The Northern Miner March 20 2023 Issue 6

CANADIAN EXPLORATION

Make metals with China not war, Friedland tells PDAC

PDAC | Fighting climate change more important than Taiwan, Ivanhoe founder says

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Robert Friedland, founder and executive co-chair of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN), says the West shouldn’t go to war over Taiwan because it needs investment from China to mine metals for the global green energy transition.

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Canada is aiming to trim four to five years off the time it takes for mining project approval, mainly by syncing federal

and provincial requirements, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says.

With Canadian mines taking 12 to 15 years on average from discovery to commissioning, Wilkin-

son said he was open to cutting the review process by a third during an interview in Toronto with The Northern Miner as PDAC wound down on Mar. 8.

“That would be a good objective,” the minister said. “I was just meeting with officials from Australia, we were talking about regulatory process. They have mines they are permitting in four years and yet they are very strongly focused on environmental and Indigenous issues. I’m not saying we can necessarily get there, but we should be striving to actually be as efficient as we possibly can.”

Canada is among Western countries trying to ramp up mining output to meet rising demand for metals used in electric vehicle batteries instead of relying on China. The Asian power refines 40% of the globe’s copper, 59% of lithium, 68% of nickel and 73% of cobalt, according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution. But many countries are targeting net-zero emissions for dates long before they will have approved the mines needed to achieve their climate change-fighting goals.

A day earlier at PDAC, Wilkinson told reporters that the government is also considering how to match funding opportunities by the United States for critical mineral projects while balancing national security with the need for Chinese investment. The U.S. Energy Department is looking at helping pay for the construction of some large mines, such as the US$4 billion Thacker Pass lithium operation in Nevada proposed by Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC).

Wilkinson mentioned that Foran Mining’s (TSXV: FOM; US-OTC: FMCXF) McIlvenna Bay project in Saskatchewan is a contender

Canada’s order last year for China to divest from Canadian companies’ critical minerals projects deprives junior miners when investment bank Goldman Sachs says US$2.8 trillion is needed to meet carbon-zero targets this decade, the legendary financier told hundreds at the PDAC conference on Mar. 5 in Toronto.

“We’re going to have to find capital from Americans or Saudis or sovereign wealth funds, but we need a lot more money coming to junior mining, orders of magnitude more,” Friedland said. “So, I’m all in favour of not going to war over Taiwan.”

The integration of the world economy peaked around 2008 when China was buying about half the world’s copper and making almost everything the world consumed, Friedland said. The global economy has since lost trillions of dollars through balkanization and trade wars after former president Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods that President Joe Biden hasn’t rescinded.

“So, we see a gradual, slow drift towards war between America and China,” he said. “This is a very bad idea. We should compete like the Harvard-Yale football game and break each other’s collarbones according to a set of rules.”

Ore-smashing tech

In a speech ranging from the solar system’s 230-million-year orbit around the Milky Way to Ivanhoe’s startup next year of the world’s largest precious metals project, Flatreef in South Africa, Friedland also mocked the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and promoted the potential of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where Ivanhoe and China’s Zijin Mining own the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine.

He also touted new technologies he says will cut 99% of the energy used to pulverize ore and

slash the time to make a lithium battery from brine to three days from 19 months.

Friedland said mining is under increasing pressure to produce green energy metals and ran through a series of statistics: 2.3 billion people have migrated to cities over the last 35 years, people breathe the most carbon dioxide in the air in 2 million years at 420 parts per million, and the Russia-Ukraine war has fired 50,000 tonnes of copper into oblivion using just one type of artillery shell, among many.

He also said electric vehicles hit a 10% market share in 2022, eight years ahead of a forecast by the International Energy Agency, and renewable energy capacity reached 320 gigawatts last year, about equal to 320 nuclear plants.

“So, the United States government initiated the U.S. inflation creation act setting aside US$370 billion,” Friedland said. “You

PM40069240

Ottawa wants to cut mine approval times by a third: Wilkinson

See FRIEDLAND / 8

See OTTAWA / 8

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson spoke with The Northern Miner at PDAC on Mar. 8. COLIN MCCLELLAND

Australia’s Burgundy buys Canada’s largest diamond miner Arctic Canadian

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES | Firm to pay US$136 for indebted Ekati operator

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Burgundy Diamond Mines

(ASX: BDM) is buying debt-burdened Arctic Canadian, owner of Canada’s largest gem workings, the Ekati mine, to become one of the world’s biggest diamond operations.

The purchase price is US$136 million, composed of US$21 million in stock, US$15 million in cash, and Burgundy will cover US$100 million in debt owed by Arctic Canadian, it said in a news release on Mar. 14. The Australian company will also assume a further US$69 million of debt owed by the Calgary, Alta.-headquartered miner, in an agreement with creditors.

Arctic Canadian says the deal will recapitalize Ekati allowing it to keep some 1,100 jobs in at the mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Perth, Australia-based Burgundy, which runs that country’s only diamond cutting and polishing facility, says the acquisition will make it a vertically integrated operator from mining to selling finished stones.

“The acquisition of Ekati is complementary to Burgundy,” the Australian company’s CEO, Kim Truter, said in the release. “We’ve been purchasing rough fancy-coloured diamonds from Ekati in recent years, then cutting and pol-

ishing them in our facilities in Perth to go into high-end jewelry designs.”

Arctic Canadian, a private company owned by DDJ Capital, Brigade Capital and Western Asset Management, has been making a turnaround after former owner Dominion failed two years ago.

The Ekati owner earned revenue of US$494 million last year and adjusted earnings before interest,

taxes, depreciation and amortization of US$200 million on sales of 4.2 million carats, Burgundy said.

The revenue is an increase of more than half compared to 2021, the miner’s president and chief executive officer, Rory Moore, said in an interview with The Northern Miner in December.

“This transaction is a significant positive development for Ekati and for the North,” Moore said in a sep-

arate news release during the week the deal was announced. “I want to acknowledge and thank our current owners for facilitating the restart of operations at Ekati in early 2021. The hard work of our people has led to a return to steady state profitable operations.”

The agreement, which must be approved by Burgundy shareholders, likely in April, also contains incentives for Ekati production. It

allows for payments of US$7.5 million next year and in 2025 if the previous year’s earnings are more than US$200 million.

Burgundy plans to issue stock at an as-yet undetermined price to raise as much as US$150 million for the purchase. The deal calls for Burgundy to pay the US$21 million in stock when the placement is done and the US$15 million in cash in December.

Arctic Canadian had outlined a plan to expand production at its holdings about 300 km northeast of Yellowknife using a novel underwater mining system on kimberlites at the bottoms of lakes. It plans to test the system at the depleted Lynx deposit in 2024 before deploying it on the deposits of Sable Deep, Fox Deep and Point Lake Deep.

The operation will also be extending the life at Ekati’s Misery underground mine, mining out Sable and begin developing the Point Lake open-pit project this summer, Moore said in December.

“I am optimistic about the future of Arctic Canadian,” its chief financial officer, Kristal Kaye, said in the release. “This equity-based investment by Burgundy will greatly improve the financial foundation of the company and our goal of extending mine life at Ekati while continuing to provide employment opportunities for many people in Northern communities.” TNM

Volkswagen chooses Ontario for first battery plant outside Europe

MANUFACTURING | Latest foreign firm to join Ontario battery supply chain

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, announced on Mar. 13 its plans to set up an electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

The facility will be established by Volkswagen’s battery maker subsidiary PowerCo, the Wolfsburg, Germany-headquartered company said in a news release.

The plant will be PowerCo’s first cell factory in North America and its third worldwide behind facilities in Germany and Spain.

Production is planned to start at the new factory in 2027, though Volkswagen didn’t specify when construction of the plant would begin or its estimated cost.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade hailed the Volkswagen announcement in a joint statement.

“Today’s news is a major vote of confidence in Canada and Ontario, and in our shared work to position the country and the province as a global leader on the electric vehicle supply chain,” they said.

“This historic investment is a testament to Canada’s strong and growing battery ecosystem and Ontario’s competitive business environment. With a highly skilled workforce, clean energy, an abundance of critical minerals, access to markets, and a flourishing automotive and battery sector, we are an

attractive investment destination with everything companies need to grow. In addition, Canada and Ontario offer stability and predictability to their business partners.

“We will continue to build on this success by growing our EV ecosystem and supporting clean technology to create well-paying jobs and spur economic growth and prosperity for future generations,” they added.

PowerCo CEO Frank Blome said the subsidiary is ready to introduce “key strategic assets” such as

the unified cell and the standardized cell factory to Canada and the wider North American market.

“We are dedicated to building up regional and therefore robust, transparent and sustainable supply chains,” he said.

The two governments didn’t specify what funding they expect to contribute to the St. Thomas project but other similar deals have come with government funding.

The news comes more than six months after the federal government and Volkswagen signed a

memorandum of understanding with the Volkswagen Group multinational on collaboration to help cement Canada’s position as a destination for EV manufacturing and investment. The Mar. 13 news also marks the fourth foreign company in less than a year to announce plans to invest in battery plants or battery-related projects in Ontario.

In September, South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (LGES) said it inked a production agreement for the supply of about US$63 million

worth of cobalt sulphate for lithium-ion batteries from 2023 to 2025 from Electra Battery Materials’ (TSXV: ELBM; NASDAQ: ELBM) plant in Cobalt, northern Ontario.

Last July, Belgium-based technology firm Umicore said it plans to invest $1.5 billion to build a manufacturing facility near Kingston for the production of cathode active battery materials and their precursor ingredients. Construction of the plant is expected to start this year.

And almost one year ago, on Mar. 23, 2022 LGES and multinational Stellantis N.V., headquartered in Amsterdam, announced plans to invest more than $5 billion in a battery plant in Windsor, which is anticipated to be operational by 2025. TNM

Volkswagen Beetle modified with an electric motor. ADOBE STOCK IMAGE

THE

MAR.

13 NEWS MARKS THE FOURTH FOREIGN COMPANY IN LESS THAN A YEAR TO ANNOUNCE PLANS TO INVEST IN BATTERY PLANTS OR BATTERY-RELATED PROJECTS IN ONTARIO.

Arctic Canadian Diamond operates the Ekati mine 300 km northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T. ARCTIC CANADIAN DIAMOND

Volkswagen electric motor components. ADOBE STOCK IMAGE

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Indigenous ownership models gain steam alongside critical minerals rush

As this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention returned to its March slot in Toronto, welcoming nearly 24,000 attendees, the buzz was undoubtedly around critical and battery metals.

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THE VIEW FROM ENGLAND:

COLUMN | PDAC is over; time for would-be investors to reflect

BY DR CHRIS HINDE Special to The Northern Miner

During the event, the federal government doled out money for juniors to advance their projects (including Search Metals, E3 Lithium and FPX Nickel), and federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told reporters that the government would consider financial support for the construction of new mines as the United States has recently started to do.

BY ALISHA HIYATE

Adding to the momentum was Volkswagen’s post-PDAC announcement on Mar. 13 that the Germany-based automaker has chosen St. Thomas, Ont., as the location of its first overseas battery plant, rather than a U.S. location.

The critical minerals sector is certainly gaining steam, despite volatile, risk-off markets. But there’s still more work to do to win over one more essential partner — Indigenous communities whose traditional lands host the lithium, copper, uranium and other minerals that are so coveted.

To that end, the mining sector has been seeing more and more examples at the junior level where Indigenous communities are acquiring direct equity ownership in companies.

At a seminar hosted by law firm Fasken during the PDAC conference in Toronto, panellists noted that the topic of equity is a hot one at the negotiating table. Seen as a way of aligning the interests of companies and communities and speeding up permitting timelines, companies, governments, and communities seem to be equally eager to explore the possibilities of Indigenous equity ownership.

Ownership goes well beyond the now well-established practice of impact benefit agreements (IBAs), which lay out economic, employment, procurement and other benefits for Indigenous communities. Equity can be purchased, as the Tahltan Nation did with a $5-million investment in Skeena Resources in 2021, or it can be awarded as part of a participation agreement, as seen with Osisko Development recently granting shares to Williams Lake First Nation in relation to the Cariboo gold project in B.C.

There are potentially big benefits for both sides.

“On the proponent side, in addition to bringing into alignment interest, equity is also a tool that can be used to help secure the very important support and at times consent by the Indigenous community and to manage some of those project risks that arise in this regard,” said Sophie Langlois, an associate at Fasken.

Equity participation is also consistent with mining companies’ ESG and sustainability policies, including Indigenous participation and economic reconciliation.

While it is much more frequently seen in the energy sector on the asset level: transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines and renewable energy infrastructure (as noted in a recent Fasken bulletin), equity would also seem to be a no-brainer for mining companies looking to develop projects faster and gain the support and consent of Indigenous communities. There are reasons, however, why equity agreements are often discussed but more rarely implemented.

“It is important to recognize that equity is not a magic solution that we’re all looking for to getting our projects permitted, and can in fact be quite complicated to structure. It may not always be the preferred solution or option by an Indigenous community, nor for the proponent,” Langlois said. “In some instances, the parties may look to alternative structures and options that provide for revenue or profit sharing, or other ways to share in the economic benefits that may make more sense and may align better with the goals of the parties combined with some other oversight or participation.”

Langlois and other panellists also stressed that equity is not a replacement for IBAs and similar agreements, but a complement to them.

