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France Mulls New Uranium Plant to Cut West’s Reliance on Russia – by Francois de Beaupuy (Bloomberg News – October 7, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — French state-controlled uranium producer Orano SA is considering growing its capacity to enrich the radioactive ore into nuclear fuel by almost 50% as Western governments and utilities seek to reduce their reliance on Russia since its attack on Ukraine.

The war is “reviving the urgency” to raise Western uranium-enrichment capacity to avoid potential shortages, Orano said, according to a statement of France’s public debate committee. The cost of the capacity extension from 7.5 million to 11 million so-called separative work units at its plant in central France is estimated at 1.3 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

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U.S. steps away from flagship lithium project with Buffett’s Berkshire – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – October 5, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

Oct 5 (Reuters) – In a February meeting with mining executives, President Joe Biden laid out an aggressive goal for the United States to produce more of its own minerals for the electric vehicle revolution in ways that respected the environment.

A “big part” of those efforts, the president said, was a plan by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc to filter lithium from superhot geothermal brines swirling beneath California’s Salton Sea, something that had never been done before.

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The changing democratic tide – by Conrad Black (MSM.com/National Post – October 1, 2022)

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/

“But countries such as Germany, which shut down much of its nuclear and coal generating capacity to clamp its national lips around the gas pipe from Russia, is now, as former U.S. President Donald Trump and many others warned, paying for its energy vassalage to the Kremlin.”

There is now a clearly discernible international movement away from the fiscal indulgence of the faddish left and the collective self-blame of the majority across much of the democratic world.

Following the overwhelming and almost bloodless victory of democratic free enterprise over international Marxism in the Cold War, there was a commendable absence of gloating in the West, but rather a gradually more absurd and complacent experimentation with an idealized political fantasy land.

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The case for low-grade sulfide nickel deposits – by Richard (Rick) Mills (A Head Of The Herd – October 4, 2022)

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Nickel deposits come in two forms: sulfide or laterite. About 60% of the world’s known nickel resources are laterites, which tend to be in the southern hemisphere. The remaining 40% are sulfide deposits. The main benefit of sulfide ores is that they can be concentrated using the fairly simple flotation technique.

There is no such technique for nickel laterites. The rock must be completely molten or dissolved to enable nickel extraction. As a result, laterite projects require large economies of scale at higher capital costs to be viable. They are also generally much higher cash-cost producers than sulfide operations.

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Loretta Lynn, coal miner’s daughter and country music icon, dies at 90 – by Ethan Sacks (NBC News- October 4, 2022)

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/

“I would have given anything in the world if (my father) would have been here when I recorded ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ but I think he hears me,” Lynn said in 2018. “And one day I will sing it for him.”

Loretta Lynn, who was born a coal miner’s daughter before becoming one of the crown jewels of country music, has died. She was 90. Lynn’s family said in a statement that she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the family said in a statement. They asked for privacy.

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New Indigenous forum connects leaders on major infrastructure projects – by Jonathan Migneault (CBC News Sudbury – October 4, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Over the last five years, Michael Fox has noticed Indigenous communities have become more involved in major infrastructure and natural resource projects in Ontario.

Fox, the president of a professional services company called Indigenous and Community Engagement, helped organize the first Indigenous-led Projects Forum in Toronto last week.

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Gold price breaks $1,700 as weak US data shifts sentiment – by Staff (Mining.com – October 4, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Gold continued its rally on Tuesday to an advance past $1,700 per ounce, as weak US data drove a significant sentiment shift in the precious metals markets. Spot gold rose 1.1% to $1,719.04 per ounce by 10:40 a.m. ET, its highest in three weeks. US gold futures gained 1.5% to trade at $1,727.60 per ounce in New York.

Meanwhile, benchmark US 10-year Treasury yields fell to a near two-week low, while the dollar extended its decline, making gold cheaper for other currency holders.

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Mining battery vehicle expert speaks to importance of training – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – October 3, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

If you plan on running battery vehicles in mining, you will need properly trained maintenance technicians and vehicle operator

Sudbury’s Mike Mayhew, a leading consultant on the role of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in mining, said education and training are the next key steps to the evolution of implementing BEVs in global mining operations.

