Russia’s Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and a major producer of refined nickel, on Friday said it plans to sell everything it produces in 2025, despite challenging conditions in the metals markets.
Nornickel is not subject to direct Western sanctions, though restrictions against Moscow have prompted some Western companies to avoid buying Russian metal and complicated payment flows, leading Nornickel to redirect sales to Asia.
Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — Lawyers for women who claim they’ve been sexually harassed while working for global mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto say they’ve been inundated with emails since filing two class action cases in an Australian court.
The separate lawsuits, which were filed in the Federal Court in Sydney and revealed Wednesday by law firm JGA Saddler, alleges widespread and systematic sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the two companies’ worksites over the last two decades.
Edward Bartell is an Orovada rancher. His family ranch neighbors the Thacker Pass project in Humboldt County.
I am writing in response to the recent hype in numerous newspapers about the alleged benefits the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine will contribute to Nevada’s economy. Lithium Americas Corporation (LAC), which is developing Thacker Pass, is aggressively hyping a study pointing to these alleged benefits.
What LAC fails to mention is this study was conducted last year before the complete price collapse and assumes lithium prices to be more than double what they actually are. The touted study assumes lithium prices to be $24,000 per metric ton.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
On Nov. 12, 1991, the Australian minerals giant BHP issued a spare, eight-sentence press release that dropped like a bomb on Canadian mining. At a tiny lake 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, the company and its Canadian partners had discovered microdiamonds.
Canada would become a major diamond producer, but at the time the news stunned the mining community. Diamonds in the Arctic? A group of men and women who had spent their lives ransacking Canada for minerals gathered for a late-night meeting in Toronto as they tried to understand the news.
Brazil’s legislative overhaul in lithium export regulations has transformed the country into a burgeoning hub for lithium production, unlocking vast economic potential and attracting global investments.
“Thanks to a legislative change made four years ago regarding lithium exports, we can now transform this mineral asset into an economic resource,” Fernando Passalio, secretary of state for economic development of Minas Gerais, told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Agnico eyes O3 Mining’s Marbon deposit with $204-million cash offer
Agnico Eagle is looking to expand its mining footprint in the Abitibi region. The Kirkland Lake and Detour Lake gold miner is making a takeover bid for O3 mining, a neighbouring gold company on the Quebec side of the prolific Abitibi mineral belt.
Agnico announced Dec. 12 that it has entered into a definitive support agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of O3 in an offer valued at $204 million. The proposed deal is built around the acquisition of O3 Mining’s main asset, its Marban Alliance property, located outside Val d’Or, that is next to Agnico Eagle’s Canadian Malartic mine complex.
Australia’s South32 is hopeful about a potential policy shift under Donald Trump’s second administration that could unlock access to the Ambler Mining District, a copper-rich region in northwest Alaska.
The company and its Canadian partner Trilogy Metals hold development rights and would benefit if plans for a controversial industrial road to the area gain approval. The 211-mile (340-km) road, which would enable mining operations in the region, was blocked in June by Interior Department due to environmental concerns.
(Bloomberg) — Codelco and Enami, Chile’s two state copper companies, are discussing the possibility of combining their respective efforts to expand smelting capacity into a single project, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
A new working group is looking into collaboration between a project to overhaul a shuttered Enami smelter and a separate proposal to build a new plant being organized by Codelco, said the people, who asked not to be identified given the talks are private and at an early stage.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Mentorship and training partnership touted by organizers as a “bridge” to employment for Indigenous youth in Northern Ontario
Scott Rienguette, general manager for Sudbury-based Legend Mining, says he’s on a mission to show Indigenous youth that the only barriers they’ll face entering the skilled trades are the ones they build themselves.
The Sudbury-based mining company has partnered with Kenjgewin Teg, an Indigenous learning institute on Manitoulin Island, to help get practical, hands-on training to people outside Northern Ontario’s large mining centres.
Famine and ethnic cleansing stalk Sudan. Yet the gold trade is booming, enriching generals and propelling the fight.
The luxury jet touched down in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on a mission to collect hundreds of pounds of illicit gold. On board was a representative of a ruthless paramilitary group accused of ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s sprawling civil war, the flight manifest showed. The gold itself had been smuggled from Darfur, a region of famine and fear in Sudan that is largely under his group’s brutal control.
Porters grunted as they heaved cases filled with gold, about $25 million worth, onto the plane, said three people involved with or briefed on the deal. Airport officials discreetly maintained a perimeter around the jet, which stood out in the main airport of one of the world’s poorest countries.
(Kitco News) – While a likely U.S. recession in Q2 would impact industrial demand for silver, most of the gray metal’s recent strengths are expected to carry over into the new year, and the price of silver is projected to outperform gold in 2025, according to analysts at Heraeus Precious Metals.
In their Precious Forecast 2025, the analysts said that if market conditions unfold as expected, they believe silver will outgain gold once again in 2025. “This year, the silver price has seen the largest percentage gains across the precious metals (+26.82% to the end of November),” they noted.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
The company says it’s letting ‘non-operational’ staff go as it moves to a ‘decentralized structure’
Vale is cutting jobs throughout its global operations to remain competitive as the price of nickel continues to slump. The company is refusing to say how many of its Sudbury employees are included in this round of layoffs.
In a statement it says “people in non-operating roles” will be leaving as the mining giant moves towards a “new decentralized structure.”
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Ontario’s bid to lead in the critical minerals boom in Canada is fuelled with funding increases and deregulation goals in a new mining code. Yet the province must still widen education and mining’s appeal, industry leaders said last week in London.
This year saw Iamgold start the $3 billion-capex Côté mine followed by Equinox Gold’s 400,000-oz.-a-year Greenstone gold mine as Queens Park counted around $44 billion promised by car makers such as Toyota and Stellantis for new battery plants and assembly lines. The developments coincided with efforts to quicken permitting and feed northern minerals to southern factories.
Audit finds delays to approve dozens of B.C. mines were largely caused by market forces — not government permitting.
For several years, politicians and the mining industry have targeted Canadian regulations standing in the way of feeding a burgeoning critical minerals market. In advertisements and on its website, the Mining Association of B.C. (MABC) says the country’s westernmost province has a “generational opportunity” to supply the world with critical minerals needed for clean technologies.
The long-term economic impact, claims the group, could reach $800 billion. It’s a narrative that has been echoed by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and more recently picked up by B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad during the last B.C. election campaign. The only thing standing in the way, according to the MABC, is government red tape.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Lundin Mining Corp. is selling two aging European mines for up to US$1.52-billion to Swedish mining company Boliden AB as it improves its balance sheet and raises cash to fund its South American copper growth strategy.
Vancouver-based Lundin is set to receive US$1.37-billion in cash when the deal closes, with an additional US$150-million to come if copper and zinc prices trade above certain levels over the next couple of years.
