September 11th, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

WTI Crude continued its free fall to its lowest level since November 2021. Weaker oil consumption in China along with a switch to electric vehicles also lead to OPEC revising down its growth projections for 2024 and 2025. The prospect of the cartel raising production in December is also hampering prices.

Metals that have done well this past year, held their ground this week while poorly performing metals got walloped along with stocks. Fun Fact - September is traditionally the worst month of the year for the stock market. It is the only month of the year to average a negative return over the past 98 years. OK maybe not such a fun fact if you are invested, but an important one!

^{**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.

• 🇯🇵 Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (METI) announced ¥347.9bn ($2.4bn USD) for 12 domestic projects for electric vehicle (EV) battery production. The biggest winners were Panasonic/Subaru (¥463m), Toyota/PPES/PEVE (¥245m), Nissan (¥153.3m), Panasonic/Mazda (¥83.3m) and Nippon Shokubai (¥37.5m). More importantly, it signals the country’s continued support for a move to electrification. (Argus Media)

• 🇨🇦 The Canadian government awarded almost $8.4m to Cyclic Materials Incorporated (Cyclic Materials) and Green Graphite Technologies Inc. (GGT) under the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration (CMRDD) program. This funding will support the development of a circular economy for rare earth elements for permanent magnets and the recycling of graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries in Canada. (Government of Canada)

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Department of Defense announced a $4.22 million award to Rare Earth Salts in Beatrice, Nebraska for developing and expanding production of terbium oxide from recycled fluorescent light bulbs. Terbium is an essential element for rare earth magnets in many key defense systems. (U.S. Department of Defense)

• 🇦🇺 The Western Australian government announced a $30m venture fund to help start-ups and scale-ups in the state. One of the focus areas is mining so if you know some local entrepreneurs, definitely flag this announcement. (Chamber of Commerce & Industry WA)

• 🇦🇺 The Australian government released a digital Critical Minerals Prospectus of 55 projects that are investment-ready. To all of our investor readers, definitely worth a look. (Government of Australia)

• 🇦🇺 Things are also heating up between the mining industry and Australia’s Labor government. At the heart of the argument is the “same job, same pay” laws that come into effect November 1st which will force companies to pay workers engaged through labor-hire firms the same as company employees. Major miners have said they are already having a tough time competing with lower wage jurisdictions and this will force their hand. The Prime Minister says they can compete without reducing wages. Cue the Australian minerals industry parliamentary dinner this past Monday. In her speech at the event, Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable went on the offensive, saying conflict has been brought to the miners by government, building on her “undermine us at your peril” language used days earlier. In his speech right after, the Prime Minister closed with “I look forward to continuing to work with you constructively to ensure the prosperity of your businesses, prosperity as well of those who work in your businesses.” Over the past decade, mining companies have paid $356bn in corporate taxes and royalties to the Australian government. (Financial Review) & (Published PM Speech)

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that in order to improve transparency and promote early engagement of proposed mining activities on public lands, it has issued a new policy to ensure that Tribal Nations will be notified whenever mineral exploration work is proposed on BLM-managed lands. (Bureau of Land Management)

• 🇺🇸 Former President Donald Trump vowed to boost mining of rare earth elements if he gets back into office, “We have sites that are phenomenal, they have everything you want in terms of rare earths, and we can’t use them because of environmental protection,” Trump said. “But we’re going to end that very quickly, as soon as I get into office.” (E&E News)

• 🇺🇸 The Biden administration is apparently close to blocking the $14.9bn deal between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel citing national security concerns. Given that Japan is a close ally of the United States, what do you think of this move? Given that both of our founders at The Mine Wire spent time living in Japan, we are probably biased. (Reuters)

• 🇬🇧 Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was given a major setback by London’s High Court which has awarded millions in damages to Kazakh mining group ENRC due to the investigators own wrongdoing. The court ruled that the SFO induced ENRC's former lawyer to act against the company’s interests and wouldn’t have launched a probe otherwise. In a separate case the former FTSE 100 company is seeking nearly $1bn in losses it claims were caused by the probe. Ouch! (Reuters)

