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The future of Canada’s nickel supply is NOT Indonesia – by Richard (Rick) Mills (A Head Of The Herd.com – June 2, 2021)

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China says it has found a way to make “green” nickel chemical for EV batteries from nickel laterite deposits in Indonesia that could help to alleviate the coming supply deficit in the metal that is essential to electric vehicle batteries.

Don’t be fooled. The process itself is extremely polluting, and ‘ocean tailings ponds’ are anything but green. Thankfully car companies aren’t buying it. Future nickel supply for battery-making is therefore unlikely to come from Indonesia or anywhere else where nickel laterites are mined.

EVs coming to Canada

Canada is in the beginning stages of developing an electric vehicle supply chain that capitalizes on the country’s rich battery metals endowment and cheap hydro-electric power particularly in Quebec and British Columbia.

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Canada Nickel’s Crawford project to produce 93% less CO2 emissions than industry average – Staff (Mining.com – June 2, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

A study commissioned by Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC) revealed that its Crawford project in Ontario, Canada, is set to produce 2.05 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of nickel-equivalent production over its 25-year mine life —93% lower than the industry average of 29 tonnes of CO2.

The study was conducted by Skarn Associates, a metals and mining ESG research company, applying data from Canada Nickel’s preliminary economic assessment.

According to the report, the CO2 footprint estimate does not include the carbon offset expected to be provided from the process of spontaneous mineral carbonation from the operation’s tailings and waste rock, largely composed of serpentine rock which naturally absorbs CO2 when exposed to air.

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Copper roars past $4.60 as resource nationalism grips market – by Richard (Rick) Mills – Kitco News – June 1, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

A number of happenings in the copper market conspired to elevate the spot price beyond $4.60 a pound on Thursday, confirming Ahead of the Herd’s suspicions that a new wave of resource nationalism in some of the largest copper-producing nations is washing over the sector.

Resource nationalism is the tendency of governments to assert control, for strategic and economic reasons, over natural resources located on their territories. It has been identified as one of the key risks for investors in the natural resources space.

With the copper price soaring on tight supply and heavy demand, as the world’s biggest economies revive following a year of coronavirus-related restrictions, the temptation for producer nations to cash in on more valuable copper reserves to pay for social programs is proving hard to resist.

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Championing a Green Energy Revolution through High-Grade Cu-Ni-Co-Zn Projects in the World’s Best Mining Jurisdictions – by Stephen Mlot, P.Eng (June 2, 2021)

Murchison Minerals Limited (TSXV: MUR) is a company founded by industry veterans and following a plan for discovering and building resources for the Green Energy Revolution through high-grade Cu-Zn and Ni-Co projects in Canada’s best mining jurisdictions.

Murchison is operating in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Quebec, based on those provinces’ rich variety of metal deposits, as well as the positive fiscal and operational environment for mineral exploration and development. In its 2020 Annual Survey of Mining Companies the Fraser Institute ranks those jurisdictions as the top two in Canada and in the top ten globally.

The Green Energy future is not just about electric vehicles and battery power. Clean energy goes beyond this to include Wind, Solar, Hydrogen Energy Cells, Geothermal and even Nuclear. Other drivers of the future will be the electrification of everything, the 5G interconnection of devices (managed by AI systems), and energy-efficient systems.

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Indonesia On Track To Dominate The Supply Of Nickel To Make Batteries – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – June 2, 2021)

https://www.forbes.com/

Indonesia is on track to become the world’s nickel capital with new projects potentially lifting the country’s share of the important stainless steel and battery metal ingredient to a whopping 60% of global output later this decade.

Much of the planned investment is linked to Chinese companies keen to cement their grip on stainless steel production and to meet fast growing demand for batteries which require a range of new-energy metals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper.

The pace of growth in the Indonesia nickel sector can best be measured by an investment bank forecast that the country could lift its share of worldwide nickel production from 28% to 60% inside the next eight years.

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It’s not a stark choice between Indigenous rights and economic development. We can have both – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Financial Post – June 2, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

As many as 39 First Nations produced oil and gas on their own reserves in 2019, earning millions in royalties

One of the more pervasive narratives in Canada is the idea Indigenous peoples are opposed to resource development.

The Wet’suwet’en hereditary Chiefs’ challenge of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline is the most salient example, but there are others, from the TMX pipeline to the Mary River iron ore mine in Baffin Island. In the popular telling, Canada faces a stark choice: Indigenous rights or economic development.

The reality, of course, is much more nuanced. In a new Macdonald-Laurier Institute report, I examine Indigenous participation in the natural resource sector. As it reveals, Indigenous participation in that sector exceeds almost every other in terms of procurement contracts, workforce participation, employment income, royalties, and own-source revenues.

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Vale, Steel remain in talks as workers picket – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 2, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale workers took to the picket lines Tuesday for the first time in a dozen years after rejecting a tentative deal reached by their union and the company.

“Our membership spoke and they are bringing the message back that concessions are not acceptable,” said Kevin Boyd, vice-president with USW 6500. “And very clearly, a lot of it is in benefits.”

Among the more unpopular changes outlined in the new five-year contract are the removal of retiree health benefits for any new hire and the elimination of over-the-counter drug coverage (except for life-sustaining medication).