Sean Willy, president and CEO of the Des Nedhe Group, a development corporation of the English River First Nation in Saskatchewan, agreed that it’s not “one size fits all” solution.

“Everything depends on what the choice of the community is,” he said. “That’s what self-determination is.”

Willy noted that Indigenous communities want a “seat at the table,” which can mean a seat on the board or an environmental oversight role, as well as own-source revenue, which is key to long-term self-determination.

“There’s a risk that if you’re getting shares from a company and something else negates the value of those shares from an incident that happens in another part of the world — this is now having an impact on our own-source revenue. So I think they have to always find that solution that gets both of those,” he said.

Equity can also be a way of building capacity, and in some cases can be tied to a board seat. However, board seats bring up their own complications in terms of potential conflicts of interest and fiduciary duties to shareholders.

While equity is not the answer in all cases, companies should expect some type of ownership to be on the table.

“In every single conversation I’ve had with First Nations and negotiating agreements over the last few years, the question of ‘would you consider equity participation’ is part of the conversation,” said Zach Romano, a partner at Fasken. “Simply, if a company has a right to produce for resource extraction, the nation is interested in owning a piece of that right. That’s in some cases philosophically important to them.”

Without Indigenous consent and participation, critical minerals development can’t happen on the scale that’s needed. So it’s worth noting that Canada already has a leading model of Indigenous engagement — which at its best encompasses employment, education, training and procurement, community engagement and environmental stewardship — to build on.

As Willy said: “It’s probably one of the best in the world because it’s more fulsome, it’s more holistic and now we’re in those conversations with equity.” TNM

The middle of March is a depressing time in the calendar, and not just because it means the annual PDAC conference is over. Ever since William Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar in 1599, we have associated this time of the year with a warning; “Beware the Ides of March” (Caesar was assassinated on Mar. 15, 44 BC).

We trace our calendar back to the Roman Republic, although the Romans did not number each day of the month from first to last, rather they counted back from three fixed points of the month. Kalends was day 1, Nones was day 7 and Ides was day 15 (‘Ides’ derives from the Latin for divide). Hence, days 2-6 in every month were described as “before the Nones,” days 8-14 were “before the Ides,” and the remainder were “before the Kalends” of the next month.

In Rome, the Ides of each month was a deadline for settling debts, and the Ides of March (Idus martiae) was marked by religious ceremonies. Despite Shakespeare’s best efforts, the middle of March is not historically a particularly risky time of the year for investors. Nevertheless, because the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada has just held its convention, it is an opportune time to remind potential mining investors of the risks involved.

For equities generally, strategists at Morgan Stanley are amongst analysts to have warned that this is a “high risk month for the bear market to resume.” Morgan Stanley recently told clients that, after a slew of data showing the economy in a much more precarious position than previously believed, the stock market “could be poised for another forceful plunge in March.”

Mining equities follow a different cycle from shares in other industries, of course, but it is a cruel one.

Taking a long-term perspective, demand for iron ore, copper and other energy transition metals seems assured. Unfortunately, rising demand for mined commodities inevitably encourages investment in new supply. There is then pressure on the price of metals and minerals, which has a disproportionate impact on mining profitability (given that many of the mine development costs are fixed). Funds raised to finance an increase in production can turn out to have been inefficiently deployed, forcing companies to alter their development plans and reduce costs.

As I wrote in this column two years ago, investors need to be wary of what they’ve heard during corporate presentations at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

For many professional investors, the calibre of the manage-

ment team at a mining company is the most important element in an investment decision. However, the location of that company’s assets comes a close second because mining is a politically vulnerable business (unlike factories, you cannot move mineral deposits); witness First Quantum Minerals’ recent travails in Panama.

Related to the location issue is whether the company has a licence to operate and benefits from ongoing local support. This will be linked to the company’s operating track record, particularly in that region, and how it has handled public relations.

Investors also need to decide on what level of diversity they require in terms of the commodities and countries in which the target company operates. Corporate concentration on a single metal and/or jurisdiction allows greater focus and expertise, but is of course riskier (the ‘eggs in one basket’ adage springs to mind).

Size also matters. Larger companies are better insulated from market shocks, and can ride out any drought in the availability of finance. Investors in junior companies with a late-stage development, or mine, should also be aware that high cost operations can become suddenly uneconomic if the metal price falls. Investors should look for management with ‘skin in the game’ (i.e. they own equity, rather than just share options), are able to articulate their plans to create shareholder value and have the ability to generate investment returns (preferably with experience in the operating country/ commodity).

In mining there is a danger that the marketing hype, particularly for gold explorers, runs well ahead of the asset’s potential. In particular, investors should watch out for ‘near-ologists’ (deposits are not necessarily continuous) and those executives who follow trends (companies that jump between metals/countries).

Avoid promoters (generally speaking, the more gold on them, the less is likely in their deposit), perpetual optimists (management need to know when to bail out) and companies with overpaid executives (who should only be rewarded for results).

March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. As Martius, it was the first month of the Roman year until 153 BC, and marked the beginning of the season for warfare. An auspicious time then for investors to go into battle but they should avoid Caesar’s fate by staying wary, and listening to whispered warnings. TNM

—Dr. Chris Hinde is a mining engineer and the director of Pick and Pen Ltd., a U.K.-based consulting firm. He previously worked for S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Metals and Mining division.

Great Boulder leads week’s top gold assays with Side Well in Australia

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence.

Aproject from Down Under topped two from the Americas in results for the Mar. 3-10 period. Great Boulder Resources (ASX: GBR) led the chart with an assay from its Side Well project in Australia followed by Torex Gold Resources (TSX: TXG) at its Media Luna project in Mexico and Luminex Resources (TSXV: LR) at Condor in Ecuador.

Great Boulder drill hole 23MBRC006A cut 1 metre grading 3,451 grams gold per tonne from 114 metres downhole for a grade x width of 3451 at the Side Well project in Western Australia. It’s by far the highest gold assay at the project’s Mulga Bill target and the first time coarse visible gold has been reported, the company said.

The same hole also returned 1 metre grading 2,374 grams gold from 158 metres depth. More results are due within weeks and Great Boulder says it’s continuing to drill along the 6-km long Mulga Bill corridor.

“Results like this are extremely unusual at Mulga Bill,” Great Boulder managing director Andrew Paterson said in a Mar. 7 filing to the Australia stock market. “We will need to do tight-spaced infill drilling around this area to quantify the extent and grade.”

Side Well lies beside Westgold Resources’ (ASX: WGX) Meekatharra gold operation, about 750 km northeast of Perth. Exploring at Side Well began in the 1980s and Great Boulder signed a joint venture agreement with original prospector Scott Wilson in 2020. Since then, it has drilled at prospects Ironbark and this week’s success, Mulga Bill, the company’s primary asset. Analysis suggests Mulga Bill is an intermediate sulphidation epithermal, a rare gold deposit type for Western Australia.

In Mexico, Torex Gold’s drill

hole ML22-823D cut 28.4 metres grading 40.48 grams gold per tonne from 452.6 metres depth for a grade x width of 1,150.

“Drilling targeting spatial gaps along the existing southern and northern boundaries of the deposit was successful in delivering the required drill density to bring incremental mineralization into the inferred resource category,” CEO Jody Kuzenko said in a Mar. 8 news release.

Torex spent US$19 million on drilling 27,400 metres last year at Media Luna, which is part of the company’s Morelos property about 180 km southwest of Mexico City. It plans to upgrade the resource to a measured estimate from inferred.

Earlier this month, Kuzenko said first production from Media Luna remains on track for next year’s fourth quarter. Construction of the Guajes tunnel under the Balsas River is proceeding well, she said.

In Ecuador, Luminex drill hole CU23-18 cut 317 metres grading 0.97 grams gold per tonne from 28 metres depth for a grade x width of 307. The result was among several from the Cuyes West structure at the Condor project on the border with Peru, about 600 km southeast of Quito.

The hole intersected multiple hangingwall high-grade structures, notably 3 metres grading 39.1 grams gold and 61.7 grams silver from 128 metres depth, and 31 metres grading 1.3 grams gold and

13.1 grams silver from 263 metres down hole, the company said in a news release Mar. 3.

“The style of mineralization at Cuyes West and in the hanging wall package is identical to that at the

Camp deposit, 600 metres to the west,” Luminex said. “At a property scale, these mineralized structures are interpreted to be hosted in ring and radial fractures around the Los Cuyes Diatreme.” TNM

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Drilling at one of Great Boulder Resources’ projects in Western Australia.

Target investment, rally society to compete with China, says bankers’ panel

PDAC | Energy needs demand huge ‘speed and scope’ in mining

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Prices and supplies of critical metals will increasingly hinge on government policy and geopolitical tensions, three of Canada’s top bankers said at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention on Mar. 6.

Speaking on a panel moderated by Northern Miner Group president Anthony Vaccaro, part of the “Peaks and valleys in mineral sector financing” session on the second day of the conference in Toronto, executives from three of Canada’s five major banks shared their thoughts on future trends in mineral markets.

The panel kicked off by sharing their picks in an online poll of which metal from a list of copper, uranium, lithium and gold will outperform in the energy transition.

Ryan Latinovich, global head of the mining and metals group at RBC Capital Markets chose copper.

“I think it’s really at the centre… between that energy transition piece [and] electrification,” he said. “The supply and demand fundamentals are clearly pointing to a structural deficit in copper, there’s long lead times to get projects on board, [it’s] highly capital intensive, and finding and developing quality copper projects is becoming increasingly tough and at increasingly lower grades.”

Michael Faralla, head of global mining investment banking at TD Securities picked uranium, saying that renewable energy isn’t the only solution in the energy transition.

“I think uranium as a cheap, low-carbon baseload power is going to be increasingly recognized as a part of that mix,” he said, adding that current uranium prices are incentivizing construction of new mines. “In terms of pure price

appreciation, I pick uranium.”

Ilan Bahar, co-head of global metals and mining with BMO Capital Markets said that he agreed with the other panelists and took a middle ground between copper and uranium.

While no one on the panel chose lithium, which saw a dramatic run-up in price last year, Faralla noted the critical metal is widely recognized as the most consistently used across all battery metals.

He also said lithium’s recent prices are probably not sustainable.

Battery grade lithium carbonate was selling for US$54,925 a tonne at press time, up from US$70,675 a year ago, according to The Wall St. Journal

“There’s the old adage that the cure for high prices is high prices,” he said. “And those prices are going to incent more production. And

we should come back to perhaps a more stable long-term equilibrium.”

‘No safe place’ With critical minerals now in high demand all over the world, they’ve become subject to geopolitics, and Vaccaro asked the panel how such moves as China paying for Middle Eastern oil in renminbi rather than dollars affects Western supply of the minerals.

“This is signalling that de-dollarization is becoming a big theme. Do you agree the world is becoming more bifurcated?” he asked.

Latinovich said demand is intensifying across geographic boundaries and around certain geopolitical orbits, creating tension in demand and constraints in supply. It has also shone a spotlight on sourcing minerals from West-

ern-aligned countries, further disrupting supply and demand.

That alignment with the West isn’t guaranteed, and countries regarded as aligned, such as Panama pose their own risks, said BMO Capital Markets metals and mining analyst Jackie Przybylowski in a fireside chat before the bankers’ panel.

“There’s no safe place to do business anymore,” she said. “Panama was seen as a very safe jurisdiction. And if things can go badly for First Quantum (Minerals), it doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere that’s truly risk-free at this point. Managing the risk, being diversified is probably the key.”

Latinovich explained that in the long term, supply and demand tensions will pressure the pricing dynamics.

“If you break down what’s going

on around critical minerals, with orbits of countries’ alignments around how we supply those minerals… it results in a one-way equation for me which is a very strong outlook on the pricing related to those commodities,” he said.

Agreeing with Latinovich, Bahar noted that in relation to M&A and financing, government policy towards critical minerals plays a role although it will take time to see results.

He pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States, which incentivizes the production of electric vehicles if minerals are sourced from countries that have free trade deals with the U.S.

“You need a certain amount of supply and what people quickly realized [is that] supplies are not

‘Lithium OPEC’ in South America could drive away investment, says Sigma CEO

PDAC | Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil are considering banding together

which is a colossal mistake.”

BY BRUNO VENDITTI

The creation of a lithium cartel in South America could drive away investment, said Ana Cristina Cabral-Gardner, CEO of Sigma Lithium Resources (TSXV: SGML) in an interview on Mar. 7 at PDAC.

Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil are analyzing the creation of a group in charge of expanding South America’s processing capacity, turning more of their mined lithium into batteries, and tapping into the electric vehicles manufacturing sector.

The group would emulate similar schemes, such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in terms of coordinating production flows, pricing and good practices, representatives of the Argentinean delegation said at the convention in Toronto.

“What I worry about these initiatives is that lithium is not rare. Lithium is abundant and every time producers or actors tried to think of lithium like that, they made strategic

mistakes that were costly for these countries,” Cabral-Gardner said.

Recent examples like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chile taxing cobalt and lithium have shown that such initiatives can drive away investment and end up “being very non-benign for the

countries,” she said.

