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Clean tech cannot be built on dirty mining that ignores human rights and safety – by Bev Sellars (Vancouver Sun – August 4, 2021)

https://vancouversun.com/

Bev Sellars is the former chief of the Xat’sull (Soda Creek) First Nation in whose territory the Mount Polley mine is located.

For nearly 200 years, since the colonial mining free-for-all of the mid-1800s, Indigenous peoples across what is now British Columbia have watched as their rights were disrespected, their lands degraded, and their rivers and lakes poisoned by companies whose only interest was making money and then moving on.

Little has changed since then. A new mining boom fuelled by growing global demand for B.C. resources to support clean technology and backed by favourable government policy means the mining industry can continue to treat the province as a money pit with scant regard for the safety of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who live here and the environment that means so much to them.

The current B.C. government believes it has done an admirable job of tightening mining laws since it took power, and the industry says it too has improved safety and environmental performance.

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Gold price plunges below $1,800 as U.S. adds 943,000 positions in July – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – August 06, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) Gold fell below the $1,800 an ounce level after the U.S. July employment data surprised on the upside.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 943,000 in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The monthly figure was well above the market consensus estimate of 870,000. The June data was also revised up to 938,000 positions added.

The U.S. unemployment rate also dropped to 5.4%, beating market consensus calls for a decline to 5.7% in July. The number of unemployed also dropped to 8.7 million in July. But that is still well above the 5.7 million number reported in February 2020.

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NEWS RELEASE: Coalition Finds Noront Has Not Disclosed Business Risk from Indigenous Opposition, Calls for OSC to Investigate Ring of Fire Proponent (August 6, 2021)

Osgoode Hall Law School’s Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic research into Noront Resources Ltd. shows that the junior mining firm has not disclosed risks to its business stemming from significant Indigenous opposition to its flagship project in its most recent annual reports, annual information forms, management discussions and analyses, and news releases.

“Indigenous opposition, and the regulatory risk it poses, can have a material impact,” said Dr. Dayna Nadine Scott, Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and Co-Director of the Clinic. “If known, First Nation opposition to projects should be disclosed to investors. Companies should not be cherry-picking information and only mentioning relationships with communities that support their projects. That’s why we are urging Ontario regulators to conduct an investigation into Noront’s disclosures in the Ring of Fire, where Indigenous interests are significant and the communities are divided.”

Just as competing offers to buy Noront by two major mining companies, BHP and Wyloo Metals, are bringing increased attention to the company, Osgoode Hall Law School’s Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic, Greenpeace, the Council of Canadians, and MiningWatch Canada today wrote to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), Ontario’s corporate regulator, asking for an investigation into the adequacy of Indigenous risk disclosure by Noront.

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Top Lithium Miner Sees Inflation as Speed Bump in Supply Growth – by Yvonne Yue Li (Financial Post/Bloomberg – August 6, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — Higher labor and supply costs will slow but not stop expansion in lithium mining, according to the chief of the world’s largest producer of the key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.

Labor tightness in Western Australia has caused a three-month delay at Albemarle Corp.’s Kemerton II expansion.

The miner has to pay rates that more than double the level before the pandemic to retain workers there, while dealing with higher electricity prices in North America and Europe. Freight rates have also increased 30% to 40% globally.

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Glencore to return $2.8 billion to shareholders in 2021 (Sudbury Star/Reuters – August 6, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

LONDON — Glencore will return $2.8 billion to shareholders in 2021 after soaring commodity prices helped the mining and trading company to a record performance for the first six months of the year, it said on Thursday.

The London-listed company joins rivals Rio Tinto and Anglo American in declaring bonanza payouts after record half-year profits buoyed by a rebound in demand for commodities.

“Following COVID-19’s severe global impacts in early 2020, the subsequent economic recovery has seen prices of most of our commodities surging to multi-year highs,” said Glencore CEO Gary Nagle, who took the helm of the company in July.

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Report documents ‘degrading’ treatment of Indigenous women at Yukon and B.C. mines – by Julien Gignac (CBC News Canada North – August 4, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/

She had a ritual that involved loading and reloading a shotgun in front of a group of men. The message seemed clear enough: Stay away.

“I would sleep with it right next to my bed, sometimes right in the bed next to me, and I’d have my bear spray right there, too,” said the unidentified woman who is quoted in a new report documenting the experiences of Indigenous women and women of colour at mining camps in Yukon and Northern B.C.

The report, titled “Never Until Now,” was commissioned by the non-profit Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society. It suggests that women are often assigned low-paying, menial jobs at mines because of their gender — and it’s those very roles that often compromise their personal safety.

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Australia and Guinea to drive global bauxite production growth – report – by Editor (Mining.com – August 2, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

New projects coming online in key producers Guinea, Indonesia and Australia as well as a ramp-up in Indian and Indonesian production will drive bauxite production growth in 2021 after the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Fitch Solutions predicts in its latest industry report.

Australia’s bauxite sector will maintain steady output growth, supported by a solid project pipeline. Australia holds 12 of the 32 new bauxite projects in Fitch’s Key Mines Projects Database, more than any other country.

Rio Tinto’s expansion at the Amrun project will drive bauxite production in the country over the coming years, Fitch says. The Amrun project achieved first production in December 2018 and ramped up operations to the full production rate of 22.8mn tonnes per annum (mtpa) in April 2019.

