https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
The upcoming construction picture for a Temiskaming-area cobalt refinery is beginning to take shape with the awarding of a major metals processing contract.
First Cobalt selected Metso Outotec for the design and manufacturing of the equipment for a new solvent extraction plant and its process controls. Metso Outotec is a leading global company in the field of sustainable mineral processing and metal refining equipment.
Disruption is fast reshaping the mining and metals sector’s perception of where the biggest challenges – and paths to growth – may lie, according to our annual review of risks and opportunities in the global mining and metals sector (pdf).
The climate crisis and rising stakeholder expectations are increasingly significant forces of change. Environment and social took the number one spot in our rankings for the first time, followed by decarbonization and then license to operate (LTO), which had held the top position over the past three years.
Headlines are highlighting Europe’s energy challenges at present, with extremely high natural gas prices shocking consumers and corporations. But this was entirely predictable, and in fact was predicted. The real problem was the pivot to natural gas as a bridge fuel, and too much focus on building efficiency instead of fuel switching.
This US data shows a clear picture that has implications globally. The fracking and shale oil boom of the 1990s to 2010s led to a period of unnatural stability in natural gas prices, and at a historically low level.
(Bloomberg) — Just when the world is clamoring for more coal, U.S. suppliers are facing a shortage of miners. The number of coal miners in the U.S. has been sliding for years, and is down about 8.6% from before the pandemic.
People who have left are reluctant to come back and young people are even more wary about taking a job in an industry that they’ve consistently been told has no future given the global push toward clean energy.
Associated Press – General Motors plans to cash in as the world switches from combustion engines to battery power, promising to double its annual revenue by 2030 with an array of new electric vehicles, profitable gas-powered cars and trucks, and services such as an electronic driving system that can handle most tasks on the road.
In announcements Wednesday ahead of a two-day investor event in suburban Detroit, the company also pledged to unseat Tesla and become the electric vehicle market share leader in U.S., although no time frame was given.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com
The world’s biggest mining companies, including Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd., are collectively committing to cut their emissions to net zero by 2050, as they face increasing pressure from investors and environmentalists to mine metals responsibly.
Net zero means companies either emit no greenhouse gases, or offset their emissions by removing a corresponding amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many of the current global climate commitments stem from the 2015 United Nations climate conference in Paris, which saw signatory countries vow to keep a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels.
Ford emphasized that mining in Northern Ontario will be continue to be,
and perhaps even more so, absolutely crucial to the province’s economy
in the coming years. “We will be the No. 1 manufacturer of battery operated
cars and electric vehicles in all of North America,” he said. “We have the cobalt, have the lithium, we have the nickel, all up in the North.”
On Monday morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was at Queen’s Park in Toronto for the reading of his throne speech which laid out the provincial government’s objectives moving forward as an election looms in eight months, while his afternoon was spent in the city of Timmins.
Ford, along with a slew of his cabinet ministers, toured the city to get back in touch with the people of the north, and to take questions from reporters in a late afternoon press conference held at Timmins and District Hospital.
(Bloomberg) — Lithium prices extended their yearlong rally as surging demand spurs a shortfall of the key battery material.
Prices have more than doubled in the past year, according to a Benchmark Mineral Intelligence index of lithium carbonate and hydroxide. Demand for the materials used in electric cars and renewable-energy storage has soared and, while miners are seeking to boost supply, there’s not enough to meet consumption.
This summer the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD shipped its red Tang sport utility vehicles to Norway, the country which has seen the quickest uptake of battery-powered cars.
Named after the Chinese dynasty, the cars are powered by BYD’s homemade lithium batteries, a technology it hopes will become a key platform for the global car industry.
Metallurgical coal prices are at all-time highs, providing companies like Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TECK) – the world’s second-largest producer of steelmaking coal – with a potential big windfall.
And with the long-term demand for steel expected to grow significantly over the next few decades – driven largely by global decarbonization efforts – there is perhaps no better time to be in the met-coal business.
Nickel is the mined commodity most exposed to biodiversity risks, a recent report by Verisk Maplecroft shows.
According to the consultancy firm, the battery metal’s exposure to such risks is mainly due to the fact that some of the largest nickel operations on the planet are located in biodiverse areas such as Indonesia, New Caledonia and the Philippines.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Mining magnate Robert Friedland is looking to make another potentially massive base metals discovery about 80 kilometres south of his famous Voisey’s Bay find from 1993.
Friedland’s privately held US-based firm Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (IVNE) has put up funding to conduct a low-temperature superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) moving loop transient electromagnetic survey on the South Voisey’s Bay (SVB) nickel-copper-cobalt project in Labrador, Canada.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Arizona Sonoran Copper Company Inc. is looking to raise $60-million in an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, hoping to cash in on investor enthusiasm for one of the best-performing metals this year.
Run by former Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. chief executive officer George Ogilvie, the private-equity-owned junior filed paperwork to go public on Wednesday. Arizona Sonoran hopes to revive a copper mining camp in Arizona that ran dry in the 1980s. London-based Tembo Capital Management Ltd. and Resource Capital Funds of Denver are the biggest shareholders.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
White River gold miner on shaky ground in scratching for development financing
The creditor for Harte Gold is providing additional time for the struggling White River gold miner to raise money and sort out its debt obligations.
BNP Paribas has agreed with Harte Gold to an extension of a forbearance agreement, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 15, to enable the Toronto-based mining company to continue with a strategic review process and possibly secure a deep-pocketed partner. Harte Gold operates the Sugar Zone Mine, 25 kilometres north of White River.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
A court hearing this week sparked by Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario could have big implications for the development of the Ring of Fire.
The First Nation says it wasn’t properly consulted about exploration by mining company Juno in its traditional territory and is seeking an injunction. “The conflicting forces at work loom large over the fate of climate change, the environment, the economy, Attawapiskat, its rights and its culture,” the First Nation’s lawyer, Kate Kempton, told the court Tuesday.
