Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: Canada has a once-in-generation opportunity to be a global battery leader if we act now: industry stakeholders (Clean Energy Canada – May 19, 2021)

May 19, 2021

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OTTAWA, May 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As Canada’s largest trading partners transform their economies to be cleaner and more competitive, one aspect of that shift is clear: batteries will be the engines of the modern world.

Canada has a once-in-generation opportunity to establish itself as a major player in the global battery sector, according to a new Clean Energy Canada report reflecting the opinions of stakeholders across the electric vehicle supply chain, including General Motors Canada, Lion Electric, the Mining Association of Canada, the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, Unifor, and many others.

Canada has the right ingredients for a successful battery sector, the experts told Clean Energy Canada in a roundtable convened in March. With its known deposits of critical metals and minerals, automotive heritage, plenty of clean electricity (to power operations), and access to a well-integrated North American market, Canada could be a top supplier of sustainable batteries.

OPINION: Less talk, more action: Canada gets a reality check on its dreams of being an EV powerhouse – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – May 19, 2021)

May 19, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The global race to develop industries around electric-vehicle production just keeps heating up.

On Tuesday, touring a Ford plant in Detroit that’s making electric pickup trucks, President Joe Biden touted his US$174-billion EV plan, including grants for new battery-production facilities.

It was an indication of his administration’s aim to aggressively play catch-up with China, which got a huge head start building EV supply chains, and Europe, which has made inroads.

Newmont completes acquisition of GT Gold – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 17, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.mining.com/

Newmont (NYSE: NEM) (TSX: NGT), the world’s No. 1 gold miner, completed on Monday the acquisition of GT Gold, after it grabbed the remaining 85.1% of common shares of the Canadian explorer it did not already own.

The C$393 million ($325m) cash deal, first announced in March, gives the US-based gold giant the Tatogga gold-copper project, located in the Traditional Territory of the Tahltan Nation.

“With the acquisition of GT Gold and the Tatogga project in the highly sought-after Golden Triangle district of British Columbia, Canada, Newmont continues to strengthen our world-class portfolio,” Newmont president and CEO Tom Palmer said in the statement.

Continuous investment in R&D the fastest route from drill bit to dividend, says Osisko’s Roosen – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – May 17, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.northernminer.com/

In recent years, the Canadian federal government’s changes to environmental assessment legislation have impacted mineral exploration investment in Canada “pretty significantly,” Osisko Development Corp. (TSXV: ODV) CEO and co-founder Sean Roosen tells The Northern Miner.

The new federal Impact Assessment Act came into force in August 2019 and has helped push the development timelines of projects out by several years to an average of about 15, to get from the drill bit to dividends, according to the Canadian gold exploration kingpin.

“The permitting process is arduous, it’s often unclear which levels of government will participate, and multiply that by Canada’s general acceptance of interference from foreign nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) against mineral development projects, and it quickly becomes clear that Canada is somewhat in retreat in terms of exploration,” Roosen says in an interview.

Accent: Living with Lake remains a symbol of hope for Sudbury – by Elizabeth Bamberger (Sudbury Star – May 15, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Accent: Environmental excellence on the shore of Lake Ramsey must be preserved during Laurentian University’s restructuring process

There are landmarks in our city that show how the imagination and vision of small groups of individuals can take root and grow. Science North is a prominent example.

Another is Canada’s first school of architecture in 45 years that opened its doors to Laurentian students in 2013, seeding excitement, renewal and hope in the downtown core.

The iconic Vale Living With Lakes Centre on the shores of Lake Ramsey is a third, and its story needs to be told, especially in this turbulent time.

Commodities send loonie soaring, creating quandary for Canada – by Theophilos Argitis (Bloomberg News – May 17, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The broad rally in raw materials that’s lifted prices for crops, energy and metals is a bonanza for Canada’s economy and a major challenge for the nation’s policy makers, who are under pressure to ensure that everybody benefits.

Should the commodities boom hold, it would represent a windfall for the resource-rich nation endowed with oil, natural gas and vast lands to mine and farm. Export receipts are already at near a record and poised to go higher. The value of lumber shipments alone nearly doubled in the first quarter.

But Canada’s economy is already brimming with stimulus and may hit full capacity as early as this year, according to some economists.

Will The US Mine For Rare Earth And Exotic Minerals? – OpEd – by Todd Royal (Eurasia Review – May 14, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.eurasiareview.com/

A conservative cost put the clean energy transition at $1.7 trillion needed for mining of copper, cobalt, lithium and other rare earth and exotic metals and minerals.

This transition will supposedly fuel electric vehicles (EVs) being cheaper than gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2027, and electric SUVs cheaper by 2026, according to BloombergNEF.

Additionally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a new report found renewable installations for energy to electricity “soared to 280 GW globally in 2020, up 45% from 2019,” with “renewables (solar and wind) accounting for 90% of global electric capacity installations in 2021 and 2022.”

‘It’s not going to happen by accident’: The push for an EV revolution in Canada – by Kamyar Razavi & Mike Drolet (Global News – May 15, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://globalnews.ca/

Like most runners, Marc Bédard is used to co-existing with cars, trucks and buses on his morning jogs.

But it’s the exhaust that wears him out. “I’m running in the morning and sometimes I have one of those old diesel school buses in front of me, and I can hardly breathe,” he tells Global News.

Luckily, Bédard in a position to do something about those polluting fumes. The company he founded, Lion Electric, has grown into a major North American manufacturer of electric school buses and trucks.

Knock on wood: fortunes rise for logging town at root of North America’s lumber boom – by Joe O’Connor (Financial Post – May 15, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

Louis Audet has heard the stories on the radio about lumber prices hitting exorbitant heights, but he doesn’t pay them much mind. If he needs wood for the cabin he is building for his wife on their 150-acre property near Hearst, Ont., he just goes out and cuts it himself.

