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‘Gold-endowed region’ hinges on workforce – by Sandi Krasowski (The Chronicle-Journal – February 1, 2025)

https://www.chroniclejournal.com/

Operators of two Northwestern mines weighed in on the economic value of mining gold and gave a comprehensive view of the industry with a focus on job creation during the Prosperity Northwest Conference this week.

Andrew Cormier, chief operating officer for Orla Mining, said gold is increasingly seen as a critical asset, fuelling investment, innovation and job creation in the region. “Being in the gold industry, we’re generally bullish on the price of gold,” he said at the conference in Thunder Bay.

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Cash-keen Taliban betting on Afghanistan’s mines – by AFP/RSS (Republica.com – February 2, 2025

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/

Emeralds, rubies, marble, gold and lithium: the resources buried across Afghanistan’s rocky landscape are estimated to be worth a trillion dollars, according to US and UN assessments from 2010 and 2013.

GOSHTA, Feb 2: A miner in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan poured water over a block of jade, exposing the green stone that is part of the Taliban authorities’ push to capitalise on the country’s rich mineral resources.

Touting the return of security, the Taliban government is rushing to court local and foreign investors to exploit the country’s underground wealth and secure a crucial revenue stream — though experts warn of the risks of cutting corners.

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Bolivia’s Lithium Window Is Closing Rapidly – by Joseph Bouchard (Real Clear World – February 2025)

https://www.realclearworld.com/

In 2023, Bolivia signed multi-billion dollar deals for lithium extraction with Chinese and Russian state-owned companies, including the CBC consortium and Rosatom/Uranium One. Since then, despite these deals expanding further, very little progress has been made, with extraction and production stalling despite promises from all stakeholders about “rapid industrialization.”

Given Bolivia’s increasingly friendly relationship with American adversaries, the continuous problems plaguing Bolivia’s mining sector, and the growing alternatives for lithium development, it may be time for the U.S. and other democratic states to look elsewhere.

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Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, struggles to achieve its EV dreams – by Michelle Anindya (Rest of World.org – February 3, 2025)

https://restofworld.org/

China’s growing involvement and the rapid shift to lithium batteries dissuade investors.

Karawang county, located about 90 minutes by road from Jakarta, has been a major automotive hub in Indonesia for decades, housing factories of companies like Yamaha and Toyota. Last July, the industrial area added another feather to its cap when Southeast Asia’s first electric vehicle battery factory was unveiled there.

Established as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor, LG Energy, and the state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation, the factory has the annual capacity to make battery cells sufficient to power 150,000 EVs. The factory marked a key step in Indonesia’s ambition to become a hub of EV manufacturing in the region, and one of the world leaders in EV battery production by 2027.

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Trump tariffs include 10% carve-out for Canadian gas, power, minerals – by Killian Staines, Daniel Weeks, Kip Keen, Zack Hale, and J Robinson (S&P Global – February 2, 2025)

https://www.spglobal.com/

US President Donald Trump on Feb. 1 followed through on a threat to hit the nation’s three largest trading partners with steep tariffs. Energy imports from Canada — including oil, natural gas, electricity, coal, uranium, and critical minerals — were singled out, however, to be taxed at a lower rate of 10%.

Outside of the energy exclusions, Trump’s executive orders imposed 25% across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imports from China. No energy-related exemptions were identified for Mexico or China. The new tariffs will take effect on Feb. 4.

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The new mining in Africa game has no rules – by Claude de Baissac (Business Live – February 2, 2025)

https://www.businesslive.co.za/

Mining companies that fail to grasp the complexity of the new era risk being caught in the crossfire

Africa’s mining sector is vital to the fortunes of the continent, central to the strategies of many mining companies, and key to strategic industries thanks to its vast reserves of critical minerals. Today it stands at the edge of a new and highly disruptive era. Opportunities abound. But so do risks.

Intensifying and hardening geopolitical competition, the global race for strategic minerals and resurgent resource nationalism are fast converging. The cards are being redistributed, the rules redrawn, and the game itself is changing.

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Not since Nixon has a U.S. president set in motion such a significant transformation of global economics – by David Shribman (Globe and Mail – February 3, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to begin tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China on Tuesday represents the most significant unilateral and intentional economic disruption any global leader has prompted in more than a half-century.

Not since Richard Nixon removed the United States from the gold standard in 1971 and imposed an import surcharge has the unbridled power of an American president – indeed, of any top official anywhere – set in motion a transformation of global economics, trading patterns, international relations and potential consumer impact that remotely approaches the effect of Mr. Trump’s imposition of tariffs against the three top trading partners of the biggest consumer economy in human history.

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New documentary tells the story of ‘lost legend’ Jack Munroe (CBC News Sudbury – May 26, 2024)

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

Munroe founded a small town in northern Ontario

He made millions in mining at the turn of the 20th century, lasted four rounds in the ring with the heavyweight champion of the world, and wrote a bestseller about his experiences during the First World War.

Now the many accomplishments of Jack Munroe are being recognized in a documentary called Lost Legend: The Story Of Jack Munroe. Terry Fiset helped get the documentary off the ground, so more Canadians would learn about a man he considers a hero.

