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Magna gets the all-clear to begin test mining in Sudbury – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 23, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Hometown mine builder on a fast pace to put former INCO asset back into early production by year’s end

Seventeen months after acquiring a dormant INCO nickel and copper mine in Sudbury, Magna Mining said it’s ready to begin test mining later this year.

The hometown mine developer announced April 23 it has all the required approvals and permits in place to begin advanced exploration, both on the surface and underground, at its Crean Hill Mine project located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury basin.

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Copper price surges as investors pile in to looming supply gap – by Kristian Koschany (Bloomberg News – April 19, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Copper prices have risen all week, buoyed by surging investor confidence amidst ongoing concerns over tight supply conditions for the metal. The London Metal Exchange (LME) saw copper prices climb as much as 4.4 per cent this week from Monday’s level.

‘This is the second secular bull market that we’ve seen in copper this century, and it’s just starting now,” said Max Layton, global head of commodities research at Citi. “Investors have been holding off [but] they just can’t afford to hold off anymore. A very large number of [them] have a small to moderate copper position now that they didn’t have six to eight weeks ago.”

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Inuit leaders talk impact of mining at Iqaluit gathering – by David Lochead (Nunatsiaq News – April 2024)

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Nunavut Mining Symposium runs until Thursday; trade show open to the public on final day

Leaders from the three regional Inuit organizations in Nunavut came together Tuesday to discuss mining and its impact on the territory. The session was part of the annual Nunavut Mining Symposium, which opened April 22 and runs until April 25 at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit.

The panel, moderated by former Nunavut senator Dennis Patterson, included Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. vice-president Paul Irngaut, Qikiqtani Inuit Association president Olayuk Akesuk and Kivalliq Inuit Association chief operating officer Gabe Karlik.

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The nickel price crash and the road to recovery in Australia – by Annabel Cossins-Smith (Mining Technology – April 23, 2024)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

Miners in Australia are feeling the brunt of the global nickel price crash, from mine closures to forecast reductions and government intervention. How did things get so bad and is recovery possible? Annabel Cossins-Smith investigates.

The global nickel market has been volatile for years now. The price rollercoaster of 2022 saw prices for the metal soar, plummet and then soar again in the space of eight months. This instability prompted the London Metal Exchange (LME) to suspend nickel trading altogether in March 2022, when global prices initially rallied more than 250% in one day, and later to begin “enhanced monitoring” of nickel to ensure trading activity was fair and to prevent market distortion.

More recently, the nickel market has experienced an unprecedented, drawn-out price slump that has put operations around the world – and particularly in Australia – in jeopardy. A significant oversupply of cheap, low-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) coming almost entirely from China and Indonesia, is the key cause of the price slump. Combined, the two countries produce around 70% of the world’s nickel. Indonesia alone accounted for roughly half of global production in 2023, which is expected to rise significantly by the end of the decade.

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OPINION: Quebec has a lot riding on Rio Tinto’s green-aluminum project – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Since Rio Tinto bought Canada’s Alcan in 2007, the Anglo-Australian mining giant has been good at making big promises, but slow to fulfill them. This is especially proving to be the case with its plan to produce zero-carbon aluminum.

The Quebec aluminum operations that Alcan built up over more than 80 years until its US$40-billion takeover by Rio Tinto remain among the world’s most profitable. Rio’s eight wholly and jointly owned smelters in the province mostly rely on cheap and emissions-free hydroelectric power from dams that Alcan itself built, providing a competitive and environmental advantage over U.S., Chinese and Russian rivals that use coal-based electricity.

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In Portugal’s Rural North, Communities Are Resisting Lithium Mining – by Marta Vidal and Diana Takacsova (New Lines Magazine – April 24, 2024)

https://newlinesmag.com/

The remarkable heritage and ecology of Barroso are at risk amid an EU push to secure minerals for a ‘green transition’

As the sun begins its gradual descent in the mountains of Barroso, in northeast Portugal, it casts golden hues upon the region’s vast pine and oak forests. The air fills with the gentle hum of bees collecting nectar from the heather that blankets the rugged landscape in swaths of vivid purple and pink.

August is the peak season for honey, when the heather is in full bloom. Carlos “Libo” Goncalves is as busy as his bees. After taking his horses up the oak-studded hills that surround the village of Covas do Barroso, he dons his protective gear and hurries to the hives he has spread across his village’s common lands.

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Chinese Nickel Billionaire Boosts Australian Miner in Indonesia – by Eddie Spence and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – April 22, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A little-known Australian company is becoming the Western face of a Chinese nickel behemoth. In under a decade, Nickel Industries Ltd. has gone from a relatively small miner to the world’s sixth-biggest producer of a metal used in products from batteries to stainless steel.

