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Neskantaga First Nation demands a halt to assessment of Ring of Fire road – by Doug Diaczuk (tbnewswatch.com – May 11, 2021)

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

NESKANTAGA FIRST NATION, Ont. – Leaders with Neskantaga First Nation are calling for a halt to an environmental assessment for a proposed road to the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario, saying the community is already facing numerous emergencies and the communities voices are only being marginalized further.

Chief Wayne Moonias wrote a letter to various government officials and First Nations leaders saying the community’s decision-making is being undermined by the province during a pandemic.

“With the release of the announcement that the Northern Road Link environmental assessment process will be commencing, it is obvious that Ontario has ‘weaponized’ the environmental assessment process to further repress our Aboriginal and Treaty Rights. We are under duress,” Moonias writes.

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Copper hits record high amid broad-based surge in commodities – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 11, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The metal with a PhD in economics is on a tear as the economy recovers from the shocks caused by the pandemic.

Often seen as a bellwether for global growth because of its wide-scale industrial applications, “Dr. Copper” on Monday traded at a new record of US$4.90 a pound, after last week obliterating its previous 2011 high of US$4.50.

Used in everything from plumbing, to electricity, to alternative energy, the critical mineral’s price gains are being supported by a brisk snapback in Chinese demand, supply side jitters and accommodative monetary policy, which is motivating companies to ramp up spending and investment.

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Artists join coal fight, supporting southern Alberta landowners with online art auction – by Terry Vogt (CTV Calgary – May 10, 2021)

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. — More than two dozen artists have banded together to support a group of landowners fighting proposed coal mining projects in the foothills and Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

The artists from Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario have donated their art for an online auction. Proceeds will go to the Livingstone Landowners Group, which is leading the fight against mountaintop mining projects slated for the Crowsnest Pass area.

Artist Wes Olson lives east of Edmonton, near Elk Island National Park. He was one of the first artists to offer support, after hearing about the projects being proposed in an area where he grew up.

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Deadly shootout in Brazil’s Amazon as illegal miners enter indigenous lands – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 11, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

At least three illegal gold miners have died inside the Yanomami reservation in northern Brazil, after opening fire with automatic weapons on an indigenous community opposed to their presence in the area.

The Yanomami group, the largest of South America’s tribes that remain relatively isolated from the outside world, said armed miners attacked one of their communities on Monday, leaving one member severely injured.

The indigenous group responded with bows, arrows and shotguns, wounding four of the attackers during the 30-minute clash, the government’s indigenous affairs (Funai) agency said in a statement.

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History of commodity cycles suggests prices don’t go up forever – by Larry Berman (BNN/Bloomberg – May 10, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The history of commodity cycles can last for years. There is likely more to go in the current boom part of the cycle. However, they have shown strong patterns of boom and bust over decades.

Sometimes it is supply shortages in the case of weather issues or disease (or current the labour shortages or under investment). In other cases, spikes in demand permanent or temporary have caused big swings.

Often, on the temporary side, it is investment demand that can be fickle. Permanent increases in demand like population growth or in the case of copper, new technologies that demand more.

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Potential for two major fuel pipeline shutdowns this week shows fragility of North America’s energy system – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – May 11, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

CALGARY — A cyberattack that knocked out the main oil pipeline supplying the U.S. Eastern Seaboard comes days before a state-imposed deadline to shut a major Canadian conduit that could send prices soaring for consumers, highlighting the fragility of North America’s energy infrastructure.

“These recent events completely lift the hood on how vulnerable infrastructure is to attack now,” said Michael Tran, energy strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York, adding the attack on the Colonial Pipeline Co. “was not just any pipeline” but “the key artery” supplying the most populated parts of the United States.

A ransomware attack Friday on the Colonial Pipeline, which ships gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to consumers in 14 states on the U.S. East Coast, has forced the largest conduit of refined products in the U.S. to go offline.

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Reformed iron ore miners tipped to pay $65b dividend – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 12, 2021)

https://www.afr.com/

Rio Tinto and BHP are tipped to pass 95 per cent of the iron ore boom back to shareholders through dividends, as Anglo American and Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong became the lastest multinationals to flirt with the idea of building a new iron ore province in Australia’s mid-west.

Iron ore prices have surged 20 per cent above the 2011 record over the past fortnight and are dragging Australia’s biggest exporter, Rio, into a net cash position just 13 years after it was crippled with debt on the back of the disastrous $US38 billion Alcan acquisition.

Shareholder returns from Rio, BHP and Fortescue will be far more generous than in 2011, when the three miners had big plans to spend on growth and were carrying much bigger debt loads.

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Investors Bet Billions That Metals Bull Run Isn’t Stopping – by Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – May 9, 2021)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A year into the red-hot bull run in industrial metals that’s lifted copper to record highs, investors are still piling in, staking billions of dollars that it won’t run out of steam any time soon.

