September 17th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

 ^{**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

Here are some of the notable government policy moves this week:

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Canada announced the first 5 priority projects to be referred to its new Major Projects Office (MPO) for consideration. These include Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay Copper Mine Project in East-Central Saskatchewan and Newmont & Imperial Metals Red Chris Mine expansion in northern British Columbia. For these first projects, the work of the MPO will be to close final regulatory and permitting gaps, co-ordinate with provinces and territories, and ensure financing plans can be achieved. It will be critical for the MPO to show its breaking down silos and not adding another layer of bureaucracy. Regardless, we are pleased to see several mining projects in this initial list. (Canada)

• 🇨🇦 The B.C. General Employees' Union and Professionals Employees Association leveraged the announcement to say that staff in the mineral and mines offices in Vancouver and Cranbrook will join 8,500 government workers on picket lines. The union is in its third week of strike action and represents over 95,000 members in British Columbia. It is looking for an 8.25% increase over two years for some of its members. (CBC)

• 🇨🇦 The Government of Saskatchewan also leveraged the federal announcement to say that its Critical Minerals Processing Investment Incentive will support the development of Foran Mining Corporation's McIlvenna Bay mine which will allow the miner to earn up to $70m in transferable royalty tax credits. We like this positive coordination! (Saskatchewan)

• 🇨🇦 Prime Minister Carney also unveiled a new Indigenous Advisory Council for the new Major Projects Office which includes 11 indigenous leaders from across Canada. These leaders will help guide the MPO’s work to ensure that major projects create opportunities for equity ownership and responsible resource management through meaningful participation with Indigenous Peoples. (Government of Canada)

• 🇨🇦 Canada’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition Bureau of Canada, will review the Anglo Teck mega-deal. It was also reported in The Globe & Mail that Prime Minister Carney told Anglo American that they would have to move the headquarters to Canada in order for the deal to be approved. Despite that, the Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, said “I think right now that it’s not enough, and also we need to think about longer term, and how can we make sure that ultimately we create jobs, but we have a strong headquarters, not only now, but also for the next decades.” She said that further discussions were needed with both companies. Let’s be real, promises aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Corporate by-laws that require a majority of Canadian board members and/or domiciling in Canada would be a much stronger “promise”. (The Globe & Mail)

• 🇺🇸 During the 69th annual International Atomic Energy Agency general conference in Vienna, Austria, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the United States should stockpile more uranium in order to reduce its dependence on Russia and ensure the stability of future nuclear power generation. He said, “We’re moving to a place — and we’re not there yet — to no longer use Russian enriched uranium.” Needless to say, lots of uranium miners were up on the news. According to the IAEA the United States only stockpiles about 14 months worth of supply, while Europe has enough for 2.5 years and China has enough for the next 12. (Financial Post)

• 🇺🇸 Bloomberg reported that the United States through the US International Development Finance Corp. is in discussions with New York-based investment firm Orion Resource Partners to establish a $5bn fund that would operate as a joint venture between the two organizations. If Orion Resource Partners wasn’t on your potential funder list, I bet they are now. That is a lot of cheddar cheese to play with. We like it. (Bloomberg)

• 🇺🇸 Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs appointed Walter Lesley “Les” Presmyk to serve as the State Mine Inspector after Republican Paul Marsh resigned on August 15th. Arizona is the only state that elects a mine inspector. Presmyk said he will serve out the end of the term to 2026 and then run for election. (KJZZ)

• 🇺🇸 The Department of the Interior is proposing to rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule. “The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land – preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” said Secretary Doug Burgum. (DOI)

• 🇨🇩 🇷🇼 🇺🇸 Reuters has reported that the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda will work with third parties like the United States to revamp their mineral supply chains and develop reforms in order to attract investment to the region. More information here → (Reuters)

• 🇦🇺 The Queensland Government is investing A$10m in Vecco Group’s mine and commercial-scale electrolyte facility to establish Australia’s first vanadium battery supply chain. (Queensland)

• 🇩🇿 Algeria’s President announced a government shuffle where Mourad Adjal, head of state-run electricity and gas utility Sonelgaz, will become Energy Minister while the former Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab will now be in charge of a new portfolio for mines and hydrocarbons.

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇨🇦 Barrick has reached an agreement to sell it’s Hemlo gold mine in Canada to Carcetti Capital Corp. for proceeds up to $1.09bn. Upon closing, Carcetti intends to change its name to Hemlo Mining Corp. and appoint new leadership including Jonathan Awde as Executive Chairman and Jason Kosec as President & CEO. Once a Bay street powerhouse, the company is but a shell of its old Canadian self. With CEO Bristow quipping about redomiciling to the United States earlier this year, one has to wonder how much longer Barrick will remain in Canada. Its no wonder that Prime Minister Carney required any Teck Resources deal to include a head office in Canada and strong commitments to the country. (GlobalNewswire)

• 🇨🇦 Denver-based Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT, ASX: NEM, PNGX: NEM) has applied for a voluntary delisting of its common shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange which is expected to be effective on or about the close of trading September 24th, 2025. The miner cited low trading volumes, administrative efficiency and reducing costs as its reasons for the delisting.

