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NEWS RELEASE: Ontario, Pikangikum First Nation and Canada Partnering to Advance Construction of Berens River Bridge (Ministry of Northern Development – August 21, 2024)

Year-round road access to Pikangikum First Nation and improved winter road connections will enhance quality of life for seven remote communities

PIKANGIKUM FIRST NATION – The Ontario government announced its plan to partner with the Whitefeather Forest Community Resource Management Authority and the Government of Canada to build a permanent bridge across the Berens River and an all-season road to Pikangikum First Nation. The project will unleash new economic opportunities, create safer travelling conditions, and improve the safety and quality of life for seven First Nation communities north of Red Lake.

“From the beginning, our government committed to strengthening opportunities and improving safety for First Nations communities in the North,” said the Honourable Greg Rickford, Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Ontario Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation.

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Northwestern Ont. lithium explorer inks strategic development partner – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 20, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Green Technology links with global battery giant EcoPro to joint venture on Nipigon-area lithium mine and Thunder Bay refinery

Australia’s Green Technology Metals has found a South Korean development partner to bring its two lithium deposits in northwestern Ontario into production and help build a refinery in Thunder Bay.

Perth-based Green Tech announced a strategic partnership with South Korean battery giant EcoPro Innovation through a framework agreement that involves an $8-million investment (Australian dollars) into the junior miner.

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Mining the Northwest: North Shore phosphate deposit could have open-pit potential – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 16, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Higher-grade resource has Nuinsco Resources examining a quarry operation

A northwestern Ontario junior miner, eager to get into critical minerals mining, has posted a substantial boost in the grade of the phosphate rock at its exploration property northwest of Marathon.

Toronto-based Nuinsco Resources believes it has a more valuable and higher-grade asset than originally reported in 2022 since adopting a five per cent cut-off grade for mineralization at its Prairie Lake deposit.

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Replacing China in copper supply chain is ‘unfeasible,’ warns WoodMac, as the West seeks shift – by Dylan Butts (CNBC.com – August 16 2024)

https://www.cnbc.com/

Western countries seeking to diversify away from China’s dominance in copper could delay the energy transition besides raising costs, while its complete replacement would be ‘unfeasible,’ according to Wood Mackenzie. China leads the world in key segments of the copper supply chain, with the critical metal serving as an important component in emerging technologies such as renewable energy, energy storage and electric vehicles.

As the U.S., Canada, Australia, and European countries seek to displace the country’s hold on copper through subsidies and investment, Wood Mackenzie warns that the dual aims of decarbonization and reduced dependence on Beijing are at odds with one another.

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Mpox Risks Spreading in Congo’s Crowded Mines, Refugee Camps – by Antony Sguazzin, Michael J. Kavanagh, and Janice Kew (Bloomberg News – August 16, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — For medical and aid workers scrambling to contain an outbreak of mpox on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern flank, the location couldn’t be worse. A strain of the virus — which causes lesions that can result in disfigurement, blindness, and even death — has erupted around the gold-mining town of Kamituga, where about a quarter of a million people live.

It’s an area that thousands of small-scale, individual miners travel in and out of, attracting scores of sex workers while truckers ply routes between Congo and the neighboring nations of Burundi and Rwanda, and on to Tanzania.

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Canada invests over $11 million in critical minerals research in Saskatchewan – by Staff (Mining.com – August 14, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson announced on Wednesday over C$16 million ($11.6m) in new funding to support the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) in Saskatoon. The funding builds on earlier support of nearly C$13.5 million ($9.8m) from Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) for SRC to establish its rare earth processing facility and develop new rare earth mineral processing technologies.

Wednesday’s announcement includes C$15.96 million through PrairiesCan to enable SRC to acquire bastnaesite (a type of ore containing rare earth elements) from Canadian sources and create new domestic capacity for bastnaesite processing, which will be integrated into SRC’s rare earth processing facility.

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Is Canada’s critical-minerals strategy a green shift or greenwashing? – by Thierry Rodon and Sophie Thériault (Policy Option – August 14, 2024)

Policy Options – Institute for Research on Public Policy

Indigenous and remote communities will bear the long-lasting ecological, social and cultural impacts of mining. This cannot be ignored.

Canada has followed the lead of many countries recently by adopting policies and measures to promote rapid development of its value chain for domestic critical minerals essential in clean energy technology.

Climate change, geopolitical and economic turmoil are leading governments to emphasize the need to secure a supply of critical minerals, such as lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, to help decarbonize the economy through, for example, solar panels, wind turbines and electric-vehicle batteries.

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Alberta government feeds $5 million to Calgary-based lithium company preparing to build $2.4B facility – by Matt Scace (Calgary Herald – August 15, 2024)

https://calgaryherald.com/

A Calgary-based company that extracts lithium from old oilfields has received new funding from the Alberta government that it says will help the company bring its multibillion-dollar project to market. E3 Lithium Ltd. announced Thursday it has received $5 million from the provincial government — yet another round of government funding for the company that turns wastewater from oil and gas into lithium.

