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Does Recycled Gold Herald a Greener Future for Jewelry? – by Elizabeth Paton (New York Times – April 23, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

With economics and industrial engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford, and a decade working at Tesla, the electric-car company where her husband was a co-founder, Boryana Straubel had long set her sights on the technology revolutions spawned in and around Silicon Valley.

Batteries and solar energy were firmly on her radar. Fashion and jewelry were not. At least until several years ago, when she began learning about the devastating toll those industries take on the planet.

“If you told me five years ago that I would end up starting a jewelry business, I simply would not have believed you,” Ms. Straubel said from her home in Nevada this month.

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Florida Toxic Waste Crisis Could Be Key to China Rare Earths Fight – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – April 6, 2021)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

Leaks of wastewater at a former phosphate mine prompted evacuation orders and a state of emergency near Tampa recently amid fears that a pile of radioactive mine tailings could collapse. Believe it or not, U.S. President Joe Biden should have seen an opportunity wrapped in this crisis.

That’s because cleaning up the vast and neglected phosphogypsum stacks that dot Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S. could help solve U.S. dependence on imported critical materials, all while removing the looming threat of environmental disaster from local residents.

Phosphogypsum is a byproduct of producing fertilizer from phosphate rock, with more than five metric tons produced for every ton of useful phosphoric acid. It’s worthless in its raw form thanks to concentrations of uranium, radium and other heavy metals that make it too radioactive for use as a soil improver or construction material — purposes for which it would otherwise be well-suited.

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This Earth Day let’s replace alarmism with smarter policy – by Bjorn Lomborg (Financial Post – April 22, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Irresponsible exaggerations are destroying our ability to make sensible decisions for the future

This Earth Day, dramatic warnings about climate change will be ubiquitous. At his climate summit, U.S. President Joe Biden will undoubtedly repeat that global warming presents an “existential threat.”

But most of the hype will be vastly exaggerated. This pervasive climate alarmism is the culmination of persistent eco-anxiety over the past few decades.

Already in 1982, the United Nations was predicting that, along with other environmental concerns, climate change could cause worldwide “devastation as complete, as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust” by the year 2000. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

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Climate Change Activists Need To Get Serious About Nuclear Power – by John Stossel (Reason.com – April 21, 2021)

Reason.com

This Thursday, Earth Day, politicians and activists will shout more about “the climate crisis.” I don’t think it’s a crisis. COVID-19, malaria, exploding debt, millions of poor children dying from diarrhea—those are genuine crises.

But global warming may become a real problem, so it’s particularly absurd that Earth Day’s activists rarely mention the form of energy that could most quickly reduce greenhouse gases: nuclear power. When France converted to nuclear, it created the world’s fastest reduction in carbon emissions.

But in America, nuclear growth came to a near halt 40 years ago, after an accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. The partial meltdown killed no one. It would probably have been forgotten had Hollywood not released a nuclear scare movie, The China Syndrome, days before.

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Debswana to Plow $6 Billion for Biggest Underground Diamond Mine – by Mbongeni Mguni (Bloomberg News – April 23, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Debswana Diamond Co. will spend 65 billion pula ($6 billion) to build the world’s largest underground diamond mine at Botswana’s Jwaneng, which is already the richest mine by value for the previous stones.

The underground mine will have more than 360 kilometers (224 miles) of tunnel development and will hit full production by 2034, Debswana’s head of transformation and innovation, Thabo Balopi, said at a briefing in the capital, Gaborone, on Friday.

The underground mine will have a capacity of as much as 9 million carats per year, extending Jwaneng’s lifespan by 20 years, according to Balopi. An early access decline will be in place by 2023, he said.

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Kitco mourning the loss of Peter Hug (Kitco News – April 22, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

Once again, the gold market is mourning the loss of another industry leader and titan with the passing of Peter Hug, global trading director at Kitco Metals.

Hug passed from cancer Monday evening at his home in Arizona at the age of 69. Hug joined Kitco’s leadership team in February of 2010 as director of global trading and risk management and was director of Kitco Hong Kong operations.

Bart Kitner, president of Kitco Metals Inc, said that Hug played an integral role in the company’s evolution and growth in the last decade.

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Miners seek gold under the desert sands after Egypt changes rules – by Nadine Awadalla (Financial Post/Reuters – April 23, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

CAIRO — Mining companies awarded blocks in Egypt’s Eastern Desert are set to start exploring for gold under a legislative overhaul that seeks eventually to unlock vast untapped mineral resources.

Despite plentiful reserves and a rich mining history that gave rise to elaborate Pharaonic gold jewelry, Egypt has just one commercial gold mine in operation. Foreign investment in oil and gas has grown, but mining has languished.

Now, the country is banking on high gold prices and amended mining laws that scrap red tape and a profit-sharing rule, unpopular in the industry, to lure interest.

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Then and Now: In 1923, Ernest Hemingway called Sudbury’s moonscape ‘the weirdest country I have ever seen’ – by Vicki Gilhula (Sudbury.com – April 22, 2021)

https://www.sudbury.com/

The famed writer came north on assignment for The Toronto Star, hoping to get the scoop on a coal deposit

Ernest Hemingway is a towering figure of 20th century American literature and his celebrated life is the subject of a recent excellent three-part Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary series on PBS.

Before his first novel was published, Hemingway was a reporter and it is often noted by biographers that he perfected his simple, unadorned style of writing during his days at The Toronto Star from 1920 to 1924.

