He says the current deal-making environment has worsened, lamenting a diminished availability of high-quality projects meeting the team’s investment criteria. He suggests the industry’s chronic underinvestment in exploration and development for new mines is partly to blame.

Smallwood also outlines in an interview during a recent industry event in Toronto with The Northern Miner’s western editor, Henry Lazenby, how Wheaton plans to achieve its long-term objective of reaching and maintaining over 850,000 gold-equivalent oz. of yearly production.

Watch the full video here:

The London-based company, which has a 6.54% stake in South African platinum group miner Sedibelo Resources, said that plummeting prices for platinum group metals (PGMs) has affected its bottom line.

Since the beginning of 2023, prices for palladium and rhodium, used mainly in the catalytic converters that clean exhaust fumes in vehicles, have dropped by 44% and 63% respectively. This collapse is attributed to inventory reductions and a sluggish global economy. 

While the decrease in platinum has been less significant, the overall decline in PGMs has had a severe impact on producers’ profits.

Gemfields said it had reduced the value of its Sedibelo investment, which will result in a write-down ranging between $4 million and $28 million. This would translate in a loss of $0.8 US cents per share for 2023, a significant change from 4.8 US cents in earnings per share of achieved in 2022. 

Headline loss per share, which includes Sedibelo Resources’ fair value loss, is likely to be 0.9 cents compared with the prior year’s headline earnings per share of 4.8 US cents.

When it comes to its core business, Gemfields saw revenue from its 75%-owned Kagem emerald mine in Zambia drop 40% to $89.9 million in 2023, from $148.6 million the previous year. Top-line revenue at its Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique decreased by 9.2% to $151.4 million from $166.7 million in 2022.

“Production of premium rough gemstones has been weaker at both Kagem and Montepuez Rompared to 2022, and resulted in November 2023’s planned higher quality emerald auction being withdrawn from our schedule,” chief executive Sean Gilbertson said.

“We look forward to completing our first auction of the year later on today, with a commercial-quality emerald auction taking place in Jaipur, and our next higher-quality emerald and mixed-quality ruby auctions to take place in Q2,” Gilbertson added.

Gemfields’ luxury brand Fabergé also disappointed, recording revenue of $15.7 million, which is 11% lower than the $17.6 million it had in 2022, mainly due to softer demand for precious stones.

Goldboro is an advanced-stage gold project located in Guysborough county. To date, Signal has progressed the project through several permitting milestones, with the most recent being the environmental assessment approval in August 2022.

Applications for the key remaining permits have all been submitted, and the company said it remains committed to working to obtain these permits within the next 12 months.

At the same time, Signal’s exploration team continued to grow the mineral resource at Goldboro. It now has measured and indicated resources of 1.42 million oz. (15.7 million tonnes at 2.82 g/t gold) for the open pit, and 1.16 million oz. (5.9 million tonnes at 6.09 g/t gold) underground.

A 2021 feasibility study on the project demonstrated an approximate 11-year life of mine with average gold production of 100,000 oz. per annum and an average diluted gold grade of 2.26 g/t.

Its after-tax net present value, discounted at 5%, is pegged at C$328 million, with an internal rate of return of 25.5% and projected payback of 2.9 years. The initial capital cost is estimated C$271 million, and the life-of-mine sustaining capital is C$63.1 million.

Still, this “robust, high-grade project with significant leverage in an increasing gold price environment” is being substantially discounted, Signal said in its media release, adding the company is “focused on being capital efficient, with an emphasis on minimizing shareholder dilution and maximizing value.”

“Signal Gold recognizes that a larger, better capitalized, or cash flow generating company could be better positioned to advance or assist in the advancement of Goldboro over the development timeline,” it said.

Shares of Signal Gold shot up 11.7% to C$0.095 by 10:40 a.m. in Toronto. Over the past 52 weeks it traded within a range of C$0.08-C$0.35 The gold junior has a market capitalization of C$23.9 million ($17.7m).

Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) has recovered a 203-carat diamond at its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, the fifth-largest ever found at the operation.

The diamond is also the third 100-carat-plus stone found at Lulo this year.

Lucapa said the high-quality, type IIa diamond was recovered during the processing of run-of-mine stockpiled ore and its recovery follows those of a 162 and a 116 carat diamonds on successive days last month.

The mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds, began commercial production in January 2015. Only a year later, it delivered the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola — a 404-carat white stone later named the “4th February Stone”.

