https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Pure Gold Inc. is struggling to produce gold at a profit, the latest junior to encounter technical problems in Ontario’s notoriously tricky-to-mine Red Lake region.
The Vancouver-based gold miner, which is backed by industry heavyweights such as Eric Sprott and Robert McEwen, has experienced a slew of issues underground since starting up its Madsen mine in Red Lake, about 550 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.
In a previous column (July 22) I pointed out that, since switching coal-fuelled power plants to natural gas cuts CO2 emissions in half, exporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to displace coal both benefits our economy and reduces global emissions.
Also: that since converting gasoline and diesel-fuelled vehicles and ships to natural gas cuts emissions by 25 per cent, providing incentives to achieve that could substantially decrease domestic emissions, as well.
Australian miner Sandfire Resources will spend more than twice its market capitalisation to solve its growth problems, unveiling a $2.57 billion Spanish mine acquisition that investors described as “transformational” and “a game changer”.
Sandfire will take on new debt and ask investors to buy $1.2 billion of new shares to fund the $US1.86 billion ($2.57 billion) acquisition of Spain’s Minas D’Aguas Tenidas (MATSA) mine, which is located north-west of Seville.
(Bloomberg) — Most people don’t give fertilizer a second thought — except maybe when driving through a particularly fragrant agricultural area. But with prices for some synthetic nutrients at their highest levels since the financial crisis, it could mean weaker harvests and bigger grocery bills next year, just as the world’s supply chains start to recover from the pandemic.
A perfect storm of events — from extreme weather and plant shutdowns to new government sanctions — have hit the chemical fertilizer market this year, slamming farmers already buckling under the strain of rising costs to produce food.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Europe’s power crisis was just a matter of time – and that time has come. Natural gas and electricity prices are setting record highs virtually every day, and businesses and households have gone from getting annoyed to being terrified as the bills land like hand grenades.
The continent’s power system was an accident waiting to happen, in good part because its purported virtues – vast amounts of climate-friendly renewable energy and waning numbers of climate-unfriendly coal-fired plants – were less robust than advertised.
(Kitco News) The gold market saw its earlier gains reversed as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell talked about “gradual” tapering while downplaying China’s Evergrande contagion effect on the U.S. market.
On Wednesday, the Fed said it may soon start tapering its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases, with central bank officials showing growing support for raising interest rates in 2022.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Sudbury mining engineer Theresa Nyabeze has been recognized as one of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian (ABC) Women in 2020.
Now in its third edition, the 100 ABC Women initiative aims to celebrate and archive the professional accomplishments of trailblazing Black women from across Canada. The non-profit organization behind the program said its goal is to create a database for current and future generations.
Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, said on Tuesday that his country would stop building coal-burning power plants overseas, a major shift by the world’s second-biggest economy to move away from its support of the fossil fuel.
China “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” he told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. The news comes amid a broad international effort to reduce coal use and to keep global temperatures from rising at their current pace, which scientists have warned could be disastrous.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Kenorland Minerals (TSXV: KLD) announced that it has entered into a property option agreement with Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) with respect to the company’s South Uchi project in Ontario.
Under the option agreement, Barrick can earn an initial 70% interest in the project by spending a total of $6 million on mineral exploration within six years, of which $3 million are guaranteed expenditures within the first three years.
(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s High Court struck down some changes to mining regulations that govern Black ownership targets, in a move that could potentially revive investor interest in the sector.
In 2018, Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe adjusted the rules to stipulate that an ownership target of 26% for Black investors in South African mining companies would remain in perpetuity, so miners that had previously met the threshold would need to find new Black shareholders if the original ones exited their holdings.
PERTH, Australia, Sept. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd (“Wyloo Metals”) has today submitted a conversion notice to Noront Resources Ltd (TSXV:NOT) (“Noront”), notifying Noront to convert its US$15m convertible loan (“Convertible Loan”) into common shares of Noront. Conversion of the loan will increase Wyloo Metals’ ownership from 24.2% to approximately 37.3% of the outstanding common shares of Noront.
ABOUT WYLOO METALS
Wyloo Metals is the metals and mining subsidiary of Tattarang, one of Australia’s largest private investment groups. Led by a multidisciplinary team of geologists, engineers and financial professionals, Wyloo Metals manages a diverse portfolio of exploration and development projects and cornerstone interests in a number of public and private companies.
London (CNN Business)European natural gas prices have soared so high that hundreds of millions of people could be facing cold homes or inflated energy bills over winter. There’s also fears of a knock-on impact as carbon dioxide used in food production — a byproduct of fertilizer made with natural gas — also gets more expensive.
Politicians are blaming the surge in prices on an increase in natural gas demand as the world wakes up from the pandemic, supply disruption caused by maintenance, and a less-windy-than-usual summer that saw a drop in wind-generated power.
Carbon in the form of flake graphite may have a lustre ranging from dull to metallic. In gradations of black to grey, the flat plates with hexagonal edges seem more drab than eye-catching.
The non-metallic element has vast applications and potential, from the common pencil lead to industrial and aerospace purposes, and beyond. Located in the Precambrian Grenville Province, eastern Ontario seemed to be a prime area for a graphite mine. About 70 kilometres from Kingston, the Portland Graphite Mine drew the interest of resource companies since the mid-1900s. Then the attention quietly vanished.
(Bloomberg) — There isn’t much that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Sierra Club agree on, but one of those rare things is a measure that’s part of the bipartisan infrastructure package to be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives later this month that would fund $11.3 billion to remediate coal mines abandoned before 1977.
It’s essentially a taxpayer subsidy of a polluting industry and yet it has plenty of support on both sides of the political aisle.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A 40-second video made in August in the southern Chinese city of Kunming provides a graphic account of the country’s housing bubble. It shows controlled explosions turning 15 apartment towers into rubble. They were built seven years ago and never occupied.
Since then, China’s housing woes have been exposed by the liquidity crisis at Evergrande, the world’s most indebted housing developer. The company’s shares are in freefall – they are down more than 85 per cent in the past year – and S&P Global Ratings said a default on bond payments is “likely.”
