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Dawn of a mining supercycle. Are you taking the fizz? – by Frik Els (Mining.com – July 16, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Published on Thursday, a new Wood Mackenzie forecast for the green energy transition, or GET™ (a new MINING.COM trademark we’re making freely available) is, for good reason, already in wide circulation.

Written by global metals expert Simon Morris, VP for Research, Metals & Mining Global Metals, at the Scotland-based analytics firm, the whitepaper is titled: Champagne supercycle: Taking the fizz out of the commodities price boom

Scots may be known for their frugality, but at this website we don’t believe in taking the fizz out of anything so we decided to get on the wagon and take another look at Woodmac’s GET and planet decarbonisation predictions.

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Evolution Mining plans to pour millions into Red Lake gold complex – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 16, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australian miner on three-year spending spree to boost gold production, expand mill capacity and add 15 years of mine life

Australia’s Evolution Mining plans to sink a lot of money into its Red Lake gold mining and milling operations over the next three years.

The company’s board of directors recently approved a plan with a three-year capital investment timetable for Red Lake with the intent to boost gold production to more than 350,000 ounces a year by 2026, and extend mine life in the prolific northwestern Ontario camp by more than 15 years.

In a July 16 news release outlining its strategy, Evolution said the May acquisition of its Red Lake neighbour – Battle North Gold’s Bateman Mine – only served to “accelerate” its growth plan to restore Red Lake into one of Canada’s premier mining districts.

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Greenland government ready to outlaw uranium mining – by Kevin McGwin (Nunatsiaq News – July 15, 2021)

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Greenland has taken the first step towards outlawing uranium mining after lawmakers there proposed a stricter version of a ban that the country’s national assembly overturned in 2013.

Only July 2, the elected government began a month-long public consultation period for a proposed bill that, in addition to mining uranium, would prohibit the feasibility studies and exploration activities that must be completed before a mining project can be considered for a license to begin operation.

According to proposal, Naalakkersuisut, the elected government, is hoping that a reinstatement of what was known as the zero-tolerance policy, to achieve its goal of ensuring that “Greenland neither produces nor exports uranium.”

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Interview – CEMI CEO Doug Morrison: “The delay in getting approval for mining projects is almost all related to environmental impact” (Global Business Report/Mining.com – April 28, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

The industry response to the Brumadinho dam disaster, including the Global Tailings Standard, will hopefully prevent such tragic events in the future. However, it is important to examine how a catastrophe of this scale, at a facility owned by one of the five biggest mining companies in the world, could reoccur after a similar failure — Samarco, in 2015.

Doug Morrison, CEO of the Centre of Excellence for Mining Innovation (CEMI), said the industry must recognize that the increasing delay in getting approval for mining projects is almost all related to environmental impact.

Moreover, the failings at Brumadinho and Samarco were the result of a flawed approach to tailings management, Morrision said in an interview with the Global Business Reports:

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GM Will Suck Lithium From the Salton Sea to Make Batteries – by Mark Vaughn (Autoweek – July 15, 2021)

https://www.autoweek.com/

Critics of electric cars would like you to believe that all of the mining for all of the minerals needed in EVs is performed by environmentally destructive means. This may not be an entirely accurate representation of the actual mining and extraction process that gets the lithium necessary for your Li-Ion battery. And the processes are getting cleaner all the time.

Lithium is needed to make batteries for electric cars. Right now, most lithium comes from Australia—51,000 tons of it in 2019. Second-highest producer of lithium is Chile with 16,000 tons.

The list drops off precipitously from there. But the world is going to need a lot more very soon, especially carmakers such as GM, which, along with many if not most of the world’s carmakers has pledged to go all-EV very soon, GM by 2035.

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Crist unveils clean water plan that calls for tougher regulations on pollution – by Zac Anderson (Sarasota Herald-Tribune – July 14, 2021)

https://www.heraldtribune.com/

SARASOTA — With Florida’s nagging environmental woes flaring up to crisis levels in some areas, Democratic candidate for governor Charlie Crist unveiled a clean water plan Wednesday that was light on details but promised tougher regulations.

A red tide algae bloom is causing extensive fish kills in the Tampa Bay area, Florida is experiencing a record number of manatee deaths and a large blue-green algae bloom covers much of Lake Okeechobee.

Crist touched on all three issues Wednesday, but also drew a rebuke from a prominent local environmentalist about what he didn’t include in his plan — phosphate mining.

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Civil unrest hits South African mineral supply chains – by Chantelle Kotze (SP Global – July 15, 2021)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Port, rail and road transport operations in South Africa have been disrupted by ongoing civil unrest and violence, with several notices of force majeure issued, impacting the transportation of mined raw materials.

The unrest followed the jailing of the country’s former president Jacob Zuma, and the subsequent dismissal of his bid by the country’s High Court on July 9 to have his arrest overturned. However, it has since escalated into mass looting, violence and acts of destruction, mainly in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said July 15 in a statement that it continues to monitor the safety and security of the energy and mining sectors and is in discussions with all energy and mining sector players amid the ongoing unrest.