Lucapa has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine. The rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.

Angola is the world’s fifth diamond producer by value and sixth by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully being liberalized.

The miner’s profit last year rose 14% to $195.1 million from $171 million in 2022, with revenue climbing 13% to $891.3 million from $788.4 million. 

Gold sales from Sukari in Egypt, the company’s only producing mine, totalled 456,625 ounces, up 4% from 438,638 in 2022. This as Centamin saw realized prices for the precious metal increase 8.6% to $1,948 per ounce from a previous $1,794 per ounce.

Bullion prices climbed 15% in 2023, ending at $2,078.4 an ounce, a record high year-end figure, according to data from the World Gold Council. The average 2023 price of $1,940.54 an ounce was 8% higher than the 2022 average, marking the metals’ best year since 2020.

“2023 was the third consecutive year that we have safely delivered on our production guidance, reflecting the operational improvements and flexibility from our three-year reinvestment plan,” chief executive Martin Horgan said.

The company cut its payout to shareholders to 2 US cents, down from 2.5 US cents it handed in 2022. This made a total payout of 4 cents, down 20% from 5 cents the previous year.

Improvements at Sukari

The executive said Centamin had “re-positioned” Sukari to achieve a consistent annual production of 500,000 ounces. He also anticipated a reduction in operational expenses following the establishment of solar power generation capabilities.

The company invested less than expected last year, with a $204 million total capital expenditure bill, below guidance of $272 million. It attributed the drop to cost savings, lower costs capitalization and changes to equipment rebuild schedules.

Centamin highlighted a grid connection project that it kicked off last year, thanks to recent upgrades to Egypt’s power distribution infrastructure. The completion of this project, which would be supplemented with the existing onsite solar power generation, is expected to cut $41 million a year just in diesel costs.

The plan would also help Centamin achieve its near-term decarbonization goals. It is targeting a reduction of 30% of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions, those hose incurred through mining operations and power consumption, respectively, by 2030.

The miner left its 2024 gold production guidance range of 470,000 to 500,000 ounces per annum unchanged.

The underwriters have the option to buy up to an additional 15% in overallotments.

Calibre says the proceeds will be used towards continued development of the Valentine gold project in Newfoundland; the El Limon and La Libertad gold mines in Nicaragua, and the Pan gold mine in Nevada. Provision has also been made for more exploration and for general corporate and working capital purposes.

Chief among Calibre’s projects is the wholly owned Valentine open pit gold development in central Newfoundland. This will be the largest gold mine, producing 195,000 oz. per year for the first 12 years, in Atlantic Canada. Production is planned for the first quarter of 2025.

The Valentine project has estimated proven and probable reserves of 2.7 million oz. of gold in 512.6 million tonnes grading 1.62 g/t gold. Total measured and indicated resources (inclusive of reserves) contain 3.4 million oz. in 64.6 million tonnes grading 1.90 g/t gold. Additional Inferred resources are 1.1 million oz. in 20.8 million tonnes grading 1.65 g/t gold.

In Nicaragua, the El Limon mine has produced more than 3.5 million oz. of gold and the La Libertad and the La Libertad mine has produced about 1.9 million oz. The two mines have a probable reserve containing 6.8 million oz. of gold. Both are 100%-owned by Calibre.

The Pan gold mine in Nevada, also 100%-owned, is an open pit and heap leach operation. The smallest of Calibre’s mines, producing about 45,400 oz. of gold in 2022, Pan has tremendous exploration potential with targets both to the north and south of the operation.

Yellow Giant is an underground gold and silver project on British Columbia’s north coast on Banks Island on the eastern shore of the Hecate Strait, 110 km south of Prince Rupert. 

Benjamin Mossman appealed the decision that found him guilty of 13 environmental violations, including discharging mine waste, failing to report environmental spills and dumping, and discharging substances in concentrations exceeding permitted amounts.

The court ruling had found that former CEO Benjamin Mossman was “actively or passively involved” in the Yellow Giant mine exceeding permitted amounts of zinc on multiple occasions, polluting fresh water lakes and creeks in and around the exploration sites.

Banks Island Gold filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

In the March 15 ruling, the judge also said previously dropped charges of failing to report the pollution to authorities would have to be heard at a new trial because of errors in an earlier ruling, CBC News reported.

