March 6th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Tuesday 4pm EST to Wednesday 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:

• 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇲🇽 🇨🇳 After months of yes, no, maybe so, President Trump finally implemented his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico along with an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the President by his first name and told him it was a “very dumb thing to do,” while announcing retaliatory tariffs. Canadian provinces announced various non-tariff measures from removing U.S. alcohol from shelves to barring American companies from bidding on government procurements. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country’s response will be coming on Sunday. China's foreign affairs ministry shot back aggressively: "If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end." Expect this roller coaster ride to continue in the near term. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 A bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators from Montana and Michigan have introduced a bill to ban the import of critical minerals from Russia, including platinum, palladium and copper. Rich Nolan, President and CEO of the National Mining Association said, “The United States needs to urgently redouble efforts to build the secure, responsible mineral supply chains that underpin our economic and national security. To do so, we must address unfair trade practices that are eroding the competitiveness of U.S. production and directly confront Russian and Chinese dumping of metals onto the global marketplace. Made in America must mean mined in America under world-leading environmental, labor and safety standards.” We couldn’t agree more and know all ships can rise when allies and businesses of like-minded nations work together. (Senator Daines)

• 🇨🇦 Congratulations to Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario PC Party on their provincial election win last Thursday. As mentioned last week, the Ontario PC Party promised to create a new $500m Critical Minerals Processing Fund if re-elected. If you have a relevant project in Ontario, definitely stay tuned for more information.

• 🇨🇦 The Ontario government also welcomed Frontier Lithium’s proposal to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build a first-of-its-kind lithium refinery in Thunder Bay. Coincidence with the processing fund commitment? We doubt it. But we like the investment. Trevor Walker, President & CEO, of Frontier Lithium said, “We look forward to collaborating with the government to turn this vision and intent into reality. Investing alongside the private sector in strategic projects like ours will be key to unlocking Ontario’s critical minerals, building a resilient economy, and ensuring that we maximize the economic benefits of our resources here at home." (Ontario Government)

• 🇨🇦 Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Canada will extend it’s tax credit on mineral exploration for two additional years as part of the government's move to support investment in exploration projects, energy, and natural resources. The mineral exploration tax credit is a capital market tool that offers investors a 15% tax credit to invest in flow-through shares of smaller mining companies. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Canada used the PDAC conference to announce investments in 32 projects representing $50m in investments. Denison Mines received $4.53m while E3 Lithium received $4.7m. A host of other companies received smaller amounts including Firefly Metals Canada, FNX Mining Company, Huckleberry Mines Ltd. and Defense Metals Corporation. (Government of Canada)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Canada also announced a $5m investment for the Sudbury-based Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network. Director Chamerai “Charles” Nyabeze said, "The $5m that we received from the Government of Canada is going to allow us to issue a call for proposals, which will enable us to attract technologies that are going to be in the energy productivity environment and smart digital technologies.” Keep an eye on this one if relevant. (Sudbury.com)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Nunavut is now accepting applications for the development, coordination, and execution of community-based mine training. Not-for-profit organizations, municipal governments, and individuals are encouraged to submit proposals that promote, encourage, and enable Nunavummiut to gain employment in the mining industry and other related activities. The deadline for applications is April 7, 2025. (Nunavut Government)

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇦🇺 Scotland’s Weir Group has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Micromine, for £657m (A$1,310m). Potentia Capital took a majority stake in the Australian technology firm in 2018 and nearly brokered a deal to sell the company to Aspen Technology in 2022 for A$900m. Ultimately, that deal fell through in the summer of 2023 but grabbing an extra A$410m by waiting an additional 3 years, seems like a great break to us. Jefferies analyst Andy Douglas said: "This is a good, strategic deal that we are upbeat on over the longer-term, but management is paying up in the near-term." Weir Group is up nearly 6% since the news broke. (Micromine)

• 🇨🇦 🇦🇪 Allied Gold Corp. (TSX: AAUC) announced a strategic partnership with Ambrosia Investment Holding, a United Arab Emirates-based investment fund. As part of the deal, Ambrosia will buy half of Allied Gold’s assets in Mali for US$375m ($145m on closing, $230m at a later date). Ambrosia will also be issued 46,044,270 common shares of Allied Gold at C$3.40 per share through a private placement for proceeds of C$156,550,518. This will give Ambrosia a 12% equity stake in the Canadian miner. Ambrosia chairman Ahmed Amer Al Amry said: “We have been looking for some time at establishing an alliance with a high-quality precious metals mining company. We have found that in Allied Gold with its impressive portfolio of assets and management team. We are excited to be a shareholder and will continue to support the efforts of the company.” (CISION)