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Centerra Gold open to selling seized Kumtor mine to Kyrgyz Republic – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Toronto’s Centerra Gold Inc. says it is willing to sell its giant Kumtor gold mine to the Kyrgyzstan government, after initially ruling out a sale of the mine to anyone after the former Soviet Republic nationalized the asset last month.

The mid-tier gold producer has been in crisis mode after the landlocked Kyrgyz Republic in central Asia seized control of its wholly owned mine in mid-May, citing alleged environmental infractions and tax fraud by Centerra.

In the aftermath, the company launched an international arbitration suit against the Kyrgyz government, accused a former director of conspiring to steal the asset and moved to stop Kyrgyzstan from selling the government’s equity stake in the company.

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Seamus O’Regan Jr. and Pierre Gratton: This is mining’s moment, and Canada will lead – by Pierre Gratton and Seamus O’Regan Jr. (The Province – May 31, 2021)

https://theprovince.com/

Seamus O’Regan is the federal minister of natural resources; Pierre Gratton is president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada.

This is mining’s moment. After a year that saw global mining production curtailed, mines closed, and plans shelved as workers stayed home to keep others safe, the industry is roaring back.

Mining represented five per cent of Canada’s GDP last year, and while the sector is vital in communities across the country, it is essential to British Columbia.

As the global centre of expertise for mineral exploration, B.C. is home to some 800 exploration companies, most of which are in the Greater Vancouver area. For generations, mining has played an essential role as an employer and economic contributor in the province.

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Tesla eyes over $1 billion of Australian minerals a year – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 2, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Electric cars giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) said it expects to soon begin buying more than $1 billion a year of Australian lithium, nickel and other critical minerals for its batteries and engines.

Chairman Robyn Denholm said the country has taken important steps towards cleaning its image of polluting commodities exporter and it is poised to become a globally significant supplier of climate change solutions.

“Australia has the minerals to power the renewable energy age throughout the world in the coming years,” Denholm, an Australian, said in a speech during a Minerals Council of Australia event.

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Murray Sinclair says more remains will be found at residential school sites – by Kristy Kirkup and Mike Hager (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada’s residential schools says the country is beginning to see evidence of how many children died at the institutions and that more sites will likely come to light.

Murray Sinclair released a video message on Tuesday evening, his first public remarks since the remains of children were discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School last week.

He said survivors of the schools need to understand that it is important to make this evidence public so Canadians can see the magnitude of what happened and the extent of responsibility. This includes what he described as the need to force churches that have documents related to residential schools to disclose them.

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Lawmakers in Alaska and Washington state push B.C. on mining regulations – by Brenda Owen (City News/Canadian Press – June 1, 2021)

https://toronto.citynews.ca/

VANCOUVER — Lawmakers in Alaska and Washington state are renewing calls for British Columbia to strengthen its mining regulations to protect shared waterways.

A group of 25 members of the Washington state legislature sent a letter to Premier John Horgan in March, saying a tailings dam breach at one of several mines in B.C. within 100 kilometres of the state’s border could damage transboundary rivers and fisheries.

Eight Alaskan state legislators followed with a letter to Horgan in May expressing their constituents’ “deep concerns” about the potential impacts of abandoned, active and future mines on shared waterways.

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Putin is betting coal still has a future – by Yuliya Fedorinova and Aine Quinn (Yahoo Finance’Bloomberg – May 30, 2021)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

European governments are drawing up plans to phase out coal, US coal-fired power plants are being shuttered as prices of clean energy plummet, and new Asian projects are being scrapped as lenders back away from the dirtiest fossil fuel.

And Russia? President Vladimir Putin’s government is spending more than $10-billion on railroad upgrades that will help boost exports of the commodity. Authorities will use prisoners to help speed the work, reviving a reviled Soviet-era tradition.

The project to modernise and expand railroads that run to Russia’s Far Eastern ports is part of a broader push to make the nation among the last standing in fossil fuel exports as other countries switch to greener alternatives. The government is betting that coal consumption will continue to rise in big Asian markets like China even as it dries up elsewhere.

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Wyloo Metals wants to rain money for a clean mining, inclusive Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 31, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australian miner floats battery metals supply chain concept, proposes $100 million in First Nation contract awards

If a mine gets built in the Ring of Fire under the Wyloo Metals flag, it will be a net zero emissions operation.

The Australian mining investment company, which is making a play to take over Noront Resources’ nickel, chrome and metal assets in the James Bay region, said it’s prepared to open its wallet to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of mining in the Far North, will train and hire Indigenous people, and will award millions in contracts to First Nation-owned companies.

The Perth-headquartered company is floating the concept of a Future Metals Hub that would be developed in collaboration with First Nation communities and other regional stakeholders. Their intent is to look at the possibility of establishing a supply chain in Ontario to make the materials needed for the electric vehicle battery industry.

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Head of Alberta coal mining panel says trust in regulatory system to be examined – by Bob Weber (Globe and Mail/Canadian Press – May 31, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A public consultation committee on coal mining in the Rocky Mountains will consider why Albertans’ level of trust in the province’s regulatory bodies is so low, the panel’s head said Monday.

In an hour-long phone-in show on CBC Radio, Ron Wallace said he’s concerned by results of a recent government survey on coal mining. Wallace pointed out that of about 25,000 respondents, 85 per cent said they were not confident that the industry was being adequately regulated.

“If people have diminished confidence that the regulators are protecting the public interest, then that’s a major thing,” he said.

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