June 19th, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

A lot less red than last week as a number of metals held their ground. Copper hit an 8 week low this week while some others like Lithium and Nickel continued their slide (and eerily at the same percentage when rounded). WTI Crude was again a big winner passing the $80 a barrel benchmark.

The year-on-year winners continue to be Indium (+92.79%), Uranium (+52.48%), Gallium (+41.69%), Manganese (+29.69), Silver (+23.38%), Tin (+19.51%), Gold (+19.45%), Copper (+18.60%) and Zinc (+17.07%).

The year-on-year losers so far are Lithium (-69.12%), Palladium (-37.36%), Neodymium (-26.21%), Rhodium (-25.00%) and Nickel (-22.61%).

^{**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.

• 🇨🇳 🇦🇺 Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited both New Zealand & Australia this week and engaged in some Panda diplomacy, promising two of the large bears for a zoo in Australia. Relations had soured in past years with Australia banning Huawei from participating in it’s 5G networks, legislating against foreign interference in Australian politics and calling for an independent investigation into the causes and responses of the COVID pandemic. China’s retaliatory tariffs and trade blocks on coal, wine, beef, barley and wood cost Australia about $13bn AUD a year in exports. Now all appears to be on the mend for the time being. While down under the Premier visited Fortescue’s clean energy research facility in Perth as well as Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia’s processing plant in the region. (Financial Post) and (VOA)

• 🇦🇺 On the topic of Australia, the state of Western Australia has approved draft mining amendment legislation needed to support security of tenure in Western Australia's mining sector. Following the decision in the Forrest & Forrest v Wilson case in 2017, the High Court found that granted mining leases were invalid if they did not strictly follow the Mining Act 1978's process for preparing and lodging tenement applications. The legislation has been drafted to support the mining industry and ensure tenure. (Western Australia Government)

• 🇦🇺 The State of Queensland has passed The Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 which will now require mine and quarry sites to include critical controls in their safety and health management systems. (Queensland Government)

• 🇨🇦 Back on the topic of China, the Canadian government and the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) stepped in to purchase Vital Metals stockpile of rare earth metals that were mined in The Northwest Territories. Vital was going to sell the metals to China’s Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Ltd., but the Canadian government brokered a deal to keep the stockpile in Canada. The transaction was $3m CAD. It also sounds like the Canadian government played a bit of hard ball in promising no further government incentives to Vital Metals if the sale to the Chinese buyer went through. (Globe & Mail) or (Morningstar)

• 🇨🇦 The province of Ontario was touting a deal with four First Nations groups in “The Ring of Fire” on Tuesday this week. The agreement centers around building road infrastructure into their territories which will support both the First Nations communities as well as potential mining projects. (Financial Post)

• 🇨🇦 Do you have operations in Ontario? Then you will want to read this article on the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) and a current call for applications to address “Mining Safety Through Critical Technologies” - the funding is up to $1m with expression of interest due June 28th and application due July 12th. There are some other funding buckets to check out. (Timmins Today) and (OCI)

• 🇺🇸 The United States added a number of Hong Kong and UAE companies to its sanctions list for helping Russian gold producer Polyrus move gold abroad. (Reuters)

• 🇳🇿 In New Zealand, West Coast-Tasman MP Maureen Pugh was apparently pushed by a protestor outside a community board meeting. Pugh is an MP with the ruling New Zealand National Party which is trying to attract more resource projects to the country. They have proposed a Fast-Track Approvals Bill which has upset local residents as well as the Māori. (1news) and (Newshub)

• 🇿🇦 We covered the South African elections in one of our past issues. After a significant blow in the election, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Party will work with the largely white-led DA. Some South Africans are not happy that the party that liberated South Africa from Apartheid is working with a white-led party. However, it seems that international investors and the business community are pleased with this outcome, particularly given the alternative options. (Reuters)

• 🇬🇹 On Friday, Guatemala revoked a permit that was given to Canadian company Bluestone Resources. The company was granted a change in permit from underground to open pit under the previous regime which didn’t sit well with the current government. (Barrons)

• 🇦🇷 In Argentina, the Senate narrowly passed President Milei’s controversial economic reform package. In Buenos Aires, protesters threw petrol bombs and stones, while police used tear gas and water cannons. Certainly not the best image for those thinking of investing in the country. (BBC)

