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Gold bears are overwhelming the market place and price action – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – July 11, 2022)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Sentiment in the gold market has rapidly deteriorated as hedge funds have increased their bearish bets in the marketplace bringing speculative positioning close to neutral. However, some analysts are optimistic that the rising bearish sentiment in the marketplace could signal a capitulation move, and prices might be close to a bottom.

“Last week’s selloff helped to remove a lot of complacent investors in gold,” said Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures. “A lot of fat has been trimmed and only the lean longs are left. There is not much more room for gold to go down.”

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JPMorgan spoofing cheated gold market, ex-trader says – by Tom Schoenberg and Eddie Spence (Bloomberg News – July 12, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s gold trading and sales team was so focused on making money that they scammed the market for years with so-called spoofing trades, according to a former colleague who testified at the trial of three former bank employees charged with fraud.

“Our job was to do whatever it takes to make money,” and using spoof trades to manipulate prices for all sorts of precious metals was an almost daily method for generating profit, said John Edmonds, who worked as a trader at the bank until 2017. “Everyone at the time did it on the desk and it worked.”

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Refreshing realism on the need for Canadian oil — from a Trudeau Liberal – by John Ivison (National Post – July 12, 2022)

https://nationalpost.com/

At the end of the day, the cause of climate change is not fossil fuels themselves. It is the carbon emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels,’ says minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson

In the Financial Post last week, my colleague William Watson called for Canada to adopt a more nuanced view of the struggle between reducing carbon emissions and ensuring the lights stay on.

He offered up the example of Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional Danish foreign minister in the brilliant drama Borgen, who, having run on a climate change platform, brazenly shifts her party’s policy to support the development of oil in Greenland (albeit for reasons of personal political survival).

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EV Nickel rises on high grade drill results at Shaw Dome in Ontario – by Naimul Karim (Northern Miner – July 11, 2022)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Shares of EV Nickel (TSXV: EVNI) jumped more than 50% in morning trading as the company’s latest drill results from its Shaw Dome project in Timmins, Ont., intersected high-grade nickel sulphide.

Highlights from the drill results included 14.30 metres grading 1.50% nickel starting from 311.8 metres in drillhole EV22-12, including 5.40 metres grading 2.96% nickel; and 5.50 metres grading 1.33% nickel starting from 373.50 metres in drillhole EV22-13.

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Gold Fields sweetens dividend pledge in pursuit of Canadian miner Yamana – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

South African mining company Gold Fields Ltd. is sweetening its dividend policy and seeking a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange as it tries to placate shareholders who have been skeptical of its planned US$6.7-billion takeover of Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc.

The merger, which would create the world’s fourth-biggest gold producer, has been poorly received by many investors, with the share price of Gold Fields plummeting by 23 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange on May 31 when the deal was announced.

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China’s Ganfeng Lithium buys lithium mines in Argentina – by Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – July 11, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Purchase of Lithea comes as global competition for metals needed to power electric vehicles hots up

Ganfeng Lithium has agreed to buy Argentina-focused mining group Lithea for up to $962mn, as China steps up its battle for the metals needed to power electric vehicles.

The deal will give Shenzhen-listed Ganfeng rights to Pozuelos and Paston Grandes, two salt lake brines in Argentina that can produce lithium carbonate, a key material for batteries used in electric vehicles.

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Russia-Ukraine conflict creates uncertainty for high-grade nickel supply – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 11, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has created uncertainty over global supply of mined nickel – particularly high-grade nickel, which is used as battery-grade nickel in the electric vehicle (EV) industry – market research firm Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (Fitch Solutions) said in its ‘Global Nickel Outlook’ report on July 8.

To illustrate the impact, last year, Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel alone provided about 17% of the global supply of class one nickel. In total, Russia accounts for about 21% of global class one nickel production, followed by Canada at 17%, Australia at 14% and China 10%.

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‘The Taliban Have Picked Up the Resource Curse’ – by Lynne O’Donnell (Foreign Policy – July 11, 2022)

Home

For decades, Afghanistan’s people have been told of the vast riches beneath their feet, untapped mineral resources potentially worth billions of dollars that the world is clamoring to explore, exploit, and export to create jobs in a world-class, sustainable industry that would catapult them into a future of peace and prosperity.

It’s not entirely a myth. Afghanistan does sit atop huge deposits of copper, iron, marble, talc, coal, lithium, chromite, cobalt, gold, lapis lazuli, gemstones, and more—making Afghanistan one of the world’s most resource-rich countries on paper. The tricky part, as it has been for the better part of two decades, is turning potential into reality.

