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Canadian miners pursue prospects in war-torn Tigray – by Geoffrey York and Zecharias Zelalem (Globe and Mail – October 4, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

With a devastating war still raging on, the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia has become a land of famine, massacres and brutal destruction. Its suffering has led to allegations of genocide, threats of sanctions and fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

But some Canadian gold-mining companies see Tigray as something else: a potential bonanza. Their jostling for mineral rights has continued even as the war deepens, with the miners confident that the region holds billions of dollars in gold.

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Why Intel and TSMC are building water-dependent chip factories in one of the driest U.S. states – by Sam Shead (CNBC.com – June 4, 2021)

https://www.cnbc.com/

The biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world are quickly trying to build new factories as the global chip crisis continues to wreak havoc on a plethora of industries.

U.S. semiconductor giant Intel announced in March that it plans to spend $20 billion on two new chip plants in Arizona. Separately, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) said it was going to build a $12 billion factory in Arizona, and chief executive C.C. Wei said Wednesday that construction had already begun.

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Opinion: Argentina, Bolivia and Chile need a responsible lithium boom – by Zara C Albright, Kehan Wang and Rebecca Ray (Dialogo Chino – September 30, 2021)

Dialogo Chino

The landscape of global energy finance – and Latin American lithium mining – changed last week when China’s President Xi announced that his country would “step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy”, while also committing to end support for coal-fired power plants abroad.

The demand for renewable energy already exists: developing countries around the world have proposed 494 gigawatts in renewable energy projects through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, energy sector analysts foresee a boom in renewable energy, with installed capacity expected to more than double in the next few years.

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Vale miner describes long climb out of Sudbury’s Totten Mine – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Northern Ontario Business/Sudbury.com – September 30, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

At 60 years old, Perry Venedam was one of the oldest miners stranded underground at Vale’s Totten Mine on Sunday after a piece of equipment being slung to the bottom became lodged in the shaft and put the cage lift system out of operation.

Along with 39 other Vale employees, he was forced to use a secondary egress ladder system to ascend out of the mine with the help of mine rescuers, who ensured they were able to climb safely with the help of fall arrest equipment.

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Silver, PGM Snapshot: Eight companies with an eye for precious white metal – by Marilyn Scales (Northern Miner – September 29, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes it’s silver, platinum and palladium. The Northern Miner takes a look at eight companies active in the space.

Bayhorse Silver (TSXV: BHS; US-OTC: KXPLF) is the 100% owner of the past-producing Bayhorse silver mine 14 km from Huntington, Oregon in the United States. The company spent US$7.5 million to return it to production in 2018 and the company poured its first silver bar in February 2019. Because there is no mill on the site, the operation has a small environmental footprint.

The property has a known mineralized zone that was historically estimated to be 255 metres long, 25 metres wide, and 6.7 metres thick. It was previously estimated (not 43-101 compliant) to contain 150,000 tonnes of mineralization grading 585 to 690 grams silver per tonne, including a 30,000-tonne zone of rhyolite that has returned grades as high as 10,793 grams silver per tonne.

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Jewelers Sell $1 Gold Online as Indians Warm Up to Internet Buys – by Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – September 28, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Jewelers in India have started selling gold for a little over $1 online after the pandemic upended sales, forcing them to reassess traditional ways of doing business.

Sales crashed last year in the second-biggest consumer after a nationwide lockdown shuttered stores across the country. But it also led to a bump in India’s nascent market for online gold sales.

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OPINION: The dirty secrets behind Sudbury’s regreening – by Joan Kuyek (The Narwhal – September 30, 20210

The Narwhal

Joan Kuyek is co-founder of MiningWatch Canada and the author of Unearthing Justice.

A recent op-ed in The Narwhal said that Sudbury, Ont. offered proof that a “[post-mining] re-greening road map exists,” and indicated that Sudbury provides a model to the world. However, any community attempting to replicate the Sudbury model has to know its dirty, and often untold, stories.

The mines and smelters in Sudbury — Canada’s largest mining community — were built on and destroyed the lands of the Atikameksheng Anishinaabek. The boundaries of their tiny reserve were deliberately drawn to exclude mineral rich lands. Although over $1 trillion has been taken from the Sudbury region, the First Nation has received no compensation and no apology.