Mayhew was one of the key speakers at the Maintenance, Engineering and Mine Operators Conference in Sudbury, where part of the focus was discussing the role of BEVs in the Canadian mining industry. The event was hosted by the Sudbury branch of CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) and was held at Science North.

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Foot-dragging on Baffinland mine approval emblematic of a government that doesn’t take Northern workers seriously – by Peter MacKay (National Post – October 4, 2022)

https://nationalpost.com/

The fact that over 1,000 families could have had their main source of income taken away is bad enough, but what makes it worse is that it didn’t seem to even register in Ottawa or the rest of Canada

Nunavut’s biggest contributor to its overall gross domestic product just narrowly missed terminating more than 1,100 of its employees due to one thing: a lack of regulatory approvals.

The company, Baffinland Iron Mines, runs an open pit mining operation on North Baffin Island in the Arctic, which provides jobs to the local Inuit and is a significant contributor to the territory’s economy.

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Trudeau’s Industry Minister Pushes for Toyota-Panasonic EV Deal – by Mathieu Dion (Bloomberg News – October 3, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Canada ranks “very high” in strategic plans for electric vehicles produced by Japanese manufacturers, according to the North American nation’s industry minister.

Francois-Philippe Champagne met last week in Tokyo with Hiroaki Koda, the head of Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc., an automotive battery joint-venture between Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Holdings Corp.

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Column: London Metal Exchange ducks Russian sanctions pressure – by Andy Home (Reuters – October 4, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – It’s clear the London Metal Exchange (LME) isn’t going to be rushed into any decision on whether to continue accepting Russian metal against its contracts.

A discussion paper on the possibility of suspending Russian brands is “an option currently under active consideration,” it said. But the exchange hasn’t actually decided yet whether to issue such a paper. Given the LME’s protracted rule-making process – a discussion paper followed by a consultation paper followed by legal notice – there seems little prospect of an imminent change in the status of Russian metal.

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Why Canada needs an EV battery strategy – now – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – September 27, 2022)

https://biv.com/

For half a century, oil production has been a major economic engine for Canada.

But just as the internal combustion engine is starting to give way to the battery-powered electric vehicle (EV), so too does Canada need to develop a new industrial engine, says a new report by Clean Energy Canada and Trillum Network for Advanced Manufacturing.

Minerals like copper, nickel, lithium, cobalt, manganese, graphite and rare earths promise to become the new oil. Canada’s New Economic Engine argues the case for Canada to act quickly to leverage the country’s vast mineral resources, clean electricity and Eastern Canadian manufacturing capacity to become an EV battery-producing powerhouse.

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Canadian-based International Battery Metals claims to have better way of extracting lithium – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – September 27, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The head of a Canadian-listed company that’s developed a new system for extracting lithium, a critical mineral for electrification of the global economy, says it has proven it can tap smaller concentrations of the substance with minimal environmental disturbance.

International Battery Metals Ltd. said on Tuesday an independent engineering review has concluded the company’s modular, mobile lithium extraction plant obtains more than 65 per cent of the lithium from brine, which is saline groundwater enriched with dissolved lithium. It also recycles and reuses 94 per cent of the water in the process, according to a report by SLR Consulting Ltd.

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Feds slammed at Nunavut land use hearing, critics say it favours development over caribou protection – by Jane George (CBC News North – September 28, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

‘These grounds are sacred and need to be respected and protected,’ says Katie Rasmussen

The federal government received pointed criticism for its position on caribou protection under the draft Nunavut Land Use Plan during its presentation Tuesday in Thompson, Man.

Questions from those at the Nunavut Planning Commission hearing saw Spencer Dewar, director of resource management for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, defending the federal government’s position on mineral development, existing rights and conservation under the land use plan.

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Metals for cleaner future being turned to account in minerals-endowed Northern Cape – by Martin Creamer (Mining Weekly – September 28, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s critical minerals potential is being highlighted in an increasingly promising manner by Orion Minerals, the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed company that is showing the way in the minerals-endowed Northern Cape.

Orion, headed by its Boksburg-born CEO Errol Smart, is poised to bestow on South Africa an integrated and far-reaching value chain of future facing metals production in a province which is crying out for more exploration in the new era of enhanced prospecting technology.

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