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Russian miners may face US sanctions if tensions rise, former officials say – by J. Holzman (S&P Global Market Intelligence – April 27, 2021)

https://www.spglobal.com/

The Russian metals sector may be a target for future U.S. sanctions if President Vladimir Putin escalates a growing battle with the West through military action, former U.S. government officials told S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The Biden administration on April 15 expelled 10 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and banned U.S. banks from buying sovereign bonds issued by Russian institutions, part of a swath of sanctions in response to Russia’s attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election, its decision to gather troops on its border with Ukraine, and an alleged global cyber espionage campaign.

Following the sanctions, Russia declared it would pull troops back from the Ukraine border and attended a global summit on climate change hosted by the White House. Afterward, Russia sent warships to the Black Sea for a military maneuver and said sections of the area would be temporarily closed to foreign warships.

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Dryden can be a gold mining ‘hub’ of the northwest – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 24, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Treasury Metals sees huge exploration upside with Goliath Gold Project

When Treasury Metals’ Jeremy Wyeth assesses the gold potential in the Dryden area, radiating out from the Goliath Gold Complex, he likens it to a “hub and spoke.”

The company president applies that term to describe their development model to create a super-sized mining operation with a centrally-located processing facility built around a series of open-pit mines.

Wyeth delivered a project update on April 21 during a webcast with Dan Wilton, CEO of First Mining Gold. The latter company is a major investor in Treasury Metals and the Goliath project.

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The West needs to level the playing field to compete with China – by Anthony Milewski (Northern Miner – April 23, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Access to the raw materials of the new green economy is increasingly a high-stakes chess match along geopolitical lines dividing the East and the West. China controls access to the bulk of raw and midstream materials that the world needs for its transition to a low-carbon intensity economy. This control has become a critical vulnerability in the Western world’s emerging Industry 4.0 supply chains.

The mechanics of the emerging green economy rely on carbon friendly modes of transport such as electric vehicles, as well as mobile technology, energy storage, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies fueling increased computing power, and renewable power sources — all made from mined materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium.

China’s drive to become the dominant commodity superpower started in the 1990s when it started opening up its economy to the world. The central government mandated unprecedented infrastructure spending, prompting the start of the commodity supercycle that lasted until late in the 2000s. In turn, the enormous demand for raw materials sparked a mining investment boom.

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Freeport beats copper estimates in relief to tight supplies – by James Attwood and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina (Bloomberg News – April 22, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the biggest publicly traded copper miner, produced more than expected last quarter and raised its annual sales projection in a much-needed boost to tight global supplies of the metal.

The Phoenix-based company is on schedule with the ramp-up of underground operations at its flagship Grasberg mine in Indonesia and is stepping up output from North America just as copper surges toward the highest price in almost a decade. At its Cerro Verde mine in Peru, Freeport plans to get back to pre-pandemic levels next year.

At a time of robust demand and production disruptions elsewhere, Freeport’s expansion provides some relief for smelters and consumers of the metal used in wiring.

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China is switching its investment focus in Africa from oil to minerals – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – April 25, 2021)

https://www.scmp.com/

The visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this year was indicative of a shift in Beijing’s lending and investment focus for Africa, according to analysts.

During his trip to Kinshasa in January, Wang promised that Beijing would write off loans to the Central African nation worth about US$28 million to help it deal with the impact of Covid-19 and provide US$17 million in other financial support.

He said also that China would fund infrastructure projects in the DRC, as it became the 45th country to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s grand plan to boost interconnectivity and trade around the world.

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Battery Rush Is 21st Century’s New Gold Rush — And Tesla’s Big Future Revenue Source? – by Johnna Crider (Clean Technica – April 25, 2021)

https://cleantechnica.com/

In 1848, gold was first discovered in California. In 1859, the U.S. oil industry began when the first well was drilled in Pennsylvania. Back then, oil from animals (think whale blubber) was typically used, until a patent for creating kerosene from coal oil was patented in 1854.

Once Pennsylvania shale oil was analyzed and determined to be a great source of kerosene, others began looking for “rock oil.” Petroleum soon replaced whale oil and a new term was coined: “black gold.” This is not to be confused with the alloy black gold, which is created by mixing gold with cobalt.

Fast forward into the 21st century and I believe we are about to enter into another gold rush of a sorts. Batteries. In a recent article by Yahoo! Finance, the author pointed out that the real money may not lie in Tesla’s cars, but in its battery business.

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Fortuna Silver to buy Roxgold in $884 million deal – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 26, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Fortuna Silver Mines (NYSE: FSM) (TSX: FVI) is buying fellow miner Roxgold (TSX: ROXG) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about C$1 billion ($884.32 million), as strong gold prices spur a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

Vancouver-based Fortuna, which has operations in Peru, Mexico and Argentina, said the combined company would produce about 450,000 ounces of gold equivalent a year.

West-Africa focused Roxgold’s shareholders will receive 0.283 common shares of Fortuna and C$0.001 for each Roxgold common share held. The exchange ratio implies a consideration of about C$2.73 per Roxgold share, a 42.1% premium to its last closing price.

