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ARGUMENT: How the United States Handed China its Rare Earth Monopoly – by Jamil Hijazi and James Kennedy (Foreign Policy – October 27, 2020)

https://foreignpolicy.com/

At the end of September, U.S. President Donald Trump released an executive order amounting to an all-hands-on-deck call to end China’s monopoly on rare earths, the metals and alloys used in many high-tech devices.

It was high time; China’s dominance of these resources has resulted in the transfer of entire U.S. industries (medical imaging, for example), technologies, and jobs to China while also compromising the U.S. defense industry’s supply chain.

China didn’t always dominate the Rare Earth (RE) industry. In fact, up until 1980, 99 percent of the world’s heavy REs were a byproduct of U.S. mining operations for titanium, zircon, and phosphate.

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Volatile gold price action is triggered by ‘low volume and aggressive flow’ before the U.S. election: TD Securities – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – October 29, 2020)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) Investors are very cautious and are choosing to stay on the sidelines with just days left until the U.S. election. This low volume mixed in with uncertainty is what’s triggering the aggressive price action in gold, according to TD Securities.

“With a few days to election day, speculators aren’t ready to stick their necks out. The event-risk is keeping money managers on the sidelines — a context which is seeing low volume and aggressive flow combine into sharp price action,” TD Securities strategists wrote on Thursday.

Also, the pace of gold accumulation has stalled, which is visible through the flattening of the ETF holdings in October.

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$14 trillion investor coalition puts Australia’s miners on notice over Indigenous rights – by Nick Toscano (Sydney Morning Herald – October 29, 2020)

https://www.smh.com.au/

A coalition of global investors managing a collective $14 trillion has written to Australia’s biggest mining companies describing Rio Tinto’s destruction of Aboriginal rock shelters as a wake-up call and demanding assurances about their relationships with First Nations peoples.

In a letter circulated on Thursday, the investor group which included America’s Fidelity, the Church of England Pensions Board and several top local super funds said their long-term investments meant they needed to have confidence in how miners obtained and maintained their “social licence” with the traditional custodians of their land on which they operated.

The push comes after traditional owners were left devastated and investors shocked and outraged at Rio Tinto’s ill-fated decision to blast through two culturally significant 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge to enlarge an iron ore mine.

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Global mine reclamation expert to be given honorary doctorate by Laurentian University – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 28, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ecological engineer Margarete Kalin-Seidenfaden worked in Northern Ontario mine tailings projects

A pioneer in applying the principles of ecological engineering to tackle contaminated mine waste sites will be recognized by Laurentian University at its fall convocation ceremony.

Margarete Kalin-Seidenfaden will be presented with an honorary doctor of science on Oct.31.

Her career as an environmental consultant includes co-founding Boojum Research in 1982, a Toronto R & D firm specializing in ecologically-based treatment systems.

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Mining consultations continue even as water stops flowing for Neskantaga First Nation – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – October 28, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Consultation on the environmental assessment for a road to mineral deposit in northern Ontario will proceed even as one of the First Nations affected has been emptied out by an emergency.

Neskantaga First Nation was evacuated last week after the community water supply was shut down when an oily substance was discovered in the reservoir. Nearly all of its 300 residents are staying in hotels, about 450 kilometres away, in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Meanwhile, consultations on the terms of reference that will set the stage for environmental assessment on a mining supply road through Neskantaga’s traditional territory continue. Ontario has a constitutional duty to consult First Nations when their treaty rights may be impacted.

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Banks Don’t Want to Lend to Australia’s Coal Miners Any More – by James Thornhill (Yahoo/Bloomberg – October 28, 2020)

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

(Bloomberg) — Financing options open to Australia’s coal operators dwindled further after another of the country’s largest banks said it would end almost all investment in thermal mines and power stations by 2030.

The move by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. will add to the increasing difficulty miners face in funding new operations or expanding their existing assets in the nation, the world’s second-biggest exporter of thermal coal.

Financial institutions across the globe are bowing to pressure from shareholders and lobby groups to avoid investments in the fuel. Meanwhile, Australia’s mining lobby forecasts a booming market, on Tuesday saying that it expects Asian demand to rise 35% over the next decade.

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Canadian miner Nevsun Resources settles with African workers over case alleging human-rights abuses – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 29, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian base-metals miner Nevsun Resources Ltd. has reached a settlement with a trio of Eritrean workers who had sued the company for alleged human-rights abuses during the construction of a mine in the African country.

The development comes in the wake of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling earlier this year that Nevsun could be sued in Canada for alleged infractions abroad – a landmark decision that broadened liability for all Canadian corporations with international operations.

“This settlement speaks to the incredible courage of the mine workers who came forward with their horrific experiences,” Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, said in a release.

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Fortescue sees strong iron ore demand as China churns out record steel – by Nick Toscano (The Age – October 29, 2020)

https://www.theage.com.au/

The head of mining giant Fortescue says the strength of the Chinese steel sector has beaten all expectations this year, pushing annual output towards a record 1 billion tonnes and supporting ongoing demand for Australia’s top export, iron ore.