“Prices are nuts,” said the 63-year-old lumberjack. “We will probably be working more, because the demand is there, and we may be longer in the bush, but the prices don’t bother me.”

Audet dropped out of high school in 1978 to work in the bush. He was young and eager to make money. Back then, an aspiring lumberjack with a strong work ethic, and an even stronger back, could clear $100 a day felling trees in Hearst’s boreal forest.

Analysis: In world’s top copper region political risk rises – by Marco Aquino and Fabian Cambero (Reuters/Kitco News – May 17, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://finance.yahoo.com/

LIMA/SANTIAGO (Reuters) – In South America’s copper-rich Andes political risk is rising as high poverty and debt levels amid the COVID-19 pandemic drive potentially sharp policy shifts and put mining wealth into the crosshairs of angry citizens and political leaders.

In No. 1 copper producer Chile, an overhaul of its market-orientated constitution is underway, and it is debating whether to hike royalties on miners.

Peru, the No. 2 producer, is heading for a polarized June presidential election with a little-known socialist leading in the polls who wants to redistribute mining wealth.

The story of Rum Jungle: a Cold War-era uranium mine that’s spewed acid into the environment for decades – by Gavin Mudd (The Conversation – May 18, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://theconversation.com/

Gavin Mudd is the Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, RMIT University.

Buried in last week’s budget was money for rehabilitating the Rum Jungle uranium mine near Darwin. The exact sum was not disclosed.

Rum Jungle used to be a household name. It was Australia’s first large-scale uranium mine and supplied the US and British nuclear weapons programs during the Cold War.

Today, the mine is better known for extensively polluting the Finniss River after it closed in 1971. Despite a major rehabilitation project by the Commonwealth in the 1980s, the damage to the local environment is ongoing.

Nornickel has changed positively, says Taimyr indigenous group – by Thomas Nilsen (The Barents Observer – May 16, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

After the oil spill, we see positive changes in policy and approaches to interaction with the indigenous minorities, says Grigory Dyukarev, head of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North on the Taimyr Peninsula.

A year has passed since a fuel tank owned by a subsidiary of Nornickel ruptured, causing more than 20 thousand tons of diesel to leak into soil and waterways near Norilsk in the Russian Arctic.

The ecological disaster made worldwide headlines and the mining metallurgical giant had to pay a record 146 billion rubles (€1,62 billion) fine to cover environmental damages caused by the spill.

For Nornickel, a company controlled by some of Russia’s richest oligarchs, the spill became a serious wake-up call. They have entered agreements with associations of indigenous peoples of Russia, says Grigory Dyukarev to the Barents Observer.

Peru Leftist Copies Chile’s Proposal for Tax on Copper Boom – by James Attwood and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina (Yahoo Finance/Bloomberg – May 17, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — A proposal to tax Chilean copper sales at rates of as high as 75% is reverberating all the way to Peru, where the leading presidential candidate wants to impose a similar measure.

Pedro Castillo, who has vowed to nationalize a major gas field and capture more mineral profits to fund social spending, just added a tax on copper sales to his platform in a document he shared on Twitter late Sunday.

The left-wing candidate, who retains a slim lead over his rival ahead of a runoff election, joins a list of politicians from copper-mining nations looking to gain a bigger share of record-high prices to fight poverty.

Philippines Mining Sector Looks Toward Recovery but Not Out of the Woods Yet – by Gerelyn Terzo (Sharemoney – May 18, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://www.sharemoney.com/us/en/philippines

Mining is once again welcome in the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte in a 180-degree turn has decided to lift a nearly decade-long moratorium on new mining permits in an attempt to bolster mining revenues amid a COVID-19-battered economy. The decision, which was made via executive order, stands to usher in investments into the Southeast Asian country’s vast resources, including nickel ore, copper and gold. The Philippines is also poised to benefit from a ban on nickel ore production in nearby Indonesia.

The ban dates back to 2012 when the Philippines placed a moratorium on new mineral agreements, a ban that President Duterte left intact when he came to office. In the interim, the government has been working to increase its slice of the mining revenue pie. In 2018, policymakers managed to double the rate of excise tax on minerals from 2% to 4% via the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, positioning the Philippines to capture more market share.

Meanwhile, in 2017, President Duerte doubled down on the critical sentiment, placing a moratorium on large-scale open-pit mining operations that in turn led to the closure or suspension of more than two-dozen mining projects for what was cited as “serious environmental violations,” according to the country’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

What we need to know about the pace of decarbonization – by Vaclav Smil (Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy – April 2020)

May 16, 2021

https://www.schoolofpublicpolicy.sk.ca/

University of Manitoba professor Vaclav Smil is regarded as an international authority on the history of energy transitions. Science Magazine calls him “the man who has quietly shaped how the world thinks about energy.” In the words of Bill Gates “there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.”

Energy transitions have been among the key defining processes of human evolution. The first millennia-long transition was from the reliance on traditional biofuels such as wood, charcoal, crop residues and animate sources of energy derived from human and animal muscles, to increasingly common reliance on inanimate energy converters. They included water wheels, wind mills and better harnessed draft animals for fieldwork and transportation.

Transition to fossil fuels to produce heat, thermal electricity and kinetic energy began in England during the 16th century. It took hold in Europe and North America only after 1800, and in most of Asia only after 1950.

This transition has been accompanied by increasing reliance on primary electricity, dominated by hydroelectricity since the 1880s, with nuclear generation contributing since the late 1950s. The transition from traditional biofuels to fossil fuels has resulted in gradual relative decarbonization, but also in enormous growth in absolute emissions of CO2.