“There’s plenty of capital chasing lithium. So any exclusionary initiative tends to punish those who are in the initiative because if we end up doing such a thing as an OPEC, it’s born out of the assumption that we are the only ones who have it,

A frenzied rush by EV makers to secure lithium supplies over the past two years drove prices for lithium carbonate up more than sixfold and spodumene up nearly tenfold.

However, looming supply from China, Australia and Chile and slower demand from Chinese manufacturers have brought prices back down. Battery grade lithium carbonate was selling for US$54,925 a tonne at press time, up from US$70,675 a year ago, according to The Wall St. Journal Goldman Sachs forecasts spot prices of lithium carbonate sinking to US$34,000 a tonne in the next 12 months, from an average of US$53,304 this year.

Volume over margin Cabral-Gardner remains bullish despite the recent drops.

“It’s a volume market, not a margin market. Just as iron ore, lithium is abundant, and low-cost producers will do incredibly well,” she said.

“What we are living through in

terms of price cycles isn’t related to scarcity. It’s related to an investment gap, which has been closed in 2021, but it’s been built in the supply chain because even though it’s abundant, it takes time to be brought to market because it has a pre-chemical characteristic.”

Sigma is due to start production in April at its Grota do Cirilo mine in Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil.

During this first production phase, Grota do Cirilo is expected to generate up to 270,000 tonnes per year of high purity battery grade lithium concentrate, equal to about 36,700 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange has highlighted Sigma Lithium as one of the top-performing companies in its 2023 Venture 50 list.

In February, Bloomberg reported that Tesla has been weighing a takeover of the miner.

Sigma shares traded at $47.20 apiece in Toronto at press time, in a 52-week window of $12.85 and $54.23, valuing the company at about $5 billion. TNM

Sigma Lithium CEO Ana Cabral-Gardner. BRUNO VENDITTI

Anthony Vaccaro, left; Ilan Bahar, co-head of global metals and mining with BMO Capital Markets; Michael Faralla, head of global mining investment banking at TD Securities; and Ryan Latinovich, global head of the mining and metals group at RBC Capital Markets speak on the bankers panel at PDAC. BLAIR MCBRIDE

Energy transition presents Canada with mining windfall, says McKinsey’s Hoffman

PDAC | China’s role in mineral refining to decline by 2030

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

The shift to green energy will demand the use of all metals — not just those labelled “critical” — in a multi-trillion-dollar industrial transition, said McKinsey’s Ken Hoffman at this year’s PDAC convention in Toronto.

Delivering the first keynote speech of the four-day conference on Mar. 5, Hoffman, who is head of the consultant’s battery raw materials team, said that metals beyond key battery metals lithium and cobalt will be needed for the transition.

“It’s the entire spectrum, all sorts of metals are going to be needed,” he told the audience, as he gestured at a slide showing the contribution of metals towards the energy transition by 2030. “Lots of copper. There’s a lot – a lot – in infrastructure. We’re going to see a lot of aluminum. We’re going to see a lot of nickel.”

Hoffman pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed by the U.S. Congress last August that earmarks US$369 billion in spending to incentivize clean energy technologies, as a major accelerator of the

transition.

“[The IRA] could add US$1 trillion to the battery and sustainability value chain. One trillion dollars. It’s changed everything. It’s going to change metal flows. It’s going to change the pricing. It’s going to introduce premiums,” he said.

The Act’s requirement that electric vehicles contain a proportion of

critical minerals and battery components sourced domestically or from countries with free trade deals with the U.S. will present opportunities for foreign miners, including Canadian ones. Some of those opportunities will come in the form of tax credits.

Hoffman said that while green energy producers as far away as

Europe might seek to take advantage of those credits and “hard NIMBYism” in the U.S. hinders domestic mining and refining of critical minerals, American firms will still need to buy from legitimate sources.

“The energy transition will be everything, absolutely everything,” he said. “The industry itself is looking at something like a $15 to $20 trillion impact. And guess why? In the U.S. they don’t want to mine, but they want to buy from sources deemed localized, deemed acceptable to U.S. regulators. Canada, we love you. This is where it will come from,” Hoffman said, to laughter from the audience.

Canada, Indonesia rising

By 2030, Hoffman explained that China will account for less of the global share of the critical minerals refining chain, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Australia and Indonesia accounting for a larger share of the supply of top minerals. China, however, is still forecast to be a major player in the mining of rare earths, tin and lithium.

In seven years, the value of Canada’s mined critical mineral supply will reach US$10.8 billion, higher than both China at US$9.2 billion and the United States at US$7.8 billion, though far lower than Indonesia, at US$25.2 billion, which will top the global ranking, according to McKinsey.

Even though Hoffman said that “millions of jobs” will be lost in the transition away from the industrial model based on the combustion engine, that transition also presents huge opportunities to governments and the business sector if they can bring the right approach.

“It’s the perfect time to go to governments,” he said. “How can we work — particularly work with Indigenous communities — and how can we train people? It’s such a no-brainer. I think miners need to have their ducks lined up. What’s your strategy for getting the original equipment manufacturers interested? What is my ESG? Am I working with local communities? How am I going to have this refined… if you’re ready with the right project and the right boxes ticked, you’ll do well.” TNM

Ontario OKs Ring of Fire road review plan by First Nations

INFRASTRUCTURE | Environmental assessment proceeds on remote route

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Ontario has approved another small step on the long journey to build an all-season road to the Ring of Fire in the province’s far north.

The province granted the terms of reference for an environmental assessment of the Northern Link road, the last terms approved for the three connected roads planned for the area 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay. The plans were submitted by the Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations. The Northern Link is to connect the two communities and potential mining projects.

“I value our partnership with these strong leaders who are central to our government’s mandate to develop the Ring of Fire,” George Pirie, Minister of Mines, said at a news conference on Mar. 6 at the PDAC conference in Toronto. “The Ring of Fire has the critical minerals we need to build our manufacturing supply chain, including nickel for electric vehicles and chromite for clean steel.”

The cost of the roads isn’t clear although Victoria, B.C.-based The Narwhal, citing memos from the government of Premier Doug Ford, said it’s estimated at more than $2 billion.

Environmentalists and at least several Indigenous communities in the region, such as the Neskantaga First Nation and several James Bay communities including Attawapiskat, are opposed to mining and roads they say will desecrate the area. However, Mushkegowuk Council communities have proposed their own road to link some James Bay coastal communities to the provincial highway system.

Critics say the boggy peatlands and muskeg swamps are difficult to build through and hold millions of tonnes of carbon. Construction would cause its release, outweighing the benefits from mining metals for green energy, they say. Meeting

mineral demand to fight climate change is one of the main planks wielded by project supporters.

“This project has the potential to finally bring economic reconciliation for remote First Nations in Ontario,” Chief Cornelius Wabasse of Webequie First Nation said at the news conference. “But these opportunities must also be balanced against the potential environmental and socio-cultural risks associated with building a road.”

Of the two other roads, which are already undergoing environmental assessments, one would link the Marten Falls community to the provincial highway network to the south. The other would run from the

Webequie First Nation to proposed mining developments. The Northern Link is to connect the two roads. Each requires its own environmental assessment on the provincial level, while federal review may only apply to the Marten Falls and Webequie community roads and not the Northern Link, at least initially. The area’s most advanced project is Ring of Fire Metals’ Eagle’s Nest.

A 2012 feasibility study estimated it would have an 11-year mine life and cost US$609 million to build. Proven and probable reserves are 11.1 million tonnes grading 1.68% nickel, 0.87% copper, 0.87 gram platinum per tonne, 3.09 grams palladium and 0.18 gram gold.

Ring of Fire’s parent company, Wyloo Metals, beat out giant BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) for the asset after U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) pulled out of the area in 2013 even though it had already spent half a billion dollars to advance local chromite deposits. Also at PDAC, the province awarded $5 million in grants as part of the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund supporting Ontario-based companies developing new mining technologies.

Grants of $500,000 each went to: Frontier Lithium (TSXV: FL; US-OTC: LITOF) to develop innovative lithium processing tech-

niques; Vale Canada (NYSE: VALE) to develop bioleaching techniques to extract nickel and cobalt from tailings; and Ring of Fire Metals to test storing tailings as underground backfill in mine workings. Indigenous-owned Carbonix received $475,000 to convert mining waste, petroleum coke and other by-products into graphite for batteries. The recipients of the remaining circa $3 million weren’t mentioned.

“We’re connecting the critical minerals of the north with the manufacturing might of the south,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. TNM

Ken Hoffman, head of McKinsey’s battery raw materials team gives a keynote talk on Mar. 5 in Toronto at PDAC. BLAIR MCBRIDE

OTTAWA from 1 for federal construction funding. Foran is developing the copper project in east-central Saskatchewan, with its Bigstone copper-zinc project nearby and a centralized mill in a carbon-neutral development by using electric vehicles and hydro-electric power.

“I was just actually meeting with the minister from Saskatchewan,” Wilkinson said. “That project from their perspective would be a priority, and from our perspective, we’re interested in what the provinces are interested in doing.”

The ministry has only started allocating the almost $3.8 billion in last year’s budget earmarked for spending on its critical minerals strategy to 2030. That includes $1.5 billion for infrastructure, roads and power lines, the same amount for projects as well as money for research and development such as geoscience.

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is allocating about US$369 billion promoting the switch to cleaner energy.

He said he may have news next month on shortening British Columbia project reviews, and that Ontario must consider if developing its Ring of Fire region is going to save more carbon with green metals than will be released by building new roads and mining in muskeg swamps.

Investment screening

Some mining exploration and development companies are complaining that Canada’s new investment rules introduced last year limiting participation by foreign state-owned enterprises, i.e., China, are shrinking the money pool for new projects. And it’s occurring just when companies need cash to meet rising demand for green metals. Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) founder Robert Friedland spoke out about it on Mar. 5 at PDAC.

Wilkinson said Canada’s foreign investment rules will continue to scrutinize state-owned enterprises involved in critical mineral projects and order divestments even if the actual development isn’t in Canada, he said. China’s Zangge Mining was forced to divest a 65% stake in Ultra Lithium’s (TSXV: ULT) Laguna Verde lithium project in Argentina.

“Both we and in many Western countries that are working hard to ensure access to critical minerals, to ensure that we can successfully manage through the energy transition, want to ensure that

that access is broader than just Canada and the United States.”

Ring of Fire

“I anticipate us being able to open up for applications for infrastructure money quite soon and the same thing is going to be true of the projects so that money will start to be dispersed,” he said.

“I would hope we will also see some other measures in the budget that will focus on accelerating the work in the minerals area and minerals processing area. But that of course is the purview of the minister of finance.”

In Ontario, the Ring of Fire region in the far north is advancing environmental assessments for roads that some internal government memos estimate will cost more than $2 billion to build. Environmental critics and some Indigenous groups say it will unlock the swampy area’s natural storage of carbon in peat, defeating the whole purpose of mining for green metals. Wilkinson said he was meeting with Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie on Mar. 8.

“We’re going to have that conversation about how do you move forward in a way that respects the rights of Indigenous communities in the area, and there are many, but also that is sensitive from an environmental perspective,” he said. “I’m very concerned about the peat. It’s got to be addressed.”

Minister Wilkinson, who’s represented the riding of North Vancouver since 2015, said Canada was approached for industry help at a ministerial level meeting this week because it is a global leader in exploration, development and stewardship in more than 100 countries.

“A number of the African countries were asking, is there a way that Canada could actually help to develop a toolbox around how do you actually develop a regulatory process, how do you think about water issues, how do you deal with tailings.”

Canada allocated $70 million for international collaboration after it joined the new Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance last year. It grouped together the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany and Japan to help each other on projects.

Wilkinson said he was impressed with the enthusiasm at this year’s PDAC.

“There is a real sense of optimism about the sector and its prospects,” he said. “That’s good for Canada. I keep saying everywhere I go this whole critical minerals area in particular is a generational economic opportunity.” TNM

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Ottawa funds critical mineral innovators as part of $3.8B strategy

FUNDING | Six firms awarded a total of $14M

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Ottawa awarded six critical minerals companies a total of $14 million on Mar. 7 to help them develop technologies to mine or process metals bound for electric vehicles.

East Coast rare earths explorer Search Minerals (TSX.V: SMY; OTC: SHCMF) gets $5 million; about $3.5 million is for Alberta-focused E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL; OTC: EEMMF), which got $27 million from federal innovation funding last year; and $3 million goes to rare earths recycler Geomega Resources (TSXV: GMA).

About $1.1 million is for Regina-based Prairie Lithium, a unit of Arizona Lithium (ASX: AZL; US-OTC: AZLAF), while $795,524 is for nickel and cobalt producer Sherritt International (TSX: S), and $724,871 goes to FPX Nickel (TSXV: FPX; OTC: FPOCF).

“Canadian innovators are leading the way toward a cleaner future,” Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, said in announcing the funding at PDAC in Toronto. “This means good jobs for workers, more investment in Canadian innovation and lower

emissions across the country.”

The funding is part of the government’s nearly $3.8 billion critical minerals strategy by 2030 that was announced almost a year ago in the federal budget. The aim is to speed up mining the 31 minerals declared critical for their roles in economic security to challenge China’s dominance of the metals and for cutting carbon emissions to fight climate change.

The critical list includes copper for wiring, nickel, cobalt, graphite and lithium for batteries, silver for solar panels and rare earth elements used in everything from defence systems to cell phones and wind turbines.