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Greenhouse gas emission targets boost enthusiasm for small modular nuclear reactors – by Dan Healing (CTV News Calgary/Canadian Press – April 25, 2021)

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/

CALGARY — The worldwide battle to control greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change is the best thing that’s happened for growth in the nuclear energy industry in decades, its proponents say.

They add that the development of smaller, scalable nuclear reactors to churn out reliable, emissions-free energy at a much lower than traditional cost makes nuclear an option that’s become impossible to ignore.

“Thirty years ago, the vision was that nuclear energy is going to be so cheap that we’ll be giving electricity away for free,” said Robby Sohi, president and CEO of Global First Power Ltd., a company trying to build Canada’s first small modular reactor or SMR.

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Proposed mining threatens Grassy Narrows First Nation’s long struggle for environmental justice – by Megan Youdelis, Faisal Moola, Justine Townsend and Jonaki Bhattacharyya (Toronto Star – April 24, 2021)

https://www.thestar.com/

Indigenous peoples have been stewarding their lands and waters for millennia, and there is increasing legal recognition that Indigenous and treaty rights must be a fundamental consideration in how such lands are governed.

Yet, under Ontario’s online prospecting system, anyone can register a mining claim on Indigenous territories for a paltry $50 per parcel — without ever visiting the territory, let alone having obtained the consent of the Indigenous people who live there.

Ontario insists that under provincial mining regulations, it can award mining claims and permit mining exploration and extraction against the will of Indigenous communities.

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Opinion: More U.S. mineral mining would blunt electric vehicle makers’ dangerous reliance on China – by Robert W. Chase (Cleveland.com – April 25, 2021)

https://www.cleveland.com/

MARIETTA, Ohio — In the 1970s, the harmful effects of an oil embargo shocked Americans. The sudden realization that we needed to take responsibility for our own energy future had quite an impact. Politicians responded accordingly.

Now we must address a huge new concern — the danger of becoming hostage to China for critically important industrial materials.

It’s only a matter of time. China is our leading supplier of minerals and metals, giving it great leverage over our supply chains for advanced technologies. Consider the possibility of waking to the news that China has cut off exports of electric-vehicle battery metals — lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth minerals.

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Read this book, then forget climate panic – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – April 23, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Former Obama aide blasts politicians, media and ‘broken science’

The floods of catastrophic projections and raging wildfires of extreme policy initiatives must, at some point in the evolution of humankind, come to an end.

Not today, that’s certain, as U.S. President Joe Biden’s virtual climate summit gives global politicians a platform to spread additional fear and even more extreme policies to rid the world of carbon emissions.

Biden lit the latest wildfire in his opening statement: “This is a moral imperative. An economic imperative. A moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities.” To fight the peril, Biden vowed to cut U.S. carbon emissions to between 50 and 52 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

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Toxic legacy of uranium mines on Navajo Nation confronts Interior nominee Deb Haaland – by Mary F. Calvert and Andrew Romano (Yahoo Finance – February 23, 2021)

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

If, as widely expected, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland survives her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday and is sworn in as secretary of the interior, she will make history as the first Native American ever to serve in a presidential Cabinet.

But representation is only half the battle. From day one, Haaland will also be expected to address a festering backlog of problems left behind by predecessors who lacked her perspective as a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo, one of America’s 574 federally recognized tribes.

Among the most daunting: how to finally help shield indigenous people from the hundreds of inactive yet still toxic uranium mines that have been scarring their lands and poisoning them for decades.

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Regulators to take steps against short selling – by Kelsey Rolfe (CIM Magazine – April 23, 2021)

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

Canada is making changes to curb the practice of predatory short selling, a thorn in the side of junior mining companies

In the wake of growing concern from public companies, Canadian regulators have turned their attention to tightening the rules that govern short selling.

Short sellers – investors who bet against public companies by borrowing shares and immediately selling them with the expectation the price will drop so they can repurchase at a lower value – serve an important price-discovery role in the public market and have even unearthed cases of fraud and corporate malfeasance.

But experts say Canada’s lax regulations around the practice have allowed “short and distort” campaigns (spreading negative rumours about a company to artificially drive its value down) and other abusive forms of short selling to flourish in the country.

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Friedland: “It’s copper, copper, copper, copper, copper, copper …” – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – April 19, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

I’ve covered the mining industry for more than a decade and during that time have had many opportunities to listen to presentations and speeches by Ivanhoe Mines’ founder Robert Friedland.

I also interviewed him at length for an article about his career when The Northern Miner gave him a Lifetime Achievement award in May 2017.

But I think his remarks last week at the CRU World Copper Conference were among his most enlightening. Videoed from his home in Singapore, Friedland spoke about the green energy transition and how important copper will be for the new world economy.

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Anglo American restarts Queensland coal mine amid union backlash – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 23, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON: AAL) has been granted approvals to allow workers to re-enter the Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland, Australia, almost a year after an explosion seriously injured five workers.

The underground mine has been closed since the methane explosion in May last year, the second incident in the area in less than 15 months.

Workers belonging to the CFMEU Mining and Energy union did not welcome the news. They say the miner had kept its workers fully informed of its plans to restart the underground mine.

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