Countries across the globe, including Canada, have become increasingly focused on lithium extraction, a resource needed to facilitate greater adoption of electric vehicles and other technologies.

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Victoria Gold CEO regrets silence during crisis, suspects cyanide spill caused by fluid buildup – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Victoria Gold Corp. chief executive officer John McConnell says he regrets staying silent while the company was in crisis, and suspects June’s catastrophic cyanide spill at its Yukon mine was caused by an uncontrolled buildup of fluid.

Four million tonnes of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed at the outdoor heap-leaching facility on June 24 and half of that spilled into the local environment beyond the company’s containment zone. The scale of the environmental damage is unknown, but the local First Nation fears the spill could devastate salmon fisheries, hunting grounds and groundwater. Dozens of dead fish were recently found in a creek near the mine and groundwater in the vicinity of the mine will have to be monitored for toxic cyanide for years to come.

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China will limit exports of antimony, a mineral used in products from batteries to weapons (Associated Press – August 15, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Commerce Ministry announced Thursday that it will restrict exports of a mineral used in a wide range of products from batteries to weapons. Export controls will be placed on antimony starting Sept. 15 to safeguard China’s security and interests and fulfill its international non-proliferation obligations, the ministry said.

Anyone wishing to export the mineral in various forms will have to apply for a license. It wasn’t immediately clear to what extent exports would be blocked, though the “non-proliferation” wording suggested it could include weapons-related uses.

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Giant Metal Stockpile in Singapore Sparks Rare Warehouse Battle – by Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – August 15, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Metal stockpiles are surging in Singapore, and slowing global demand is only part of the reason. Refined zinc and lead have been pouring into Singapore since the middle of last year, making one of the smallest countries in the world a critical vault for companies including Trafigura Group and Glencore Plc.

The combined inventories of the two base metals in the London Metal Exchange’s Singapore-registered warehouses have grown more than tenfold since May 2023 to a record of almost 430,000 tons in recent weeks, according to bourse data.

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Niger government continues to support Dasa, Global Atomic says (World Nuclear News – August 14, 2024)

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/

“We continue to make significant progress at our Dasa Uranium Project, currently employing over 450 people at site and expecting to increase that number to 900 once plant construction is in full swing,” Roman said. “We have an excellent relationship with the government and have the support of their entire cabinet, as they appreciate the jobs and economic benefit that Dasa will create for Niger.”

More than 1200 metres of ramp development has been completed since the November 2022 Opening Blast Ceremony, with 7000 tonnes of development ore hauled to surface to date. Mine development is continuing, and raise boring is now under way for the main components of the mine’s ventilation infrastructure.

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China’s Lithium Expansionist Interests Extend Beyond the Argentina-Bolivia-Chile Triangle – by Maria Zuppello (Dialogo Americas – August 12, 2024)

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In a recent report, China in Peru: The Hidden Costs of an Unequal Relationship, the United States Institute of Peace denounces the harm of Chinese expansion in Peru, particularly in the mining sector.

“The combination of a permissive political and legal environment in Peru, the poor social responsibility of Chinese companies and banks, and the absence of real control — in China or in Peru — of Chinese actors’ activities have devastating consequences,” writes the report’s author, Juan Pablo Cardenal, a research associate at the Argentina-based Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), whose writings focus on content about China.

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6 First Nations challenge Ontario’s Mining Act, a month after similar legal action by Grassy Narrows – by Sarah Law (CBC News Thunder Bay – August 12, 2024)

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

Separate court applications argue the provincial act breaches treaty, Charter rights

Six First Nations in northern Ontario are challenging the province’s Mining Act, arguing it violates their treaty and Charter equality rights. Representatives from the First Nations and their legal counsel held a news conference at Queen’s Park on Monday, three days after the notice of application was filed in the Superior Court of Justice.

“The Ontario Mining Act is a piece of racist legislation that bulldozes over First Nations lands and rights. It says to the world that the land in Ontario is free for the taking and drilling and blowing up,” said Chief June Black of Apitipi Anicinapek Nation. “These are not your lands to give away, Ontario.”

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Critical minerals are the key to 21st-century tech. Here’s the ‘trilemma’ that defines how to mine them (World Economic Forum – August 14, 2024)

https://www.weforum.org/

The era of “big oil” has passed its zenith; welcome to the era of “big shovels”. Critical minerals are the new staple of the international economy, and governments are fast realizing that they risk economic and strategic vulnerability without them.

The transition to renewable energy, digitalization of the economy and pressure to keep apace with developments in cutting-edge technology all hinge on a select few minerals (lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, nickel and rare earths are commonly understood as the “big six”. However, others such as zinc and manganese can also be considered). It is essential that critical mineral strategies are implemented in a manner that promotes international cooperation while minimizing fragmentation due to geopolitical rivalry.

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