July 16th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Tuesday 4pm EST to Tuesday 4pm EST, so not the typical week of Monday through Friday.}

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

Here are some of the notable government policy moves this week:

• 🇨🇦 Federal, provincial, and territorial energy and mining ministers met in Charlottetown from July 9th to 11th, for the annual Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference. Government representatives agreed on the need to accelerate major energy, mining and infrastructure projects, to develop more efficient regulatory processes and to ensure adequate federal investment tax credits. The Ministers also discussed next steps to move to a “one project, one review” process. We like what we are seeing so far but time is of the essence given the current geopolitical situation. (Gov’t of PEI)

• 🇨🇦 On the flip side, a number of First Nations groups are concerned with the legislation that governments in Canada have passed to expediate national projects of interest. Nine First Nation groups in Ontario are asking a court to declare Canada’s Bill C-5 and Ontario’s Bill 5 unconstitutional. They are seeking an injunction that would prevent the government from using certain powers. (CBC)

• 🇨🇦 For those in Canada, Federal pre-budget submissions are also open until August 28th, 2025. You can submit your thoughts as an individual or organization here → (Gov’t of Canada)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Saskatchewan is expanding the Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive (TMEI) to include more early-stage exploration activities to support mining sector growth and investment. (Gov’t of Saskatchewan)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories are working together to advance a new geoscience research initiative that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), digital scanning technologies and historic drill cores to build a public database and attract investment. (Gov’t of Canada)

• 🇺🇸 President Trump was busy again this week as he announced a host of tariffs on other countries effective August 1st. These include: Brazil (50%), Canada (35%) & The European Union (30%), among a host of others. The U.S. Department of the Interior also gave the green light to Hurricane Creek Mining to mine coal on Bryson Mountain in Claiborne County, Tennessee. The expedited approval is part of the President’s plan to bring back coal production in the nation. (U.S. Department of the Interior)

• 🇦🇺 The Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA (CME) is ringing the alarm bell and calling on the Cook Government to act quickly to review the Local Government Act following a Supreme Court decision allowing councils to levy rates on land covered by miscellaneous licenses. CME CEO Rebecca Tomkinson said the Supreme Court determination opened the door to millions of dollars of additional imposts at a time many WA resources projects were already facing severe cost pressures. Let’s hope the government listens and gets this one sorted out quickly. (CME)

• 🇬🇭 Ghana’s President has launched a special task force to battle illegal gold mining in the country called “galamsey”. The task force is comprised of officers from various security agencies/military and has the power to arrest and detain suspects. The country is also offering 10% of any money or value retrieved to those who provide a tip - we like it! “If you blow the whistle and gold or money is retrieved, you will get 10 per cent of its value,” said the President, “This is not just a policy; it’s a national call to duty. Ghanaians must be the first to benefit from the gold beneath our soil.” All officers will wear body cameras at all times, the vehicles will be fitted with GPS and all operations will have to be approved by the Gold Board’s Chief Executive to ensure full transparency. (BNN Bloomberg) or (BNE)

• 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire is also concerned with illegal mining and is joining forces with The World Bank and The World Gold Council to transform small-scale mining in the nation. The new partnership aims to ensure gold produced by small-scale operations within Côte d'Ivoire is legally traded and traceable through the supply chain. It also establishes a framework for stakeholders to strengthen governance and mitigate security risks associated with illicit gold flows. Key to that approach is fostering collaboration between large-scale industrial miners, like Endeavor Mining and Perseus Mining, and small-scale legal operators. This includes industrial operators providing training, helping small-scale miners adopt international environmental and social standards, and facilitating their access to legitimate gold trading markets. We like the collaboration and it is great to see both Endeavor & Perseus involved in such a positive initiative. Kudos! (World Bank Group)

• 🇬🇦 Gabon’s President was at the White House selling his country as an investment friendly jurisdiction. Gabon wants to see domestic raw materials processed in country but needs help with energy and processing infrastructure which takes significant investment. Gabon’s President was clear that the nation is open and willing to work with whomever is willing to invest, implying that other nations like China or Russia would be welcomed if the United States takes too long to act. (Reuters)

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇺🇸 MP Materials is flying high this past week after several blockbuster announcements. Yesterday MP Materials & Apple announced a $500m partnership whereby MP Materials will supply Apple with rare earth magnets manufactured in the United States from 100 percent recycled materials. This follows a major announcement the week before where the U.S. Department of Defense agreed to purchase $400m in newly created shares to support the domestic miner & recycler of rare earths. The DoD is also guaranteeing prices for rare earths procured from MP Materials which are nearly double today’s market prices. Shares were up over 55% on the DoD news, another 20% on the apple news and is up nearly 255% year-to-date. Hopefully you had some exposure to this gem. (MP Materials) & (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 Tungsten was all over our tongues at PDAC this year as it seemed obvious that it was next in line for some export control by China. Tungsten miner Almonty Industries (TSX:AII, ASX:AII, NASDAQ:ALM) had a $90m offering on the NASDAQ on Monday which propelled the stock up about 8% on the day. While the stock did come back down on Tuesday it is up an ungodly amount this year. The company had a market cap of C$268.98M on December 31st, 2024 - it closed yesterday at $1.3bn. You do the math.