• 🇨🇳 China wrapped up its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation last week and promised 360bn yuan ($50.7bn) over three years for credit lines and investments. This is a 27% increase compared to the $40bn that was promised in 2021, but lower than the $60bn that was committed in 2015 and 2018. China pushed back on the debt relief that some African nations were calling for. (Reuters)

• 🇮🇩 The Indonesian Minister of Mines called out the G7's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) which had promised $20bn to the nation to move away from coal power. To date, only $153.8m has flowed to Indonesia. (Reuters)

• 🇧🇴 The Bolivian National Strategic Public Company for Lithium Deposits (YLB) has said that CBC (China), Protecno (Italy), Eramet (France), and Eau Lithium (Australia) have received the highest scores for technological maturity in the second international call for lithium reserve development projects and will be invited to negotiate projects. (PV Magazine)

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• Maybe its just us, but there seemed to be quite a few deals announced this week. First up, AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU, JSE: ANG) agreed to buy Centamin (LSE: CEY, TSE: CEE) in a deal that values the gold miner at about $2.5bn. AngloGold was down 4.69% on the day while Centamin saw a nice 23.47% jump. (Reuters)

• First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE: AG, TSX: AG, FSE: FMV) and Gatos Silver, Inc. (NYSE: GATO, TSX: GATO) agreed to a merger whereby Gatos shareholders will receive 2.550 common shares of First Majestic for each common share of Gatos held. The proposed Transaction implies a total equity value for Gatos of approximately US$970m and Gatos shareholders will own roughly 38% of First Majestic shares on a fully-diluted basis. First Majestic is down over 8% since the news while Gatos is up over 3%. (First Majestic)

• Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT, ASX: NEM, PNGX: NEM) announced that it agreed to sell its Telfer operation, Newmont’s 70% interest in the Havieron gold-copper project, and other related interests in the Paterson region, all in Australia, to Greatland Gold plc (AIM: GGP) for gross proceeds up to $475m. (Newmont Corporation)

• Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM) has entered an agreement with Andrada Mining (LON: ATM) to jointly develop the Lithium Ridge asset in Namibia. Andrada’s stock is up over 14% since the news broke. (Mining.com)

• Canada Nickel Company (CVE: CNC) announced that it received a letter of interest for up to $500m USD in debt financing from Export Development Canada (EDC). The stock is up around 4% since the news which is something given how depressing Nickel prices are at the moment. Given that EDC is a federal crown corporation, the LOI signals potential long-term support of this critical domestic project. (Canada Newswire)

• Going the opposite way is Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL, ASX: PLL) which announced it was pulling an application to a popular U.S. government loan program office (LPO) given costs and the significant depression of Lithium prices. In a statement to Reuters, Piedmont CEO Keith Phillips said the company does not feel "a sense of urgency at this stage" to move forward on the LPO application given market conditions and changes to its North Carolina plans. He added that the company will "maintain discipline and manage cash, which invariably means that our timelines for development will" be delayed. (Reuters)

• Ascot Resources Ltd. (TSX: AOT; OTCQX: AOTVF) announced that it will suspend operations and focus on mine development after the Big Missouri Mine and Premier Northern Lights ramp fell behind schedule, meaning not enough ore to keep their mill running. The company believes it has 3 to 6 months of development work to get back on track, but will need to raise funds to complete this work. The stock is down 63.6% since the news falling from 0.44c to 0.16c per share. We are certainly rooting for them to figure all this out and restart operations. (Ascot Resources)

• Snowline Gold (TSX-V: SGD, OTCQB: SNWGF) on the other hand, had some sexy drill results reported yesterday that shot the stock up over 4% on the day. With high grade results and two new promising targets, keep an eye on this one. (Snowline Gold)

• An interesting read in the Financial Times about Kazatomprom. Their CEO claims that while the company would like to keep their client base diversified, they are being pulled closer and closer to Russia and China due to geopolitical forces. Kazatomprom sent 49% of uranium under its control to the Asian market, 32% to Europe and 19% to the American market last year. There is a question of what happens to western countries if this production shifts to China or other Asian neighbors. Maybe its time to buy the dip in North American uranium stocks! (Financial Times)

• Major Drilling (TSX: MDI) - (Report Here) - The company reported its first quarter 2025 fiscal results. The company had revenue of $190m, an increase of 13.1% from revenue reported in its last quarter but down 4.5% compared to the same period last year. EBITDA of $34.3m (or $0.42 per share) was down from $40.3m for the same period last year. Mr. Denis Larocque, President & CEO of Major Drilling said, “We were particularly pleased with the results from our Australasian and Chilean operations, which helped offset a slowdown in North America driven by the lack of junior financing.” The stock is down 18.9% since earnings.