The incident occurred on March 10. Processing operations at Kainantu were subsequently halted for three days, and have since resumed on the existing stockpiles.

Preliminary investigations by both the company and the Papua New Guinea police have led to the conclusion that the incident is a “non-industrial” in nature.

On March 13, the PNG authorities ordered a temporarily suspension of underground operations, pending the completion of action orders in relation to an independent safety audit and the installation of a collision avoidance system.

Work on these action orders is underway and were in process prior to the issuance of the action orders, the Canadian gold miner said in a news release.

Given the non-industrial nature of the incident, procedural, determination and jurisdictional breaches of the Mining (Safety) Act in issuing the action orders, the company said it filed an appeal on March 14 and expects this to be addressed shortly.

The incident marks another fatality reported at the Kainantu mine over the past year. In both May and June of 2023, two separate vehicular accidents occurred in or around the mining area, leading to the deaths of two workers in each instance.

The Kainantu project in PNG’s Eastern Highlands province was originally acquired from Barrick Gold in 2014, and it has now become K92’s flagship operation. The mine is now entering its next phase of expansion to ultimately become a Tier 1 operation with a per-annum run rate of up to 470,000 oz. gold equivalent.

Shares of K92 Mining were down 2.3% to C$6.20 when the market opened in Toronto. The company has a market capitalization of C$1.45 billion ($1.1bn).

The Dutch suit is being pursued by law firms Pogust Goodhead and Lemstra Van der Korst against Vale and Samarco Iron Ore Europe, a marketing unit of the Samarco JV, which was responsible for operating the dam. 

Pogust Goodhead, which is also involved in the UK case against BHP, told the Financial Times on Tuesday the firm was acting on behalf of 77,000 individuals, nearly 1,000 businesses, and seven municipalities.

BHP is already dealing with a major class action lawsuit from around 700,000 claimants in the UK related to the same incident. The rupture of the Fundão mining waste facility on November 2015 resulted in 19 fatalities and pollution of waterways that reached the Atlantic Ocean, more than 650 km (400 miles) away. 

According to Vale, the Renova foundation, which the companies have been using to pay for some of the damages caused by the fatal dam collapse, had recieved 34.7 billion reais ($6.9 billion) in socioeconomic and environmental compensation as of December 2023.

A Brazilian court ruled in January that Samarco, Vale, and BHP had to pay $47.6 billion reals ($9.44bn) in compensation for the dam collapse. Both Vale and BHP have stated that they may appeal this decision.

That ruling did not apply to individual victims, Pogust Goodhead said in January.

The report was produced by the Centre for Transformative Work at Curtin University, whose researchers surveyed more than 2,500 workers and conducted in-depth interviews with 60 individuals to gain insights into their experiences with a focus on three critical areas – creating mentally healthy workplaces, building a culture of safety and respect, and preparing for workplace safety in future mining.

In detail, 41% of female mining workers reported they had experienced being put down or condescended to, while 34% reported receiving offensive sexist remarks such as suggesting that people of their sex are not suited for the kind of work they do.

Even though the study found that covert forms of sexual harassment such as sexism and misogyny are high, it also noted that sexual attention and sexual coercion are decreasing.

In addition to the prior, only four in 10 WA mining workers reported feeling satisfied with their jobs and nearly one in three said they were likely to try to find a new job with another employer in the next 12 months.

“Our research found one in three mining workers experiences emotional exhaustion regularly, indicating high levels of burnout. Disturbingly, covert forms of sexual harassment, including sexism and misogyny, persist,” MARS Program Landmark Study chief investigator, Sharon Parker, said in a media statement. “The negative impact of these experiences on mental health and well-being is evident, emphasizing the urgent need for change through improved work design, leadership and organizational culture.”

In Parker’s view, given that the mining sector constitutes 10% of the Western Australia workforce and plays a pivotal role in the state’s economy, this type of study is crucial.

Lead author Cheryl Yam said that while the findings acknowledge workplace culture was improving as companies pay more attention to reducing discrimination and harassment, a collective commitment is needed to achieve meaningful and lasting change in building a respectful workplace culture.

“The mining industry is a leader in physical safety. With the support and resources from the MARS Program, we are confident that the mining industry is well positioned to also be a leader in mental health and well-being,” Yam said. “Our research findings provide a roadmap for meaningful action to address and reduce covert forms of sexual harassment and create respectful workplaces to attract, retain and prevent harm to women and people in other minority groups.”

