July 31st, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

It was another tough week for metals and oil. Chinese demand continues to hamper many commodity markets.

This week is one of Central Banks. On Wednesday, both the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan will report on any interest rate changes while the Bank of England will do so on Thursday.

^{**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

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.

• 🇦🇺 The Australian government lead by Prime Minister Albanese advised the Northern Territory Government that the Jabiluka Mineral Lease should not be renewed, allowing the site to be added to Kakadu National Park. The Jabiluka site is one of the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits. However, the indigenous Mirrar people who are the traditional land owners, were strongly against any development. Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA) owned the lease since 1991, backed by Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), but respectfully did not move forward due to the Mirrar peoples opposition. ERA’s stock is down 41.67% since the governments decision. The Australian Financial Review took a shot at the governments ban on nuclear energy which sometimes extends to uranium mining projects. 22 countries committed to triple nuclear energy by 2050 - countries like Sweden, Canada, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. so the AFR is saying what the heck!

  (Government of Australia) & (Australia Financial Review)

• 🇻🇪 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival Edmundo Gonzalez each claimed victory on Monday in the presidential election. The electoral authority claims that Maduro won 51% of the vote and Gonzalez won 44%. The opposition now claims they have 70% of the vote cards that show they had more than 2/3s of the vote. Riots have ensued while most major Latin American nations have said they reject the results. Peru went a step further and has given Venezuelan diplomats 72 hours to leave the country. Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras & Nicaragua supported the results. It will be interesting to see what action the Biden government takes so close to an election. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇦 The Yukon Premier has appointed Dennis Berry, President of the Yukon Liquor Corporation as an interim Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources so that the current Deputy Minister, Lauren Haney, can focus on the cleanup at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine Site. The government announced last week that it had hired contractors to build a berm. And just in time for the writing of our newsletter, the CBC posted its interview with CEO John McConnell. Check out the interview here → (CBC) & (Government of Yukon)

• 🇨🇦 On the other side of Canada, the Nova Scotia Government has rejected Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia’s reclamation plan for its recently shuttered gold mine in Moose River. The company is a subsidiary of Australian miner St. Barbara Ltd. (ASX: SBM) and it could be on the hook for another $38.7m that's due by Sept. 3. This is part of the total estimated reclamation cost of $79.9m of which the company has paid $41.2m. The stock is down almost 6% this past week but still up 21.76% the past 6 months. (CBC) 

• 🇨🇦 Meanwhile, Nova Scotia’s neighbor Newfoundland & Labrador, issued an Expression of Interest for the potential development of the Julienne Lake iron ore deposit in western Labrador. The deposit is an Exempt Mineral Land (EML) meaning that its mineral rights belong to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. So calling all iron ore miners and explorers. This could be an opportunity for you. And if you need some help, maybe reach out to our sponsor this week, S&A Strategies! (Government of Newfoundland & Labrador)

• 🇨🇦 The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) released their “What We Heard” report last week which summarizes their recent engagement with members and mining stakeholders to discuss the impacts of the Mineral Tenure Act modernization process on the mineral exploration and mining industries. The AME wants the government to focus on core updates like claim staking and not get bogged down in a host of other issues. With an upcoming provincial election on October 19th that has the NDP and BC Conservatives in a neck to neck race, hopefully some policy-makers will take the time to read this report. (Newswire with Report Link)

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayaf was in both Brazil and Chile this week. In Brazil he met with Vale’s CEO, Eduardo Bartolomeo. Saudi Arabia recently acquired a 10% stake in Vale through Manara Minerals Company, a joint venture between the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Maaden. In Chile, Saudi Arabia is looking to invest in Lithium projects and Minister Alkhorayaf as well as Manara CEO Pierre Chenard participated in meetings with Chile's mining ministry in which Codelco participated. Lithium is important as Saudi Arabia works to develop an EV hub in the kingdom. The country is one of the main backers of Lucid Motors and had the company set up a local plant while promising to purchase 100,000 vehicles over the next decade. (Saudi Gazette) & (Reuters)

• 🇮🇳 In a landmark ruling that could potentially lead to varied tax regimes across India, a Supreme Court nine-judge constitution bench has held that states can levy tax on mineral rights, under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957. (The Economic Times)

• 🇹🇿 Tanzania has reached an out-of-court settlement with Australian mining company Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA), agreeing to pay $90 million to end arbitration proceedings at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The ICSID ordered Tanzania to pay $109m back in July 2023. The stock is up 5% since the news. (The East African)

• 🇺🇸 Last but not least, we couldn’t not mention the call by former President Donald Trump and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis for a strategic bitcoin reserve in the United States. The Senator wants to introduce legislation that calls for buying one million BTC coins over the next five years and holding them for at least twenty years. She believes that this step will not only help reduce the national debt but also strengthen the US dollar. If Mr. Trump wins, should we pick up some Bitcoin? With a total market under 20mn coins, this would account for over 5% of the total market volume. (CoinDesk)

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• BHP (NYSE: BHP) & Lundin Mining Corp. (TSE: LUN) have agreed to jointly purchase 100% of Canadian miner Filo Corp. (TSE: FIL) for $4.1bn CAD - a mix of cash and stock. The two major miners will create a 50/50 venture to hold and develop the Filo del Sol and Josemaria projects in Argentina & Chile. Filo Corp. shareholders will receive a 32.2% premium to Filo Corp.’s 30-day volume weighted average price on the TSX for the period ending July 11th, 2024. Congratulations to those investors with Filo Corp! (Newswire)

