March 12th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

🇪🇺 The European Central Bank cut interest rates to 2.5% last Thursday. 🇨🇦 The Bank of Canada just announced that it will also cut its interest rate by a quarter point from 3% to 2.75%.

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Wednesday 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:

• 🇨🇦 Mark Carney, the high profile former Governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, won a decisive victory in the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership race, to become the next Prime Minister of Canada. Most political hacks will tell you there isn’t much need for a deep analysis on how he will govern, or at least not yet. It is widely expected that Carney will call a snap election in the next week or two and give Canadians a choice between the Liberals and the Conservatives. In his acceptance speech he promised to immediately remove the carbon tax as well as the capital gains tax increases his predecessor pushed through. There is a lot more work to be done to make the country more competitive but we like the quick action so far.

• 🇦🇺 Congratulations to Western Australia’s Premier, Roger Cook, as his party secured a majority third mandate this week. While votes are still being counted, it is certainly a disappointing result for the Liberals who had hoped to pick up more seats. (ABC News)

• 🇮🇩 Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources proposed to change the non-tax state revenue for various nickel products although some details are yet to be confirmed. Basically, royalties could be going up. (Argus Media)

• 🇵🇭 Legislators in the Philippines province of Palawan unanimously voted in favor of a 50-year ban on new mining permits. The new permit ban also imposes a 25-year pause on applications to renew or expand mining licenses. The island currently has 11 mines but locals have pushed back against new projects or expansions. Once the Governor signs the bill, the Federal government will have no authority to overturn the ban it seems. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines was critical and said, "The Philippine government has a responsibility to the people to develop its mineral resources responsibly for the good of the many. Palawan cannot and should not limit the national government's ability to do so." (RFI)

• 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 The tariff wars continue with changes happening so quickly, who can honestly keep track. Trump promised that Canadian Potash will be tariffed at 10% and not 25%. China played the long game on Canada and announced a 100% tariff on Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and pea imports, and a 25% on Canadian aquatic products and pork. Reuters reported that the United States is planning to charge fees for docking at U.S. ports on any ship that is part of a fleet that includes Chinese-built or Chinese-flagged vessels and will push allies to act similarly or face retaliation. If this goes through we would expect costs increases related to shipping. So round and round we go and where the higher costs will land, nobody knows. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 It is expected that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order this week that will push for the building of metals refining facilities on Pentagon military bases. This is part of the governments plan to boost domestic production and an attempt to break China’s stranglehold on the processing of critical minerals. The President also plans to name a Critical Minerals Czar although it isn’t clear yet whether Trump will declare copper a strategic mineral. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 🇨🇩 The United States is open to exploring a critical minerals for security deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo according to Reuters. "The United States is open to discussing partnerships in this sector that are aligned with the Trump Administration's America First Agenda," a State Department spokesperson said, noting that Congo held "a significant share of the world's critical minerals required for advanced technologies." The Congo’s mining sector is dominated by Chinese companies so it makes sense that a deal would be of interest to the United States. However, it is unclear how it would capitalize on such a deal in practice given the US doesn’t have state-owned mining companies and there are currently no U.S. mining companies operating in Congo. (Reuters)

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇦🇺 Rio Tinto announced that it will invest $1.8bn to develop its Brockman Syncline 1 iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The project has all of the required approvals and is expected to start producing ore in 2027. It will have capacity to process up to 34 million tonnes per annum of iron ore, leveraging existing plants. Great news for the region and Australia. (Rio Tinto)

• 🇺🇸 Lithium Americas landed a cool $250m strategic investment from Orion Resource Partners to develop its Thacker Pass lithium project in Humboldt County, Nevada. The funding will go to the phase 1 development which is expected to finish in late 2027. The market liked the vote of confidence as the stock shot up double digits on the news and is up 11.35% since. (Lithium Americas)

• 🇦🇺 Mining giant BHP has taken a right to acquire a 75% stake in Cobre's Kitlanya projects in Botswana in exchange for $25m in funding for exploration activities. Cobre (ASX: CBE) joined BHP’s Xplor program last year so it’s great to see the relationship continue. "The partnership with BHP will provide us with the funding and support necessary to implement a technology-driven work programme designed to discover the Tier 1 deposits we believe may be hosted in our Kitlanya East and West projects," Cobre Chief Executive Adam Woolridge said. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇩 Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), the 3rd largest cobalt producing company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has declared force majeure on deliveries of cobalt from its Metalkol operation due to the government’s temporary export ban. Amidst depressed prices, the country is taking action to try and combat oversupply and is currently considering export quotas once the ban is lifted. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇩 China’s MMG is also taking action in the Democratic Republic of Congo by suspending operations at its cobalt processing plant at its Kinsevere mine despite recently opening. The on-going price slump coupled with an export ban makes things pretty difficult. (Bloomberg)

MINING BITS

• 🇦🇺 Congratulations to Fleet Space Technologies on its acquisition of HiSeis, a leading provider of active seismic exploration technology to the minerals industry. "Fleet Space's acquisition of HiSeis marks a transformative leap into the future of data-driven exploration," said Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-Founder of Fleet Space Technologies. (CISION)

• 🇧🇴 CNN Travel takes a look at the Bolivian town, Potosi, the only place on earth where the public can legally buy dynamite. A stick costs 13 Bolivianos (just under USD$2) and is essential to local miners. It allows them to speed up the process of extraction, although mining remains quite dangerous. With a video of how they use the dynamite, a picture of a horned, devil-like effigy — known locally as “El Tío” (the uncle) which adorns each mine shaft, and a history of the “Mountain that Eats Men”, this was an interesting read. (CNN)

• 🇨🇦 Saskatchewan Polytechnic has created a virtual reality mine to improve mining education and give hands-on learning opportunities for its students. The program allows students to enter a mine and conduct tests that provide results in virtual reality. The program was developed with a $102,000 grant from the International Minerals Innovation Institute. It leverages the Meta headset which costs $600 per unit of which the school has 20. (Global News)

• 🇨🇩 Reuters takes an in-depth look into the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With maps of the various armies, occupied territories, overlayed with gold and other minerals mines, we found this detailed and informative. Of course, with over 7,000 deaths and 600,000 people displaced, we hope this conflict is over yesterday. (Reuters)

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