The $14-million funding as part of the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration Program is the first instalment of some $200 million targeting innovation, Natural Resources Canada said.

Wilkinson also repeated plans for $344 million in six programs loosely centred around research and technology that had been declared in December.

The largest chunk is $144.4 million for developing and spreading new technologies to use in mining

‘Mission from God’

know, when there’s a problem, go to the government, they’ll solve it for you. Of course, there’s going to be a freakout fighting over this money.”

However, Friedland said he’s open to getting some of that funding to join the US$900 million invested in Toulouse, Francebased I-Pulse that includes money from the Bill Gates- and Jeff Bezosbacked Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Friedland is chairman of I-Pulse, which uses high-energy bursts to shatter rocks and mineral ores with a fraction of the energy cost and greenhouse gas emissions in conventional mining.

The company signed a deal in December with BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) to further develop the technology that I-Pulse subsidiary Ivanhoe Electric (TSX: IE) may soon market, Friedland said.

“We’re sort of like on a mission from God like in The Blues Brothers to completely change the way we’ve operated in mining for about maybe 1,000 years,” Friedland said.

“We’re pulling rock apart with electromagnetic pulses.”

Similar pulses can be used to explore for deposits underground like the so-called X-ray glasses advertised to boys in the back of comic books to see through clothes, he said.

“We have a magic pair of glasses that allows us to directly see deep mineralization in the earth with very high resolution,” he said. “It’s all based on signal-to-noise ratio in the geophysics and machine learning for the software.”

Friedland’s breakthrough in lithium batteries comes via Ivanhoe startup Pure Lithium in Boston and the help of Donald Sadoway, an emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This is a battery with lithium

and processing critical minerals all the way to finished products like electric vehicle batteries.

It also contains $40 million to help regulations in Canada’s North, $79.2 million for developing geoscience data methods such as digital mapping of deposits and $70 million for Canada to fund international collaboration in the critical minerals scramble.

Last year, Canada joined the new Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance, which grouped the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany and Japan together to help each other on mining projects.

Funding for a Critical Minerals Centre of Excellence, to help implement the strategy, appeared to be cut in about half to $10.6 million compared with $21.5 million in December.

“Canada will remain at the forefront of the economy of tomorrow by continuing to develop our critical minerals and metals,” FrançoisPhilippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said in a news release. “We will leverage our competitive advantages in clean energy, talent, sustainable mining, and innovation.” TNM

metal which is very disruptive and frees you from the requirement to use nickel and cobalt,” Friedland said. “It’s a very high-quality battery.”

The financier criticized measuring mining projects with calculations of net present value, saying they’re more applicable to oil and gas projects instead of mining, where US$690 billion in new copper mines are needed over 30 years, according to consultant Wood Mackenzie.

China doesn’t use net present value but is a chief investor in companies such as Ivanhoe Mines, copper producer First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) and giant Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO), he said.

“It’s really hard to raise money for mining because the bankers assign a discount rate of eight, 10 or 12%,” he said. “The Chinese, they just said ‘we’ve got 1.3 billion people to feed, we’re going to need this copper.’” TNM

FRIEDLAND from 1

E3 Lithium is advancing its Clearwater lithium brine project in Alberta. E3 Lithium

NioCorp stock rallies on US$800M financing interest for

Elk Creek

RARE EARTHS | Shareholders also approve merger bid with SPAC that will bring US$285M in funding

BY JACKSON CHEN AND BLAIR MCBRIDE

NioCorp Developments (TSX: NB; US-OTC: NIOBF) shares rallied on Mar. 6 after it said it received interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for potential financing of up to US$800 million for the company’s proposed Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska.

The funding, should it be granted, will be provided through EXIM’s “Make More In America” initiative. As noted on EXIM’s website, in February 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14017 directing an all-of-government approach to assessing vulnerabilities in — and strengthening the resilience of — the country’s critical supply chains.

NioCorp is currently developing what would be North America’s only advanced materials manufacturing facility for producing niobium, scandium and titanium, all considered critical minerals by the U.S. government.

NioCorp’s facility will be co-located with an underground mine that features the highest-grade primary niobium resource in North America and one of the largest scandium resources in the world. A June 2022 feasibility study estimates that it will produce around 7,300 tonnes of ferroniobium as the primary product plus 102 tonnes of scandium trioxide and 12,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide annually over its 38-year operating life.

In a letter expressing its interest in funding the Elk Creek project costs, projected to be US$1.1 billion in the feasibility report, EXIM stated: “Based on the preliminary information submitted on expected exports and jobs supported, EXIM may be able to consider potential financing of up to US$800 million of the project’s costs.”

The bank then noted that the project finance letter of interest represents “only a preliminary step” in the formal EXIM application process, and the communication “does not represent a financing commitment” and “is not an explicit indication of the financial or commercial viability of a transaction.”

NioCorp said it expects to submit an application to EXIM to begin the first phase of the under-

writing process as soon as possible. In the letter addressed to the company, EXIM stated that “upon receipt of NioCorp’s application for financing, EXIM will conduct

all requisite due diligence necessary to determine if a final commitment may be issued for this transaction.”

The process from submission of a Phase I application to a final com-

mitment of financing by EXIM, if any, is expected to take about six to nine months, and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, EXIM said.

As explained in the letter, any final commitment will be “dependent on meeting EXIM’s underwriting criteria, authorization process and finalization and satisfaction of terms and conditions.”

Merger approval

Later that week, NioCorp announced that its shareholders have approved a merger with GX Acquisition Corp. II and up to $81 million in financing deals to advance Elk Creek.

Under the deal with GXII, NioCorp will acquire the U.S.-based special purpose acquisition company, creating a combined entity with a value of US$313.5 million, NioCorp said in a news release last September.

Once the deal closes, the company could have access to as much as US$285 million in net cash from the GX trust account to advance Elk Creek.

GXII shareholders will receive approximately 11.18 NioCorp common shares for each GXII Class A common share held.

NioCorp expects to complete a share consolidation (at a yet-to-bedetermined ratio) and be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange shortly after the deal closes. Its shares will continue to be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The two financings are with YA II PN, an investment fund managed by New Jersey-based Yorkville Advisors Global. One financing involves up to $65 million in equity and another $16 million in convertible debt financing.

Both the merger and the financings are still subject to approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange and by a majority of GX stockholders.

“This business combination with GXII, and the two additional financing packages, have the potential to significantly accelerate our efforts to obtain the required project financing and to ultimately bring the Elk Creek project to construction and eventual commercial operation,” said NioCorp CEO and executive chairman Mark A. Smith, in the September release.

NioCorp shares closed the Mar. 6 session 7% higher at $1.37 a share.

The stock traded at $1.26 at press time in Toronto within a 52-week window of 76¢ and $1.71. The company’s market value is $355.8 million. TNM

Ontario seeks to speed up mining projects by easing some permits

LEGISLATION | Industry hails new proposed Mines Act

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Ontario plans to ease applications to harvest tailings, defer upfront environmental assurance payments and broaden mine-closure plans, according to proposed legislation.

The ruling Conservatives under Premier Doug Ford say the changes will attract more investment to the province that in 2021 produced minerals valued at more than $11.1 billion, about a fifth of Canada’s output. Of particular concern is boosting the supply of critical minerals feeding the transition to electric vehicle production at key auto plants from Oshawa to Windsor.

“It shouldn’t take 15 years to open a mine,” provincial Minister of Mines George Pirie said in a news release on Mar. 2. “This process is too time consuming and costly, leading to project delays and lost opportunities. We need to get building.”

The Building More Mines Act proposed by Ford’s government is expected to easily pass. After the latest election last June, the Tories hold a majority with 83 of the legislature’s 124 seats. The opposition NDP holds 30.

The announcement, made on the eve of PDAC in Toronto, outlined several areas to speed up project applications.

New rules would make it easier for companies to get permits to recover minerals from mine tailings and waste, while the province wants to hire more experts to approve mine closure plans. Certain closure elements could be deferred under the proposals and the province would be more flexible in approving rehabilitation plans, it said.

The proposed legislation would also create more options for companies to pay assurance against potential environmental claims instead of up-front, such as staggering them in line with a project’s construction schedule.

MPP Michael Mantha, the NDP

critic on the mines ministry, didn’t reply to an email and call seeking comment.

Some of the industry’s largest players lined up in the government statement to salute the initiative.

Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM;

TSX: NGT), the world’s biggest gold miner by output, operates its Musselwhite and Porcupine mines in the province. Bernard Wessels, regional senior vice-president for North America, said the company appreciated the proposed legislation’s clarity on shutting mines “while upholding the rigorous environmental standards that the Canadian mining sector is known for.”

The Mining Act’s moderniza-

tion “will enable the province and industry to remain at the forefront of the sustainable production of critical minerals that are essential for the global energy transition that is underway,” said Alfredo Santana, chief operating officer of Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) North Atlantic base metal operations. “Glencore (LSE: GLEN) is committed to responsibly source the commodities that advance everyday life,” said Peter Xavier, vice-president of the Swiss company’s Sudbury nickel operations. “The improvement of processes within the ministry of Mines will strengthen our Ontario operations and facilitate their expansion.”

New Tesla motor technology could disrupt rare earths industry

ELECTRIC VEHICLES | But analysts note REE-free tech could take years to perfect

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Rare earth element companies may face pressure after Tesla unveiled plans this month to develop car motors without key critical minerals.

In North America, California-focused MP Materials (NYSE: MP) and Colorado-based Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR; NYSE: UUUU) are the main producers as the West tries to challenge China’s dominance in the production of rare earth elements such as neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), erbium and dysprosium. NdPr is used in the magnets of electric vehicle (EV) motors.

But Tesla said on Mar. 1 a future generation of autos won’t need the element, though it didn’t provide details of the proposed technology, when it would hit the market and how widely it would be used. Analysts at Bank of America Global Research said current producers would still have a market.

“Any transition to new technology will likely take a significant amount of time and it is unclear if this will be adopted in all Tesla models or by other EV producers,” Bank of America said in a report the day after Tesla’s remarks.

“While we do acknowledge the downside risks posed by current or future technological developments, the strong long-term growth outlook for permanent magnet use in EV’s/wind turbines,

expected to grow two to three times by 2035, suggest there may be enough room for multiple technologies to co-exist.”

Western governments have poured billions of dollars into critical minerals strategies in recent years, investing in companies and projects at the forefront of the transition to green technology roused by concerns over global warming. They want to secure sources for metals like copper, cobalt, nickel and rare earths used in most modern technologies from cell phones to defence. Analysts say China controls about 80% of the rare earths market.

Project updates

MP Materials agreed in February to supply Tokyo-based magnet-maker Sumitomo with NdPr from its Mountain Pass mine in California after refining by companies in Vietnam and the Philippines instead of in China as it used to. Energy Fuels, which has development projects and plants across the U.S. southwest, expanded this month to Brazil with the US$22 million purchase of a rare earths project in Bahia state.

NioCorp Developments (TSX: NB; US-OTC: NIOBF) also said in February that it produced a

high-purity mixed concentrate of rare earth elements from its demonstration plant in Trois-Rivieres, Que. It is preparing for the US$1.2-billion development of its Elk Creek critical minerals project in southeastern Nebraska (see page 9).

Australia-based Vital Metals (ASX: VML; US-OTC: VTMXF) is working on an initial economic assessment of its Nechalacho project 110 km southeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T., for mid-year. It’s advancing a $55-million processing plan in Saskatoon, Sask. Space rock power

Shares in rare earths producers and developers recovered after falls on the news from Tesla’s investor day. Bank of America said the selloff was overdone and noted automakers have been trying to design motors without rare earths for years.

In 2018, Toyota developed a new magnet but couldn’t eliminate NdPr and said it would continue to work on it for at least a decade.

“This highlights the time it takes to transition to a new technology,” Bank of America said. “There could be some other efforts on the material sciences front which could eventually pose downside risk to the use of NdPr-based magnets. Either way, these developments tend to have long development lead-times.”

The analysts also noted a potential far-out solution on space rocks being researched by Northeastern University in Boston and Cambridge University in the U.K. The plan is to synthesize tetrataenite, an iron-nickel alloy found in meteorites, to replace rare earths.

“Researchers postulated a method through which they could artificially make tetrataenite, a cosmic magnet that takes millions of years to develop naturally,” Bank of America said. “However, the researchers also mentioned that more work is needed to determine whether it will be suitable for high-performance magnets and if it can be commercially produced at scale.” TNM

Tesla lobbying to secure lithium from Chile

BATTERY METALS | South American nation plans to create state-run lithium company

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

Tesla executives met in February with Chilean authorities, as the electric car maker redoubles efforts to secure supplies of battery metals, particularly lithium.

may also be allowed to operate individual lithium projects under a minority stake.

actually available here and are controlled in some cases by a certain country that happens to have a 15-year head start. How do you catch up? That’s the key question,” he said.

One answer is that more investment is needed to increase supply, and investment is needed beyond what is in institutional investor funds, Bahar said.

“We’re also saying we want the investment from certain places. So, it’s a very interesting time. Policy evolves in time,” he said.

Focus on Canada’s strengths

But in the North American context, Canada’s nearly $3.8-billion Critical Mineral Strategy, while hailed by industry, pales in comparison to the US$369 billion earmarked in the IRA. Vaccaro asked

the bankers how the Canadian government can make domestic assets sufficiently attractive.

