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EDITORIAL: Environmentalists vs. electric vehicles (Las Vegas Review-Journal – August 15, 2021)

https://www.reviewjournal.com/

Despite their shrill alarmism over global warming, environmentalists are perhaps the biggest obstacles to increasing U.S. production of the minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles.

This month, President Joe Biden signed a symbolic executive order urging that half of new vehicles be electric by 2030. In announcing the move, the Biden administration lamented that China is in the pole position on EV manufacturing.
“China is increasingly cornering the global supply chain for electric vehicles and batteries with its fast-growing electric vehicle market,” a White House fact sheet stated.

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First Nations gear up to fight Ottawa for shutting them out in coal-mine rulings – by Kelsey Rolfe (Financial Post – August 14, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

First Nations are agnostic about coal — but are concerned about the implications for their right to self-determination

Carol Wildcat grew up in the shadow of Imperial Oil Ltd.’s Bonnie Glen oilfield operation on the Pigeon Lake reserve in Alberta.

In the roughly 40 years the site was in production, the company extracted billions of dollars worth of oil, and paid a fraction of that in royalties to the four Indigenous nations living near the operation. It’s something that didn’t sit right with Wildcat.

“We were passive royalty receivers. We never got the jobs, we never got small business developing here. Off reserve, other communities…build up when (resource projects are developed),” she said in an interview. “I’m not going to allow that to happen to us again.”

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Iron ore rush creates mining boomtown in Brazil (Financial Times – August 15, 2021)

https://www.ft.com/

Finding a place to stay is not so easy these days in the Brazilian mining town of Itabirito.

Hotel rooms are scarce and rents have climbed, say locals, as outsiders descend on the hilly settlement in search of their fortunes — or maybe just a steady wage — from the iron ore deposits found in this tropical region of green valleys and streams.

Prices for the steelmaking ingredient have rallied over the past year, turning the modest town of about 60,000 people into a hotspot of the global commodities boom.

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The US is digging into its tax toolkit to rebuild its rare earth industry – by Mary Hui (Quartz.com – August 16, 2021)

https://qz.com/

To build a full rare earth supply chain, it’s sometimes not enough to just mine, extract, and process ores. Far away from project sites where heavy machinery dig deep into the earth, small tweaks to the tax code could align incentives and spur production to boost a domestic industry.

That’s the thinking anyway behind a bipartisan bill introduced in the US Congress last week, which would provide tax credits for the domestic production of permanent rare earth magnets.

The “Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing Production Tax Credit Act,” put forward by Democratic representative Eric Swalwell and his Republican colleague Guy Reschenthaler, would give a tax credit of $20 per kilogram of rare earth magnet produced domestically in the US. The tax credit increases to $30 per kilogram if all component rare earth material is produced or recycled in the US.

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How his plan to open the Canadian Rockies to coal mining set Alberta’s Jason Kenney against country music stars – by Alex Boyd (Toronto Star – August 15, 2021)

https://www.thestar.com/

Corb Lund is not enjoying this interview. The lanky Juno-winning musician, known for his playful lyrical takes on rural life on the Prairies, is calling while on his way home to southern Alberta after a stint in studio in Edmonton working on some new music.

But he hasn’t phoned to talk about his latest project, or even the one before it, an album released to critical acclaim in the middle of a pandemic.

Instead, he’s stolen time from his primary gig to talk about a side project that has recently rebranded him as an emerging, albeit reluctant, advocate: stopping a controversial plan to open up the Rocky Mountains to coal mining.

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Sudbury rapper pens labour movement anthem inspired by Local 6500 strike – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – August 13, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

A Sudbury rapper, musician and activist is releasing a new hip-hop labour movement anthem and victory song inspired by the recent two-month strike between the United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale.

Mickey O’Brien’s latest single titled “Cap Lamp,” released under veteran hip-hop label Hand’Solo Records, will drop on all major online streaming platforms on Aug. 13.

Described as a David and Goliath story where the miners of Sudbury stand strong in the face of the second-largest mining company in the world, “Cap Lamp” captures an important moment in the history of Sudbury and organized labour.

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No Bar on Illegal Miners as Goa Set to Resume Mining – by Ayaskant Das (News Click – August 15, 2021)

https://www.newsclick.in/

Less than seven months before the Goa Assembly elections in February 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government has paved the way for the formation of a state-owned mineral development corporation which will have the right to grant mining leases to any entity.

The Goa Mineral Development Corporation Bill, 2021, was passed amidst an Opposition walkout on July 31. The Pramod Sawant government passed the Bill following a July order of the Supreme Court that had dismissed the review petitions of the Goa government and Vedanta Limited against its February 2018 order that had ruled against the state’s decision to renew 88 mining leases.

The Bill doesn’t bar miners whose leases were cancelled by the SC for illegal iron ore mining from bidding.

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‘Smacks of hypocrisy’: Alberta slams White House for demanding more OPEC oil after cancelling Keystone XL – by Colin McClelland (Sudbury Star/Fiancial Post – August 13, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Wounded after U.S. President Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline that would have shipped Alberta crude to the United States, the province snapped at the White House’s call on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Wednesday to raise production faster than planned.

