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Indigenous Mining Complicates Brazil’s Fight Against Illegal Gold – by Ricardo Brito and Adriano Machado (U.S. News/Reuters – December 2, 2024)

https://www.usnews.com/

JACAREACANGA, Brazil (Reuters) – The involvement of Indigenous people in illegal gold hunting, lured by the prospect of easy money due to record prices, has made Brazil’s task of cracking down on wildcat mining in the Amazon far harder, environmental agents and police say.

The Munduruku territory, a reservation the size of Switzerland on the Tapajos river, a major Amazon tributary, has become a hot spot for illegal mining, which Brazilian law bans on Indigenous land. But increasingly, Munduruku tribe members are entering the illegal trade that is backed by organized crime.

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The History Of The Argyle Pink Diamond Mines – by Prue Bell (Paul Bram.com – September 3, 2021)

https://paulbram.com.au/

Pink Diamonds are amongst the rarest precious items on earth. That is why they are the most collectible stones right now. To own a pink diamond is to own a piece of Australian and world history.

“Buying a Pink Diamond is like buying a Pablo Picasso while he was alive… In another decade, the Argyle Pink Diamond will emerge as the new Faberge egg, the thing myths are made of. The value of rarity is the most priceless factor” – THE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS REVIEW.90% of the world’s pink diamonds have been discovered in the mines of North Western Australia in the Argyle diamond mines. “The Argyle pink diamond story has enthralled throughout the years following the remarkable discovery of the Argyle mine in 1979.

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Ontario launches multimillion-dollar U.S. ad campaign amid Trump’s tariff threat (CBC News Toronto – December 02, 2024)

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/

Campaign will run through the holidays with expanded placements in the new year

Ontario has launched a multimillion-dollar U.S. ad campaign touting economic and cultural ties between the province and its southern neighbour as Canada faces the threat of 25 per cent tariffs enacted by president-elect Donald Trump.

“For generations, this ally to the north has been by your side: Ontario, Canada, a partner connected by shared history, shared values and a shared vision for what we can achieve together,” a narrator says over new and archival video featuring shared landmarks like Niagara Falls and the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

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This educator became a ‘mining ambassador’ after visiting a northern Ontario gold mine (CBC News Sudbury – December 01, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

The Coté Gold Mine has plans to hire around 110 people in the next year

Joanne Sallay, a self-confessed “city dweller”, says she never put much thought into the mining industry until she was invited to visit IAMGOLD’s Coté Gold Mine, located between Sudbury and Timmins. Sallay is the president and CEO of Teachers on Call, a tutoring company based out of Toronto. She was part of a group of 20 educators that visited the mine.

Several groups, including the Ontario Mining Association, Mining Matters and the Canadian Ecology Centre organized the trip to promote mining as a career option for students.

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Paladin’s deal to acquire Fission Uranium in doubt amid deepening national security probe involving China – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 2, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Paladin Energy Ltd.’s proposed acquisition of Canadian uranium development company Fission Uranium Corp. is hanging in the balance amid a deepening national security probe and a punishing Paladin stock sell-off that has spooked investors.

The Australian miner reached a friendly agreement in June to buy Kelowna, B.C.-based Fission in an all-stock transaction worth $1.14-billion. Fission is developing the Patterson Lake South (PLS) uranium project in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan.

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Norway forced to pause Arctic seabed mining plans – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – December 2, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Norway has paused its controversial plans to mine the seabed in Arctic-reaching territorial waters after the Socialist Left Party (SV), a small left-wing environmentalist group, secured an agreement to delay the initiative in exchange for supporting the national budget.

The government had intended to issue its first deep-sea mining exploration licenses in early 2025. Under pressure from the SV, preparatory work has been now slowed, with the government highlighting that it would continue work on environmental impact assessments and regulatory frameworks.

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Biden’s Angola visit aims to showcase his attempts to rival China – by Anne Soy (BBC.com – December 2, 2024)

https://www.bbc.com/

Apart from oil, Angola is also rich in minerals, including cobalt and lithium, which are essential for making batteries for electric vehicles.

Joe Biden has begun his long-anticipated maiden visit to sub-Saharan Africa as US president but it comes amidst uncertainty over future US-Africa relations as Donald Trump prepares to succeed him in January.

Biden’s visit to oil-rich Angola seeks to underline an attempt by America to focus more on trade and heavy investment in infrastructure, in what some analysts see as the most direct counter yet to China’s influence on the continent.