Latinovich said Canada can emphasize positive stories, such as the climate change-mitigating aspects of resources, as well as “priming the pump from the public” to boost support for critical minerals development.

Following the bankers’ panel, former minister of innovation, science and industry, Navdeep Bains, spoke with Vaccaro in a fireside chat.

Bains, now vice-chair of global investment banking for CIBC, said he learned in his former role in the Trudeau government that technology will be critical on the path to meeting climate targets.

He also said more action is needed to speed up permitting.

“There isn’t enough streamlin-

ing of projects. It’s a big deal,” Bains said. “The speed and scope we’re talking about are much greater than what the reality is today. Take copper: what we’ve mined in the last 5,000 years — 700 million tonnes of copper — is what we’ll need in the next 22 years to meet the energy transition needs.”

Turning to the international context, the former minister said a decoupling of China from the world’s economy is a real issue that presents many challenges and is playing out in Africa and Southeast Asia. But it’s also an opportunity for the West to offer an alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative.

“We have to look at unique economic benefits, real meaningful partnerships. Those incentives can help us compete with China,” he said. TNM

The hearings, local newspaper La Tercera reported, also included executives from Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), the world’s top lithium miner and the main competitor of Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM) in the Salar de Atacama salt flat, which contains the world’s highest known concentrations of lithium and potassium. Chile’s ministers of foreign affairs and mining and representatives of the country’s development agency Corfo also joined the talks.

The official minutes of the meeting, disclosed by Corfo, show that Tesla is interested in knowing the agency’s development plans for the sector as well as the opportunities for collaboration with lithium producers such as Albemarle.

The talks come as the Chilean government is planning to take a page from Mexico’s book and create a state-run lithium company, although authorities are open to letting private companies into the sector through tenders.

While the administration has yet to release final details, it has said the proposed national lithium company will seek out minority partners to provide the technical knowledge the government lacks.

Private firms that win tenders

The state-run miner’s first main asset would be Codelco’s lithium project at the Salar de Maricunga, a salt flat that hosts Chile’s second-largest reserves of the battery metal.

From mining to refining Tesla wants more lithium, but only a handful of countries can supply the material key to the electrification of transportation.

While Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has hinted in the past that the company planned to get into mining, he now says the firm is more focused on refining lithium than on extracting the metal.

The “limiting factor” is refining the battery metal, not actually finding it, as no country has a monopoly on deposits, Musk said on Mar. 1 during the EV maker’s investor day.

Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million EVs a year by 2030, while it delivered around 1.3 million units in 2022.

Ahead of the 2023 investor day, on Feb. 28, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Tesla had agreed to build a large factory in Monterrey.

The plant will be one of the country’s first that is entirely dedicated to the expensive and complex process of making electric cars. TNM

BANKERS from 6

Tesla electric vehicles awaiting preparation for sale. JETCITY IMAGE /ADOBE IMAGES

Anthony Vaccaro, left, joins BMO Capital Markets metals and mining analyst Jackie Przybylowski in a fireside chat. BLAIR MCBRIDE

Anthony Vaccaro, left, speaks with Navdeep Bains, vice-chair of global investment banking for CIBC, in a fireside chat. BLAIR MCBRIDE

CANADIAN EXPLORATION

Sudbury nickel juniors build on the region’s history as a metal powerhouse

ONTARIO | Explorers see opportunity as battery demand ramps up

BY KELSEY ROLFE

Amid increasing demand for nickel, driven largely by the growing need for electric vehicle batteries, a handful of exploration companies are making their mark in Sudbury’s historic and prolific nickel mining camp.

Magna Mining (TSXV: NICU), SPC Nickel Corp. (TSXV: SPC) and Archer Exploration (CSE: RCHR), which all have properties in the Sudbury region, have announced a series of promising drill results and asset acquisitions in recent months.

“Sudbury is due for a resurgence,” said Tom Meyer, president, CEO and director at Archer, in an interview with The Northern Miner “There are opportunities for companies like Archer, like Magna, SPC and other [companies] active in the Sudbury region to revisit the geology and reinterpret the geophysics using the latest technology to make discoveries.”

Sudbury has long been a nickel powerhouse. From 1905 to 1966, according to the United States Geological Survey, mines in the area produced more than half of the global nickel supply. The region made the names of Canadian nickel heavyweights Falconbridge and Inco, and later FNX Mining, which were all subsequently acquired by Xstrata (now Glencore [LSE: GLEN]), Vale (NYSE: VALE) and Poland’s KGHM, respectively.

While Sudbury’s influence has lessened since the 1960s, the region continues to make up a major part of Canada’s nickel production. In 2020, Sudbury mines produced about 62,000 tonnes of nickel, or 38.8% of the domestic total; Quebec was just behind, at 55,000 tonnes.

The federal government named nickel as one of its six priority minerals in its critical minerals strategy, released in December 2022, given its uses in healthcare, aerospace, electronics and stainless steel, and in electric vehicle batteries. It also introduced a 30% critical minerals exploration tax credit to encourage companies to hunt for specific minerals, with nickel on that list.

“I’ve been in the nickel space a long time, and we’re probably in a situation where junior companies need to get their assets into production to fill the big gap that’s required for critical metals,” said Grant Mourre, CEO of SPC Nickel, in an interview.

But despite the flurry around the minerals necessary for a low-carbon economy, Paul Fowler, senior vice-president at Magna, said Sudbury hasn’t seen a true nickel exploration rush as much of the area is owned by three multi-nationals.

“I would expect under any normal circumstances you’d see a boom in nickel [exploration] in Sudbury,” he said.

Fowler believes that’s where Magna’s advantage lies. With its Shakespeare nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) project 70 km southwest of Sudbury, where it has permits for the construction of an open pit mine and 4,500-tonne-per-day mill, he said the company is well-positioned to

develop a hub-and-spoke production model.

Magna Mining Magna is advancing its Crean Hill nickel-copper-PGE project in the region with a 15,000-metre drill program for 2023 following its acquisition of Lonmin Canada from Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW; JSE: SSW) last year, and is working on a preliminary economic assessment for the project. It’s also working toward building the mine and mill at Shakespeare.

“With the dominance of the majors in the basin, any typical junior [with] a major discovery, that has to be processed by a third-party mill,” Fowler said. “Any major discoveries at Crean Hill… ultimately will all be processed through Shakespeare.”

At Crean Hill, which is a past-producing site that operated for roughly 80 years under Inco, Magna is pursuing an exploration strategy in 2023 that evokes FNX’s early 2000s success with footwall orebodies, said David King, the company’s senior vice-president of technical services. “A lot of material was left on the property that wasn’t economic at the time, or not the focus of production,” he said.

In early January, Magna reported its first assays from a drill hole on Crean Hill’s 109 footwall zone, which cut 98.3 metres grading 0.4% nickel, 0.5% copper, and 7.2 grams per tonne of combined platinum, palladium and gold. The interval included a higher-grade 44-metre section grading 0.8% nickel, 0.8% copper, and 12.7 grams of combined platinum, palladium and gold. The company also reported a 31.1-metre interval from the 101 footwall zone of 4% nickel, 0.7 % copper, and 0.7 gram combined platinum, palladium and gold per tonne,

While King noted Lonmin was fairly successful at discovering low-sulphide, high-PGE resources on the property, more than half of the resource Magna released is high sulphide and less than half is PGE.

Shakespeare hosts an indicated resource of 20.3 million tonnes grading 0.33% nickel, 0.36% copper,

0.32 gram platinum per tonne, 0.35 gram palladium and 0.19 gram gold.

At Denison, which includes Crean Hill, the company reported an open pit indicated resource in November of 16.8 million tonnes at 1.08% nickel equivalent (0.53% nickel, 0.49% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.48 gram platinum per tonne, 0.37 gram palladium and 0.25 gram gold). Underground indicated resources are 14.5 million tonnes at 2.07% nickel equivalent (0.96% nickel, 0.84% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.88 gram platinum per tonne, 1.02 gram palladium and 0.54 gram gold).

SPC to revive Crean Hill 3 January was also a big month for SPC Nickel, which announced it had signed a cooperation agree-

ment with Vale Canada to consolidate the ownership of the Crean Hill 3 and West Graham deposits. Vale owned the Crean Hill 3 deposit, which sits right beside SPC’s Lockerby East property, where the West Graham deposit lies.

The deal gives SPC the right to earn a 100% interest in the Crean Hill 3 property by delivering a feasibility study for the project to Vale by Jun. 30, 2026 and paying $1 million at the time the study is delivered. If SPC earns its interest, it will grant Vale a 1% net smelter royalty on the combined project, a net profits royalty of 37% per quarter, and other rights.

The West Graham and Crean Hill 3 deposits are unusual for Sudbury — the region is filled

NATURAL RESOURCES

with high-grade massive sulphide deposits that become deep underground mines, while SPC’s combined deposits are a lower grade but open pit-amenable resource that will require a lower capital cost to develop. Combining the two deposits allows SPC to evaluate its property with an open pit development in mind, said Mourre.

SPC’s Lockerby East has a historic resource from 2009, and Vale’s property had an internal historic resource estimate that dates back to the 1980s, so Mourre said the next step is drilling to bring the combined resource up to modern standards.

Meanwhile, Archer has budgeted $2 million for its Parkin and Trill projects in the Sudbury basin this year, which it acquired — alongside its Grasset project in Quebec — from Wallbridge Mining (TSX: WM) in November 2022, along with Wallbridge’s historic exploration data. Wallbridge is now a 19.9% shareholder in Archer.

The acquisition made Archer the owner of the third-largest land package in the basin, Meyer said. Archer is in the early stages of the permitting process to allow it to begin drilling, and is planning about 6,000 metres of diamond drilling. Meyer said the initial focus of exploration is likely to be on the Parkin Offset Dyke in Sudbury.

He also noted the Parkin project contains the past-producing Milnet mine. Drilling by Wallbridge between 2008 and 2012 beneath the mine discovered the Milnet 1500 zone, which yielded “significant” high-grade nickel-copper-PGE mineralization.

Meanwhile, new mines are in the works for Sudbury.

KGHM is in the midst of constructing its underground Victoria copper and nickel mine 35 km west of the city, and Glencore is building its $1.3-billion Onaping Depth project 2,500 metres below the past-producing Craig mine, which it expects will be in production by 2025. TNM

Delivering fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire mining life cycle

Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire mining life cycle.

Above: At Magna Mining’s Shakespeare project. MAGNA MINING

Right: At SPC Nickel’s Lockerby East property near Sudbury, Ont. SPC NICKEL CORP

Ex-Harper minister’s First Phosphate drills rich results in Quebec

BATTERY MINERALS | Shares soar nearly 100% since late February listing

ArcWest shares jump on Freeport earn-in deal as majors eye BC copper

BRITISH COLUMBIA | Major to spend up to $50M over 10 years for 80% stake in Todd Creek

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

First Phosphate (CSE: PHOS), headed by former environment minister Peter Kent, says the first drill results from its Bègin-Lamarche property in Quebec show multiple high-grade layers of the fertilizer and battery mineral.

Drilling encountered four highgrade layers returning grades of 7.8% to 10.6% phosphate along a magnetic trend continuing for 1 km at the site in the Saguenay-Lac-StJean region about 400 km north of Quebec City, the company said in a news release on Mar. 9.

Layer two showed a thickness of up to 83 metres with a strong apatite presence in drill holes along a strike length of more than 500 metres, it said.

Drill hole BL-23-01 cut 83.5 metres grading 7.8% phosphate from 131.9 metres down in layer two, and 23.8 metres grading 10.6% phosphate from 5.9 metres in layer one.

BL-23-02 returned 13.1 metres grading 9.9% phosphate from 16.6 metres depth in layer three, and 57.3 metres grading 8.4% phosphate in layer four. The company

plans an initial 4,000 metres of drilling.

“These initial drill results confirm our earlier high grade surface findings and are some of the highest-grade drill results ever established in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec,” First Phosphate president Kent said in the release.

“The Bégin-Lamarche property is optimally located within existing regional infrastructure and is situated only 75 km driving distance from the deep-sea port of Saguenay.”

Kent, 79, was minister of the

Exploring for High-Grade Gold in Canada

environment under former prime minister Stephen Harper after a career as a television journalist in the 1960s.

First Phosphate began a preliminary economic assessment in March on its separate Lac à l’Orignal phosphate project in the same region as it vies to enter the surging battery mineral industry. It wants to supply material for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. They are less expensive than lithium-ion batteries, but have a lower energy density. Phosphate is non-toxic when compared to cobalt oxide or manganese oxide in other batteries. Also, LFP batteries can deliver constant voltage at a higher charge cycle, which essentially means they last longer.

The Bègin-Lamarche property’s mineralization is found within nelsonitic peridotite containing 15-20% apatite on average, the company said. Layer one started in bedrock and it’s possible it may be thicker. Hole BL-23-02 was stopped while still in mineralization and it’s possible layer four also may be thicker, it said. The company said it plans to deepen the hole.

The Lac à l’Orignal phosphate project, about 110 km north of Saguenay, holds 15.8 million tonnes grading 5.2% phosphorus pentoxide for 821,000 tonnes contained phosphate, 23.9% iron oxide for 3.8 million tonnes contained iron and 4.2% titanium oxide for 670,000 tonnes contained titanium, according to an indicated resource released in November.

