March 5th, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

Lithium was the big winner this past week with a 13.61% weekly gain. Other metals like gold (4.19%) and silver (6.11%) had great weeks as well (Spot gold has hit record high Tuesday morning!).

Uranium was one of the big losers this past week falling to $95 (USD/Lbs), a 6.82% loss. The other was iron ore falling to $116 (USD/T), a 6.07% loss.

^{**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 told Reuters that he is concerned about market manipulation of critical mineral prices by China and wants to explore a U.S.-mooted alternative pricing model. Canada should take a closer look at Stephen Van Dine’s article in the Macdonald-Laurier Institute as he covers a number of concerns related to Canada’s Arctic, China and the ability for Canada to both develop and protect its critical minerals in the north.

• 🇺🇸 🇨🇱 The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was in Chile this week to meet with Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, his Ministers as well as business executives. The U.S. seeks stronger ties with Chile as it sees Chile as a key jurisdiction for sourcing critical minerals. Currently, China is Chile’s largest export partner.

• 🇺🇸 The United States government announced, “$74 Million to Address Legacy Pollution and Revitalize Coal Communities in Kentucky.”

• 🇲🇽 The Mexican government nationalized a major salt plant this past week buying out it’s minority partner Mitsubishi (49%) for $88 million. The Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said, "With the nationalization of Essa, we are complying with the president's precept that the benefits generated by our natural resources stay in our country."

• 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 Meanwhile, things are heating up between the two neighbors as the United States threatens to bring back tariffs on Mexican steel and Mexico threatens to retaliate if such measures are taken.

• 🇪🇺 The EU & G7 have agreed to restrict the indirect import of Russian diamonds. Moving forward, diamonds will need to be traceable from the mine to the finger to make sure these restrictions are followed.

• 🇮🇳 The Indian Ministry of Mines has launched a 2nd tranche of mineral properties for auction across seven states and for a host of critical minerals. Submissions are due April 23rd, 2024. If you are at PDAC, stop by their exhibit as they have more information on hand. The government approved royalties for 12 critical minerals allowing them to move forward with this process.

• 🇮🇳 India may be considering an export ban on low-grade iron ore as concern for local supplies at affordable prices is being raised by small-scale steel producers. Currently, 90% of India’s exports go to China.

• 🇬🇭 The Ghana government plans to set up a $450m manganese refinery, while banning the export of raw bauxite. These efforts are aimed at ensuring value for money and speeding up the nation’s industrialization agenda according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

• 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan has indicated that it wants to start exporting aluminum, gallium and scandium to the U.S. - as Borat would say, very nice!

• 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov has indicated that he wants to overturn a 2019 ban on uranium mining while also building a nuclear power plant with the support of Russia’s Rosatom.

• 🇵🇭 The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines are optimistic that the Marcos government will open up more mining areas to investors in the latter half of 2024. Given the countries vast natural resources, this will be one to keep an eye on.

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• Frontier Lithium’s (FL.V) stock surged 28.26% on Monday after it announced a joint venture with Mitsubishi to help advance lithium mining and processing in Ontario.

• Rio Tinto (RIO) was awarded $18.1 million from the Government of Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Fund to support the decarbonization of iron ore processing at its operations in Labrador West.

• Rio Tinto (RIO) also saw a positive result as a U.S. appeals court on Friday narrowly ruled that the federal government may give away thousands of acres in Arizona to Rio Tinto for a copper mine, rejecting an argument from Native Americans that the land should be preserved for its religious and cultural value.

• South32 (S32) has agreed to sell its Illawarra metallurgical coal business to a consortium led by an Indonesian-owned company for $1.65 billion. The company is exiting coal so it can focus on expanding its footprint in copper and zinc.

• Fortescue (FMG) got flagged by Bloomberg Intelligence given that 91% of its revenues are from iron ore, which is the one of the worst performing metals in 2024 due to a slump in China.

• The Financial Times takes a look at the Cobalt oversupply, largely from Chinese companies in the DRC and how that is expected to strengthen China’s dominance over the production and price of the metal.

• Meanwhile, the CBC in Canada looks at the current challenge of minerals being “critical” yet not seeing prices that reflect that. They explore some options to help ensure these developments progress.

• Research by the University of Alberta shows that Chinese money continues to pour into Canadian mining companies, despite Ottawa’s oversight.

• The Nasdaq covers the 5 largest uranium companies in 2024.

MINING BITS

• 🪙🧲 A Delhi man swallowed 39 coins and 37 magnets because he thought “zinc helps in body-building.”

• 🇺🇦 After 600 miners from one site were conscripted into the Ukraine army, the government changed the law to allow women to work in underground mining to help fill in the gaps. These women now keep the mine running. As the kids say these days, “Slay!”.

• 🇺🇦 Ukraine has made a deal with Peter Theil’s Palantir to supply the nation with its artificial intelligence (AI) tools to organize and accelerate its demining efforts.

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇦 Welsh miners who were supported by Ukraine miners and the Soviet Union in 1984, repay the favor and return to Kyiv with medicine and supplies.

• 💨 How can we recycle the giant magnets in wind turbines? Check out this article on the work being done to solve this challenge.

• 🥇 Do you know who the top Tin producing countries are? China comes in at #1. We were most surprised to see Belgium on the list, but what do we know. We were less surprised with the top Nickel producing countries which had Indonesia coming in at #1.

• ☢️ March 1 was 80 years since Oak Ridge sent the first shipment of uranium in 1944 to Los Alamos, New Mexico as part of the Manhatten Project.

• 🇨🇦 W5 investigates as a Quebec town's residents fear harmful health effects linked to a historic smelter.

• ⚒️ The Maine Monitor examines whether Maine needs to develop its lithium deposits particularly given the large deposits in California’s Salton Sea area.

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