Riding a Chinese-led boom in Indonesia’s nickel sector, it owns or has stakes in five plants in the country that churn out more of the commodity than household names like BHP Group Ltd.

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UK puts its defense industry on ‘war footing’ and gives Ukraine $620 million in new military aid – by Vanessa Gera and Sylvia Hui (Associate Press – April 2024)

https://apnews.com/

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The U.K. prime minister said Tuesday the country is putting its defense industry on a “war footing” by increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade, and pledged to send arms worth 500 million pounds ($620 million) to Ukraine.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the increase as the “biggest strengthening of our national defense for a generation.” “In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent,” Sunak said at a news briefing alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a visit to Poland. “As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values.”

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Pre-election budget goodie to fund Berens River bridge and road – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 22, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Infrastructure project would bring permanent road to Indigenous communities and connect lithium deposits to markets

Ottawa appears willing to put some significant funding dollars behind the long-overdue Berens River bridge and road project in northwestern Ontario.

Yet it still remains a mystery on how much is being allocated to this key piece of Indigenous-led infrastructure project that will link seven remote communities to the provincial highway system for the first time and allow a lithium mine development company to connect to the marketplace.

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Honda makes multibillion-dollar deal to build electric vehicle factory in Ontario: sources – by Alex Ballingall and Robert Benzie (Toronto Star – April 23, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Honda has agreed to establish a new, multibillion-dollar electric vehicle operation in Ontario, according to government sources.

OTTAWA — Japanese automaker Honda has agreed to establish a major new, multibillion-dollar electric vehicle operation in Ontario, according to federal and provincial government sources.

The deal is expected to be announced Thursday at Honda’s existing factory in Alliston, north of Toronto, where the company will reveal plans to bring a “massive project” to Ontario for the manufacturing of electric vehicles, batteries and other components, government sources with knowledge of the situation told the Star.

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Canada and allies considering trade measures against China and Indonesia over manipulation of nickel market, Freeland says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada and its allies are weighing taking trade action against China and Indonesia in the nickel market, as the two Asian countries tighten their collective grip in the critical mineral.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global output of nickel to 55 per cent in the past decade, with much of that new production controlled by China-based mining companies with ties to the authoritarian Beijing government.

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Our celebrity PM is getting attention for all the wrong reasons – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – April 23, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Electing high-profile, but incompetent, candidates such as Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump reduced the status of their respective countries on the world stage

In 2015 and 2016, Canadians and Americans both elected an incompetent celebrity who lacked the credentials to govern. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former U.S. president Donald Trump both reduced the status of their respective countries on the world stage.

But Trudeau has also damaged Canada’s economy, housing market and health-care system, while increasing taxes and racking up huge amounts of debt, earning him derision from experts and pundits on both sides of the border.

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Canada’s planned capital gains tax hike may choke mining startups, dealmakers say – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – April 22, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, April 22 (Reuters) – Canada’s capital gains tax hike for wealthy individuals and corporations in last week’s federal budget risks turning away investments from mineral exploration by reducing incentives, the country’s leading stock exchange operator and dealmakers told Reuters.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government proposed increasing the share of capital gains subject to taxation to two-thirds for individuals with annual investment profits greater than C$250,000 ($181,752), companies and trusts, as it seeks to raise revenue to fund public programs.

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Poland ready to host US nuclear weapons, Duda says – by Brad Press (The Hill – April 22, 2024)

https://thehill.com/

Polish President Andrzej Duda says Poland is ready to host U.S. nuclear weapons, saying the topic was one of frequent discussions between Warsaw and Washington.

Duda told Polish tabloid Fakt in an interview published Monday that Russia is increasingly militarizing the Kaliningrad province between Poland and Lithuania and has relocated tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus. “I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness,” the Polish president said of talks with U.S. officials.

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Are lab-grown diamonds as sustainable as advertised? – by Leah Sarnoff (ABC News – April 23, 2024)

https://abcnews.go.com/

Over 60% of lab-grown diamonds are produced in China and India.

The natural diamond industry has been fueled by a glittering marketing strategy for decades, but is the sustainability of modern, lab-grown diamonds as clear-cut as consumers believe?

Since De Beers Group’s 1940s “a diamond is forever” advertising campaign, dubbed by Advertising Age as the “slogan of the 20th century” in 1999, the natural diamond industry exploded into a multi-billion-dollar industry and cemented itself into modern culture.

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