• 🇨🇦 Newmont also agreed to sell its Coffee Project in Yukon, Canada to Fuerte Metals Corporation (TSX.V: FMT) for up to $150m in total consideration. The transaction includes $10m cash, $40m in equity consideration and a 3.0% Net Smelter Return royalty on the Coffee Project that can be repurchased by Fuerte Metals for $100m. Newmont’s confidence in Fuerte Metals sent the stock flying nearly 50%.

• 🇹🇷 Canada’s Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX: AGI) has agreed to sell its Turkish subsidiary and its projects in Northwestern Turkey to a middle east mining company for $470m, ending a years-long $1bn legal battle. “This transaction marks a positive outcome, allowing us to crystalize significant value for our Turkish assets, and utilize the proceeds to support the development of our portfolio of other high-return growth projects. These projects are all located in North America, they are all lower cost, and they underpin one of the strongest growth profiles in our sector,” said John A. McCluskey, President and CEO of Alamos. (Globe & Mail)

• 🇸🇰 Canada’s Cameco was touting a new long-term agreement to supply natural uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to Slovenské elektrárne (SE) for use in its nuclear power plants in Slovakia. The miner is up nearly 50% in 2025.

• 🇳🇴 Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has divested it’s 0.44% stake in French miner Eramet on ethical grounds. Eramet's role as operator of Indonesia's PT Weda Bay Nickel joint venture mine caught the eye of the funds ethics watchdog. "The Council on Ethics recommends that Eramet SA be excluded... due to an unacceptable risk that the company is contributing to, or is itself responsible for, severe environmental damage and serious violation of the human rights of uncontacted indigenous people," the council said in a statement. It was reported by Reuters that an Indonesian task force has seized plots spanning hundreds of acres from miners PT Weda Bay Nickel and PT Tonia Mitra Sejahtera for lack of relevant forestry permits this week, so the move isn’t surprising. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 Highland Copper Company Inc. (TSXV: HI) has received a non-binding Letter of Interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for potential debt financing of up to US$250m to support development of its fully permitted Copperwood Project in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (Highland Copper)

• 🇨🇦 Electra Battery Materials (NASDAQ: ELBM; TSX-V: ELBM) has signed a term sheet for C$17.5m in proposed funding from Invest Ontario, an agency of the Government of Ontario, to support construction of its cobalt sulfate refinery in Temiskaming Shores. The stock shot up on the news but came back down to earth and is up about 12% since last Friday. The company’s stock is down over 50% year-to-date, so hopefully this is the start of better days. (EBM)

MINING BITS

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted 10-3 to rename “Halfbreed Creek” in North Dakota to Camp Cherith Creek. Bismarck resident Valerie Barbie brought forward the proposal and was commended for her grassroots campaign to get the change approved. Renaming of places, buildings, structures and so forth can be politically charged, but this one seems to make a lot of sense to us. (Politico) - A dated article points out that 1,000 towns, lakes, streams, creeks and mountain peaks across the U.S. still bear racist names. (AXIOS)

• 🇦🇺 The ABC takes a look at Tyrecycle, a dedicated off-road mining tire recycling facility in Port Hedland, Australia. The tires are broken down and then sent to Perth for further processing where the rubber is given a second life as things like road base, playgrounds or surfaces of athletics tracks. The problem? About 95% of mining tires are buried in Australia. Tyre Stewardship Australia’s CEO is calling on the government to change their permissions for mining companies so that tires can no longer be buried. The government’s response seems tepid with lots of “talking points” on government action to date. Certainly worth keeping an eye on. And for those wondering why we have tyre/tire - thank British versus American English. (ABC)

• 🇬🇧 In a warehouse just outside Nottingham, vast racks of geological core are carefully curated and stored in climate-controlled conditions. The British Geological Survey retains over 600km of physical specimens that are of national importance. So why even keep them in the increasing age of digitization? The BGS says, “Although geological observations and digital samples have significant long-term value, they are limited by the context in which they were collected and the technologies available at the time. Discarding physical samples after digitizing risks losing the ability to re-examine them with new techniques and technologies as they emerge in future.” Makes sense to us. (BGS)

• 🇺🇸 OK, OK, this isn’t exactly mining, but our readers have proved over and over again that they like the spicy stuff. New York Attorney General Letitia James has brought indictments against executives at RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc. What does this publicly traded company do? They run strip clubs in several states. What are they charged with? Apparently they bribed a former New York Department of Taxation and Finance auditor and supervisor, in exchange for favorable treatment during at least six different sales tax audits spanning over a decade. The auditor received at least 13 complimentary multi-day trips to Florida where he was given up to $5,000 per day for private dances at RCI-owned strip clubs, including Tootsie’s Cabaret in Miami. (NYC Attorney General)

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