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Milestone agreement to strengthen Ring of Fire infrastructure – by Ashley Fish-Robertson (CIM Magazine – January 31, 2025)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

The partnership between Ontario and Aroland First Nation marks the first time agreements are in place to build roads along the whole route to the Ring of Fire region

A historic agreement was signed on Jan. 28 in Toronto by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon and Greg Rickford, Ontario’s minister of northern development and minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic reconciliation.

The agreement will see the provincial government commit over $90 million to upgrading vital infrastructure in northern Ontario, which will both enable the mining of critical minerals in the Ring of Fire region—with improved roads facilitating the transport of materials to processing plants—and connect multiple First Nations communities to major highways.

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Will new claim staking rules put a chill on mineral exploration in B.C.? – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – Janaury 30, 2025)

https://www.biv.com/

First Nations likely to be deluged with claim referrals under upcoming Mineral Tenure Act changes

Twenty years ago, an NDP government triggered a flight of investment from mineral exploration and mining in B.C. that lasted more than a decade when, in 1993, it ring-fenced the massive undeveloped copper-cobalt Windy Craggy deposit with a new provincial park.

Windy Craggy, still a sore point for miners and prospectors in B.C., was invoked last week at the Association of Mineral Exploration (AME) Roundup conference during a technical panel discussion on the new rules coming for claim staking.

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Gold sets all-time high on trade war fears – by Frederic Tomesco (Northern Miner – January 31, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Gold prices hit a record high Friday, topping US$2,800 an oz. amid growing concern that U.S. President Donald Trump will follow through with his threat to slap multiple nations with import tariffs.Spot gold rose about 0.4% to US $2,808.38 per oz. in early afternoon trading, Trading Economics data show. That takes the metal’s advance to about 5.7% for the month and 37% over the last year.

Trump reiterated Thursday that he will likely impose tariffs on countries such as Canada, China and Mexico as soon as Saturday. Even so, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump advisors are looking for ways to avoid enacting across-the-board levies on Canada and Mexico, the U.S.’s two largest trading partners.

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Experts and advocates warn of nickel mining’s risk to precious marine region of Indonesia – by Victoria Milko (Associated Press – January 31, 2025)

https://apnews.com/

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — One of Earth’s most biodiverse marine regions is threatened by the expansion of nickel mining projects in Indonesia, according to a new report.

Satellite analysis and on-the-ground visits found a rapid increase in land given over to mining pits in Raja Ampat Regency, a group of tropical islands near West Papua, according to the report from Auriga Nusantara, an environmental and conservation organization in Indonesia.

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Donkin coal mine will likely restart production when world prices rise, says U.S. analyst – by Tom Ayers (CBC News Nova Scotia – January 31, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

Industry observer says mine owners have invested hundreds of millions and will want to make that back

A U.S.-based analyst says he believes the undersea coal mine in Donkin, N.S., will reopen someday. Joe Aldina, who writes for thecoaltrader.com, said the Cline Group, whose company Kameron Coal owns the Donkin mine, has made significant investments there that it will likely want to recover.

“They’ve invested a few hundred million dollars US in [capital expenditures] in that mine and that was the last project that Chris Cline, the founder of the company, really put himself into, so I don’t see them walking away from that,” he said.

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Canadian Tariffs Will Undermine U.S. Minerals Security – by Gracelin Baskaran (Centre for Strategic and International Studies – Janaury 29, 2025)

https://www.csis.org/

Gracelin Baskaran is the Director, Critical Minerals Security Program.

As the United States races to reduce its reliance on China for minerals vital for national, economic, and energy security, tariffs with Canada may drastically undermine these efforts. Canada is the biggest source of the United States mineral imports, providing key sources of uranium, aluminum, nickel, steel copper, and niobium. To put it into perspective, in 2023, Canada accounted for $47 billion of United States mineral imports.

China followed with $28.3 billion. The consequences of tariffs would be particularly profound for the defense industry, nuclear energy, and heavy manufacturing. A 25 percent tariff on Canadian mineral imports could cost U.S. off-takers an additional $11.75 billion—a figure that would increase as base metal and uranium prices recover.

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Trump’s Greenland Obsession May Be About Extracting Metals for Tech Billionaires – by Lucas Ropek (Gizmodo.com – January 30, 2025)

https://gizmodo.com/

The great battle for Greenland is probably all about resources to make apps like ChatGPT better.

Our new president’s obsession with buying Greenland has inspired jeers, laughs, and jokes about the cost of eggs, but more and more, the attempted procurement looks less like a joke and more like a big handout for the tech companies that backed him during the election. Multiple new reports show that some of Donald Trump’s most prominent financial benefactors have long been pursuing financial opportunities in the Arctic nation.

The Lever reports on the activities of KoBold Metals, a startup that is actively engaged in mining Greenland for raw materials that can be used to build AI products. KoBold, which is based in Berkeley, California, and uses AI to hunt for metals like cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel, is basically the property of the tech industry’s most powerful executives.

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