• Meanwhile, another junior Canadian miner decided to move to the UAE to avoid Canada’s strict rules around foreign investment. Falcon Energy Materials PLC (CVE: SRG) said it will redomicile in the UAE as the investment climate in Canada has become too difficult. The company had previously announced a deal in July 2023 whereby China’s Carbon One New Energy Group Co. Ltd was going to purchase 19.4% of the company in exchange for $16.9m. However, that deal was cancelled after Canada’s Industry Minister made it clear that such deals were unlikely to be approved. (Financial Post)

• New Caledonia's mothballed nickel plant in Koniambo has started mass layoffs of around 1200 staff as the main financier (Glencore) wants out of the project. The project is owned by Glencore (49 percent) and New Caledonia's Northern province (51 percent). According to Glencore, over the past 10 years, the operation has lost a staggering 13.5bn Euro. With Nickel prices where they are at, no wonder the project is seen as unsustainable. (RNZ)

• Anglo American (LON: AAL) took a further $1.6 billion write-down on its British fertilizer project last week but expects to reach a deal to sell its coal assets by early 2025 despite a fire at one of its mines. The stock is up over 4% since the news and is up over 15% year-to-date. (Reuters)

• Brazilian miner Vale (BVMF: VALE3) had a big Q2 as its net profit soared to $2.77 bn, triple its results from a year earlier. Higher iron ore sales coupled with the divestment from PT Vale Indonesia ($1.05bn) were the cause of the over performance. (Reuters)

• Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) reported its first half earnings on Tuesday. The world's second-biggest miner said it made a net profit of $5.81bn in the six months through June, up from $5.12bn a year earlier. Higher copper production helped offset a weaker result from its iron ore business. (Rio Tinto)

• Belgium’s Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Inc. (UMI.BR) halted construction on its $2.7bn battery plant in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The province of Ontario and Canadian government were expected to invest nearly $1bn to make the project happen. However, Umicore stated that a contract with a Chinese manufacturer did not materialize and further, its legacy contracts were tailing off faster than expected. Certainly another indicator that the switch to electrification may not happen as quickly as many hoped. (CBC)

• Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID) signed a deal with Canadian miner Graphite One (CVE: GPH) for for 5,000 tons of synthetically produced graphite per year over an initial term of five years. The deal is non-binding but we hope it works out for both sides. (Automotive News Canada)

MINING BITS

• 🏅 What did you think of the Olympic opening ceremonies this year? We weren’t fans for a host of reasons which included it being disjointed, boring, controversial as well as the fact that they could have done so much more to promote French culture. We would have taken French DJ Duo Daft Punk in a Stadium or in the Eiffel Tower but that is just us (Nothing against Canadian Celine Dion who we love). But hey, this is a mining newsletter, not TMZ. Did you know that gold medals haven’t been made completely out of gold since 1912? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) states that Olympic gold medals must be comprised of 494 grams of silver and plated with around six grams of gold. That means the raw materials for a gold medal cost around $935 while a bronze medal would cost around $3.90. (Diario AS)

• 🦈 Sharks off Rio de Janeiro have tested positive for cocaine. Yes, really! Scientists tested 13 specimens of Brazilian sharpnose sharks over almost three years and all of them presented cocaine in their muscle and liver tissue. It is believed that inadequate sewage treatment facilities and clandestine refining operations as well as sharks attacking bricks of cocaine floating at sea, may have lead to the cocaine ingestion. Will the excuse of “I had a poppy seed muffin” now be “I went swimming off the coast of Rio de Janeiro?” (Science)

• ⚒️ Can you name the most expensive precious metal on earth? It is largely used by the automotive industry to help reduce toxic gas emissions and pollutants. South Africa produces roughly 80% of the global supply with Russia & Canada producing some of the metal. If you haven’t guessed it already, the metal is Rhodium. Some other high value metals include: Iridium, Osmium, Gold, Ruthenium and Rhenium. (How Stuff Works)

• ⚗️ A study in the Journal of Heritage Science examines four glass and one ceramic shard found during an excavation conducted between 1988 and 1990 at the site of Uraniborg, a former castle located on the island of Ven, Sweden. The castle and observatory belonged to Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who also dabbled in alchemy. Unlike others, he was looking for ways to leverage metals as medicine instead of trying to make gold out of more common metals. One mystery is around the presence of Tungsten in the shards as it wasn’t separated and identified as an element until 180 years later. An interesting read for anyone interested in Metallurgy. (Newsweek)

• 💡 Worth Magazine takes a look at solar developer BrightNight and its project to transform the Starfire coal mine in Eastern Kentucky into an 800-megawatt solar farm. The Q&A covers how reclamation processes can work to make renewable projects suitable. It sounds like a win-win to us. (Worth Magazine)

• 🇯🇵 🇺🇳 UNESCO confirmed last week that Japan’s Sado Gold & Silver mines has been added as a World Heritage Site. South Korea dropped its earlier objection and its foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site." Japan used involuntary Korean labour during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula. (France24)

• 🐲 National Geographic takes a look at dragonflies and how examining their larvae can reveal mercury contamination. Through the U.S. Geological Survey’s Dragonfly Mercury Project, researchers have examined tens of thousands of dragonfly larvae. Since Dragonflies can lay their eggs in almost any type of water body, from potholes to muddy marshes they are the gold standard in assessing mercury contamination. Further, examining their larvae for mercury levels is much easier and cheaper than examining fish or birds. Interesting read. We had no idea such a project existed. (National Geographic)

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