Twitter

OPINION: The best way to modernize capital markets is to finally launch a national securities regulator (Globe and Mail – June 30, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Bay Street is about to get its first peek at proposals to modernize Ontario’s capital markets.

The province’s Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce is poised to publish its preliminary report in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. (The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the process.)

Task force members, some of the business community’s sharpest minds, will offer their two cents worth on updating Ontario’s aging securities legislation. But the most important advice those savants can provide is urging the Ford government to jump-start plans for the pan-Canadian securities regulator.

Read more

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare – by Michael Shellenberger (Environmental Progress – June 29, 2020)

http://environmentalprogress.org/

On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem.

I may seem like a strange person to be saying all of this. I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30.

But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony, and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public.

Here are some facts few people know:

Read more

Copper Heads For Best Quarter Since 2010 as Supply Worries Mount – by Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – June 29, 2020)

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

(Bloomberg) — Copper is poised for its best quarter since 2010, helped by optimism over a stronger-than-expected demand rebound in top consumer China and mounting supply concerns in South America.

The metal used in everything from automobiles to electronics has surged about 20% this quarter, and climbed above $6,000 a metric ton last week for the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak became a global pandemic.

Prices have rallied steadily over the past three months, fueled by sentiment over consumption prospects as first China and then other large economies began to ease lockdowns.

Read more

Yukon First Nation calls on territory to abolish ‘colonial’ claim staking process for mines – by Julien Gignac (The Narwhal – June 29, 2020)

The Narwhal

A Yukon First Nation is calling on the territorial government to abolish its wide-open process for recognizing mineral claims, citing colonial underpinnings that have brought waves of miners to the territory since the advent of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Under Yukon’s free entry system, prospectors can stake a claim anywhere they want, as long as it isn’t in a park or on certain municipal or settlement lands, for instance.

This outdated legislation hands over the rights to miners while removing First Nations from the consultation equation, according to Carcross/Tagish First Nation. The nation voiced this concern in its response to a request for comments on a Yukon Mineral Development Strategy now in the works for the territory.

Read more

Miners’ Houses: Lawren Harris in Glace Bay – by David Frank (Active History – June 2020)

http://activehistory.ca/

David Frank is a professor emeritus in Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick.

I think I first learned about this remarkable painting when my friend Allen Seager sent me a postcard from the Art Gallery of Ontario. Eventually I used it as the cover illustration for my biography of the union leader J.B. McLachlan.

More recently, it was featured in an exhibition at the AGO and in a documentary film. It is in the public eye again with the release this spring of stamps to mark the centennial of the first public show by the Group of Seven. Among the seven stamps, Lawren Harris is represented by Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay (1926).

This was not the most obvious choice. Only a few years ago, one of Harris’s iconic images of the north, Mountain Forms (1926), broke the record for Canadian art prices when it sold at auction for $11.2 million. But the lesser known Miners’ Houses was a very good choice. Within its limits, this is a “labour stamp” that acknowledges the often-overlooked working-class presence in Canadian history. It also opens up interesting questions about Harris’s social and political engagement and his evolution as an artist.

Read more

Environmental groups propose tailings dam safety standards (Reuters Africa – June 30, 2020)

https://af.reuters.com/

June 30 (Reuters) – Mining companies should be required to buy private insurance for tailings dams and their board of directors should be held legally responsible for any disasters, a coalition of 140 environmental groups said in a report published on Tuesday.

The recommendations, which differ from standards to be published soon from a group that includes miners and investors, come as public scrutiny over tailings dams has intensified after the deadly 2019 collapse of a Brazil dam owned by Vale SA .

Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada, two prominent environmental nonprofits, co-wrote the report earthworks.org/safety-first that includes 16 recommendations they hope will be adopted by regulators across the world and used by bankers as they consider whether to lend to miners.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Safety First: New Report Outlines Guidelines To End Mine Waste Disasters (Mining Watch – June 30, 2020)

https://miningwatch.ca/

(Ottawa/Washington, DC) Today an international group of 142 scientists, community groups, and NGOs from 24 countries published a set of 16 guidelines for the safer storage of mine waste. The guidelines aim to protect communities, workers and the environment from the risks posed by thousands of mine waste storage facilities, which are failing more frequently and with more severe outcomes.

“Safety First: Guidelines for Responsible Mine Tailings Management” states that the ultimate goal of tailings management must be zero harm to people and the environment and zero tolerance for human fatalities. Last year’s tragic dam collapse in Brazil killed 270 people and destroyed the town of Brumadinho, and came on the heels of tailings dam failures at the Mount Polley mine in Canada and the Samarco mine in Brazil, among others.

There are 71 known cases of tailings failures since 2010 that have led to 482 deaths and damaged over 2,100 km of waterways. Across the world, communities in the shadow of large tailings dams live in a state of perpetual fear.

Read more

Record gold price forecasts boost prospects for junior mining companies – by Dan Healing (Globe and Mail – June 29, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

For veteran geologist Roger Moss, this year’s runup in gold prices to seven-year highs more than US$1,750 an ounce could not have come at a better time.