The study also highlighted that 30% of mine workers reported high or very high levels of psychological distress and 38% reported feeling burnt out at work.

Also, 16% of workers reported having experienced bullying (22% reported witnessing bullying) at least 2-3 times per month in the past six months.

On the positive side, most WA mine workers reported high levels of physical safety behaviours such as safety compliance and safety participation. Yet, underreporting of notifiable safety incidents and near misses continues to exist in the industry.

Finally, 60% of fly-in-fly-out mine workers reported being satisfied with their accommodation while 73% of male FIFO workers reported feeling physically very safe in their work-provided accommodation compared to 53% of female FIFO workers.

The company reported on Tuesday an A$167.6 million loss for 2023 as its share price has crumbled in the past year from A$1.20 to A$0.20 at the close on Wednesday.

“Despite the sharp drop in lithium prices, we’ve improved production and efficiencies, producing 49,530 tonnes of spodumene concentrate in the latter half of 2023,” outgoing CEO Gareth Manderson said.

Despite halting mining on Jan. 5 at its Finniss lithium operation in Australia’s Northern Territory, the company continues processing existing ore stockpiles to maintain spodumene concentrate production. The focus has shifted towards cash preservation and assessing the viability of its lithium projects, along with exploring the potential in its wholly owned gold, uranium, and base metal assets.

Manderson, a former Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) executive who joined Core in August 2022, has decided to step down as CEO. Under his leadership, the company saw the establishment of a proficient management team and the start of operations at Finniss despite facing such challenges as underperforming open-pit mines and incomplete infrastructure.

His tenure was marked by developing efficient operations and fostering a culture focused on safety, professionalism, and accountability, the company said in a Tuesday release.

Following Manderson’s departure, Doug Warden, the current CFO, will serve as the interim CEO, receiving an additional monthly allowance for his new duties. The company is actively seeking a permanent CEO replacement. In parallel, James Virgo steps in as the interim CFO, bringing extensive financial management experience from his time at Resolute Mining.

Andrea Hall, a non-executive director since April 2023, also resigned, aiming to facilitate a board restructuring that aligns with the company’s future strategy.

Core produced 49,530 tonnes of spodumene concentrate in H2 2023, improving production and efficiencies despite the drop in lithium prices.

Core continues to evaluate its strategic options amidst the challenging market conditions, focusing on sustainability, operational efficiency, and financial stability.

As of October 2023, Finniss held 10.5 million tonnes across three resource categories grading 1.53% lithium oxide for 160,000 tonnes of metal.

At A$0.20 per share on Wednesday, Core’s Sydney-listed equity is down 83% over the past 12 months, and it has a market capitalization of A$427.4 million.

In late 2023, Vista sold a 1% gross revenue royalty on the project to Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM, NYSE: WPM; LSE: WPM) for $20 million. The Mt Todd project is considered to be one of the country’s largest undeveloped gold ventures, capable of producing 479,000 oz. a year.

Compared to its previous study filed in February 2022, the new report shows an improved after-tax net present value (discounted at 5%) of $1.13 billion, up $131.5 million, and a similar internal rate of return at 20.4%.

The figures are calculated using a gold price of $1,800/oz. gold price and foreign exchange rate of 0.69, versus $1,600/oz. and 0.71 used two years ago.

At a higher gold price of $2,100 and a 0.66 foreign exchange rate, which the company believes are more reflective of current market conditions, the after-tax NPV of the project would rise to $1.88 billion, with an IRR of 29.6%.

The average all-in sustaining cost over an estimated 16-year mine life rose to $1,034/oz., compared to $928/oz. previously. Average cash costs also increased to $913/oz. from $817/oz.

Initial capital requirements of $1.03 billion are $138 million higher, which Vista says continues to reflect the use of a third-party owner/operator of the power plant at Mt Todd.

“Mt Todd is a robust project with strong leverage to the gold price. Project economics are approximately the same or slightly better than reported two years ago, inclusive of cost increases that have affected the entire gold mining sector,” Vista Gold CEO Frederick Earnest said in a news release.

He added that “these results do not change our strategy for Mt Todd,” and the company will continue to work with CIBC Capital Markets to identify and advance interest in the project.

Shares of Vista Gold jumped 6.4% to $0.50 by 3:15 p.m. ET in New York, for a market capitalization of $61 million.

