BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Several thousand people protested in Serbia on Saturday demanding a ban on planned lithium mining in the Balkan country as well as a resolution to scores of other environmental issues that made the region one of the most polluted in Europe.
The rally in downtown Belgrade was organized by about 30 ecological groups who recently gained popularity in Serbia amid widespread disillusionment with mainstream politicians and amid major pollution problems facing the region.
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Marie Inkster, Lundin Mining Corp’s chief executive officer for just three years, says she is stepping down for “personal reasons,” adding that speculation about board dissatisfaction with her performance is incorrect.
Toronto-based Lundin, one of Canada’s biggest base metals companies, said in a news release Ms. Inkster will give up the CEO position at the end of the year. She will be succeeded by Peter Rockandel, a former long-time banker with GMP Capital Inc. who is currently senior vice-president, corporate development and investor relations, of Lundin.
As part of President Biden’s ambitious plan for the U.S. to effectively address climate change, for the country to transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 there has been a whole-of-government push to incorporate more and more renewable generation into the national grid.
In addition, newly-released details of the bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal “opens the gateway,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) contended in his review, to a near-term reconciliation package that will “accomplish much more on climate.”
U.S. coal companies’ stock prices have rallied in 2021, and producers of the bulk commodity could book significant positive free cash flow in the second half of 2021 and in 2022.
Coal demand from power producers and steelmakers has been rebounding from lows hit during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to high natural gas prices and expectations of increased infrastructure spending.
Western groups compete for assets to secure supplies of key battery metal
In remote northern Ontario, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest railway or paved road, the world’s largest mining group and an Australian metals tycoon are in a bidding war for a deposit containing millions of tonnes of nickel.
The battle between BHP and Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals for the asset’s owner Noront Resources comes as miners race to meet surging demand for battery metals as electric vehicles go mainstream.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, issued a bizarro statement calling on OPEC and Russia to increase oil production amid worries about the impact of climbing gasoline prices on Democratic political fortunes in next year’s midterm elections.
“President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump,” Mr. Sullivan said, as U.S. gasoline prices reached a seven-year high of more than US$3 a gallon. “Competitive energy markets will ensure reliable and stable energy supplies, and OPEC+ must do more to support the recovery.”
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Indigenous communities living around Chile’s Atacama salt flat have asked authorities to suspend lithium miner SQM’s operating permits or sharply reduce its operations until it submits an environmental compliance plan acceptable to regulators, according to a filing viewed by Reuters.
Chile’s SMA environmental regulator in 2016 charged SQM with overdrawing lithium-rich brine from the Salar de Atacama salt flat, prompting the company to develop a $25 million plan to bring its operations back into compliance. Authorities approved that plan in 2019 but reversed their decision in 2020, leaving the company to start again from scratch on a potentially tougher plan.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Chromite production plans, smelter plan in limbo until new ownership takes control of Noront’s Ring of Fire metal assets
Ask Alan Coutts what’s to become of a proposed ferrochrome processing plant for Sault Ste. Marie and the president of Noront Resources gives a straightaway answer.
“That will ultimately be a question that will be answered by the new owners.” Noront selected Sault Ste. Marie in 2019 is its preferred location for a high-tech smelting operation, settling on a brownfield site at Algoma Steel.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Gold exploration in Canada is on the upswing. A strong rise in the yellow metal’s price leading up to the August 2020 peak above US$2,000 per oz. has spurred on exploration in Canada that may lead to the nation’s next new mines.
It’s also had the effect of supersizing drill programs for juniors with promising discoveries, savvy management and talented exploration teams. There are now several juniors carrying out supersized drill programs involving 100,000 metres or more in a single year – in many cases before a resource has been compiled for the project. Here’s our look at four such projects.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/
Diamonds, I’m sorry to say, aren’t Beyoncé’s best friend — even if the Grammy Award-winning artist and her new corporate partner, Tiffany and Co., would like to make it so.
Last week, Tiffany released a new campaign featuring Beyoncé, husband Jay-Z — and the famed 128.54 carat yellow Tiffany diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1877 at the Kimberley Mine by Charles Lewis Tiffany. His iconic company gleefully lauded the fact that Beyoncé is only the fourth woman — and first Black woman — to wear the glamorous necklace; her predecessors include Audrey Hepburn, who wore the stone in publicity photos for her 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
KAMBELE, EASTERN CAMEROON – Authorities in Cameroon say they are attempting to remove thousands of children working in gold mines along the country’s eastern border. Some of the children were displaced from the Central African Republic because of violence there and dropped out of school to mine gold for survival.
The 2021-2022 school year in Cameroon started Monday, and Cameroon’s Ministry of Basic Education says thousands of children have not returned to class in areas along the border with the Central African Republic.
SYDNEY (AFP, REUTERS) – Australia vowed on Thursday (Sept 9) to keep mining coal for export and said global demand was rising, rejecting a study that warned nearly all its reserves must stay in the ground to address the climate crisis.
Researchers warned in a study published in the journal Nature this week that 89 per cent of global coal reserves – and 95 per cent of Australia’s share – must be left untouched. Such restraint, they said, would still only offer a 50 per cent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels – the current global goal.
SHANGHAI/NEW DELHI/ISTANBUL — Foreign companies active in Afghanistan face prolonged uncertainty as the new Taliban caretaker government grapples with a financial crisis and international reluctance to offer help.
Since the Taliban seized power last month, at least 10 publicly listed companies in China have expressed hope that they will be able to participate in mining or infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, but they linked doing business to political and diplomatic developments.
(Bloomberg) — A broad rally in base metals markets is gathering pace, with tight supply, logistical logjams and booming demand creating an inflationary storm that’s driving prices to multiyear highs.
Aluminum notched a fresh 13-year high and nickel rose to the highest since 2014 in London. Both metals are benefiting from China’s crackdown on emissions from energy-intensive industries, while their role in the green revolution is buoying the longer-term outlook.
The uranium price has surged to the highest level since 2015 due in part to a single fund aggressively cornering the physical market.
Investment firm Sprott Inc. earlier this year launched its Physical Uranium Trust and recently commented on Twitter about how much physical uranium it had been buying, aiding to the commodity’s recent bull run.
