February 20th, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

Despite Palladium falling below Platinum prices last week for the first time since 2018, the metal rebounded this past week with a 9.58% surge, putting it back in front of Platinum. Otherwise, it was a generally green week for metal commodities.

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Monday close to Monday close, so not the typical week of Monday through Friday.}

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

With many forecasting significant demand for metals into the foreseeable future, governments are all over the place with their policies. Here are some of the notable moves this week:

• 🇨🇦 Canada’s Minister of Energy & Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson said the government is looking to boost its energy security by slashing the time it takes to develop new critical mineral mines by nearly a decade with improved permitting processes. Canada is focused on six critical minerals that are key to making electric vehicles and wind turbines: lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and so-called rare earth elements.

• 🇨🇦 Canada’s Minister of Energy & Natural Resources also announced an investment of $4,990,000 to the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) through the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration (CMRDD) program. With this funding, SRC will develop an advanced and innovative process to separate rare earth elements.

• 🇨🇦 Manitoba’s Minister of Environment & Climate Change, Tracy Schmidt, approved one silica sand project this week while rejecting another. The rejected project by Sio Silica required drilling through an aquifer which didn’t have local or government support given the potential risks. The project has also been the subject of the integrity commissioner’s investigation into the out-going Conservative Party’s fast-tracked approval attempts.

• 🇨🇦 Canada’s Federal New Democratic Party (NDP) is planning to table a bill that would put an end to the exports of thermal coal. They currently hold the key to Justin Trudeau’s government as they prop up the minority government. Despite this, we would be surprised to see this bill go anywhere given that the Conservative Party of Canada is expected to win the next election which must happen by October 2025.

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $17 million for three projects that will support the design and construction of facilities that produce rare earth elements and other critical minerals and materials from coal-based resources. This comes as U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the country is “very concerned” about China’s grip on the global supply chain for critical minerals.

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management is asking the public to comment on agency efforts to better measure and track the timely and effective permitting of mineral exploration and development projects on BLM-managed public lands by March 13th, 2024.

• 🇹🇷 Gold miner SSR Mining reported that its environmental permit for a gold mine in eastern Turkey has been revoked. The stock was down nearly 50% last week due to the incident.

• 🇦🇺 Australia added Nickel to its list of critical minerals, paving the way for the crisis-hit industry to access billions of dollars in cheap government loans.

• 🇦🇺 Australia’s Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, has opened applications for a $40 million international partnerships program to build end-to-end critical minerals supply chains.

• 🇬🇳 Guinea is planning to introduce a carbon tax on mining companies as it looks to manage pollution while also leveraging its resources. Guinea is one of the world’s top producers of bauxite, a raw material used to produce aluminum. The country also produces gold and has the world’s largest untapped deposit of iron ore.

• 🇰🇷 🇨🇺 South Korea’s recent diplomatic ties with Cuba has the potential to benefit the Korean economy given Cuba’s natural resources and the need to Korean' manufacturers to source minerals.

• 🇦🇷 Argentina is hunting for a new mining secretary after President Javier Milei forced Flavia Royón out.

• 🇨🇳 🇦🇫 Why might China may be getting closer to recognizing the Taliban? Of course, resources like Lithium, copper and rare earth metals are in abundance as well as a host of other reasons.

• 🇵🇦 Panama has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings to negative from stable. The closure of the Minera Panama copper mine being the key reason.

• 🇺🇳 The Secretary-General of The United Nations seabed regulator, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), said it is only a matter of time before seabed mining happens. The ISA regulates about 54% of the world’s oceans and 168 countries are members. The United States is not a member.

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• Agnico-Eagle (AEM) reported adjusted earnings of 57 cents per share in fourth-quarter 2023, up from 38 cents in the year-ago quarter. The company generated revenues of $1,756.6 million, up nearly 27% year over year. Listen to the CEO’s CNBC interview here.

• Southern Copper Corporation (SCCO) wasn’t as lucky as earnings came in well below expectations at 58 cents per share. Net sales were around $2.3 billion, which declined 18.6% year over year.

• Congo state miner Gecamines said it has made a firm proposal to buy some of Eurasian Resources Group's copper and cobalt assets in the country in a bid to claw back projects owned by partners and build reserves in metals key to the green transition.

• Despite weak lithium prices, Albemarle beat expectations on cost cuts. Albemarle posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $617.7 million, or $5.26 per share, compared with a net profit of $1.13 billion, or $9.60 per share, in the year-ago quarter. When removing one time costs, Albemarle earned $1.85 per share, which was well above expectations.

• Perpetua Resources announced that it has received up to an Additional $34.6 Million Under the Defense Production Act. Antimony trisulfide is essential to national defense as a key component for munitions, yet no domestic mined supply currently exists in the United States. China, Russia, and Tajikistan control 90 percent of the global antimony supply chain. Antimony just happens to be a by-product of the gold mine Perpetua is proposing to open.

• LG Energy Solution signed a second offtake agreement with WesCEF. Under the agreement, WesCEF will supply LG Energy Solution with up to 85,000 tons of lithium concentrate, which could be utilized in producing around 11,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, a crucial raw material for cathodes.

• Canadian miner Nouveau Monde Graphite has agreed to sign a multi-year supply agreement with a unit of General Motors and will receive $150 million in equity investment from the automaker. With the previously signed Panasonic deal, this covers about 85% of the planned production of NMG’s Becancour plant.

MINING BITS

• 🚅 Copper theft is up in Europe and impacting railways across jurisdictions. Belgian railways reported a 300% increase YOY.

• 🇨🇳 Forbes reports that the forecasted scrap metal industry in China hasn’t played out to expectations and therefore, iron ore continues up.

• ⚛️ Check out Visual Capitalist’s infographic of uranium reserves by country. Leading the way is Australia with 1.7M Tonnes, followed by Kazahkstan 815k and Canada 589k.

• 🫣 Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery using urine, yes that’s right. The scientists found that they can recover a whopping 97% of cobalt from a battery using urine in the process.

• 📚 Researchers at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology believe that bacteria could help turn CO2 to rock under extreme conditions.

• 🇦🇺 Australia’s CSIRO is working on characterizing and mapping the content of coal waste. Check out their researchers Q&A here.

• 🪨 Check out this opinion piece on why critical minerals are key to Canada’s global influence: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Hub.

• 🪖 Also Gregory Wischer discusses why the U.S. Military and NATO face serious risks of mineral shortages.

• 🪙 BMO's 33rd Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference, is coming up from February 25th to February 28th, 2024.

• 💰 There were a lot of articles this past week about the fact that gold, silver and lithium mining on federal land in the United States don’t bring in any royalties to the US Treasury – because of an 1872 law.

• 🐼 Take a look at Japan’s newest species, the skeleton panda seas squirt. The video of the sea squirts made us smile.

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