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MNDMNRF: Is the new ‘megaministry’ good for northern Ontario? – by Eric White (CBC News Sudbury – June 24, 2021)

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

There is now one minister at Queen’s Park with a lot of power over northern Ontario. Northern Development, mines, natural resources, forestry and Indigenous affairs were all merged into the portfolio of Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford in last week’s cabinet shuffle.

“Look forward to an extraordinary opportunity to consolidate a number of ministries or parts of ministries into one to advance the real economic interests of all of northern Ontario,” the minister said in an interview with CBC Thunder Bay.

This isn’t the first time the so-called “northern ministries” have been put together. It was known as the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Mines until 1919 when it was split in two.

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Clubs of Doom and the Limits to Models – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – June 25, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Junk Science Week: Global politicians claim to set climate policy based on ‘the science.’ But the science is driven by ‘the politics’

In November the world’s nations will meet in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).

It is set to become the most important political event of the year and maybe the decade or — who knows, the century — as more than 100 nations attempt to create a globalist agreement to reshape the planet’s economy to meet the dictates of climate change science.

Alok Sharma, the British president of COP26, summarized the summit’s objectives: “To keep the temperature of the planet under control — limiting its increase to 1.5 degrees — the science dictates that by the second half of the century, we should be producing less carbon than we take out of the atmosphere. This is what reaching ‘net zero’ means.”

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China Giant Ganfeng Says Lithium Could Return to Boom-Time Highs – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – June 24, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Ganfeng Lithium Co., the lithium supplier that’s extending an acquisition spree, says there’s a chance that a tightening market for the battery metal could push prices back toward a record high.

The world’s third-largest producer of lithium chemicals, used in batteries for electric vehicles to grid-scale energy storage, is positioning to capitalize as the market extends a rebound from a more than two year slump that ended in September.

“The industry is rapidly growing and we have a very upbeat forecast on lithium consumption,” Vice Chairman Wang Xiaoshen said in an interview. “I can’t rule out the possibility for lithium prices to bounce back to the 2018 level.”

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Indonesia drawing plans to restrict nickel pig iron, ferronickel smelters – by Bernadette Christina (Reuters – June 24, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia is considering a plan to restrict construction of smelters producing nickel pig iron or ferronickel in order to optimise use of its limited nickel ore reserves for higher-value products, a senior mining ministry official said on Thursday.

Indonesia is currently the biggest producer of the two crude metals, and a restriction on more smelters coming online could hit Chinese stainless steel producers who are among biggest customers for Indonesia’s relatively cheaper materials.

Restricting construction of new smelters is deemed necessary because of limited reserves of saprolite nickel ore, Ridwan Djamaluddin, a senior official at Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, told Reuters as the government discussed the plan with a parliamentary committee.

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Coal Association seeks responsible Alberta development (Coal Association of Canada – June 24, 2021)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Full Report: https://bit.ly/3vVF9kk

The Coal Association of Canada called for responsible coal development in Alberta in a presentation to the province’s Coal Policy Committee.

A little background: The Alberta government quietly opened more than a million hectares of land on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains last year. The backlash was predictable and quick, and in February, the province promised to reinstate the 1976 coal policy to protect these areas. But it did not cancel the new coal leases it had granted during the flip-flop.

Now the Coal Association is walking a fine line between producers and the government. “Responsible coal development and environmental stewardship can co-exist.

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Australian coal companies not giving up on southern Alberta mines in wake of Grassy Mountain rejection – by Robson Fletcher (CBC News Calgary – June 22, 2021)

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

The company behind the proposed Grassy Mountain coal mine in southern Alberta says it is “reviewing its options” after a review panel deemed the project “not in the public interest” and advised the federal government to reject it.

Meanwhile, two other companies with coal leases in the same area say they plan to continue pressing forward with their own proposed mining projects.

Australia-based Riversdale Resources submitted a proposal to regulators in 2016 for the Grassy Mountain project, located about seven kilometres north of the community of Blairmore in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

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The inspiration for revolution: Unhealthy working conditions and low wages led asbestos miners to launch a strike that left a lasting legacy in Quebec’s history – by Mehanaz Yakub (CIM Magazine – June 21, 2021)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

When the clock struck midnight on February 14, 1949, the normally quiet streets of the small town of Asbestos, Quebec, were packed with nearly 2,000 workers from the Jeffrey Mine who were ready to go on strike.

Later that Valentine’s Day morning, 3,000 more miners from the neighbouring Thetford Mine joined the walkout, and what followed was one of the longest and most brutal labour disputes in the province’s history.

Since the late 19th century, Quebec, and especially Asbestos, was the largest producer and exporter of the eponymous mineral. Asbestos was popularly used for insulation, soundproofing and fireproofing, and American and English-Canadian owned companies, such as Johns-Manville, Asbestos Corp., and Flintkote all set up operations around Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

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With nickel reserves running out, Sudbury is an expensive place for Vale to do business – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 23, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vale COO implores striking Steelworkers to help get costs under control, find solutions to keep mining in the Sudbury basin

Vale’s Dino Otranto claims it can’t be business as usual, not when the Sudbury base metal mining operations he oversees “occupy the highest cost position of any mines on the planet.”