The president and chief executive – and only full-time employee – of two-year-old Labrador Gold Corp. had been focused on prospecting in Labrador until early this year when news emerged of a potentially significant gold discovery near Gander, N.L.

Toronto-based LabGold switched gears quickly and snapped up mineral claims covering 66 square kilometres just to the north of the find. It proposed the Kingsway Gold Project, then went to the market with a $3.5-million equity financing offer in May.

Read more

Opal trade in Coober Pedy stalls as international border closures deplete buyers – by Gary-Jon Lysaght (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 28, 2020)

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

Opal is a precious resource in Coober Pedy and the international market for opals is what helps keep the outback South Australian town going. But international border restrictions have all but stalled that trade.

Coober Pedy is often nicknamed the ‘opal capital of the world’, with its rich quantities of the rare gemstone the reason so many people travel to the outback town.

Some of those travellers arrive from countries like India and Hong Kong to buy opal. The word gets around town that the buyers are here and miners line up ready to sell their stock.

Read more

U.S. plan to slap tariffs on Canadian aluminum faces a powerful adversary — the beer lobby – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 27, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

As the Trump Administration considers reimposing a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum, it finds itself at odds with a powerful constituency — beer manufacturers.

On Thursday, Jim McGreevy, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute, joined by executives from the American Beverage Association, the Can Manufacturers Institute, and the Aluminum Association, expressed their strong opposition to a tariff or even a quota on Canadian aluminum, in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

“Constraints on imports of aluminum from our country’s closest ally, whether in the form of a quota or a tariff, will significantly increase the cost of aluminum in this country,” the executives wrote.

Read more

Only mill in the US able to process uranium-rare earth ores open for business – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – June 28, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

As the US pushes to dilute China’s monopoly and develop a domestic rare earth supply, Colorado-based Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR) is working towards being at the forefront in the race.

Energy Fuels is the owner of the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the only fully-licensed and operating conventional uranium mill in the United States. The facility is normally used to process radioactive ore and produce yellowcake but now some areas are likely to be transformed to allow for the processing of uranium-rare earth ores.

“Our rare earth elements program intends to make the mill available for miners to process their uranium-rare earth ores in the US. Such a facility does not currently exist,” Mark Chalmers, president and CEO of Energy Fuels, told MINING.COM.

Read more

Australian mineral exports still slated for all-time high – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – June 19, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Despite the economic downturn brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Australian resource export earnings are set to reach an all-time high in 2019/20, the latest Resources and Energy Quarterly from the Office of the Chief Economist has found.

Australia’s resources and energy export values are estimated at a record A$293-billion in 2019/20, a 4.2% increase on the 2018/19 figures.

The latest export estimate was down from the A$299-billion previously estimated, but was still the largest resource and energy export figure in Australian history, the Office of the Chief Economist said.

Read more

Court rules in favour of Robinson Huron Treaty beneficiaries – by James Hopkin (Soo Today – June 28, 2020)

https://www.sootoday.com/

Justice Patricia Hennessey has ruled in favour of Robinson Huron Treaty beneficiaries in the second phase of a lawsuit launched by 21 First Nations against the federal and provincial governments over treaty annuity payments.

Hennessy ruled in December 2018 during phase one of the hearings that both Canada and Ontario had failed to live up to its obligations to increase annuity payments over time as mineral and forestry resources were being developed. The annual treaty payment – which currently sees each beneficiary receive $4 annually – hasn’t increased since 1874.

“This century-old dispute between the federal and provincial Crowns is one of the reasons why no increase has been made to the annuities for over 150 years,” said Hennessy in the phase two decision.

Read more

Top 10 Canadian-headquartered diamond companies – by Staff (Northern Miner – June 27, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The Northern Miner presents the top-ten Canadian-headquartered diamond companies ranked by market capitalization as of mid-June.

1. Lucara Diamond – Market capitalization: US$185.6 million

Lucara Diamond president and CEO Eira Thomas speaking at The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium held at Canada House in London, U.K., on May 22, 2019. Photo by Martina Lang for The Northern Miner.

Lucara Diamond’s (TSX: LUC) key asset is the wholly owned Karowe mine in Botswana, which has been in production since 2012 and generated 433,060 carats last year. Since Karowe’s 2012 startup, Lucara has become recognized as a consistent producer of large, gem-quality diamonds.

Read more

Russian mining giant behind major Arctic fuel spill admits waste ‘violations’ (South China Post – June 29, 2020)

https://www.scmp.com/

Agence France-Presse – A Russian mining giant behind an enormous Arctic fuel spill last month said Sunday it had suspended workers at a metals plant who were responsible for pumping waste water into nearby tundra.

Norilsk Nickel cited a “flagrant violation of operating rules” in a statement announcing it had suspended employees responsible for dumping waste water from a dangerously full reservoir into wildlife.

The incident occurred at the Talnakh enrichment plant near the Arctic city of Norilsk, the company said, one month after the unprecedented fuel leak sparked a state of emergency declared by President Vladimir Putin.

Read more