(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry, according to people familiar with the matter.
Scholz probably will be in Belgrade on Friday to sign an agreement with Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic and cabinet ministers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t final.
“We don’t want to have a gigantic open pit mine in the middle of all those lakes and all those people living around them.”
Five Quebec municipalities located by a proposed site for a graphite mine with ties to the Pentagon have created an alliance to accelerate public consultations on the project and pressure the provincial government to listen to what locals have to say.
When Lomiko Metals Inc., a mining company based in Surrey, B.C., announced plans for a mine in the Laurentians to produce graphite — one of the world’s most sought after critical minerals needed for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries — some residents living nearby began protesting against the project, fearing the potential harm to the environment.
https://www.northernminer.com/
A landslide that’s stopped production at Victoria Gold’s (TSXV: VGCX) Eagle mine in the Yukon may have been inevitable due to the company’s weak approach to safety protocols, current and former employees say.
Individuals who approached The Northern Miner to share their experiences of working at Eagle, told of neglected incidents and repairs, attempts to subvert injury reports and widespread drug and alcohol use in a supposedly dry camp. They asked not to be named to avoid career repercussions.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Stelco Holdings Inc. is likely to get the nod from Ottawa, industry experts say. The Cleveland-based steel company on Monday announced it had reached a friendly deal to acquire Canadian steel maker Stelco for $3.85-billion.
Originally called the Steel Company of Canada, Stelco is the biggest steel maker in the country. Founded in 1910, it operates the Lake Erie Works steel plant and Hamilton Works, both in Ontario. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne will scrutinize the deal to make sure there are no national security concerns and that it makes economic sense for Canada under a net benefit test.
(Bloomberg) — Turkey’s foreign, defense and energy ministers visited Niger on Wednesday to secure access to the West African nation’s rich uranium deposits.
The delegation, which is led by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and includes top spy chief Ibrahim Kalin, wants to tap Nigerien supplies of the fissile mineral to fuel Turkey’s nascent nuclear-power industry, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak to the media.
Victoria Gold recently indicated it’s facing financial uncertainty
Some environmental advocacy groups are speculating the company behind the Eagle Gold Mine – site of a cyanide spill in Yukon last month – may soon go bankrupt. Mine owner Victoria Gold released a statement on July 12 indicating it is facing uncertainty regarding the future of the mine.
“There can be no assurance that the Company will receive authorizations necessary to restart production,” it said, “or that the Company will have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”
With tough protectionist trade talk coming from U.S. presidential candidates, Premier Doug Ford says it’s time to change the message to “buy North America.”
HALIFAX — With tough protectionist trade talk coming from U.S. presidential candidates, Premier Doug Ford says it’s time to change the message to “buy North America.”
“We are facing a lot of challenges in the country, as a new president will be elected (this November) — that was a big conversation,” Ford said on Tuesday after emerging from a day of discussions among all 13 provincial and territorial leaders at the annual Council of the Federation meeting.
An influx of cheap nickel supply from Indonesia has all but killed off Western Australia’s long-running nickel sector. Nickel prices halved in 2023, dipping below $16,000 per tonne in December as surpluses widened. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Indonesia accounted for 49% of nickel production in 2023, up from less than 5% just eight years ago.
Nickel sector decimated
The impact on Australia’s nickel industry has been dramatic. ASX 200 producer IGO paid A$1.1 billion ($744 million) for nickel miner Western Areas in mid-2022. Just 18 months later, the entire value of the acquisition had been written off and the Cosmos development project was suspended, resulting in the loss of 400 jobs.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves signalled he is confident of obtaining Canadian government approval to buy Canadian steel maker Stelco Holdings Inc. a little more than a week after Ottawa tightened its foreign takeover rules.
The Cleveland-based steel giant announced its intentions on Monday to buy Hamilton-based Stelco. Cleveland-Cliffs is offering $60 a share and 0.454 of its stock for each Stelco share. The buyout is worth $70 a share, an 89-per-cent premium on Stelco’s $36.97 close on Friday and puts an enterprise value on the company of $3.4-billion.
MOUNT STORM, W.Va. — Down a long gravel road, tucked into the hills in West Virginia, is a low-slung building where researchers are extracting essential elements from an old coal mine that they hope will strengthen the nation’s energy future. They aren’t mining the coal that powered the steel mills and locomotives that helped industrialize America — and that is blamed for contributing to global warming.
Rather, researchers are finding that groundwater pouring out of this and other abandoned coal mines contains the rare earth elements and other valuable metals that are vital to making everything from electric vehicle motors to rechargeable batteries to fighter jets smaller, lighter or more powerful.
About half of the ore mined by the Canadian nuclear fuel giant is now extracted using automation and AI
Many countries around the world are looking to build out their capacity for nuclear power as they try to reduce their carbon emissions, which has created an increased demand for uranium. But the market for uranium has also been undergoing some major changes due to sanctions on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. There have been quite a few changes on the operations front, too.
For example, Saskatoon-based uranium miner Cameco Corp. is undergoing a major evolution in the way it extracts the heavy metal. Lloyd Rowson, vice-president of technical services, said the best example of this change can be seen at the Cigar Lake mine, which began operating in 2014.
SINGAPORE, July 15 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ International Seabed Authority (ISA) will meet on Monday to consider new rules allowing firms to extract minerals from the ocean floor, despite mounting concerns about the economic and environmental risks.
Supporters say deep sea mining will help boost supplies of raw materials like cobalt and nickel, which are needed for the global energy transition, but critics say it could destroy ecosystems and disrupt migratory routes.
Along the scenic Crowsnest Pass Highway, as you drive through the remnants of what once was Turtle Mountain and the town of Frank, be sure to pull over. Here lies the historic site of Canada’s deadliest rockslide, which tragically buried the town in 1903. Follow along as we take a stroll through history and discover why Turtle Mountain is a hike worthy of your bucket list.
Frank Slide is one of those places where nature’s power and human history intersect phenomenally. Back in 1903, in the wee hours of the morning on April 29th, a massive rockslide roared down Turtle Mountain, burying the town of Frank in the Crowsnest Pass. Imagine over 82 million tonnes of limestone crashing down in just 90 seconds, obliterating everything in its path. It remains one of Canada’s deadliest natural disasters.
Local miners in the Central African Republic face eviction and violence as the Russian group takes over gold and diamond mines.
Beloko, Central African Republic – When Sadock arrived in the northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) town of Koki in November 2022, he thought he had finally found a safe place to live and work. For years, small-scale miners like him have been displaced and forced to relocate over and over again whenever foreigners entered a local area, seized surrounding gold mines and evicted local miners.
“Some of us [artisanal miners] decided to move to Koki because we thought at the time that no one was disturbing artisanal miners in the [northwest] region,” Sadock, who wanted to be identified by only his first name for fear of retribution, told Al Jazeera.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Government spokesperson says company submitted plans, which aren’t public
The Yukon government has given Victoria Gold marching orders to deal with toxic chemicals in and around its Eagle mine, following last month’s major failure of a heap leach pad at the site.
A new report written by a government inspector states there’s “reasonable grounds” to believe the company has violated laws that govern water use.
