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Canadian miner moves to UAE as Ottawa raises bar for foreign investment – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – July 30, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

‘The equity markets in Canada are tough at the moment,’ says CEO of Falcon Energy Materials

A Canadian graphite miner has moved its headquarters outside the country to attract new investment as the federal government raises the bar for certain foreign companies to buy into Canada’s critical minerals sector.

Falcon Energy Materials PLC — formerly known as SRG Mining Inc. — completed its move to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in early July, but it will continue to be listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

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Nickel sulfide shortage amid ESG evolution in market pricing – Wyloo CEO – by Anthony Barich (SP Global – July 2024)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Wyloo Pty. Ltd. is a wholly owned portfolio company of Australian private investment group Tattarang Pty. Ltd. Tattarang is owned by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, serving as a holding company for the Forrest family’s private business interests. Tattarang also has a 35.15% interest in iron ore major Fortescue Ltd.

At the end of May, Wyloo put its Cassini and North Kambalda operations on care and maintenance in a bid to weather market oversupply caused by Indonesia flooding the market with cheap nickel.

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Glencore’s coal takeover draws ire of MPs – by Natasha Bulowski (National Observer – July 29, 2024)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

A Swiss-based mining company with a sketchy foreign business record that won approval to take over Teck Resources’ B.C. coal mines has MPs from multiple parties and environmental groups up in arms.

François-Philippe Champagne, federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, approved mining giant Glencore’s $12.3-billion takeover of Teck Resources’ coal mines — called Elk Valley Resources — on July 4.

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Crown made a ‘mockery’ of 2 treaties with First Nations for 150 years, Supreme Court rules – by Peter Zimonjic (CBC News Politics Ontario – July 26, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Unanimous decision says Crown violated revenue-sharing agreements, but does not award settlement

For the past 150 years, the governments of Ontario and Canada have made a “mockery” of their treaty obligations to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

In a unanimous decision, the top court said the ongoing failure to increase the annual per-head resource extraction revenues since 1875 for the residents of two First Nations groups has undermined the honour of the Crown.

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Embattled New Caledonia nickel mine to lay off 1,200 staff (RFI – July 26, 2024)

https://www.rfi.fr/en/

The KNS nickel plant – one of three in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia – has announced it will make its 1,200 employees redundant by the end of August in the absence of a “finalised offer” from a buyer.

Koniambo Nickel SAS, which is in serious financial difficulty with a colossal debt of over €13 billion, had been looking for a buyer since the departure last February of the Anglo-Swiss group Glencore – its main shareholder.

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OPINION: Ontario should be thanking Ford for pivoting away from electric vehicles – by Gus Carlson (Globe and Mail – July 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.

Ford Motor Co.’s decision to produce gas-powered trucks at its Oakville, Ont., assembly plant and push off its electric-vehicle plans is yet another reminder that free-market realities rooted in customer demand win over ideology and government mandates every time.

Ford’s move, announced last week, reflects continued hesitance among car buyers about a wholesale shift to an all-electric future that has slowed EV sales globally and put automakers’ investments in the emerging technology at risk. Ford, for example, has said it lost US$4.7-billion on EVs in 2023, and expects to lose US$5.5-billion this year.

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TROILIUS GOLD SPONSORSHIP: A Premium 11 Million Ounce (AU/EU IND.) Brownfield Gold Development in Quebec’s Prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt

For more info on this project: https://troilusgold.com/

Troilus Gold Corp’s (TSX:TLG) is systematically advancing and de-risking the gold and copper Troilus project, one of Canada’s largest undeveloped gold-copper assets, toward a potential mine restart. The company holds a 435km2 land package in one of the world’s richest gold regions within the prolific Frôtet-Evans Greenstone Belt, in Quebec, Canada and in the northeastern portion of the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt.

Quebec, Canada is a tier 1 mining jurisdiction having consistently ranked as one of the world’s most attractive mining jurisdictions for exploration and development companies, most recently as the 5th most attractive jurisdiction globally according to the 2023 Fraser Institute’s annual survey of the mining industry).

