October 2nd, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

Last Friday, China’s Central Bank cut interest rates, lowered cash reserve requirements for banks and committed to raising 2 trillion yuan through the issuance of special sovereign bonds (roughly $285bn USD). The money raised will go to several initiatives to stimulate the economy and well the markets reacted on Monday. Exchanges in China & Hong Kong saw their largest single day gains in decades. Not surprisingly, a number of metals associated with China’s growth and manufacturing saw gains.

Yesterday, in more worrisome news, Iran retaliated against Israel for the killing of Hezbollah’s leader in Lebanon last week. Iran fired several hundred missiles into Israel and there is a legitimate concern that this will lead to a wider escalation in the region. Israel has already said that it will respond. WTI Crude was up on the day, although down from last week. Gold & Silver were both up on the day.

^{**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.}

MINExpo 2024 - WHAT A TRADE SHOW!

The National Mining Association’s MINExpo 2024 did not disappoint. With over 44,000+ industry professionals and over 1,900+ industry suppliers, it was a show not to be missed. We saw pavilions representing Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Germany, Peru, & Saudi Arabia.

On an unrelated note, we do find it odd that many sports arenas now make attendees walk through security gates to get into a game, yet you can walk into a major global tradeshow with just a badge. We did see one officer with a K-9 walking around but wonder whether security for these types of events should be increased. Maybe we have watched too many episodes of 24 & Jack Bauer.

Anyways, the show floors were impressive and we loved looking at all of the massive machinery & technology from companies like Caterpillar, Epiroc, Hexagon, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Komatsu, Rokion, Sandvik, Scania, ThoroughTec Simulation and The Weir Group while one announcement stole the show.

In what seemed to be the biggest deal at MINExpo, Liebherr and Fortescue signed a $2.8bn agreement which expands their zero emission equipment partnership. The deal includes 475 zero emission Liebherr machines – approximately 360 autonomous battery-electric trucks, 55 electric excavators and 60 battery-powered dozers. We’d like to get the commission on that deal! (Liebherr)

Other notable mentions:

MineConnect Ontario which has traditionally represented Northern Ontario suppliers, will now cover all of Ontario. The Ontario Minister of Mines, George Pirie, and the Associate Minister of Mines, Stephen Crawford, were on hand for the announcement. (MineConnect)

Perenti and Sandvik have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) centered on developing cutting-edge diesel-electric equipment for underground mines. This collaboration aims to enhance sustainability, efficiency and productivity in underground mining operations. (Sandvik) or (Perenti)

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 European Commission and The United States welcomed seven new members into the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Forum at a meeting in New York last week - the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the Philippines, Serbia, Türkiye, and Zambia. They join Argentina, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Namibia, Peru, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan who were announced in July (European Commission). They also issued a joint statement related to the progress of 32 MSP projects whereby 7 have reached key milestones. (U.S. Department of State)

• 🇺🇸 The Department of Defense announced a $12.9 million award via the Defense Production Act Investments program to Nano One Materials Corp. (TSE: NANO). The award will help optimize and increase Nano One's production of active materials for lithium iron phosphate cathodes at its Candiac, Québec and Burnaby, British Columbia facilities. Since the announcement last week, the stock is up nearly 60%. (U.S. Department of Defense)

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $19.5m fund to produce critical minerals and materials. There are four areas of interest for this funding application: 1. Coproduction of Critical Minerals and Materials and Carbon Manufacturing Precursor Materials from Coal, Coal Waste, and Other Unconventional Carbon-based Feedstocks; 2. Recovery of Heavy Rare Earth Elements from Secondary and Unconventional Resources; 3. Critical Mineral Recovery from Produced Water; and 4. Process Diversification: Production of Rare Earth Elements from Secondary/Unconventional Resources and Recycled Materials. The application deadline is November 26th, 2024. (National Energy Technology Laboratory)

• 🇺🇸 Current Vice President Kamala Harris promised to create a stockpile of critical minerals that the United States can rely upon should she become President. The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party in December recommended creating a reserve of critical minerals and using $1bn to expand the existing national defense stockpile. (Mining.com)

• 🇨🇦 With a British Columbia provincial election scheduled for October 19th, the two main competitors released their platforms on mining last week. Both the Conservative Party of BC and the incumbent BC NDP agree that permitting timelines for critical mineral projects are taking too long, but they differ in a number of other areas. (Conservative Party of BC) & (BC NDP)

• 🇹🇿 Tanzania's mining regulator has ordered all mining firms and traders exporting gold to allocate at least 20% for sale to the central bank to bolster the bank's move to diversify its foreign reserves. The bank purchased 418kg of gold in the 12 months up until June and apparently wants to purchase 6 metric tons of gold in the current financial year. (Reuters)

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Alkhorayef was at MINExpo in Las Vegas and had meetings with executives from The Weir Group, Caterpillar, Theiss, Sandvik, Hexagon and Impossible Metals as the Kingdom looks to become a player in the mining sector (Arab News). Following his visit to the United States, the Minister is in Canada this week where he plans to meet his counterparts. He said that he doesn’t see any barriers preventing dealmaking by the kingdom into Canada’s mining sector, despite government rules restricting investments from state-owned foreign entities, something that Chinese firms have experienced first-hand. (The Financial Times)