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Zinc’s Wild Week May Signal Volatile Era as Supplies Squeezed – by Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – December 01, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Zinc could see more sharp price swings as growing tightness along the metal’s supply chain leaves buyers exposed to sudden changes in availability. The material used to galvanize steel had a turbulent time on the London Metal Exchange last week, finishing almost 5% higher despite a 2.5% slump on Thursday.

The spike was fueled by the withdrawal of huge volumes from LME warehouses, which stoked speculation of a potential squeeze on short-position holders. The volatile week underscored tight supply conditions that analysts see persisting into next year.

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Alberta steps in again to protect Canada from Steven Guilbeault – by Jamie Sarkonak (National Post – November 30, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

The Liberals were told to respect provincial jurisdiction, but their update to the federal environmental assessment regime doesn’t

On Thursday, the Alberta government announced that it has asked the Alberta Court of Appeal to provide an opinion on whether the newly amended federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is constitutional. The problem? The things that rendered much of the act unconstitutional, which had been pointed out by the Supreme Court last fall, were never addressed.

The flaw that tainted IAA 1.0 was one of jurisdictional blindness: the law didn’t keep the feds in their own lane, and instead gave Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault the ability to veto just about any infrastructure project he likes — even in-province pipelines and roads, as well as gravel pits and mines, which are all within provincial domain.

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WA’s nickel industry has collapsed but multi-billion-dollar projects still in development with eye on future – by Jarrod Lucas and Tara de Landgrafft (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – December 1, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Is Western Australia’s once-booming nickel industry dead or just a sleeping giant? Thousands of job losses this year marked the bleakest period in the local industry’s history, which dates back to the 1960s.

In those days, the discovery of nickel literally put the Goldfields town of Kambalda on the map, leading to the development of the country’s first nickel mine while the Vietnam War drove demand for this key ingredient of stainless steel.

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‘Green’ energy needs metal. Can we combat climate change while reducing mining impacts? – by Kate S. Petersen (USA TODAY – December 1, 2024)

https://www.usatoday.com/

More than 2 miles across and nearly 2,000 feet deep, the mining operation in a social media photo has replaced any flora that might have once inhabited the now barren landscape. Nothing but soil and stone is visible until the horizon meets the sky.

In an apparent attempt to disparage the renewable energy transition, the post showcasing the image wrongly asserts the devastation was caused by mining for lithium – a key ingredient in electric car and grid storage batteries. In reality, the post shows a gold mine and is one of a suite of false claims about lithium mining USA TODAY has debunked.

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Nuclear power industry sees ‘huge potential’ for growth in Saskatchewan – by Michael Joel-Hansen (Financial Post – November 30, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Province is starting to look to nuclear power to fill the void left by the departure of coal

Saskatchewan is one of a number of jurisdictions starting to look to nuclear power to fill the void left by the departure of coal and other carbon-emitting fuels as the push to decarbonize electricity production ramps up.

The expansion of nuclear power generation means serious growth potential for some players in the industry, including Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, a Pennsylvania-based specialist in building nuclear reactors bought by Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. in 2023.

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De Beers Capitulates on Diamond Strategy With Big Price Cuts – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – December 02, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — De Beers has cut diamond prices by more than 10% across the board as the world’s biggest producer abandons attempts to put a floor under the slumping market.

The diamond industry has been struck by one of its deepest and most prolonged slumps in decades. What started as a post-pandemic slowdown has spiraled as inflation hit customer purchases, before a collapse in China’s luxury market further eroded demand. Man-made diamonds have also continued to undermine prices.

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Opinion: Canada must put up or shut up on defence spending – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – November 30, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Germany recently began updating its inventory of Second World War bunkers, and adding other underground sites to the list, as the threat of a foreign military attack moves from the realm of the improbable into that of the increasingly conceivable.

Sweden, which this year ended decades of neutrality to join NATO, is distributing a 32-page booklet to all households with updated, if sobering, instructions on what to do in the case of war. “Military threat levels are increasing,” the document warns. “We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario – an armed attack on Sweden.”

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New regulation aims to boost profitability of mine waste (Timmins Daily Press – November 2024)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Critic says scientific and technical support also needed to create inventory of potential sites

Ontario’s Ministry of Mines announced Thursday it is introducing a new regulation under the Mining Act that would make it easier to recover residual metals and minerals from mine waste that could be found at operating, closed or abandoned mine sites.

According to the ministry, there are hundreds of potential sites in Ontario that host tailings or rock waste which could be available for mineral recovery.

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