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Biden calls for half of new cars to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030 – by Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis (Washington Post – August 5, 2021)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

President Biden on Thursday unveiled a far-reaching, multipronged plan to make U.S. cars and light trucks more fuel-efficient and to begin a shift to electric vehicles over the coming decade.

The move marks one of the administration’s most consequential pushes so far to combat climate change and tackle the nation’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The suite of new goals and mandates, forged after months of talks with car manufacturers, autoworkers and environmental groups, is meant to transform the kind of vehicles Americans drive and to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

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How big is the Delta variant risk? Here’s how gold price reacts – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – August 4, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) The risk of the Delta variant is starting to dominate the headlines, with some analysts raising concern about the surge of COVID-19 cases, potential shutdowns, and slower economic growth in the second quarter of the year. But what will it mean for gold?

The highly contagious strain of the COVID-19 virus is starting to worry the markets, especially after the Infectious Diseases Society of America said Tuesday that the spread of the Delta variant had upped the herd immunity threshold close to 90% from the previous estimates of about 60%.

These new projections could be problematic for the U.S., which only has about 50% of the population fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. The global Delta risk is growing by the minute, but now the focus shifts to the U.S.

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‘Greenflation’ threatens to derail climate change action – by Ruchir Sharma (Financial Times – August 2, 2021)

https://www.ft.com/

The writer, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s chief global strategist, is author of ‘The Ten Rules of Successful Nations’

The world faces a growing paradox in the campaign to contain climate change. The harder it pushes the transition to a greener economy, the more expensive the campaign becomes, and the less likely it is to achieve the aim of limiting the worst effects of global warming.

New government-directed spending is driving up demand for materials needed to build a cleaner economy. At the same time, tightening regulation is limiting supply by discouraging investment in mines, smelters, or any source that belches carbon.

The unintended result is “greenflation”: rising prices for metals and minerals such as copper, aluminium and lithium that are essential to solar and wind power, electric cars and other renewable technologies.

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Copper Boom Has a Top Zinc Miner Scouring for Red-Metal Assets – by Mariana Durao (Bloomberg News – August 2, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim is on the prowl for copper assets as demand for the metal used in wiring is set to take off in the clean energy transition.

The group’s Nexa Resources SA unit — the world’s fourth-largest zinc producer — wants to increase exposure to copper and is evaluating expansions of its existing mines, as well as potential new projects and acquisitions, Chief Financial Officer Rodrigo Menck said.

“We have a primary interest in copper, a metal most pursued by investors in the wake of electrification,” he said in an interview.

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Mining industry’s ‘green metals’ are a fallacy, experts say – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 1, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The mining industry is promoting a growing number of metals as green. The label is popping up everywhere: on the landing pages of company websites, in speeches from mining executives at conferences, and in pitch meetings with investors.

“Every nickel project is now green, every copper project is green,” said Doug Pollitt, analyst with Pollitt & Co. “The resource sector is making the most out of this.”

The green moniker, which implies the metals and mining methods are environmentally friendly, is generating fierce debate. Some call it appropriate, given the growing end use of minerals such as lithium, cobalt and graphite in alternative energy.

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Potential ‘cold war’ with China could wreak havoc for mining – by Nickolas Zakharia (Australian Mining – August 4, 2021)

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Oxford University professor of globalisation and development Ian Goldin has warned the Australian mining sector that tensions with China could escalate into a ‘cold war’ with further impacts on supply chains.

Goldin, the European Bank principal economist and former World Bank vice president, said the ramifications would be detrimental if tensions with China continue to grow.

In a presentation at Diggers & Dealers 2021, Goldin said a global cold war with China could have greater ramifications than the COVID-19 pandemic or climate change.

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The Drift: Sudbury-made robotic arm automates load-wire-fire underground – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – August 4, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Unique consortium comes together to fine-tune TesMan technology

Clara and Rod Steele have been developing their robotic explosives-loading arm for the mining industry for nearly a decade, but as they inched closer to commercialization, they realized they needed help to push it that last stretch to market.

So, in early 2020, they assembled a group of mining companies, equipment fabricators, an explosives manufacturer, and engineering firms into a unique consortium to harness their wealth of expertise.

“As we went along, we had to get more energy in the team, because we’re a small team and we’re only learning to do one piece. So we needed to get other people involved to do the other pieces better,” said Rod, who co-owns Sudbury-based TesMan with Clara.

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Documentary shines a light on lithium mining and conflicts in Argentina – by Fermin Koop (Dialogochino.net – August 3, 2021)

Years in the making, the film tells the story of the communities of Salinas Grandes, Jujuy province, who resist the arrival of mining companies for lithium extraction in Argentina

Clemente Flores lives in the El Moreno community in Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina, where indigenous communities are trying to prevent mining companies from extracting lithium. The amount of water needed to obtain the mineral, used to power electric car and phone batteries, would radically alter their way of life, Clemente argues.

In the name of lithium, a new documentary directed by Cristian Cartier and Martín Longo, tells the story of a conflict generated by lithium extraction. The film, which took more than five years to make, is available online for free until 9 August and is then scheduled for release in cinemas across Argentina.

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