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Analysis: Illegal gold mining in Peru set to continue – by Ben Heubl (Engineering and Technology – July 16, 2021)

https://eandt.theiet.org/

Peruvian authorities seem powerless to stop illegal gold mining that has wreaked havoc in the country’s rainforests and is poisoning the environment with mercury. E&T’s analysis shows that the practice boomed during the pandemic.

The price of gold is sensitive to crisis, but can itself be the cause of turmoil, especially in an environmental context.

During the past year and a half of the global pandemic, the gold price reached historic heights. As a result, an artisanal gold-mining boom swept the world, notably in countries that are but resource-rich.

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Evolution continues with billion-dollar gold growth plan – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – July 16, 2021)

https://www.afr.com/

Evolution Mining will invest a billion dollars over the next two years in a bid to halt a four-year decline in output and grow gold production by at least 30 per cent.

The growth strategy will include the $380 million expansion of the Cowal mine in NSW, where an underground mine will be built beneath the existing open pit so long as final government approvals can be obtained.

The new strategy was announced on the day Evolution revealed it produced 680,788 ounces of gold in fiscal 2021; about 20 per cent less than the company produced in fiscal 2017 and the fourth consecutive year of lower gold production.

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Report: Appalachian states face billions in mining cleanup (Associated Press/Lexington Herald Leader – July 15, 2021)

https://www.kentucky.com/

The cleanup and reclaiming of coal mines in seven Appalachian states will cost billions, and Kentucky and West Virginia have the largest bills coming due, according to an environmental group’s new report.

Total reclamation liability for the two states is between $4.1 and $5.8 billion, with less than half of that covered by existing bonds, according to estimates in the report by Appalachian Voices.

Pennsylvania’s estimated liability is roughly identical to Kentucky’s, at $1.9 billion to $2.25 billion, although it has an advantage in that up to two-thirds of that liability is covered by bonds.

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Small miners aim for European supply chain for electric vehicles independent from China – by Clara Denina and Zandi Shabalala (Reuters – July 16, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Growing demand for electric vehicles has spurred small-scale miners of the lithium, cobalt and rare earths that automakers rely on to develop mines and build refining capacity in Europe to reduce their reliance on China.

Efforts by the United States and Europe to build a secure and independent supply chain for the key minerals used in electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines and aircraft engines have accelerated as the pandemic led to shutdowns and shortages.

With companies under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, processing metals into goods that are circulated within the continent and do not have to travel far is an environmental goal.

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EU unveils sweeping climate change plan (BBC.com – July 14, 2021)

https://www.bbc.com/

The European Union has announced a raft of climate change proposals aimed at pushing it towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. A dozen draft proposals, which still need to be approved by the bloc’s 27 member states and the EU parliament, were announced on Wednesday.

They include plans to tax jet fuel and effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered cars within 20 years. The proposals, however, could face years of negotiations.

The plans triggered serious infighting at the European Commission, the bloc’s administrative arm, as the final tweaks were being made, sources told the AFP news agency.

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The next generation of Canadian nation building – by Deborah Jaremko (Canadian Energy Centre – July 12, 2021)

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Not-for-profit championing Indigenous-led multi-modal resource corridors to advance unity, prosperity and sustainability

Representatives of a Canadian not for profit are ramping up meetings with Indigenous leaders across the country to identify opportunities for First Nations-led development projects in traditional territories.

The C2C2C Unity Corridor Foundation is championing the concept of multi-modal transportation corridors to export Canada’s natural resources under the leadership of Indigenous communities.

“I always say we’re stronger together because I really believe it’s time that we need to lift our communities up. It’s about working together and bringing Indigenous people to the forefront,” says C2C2C director Chris Sankey, a member and former elected councillor of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation near Prince Rupert, B.C.

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Cobalt refinery operators have ambitious plans for ‘Battery Park’ – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 14, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

First Cobalt seeks to bring manufacturing partner to northeastern Ontario for value-added processing

The company refurbishing a mothballed metals refinery near the town of Cobalt are discussing the idea of creating a Battery Park, catering to the supply chain needs of the North American electric vehicle industry.

Toronto’s First Cobalt wants to produce refined cobalt at the facility, along with a used battery recycling plant, but they’re also strategizing to produce nickel sulfate on the same site, five kilometres outside of town, within the next few years. Both nickel and cobalt are used in electric vehicle battery production.

For First Cobalt, this is a US$60-million expenditure to bring the former Yukon refinery back to life. The facility ran for about a decade – producing cobalt, nickel, copper, silver and other products – before being shuttered in 2015. First Cobalt acquired the shuttered building in 2017.

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Mining innovation centre wins ‘long-fought battle’ to secure funds – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – July 15, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The pan-Canadian network, headquartered in Sudbury, will fast-track mining innovations for a more productive and sustainable future

After three years of hard work, Sudbury’s mining innovation centre has secured $40 million from the federal government to launch a pan-Canadian mining innovation accelerator.

The investment will help the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) implement a $112.4-million project called the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network.

The initiative aims to unite stakeholders across Canada’s innovation ecosystem to accelerate the development and commercialization of new technologies to make the mining sector more productive and sustainable.

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