The word from Wall St. is “don’t stop buying now,” with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. among those advising investors to load up in anticipation of a long-term rally fueled by the world’s recovery from the pandemic and a spending splurge on renewable-energy and electric-vehicle infrastructure.

Copper’s already doubled in the past year to more than $10,000 a ton, and Bank of America says $20,000 is possible if supply falters badly while demand surges. Copper extended its surge on Monday, rallying as much as 3.2% to a record high of $10,747.50 a ton.

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Cleanup efforts of mining-polluted streams prove effective over time – study – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – May 9, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

A new study based on long-term monitoring data shows that cleanup efforts can allow streams affected by acidic runoff drainage from abandoned mines to recover to near-natural conditions within 10 to 15 years after the start of abatement work.

In detail, the authors of the paper analyzed monitoring information over periods of 20 years or more for four mining-impacted watersheds—located in mountain mining regions of California, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana.

The sites were all designated as Superfund sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, which helps fund the cleanup of toxic-waste sites in the United States.

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Gov’t to pursue own mineral exploration – by Madelaine B. Miraflor (Manila Bulletin – May 10, 2021)

https://mb.com.ph/

The government also plans to conduct its own mineral explorations across different parts of the country following the implementation of Executive Order (EO) 130, which now allows the approval of new mining projects in the country.

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Wilfredo Moncano said such a plan will prevent the disposal of government-owned mining assets for the wrong value.

“We also intend to do our own mineral exploration in mining assets held by the government, [through] PMO [Privatization Management Office], to provide updated geological information and evaluation of these mining assets so they could be disposed at a better price,” Moncano told Business Bulletin.

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The climate of fear that gave way to unjustifiable environmental policies – by Conrad Black (Financial Post – May 8, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

Upon being re-elected prime minister in 2019, albeit with a minority of MPs and fewer votes than his chief opponent, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that it was time to tackle “our greatest problem: climate change.”

It is routinely and endlessly bandied about by most of our politicians and practically all of our media that climate change is, in the second-most tedious and toe-curling platitude in the current political lexicon (after “systemic racism”), “an existential threat” — i.e., our existence as human beings is threatened by climate change.

Yet there is a great deal of learned dissent from that conclusion, and even those reports most frequently cited as evidence that the end is nigh if we don’t pull up our socks and, in the case of Canada, shut down Alberta, if read carefully, do not justify the terrifying headlines that the media normally attaches to them.

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Smuggling of Indian Uranium & Western Silence – by Imtiaz Gul [Pakistan] Daily Times – May 9, 2021)

Daily Times

Should the seizure of some 2.5 kilogrammes of unprocessed uranium from four Nepalese nationals and the arrest of Nepalese nationals in Kathmandu ring alarm internationally? Of course.

Why? Because India is a major beneficiary of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) as well as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and by implication must have strict surveillance system over radio-active materials.

Alarm is called for also because one of the arrested persons claimed that her father-in-law had “brought the material from India some 20 years ago”, where he worked in a uranium mine.

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Tahltan Nation opposes jade mining in northwestern B.C. – by Brenna Owen (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2021)

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Demand for jade has sparked both a reality TV series set in the remote northwestern corner of British Columbia and opposition from an Indigenous nation over its lack of consent to jade mining in its territory.

The Tahltan Nation has strong ties to the mining and mineral exploration sector, but the extraction of nephrite jade is “a very problematic industry for us,” said Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan Central Government.

B.C.’s consultation with the nation over jade mining permit applications has been “minimal,” Mr. Day said in an interview, and in recent years the nation has expressed opposition to new permits and the industry overall.

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Low carbon world needs $1.7 trillion in mining investment – by Pratima Desai (Reuters – May 10, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

Mining companies need to invest nearly $1.7 trillion in the next 15 years to help supply enough copper, cobalt, nickel and other metals needed for the shift to a low carbon world, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

The United States, Britain, Japan, Canada and others raised their targets on cutting carbon emissions to halt global warming at a summit in April hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. read more

Meeting those targets will need large-scale deployment of electric vehicles, storage for power generated from renewables and electricity transmission, all of which require industrial materials, such as lightweight aluminium and metals used in batteries such as cobalt and lithium.

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A new lithium player surveys northwestern Ontario – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 6, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ardiden options battery metal properties to Great Northern Lithium for possible sale

Perth-based gold explorer Ardiden is optioning its northwestern Ontario lithium assets to a new junior mining entity, also from Australia.

Ardiden has signed an option agreement with Great Northern Lithium, to acquire 80 per cent of Ardiden’s lithium portfolio. The total consideration could be up to A$8.7 million if a sale goes through.

Great Northern Lithium is described in an Ardiden news release as being led by an experienced team, well-schooled in lithium exploration and in bringing deposits into production around the world.

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