Republic of Mining

OPINION: U.S. ruling on Dakota Access shows pipeline battles are never really over – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – July 7, 2020)

July 7, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It took a whole weekend to see the very real risks that still lurk for the Keystone XL oil pipeline in its epic quest for approval in the United States.

A U.S. judge’s decision on Monday to rescind the permit for another contentious pipeline shows that even having a project up and running is no guarantee that it is immune from legal challenges. Alberta taxpayers have to keep this in mind now that they are on the hook for US$1.1-billion of Keystone XL, which faces its own battle in the courts.

On Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney travelled to the small eastern Alberta town of Oyen to announce the start of construction of the Canadian portion of the pipeline and to proclaim that his government will “leave no stone unturned” in its efforts to see the project overcome its U.S. legal hurdles and get built.

Tesla Powers Up; Lithium And Other Battery Metals Will Follow – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 6, 2020)

July 7, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/

Where Tesla goes, lithium will follow. It’s obviously not as simple as that but there is an inevitability in demand for the metals used to make electric-powered vehicles following the success of EVs.

Interestingly, the connection between Tesla’s recent rocket-run on the stock market has not been replicated in the battery-metals sector, yet.

But as Tesla continues to prove that investors and car buyers are ready to embrace the shift from fossil fuels to electric power the current glut of metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, will fade.

Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia amid the rising tide of secessionism in the region – by Vladislav Gulevich (Modern Diplomacy – July 6, 2020)

July 7, 2020

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/

Secessionist tendencies in Indonesia’s province of West Papua have recently been attracting a great deal of attention from experts and human rights activists.

The main reason for the international criticism of the Indonesian authorities is human rights violations and the suppression of the fundamental freedoms of the indigenous people of West Papua. In 2018, the United Nations even sent to Jakarta a report on this subject filed by its Special Rapporteurs.

In 2019, the UN once again voiced its concern about the Indonesian authorities’ violent crackdown on the Papuans . Jakarta, however, insists that security forces act strictly in line with the law.

Thousands of Copper Workers Have Fallen Ill in Chile – by Jackie Davalos (Bloomberg News – July 6, 2020)

July 7, 2020

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — It’s no coincidence that global copper prices and Chilean Covid-19 cases are rising together.

Chile, which accounts for more than a quarter of global supply, is battling to maintain output levels as more workers fall ill amid a nationwide surge of infections.

Mines have been attempting to keep their workers safe without forgoing too much output by postponing non-essential activities such as maintenance and construction work. Fewer workers on site mean less risk of infection.

Why Building of the Alaska Highway is Still an Epic Feat 75 Years Later (TranBC – August 10, 2017)

July 7, 2020

https://www.tranbc.ca/

Driven by wartime urgency, the building of the Alaska Highway remains an epic accomplishment, 75 years later. The highway began as a dream.

In the 1920s, the United States wanted a route through Canada to connect Alaska – its largest and most sparsely populated territory – with the 48 states south of the 49th parallel. Some 800 kilometres of land lay between Alaska and the rest of the US. With no overland way across northern BC and the Yukon to Alaska, the northernmost US state was reliant on air and marine transport.

Back then, Canada was just not interested – there was little to be gained, and the next decade brought the Great Depression.

Wartime Drive

Quicker environmental assessments to get projects moving – by Brian Lilley (Toronto Sun – July 7, 2020)

July 7, 2020

https://torontosun.com/

It took six years for Canada and its allies to fight the Second World War. Today, in Ontario, it can take that long to get a major project approved, and that’s just the environmental assessment. That, though, is about to change.

The Ford government is about to undertake what it is calling the biggest changes to Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act in its near 50-year history.

Under the proposed changes, due to be laid out in legislation to be tabled at Queen’s Park in the coming days, some projects that currently require environmental assessments will be exempt. For other major projects, the government hopes to cut that timeline down from six years to three years.

Tesla is the world’s top carmaker on the back of a tech boost and huge Chinese sales – by Gareth Hutchens (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 5, 2020)

July 6, 2020

https://www.abc.net.au/

It’s a sign of the times. Electric car manufacturer Tesla became the world’s most valuable carmaker last week, overtaking Toyota, despite never having made an annual profit.

In the past 12 months, Tesla shares have surged over 400 per cent to reach a market value of $US210 billion ($302 billion). In July last year, its share price was $US233. Last week, it closed at $US1,208.

According to the financial firm Refinitiv, Tesla is now trading at 69 times its estimated 2022 earnings. What’s behind the eye-watering rally? A broader improvement in the tech sector has helped.

Why gold prices are rising despite weak demand at jewellery shops – by Justina Vasquez, Ranjeetha Pakiam, Elena Mazneva and Annie Lee (LiveMint/Bloomberg – July 5, 2020)

July 6, 2020

https://www.livemint.com

Western investors piling into gold in the pandemic are more than making up for a collapse in demand for physical metal from traditional retail buyers in China and India, helping push prices to an eight-year high.