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A First Nations’ ‘Quiet Revolution’ has begun – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – July 11, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Mandate of AFN president RoseAnne Archibald reinstated to allow for ‘forensic’ audit of organization she has alleged is rife with corruption

The “Quiet Revolution” involved the evolution of Quebec society in the 1960s through a series of reforms. A second Quiet Revolution, involving Indigenous people, has begun in Canada and is being led by the first female National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), RoseAnne Archibald of Taykwa Tagamou Nation in northeastern Ontario.

Archibald was elected in July 2021 as a reformer but on June 17 she was suspended by the assembly’s leadership (its executive committee and national board of directors) following allegations against her by some staff members of bullying. Her response was that she has been “undermined, discredited and attacked” in her efforts to clean up the organization, which she accused of mounting “smear campaigns” in order to silence her.

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Central bankers are becoming increasingly impotent in the fight against inflation as governments strip their power – by Russell Napier (Toronto Star – July 11, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

If governments are determined to subsidize bank lending by underwriting banks’ credit risk, is there really much that a central bank can do to stop them?

Who gets to create a country’s money? It may seem a simple question to answer because surely central banks create money. They don’t.

Central bankers attempt to control, with tools such as interest rates, the pace at which commercial banks make money when they make loans. However, a transformation in monetary policy in 2020 to keep credit and money flowing during lockdown saw governments, through the provision of credit guarantees over loans by bankers, assume a key role in getting banks to make loans and create money in the process.

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Column: Hedge funds up the bear ante on Doctor Copper and friends – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 11, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) – Hedge funds are piling the pressure on Doctor Copper and his metallic friends. Money manager positioning on the CME copper contract is as bearish as it has been since the first quarter of 2020 when industrial metals prices collapsed as China, followed by just about everyone else, went into COVID-19 lockdown.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) copper price is still far above its March 2020 low of $4,371 per tonne. Currently trading at $7,700, it’s also a long way below its March 2022 peak of $10,845.

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Sudbury Reforestation-Marking an ‘amazing’ makeover – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – July 8, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Jane Goodall and Justin Trudeau plant 10 millionth tree in Sudbury

Bell Park played host this week to a living legend, and her stuffed monkey friend.Dr. Jane Goodall was in town on Thursday, along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to plant the 10 millionth tree in Greater Sudbury’s 40-year-long regreening campaign.

“For many years I’ve been travelling around the world, talking about the importance of protecting our beautiful environment,” Goodall told the large crowd assembled at the William Bell gazebo.

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Mining the Northwest: Red Lake ramps up for gold mine expansions – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 8, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australia’s Evolution Mining preparing to pump millions into expanding gold zones, mill upgrades

Gold prices were slumping in July to a six-month low at US$1,730, but mining and advanced exploration activity is intensifying in the Red Lake mining camp. Evolution Mining plans to spend between $120 million and $135 million this year on development and upgrades at its Red Lake mine complex.

The Australian gold company has ambitious plans to boost gold production by 65 per cent in the northwestern Ontario camp over the next two to three years. “We know that all eyes are on Red Lake,” said Jake Klein, Evolution Mining’s executive chairman, in delivering a business update on its worldwide operations, June 27.

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VOLT RUSH THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THE RACE TO GO GREEN, REVIEWED – by Simon Cocking (Irish Tech News – July 8, 2022)

https://irishtechnews.ie/

EVs has been touted as the technological solution that will help to save our planet, and, potentially to save us from ourselves. The switch to electric vehicles would reduce CO2 emissions, pollution, keeping (potentially) fossil fuels in the ground. Henry Sanderson however takes us on a carefully considered and well explained journey to show that it may not be as simple a transition as we hoped for.

Sanderson has chapters specifically analysing the key elements, often rare earth minerals, that are vital to the creation of the necessary batteries to drive these vehicles. Lithium, cobalt and nickel among others are all forensically considered, with often concerning impacts on people and planet.

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BHP loses appeal to multibillion lawsuit over Samarco disaster – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 8, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX: BHP) said on Friday it had lost an appeal in a London court seeking to block an over £5 billion ($6bn-plus) lawsuit by 200,000 Brazilians over a deadly dam failure in Brazil seven years ago.

The group claim, one of the largest in British legal history, alleged that BHP, the world’s largest miner by market value, ignored safety warnings as the dam’s capacity was repeatedly increased by raising its height – and disregarded cracks that pointed to early signs of rupture.

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