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Teck draws M&A attention from big miners in rush for copper – by Jacob Lorinc, Mariana Durao, Dinesh Nair and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – July 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest miners are back in serious dealmaking mode and Teck Resources Ltd. is taking center stage.

The Canadian miner, which has exited its coal business with a sale this month to Glencore Plc, is drawing attention from across the industry because of its attractive copper assets, as the biggest names position for the next wave of activity in the wake of BHP Group’s failed bid for Anglo American Plc.

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Indonesia moves to reduce Chinese ownership of nickel projects – by A. Anantha Lakshmi (Financial Timess – July 25, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Jakarta wants to help its industry qualify for tax credits under Joe Biden’s initiative to build a US electric vehicle supply chain

Indonesia is trying to reduce Chinese investment in new nickel mining and processing projects to help its industry qualify for tax breaks in the US, as the Biden administration seeks to curb Beijing’s influence in the electric vehicle supply chain.

Generous tax breaks are available from 2025 under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, but they will not apply to EVs containing batteries and critical minerals such as nickel sourced from “foreign entities of concern”, including some companies with more than 25 per cent Chinese ownership.

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Funds dump copper as rising stocks dampen bull spirits – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 29, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) – Funds have slashed their long positions on the copper market as high and rising inventories cause a collective re-think of the market’s short-term prospects. Investors rushed to buy copper during the second quarter, betting the metal would benefit from a turn in the economic cycle and a green energy demand booster.

The bull narrative was spiced with concern that supply simply wouldn’t keep up, creating yawning deficits and potentially explosive higher prices. The reality has turned out slightly different.

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Weak Rough Prices Hit Ekati Sales – by Suzanne Watkin (Rapaport Magazine – July 29, 2024)

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Revenue from the Ekati mine’s rough output fell 27% during the second fiscal quarter, according to owner Burgundy Diamond Mines.

The company sold 1 million carats from the Canadian deposit for $106 million for the three months that ended June 30, it said last week. That compares to the sale of 1.3 million carats for $145 million during the same period a year ago.

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Yukon partially takes over Victoria Gold mine cyanide spill cleanup after company fails to meet orders – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 28, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Yukon government has taken over some of the environmental-mitigation efforts stemming from a major gold-processing plant failure in the territory because operator Victoria Gold Corp. failed to meet a key government directive.

Four million tonnes of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed on June 24 at an outdoor heap-leach facility at the Eagle gold mine in central Yukon operated by Victoria Gold. Two million tonnes of material breached the company’s containment zone and elevated levels of cyanide were later found in a water body adjacent to the mine.

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Deep-sea miner TMC plans to be ready to apply for licence – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 24, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) plans to be ready to apply for a licence to start mining the seabed before the end of this year, with production expected to start at the end of the first quarter of 2026.

TMC, a deep-sea mining pioneer, has long said it would submit its application after the United Nations’ International Seabed Authority (ISA) current meeting, which ends on July 26. Gathered in Kingston, Jamaica, the 36-member ISA council is negotiating the latest draft of the anticipated seabed mining rules.

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First Quantum reaches agreement with major Chinese shareholder Jiangxi Copper to curb its power – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has reached an agreement with Jiangxi Copper Co. Ltd. that significantly curbs the power of its major China-based investor and makes Jiangxi Copper far less likely to act as a mergers and acquisitions kingmaker.

The company has an 18.5-per-cent stake in First Quantum. Its investment predates restrictions introduced by Canada’s federal government that severely limit investment into Canadian critical minerals companies by entities tied to the Chinese state. Jiangxi Copper is the largest copper smelting company in the world and is part-owned by China’s Jiangxi province.

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Women blast through gender barriers in Colombia’s emerald mines, but struggle to emerge from poverty – by Astrid Suarez (Associated Press – March 14, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

COSCUEZ, Colombia (AP) — Deep inside mountain tunnels where the heat is so intense it causes headaches, women with power tools are chipping away at boulders in search of gems. They have opened a difficult path for themselves in Colombia’s emerald industry, a sector long dominated by men.

The lack of job opportunities, combined with the hope of a find that will make them rich, has pushed the women into mining. Colombian emeralds are known around the world for their quality and the best can be sold for thousands of dollars, though most people in the industry aren’t wealthy.

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