Inflows into exchange-traded funds this year –- mostly in North America and Europe –- are already inches away from the annual record set in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, demand in China and India, the world’s two biggest buyers of gold bars, coins and jewelry, plunged after the coronavirus stalled imports and emptied malls. Sales have been slow to return as rising prices deter buyers.

Why Canada faces fresh U.S. aluminum tariffs – by James McCarten (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2020)

July 6, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The United States is once again threatening to spark a fresh tariff war with Canada over aluminum exports, despite the debut of a renegotiated North American trade agreement that was supposed to usher in stability in the midst of an international economic crisis.

Precisely why remains a mystery to trade and industry insiders, although it’s likely the result of a convergence of disparate factors: COVID-19, international metals arbitrage, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and US$16.3-billion worth of Russian aluminum.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Jean Simard, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada, coming as it does with the coming into force of USMCA – the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which formally replaced NAFTA this week.

Stock promotion scheme exploits pandemic fears – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2020)

July 6, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Crestview Exploration Inc., the Calgary-based gold exploration company at the centre of an investigation over an apparent “pump and dump” mailing campaign tied to the novel coronavirus, was also the target of an aggressive online stock promotion on both sides of the Atlantic.

Website posts and e-mailed stock tips promoting Crestview strongly resemble letters mailed across Canada this past spring that made false claims about the tiny gold explorer, which is registered in British Columbia.

Crestview’s chief executive, Glen Watson, told The Globe and Mail last month the company had nothing to do with the letters, and their dissemination had inflicted great damage.

First Mining closes streaming deal on northwest mine project – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 3, 2020)

July 3, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Workers return to project site to resume geotechnical and environmental field work

First Mining Gold has closed a US$22.5-million silver streaming deal with First Majestic Silver to advance its Springpole open-pit gold and silver mine project in northwestern Ontario.

In a July 2 release, the Vancouver developer said most of the proceeds will be used for the project’s prefeasibility study and the ongoing environmental assessment process on the almost 42,000-hectare property.

The project, 110 kilometres northeast of Red Lake, is now in the technical study and permitting stage. At last count, the mine has a projected 12-year operating life.

Nickel Shuffle; Russians Go Home And BHP Moves In – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 3, 2020)

July 3, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/

An environmental incident in the far north of Russia has confirmed the case for nickel as a metal with strong investment appeal and might also play a role in the world’s biggest mining company, BHP, speeding up the sale of its thermal coal assets.

Linking those seemingly unrelated events are the contentious claims about climate change and the need to ween the world off fossil fuels, replacing coal and oil with alternative energy sources and battery storage of electricity.

The case for nickel has been explored in a number of my recent reports including one early last month headed “Nickel Rush Restarts As Steel And Battery Demand Rises”.

Sanctioned Billionaire Finds a Haven in Tiny Congolese Bank – by Franz Wild, Michael Kavanagh and William Clowes (Bloomberg News – July 2, 2020)

July 3, 2020

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — A year ago in June, a group of bankers marched into a U.S. Treasury office in Washington on perhaps the most important mission of their careers: to save a country from financial collapse.

Among them was Willy Mulamba, Citigroup Inc.’s top executive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a resource-rich but devastatingly poor nation in central Africa.

Mulamba, a 51-year-old Congolese banker who had returned home after years abroad, was part of a small team desperate to dissuade Treasury officials from cutting the nation off from the U.S. banking system, even though corruption scandals swirling around recently departed President Joseph Kabila had infected several local banks.

Reopening of economies boosting metals prices – by Marleny Arnoldi (MiningWeekly.com – July 3, 2020)

July 3, 2020

https://m.miningweekly.com/

Since lockdown measures to contain Covid-19 around the world have eased, ratings and research agency Standard & Poor’s Global (S&P Global) says the reopening of economies, combined with monetary stimulus by banks and governments, has allowed industrial metal prices to rise.

However, even though industrial metal prices have risen from the lows experienced in the first quarter of the year, there remains a possibility of a second wave of Covid-19 infections as lockdowns are eased.

“It nevertheless remains a significant downside risk to industrial metal prices for the rest of the year, despite local supply-side impacts that could provide some price support for particular commodities,” the agency states.

Politics, pandemics and Russian aluminum: why Canada faces fresh U.S. tariffs (National Post – July 03, 2020)

July 3, 2020

https://nationalpost.com/

The Canadian Press – WASHINGTON — The United States is once again threatening to spark a fresh tariff war with Canada over aluminum exports, despite the debut of a North American trade agreement that was supposed to usher in stability in the midst of an international economic crisis.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Jean Simard, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada, coming as it does with the coming into force of USMCA — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which formally replaced NAFTA this week.