After Fortescue lifted its Western Australian iron ore shipments by 5 per cent in the past three months, chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said China was exhibiting robust demand for the steelmaking raw material and had churned out more than 781 million tonnes of crude steel so far this year.

This marked an increase of 4.5 per cent in steel production for the first nine months of the year compared to the same time last year, and has helped drive a stunning price rally, Ms Gaines said.

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Alaskan cobalt could supply EV demands – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – October 29, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Whether it is the exponential growth in electric vehicles traveling global highways, the massive need for storing energy at solar and wind electrical generating facilities, or cutting the cords on our electronic devices, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on lithium-ion batteries.

And this is driving up the demand for cobalt, a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of these energy storage cells.

“Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materials for rechargeable batteries – primarily lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and nickel-metal-hydride batteries – which are used in consumer electronics, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, energy storage units, and power tools,” the United States Geological Survey wrote in the cobalt section of a 2018 report on critical minerals.

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Election Will Decide Fate of Alaska Gold Mine, Shift to E-Cars – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg News – October 29, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Oil drilling in the Arctic and the Pebble gold mine in Alaska aren’t actually on the ballot — but they might as well be.

The controversial projects are hanging in the balance of the presidential election, with Joe Biden’s vow to scuttle them. And dozens of other oil, gas and mining ventures planned across the U.S. face heightened risk of rejection or longer permitting times as the Democratic nominee focuses on promoting cleaner alternatives.

The threat extends even to some projects that already have federal permits. Lawsuits challenging government approvals create an opening for settlement agreements that result in more analysis and possibly canceled authorizations, said Height Securities LLC analyst Josh Price.

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B.C. regulator says junior mining company broke laws with flawed technical report – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 28, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) alleges that junior mining company First Mexican Gold Corp., its then-chief executive officer and an external consultant broke securities laws by knowingly publishing a shoddy estimate of resources on a minerals property.

The allegations centre around the conduct of the Vancouver-based, TSX Venture-listed gold and silver exploration company from 2014 to 2017. This past July, First Mexican changed its name to QcX Gold Corp.

According to a BCSC news release, in 2014 First Mexican hired an external mining engineer who came up with a rough estimate on how much gold and silver might be on the ground at its Sonora property in Mexico.

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Gold, high tech metals spur exploration in Ontario’s Near and Far North – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 26, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Three junior miners advance their projects down the path of mine development

A British junior miner continues to drill off a gold deposit near Armstrong in northwestern Ontario.

Landore Resources has started a 14,000-metre fall-winter drill program to begin infilling and expanding its BAM Gold Deposit on its Junior Lake property, 235 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

The Guernsey-headquartered company has two drill rigs turning to explore within and beneath an already defined deposit of more than a million ounces, and then step out to the east and west.

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The Brazilian Gold Rush: Gold Mining in Brazil – by John Matuszak (Kelly Collectors – October 13, 2020)

https://www.kellycodetectors.com/

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows anything about history that gold was a big draw for colonists coming to the New World. One of the earliest gold rushes that brought people across the ocean and attracted the attention of major world powers was the Brazilian Gold Rush.

At this time Brazil was an integral part of the Portuguese Empire. Back in 1690 when the Brazilian Gold Rush kicked off, Portugal was not a small nation almost surrounded by Spain, but a major world power in possession of one of the largest empires in the world.

This is largely thanks to their early efforts at overseas exploration that predate even the Columbian Contact between the Old World and the New. Indeed, the Portuguese had been colonizing parts of Africa for the better part of a century before Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic.

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China’s new infrastructure plan to boost metal demand – report – by Editor (Mining.com – October 26, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

China’s acceleration of its ‘new infrastructure’ plan will support the government’s beneficiation ambition in the metals industry, boosting production of high-end metals as opposed to primary metals, industry analyst Fitch Solutions finds in its latest report.

Despite this being a long-held strategy as part of the Chinese government’s shift away from export-oriented growth and the pivot towards domestic consumption, the focus on high-tech infrastructure has been more concerted in 2020 following a slowdown in economic activity arising from the covid-19 pandemic as well as heightened tensions between the US and China, the report reads.

Fitch predicts this new infrastructure plan work in tandem with China’s other industrial policies such as Made in China 2025 and China Standards 2035 Plan – which together signal China’s ambitious long-term strategy of becoming the global leader in high-tech and innovative industries of the future.

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Hearing begins for contentious coal mining project in Alberta – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 27, 2020)

https://financialpost.com/

Steelmaking coal would be exported to key markets of China and India

In a project that provides a window into the future of Canada’s vast natural resources, a joint federal-provincial panel on Tuesday kicked off a review of an Australian company’s proposal to reopen a part of southwestern Alberta to coal mining after a nearly four-decade absence.

Benga Mining Ltd., a Calgary-based subsidiary of Australia’s Riversdale Resources Ltd., which is itself owned by Perth-based Hancock Company, is looking for approval to build an open-pit steelmaking coal mine near Crowsnest Pass, about a three-hour drive southwest of Calgary.

Although Riversdale is only proposing one mine, known as the Grassy Narrows Coal Project, other companies are also hoping to build mines in the area and approval or rejection of the project could be a bellwether for the fate of other developments.

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