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U.S. coal suffers one-two punch as plants shut, miner deal nixed – by Will Wade (Bloomberg News – September 29, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The U.S. coal mining industry was dealt a double blow Tuesday, with seven power plants slated for closure and a planned joint venture between two mining giants abandoned.

Vistra Corp., one of the biggest independent power producers, said Tuesday it would permanently shutter seven coal-fired generating plants, erasing 6.8 gigawatts of potential demand.

Hours later, Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Resources Inc. scrapped a planned JV aimed at cutting production costs so they could better compete against cheap natural gas and renewables.

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Consultation process pits First Nation against First Nation in northern Ontario – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – September 29, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/

Two First Nations in northern Ontario are facing off in a confrontation set up by the province’s environmental assessment regime.

Webequie First Nation is seeking response to the terms of reference it submitted to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks on August 14, for a proposed 107-kilometre supply road to a mineral deposit in the Ring of Fire.

The terms of reference (ToR) is the framework for the environmental assessment for the road before it is built. Provincial regulations require consultation on that framework with other First Nations whose traditional territory may be impacted by the project and who indicate they want to be consulted.

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Tesla’s raw material shift could set a wider precedent – by Thomas Kavanagh (Argus Media – September 28, 2020)

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/

Tesla’s attempt to move into raw materials production could pave the way for other carmakers as they attempt to transition to mass market electric vehicle (EV) production, ushering in the pursuit of more vertically integrated supply chains for the auto sector.

Raw materials have always been a key obstacle to EVs going mass market. Until now, most carmakers have relied on a more separated, globalised supply chain. Tesla’s move into the space could go some way to meeting a projected 1.79mn t/yr demand by 2030, according to Chile’s state mining agency Cochilco.

Last week, Tesla unveiled plans to produce lithium from clay in the Nevada desert, and today it announced an agreement with Piedmont for the supply of lithium spodumene from the mine developer’s North Carolina deposit.

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‘The New Map’: Daniel Yergin’s sobering and smart take on the global state of energy – by David Holahan (USA Today – September 14, 2020)

https://www.usatoday.com/

At a time when solid facts and reasoned arguments are in retreat, Daniel Yergin rides to the rescue. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and energy savant is armed to the teeth with enough telling statistics to sink an oil tanker in “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations” (Penguin Press, 512 pp., ★★★★ out of four).

While most “experts” predicted a decade ago that peak oil production was imminent, to be followed by a slippery slope of declining supply, Yergin said they were wrong. As usual, he was right.

The big issue today is not supply, it’s demand. When will our voracious appetite peak for all that plentiful oil, gas and coal?

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Tesla aims to mine its own lithium after dropping M&A plan – by Yvonne Yue Li and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – September 28, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Tesla Inc. secured its own lithium mining rights in Nevada after dropping a plan to buy a company there, according to people familiar with the matter.

The automaker held discussions in recent months with Cypress Development Corp., which is seeking to extract lithium from clay deposits in southwest Nevada, but the parties didn’t reach a deal, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public.

The electric carmaker, which has vowed to slash its battery costs by 50 per cent, instead focused on the plan that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk outlined last week to dig for lithium on its own in the state.

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‘Astronomical’ rare earth demand growth forecast (MiningWeekly.com – September 29, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Research and advisory services firm Adamas Intelligence is forecasting “astronomical” demand growth for certain rare earth minerals in the 2030s and has said that the supply-side of the industry is unlikely to keep up with the growing demand.

Demand for magnet rare earths, such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, is rapidly growing, while surpluses of cerium and lanthanum are growing.

In a new report, the consultancy forecasts that magnet rare earth oxide demand will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7%. The value of global magnet rare earth oxide consumption will rise five-fold by 2030, from $2.98-billion this year to $15.65-billion at the end of the decade.

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Australia’s Jervois to buy cobalt, nickel refinery in Brazil – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 29, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Jervois Mining (ASX: JVR) is buying a nickel and cobalt refinery in Brazil from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio for 125 million reais ($22.1 million) in an effort to transform the company into a producer and refiner of battery metals.

The miner said the São Miguel Paulista refinery, in São Paulo, had a production capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of nickel and 2,000 mtpa of cobalt before it was placed on care and maintenance in 2016.

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Trump to approve $22B railway between Alaska and Alberta – by Sarah Rieger (CBC News Calagary – September 27, 2020)

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

U.S. President Donald Trump says he will grant approval to a $22-billion freight rail project connecting Alaska and Alberta.

The president tweeted Friday that based on the recommendations of Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, he will be issuing a presidential permit approving the A2A Rail project.

The project would build a new rail line from Fort McMurray, Alta., through the Northwest Territories and Yukon to the Delta Junction in Alaska, where it will connect with existing rail and continue on to ports near Anchorage.