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇨🇩 A congolese state where Kamoto Copper Company operates says that the company owes them a little over €800m ($885.75m USD). Glencore owns 75% of the mine while Gecamines owns the other 25%. A spokesperson from the Finance Ministry said the government was reviewing the operators accounts to “clarify the situation”. (BNN Bloomberg)

• 🇲🇱 In Mali, four employees of Barrick Gold Corporation were arrested over a week ago for alleged financial crimes. On Monday, the gold giant said it had reached terms with the military junta in the country. After a series of coups in 2020 and 2021, the Mali government cut ties with France and cozied up to Russia, kicking out French troops and replacing them with Russian mercenaries. Barrick’s CEO said details of the agreement will be shared once finalized. (Globe & Mail) 

• Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE: UEC) will acquire 100% of Rio Tinto's Wyoming assets, comprised of the wholly-owned and fully-licensed Sweetwater Plant and a portfolio of uranium mining projects with approximately 175m pounds of historic resources. (PR Newswire)

• Asante Gold (CNSX: ASE), announced an equity financing deal with a strategic investor for $100m. The new capital will be allocated to the advancement of its Bibiani and Chirano mines. Additionally, the funds will facilitate the exploration of new acquisition opportunities and the refinancing of existing liabilities. (Mining Technology)

• Remember when Fortescue’s Chairman & Founder Andrew Forrest called on the London Metals Exchange earlier this year to differentiate between “clean” and “dirty” nickel? Well, Wyloo Metals which he owns under his Tattarang holding company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Metalshub to improve transparency of the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials, pricing and provenance in international nickel markets. Wyloo intends to use Metalshub for the sale of its low-carbon nickel and nickel concentrate products following a re-start of its Kambalda, Western Australia nickel operations. The collaboration also aims to develop a price index for low-carbon nickel concentrate and nickel sulphate, to be referenced in future sales contracts. (Newswire)

• KPMG Canada released their survey results: “Digging Deep: Risks and opportunities in mining.” They surveyed over 100 mining executives in global mining jurisdictions to understand what the short and long-term risks are from the industry’s perspective. They discuss views on the sector’s growth and outlook, technology & innovation, ESG and cyber risk. Suppliers, consultants, executives and mining professionals, please Dig In! (KPMG Canada)

MINING BITS

• 🇬🇧 The last coal fired power plant in the United Kingdom shut down on Monday, making it the first G7 country to become coal-free. 14 OECD countries no longer use coal for power generation. 3 of those, Costa Rica, Estonia and Lithuania never had plants to begin with. Others closed their coal plants in the following years: Iceland in 1951, Switzerland in 1960, Luxembourg in 1998, Latvia in 2010, Belgium in 2016, Sweden and Austria in 2020, Portugal in 2021, Norway in 2023, and Slovakia in 2024. In Canada, there are still 8 coal-fired power plants (1 in New Brunswick, 4 in Nova Scotia and 3 in Saskatchewan). In Australia, there are still 18 coal-fired plants (4 in New South Wales, 8 in Queensland, 3 in Victoria and 3 in Western Australia). In the United States, there are still 215 coal-fired power plants despite the United States closing 290 between 2010 and 2019, largely due to cheaper natural gas. However, coal-power generation is on the rise globally as many developing countries leverage the abundant, reliable and affordable black sedimentary rock. (Uniper)

• 🇬🇧 At the FT Mining Summit in London last week, state back investments were discussed. One panelist mentioned that over $30bn has flowed from sovereign wealth funds into the mining sector in the past two years while a mining executive pointed out that most of these flows go to larger producers. An investment firm executive said it is encouraging to see governments like Australia, Canada and the United States putting money into projects, but they all need to work on permitting, which I think most of our readers would agree with. Want to know who said what? Check out the link —→ (Fastmarkets)

• 🇺🇸 Scientists at the University of Maryland, led by Professors Yiping Qi and Liangbing Hu, have created a form of poplar wood that is as strong as chemically treated wood and on a par with aluminum in terms of tensile strength. While we think we’d still prefer our Pepsi (or Coke) out of an aluminum can, we could see lots of construction applications should this research advance. (WoodCentral)

• 🇮🇱 Congratulations to KOIOS, an Israeli financial intelligence startup specializing in AI-driven detection of online stock manipulation, which raised $5m from family offices and private investors. The company has developed an AI-powered SaaS platform that analyzes conversations across social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Yahoo Finance. The technology alerts companies to potential online manipulation efforts, providing real-time, actionable insights to help them counteract negative influence campaigns. Certainly a tool that many companies would find useful in today’s age! (StartupHub.ai)

• 🇦🇺 The Australian Broadcasting Corporation takes a look at the critically endangered night parrot, their relationship with dingoes and Agrimin’s (ASX: AMN) mining project. Turns out that the night parrots numbers fell drastically with the introduction of invasive feral cats way back when and they have only managed to hang on in an area where dingoes eat the cats. With roughly 250 left in Australia, several concerns relate to the new project including greater human access, fires due to human activity and night driving given that is when the parrots are active. The proposals by Agrimin seem collaborative and thoughtful so we will watch this one closely. (ABC News)

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