MINING BITS

• 🇨🇦 While this isn’t mining related, we love this charity and the work they are doing. The Vancouver Island Marmot is one of only a handful of mammals that is endemic to Canada. Their population got a big boost this year with 86 pups born and now the estimated population is more than 300, a far cry from the 22 scientists could find in the wild in 2003. It is a testament to the great work that the Foundation is doing but they still have a long way to go. If you are feeling generous, please donate at www.marmots.org. One of our founders is a monthly donor to this great organization. (CBC)

• 🇨🇳 Xinhua news reported that a large deposit with estimated reserves of 100m tonnes of molybdenum ores has been found in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. According to the US Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024, identified resources of molybdenum worldwide total about 25.4m tons (23.04m tonnes). So if this discovery is correct, it seems like a whopper! Currently over 50% of the world’s production and reserves are in China (53%) with Peru (16%), Chile (15%) and the United States (12%) rounding out the top 4. (Xinhua News)

• 🇨🇳 Three geological sites in China have recently been listed as Geological Heritage Sites by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). These sites include the Permian vegetation of the Wuda Fossil Site, the Dashanpu Middle Jurassic Dinosaur Fossils Site and the Guilin Karst. Our favorite, the Wuda Permian vegetation fossil site, dubbed the "Vegetational Pompeii," features a peat-forming tropical rainforest preserved in remarkable detail by volcanic ash. It runs between two coal seams and therefore, is excellent at demonstrating which plants formed coal and what a coal-forming forest looked like. (China’s The State Council) 

• 🇰🇷 ⛏️ Speaking of coal, South Korea’s largest coal mine closed last week after 88 years in operations. The Jangseong Coal Mine opened in 1936 under Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. The mine produced 94m tons of coal over its lifetime and even produced 566,000 tons of coal in 2012. However, the mine only produced 67,000 tons of coal last year as the nation moves to greener forms of energy. The mine was operated by state-owned Korea Coal Corp. which now has only one coal mine left and that is slated to close next year. (The Korea Times)

• 🇰🇷 🖥️ In other South Korean news, a Director at the Korea Food Research Institute, a government agency, was arrested for setting up a cryptocurrency operation on site. The employee used the Institute’s budget to “buy mining equipment,” including air conditioning units and “separate electrical facilities.” The Director “set up a mining space in a warehouse” in the institute’s public relations office “where employees were not allowed to enter due to the coronavirus pandemic.” He allowed the operation to run from April 2022 until September 2023 when he was caught. (Crypto News)

• 🇯🇵 💡 In Japan, on the other hand, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has sanctioned bitcoin mining and has placed mining units next to solar farms in several prefectures to capture energy oversupply and turn it into revenue. (Bitcoin.com News)

• 🇦🇺 🫨 Researchers in Australia published an article in nature geoscience which suggests that earthquakes may be responsible for the development of gold nuggets in quartz veins. The scientists hypothesized that it has to do with quartz’s piezoelectricity, or its ability to develop electrical charge when strained. Don’t ask us to explain, but check out the publication if interested —> (Nature Geoscience)

• 🇦🇺 We enjoyed watching a video of an Australian “outback crystal hunter” unearthing a 4kg amethyst. The stone is worth $3,500 according to the prospector which is a nice days work! Watch the video at the link here —> (news.com.au)

Not Signed Up to The Mine Wire Yet? 

We do the hard work and curate news from around the globe related to mining and bring it to you once a week in a free and easy to read format. Whether you’re a seasoned industry professional or a curious enthusiast, our newsletter delivers the latest updates, cutting-edge trends, and expert analysis straight to your inbox in an exciting format once a week. Subscribe below!