• 🇨🇦 Congratulations to VRIFY Technology Inc. which raised C$12.5m in Series B funding. The investment will accelerate industry-wide adoption of DORA, the world's leading AI-Assisted Mineral Discovery Platform. We didn’t catch the public unveiling of DORA at PDAC, but hopefully you did. Definitely a very exciting space. (CISION)

• 🇨🇦 IAMGOLD announced that it will be supporting the next generation of mining leaders by joining forces with Laurentian University, Canada’s Mining University, and investing $2.5m into the creation of the IAMGOLD President’s Innovation Fund for Strategic Investment. We love to see this type of private sector support, so hats off to you IAMGOLD. (Laurentian University)

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with the American Petroleum Institute, the National Mining Association, and the Business Council of New York, filed a lawsuit against the state of New York over its new retroactive liability law. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon are among the states considering comparable legislation. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)

• 🇨🇦 Teck Resources CEO, Jonathan Price, said the Canadian giant has been developing plans for months to sell zinc to the Asian market to avoid U.S. tariffs. BNP Paribas estimates that the United States imports 62% of its zinc needs, mainly from Canada and Mexico. At PDAC, Mr. Price also blasted the United States for making economic decisions “without adults in the room”, that will fuel inflation as commodity prices go up. (BNN Bloomberg)

MINING BITS

• 🇨🇦 The Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) launched its new mining initiative, Ontario’s Mining Future 2030, during the PDAC Conference. The initiative will engage business, government, and Indigenous leaders through a council and policy research outlining key opportunities, challenges, and recommendations to enhance the industry’s global competitiveness and sustainability. The core areas of focus are: Workforce Development, Regulatory Approvals, Access to Capital, Tax & Incentives, Energy Security & Infrastructure and Indigenous Partnerships. Daniel Tisch, President and CEO of the OCC, said “By bringing together stakeholders from across Ontario’s mining sector, we will generate evidence-based recommendations to unlock investment, enhance regulatory certainty, strengthen partnerships between industry, Indigenous communities and government, and address workforce shortages.” (OCC)

• 🇨🇦 Over in British Columbia, EY Canada shared insights from their BC Mineral & Coal Exploration Survey 2024 and pointed out that exploration activities decreased for the 2nd year in a row with 15% less meters drilled and 14% less money spent. The report suggests government policy may be negatively impacting exploration while also examining some bright spots like coal and battery metals. You can download the report —> (EY Canada)

• 🇺🇦 An excellent map of Ukraine’s mineral resources compiled by the Visual Capitalist. The country claims to have $15T in minerals and has Europe’s largest reserves of lithium, uranium and titanium. With graphite, manganese, iron and beryllium reserves, it is no surprise that the United States and France are interested in a minerals deal. (Visual Capitalist)

• ☄️ AstroForge, the much hyped asteroid mining startup, ran into issues last week on its first mission. The company’s Odin spacecraft had hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket, but AstroForge lost communications with Odin after separation. Our own view? It took SpaceX three failed launches and a near bankruptcy before it found its groove. We like the transparency and explanations by AstroForge and like how they phrased this bump in the road: “While we can’t guarantee success, one thing is certain: we will keep learning, iterating, and taking shots on goal—because space is unforgiving, and you only get better by doing.” (AstroForge)

• 🇨🇦 We curate news, so don’t blame us for this one. Toronto Today’s Gabe Oatley took a look at PDAC’s $63m impact on the city and the boost it gives to Strip Clubs, yes you heard that right. This selfless reporter went on scene to get a first-hand account of how PDAC impacts this hidden industry. One worker at Filmores Gentleman’s Club said, “I just think of it as a massive bachelor party of dudes going crazy.” Owners from The House of Lancaster & Club Zanzibar said the mining folks are pretty easy-going, spend money and it increases revenues by 30-40%. When PDAC was asked to comment on the strip club surge, they responded, "convention and similar large-scale events bring thousands of visitors to the city, driving economic growth and benefiting local businesses." We like this response as we know it is a tiny contingent who frequent such clubs and its unfortunate that this reporter is giving the impression that it is rampant among attendees. (TorontoToday.ca)

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