• 🇨🇱 🇯🇵 Chile and Japan will boost ties in Lithium extraction and ensure that Japanese companies have long-term supply agreements with the South American nation. (Mining.com)

• 🇨🇱 🇸🇦 Not to be left out, Saudi Arabia’s Mining Minister is expected to visit Chile in July to talk about potential investments into Lithium projects. (Reuters)

• 🇸🇦 🇧🇷 Brazil’s energy minister, Alexandre Silveira, told reporters at the FII Institute summit on Wednesday that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) plans to invest around $15bn in Brazil. (AL-Monitor)

• 🇷🇸 It was reported this week that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is getting ready to approve Rio Tinto’s massive $2.4bn Lithium project in the country. The license was revoked in 2022 due to large environmental protests related to the project. The government is believed to be comfortable with the guarantees Rio Tinto has made in terms of environmental standards. (Reuters)

• 🇿🇲 Zambia will setup a mineral investment & trading unit. The new entity will help the nation, “"move away from the dividend payment model for mineral resources and adopt a production-based sharing mechanism to ensure benefits accrue to the people of Zambia beyond Statutory obligations.“ (Reuters)

• 🇲🇱 Mali has approved Leo Lithium’s sale of its stake in the Goulamina Lithium project. The company is selling its stake for $342.7m to China’s Gafeng. (Mining Weekly)

• 🇨🇬 🇦🇪 The Democratic Republic of Congo announced that it is going to buy the UAE’s Primera group’s stake in it’s gold joint-venture after things didn’t go as well as the nation hoped. Primera group will continue to focus on refining tin, tantalum and tungsten in the region. Say that 3 times fast. Details on the purchase price will be worked out in the near future. (Mining Weekly)

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• Major Drilling (TSE: MDI) announced its Q4 2024 and Fiscal 2023/24 results. Revenues were $706.7m for the year, the 3rd highest ever. Despite this, revenues were down 3.9% on the year and 9% on the quarter ($168m down from $185m a year prior). The President & CEO pointed out that challenging commodity prices as well as a tough funding environment for some junior and intermediate players in North America, resulted in a pullback in drilling services. Some jurisdictions like Chile, Mongolia & Brazil saw increased spending. With the need for critical minerals to support the electrification transition as well as the rise in Artificial Intelligence, we suspect Major Drilling will be just fine in the coming years. (Major Drilling)

• Vedanta, owned by India’s billionaire “metal king” Anil Agarwal, will invest $2bn USD over the next 5 years into it’s Liberian projects. These include but are not limited to infrastructure development, community engagement, and generating employment opportunities for local communities. (Vendanta)

• MMG (HK: 1208) announced that it will invest $700 million to double production at the Khoemacau copper mine in Botswana. MMG purchased the mine from Canadian-owned Cuprous Capital Ltd. in 2023 for $1.9bn. (African News Agency)

• South32 (ASX: S32) announced that it has sold its metalloys manganese smelter in South Africa to the Menar Group. The deal is expected to close in 2025 as it has to go through regulatory approvals first. The facility was mothballed in 2020 and South32 took a $109m impairment charge on the asset. The smelter is owned through Samancor which South32 owns a 60% stake and Anglo American owns a 40% stake. Menar has said it plans to spend $100m to revive the facility. (South32) and (MiningMx)

• Critical Metals Corp (Nasdaq: CRML) announced that it will spend $211m to purchase up to 92.5% of the Tanbreez rare earth deposit in Greenland. CMC’s largest shareholder, European Lithium, will retain a 7.5% ownership of the Tanbreez project. While the stock dipped initially, it is up nearly 4% since. (Critical Metals Corp)

• In other rare earth funding, Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX: BRE) raised $80m AUD by issuing 24.24 million shares at a price of $3.30 each. The miner is backed by Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart and will use the funds to advance the Monte Alto, Sulista and Pelé rare earth projects. (Brazilian Rare Earths)

• Peruvian miner Volcan is continuing with its asset sale as it looks to raise another $200m. The zinc miner was recently acquired by Integra Capital and is looking to pay down debt. It is looking to divest its holding in a Chilean cement maker as well as real estate near the new Peruvian port of Chancay on the Pacific coast which is expected to raise the $200m. Like other miners, it wants to refocus on its core operations related to transition metals. (BNN Bloomberg)