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The next wave of the global recovery could send commodity prices soaring – by Sam Meredith (CNBC.com – September 28, 2020)

https://www.cnbc.com/

The next phase of the economic recovery is likely to be driven by commodity-intensive infrastructure investment, analysts have told CNBC, potentially setting the stage for further gains across the industrial space in the coming months.

The prediction comes at a time when market participants are closely monitoring the strength of the global economic recovery, as many countries grapple with an upsurge in the number of reported Covid-19 infections.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted forecasters to issue dire economic projections this year, with the OECD warning on Wednesday that the outlook remains “exceptionally uncertain.”

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Rio Tinto hit with human rights claims over Bougainville mine (Agence France-Presse/Jakarta Post – September 29, 2020)

https://www.thejakartapost.com/

Rio Tinto is facing accusations it “side-stepped” responsibility to clean up poisonous waste from a closed mine on Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville island in a complaint filed Tuesday in Australia.

The complaint, lodged with Australian authorities by the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of more than 150 Bougainvilleans, heaps more pressure on the mining giant already under public attack for blowing up sacred Aboriginal sites.

It alleges the former Panguna copper and gold mine, which was at the center of a decade-long civil war in PNG, continues to leak waste into rivers more than three decades after it was shuttered.

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Rio Needs More Than a Safe Pair Of Hands – by Clara Ferreira Marques (Bloomberg/Financial Post – September 28, 2020)

https://financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Rio Tinto Group may choose to play it safe in its next choice of chief executive officer. With Jean-Sebastien Jacques heading for the exit after the destruction of a sacred Aboriginal site, Australian politicians are also piling on pressure for a local to be given the role.

The mining giant should resist the temptation of an old-school solution. Jacques’s successor will certainly have to rebuild Rio’s credibility after the spectacular failure at Juukan Gorge.

Repairing frayed community and government relations will be among the first tasks. It won’t be enough to pick a veteran technocrat for CEO, though, as miners did after the mistakes of the last boom.

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Attawapiskat First Nation Seeks For DeBeers to Clean Up their Mess (NetNewsLedger.com – September 28, 2020)

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

ATTAWAPISKAT FN – DeBeers Canada (DBC) is seeking Ontario Government approval for a third landfill waste site to be built and filled up at the Victor Mine Site, located in a vulnerable James Bay wetlands area, and in a place of critical importance to Attawapiskat.

The Victor Mine is now in the closure phase, where decommissioning and remediation are supposed to leave the landscape in a clean and safe state.

The mine operated from 2005 to 2019 and with an annual production rate is 2.7 million tonnes a year, or about 600,000 carats a year in diamond grade.

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China Is on a Building Binge, and Metal Prices Are Surging – by Matt Phillips (New York Times – September 25, 2020)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The coronavirus pandemic forced China to bring industrial activity to a halt earlier this year, but the country is revving its engines again — and global prices of metals are reflecting that renewed appetite for growth.

China consumes roughly half of the world’s industrial metals, according to analysts. As the country emerged from the worst of the pandemic in March, the Chinese government unleashed a program of enormous fiscal stimulus aimed at building bridges, roads, utilities, broadband and railroads across the country. As a result, the prices of iron ore, nickel, copper, zinc and other metals used to build infrastructure have surged in recent months.

Since late March, prices of iron ore — the key ingredient in steel — have risen more than 40 percent. Nickel, needed for stainless steel, and zinc, used to galvanize metal, are up more than 25 percent.

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Poland to close coal mines by 2049, miners and government agree – by Wojciech Kosc (BNE Intellinews – September 27, 2020)

https://www.intellinews.com/

Poland’s last two coal mines will cease operations in 2049, according to an agreement reached by the country’s powerful mining unions and the right-wing populist government led by Law and Justice (PiS) on September 26.

Poland relies on hard coal and lignite to generate some three-quarters of its electricity. Demand for coal has been in decline, however, primarily because of the European Union’s climate policy that has steadily deteriorated the economics of mining the commodity for burning in power plants.

But restructuring the loss-making sector has long been politically difficult in Poland with successive governments wary of the powerful mining unions representing tens of thousands of miners, all potential voters.

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Cleveland-Cliffs acquires ArcelorMittal’s U.S. assets for $1.4 billion in stock and cash – by John Caniglia (Cleveland.com – September 28, 2020)

https://www.cleveland.com/

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The iron-ore mining company, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., has acquired the U.S. assets of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, for $1.4 billion in cash and stock, the companies announced Monday.

The acquisition means Cleveland-Cliffs will become the largest flat-rolled steel producer in the country, and the largest producer of iron-ore pellets, the company said.

The deal comes just months after Cleveland-Cliffs purchased AK Steel Holding Corp. for $1.1 billion in stock.

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