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There for you, on your worst day: Ontario Mine Rescue’s Ted Hanley on getting it right when everything goes wrong – by Herb Mathisen (CIM Magazine – September 29, 2021)

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

Editor’s note: CIM Magazine interviewed Ontario Mine Rescue’s Ted Hanley just weeks before the Totten mine rescue team successfully rescued the 39 miners trapped 4,130 feet underground.

You can’t crystal-ball everything. Ted Hanley, general manager of Ontario Mine Rescue, does his best anyway, as do the staffers and volunteers who work to save miners’ lives when accidents occur.

After all, the 92-year-old organization was created in response to a problem many should have seen coming. In 1928, fire crews were brought in from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to put out a fire at the Hollinger mine in Timmins because no local or provincial firefighters were capable of responding to the underground blaze.

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Another major EV-battery play that will face rather steep odds – by Anjani Trivedi (Livemint.com – September 29, 2021)

https://www.livemint.com/

Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia.

There it is again: Another automaker makes a big announcement about its electrification plans with a battery manufacturer. Going by previous proclamations, that’s not just ambitious but far-fetched.

Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation Company announced that they are partnering to spend $11.4 billion on three electric-car battery plants across the United States, making it the most sizable investment in the automaker’s 118-year-history.

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How the decarbonization megatrend is disrupting mining investment – by Editor (Mining.com – September 29, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

The mining and metals sector will see sweeping changes from the transition to a low carbon economy out to 2030, says market analyst Fitch Solutions in its latest industry report.

Some of these changes have already begun and will be accelerated in 2021 and beyond as government policy becomes increasingly stringent and investors’ pressure on ESG credentials rises. The transition will require large investments to reduce miners’ emissions and to increase exposure to new growth markets, Fitch points out.

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Global cobalt supply deficit ‘not as dire,’ analysts say (S&P Global Market Intelligence – September 28, 2021)

https://www.spglobal.com/

A market deficit for cobalt is narrowing as the world’s leading producers of the prized metal expand production to meet the spike in demand for batteries used in electric vehicles.

Amid the surge in EV sales this year, hunger for cobalt drove major producers to announce plans to increase output at multiple mine sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo and balance the market.

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Four signals from soaring fossil fuels – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – September 30, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Find your favourite indicator of fossil fuel prices. Let’s begin with the price of coal in China, where futures have surged to US$212 a metric tonne, up 20 per cent through September and 300 per cent over the past year.

Natural gas futures approached US$6 per British thermal unit. A litre of gasoline at some Toronto stations hit $1.40, a new high in nominal dollars as the price of crude oil hit US$80 a barrel. So what’s going on and what does it mean?

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Totten Mine rescue a ‘really well-oiled’ team effort – by Jim Moodie (Globe and Mail – September 30, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The escape from Totten this week tested the mettle of more than three-dozen miners, but the task confronting rescue workers was just as daunting. About 90 people altogether were involved in the extraction effort, said Ontario Mine Rescue vice-president Ted Hanley, with Shawn Rideout, the organization’s chief mine rescue officer, charged with overseeing the response.

“It was all hands on deck, and really well-oiled in that there was a day shift and a night shift transition, for the surface operations, at least,” said Hanley. “It was a little more difficult for the underground rescue workers.”

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Europe Asking Russia for More Coal Is Set for Disappointment – by Anna Shiryaevskaya and Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – September 30, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — It’s not just extra natural gas that Europe’s struggling energy markets are finding tough to get from Russia.

Power producers in the continent are being forced to ask Russia for more coal to ease an energy crunch with winter approaching and record-high gas prices denting profitability, according to officials at two Russian coal companies. But they may be left stranded as any increase in exports from the country won’t be substantial, they said.

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Chinese battery maker’s deal to acquire Canada’s Millennial Lithium will trigger full security review, expert predicts – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 30, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A top security expert predicts that a planned Chinese takeover of a Canadian critical minerals development company will trigger a full security review under the Investment Canada Act as tensions between the two countries remain elevated following China’s release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor this past weekend.

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. wants to acquire junior Canadian battery metals exploration company Millennial Lithium Corp. for $376-million. But before the deal can close, it must pass a security screening by Ottawa.

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