Hemingway was just 20 when he started to freelance for The Star. In 1921, he went to Paris as the paper’s foreign correspondent. Between August and December 1923, he returned to Toronto and worked out of the King Street newsroom.

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[Zimbabwe] Editorial Comment: Foreign affairs thrust bears fruit (Herald – April 22, 2021)

https://www.herald.co.zw/

Zimbabwe’s diplomatic thrust under the Second Republic, of stressing economic issues and engaging everyone as a friend or potential friend in the least confrontational way, has been bearing fruit and everyone will welcome the enthusiasm that new Foreign and International Trade Minister Ambassador Frederick Shava has shown in wanting to intensify these efforts.

Already our older friends, and in our desire for better relations with others we have not been neglecting them, take us more seriously as the sort of country that encourages and protects foreign investments by their nationals, that opens doors to mutually beneficial trade, and, importantly, pays its bills in commercial deals.

The recognition of Zimbabwe as a place where you can do profitable business has already seen significant inward investment: the choice of Zimbabwe by China’s top private steel producer as the site of its regional mills; the huge investment by a Russian mining company to open the next big platinum mine; the continued investment by South African-based mining concerns.

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Kirkland Lake Gold prepared to sink multi-millions in northeast exploration (Northern Ontario Business – April 22, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Gold miner takes ownership stake, sign option agreements with Orefinders Resources, Mistango River Resources

Kirkland Lake Gold has taken an ownership position in two gold exploration sister companies in the Kirkland Lake camp and is prepared to spend up to $120 million on exploration.

In what’s being framed as a strategic partnership and a potential joint venture opportunity, Kirkland Lake Gold is acquiring a 9.9 per cent interest in Orefinders Resources and Mistango River Resources. Both junior companies are under the direction of Stephen Stewart.

Orefinders is sending 24.4 million common shares Kirkland Lake Gold’s way in return for more than $2.4 million.

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Phosphate mine collapse ‘imminent’ as DeSantis issues state of emergency in Florida county – by Mark Young and Ryan Callihan (Miami Herald – April 21, 2021)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/

PALMETTO, Fla. — Less than a day after Manatee County issued an emergency evacuation order for nearby residents of the troubled Piney Point industrial site, public safety officials have announced new and immediate evacuations around the phosphate mine, declaring the collapse of the gypsum stack is “imminent.”

Several hours later, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a State of Emergency for the county. “Due to a possible breach of mixed saltwater from the south reservoir at the Piney Point facility, I have declared a State of Emergency for Manatee County to ensure resources are allocated for necessary response & recovery.”

The public safety alert told residents: “Evacuate the area NOW. Collapse of Piney Point Stack is imminent. Immediate evacuation of Chapman Road to Airport Road and US 41 to O’Neill Road. Leave area IMMEDIATELY.”

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Recommended staking moratorium in Yukon land use planning areas misses the mark, critics say – by Julien Gignac (CBC News Yukon – April 21, 2021)

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

Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation’s chief disagrees with a recommendation included in the Yukon Mineral Development Strategy that suggests staking moratoriums in land use planning areas should be capped at 20 per cent.

Roberta Joseph said the recommendation doesn’t go far enough, adding that too much staking in a given area runs the risk of prioritizing mining before land use plans are completed. “This recommendation is not really a balanced approach,” she said.

“There’s no fairness in a plan that’s already being dictated by all of the permits and licences that are being issued,” she said, referring to the regional land use plan that’s underway in the Dawson area.

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Rudd calls for super profits tax on big iron ore miners – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – April 22, 2021)

https://www.afr.com/

Iron ore miners are ripping off taxpayers amid buoyant commodity prices and should face the type of levy they successfully scuttled a decade ago, according to former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Renewed calls for a super-profit tax of the type that triggered Mr Rudd’s political downfall in 2010 came as prices for iron ore surged again to within striking distance of a record.

A breach of the $US193 a tonne record set on February 16, 2011, was “absolutely possible” in the near future, according to NAB’s head of commodity research Lachlan Shaw, with futures prices suggesting there could be further gains on Tuesday evening’s price of $US189.61 a tonne.

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Here’s an inside look at Canada’s first rare earth mining project in the N.W.T. – by Liny Lamberink (CBC North – April 20, 2021)

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

Kyle Bayha says he’s been a minority at all of his past jobs. But for the last five weeks, the Délı̨nę, Northwest Territories man has been working at the Nechalacho demonstration project as an employee of Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction Corporation.

There, about 110 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife, the workforce is 80 per cent Indigenous he said. “Oh, it means lots,” he told reporters.

Cheetah Resources, which operates the project and owns the resources near the surface of the rare earth deposit, invited media for a tour of Nechalacho on Monday.

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Alberta scientists urge adoption of bill that would protect against coal mining – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/Global News – April 19, 2021)

https://globalnews.ca/

Scientists from the University of Alberta want the provincial government to rethink its plans to expand coal-mining in the Rocky Mountains.

In an open letter to all members of the United Conservative caucus, 35 members of the university’s biology department have asked the government to support a private member’s bill from Opposition Leader Rachel Notley that they say would protect the mountains and their eastern slopes.

“There is no reliable method to stop leaching of hazardous waste produced by surface coal mining into groundwater where, inevitably, it will pollute precious watersheds we all depend on that are already under severe stress,” says the letter.

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