The inferred resource is 33.2 million tonnes grading at 5.1% phosphorus pentoxide for 1.7 million tonnes contained phosphate, 22.6% iron oxide for 7.5 million tonnes contained iron and 4.2% titanium oxide for 1.4 million tonnes contained titanium, the same report showed.

Earlier in March, the company added 6.1 sq. km of claims to the property by issuing 27,173 common shares valued at 92¢ each to the vendor. The company holds 2,778 claims over 1,531 sq. km in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region.

First Phosphate listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, as well as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, only in February. Its shares are up 47¢ or almost 100% since listing on Feb. 22. The stock traded at $1.01 at press time. It has a market capitalization of $48.8 million. TNM

BY ALISHA HIYATE

Shares in junior explorer ArcWest Exploration (TSXV: AWX) jumped more than 80% in morning trading in Toronto on Mar. 10 after it announced an earn-in deal with Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) on one of its copper-gold properties in B.C.’s Golden Triangle.

Under the agreement, Freeport will be able to earn up to 80% of ArcWest’s Todd Creek project which is next to Newcrest Mining’s (TSX: NCM; ASX: NCM) Brucejack mine. To earn an initial 51% interest, Freeport needs to fund $20 million of work at ArcWest over five years, and make staged payments to the company totalling $900,000. ArcWest will remain operator during this stage.

Once it earns its initial stake, Freeport can up its interest to 80% by funding $30 million in work at Todd Creek over five years and making staged payments totalling $750,000.

After Freeport has finalized its ownership level (whether at 51% or 80%), each party will be responsible for funding its proportionate share of work at Todd Creek.

ArcWest believes the project, which it says covers one of the fundamental north-south structural corridors in the Stikine terrane and is near multiple major projects and mines, could be an analogue to the Hod Maden

gold-copper project in Turkey.

“ArcWest looks forward to advancing our Todd Creek project in partnership with Freeport, one of the world’s largest copper miners and a team with a track record of global copper-gold discoveries that have proceeded to mine development,” said Tyler Ruks, president and CEO of ArcWest, in a release. “ArcWest’s Todd Creek project is host to one of the largest underexplored copper-gold systems in B.C.’s Golden Triangle, and Freeport’s endorsement of the project is a testament to its potential for hosting a world class copper-gold deposit.”

Ruks added that ArcWest is in discussions with other mining companies on potential earn-in agreements for its other copper-gold porphyry projects. The company has seven in B.C. ArcWest isn’t the only B.C. junior to attract the attention of copper majors recently.

Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR; US-OTC: AXREF), which already had a strategic exploration partnership with Freeport at its JOY project, also signed a deal with Sweden’s Boliden in November for its DUKE copper-gold district in the Babine region of B.C. ArcWest shares reached a new 52-week high of 10¢, up 82% or 4.5¢, on Mar. 10 in Toronto, before dipping to 9¢ at press time The stock has traded between 5¢ and 10¢ over the last year and has a market cap of $7.8 million. TNM

Looking northwest from ArcWest Exploration’s Todd Creek project towards Newcrest’s Brucejack mine. ARCWEST EXPLORATION

TSX | NYSE-A: FURY

Yellow Bowl South breccia at Todd Creek with malachite stained clasts, possibly from an underlying porphyry gold system. ARCWEST EXPLORATION

First Phosphate conducts exploration activities in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec. FIRST PHOSPHATE

Peter Kent

CANADIAN EXPLORATION SNAPSHOT: EIGHT COMPANIES TO WATCH

BY SARAH HAHN

From the Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec to the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada is home to some of the world’s largest mining operations and most valuable resources. Here are eight companies advancing the next generation of projects in the Great White North.

n AMERICAN EAGLE GOLD

Toronto-based explorer, American Eagle Gold (TSXV: AE), is focused on advancing its flagship NAK copper-gold project in central British Columbia.

The company shared results from its 2022 drilling program in a Jan. 25 news release. Highlights include 527 metres grading 0.11 gram gold per tonne, 1.55 grams silver, and 0.32% copper (0.45% copper equivalent) starting from 20.2 metres in drill hole NAK2204. The intercept included a shorter 88.8-metre section grading 0.27 gram gold, 4.5 grams silver, and 0.69% copper (0.98% copper equiv-

alent) from 439.2 metres.

“This fourth drill hole is our best intercept to date [at NAK] and encountered a new higher-grade copper-rich zone 500 metres from our discovery hole,” CEO Anthony Moreau said in a news release.

He added that holes NAK22-06 and 07 “successfully intersected the continuation of the same zone at depth and hit similar mineralization.”

Located 85 km northeast of Smithers, B.C. in the Babine copper-gold porphyry district, NAK has a 730-metre strike length and comprises five mineral claims.

The property was first explored in the 1960s and has changed hands several times. However, past drilling was shallow and American Eagle believes there is high potential for a new discovery at NAK.

In December, the company closed an exploration option agreement with Orefinders Resources (TSXV: ORX), which acquired a 20% interest in NAK after completing $1 million in exploration work obligations. Orefinders completed the work on Dec. 21, 2022, which included drilling, geophysics, reports and sampling conducted mainly by third-party contractors.

American Eagle is planning a follow-up 2023 drilling program that will focus on further delineating the near-surface high-grade zones to show additional continuity and finding the potential source

See SNAPSHOT / 14

Top: Giga Metals’ Turnagain exploration camp in north-central British Columbia. ZACHARY MOXLEY

Middle: Scottie Resources’ land package in northwestern B.C. spans more than 600 sq. km. SCOTTIE RESOURCES

Bottom: A Fury Gold drill rig in the James Bay region of Quebec. FURY GOLD

Bottom right: Fury holds the Eau Claire project and Éléonore South, a JV with Newmont, in the James Bay region. FURY GOLD

SNAPSHOT from / 13

of the high-grade bornite mineralized dykes encountered in drilling last year.

American Eagle Gold has a market capitalization of $6.5 million.

n BENZ MINING

Benz Mining (TSXV: BZ; ASX: BNZ) is working to expand the resource at its Eastmain project in northwestern Quebec with the goal of establishing a multi-millionounce, high-grade gold deposit. Consisting of 152 mineral claims, the 80-sq.-km property is located 800 km north of Montreal in the Upper Eastmain greenstone belt.

Past drill highlights from the project’s E zone include hole EM21-229, which cut 1 metre at 365.5 grams gold per tonne from 81 metres, the highest grade to date for the company, it said in a Jun. 7, 2022 news release. Another hole, EM21-230 in the D zone cut 6.6 metres at 9.8 grams gold from 643.9 metres, including 1.1 metres at 36.7 grams; and 6.2 metres at 9.7 grams gold from 674.3 metres including 1 metre at 23.4 grams gold in EM21182 in D zone.

Eastmain is a past-producing mine that was originally discovered by Placer Development Ltd. in 1969. The mine produced 40,000 oz. at an average grade of 10.58 grams gold per tonne from 1994 to 1995.

Benz signed an option agreement in 2019 to acquire a 100% interest in the property. Eastmain hosts indicated resources of 899,000 tonnes grading 8.19 grams gold per tonne and 8 grams silver, and inferred resources of 579,000 tonnes grading 7.48 grams gold and 8.2 grams silver using a cut-off grade of 2.5 grams gold, according to a 2019 estimate.

Benz also owns Ruby Hill West, a lithium outcrop located 25 km west of Eastmain and Windy Mountain, a sulphide deposit adjacent to Ruby Hill West.

Benz announced in October that it had identified 12 new pegmatite zones at Ruby Hill. High-grade lithium mineralization was previously confirmed at this discovery after hole RHW22-006 returned 1.01% lithium oxide (Li2O) over 26.4 metres.

With a fully funded drilling program, the company is continuing to explore for gold and critical minerals.

Benz Mining has a market capitalization of $52 million.

n EV NICKEL

Toronto-based EV Nickel (TSXV: EVNI) is focused on developing zero-carbon nickel production at its Shaw Dome project located 25 km southeast of Timmins, Ont.

On Feb. 28, the company announced an initial resource estimate for the A zone, part of the Carman-Langmuir (CarLang) property situated in the northeast area of the project. It pegged indicated resources at 510 million tonnes grading 0.25% nickel and 0.01 parts per million (ppm) cobalt for 2.8 billion lb. of contained nickel. Inferred resources add 497 million tonnes grading 0.23% nickel and 0.01 ppm cobalt for 2.6 billion tonnes of contained nickel.

The contained nickel is the approximate amount that would be needed in 34 million electric vehicles, the company notes.

EV Nickel acquired the property in April 2022 and has since drilled 8,295 metres across 28 holes.

Assay results from the A zone include hole EV22-47, which cut 297.5 metres grading 0.28% nickel starting from 2.5 metres and hole EV2248, which cut 234 metres grading 0.27% nickel from 1 metre.

With a strike length of 1.6 km and a width between 350 and 550 metres, the A zone represents just the first 20% of the 10-km CarLang

area trend.

“If we consider the full potential of the CarLang trend, this is the type of generational opportunity… that the world needs for a supply of Clean Nickel to help fuel the energy transition,” said CEO and president Sean Samson, referring to the company’s research and development into zero-carbon nickel production, for which it is seeking trademark status. The provincial government recently invested $500,000 in the company’s Clean Nickel strategy.

“We are excited to support emerging, innovative mining companies like EVNi that are at the forefront of what will be a robust, domestic supply chain for electric vehicle and battery production in the province,” said George Pirie, Ontario Minister of Mines, in a release in early March.

Shaw Dome also hosts the W4 nickel deposit, located south of CarLang. Results from the 2022 drill campaign included grades of 1.23% nickel over 20.6 metres and 0.9% nickel over 15.7 metres. An updated resource for W4 is planned for later this year.

EV Nickel has a market capitalization of $8.2 million.

n FURY GOLD MINES

Fury Gold Mines (TSX: FURY; NYSE-AM: FURY) is advancing gold projects in Quebec and Nunavut.

In 2022, the company drilled more than 17,500 metres at its Eau Claire deposit, located about 800 km north of Montreal.

Fury Gold shared assay results from its Hinge target in a Jan. 23 news release. Hole 22EC-059, which was drilled oblique to the other holes at a 150-degree angle, returned 22.77 grams gold per tonne over 1.5 metres from 181.5 metres and 15.3 grams gold over 1.5 metres from 380 metres.

All 11 holes drilled to date at Hinge have returned concentrations of more than 80% above the underground cut-off grade of 2.5 grams gold.

These results confirm that Eau Claire “is open for significant expansion,” said CEO Tim Clark in a release. More specifically, the mineralized footprint has been extended at Hinge, the Gap Zone, and the eastern expansion. In addition, substantial gold grades were intercepted at the Percival Main zone, located 14 km from Eau Claire.

Eau Claire, which covers 240 sq. km in the James Bay region of Quebec, hosts measured and indicated resources totalling 1.2 million tonnes grading 5.86 grams gold per tonne (228,000 oz. contained) and inferred resources of 43,000 tonnes grading 5.06 grams gold (7,000 oz. contained) according to a February 2018 estimate.

Fury also owns Committee Bay, an advanced exploration-stage project in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and Éléonore South, a joint venture with Newmont (NYSE: NEM; TSX: NGT), which owns 49.98% of the project located 5 km south of its Éléonore mine in Quebec.

Fury Gold’s 2023 exploration program will include testing of nine discrete gold anomalies at Éléonore South that were found in 2021.

The company also holds a 23.5% interest in Dolly Varden Silver

(TSXV: DV), which acquired 100% of Fury’s Homestake Ridge silver project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle back in 2021.

Fury Gold Mines has a market capitalization of $106 million.

n GIGA METALS

Giga Metals (TSXV: GIGA) is working on developing the world’s first carbon-neutral nickel mine. With a focus on battery metals, the junior is advancing its Turnagain nickel and cobalt project in north-central British Columbia in a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corp.

Last year, the two companies formed the joint venture Hard Creek Nickel Corp. in which Giga has an 85% interest and Mitsubishi 15%. Located about 1,350 km northwest of Vancouver, where the company is headquartered, Turnagain is one of the largest undeveloped

sulphide nickel deposits in the world. It hosts measured and indicated resources totalling 1.5 million tonnes grading 0.2% nickel and 0.013% cobalt for 7 billion lb. contained nickel and 433 million lb. cobalt. Inferred resources add 1.2 million tonnes grading 0.2% nickel and 0.012% cobalt for 5.5 billion lb. nickel and 325.3 million lb. cobalt.

In the wider Canadian context, while there are multiple nickel mines in Canada, the total production of refined nickel in the country in 2020 was only 124,000 tonnes, according to Natural Resources Canada. The global demand for the metal is projected to be 6.2 million tonnes by 2030, according to a September 2022 Reuters report.

In order to achieve its low-carbon goals, Giga plans to use hydroelectric power, and electric equipment (shovels, drills, and mine fleet) where possible. It also plans to sequester carbon through mineral carbonation.

Fleet electrification alone has the potential to reduce carbon emissions from 74,428 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) to 23,080 tCO2e per year, according to an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) dated February 2021. The greenhouse gas reduction assumes that mining trucks and loaders would run on hydrogen and the support fleet would be fully battery electric.

