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Canada Mining

Airbus granted reprieve from Canadian sanctions on Russian titanium, sources say – by Steven Chase and Robert Fife (Globe and Mail – April 25, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ottawa has granted Airbus a waiver from sanctions targeting Russian titanium that could interfere with its business in Canada, two government sources say. Reports of the decision Wednesday prompted anger from Ukrainian Canadians and criticism from the Official Opposition.

The sanctions in question were only applied by Canada in February this year. Back then, Ottawa announced sanctions on Russia’s VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation, one of the world’s largest producers of titanium.

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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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Panama election unlikely to shift outlook for First Quantum’s copper mine – by Valentine Hilaire and Elida Moreno (Reuters – April 18, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

April 18 (Reuters) – Prospects are poor for First Quantum Minerals to recover its canceled concession for a lucrative copper mine after presidential elections in May, a Reuters review of the campaigns’ proposals and interviews with protest leaders show.

Protests against First Quantum’s concession demanding greater environmental guarantees and transparency in negotiations made authorities not only annul its contract to operate one of the world’s largest and newest copper mines but ban all new metal mining permits last year.

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Judge orders Alberta to hand over documents related to coal policy – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – April 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Alberta government has been ordered by a court to hand over a swath of records pertaining to its 2019 decision to quietly nix a policy governing where coal mines can be built in the province.

The case stems back to 2020, when a group of Southern Alberta ranchers requested records around the United Conservative government’s decision to rescind the province’s 1976 Coal Policy without any consultation. The decision caused public backlash so fierce it forced the government to backpedal and introduce new rules around coal mining.

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Indigenous loan guarantee program could transform resource sector in Canada – by Wendy Stueck and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The federal government has launched its long-awaited Indigenous loan guarantee program, a move advocates say will help Canadian critical minerals infrastructure get built more quickly, and facilitate increased direct First Nations ownership in resource projects.

Ottawa’s budget released Tuesday outlines a program that would provide up to $5-billion in loan guarantees and be “sector agnostic” – meaning that oil and gas projects could be eligible. In the months leading up to the budget, advocacy groups including the First Nations Major Projects Coalition had worried a federal loan program might rule out oil and gas projects because they don’t line up with Ottawa’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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How a US$10 billion mine became a cautionary tale for the energy transition – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – April 16, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

When the group of mining executives arrived at Panama’s regal Palacio de las Garzas, they were ushered past the ornate, wood-paneled ceremonial rooms and straight to the private office of the president.

This was December 2016, before the upswell of anti-mining protests that would throw the country into chaos, and the team from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. were greeted as old friends. After all, they were building the country’s most important project since the Panama Canal had been opened a century earlier.

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Ideology masking as leadership killed the Canadian dream – by Gen. Rick Hillier (National Post – April 10, 2024)

https://nationalpost.com/

Enough of the gaslighting, evading, blaming and deluding. Canada needs to be made ours again

“This is not Canada,” is a phrase we hear far too often. It seems to come from every politician, from all levels. It’s exclaimed after every illegal demonstration, hate crime, blocked street, gang shooting, home invasion, car theft and emergency room horror story.

Those exclamations ring hollow as food bank lines stretch longer and as hopeless thousand-yard stares of good men and women grow more prevalent. While dreams of home ownership fade, shantytowns grow and our confidence in the future plummets. We hear the official inflation rate, but it bears little resemblance to our real-life experience. “This is not Canada” grates, harshly, especially when it comes from those who seem so out of touch with reality.

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Federal minister says nuclear power is key part of renewable energy expansion – by Chuck Chiang (Canadian Press/City News Ottawa – April 6, 2024)

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VANCOUVER — The federal minister responsible for innovation and industry says Canada could be at risk of losing out on attracting green industries if it doesn’t consider all options for renewable electricity, which he says include nuclear power.

François-Philippe Champagne said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he considers nuclear power part of the renewable energy portfolio that needs to grow to support the country’s lean into “the economy of the 21st century.”

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Canada risks losing mining capital because of government opacity around Chinese investment in critical minerals sector – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Confusion about whether Chinese investment is welcome in the Canadian critical minerals sector is fuelling investor uncertainty and jeopardizing this country’s position as a leading source of capital for the mining industry, executives and analysts say.

In late 2022, Ottawa said it would allow investment from China only under exceptional circumstances, but it didn’t specify what those circumstances would be. In the absence of clarity over what is and isn’t allowed, Chinese investors have continued to attempt deals with Canadian mining companies. Meanwhile, some transactions that Ottawa has permitted have baffled experts, as have some that were blocked.

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A mineral rush and a hiring crisis: Canadian mining’s ‘dirty’ image is scaring off recruits – by Francesca Fionda (The Narwhal – April 4, 2024)

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Pick axes and coal dust aren’t selling a new generation on jobs in mining. Can the industry clean up its reputation — and act — to meet the demand for critical minerals?

When Courtney Onstad was out in the field collecting samples and searching for gold, it wasn’t the thrill of the find she was after. What excited her most was the science behind everything.

Geoscience is “all around” us. It’s something you can literally reach out and touch — “so much more than rocks,” she said. It explains how mountains form and water and ecosystems interconnect, it can help us understand hazards and weather patterns and reveals the Earth’s evolving history in fossils and formations. At 29, Onstad represents one of the most sought-after resources in the mining and exploration industry today — young talent.

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Energy transition: The benefit and risk behind metals and minerals dominance in Canada – by Jon Wojnicki and Dr. Lance Mortlock (Canadian Mining Journal – April 3, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The demand for critical metals and minerals is advancing dramatically as energy transition gathers momentum globally. Rare metals and minerals are essential to many clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, electricity transmission, and electric vehicles (EVs).

But when comparing fossil fuel-based resources such as hydrocarbons with the metals and minerals needed to meet emerging needs to build renewable power generation assets and energy storage devices, the numbers are staggering. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it takes six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car to power an EV and nine times more for a wind plant than its gas-fired counterpart.

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OPINION: A critical push to speed up mine approvals – The Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – April 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s quest for critical minerals has led to an astonishing promise: The federal government says it can slash the time it takes a proposed mine to get through the regulatory review process from 12 to 15 years – to just five.

Without access to a supply of pixie dust or a time machine, this commitment will demand a phenomenal amount of goodwill and co-operation from industry, First Nations and the provinces and territories.

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Canada needs to act with a sense of urgency on critical minerals – by Abbas Ali Khan (Canadian Mining Journal – April 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

What will it take for Canada to reach its ambitious critical minerals goals? I was asked that question in Houston at a conference attended by lawyers from across the world on the future of energy.

My answer was that Canada’s preliminary steps towards a viable strategy will require much more significant involvement by the government, including financial support, streamlining approval processes, and removing regulatory barriers, if meaningful progress is to be made.

The following three areas that need prompt attention:

-Reducing overregulation.
-Far greater investment by all levels of government.
-Responding to geopolitical tensions and protectionism.

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