The race is on to figure out how to protect the ocean abyss as deep-sea mining operations look to extract minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper from the sea floor. But there’s one potential risk to the deep-sea environment that tends to fall under the radar.
Not only will mining dredge up the seafloor, but it’ll also create a lot of noise that poses its own problems for marine life, according to a newly published paper in the journal Science.
The Ontario government is joining Alberta in its court battle over the federal government’s Impact Assessment Act, part of Bill C-69. It’s a bill that if left in place could derail much of what Premier Doug Ford campaigned on in the June provincial election.
A provincial court in Alberta recently described the environmental legislation as taking a “wrecking ball” to the Constitution, but the feds have appealed that decision to the Supreme Court and so Ontario will intervene.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.
As the EU wants to set the best global standards in the fight against climate change, the decision could tarnish the bloc’s image and question the region’s commitment to reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
(Bloomberg) — By 2:08 p.m. Shanghai time on March 8, it was clear that Xiang Guangda’s giant bet on a fall in nickel prices was going spectacularly wrong. Futures had just skyrocketed above $100,000 a ton and his trade was more than $10 billion underwater.
It was threatening not only to bankrupt Xiang’s company, but to trigger a Lehman Brothers-like shock through the entire metals industry and possibly topple the London Metal Exchange itself.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/
People of Kawawachikamach look for alternatives to hydro development on traditional territory
David Swappie is one of the oldest members of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, 1,150 kilometres north of Montreal, near Quebec’s border with Labrador. No one knows Swappie’s exact age.
The elder, who was born and raised near Fort Chimo — the village now known by its Inuktitut name, Kuujjuaq, at the mouth of the Koksoak River on Ungava Bay — isn’t really sure himself. “I think he’s at least 100 years old,” said his grandson, who bears the same name.
Some Baker Lake residents and organizations are expressing concerns over planned uranium exploration in the Thelon Basin next year. The majority of comments submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board that were made public by the board have expressed concern or questions, with others writing in opposition.
The review board makes recommendations to the federal minister of northern affairs about the economic and social impacts of proposed development projects in the territory. NIRB opened up the commenting period to the public June 14; commenting closed July 5.
June 30 (Reuters) – Sibanye-Stillwater (SSWJ.J) plans to increase its shareholding in Finnish lithium firm Keliber to 50% plus one share, the South Africa-listed miner said on Thursday, and is offering to buy minority shareholders out to boost its stake to over 80%.
Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to take a 30.29% stake in Keliber in February as part of its strategy of diversifying away from South African platinum and gold production into battery metals, which have benefited from surging prices.
A rising demand to participate in the revenues from natural resources, tougher environmental protection rules and law changes are increasing risks for mining and energy companies across Latin America, even in countries once considered safe investment destinations, a new study shows.
According to the 2022 Latin America Mining Risk Index, published by consultancy Americas Market Intelligence (AMI), once investors’ darling Chile, is now the riskiest country in the region.
China dominates the global supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. Now rival countries are scrambling for more control over “white oil.”
THE INDUSTRIAL PORT of Kwinana on Australia’s western coast is a microcosm of the global energy industry. From 1955, it was home to one of the largest oil refineries in the region, owned by British Petroleum when it was still the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
It once provided 70 percent of Western Australia’s fuel supplies, and the metal husks of old tanks still dominate the shoreline, slowly turning to rust in the salt air.
In a rare statement, Swiss refiners also said they would take the “necessary technical and humanly possible measures in order not to take, import or refine illegal gold including the one from Brazil by tracing and identifying this gold.” They also urged the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro to do more to protect the indigenous population and the environment.
Gold mining by irregular artisanal miners contributes to the deforestation of the Amazon, leaves the soil poisoned with mercury and encroaches on traditional indigenous lands. Brazilian export data and academic studies suggest much of that gold goes to or through Switzerland, a key player in the global gold trade.
Canada’s wealth is under attack by surreptitious nations and entities
China deployed thousands of fake social media accounts to protest a rare earth mine project in Saskatchewan, as well as projects in Texas and Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.
“Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts were created to give China, the largest producer of rare earth minerals, a competitive advantage,” Bloomberg reported last week. “The fake accounts claimed that the (mine) processing facility would spur irreversible environmental damage and radioactive contamination that could cause cancer and deformities in newborns.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The European Union Parliament has declared that nuclear power and natural gas can be labelled as green for investment purposes, alongside wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
Environmental activists are not at all pleased, saying including the two energy sources in the EU’s green “taxonomy” will only hamper the fight against climate change. Now the focus turns to other countries, including Canada, hard at work on standards for investments that fit with their own low-carbon transitions.
Market research firm Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (Fitch Solutions) says automakers are increasing their upstream investments and supply contracts to secure enough battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt and battery-grade nickel, to drive forward their respective electric vehicle (EV) policies and to meet the decarbonisation targets set by governments globally.
Since the start of 2021, 21 such investments have been made – 16 of which were investments into lithium. These investments were made by automakers BMW, General Motors (GM), Tesla, Stellantis, Renault, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, BYD and Ford.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) believes that its Crawford project in northern Ontario contains the fifth largest nickel sulphide resource globally, after a new estimate released by the company on July 6 more than doubled the project’s measured and indicated resource estimate.
Its latest measured and indicated resources now total 1.4 billion tonnes grading 0.24% nickel and 6.59% iron for 3.48 million tonnes of contained nickel and 93.9 million tonnes of iron. Inferred resources add 670.1 million tonnes grading 0.23% nickel and 6.85% iron for 1.55 million tonnes of nickel and 45.9 million tonnes of iron.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Vanadium use to surge with battery growth
Energy storage has transformed the electricity industry with huge growth in the U.S., for example, of more than six times in the last few years. The demand is growing exponentially for the batteries used in portable devices, energy storage, and electric mobility. Both lithium and vanadium are reliable sources of energy storage.
Recently, the Biden administration announced it will spend more than $3 billion to support the domestic manufacturing of advanced batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage.