The PEA also outlines initial capital costs for Turnagain at $1 billion for a 37-year operation that would produce an average of 33,000 tonnes of nickel per year.

In addition, the deposit is the only large project to publish an

Top: York Harbour Metals’ namesake project in Newfoundland. YORK HARBOUR METALS

Right: At EV Nickel’s Shaw Dome project in Timmins, Ont. EV NICKEL

Drill core from American Eagle’s NAK copper-gold project in central British Columbia.

AMERICAN EAGLE GOLD

SNAPSHOT from / 14 engineering study modelling sale to battery-grade Class 1 nickel, according to Giga.

The company plans to complete a prefeasibility study in the second quarter of 2023.

Giga Metals has a market capitalization of $25.9 million.

n MONETA GOLD

Moneta Gold (TSX: ME; US-OTC: MEAUF) is focused on advancing its flagship Tower gold project, located 100 km east of Timmins, Ont. where the company is based.

On Mar. 2, Moneta announced assay results from 43 resource infill and step-out drill holes (totalling 10,057 metres) on the project’s 903 deposit. These holes were part of the company’s 76,000-metre drill ing program completed in 2022.

Highlights include hole MGA22097, which cut 24.8 metres grading 4.6 grams gold per tonne starting from 81.3 metres, including 14.9 metres grading 5.9 grams gold and 9 metres grading 8.04 grams gold.

The latest results “continue to confirm the continuity and exten sions of the current mineral resource estimate at the Tower gold project… [and] support wide widths of miner alization containing significant gold grades within the economic open pit mineral resources at 903,” president and CEO Gary O’Connor said in a release.

The company announced an updated resource estimate last September. The project holds 150.6 million indicated tonnes grading 0.92 gram gold for 4.5 million contained ounces. Inferred resources add 235.6 million tonnes grading 1.09 grams gold for 8.3 million ounces.

“As we continue to grow, de-risk, and advance [Tower], we look forward to completing the current resource infill drill program in preparation of a mineral resource estimate update for the planned prefeasibility study,” O’Connor added.

Moneta’s portfolio consists of

several other gold projects in the Timmins area, including North Tisdale, Nighthawk Lake, and Kayorum. Its base metals properties include Loveland Nickel, 45 km northwest of Timmins and Fripp, a copper property just south of the city. Moneta also owns 50% of its six Matheson area projects in a joint venture with Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM). Moneta Gold has a market capitalization of $141.7 million.

n SCOTTIE RESOURCES

Vancouver-based Scottie Resources (TSXV: SCOT) has gold and copper-gold porphyry projects in northwestern British Columbia within a land package that spans more than 600 sq. km in the prov-

ince’s Golden Triangle.

The company announced on Mar. 2 the final results from its 2022 drill program at the Blueberry zone on its Scottie gold mine project, a past producer located 32 km north of Stewart, B.C. and 27 km south of Newcrest Mining’s (TSX: NCM; ASX: NCM) Brucejack mine.

Highlights from the program include hole SR22-217, which returned 17.4 grams gold per tonne over 6.6 metres starting from 375.9 metres, including 56.6 grams gold over 1.6 metres. Another hole, SR22-227, returned 2.88 grams gold over 21.8 metres, including 7.1 grams gold over 6.1 metres.

In January, the company announced the highest-grade intercept it has ever drilled. Hole SR22-156

cut 2.4 metres grading 194 grams gold from 148 metres downhole.

Scottie made significant advancements on the Blueberry zone in 2019 when it cut 34.8 metres grading 7.44 grams gold in a new splay zone off of the main Blueberry vein. The company found that this splay appears to be a major north-south mineralizing structure.

The target has a strike length of more than 1,550 metres and a depth of 400 metres.

“Drilling in 2023 will pick up where we left off last year and continue to expand the boundaries of the system, as well as follow up on numerous peripheral targets like the C and D zones,” said Thomas Mumford, vice-president exploration, in a release.

Between 1981 and 1985, the Scottie mine produced 95,426 oz. of gold at an average grade of 16.2 grams gold.

The company also owns the Cambria project located just outside of Stewart and the Georgia project, which surrounds the high-grade past-producing Georgia River mine and sits 16 km south of Stewart.

Scottie Resources has a market capitalization of $63.8 million.

n YORK HARBOUR METALS

York Harbour Metals (TSXV: YORK; US-OTC: YORKF) is focused on advancing its flagship York Harbour copper-zinc-silver project in Newfoundland. Located 27 km west of Corner Brook, the project will undergo its fifth phase of drilling, the company announced in February.

York Harbour will test four targets — A zone North, K zone, Pinnacle Lake, and No. 4 Brook — across an area measuring 2.5 by 2 km.

With a lack of historic drill-testing in the area, the firm believes that there is a high potential for dis-

covering new copper-zinc-silver mineralization. This would increase the footprint of high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization that occurs along an 18-km contact within the property.

York Harbour plans to drill between 13 and 20 holes for up to 3,500 metres of diamond drilling.

Highlights from the 2022 drill campaign shared in a Jan. 24 news release include hole YH22-107 in the A zone, which cut 8.9 metres grading 4.727% copper, 10.195% zinc, 22.69 grams silver per tonne, and 91.49 grams cobalt starting from 124.1 metres. This is the highest-grade copper-zinc intercept to date in this zone and it was intersected above and parallel to the old mine workings near where the historic mineralization was mined between 1897 and 1913, the company said in a release.

Additionally, hole YH22-072 cut 9.4 metres grading 3.325% copper, 0.078% zinc, 2.04 grams silver, and 244.8 grams cobalt from 181.9 metres, including a 2.1-metre interval grading 10.089% copper, 0.154% zinc, 5.21 grams silver, and 670.03 grams cobalt from 185.1 metres.

The Vancouver-based exploration and development company has the option to acquire 100% interest in the York Harbour mine property in exchange for completing $3 million worth of work by March 2024. The project is also subject to a 2% net smelter royalty.

York Harbour also owns the Phoenix gold project in Battle Mountain, Nev., and is in the process of acquiring Bottom Brook, a 130-sq.-km rare earth elements mineral property located in western Newfoundland.

York Harbour Metals has a market capitalization of $35.6 million. TNM

Dedicated corporate and technical team with a proven track record of discovery and shareholder wealth creation.

Focused on cost-e ectively exploring district-scale, early-stage gold and base metal projects.

Three drill-ready projects plus a full pipeline of recently staked claim blocks.

Proactive relationship building with First Nation and local communities.

Left: Benz Mining’s Eastmain project in northwestern Quebec. Right: Uncovering pegmatite outcrops at the Ruby Hill West project, 25 km west of Eastmain. BENZ MINING

Moneta Gold’s Tower gold property 100 km east of Timmins, Ont. MONETA GOLD

First Quantum, government reach deal on Cobre Panama

COPPER | Operations at mine, shipping of ore to resume

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

First Quantum Minerals’ (TSX: FM) shares rose on Mar. 8 after the company said its local unit Minera Panama inked a draft agreement with the Panamanian government for the Cobre Panama mine. A finalized deal came on the same day.

The agreement, which followed months of difficult negotiations, meets the goals the government outlined in January 2022 regarding government revenues, environmental protections, labour standards and legal protections for both sides, First Quantum said in a news release.

The contract will have an initial 20-year term, with a 20-year extension option and additional extensions for the life of the giant copper mine. However, the document is still subject to a 30-day public consultation process and approvals by Panamanian government bodies.

The Panama Maritime Authority has also confirmed Minera Panama can resume copper concentrate loading at the Punta Rincon port, which had been suspended since early February. Ore processing was also expected to resume, bringing the mine back to full production levels in March. Operations at the mine, located 120 km west of Panama City and 20 km from the Atlantic coast were halted by the government in December amid an impasse in negotiations.

First Quantum had estimated the suspensions cost it up to US$8 million per day.

The main economic terms of the contract include a US$375 million payment by Minera Panama, plus US$20 million to cover taxes and royalties up to the year ending 2022. Starting in 2023, Minera Panama will also pay a minimum of US$375 million annually to the government, comprised of corporate taxes, withholding taxes and a profit-based mineral royalty of 12% to 16%,

with downside protection until the end of 2025 if the copper price sinks below $3.25 per lb.

Royalty rates would be set at operating margins accordingly, with a 0%-20% margin tied to a rate of 12% at the low end and a margin of over 50% tied to an effective royalty rate of 16%.

“After a lengthy and arduous negotiation process, the finalized proposed concession contract outlines the basis for the future of Cobre Panama for all stakeholders, including the government, our investors and the country of Panama,” said CEO Tristan Pascall. “I am pleased that we now have a pathway to continuing our ongoing substantial investments in the country.”

BMO Capital Markets mining and metals analyst Jackie Przybylowski wrote in a research note on Mar. 8 that the agreement is positive for First Quantum because it removes risk from Cobre Panama and the deal’s parameters are within those anticipated by the market.

The contract’s initial 20-year stability term, the option to extend for that period and mine life extensions provides certainty to First Quantum and the markets, Przybylowski wrote.

The downside protections in the deal are better than previous BMO estimates, she said, noting that the company will be protected against low copper prices over the next two years and against low profitability for 2026 and beyond.

BMO maintains its ‘market perform’ rating and its $22 one-year target on First Quantum shares.

First Quantum shares rose more than 3% on the contract news, reaching $31.12 apiece in Toronto on Mar. 8. At press time, it traded at $27.28 in a 52-week window of $18.67 and $45.38. The company has a market cap of roughly $18.8 billion. TNM

Iamgold picks former New Gold boss Adams as new

CEO

C-SUITE | Move comes just over a year after leadership shake-up

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) has appointed Renaud Adams as its new president and CEO, effective Apr. 3. Adams replaces board chair Maryse Belanger, who was acting as interim president and CEO during the executive search process.

Iamgold has also named Maarten Theunissen as permanent chief financial officer, having served as interim CFO since September, the Toronto-based gold miner said on Mar. 6

Adams has more than 30 years of global mining experience in senior executive positions and operations, most recently as president and CEO of New Gold (TSX: NGD) from 2018 to 2022. He was also the president and CEO of Richmont Mines from 2014 until the company was sold to Alamos Gold (TSX: AGI; NYSE: AGI) in 2017.

Iamgold’s management and board were shaken up in January 2022, with the sud-

den departure of top boss Gordon Stothart, followed a month later by board chair Don Charter.

The company also kicked off a review of its assets, as part of a strategy that prioritizes return on investment and cash flow generation. The goal, Iamgold said at the time, was to ensure the delivery of Côté – a tierone, generational asset in northern Ontario, which is slated to come online in early 2024.

The company secured funding in December to finish the over-budget project, by amending its existing joint venture agreement with Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining.

As part of the deal, Sumitomo committed to contribute about US$340 million over the course of 2023. In exchange, Iamgold will transfer an approximate 10% interest in the project to Sumitomo.

Iamgold will retain a repurchase option that can be exercised until December 2026 to return to its full 70% interest in the gold project. The company remains the mine operator. TNM

SQM earmarks US$3.4B in spending by 2025 as profits soar

LITHIUM | Producer posted net income of US$3.9B in 2022

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM), the world’s second-largest lithium producer, said on Mar. 2 it had earmarked US$3.4 billion of new capital spending by 2025 to boost its production capacity to 210,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent a year, from current levels of 180,000 tonnes per year.

The hefty investment comes as the Santiago-based company reported soaring profits last year on the back of higher prices for the metal driven by rising demand from the electric vehicles (EVs) sector.

SQM posted net income of US$3.9 billion in 2022, an almost three-fold increase from the US$585.5 million it amassed in 2021.

Total revenues for the year hit US$10.7 billion compared to the almost $2.9 billion reported for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2021.

Lithium prices have skyrocketed — up by as much as 1,200% — over the past several years as supply has failed to match rampant demand. Car makers continue to scramble for the battery metals to make more EVs and comply with tougher climate rules from governments.

SQM noted it would invest $1.4 billion this year from the total planned for the 2023-2025 period , to increase its lithium capacity in Chile to 210,000 tonnes, including 100,000 tonnes of lithium hydrox-

ide capacity. The copper-rich country currently generates about 29% of the world’s lithium supply, but it plans to double production by 2025 to about 250,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Beyond Chile

SQM remains bullish on the longterm outlook for the lithium market. It now forecasts demand to

reach almost 1.5 million tonnes by 2025.

“[These] strong demand growth expectations give us confidence as we remain focused on expanding our lithium production capacity,” CEO Ricardo Ramos said in a statement.

The firm announced in January an A$4.2 million (US$2.7 million) investment in Australia’s Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS), which

made it the lithium junior’s largest shareholder. The company also said it planned to invest a further A$15.8 million (US$10.4 million) in Azure.

SQM has also partnered with Wesfarmers to develop the Mt Holland lithium asset in Western Australia. The project is expected to come online by the end of this year, with an initial production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of bat-

tery grade lithium hydroxide. The lithium giant, which bought a refinery plant in southwest China last year, said the facility was expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023. SQM’s plan is to produce lithium hydroxide from lithium sulphate sourced in Chile. TNM

A tour of the Côté gold JV in Ontario in February 2023. IAMGOLD

SQM’s brine pools in Chile’s Atacama Desert. SQM

TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE / MARCH 6–10, 2023

Over the Mar. 6-10 trading period, the S&P/ TSX Composite Index cratered by 806.66 points or 3.9%, to 19,774.92. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index lost 8.65 points or 7.5% to 106.48, and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index fell 24.48 points or 11.6% to 186.46.