“The Biden administration pleading with OPEC to increase oil production to rescue the United States from high fuel prices months after cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline smacks of hypocrisy,” Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a statement Wednesday.

“Keystone XL would have provided Americans with a stable source of energy from a trusted ally and friend.” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was also critical of the Biden Administration.

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Column: U.S. infrastructure bill targets critical minerals supply – by Andy Home (Reuters – August 12, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States’ $1 trillion infrastructure package is undoubtedly good news for industrial metals. More money for upgrading highways, railways and power grid systems will mean more demand for steel, copper and aluminium.

But when it comes to battery metals and critical minerals, the bipartisan bill is as much about boosting domestic supply as demand.

A total $6 billion is earmarked for battery materials processing and manufacturing projects with another $140 million allocated for a rare earths demonstration plant, part of a broader investment drive across the full length of the metallic supply chain.

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Laurentian researcher named strategic advisor for ‘green’ miner’s South American endeavors – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 16, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Nadia Mykytczuk named to BacTech Environmental’s strategic advisory board

Laurentian University microbiologist Nadia Mykytczuk has been named to the strategic advisory board of BacTech Environmental, a Toronto ‘green’ mining technology company with ambitious plans to recover precious metals in South America.

For the past 15 years, Mykytczuk has worked in the field of mine waste microbiology and is considered an expert in biomining and bioremediation.

Her research at Laurentian, primarily focuses on cultivating microbes to break down toxic material at mine waste sites and harness them to extract precious metals.

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Gold price technicals ‘look awful’: Metal’s worst enemy weighs on potential recovery – analysts – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – August 10, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) Gold price could continue to struggle under the weight of its worst enemy – the U.S. dollar – until an official taper announcement is made by the Federal Reserve, according to analysts.

After losing nearly $100 in August, gold will need some time to stabilize and find its new support levels.

“The technicals look awful for gold, but if prices could stabilize between $1,700 and $1,750, that might allow some longer-term investors to scale back in,” said OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya.

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7 years later, 2 engineers face discipline for actions that led to Mt. Polley mine disaster – by Yvette Brend (CBC News British Columbia – August 11, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Seven years after Canada’s largest tailings spill, the two engineers who were involved have been found in breach of their professional codes of conduct.

On Aug. 4, 2014, a four-square-kilometre tailings pond breached at Mount Polley mine in central British Columbia, leaking vast amounts of water and effluent into Polley and Quesnel lakes and Hazeltine Creek.

More than 17 million cubic metres of water and eight million cubic metres of tailings effluent — containing toxic copper and gold mining waste — flowed into lakes and streams that served as a drinking water source and sockeye salmon spawning ground in the province’s Cariboo region. The 40-metre-high tailings dam was built on a sloped glacial lake. That weakened its foundation.

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‘Dangerous’: Scientists Say Gates and Bezos-Backed Mining Venture Could Threaten Arctic Ecosystem – by Noah Kirsch (The Daily Beast – August 10, 2021)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/

A phalanx of billionaires are backing a new mining initiative in Greenland, in what they hope will boost access to minerals used to manufacture electric cars. It’s significant news in a country that has not always celebrated natural resource exploration. And it has some environmental scientists concerned.

The source of the billionaire money is an initiative founded by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, whose investors include Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Ma, Ray Dalio, and Michael Bloomberg.

Gates founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 as a vehicle for combating climate change, and it has raised $2 billion to date, including a $1 billion funding round completed earlier this year. The organization has invested in dozens of startups in the sustainable energy space.

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Canada’s first rare earth miner in trading halt on expansion rumours – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 10, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Vital Metals (ASX: VML), the first rare earths producer in Canada, has announced a trading halt until Thursday, August 12, on reports of negotiations to acquire two projects in Quebec, one of which is considered to be the world’s fourth largest dysprosium deposit.

The company, AFR reported, is said to be in final talks to acquire the Zues project and a 68% interest in Kipawa, two rare earths assets owned by Quebec Precious Metals Corp. (TSX-V: QPM).

Pushing the Aussie miner’s shares up, which have climbed 22% in the last week and an eye-popping 308% in the past year, was Vital’s announcement on Monday that it is actively seeking to expand into US capital markets.

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Will the lithium shortage put the brakes on electric-car plans? – by Neil Briscoe (The Irish Times – August 11, 2021)

https://www.irishtimes.com/

A global shortage of lithium – the metal mineral crucial for modern rechargeable battery design – may put the brakes on the development of new electric cars.

Market analysts Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) is predicting an “acute” shortage of lithium from 2022 onwards, according to Reuters. That shortage of supply could derail the stated plans of a majority of Europe’s carmakers as they seek to create all-electric line-ups by the end of the decade.

“Unless we see significant and imminent investment into large, commercially viable lithium deposits, these shortages will extend out to the end of the decade,” said George Miller of BMI. Part of the problem is that although the value of lithium has gone up in recent years, that rise hasn’t yet been enough to trigger major investments in new mining operations.

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