With operations at a standstill heading into the fourth week of a strike by Steelworkers Local 6500, Vale’s chief operating officer for its North Atlantic Operations and Asian Refineries took to the web on June 17 for a virtual town hall meeting, spelling out the shape the business in the Sudbury basin and the “tough conversations” that need to take place.

The web event was attended by 956 registered attendees for the sessions. Management only addressed a portion of the 115 questions sent in. “The past is not the recipe to sustain this, moving forward,” Otranto said. “And there is no consultant that’s going to come in and give us the silver bullet.

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Brazil to ease licencing of newly listed strategic minerals – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 23, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

The Brazilian government has issued a list of specific metals which production aims to boost through a recently established policy that seeks to identify projects of minerals deemed of special interest to the country.

The so-called Policy for Strategic Minerals guarantees support to companies involved in the exploration and mining of a variety of commodities, including potash, iron ore, gold and battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The government backing comes mostly in the form of easing the licencing process by facilitating, for example, the dialogue between the environmental agency responsible for conducting the environmental licensing process and authorities such as the managing bodies of Conservation Units, the National Indian Foundation (Funai), the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan).

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Gold price ignores Powell’s inflation stance: It’s higher than expected, but it’ll ‘wane’ – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – June 22, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that transitory inflation has been higher and more persistent than expected, but it will “wane.”

“Substantial part or perhaps all of the overshoot in inflation comes from the impact of reopening of the economy,” Powell told the members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Tuesday.

The Fed chair highlighted items such as cars, airplane tickets, hotel prices. “Those are things that we would look to stop going up and ultimately start to decline,” Powell said, while still being unclear on when that might be.

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Amid plans to mine lithium in rural Nevada, Indigenous, rural communities at center of the energy transition – by Daniel Rothberg (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – June 22, 2021)

https://www.nnbw.com/

Maxine Redstar’s office on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation sits in a valley surrounded by mineral-rich mountain ranges that stretch past the Oregon border, only a few miles to the north.

It’s May, and after a short spurt of precipitation in an otherwise record dry year for Nevada, the valley has turned pastel-green with sagebrush dotting the land. Near the administration building and Redstar’s office, a sign is planted in the ground. It reads: “Keep Your Aboriginal Rights!!”

Redstar, as chairwoman of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, is at the center of a fight over a planned lithium mine in Thacker Pass, “Peehee mu’huh” in Paiute. Part-administrator and part-spokesperson, her phone rings often, and documents are scattered across her desk.

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Indonesia, Home to Giant Gold Mine, Wants Its Own Bullion Bank – by Eko Listiyorini and Grace Sihombing (Bloomberg News – June 22, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Indonesia, home to one of the world’s largest gold mines, plans to set up a bullion bank to spur trading of the precious metal domestically.

The government is consulting with parties including the central bank and the mining industry, with a plan to start operating the bank in 2024, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said.

“Our exports have gone to transit countries because they have better gold trading systems, either in the form of bullion banks or better bourses than ours,” Lutfi said in an interview Monday. “As a gold producing country why would we sell it to transit countries?”

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Electric Vehicles Will Rule the World By 2040. The Winners and Losers. – by Al Root (Barron’s – June 22, 2021)

https://www.barrons.com/

A lot of electric vehicles are going to be sold in the coming generation. That’s good news for Tesla. It’s also good news for a host of other auto makers, including some start-ups. It’s bad news, surprisingly, for NIO and its Chinese EV peers.

Tuesday, Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter published a very detailed forecast for EV sales stretching all the way out to 2040. He forecasts sales and market share for essentially every major auto maker globally.

“We have spent the past few months assembling a brand-by-brand, region-by-region forecast for battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales,” writes the analyst. Looking ahead, he forecasts EV penetration at 45% of new car sales by 2030 and 94% by 2040.

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Canadian businesses have fallen far behind global peers in technology and R&D investment – by Kelsey Rolfe (Financial Post – June 22, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Nearly three decades ago, Greg Baiden had millions of dollars and a dedicated research mine at his disposal to develop and test innovative technology, like remote guidance systems and automation, that would improve then-nickel giant Inco Ltd.’s mining processes.

Today, the founder of Sudbury-based Penguin Automated Systems Inc. doesn’t see nearly the same level of commitment to research and development among Canadian mining firms. Where Inco would dedicate the better part of $100 million over several years to one major technology project, Baiden now sees miners contributing chump change to underfunded industry research consortiums.

“That’s not a serious effort. If that’s how Toyota or [General Motors] or Ford or Rockwell or any of them tried to run their businesses, they would fail.

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