The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index contracted by 9.17 points or 3.34% to 265.27, and spot gold ended the week US$20.10 per oz. higher, or 1.09% higher, at US$1,861.25 per ounce.

Only a handful of miners could add value amid a generally tepid trading week on the markets. NioCorp Developments led the charge, closing 4¢ per share higher at $1.32 on Friday after announcing an expression of funding interest for its Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has signalled its interest in potential financing of up to US$800 million for the project. Should it be granted, the funding will be provided through EXIM’s “Make More In America” initiative. Niocorp also announced on Mar. 10 that its shareholders have approved a merger with GX Acquisition Corp. II and up to $81 million in financing deals to advance Elk Creek.

The biggest value loser was Teck Resources, soon to be rebranded as Teck Metals following the spin-out of its coal-focused business unit. The stock closed the week $8.06 lower

at $84.63. In late February, Teck announced a plan to split the company into Teck Metals and Elk Valley Resources, which will hold its steelmaking coal business. Under the plan, Teck shareholders will receive 0.1 of a common share in Elk Valley Resources for each Teck share they hold plus 39¢ in cash per share. In exchange for the coal assets, Elk Valley Resources will make quarterly payments to Teck Metals consisting of royalty payments and preferred share redemptions through a transition capital structure.

The biggest percentage gainer was Excelsior Mining, which saw shares close out the week 12.8% higher at 27¢ apiece. The company recently published an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE / MARCH 6–10, 2023

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index retreated by 31.49 points or 4.9% over the Mar. 6-10 trading session, ending at 611.49.

Artemis Gold was the week’s top value gainer, adding 48¢ to close at $4.88 on Friday. On Mar. 9, Artemis announced the approval of its B.C. Mines Act permit for the Blackwater gold project in central B.C., the final step required to allow the company to begin major construction activities. It expects the initial gold pour at Blackwater in the second half of 2024. Located about 446 km northeast of Vancouver, the open-pit gold mine and ore processing facilities will be developed in multiple stages. Artemis is planning a 22-year mine life for Blackwater using gravity and conventional cyanidation methods for gold recovery. Over that period, it is expected to produce an average of 339,000 oz. of gold annually. Life-of-mine capital costs are estimated at $2.25 billion, beginning with $645.2 million to be spent before production begins next year.

The week’s top percentage gainer was Tajiri Resources, which closed 83.3% higher on Friday at 9¢ per share. The company reported further results of power auger drilling at its K4-5 prospect in Burkina Faso, saying it has the potential size and form to

host a large to ‘supergiant’ gold deposit. According to a Mar. 7 news release, independent of its interpreted potential to host a large gold deposit, the geochemical anomalism now outlined by the saprolite auger campaign is said to be of a scale that is between two to nine times the size of similar tenor saprolite gold anomalies. Tajiri says comparable West African gold deposits have known resources of between 4 million and 7 million ounces.

The most active issue was Advance Lithium, which closed the week at 5¢ per share after 8.9 million shares changed hands during the trading week. On Mar. 9, the

U.S. MARKETS / MARCH 6–10, 2023

Stocks fell Mar. 6-10 as investors shifted from concerns over inflation to the outlook for the economy after regulators shut California-based Silicon Valley Bank following losses that prevented it from maintaining enough capital.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,481.33 points or 4.4% to 31,909.64 and the S&P 500 dropped 184.05 points or 4.5% over the week to 3,861.59.

Two companies seen as proxies for the wider economy were among the top mining and metals industry decliners during the week. Aluminum producer Alcoa plummeted 19% to US$44.91 per share. Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs fell 15% to US$19.37 per share.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa struggled last year with inflation on inputs, posting a loss of US$102 million. “Global turbulence negatively influenced costs for energy and raw materials and we saw significant variance on product pricing between the first and second halves of 2022,” Alcoa president and CEO Roy Harvey said in January.

Cleveland-Cliffs, the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America and the biggest supplier of steel to the continent’s auto industry, announced on Mar. 6 that it’s raising its rolled steel prices by about 9%. That followed price increases for its steel plate

products in the previous week. Last month the company reported net income fell by more than half to US$1.4 billion last year due to higher costs and lower sales.

Hudbay Minerals tumbled 16% to US$4.55 per share. Production continues at its Constancia copper mine in Peru, which has suffered widespread protests and highway blockades affecting mining operations since the ouster of president Pedro Castillo in December, the company reported last month. Hudbay was left with 25,000 tonnes of copper concentrate unsold in Peru at the end of the fourth quarter, it said.

Still, the Toronto-headquartered miner posted record gold production in Peru during the fourth quarter and said it was able to keep company-wide operating costs last

Johnson Camp open pit, heap-leach copper project in Arizona. The PEA considers the results of the 2022 drill program and incorporates sulphide leaching technology to improve recoveries. The study estimated an after-tax net present value and internal rate of return at a 7.5% discount of US$180 million and 30.4%, respectively. The project would have a 20-year mine life. As part of the

PEA, the company republished a prefeasibility study update on the North Star deposit of the Gunnison copper project, which is designed as a copper in-situ recovery mine using solvent extraction-electrowinning to produce copper cathode. That study showed an after-tax NPV of US$1.2 billion (at a 7.5% discount), IRR of 37.5% and an initial capex of US$47.6 million. TNM

company announced an agreement to acquire all of Wolfden Resources’ Bathurst Mining camp claims in New Brunswick. The deal gives Advance a foothold in the historical mining camp, including historic resources, and several metal showings that are near producing mines. Advance considers the package prospective for “a huge

opportunity for a major discovery.” The deal allows Wolfden to unlock potential value from the Tetagouche property while maintaining the focus on the cornerstone Pickett Mountain project across the border in Maine. Subject to exchange approval, Advance will issue to Wolfden 19.9% of its outstanding shares at 5.5¢ each. TNM

year comparable to 2021 despite decadeshigh inflation.

Lithium Americas, which this month began building its US$4-billion Thacker Pass project in Nevada, slid 14% to US$20.82 per share. Construction was allowed to start after a federal court ruled last month the project wouldn’t cause unnecessary harm to the environment and wildlife.

The proposed mine stands to be a major

source of lithium in U.S. President Joe Biden’s critical minerals strategy to develop alternatives to relying on metals from China.

Automaker General Motors has pledged to invest US$650 million in the project. Thacker Pass and another project in Nevada, Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron asset northwest of Las Vegas, are being considered for hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the country’s department of energy. TNM

METALS, MINING AND MONEY MARKETS

TSX WARRANTS

PRODUCER AND DEALER PRICES

LME WAREHOUSE LEVELS

Metal stocks (in tonnes) held in London Metal Exchange warehouses at opening on February 23, 2023 (change from February 16, 2023 in brackets):

Alio Gold Inc. (ALO.WT) - 10 Warrants to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $7.00 until expiry Alio Gold Inc. J (ALO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $8.00 until expiry Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.75 until expiry. Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase 0.5 of one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.75 until expiry Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT.B) - One Warrant to purchase of one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.21 until expiry

eCobalt Solutions Inc. J (ECS.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US$1.95 per share until expiry Excellon Resources Inc (EXN.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $2.80 until expiry

Excellon Resources Inc. (EXN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the issuer at $1.40 per share until expiry Excelsior Mining Corp. (MIN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one Common Share of the Issuer at $1.25 until expiry.

ABE Resources Inc. (ABE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Alpha Lithium Corporation (ALLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.10 per share.

Alpha Lithium Corporation (ALLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.10 per share. American Cumo Mining Corp. (MLY.RT)2 rights and $0.07 are required to purchase one share American Lithium Corp. (LI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.30 per share.

Antioquia Gold Inc. (AGD.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.042 are required to purchase one share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.RT) -

Fourteen (14) Rights exercisable for one common share at $2.70 per common share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $5.50 per share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.25 per share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT.B) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.20 per share.

Avidian Gold Corp. (AVG.RT) - Three rights and $0.11 are required to purchase one Share.

Boreal Metals Corp. (BMX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.50 per share.

Boreal Metals Corp. (BMX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.30 per share.

Cabral Gold Inc. (CBR.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Caldas Gold Corp. (CGC.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.75 per share.

Cascadero Copper Corporation (CCD.RT)One right and $0.015 are required to purchase one Share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp (CDB.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.08 per share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp (CDB.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.08 per share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp. (CDB.RT) - One (1) Right exercisable for One (1) Rights Share at $0.05 per Share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp. (CDB.RT) - One right to purchase one common share at $0.54 per share.

Denarius Silver Corp. (DSLV.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Elevation Gold Mining Corporation (ELVT. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.80 per share.

Elevation Gold Mining Corporation (ELVT.

WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.70 per share.

Empress Royalty Corp. (EMPR.WT) - One

Gran Colombia Gold (GCM.WT.B) - One warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $2.21 until expiry.

Karora Resources Inc. (KRR.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.50 until expiry.

Liberty Gold Corp. Wt (LGD.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry may 16, 2019

Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry

Lydian International Limited (LYD.WT) -

One Warrant to purchase one additional ordinary share of the Issuer at $0.36 per share until expiry

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.20 until expiry

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.22 until expiry

Nomad Royalty Company Ltd. (NSR.WT)

- One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.71 until expiry.

Novo Resources Corp. (NOVO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of

TSX VENTURE WARRANTS

warrant to purchase one common share at $0.75 per share.

Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.00 per share.

Eros Resources Corp. (ERC.WT) - One (1) Right exercisable for (1) Unit at $0.05 per Unit.

Falco Resources Ltd. (FPC.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.70 per share.

Firefox Gold Corp. (FFOX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Firefox Gold Corp. (FFOX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.00 per share.

Freeman Gold Corp (FMAN.WT.U) - One warrant to purchase one common share at US$0.65 per share.

Giga Metals Corporation (GIGA.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Giga Metals Corporation (GIGA.WT.A)One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.45 per share.

Giyani Metals Corp. (EMM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Goldstar Minerals (GDM.RT) - One Right to purchase one common share at $0.03 per share.

Goldstar Minerals Inc. (GDM.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.05 are required to purchase one common share.

Hot Chili Limited (HCH.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.50 per share.

Kaizen Discovery Inc. (KZD.RT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.51 per share.

LaSalle Exploration Corp. (LSX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Lion One Metals Limited (LIO.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.75 per share.

LithiumBank Resources Corp. (LBNK.WT)One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.00 per share.

LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC.RT) - One (1) right exercisable for One (1) Unit at $0.40 per Unit.

Mako Mining Corp. (MKO.RT) - Rights exercisable for One (1) share at $0.10 per share.

Mako Mining Corp. (MKO.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Manganese X Energy Corp. (MN.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (MGM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.40 per share

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (MGM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.40 per share

Mexican Gold Corp. (MEX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at

the Issuer at $3.00 until expiry.

Novo Resources Corp. (NVO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $3.00 until expiry.

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (PTM.WT.U)One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US$0.17 until expiry

Royal Nickel Corporation (RNX.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.50 until expiry.

Sandstorm Gold (SSL.WT.B) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US $14.00 until expiry.

Sherritt International Corporation (S.WT)Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to acquire between 1.00 and 1.25 additional common shares (as bulletin 2018-0062 table ) determined based on the Applicable Reference Cobalt Price at an exercise price of $1.95 per Warrant at any time prior to the Expiry Date

Treasury Metals Inc. Wt (TML.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.50 until expiry.

Trevali Mining Corporation (TV.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.23 until expiry.

$0.12 per share.

Millennial Lithium Corp. (ML.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.25 per share. Millennial Lithium Corp. (ML.WT) - One right to purchase one common share at $4.80 per share.

Millennial Precious Metals Corp. (MPM. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.50 per share.

Mineworx Technologies Ltd. (MWX.RT)For every one (1) Share held, Shareholders will receive one (1) Right exercisable for One (1) Share at $0.015 per Share.

Mineworx Technologies Ltd. (MWX.RT)One right to purchase one common share at $0.015 per share.

Northern Vertex Mining Corp. (NEE.WT)One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Novo Resources Corp. (NVO.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.40 per share.

Orezone Gold Corporation (ORE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Orezone Gold Corporation (ORE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Osisko Development Corp. (ODV.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $10.00 per share. Rock Tech Lithium Inc. (RCK.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.50 per share.

Sandfire Resources America Inc. (SFR.RT) -

Forty one (41) Rights exercisable for One (1)

Share at $0.15 per Share.

Sandfire Resources America Inc. (SFR. RT) - Eight (8) Rights exercisable for One (1) share at $0.06 per unit.

Silver Mountain Resources Inc. (AGMR. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.70 per share.

Star Royalties Ltd. (STRR.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.00 per share.

Three Valley Copper Corp. (TVC.WT) - 20 warrants to purchase one Class A common share at $6.66 per share.

Tintina Resources Inc. (TAU.RT) - Nine(9) Rights exercisable for one share at $0.06 per share.

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (UCU.RT) - One (1) right exercisable for one share at $4.00 per share. Vision Lithium Inc. (VLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Vizsla Silver Corp. (VZLA.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.25 per share.

Westhaven Gold Corp. (WHN.WT)

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