coming, federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson admits Ottawa has some work to do toward expediting approvals to put more critical minerals mining projects into production sooner.
In his Oct. 25 remarks to Canadian Club of Toronto, Wilkinson said Ottawa is looking to get on the same page with the provinces and territories in working smarter in advancing energy and natural resource projects along in a timely manner.
Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Previously she was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Many people see her as taking over from Prime Minister Trudeau, whose popularity has waned amid a series of scandals, and the arrogance that comes with winning government for two straight terms.
Last week Freeland was in Washington, D.C. giving a speech to the Brookings Institution about Canada’s role in world affairs. Usually these talks are nothing but hot air so I tune out, but in this case, Freeland had some important things to say, on a subject we have previously written about: friend-shoring.
Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade, Vic Fedeli, took a simple message abroad: get into Ontario while there is still time
Ontario is in active talks with at least six battery makers and continues to court considerable global interest in the EV battery supply chain, according to provincial minister Vic Fedeli.
The head of economic development, job creation and trade for Ontario made the remark to Electric Autonomy Canada after returning from a recent trade trip to Germany and Austria.
Engineers at Northeastern University have patented a process to accelerate the production of a mineral known as tetrataenite, whose magnetic properties make it a leading candidate to replace magnets made of rare earths.
Tetrataenite is not found in nature—at least, not on earth. It is only found in meteorites. This means that making the cosmic mineral requires manipulating the atomic structures of its iron and nickel components by arranging them into a crystal structure that resembles tetrataenite, thus speeding up a natural process that would take millions of years on our planet.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has made a last-ditch appeal to shareholders of Canadian miner Turquoise Hill Resources to back its takeover offer, while hitting out against proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services’ (ISS) objection to the bid.
Rio moved in September to take full control of the copper miner, offering investors C$43 per share in a deal worth $4.85 billion. A successful takeover would give the miner firm grip over one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world.
Pilbara Minerals boss Dale Henderson says his phone is switched to silent as a constant stream of car and battery makers try to secure supplies of lithium, and he doesn’t expect the calls to stop any time soon.
The $16 billion company’s operations in Western Australia continued to spew cash in the September quarter after an increase in production – albeit at a lower grade – and higher spodumene concentrate prices.
Research and consultancy group Wood Makenzie (WoodMac) says the global energy transition presents an almost unattainable mine supply challenge, with significant investment and price incentives required.
In its latest report, titled ‘Red metal, green demand: copper’s critical role in achieving net zero’, WoodMac finds that 9.7-million tonnes of new copper supply will be needed over ten years, which is equivalent to almost a third of current refined consumption, if the industry is to meet the Paris Agreement target of containing global warming to 1.5 ˚C above preindustrial levels.
A trade union representing miners today attempted to brick up the entrance to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s parliamentary office. They criticise his administration for not allowing more mining of coal in Poland to ease the current energy crisis, and instead importing it from abroad.
Morawiecki, however, denies that his government has neglected the issue, saying that “the price of coal keeps me awake at night” and that the problem has been caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