• 🇦🇺 Rio Tinto has appointed Simon Trott as its new CEO, staring August 25th. Trott is currently Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Chief Executive. He previously held the Chief Commercial Officer title and has held Managing Director roles across multiple Rio Tinto commodities and geographies. It was widely reported that Rio Tinto was likely to promote from within and Trott was seen as one of the front-runners. (Businesswire)

• 🇨🇦 The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) in British Columbia has appointed Todd Stone as its new President & CEO, effective August 5th. Stone brings a wealth of experience in government and public affairs, having served as MLA for Kamloops – South Thompson for almost 12 years. He has held the cabinet portfolios of Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Minister Responsible for Emergency Management, as well as Deputy Government House Leader. A former politician to be the voice of advocacy for an industry association? Smart move AME! Congratulations to both parties. (AME)

• 🇨🇦 Impala Platinum Holding Ltd. plans to end production at its Lac des Iles mine in northwestern Ontario at the end of May next year due to low palladium prices. The company currently employs 750 people at its mine north of Thunder Bay. Palladium has been on a steady decline since the first quarter of 2022 when the precious metal was trading for nearly US$3,000 per troy ounce. While Palladium has been trading at its highest levels since August 2023 (US$1,250s), it is still well below the level needed to keep operations going. While Palladium is seeing some safe haven action, the long-term demand remains under pressure due to a global shift toward electric vehicles, which do not require palladium-heavy catalytic converters. (The Canadian Press)

• 🇨🇦 Bloomberg reported the Barrick Mining is in advanced talks to sell its Hemlo gold mine in Ontario to Discovery Silver. Back in January, Discovery Silver bought Newmont’s Porcupine gold mine for $425m. This is Barrick’s last operating mine in Canada and would end its footprint in the nation that helped make it a mining giant.

• 🇦🇺 🇨🇳 BHP signed MOU’s with China’s CATL & BYD to explore opportunities in battery development for mining equipment and locomotives including rapid charging infrastructure. BHP will also consider BYD’s commercial and light vehicles in their mining operations as they look to displace diesel in their operations. (BHP)

• 🇺🇸 Lockheed Martin is in in preliminary discussions with several seabed mining companies to utilize its two eastern Pacific licenses. The U.S. defense contractor was awarded the licenses in the early 1980s during the first wave of interest in seabed mining. The company says it is still early days but believes “the US has the opportunity to develop a gold standard for commercial recovery of nodules in an environmentally responsible manner.” (Financial Times)

MINING BITS

• 🛜 Fast company takes a look at ways for junior mining companies to attract a new wave of younger retail investors. They specifically mention TikTok, Reddit and Discord. The article says, “With hashtags like #investing, #stocktok, and #uranium generating billions of views, TikTok is already a hotbed for financial content—and yes, that includes mining.” The argument is that younger investors are not watching Bloomberg or working through brokers. Many got excited by GameStop, crypto or other investments and are open to other sectors, but are you reaching them where they are. A great read for investor relations and marketing teams. (Fast Company)

• 🚀 Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are searching nationwide for domestic sources of critical minerals. NASA is contributing to this effort with high-altitude aircraft and sensors capable of detecting the molecular fingerprints of minerals across vast, treeless expanses in wavelengths of light not visible to human eyes. The collaboration is called GEMx, the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment, and the data collected is available publicly. (NASA)

• 🇺🇸 The Center for International & Strategic Studies takes a look at the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the mining sector. These include: Eliminates Section 30D Clean Vehicle Credit; Phases Out the Section 45X Tax Credit by 2033; Adopting a more stringent definition of Foreign Entities of Concern, expanding the range of companies and actors that are disqualified from receiving benefits; and $2 billion to the Secretary of Defense to boost the U.S. stockpile of critical minerals through the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund. (CSIS)

• 🇨🇳 The BBC exposes rare earth mining operations in Inner Mongolia in Northern China as environmentally destructive. Definitely an informative read and a reminder that it is better to fast-track mining in jurisdictions where proper standards and regulations are in place. (BBC)

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