• Vale & BHP came back with another offer for the 2015 Mariana disaster. They have offered 140bn reais or $25.9bn USD. The offer is 13bn reais or $2.4bn USD higher than the last offer made. Brazil’s solicitor general said they would analyze the offer. (Reuters)

• BHP managed to avert a strike at its Spence copper mine in Chile. The company will now focus on negotiations at its Escondido mine in Chile which is 4 times as large as the Spence mine. In Canadian news, Taseko has a tentative agreement with the union Unifor to end a strike at its Gibralter copper mine in British Columbia. (Mining Weekly) and (CBC)

• Chilean lithium miner SQM (NYSE: SQM) signed long-term supply deals with both Hyundai and Kia this week. (Reuters)

• The non-profit organization, As You Sow, put forth a proposal to have Tesla agree to a moratorium on seabed mining. However, 78% of voting investors were against the proposal. Volkswagen, Renault, BMW and Rivian all support a moratorium. We can only imagine lots of public mud-slinging to attract environmentally conscious consumers should seabed mining move forward. (Benzinga)

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into titanium components used in Boeing & Airbus jets as some of the documents may have been falsified. Boeing downplayed the self-reported issue and ensured that its planes are safe. (NewsNation)

• Inflection Resources (CNSX: AUCU) announced that it has engaged Fleet Technologies to initiate a 1,800 km2 Ambient Noise Tomography Survey using Fleet Technologies end-to-end solution, Exosphere. Read more about Fleet Technologies founder in our Mining Bits section. (Fleet Technologies)

• Echion Technologies, the leading developer of niobium-based, fast-charging battery materials, has successfully completed its Series B funding round, raising £29m ($36.83 USD) in investment capital. (Echion Technologies)

MINING BITS

• 🚣‍♀️ Looking for an adventure this summer? How about subterranean kayaking? Apparently it is all the rage and a number of spots globally are former mines that have been flooded. A 450 year old metal mine in Slovenia, a former white jade, talc and dolomite mine in South Korea as well as a former mine in Kentucky. (National Geographic) and (KOREA)

• 🥷 Chinese state-owned commodities trader Wuchan Zhongda Group Co. bought 2,000 tons of refined copper from a Russian company that was never delivered. Staff from the Chinese company went to Russia to investigate but have been unable to find the smelter. While the $20m in lost copper won’t break the trading behemoth, it has to sting! (Financial Post)

• 🔋 Copper’s continued rise is leading to more and more thefts by criminals. We previously reported thefts in Canada of telecom wires and now the same thing is being reported in Australia. And what is the new favorite of thieves? Cutting EV charging cables. Two years ago, Electrify America, the 2nd largest network of EV charges in the United States, said it would have a cable cut once every 6 months at 1 of its 968 charging stations. This year, in May alone, it had 129 cables cut. Shame on the thieves and the metal scrapers that purchase these. (AP News) and (9news)

• 🛟 In a different type of attack, Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a Greek-owned coal carrier with a missile, forcing the crew to evacuate. The ship was carrying 80,000 tons of coal and will now hopefully be towed by a salvage company. The attack is a reminder of the instability in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, impacting shipping routes. (The Guardian)

• 🤖 A professor and his students at Montana Technological University in Butte, are training a $295,000 Boston Dynamics robot to search abandoned mines for critical minerals. The United States is estimated to have over 500,000 abandoned mines on federal land and many are too dangerous to be explored by humans. Funding was provided through a Cooperative Agreement with the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory. (Elko Daily Free Press)

• 🚜 Komatsu will invest $36m to build a service center in Nagpur, India. The center will refurbish coal mining machines and extend the life of the equipment. With the largest population in the world with a quickly expanding economy, India’s coal usage continues to climb and the country plans to triple underground coal mining by 2030. Seems like a wise investment to us. (Nikkei Asia)

• 👩‍🚀 If you didn’t catch Mining.com’s interview with Flavia Tata Nardini, founder & CEO of Fleet Space Technologies, we suggest you give it a quick read. As Australia’s fastest growing company in 2023, the company raised $50m AUS in 2023 at a $350m valuation and is quickly changing the way exploration takes place. (Mining.com)

• 💃 Speaking of powerful women, Taylor Swift fans or “Swifties” danced so hard at her concert in Edinburgh, Scotland, that they generated seismic activity that was felt four miles away, according to the British Geological Survey. (CBS)

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