The initial agreement is for New Gold to purchase up to 350,000 tonnes of ore mined at Bralorne and process it at their mill located at the New Afton mine. The agreement may be extended by mutual consent.

Terry Harbort, Talisker’s president and CEO, said: “Talisker is very pleased to have signed this important ore purchase agreement with New Gold. Having completed the portal and decline construction and our resource conversion drilling, this agreement clears the pathway for our planned 2024 production at Bralorne.”

The company has completed over 150,000 metres of drilling at Bralorne, identifying 86 veins, 75 of which are open in all directions. The resources are given as 117,300 indicated tonnes grading 8.85 g/t gold, containing 33,400 oz., and 8.0 million inferred tonnes at 6.32 g/t gold, containing 1.6 million ounces. Mineralization is known to extend to 2,000 metres below surface.

Underground test mining is planned to a depth of 700 metres. The Mustang adit has been enlarged, and the decline is complete. New development is underway to gain access to the Alhambra and BK-9870 veins on levels 3700, 3800 and 3900. Ore removal is to begin by the middle of 2024.

Talisker noted that there is district-scale potential at Bralorne. There are seven historical mines and 47 known mineral occurrences along a 33-km belt. Two of the historic resources include 186,000 oz. of gold at the Congress mine and grades as high as 329 g/t gold during first-pass drilling at the BRX mine.

A research panel will look for ways to reduce contamination from coal mines in BC’s Elk Valley flowing into Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir straddling the border and into US rivers. Due to pollution concerns in this watershed, the US and Canada asked International Joint Commission (IJC) to establish a board of experts and knowledge holders by June that will study the issue over two years and devise options for action.

Indigenous groups in British Columbia, Montana and Idaho had lobbied for intervention by both federal governments to stop the flow of coal pollution, the Associated Press reported.

Elevated levels of selenium have reportedly been found in fish and fish eggs from Montana’s Kootenai River, downstream from coal mines in the Elk River Valley. A legal action filed in May 2023 in Montana named Teck Coal Ltd. as one of three defendants in a request for judicial review by environmental groups in Montana and Idaho over levels of contamination from its British Columbia mines in US waters.

“Our two countries are committed to a collaborative, science, and Indigenous knowledge based, action-oriented path forward,” US Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen and the Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman said in a joint statement.

The two nations will work in partnership with Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples, consistent with the principles outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They’ve asked the IJC to assist federal and Indigenous governments, British Columbia, Idaho, and Montana, to establish a formal governance structure for the study board by the end of June.

Teck closed the sale of a minority interest in its coal business to Nippon in January. The remaining sale of 77% of the business to Glencore (LSE: GLEN) is expected to close in the third quarter.

In a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, soft condense matter scientist Raffaele Mezzenga and his team explain how using a sponge made from a protein matrix, they have successfully extracted gold from electronic waste in an energy-efficient fashion.

To manufacture the sponge, Mohammad Peydayesh, a senior scientist in Mezzenga’s group, and his colleagues denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures so they aggregated into protein nanofibrils in a gel. The scientists then dried the gel, creating a sponge out of these protein fibrils.

To recover gold in the lab experiment, the team salvaged the electronic motherboards from 20 old computers and extracted the metal parts. They dissolved these parts in an acid bath to ionize the metals.

When they placed the protein fibre sponge in the metal ion solution, the gold ions adhered to the protein fibres. Other metal ions can also adhere to the fibres, but gold ions do so very efficiently.

As the next step, the researchers heated the sponge. This reduced the gold ions into flakes, which the scientists subsequently melted down into a gold nugget. In this way, they obtained a nugget of around 450 milligrams out of the 20 computer motherboards. The nugget was 91% gold, which corresponds to 22 carats. The remainder was made out of copper.

Mezzenga’s calculations show that the technology is commercially viable, as procurement costs for the source materials added to the energy costs for the entire process are 50 times lower than the value of the gold that can be recovered.

Next, the researchers want to develop the technology to ready it for the market.

Although electronic waste is the most promising starting product from which they want to extract gold, there are other possible sources. These include industrial waste from microchip manufacturing or gold-plating processes. In addition, the scientists plan to investigate whether they can manufacture the protein fibril sponges out of other protein-rich byproducts or waste products from the food industry.

“The fact I love the most is that we’re using a food industry byproduct to obtain gold from electronic waste,” