Alamos Gold to buy Argonaut Gold in all-share deal valued at $325 million – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – March 27, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Merger and acquisition activity in the mining sector is picking up as Alamos Gold announces its plan to buy Argonaut Gold in an all-shares transaction valued at $325 million.

The two companies announced the friendly acquisition on Wednesday before the North American equity market open. Under the agreement, Argonaut shareholders will receive 0.185 shares of Alamos and one share of a spinoff company.

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Baltimore Bridge Collapse Will Likely Block Coal Exports for Weeks – by Josh Saul (Bloomberg News – March 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The collapse of a major Baltimore bridge Tuesday is likely to shut down the port’s coal exports for as many as six weeks and block the transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC.

The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore the second-largest terminal for the commodity. Plugging up a major coal hub threatens to disrupt global energy supply chains that have finally begun to work out the kinks left over from pandemic slowdowns.

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Federal watchdog finds Canadian firm ‘contributed to use of forced labour’ in China – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – March 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A watchdog created by the federal government to probe corporate wrongdoing abroad says Vancouver-based Dynasty Gold Corp DYG-X has contributed to the use of forced labour at a mine in Xinjiang, China, and is asking Ottawa to cut off future trade support for the company.

Its investigative findings were released Tuesday in the first final report issued by the Canada Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) since it opened its doors to receive complaints in March, 2021.

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Feds to review Kinross’ Great Bear gold project – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 26, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Federal Impact Assessment Agency launching environmental assessment of Red Lake pit plans

One of Red Lake’s next generation of gold mines is undergoing federal scrutiny. In a March 22 notification, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) has determined that a federal impact assessment of Kinross Gold’s Great Bear Project is warranted.

The agency said its opinion is based on a review of the detailed project description for the mine project and the comments received from Indigenous communities, federal authorities, provincial ministries and the public. Kinross proposes to build an open-pit mine, 23 kilometres southeast of Red Lake, not far off Highway 105. The Toronto-headquartered gold miner finalized its acquisition of the very promising gold project in February 2022.

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‘A 1939 moment’: Jim Sciutto on Russia, China and the threat of war – by David Smith (The Guardian – March 10, 2024)

https://www.theguardian.com/

At CNN in Washington, Jim Sciutto’s dimly lit office is both man cave and shrine to a foreign correspondent who has reported from more than 50 countries. A typewriter he bought on Portobello Road during a decade in London. Photos he took in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

A Vietnamese newspaper account of the time he rode over the South China Sea on a US spy plane. A corked bottle of water from his trip to the north pole in a US nuclear submarine. A fragment of the Black Hawk helicopter destroyed in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. “I’m not sure I should have that,” Sciutto confesses, “but I do.”

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America’s lithium laws fail to keep pace with rapid development – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – March 25, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

March 25 (Reuters) – Washington’s drive to make the United States a major global lithium producer is being held back by a confusing mix of state regulations that are deterring developers and hampering efforts to break China’s control of the critical minerals sector.

Across Texas, Louisiana and other mineral-rich states, it’s unclear who owns the millions of metric tons of lithium locked in salty brines underneath U.S. soils, how the battery metal should be valued by regulators and who ultimately should pay to process it into a form usable by manufacturers.

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Forced-labour watchdog cites B.C. mining company, which says claims are nonsensical – by Dylan Robertson (B.C. CTV News/Canadian Press – March 26, 2024)

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/

Ottawa’s corporate-ethics watchdog says a Vancouver-based mining company has allowed forced labour to occur at its gold mine in the Xinjiang region of China, even though the firm lost control of the project before the alleged slavery took place.

The company cited, Dynasty Gold Corp., says it’s being tarnished by baseless allegations on timelines that make no sense, but ombudsperson Sheri Meyerhoffer said companies are responsible for holdings they jointly control. The finding Tuesday is the first determination the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise has made since the office was created by the Liberals in 2018.

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Signet Says Shoppers Getting Wiser on Falling Lab-Grown Prices – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – March 21, 2024)

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Deep discounting by independent jewelry, especially on lab-grown, impacted Signet’s average transaction value in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended February 3, Drosos explained.

The retailer’s sales fell 6% year on year to $2.5 billion during the period, it reported Wednesday. The average transaction value slipped 0.6% in North America and slumped 10% in other regions as the jeweler sold some of its prestige watch locations.

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Cleveland Cliffs gets part of $6 billion funding to slash emissions in industrial facilities – by Rick McCrabb (Dayton Daily News/Associated Press – March 25, 2024)

https://www.daytondailynews.com/

Middletown steel plant among projects that will slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

MIDDLETOWN — Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works is expected to receive a major investment up to $500 million to overhaul the ironmaking systems and install a new environmentally friendly system.

The 100% hydrogen-ready, flex-fuel direct reduction plant will be directly coupled to two electric melting furnaces to produce iron with nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) office.

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Canada’s next big problem could be copper theft. Here’s why – by Jamie Casemore (National Post – March 26, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Bell Canada is sounding the alarm over copper theft especially in Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec. Here’s what to know

A major Canadian telecommunications company is calling upon the government for enhanced security protocols to address the growing problem of copper theft.

Bell Canada recently announced that it had installed aerial alarms to fight against and protect communications infrastructure from being tampered with, as thieves, especially since 2022, have been breaking into telecommunications substations to steal copper cables.

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How science may assist green metals exploration efforts – by Staff (Mining.com – March 26,2024)

https://www.mining.com/

A recent paper in the journal Science Advances sheds new light on how concentrations of metals used in renewable energy technologies can be transported from deep within the earth’s interior mantle by low-temperature, carbon-rich melts.

The article details how an international team led by Isra Ezad, a postdoctoral research fellow at Australia’s Macquarie University, carried out high-pressure and high-temperature experiments creating small amounts of molten carbonate material at conditions similar to those around 90 kilometres depth in the mantle, below the earth’s crust.

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Coal, the Dirtiest Fossil Fuel, Is Preparing for a Long Goodbye (Bloomberg News – March 23, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here. More than two years after climate negotiators first attempted to consign coal to history, the dirtiest fossil fuel is having a moment.

Thanks to a combination of China’s energy insecurity — pushing Beijing back to trusted power sources — plus rising Indian demand, the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine and faltering international programs to wean developing economies off fossil fuels, coal is proving remarkably resilient. Output hit a record last year, and producers are preparing for a future where they will be required for decades yet to balance renewable energy.

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Canadian miners desperately need domestic and allied capital – but so far, it’s China that’s filling the gap.- by Joseph Bouchard (MacDonald Laurier Institute – March 14, 2024)

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After more than a decade of aggressive efforts and development, China now stands tall as the largest mining producer and financier in the world, by some margin. It is the leading miner of 29 commodities including aluminum, coal, gold, magnesium, tin, phosphate, nitrogen, zinc, graphite, tungsten, rare earths, and other critical minerals.

Canada, which used to be a leading force despite its small demographic size and investment pool, is now at the bottom end of the global top 10 mineral producers. Still, China is looking to capitalize on the extent of Canada’s mining network nationally and around the world to advance its interests.

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As America falters, her foes are emboldened – by Derek H. Burney (National Post – March 26, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Profound consequences loom for the United States and the world

Some believe that today’s turbulent world is moving closer to conditions eerily like those of the late 1930s. Authoritarian states — Germany, Italy and Japan — had then seized the advantage over irresolute western democracies who had adopted appeasement in futile attempts to prevent war.

Today’s U.S. administration seems unable to muster support from a bitterly divided and increasingly dysfunctional Congress for military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Roosevelt had similar challenges from an isolationist-inclined Congress during his second term.

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Gemfields warns of $2.8 million loss on write-down – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 22, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Precious gemstones miner Gemfields (LON: GEM) warned on Friday that it expects to swing to a loss of $2.8 million in 2023 from a $74.3 million profit the previous year due to a write-down in its platinum group metals investments, lower output and the cancellation of an emerald auction.

The London-based company, which has a 6.54% stake in South African platinum group miner Sedibelo Resources, said that plummeting prices for platinum group metals (PGMs) has affected its bottom line.

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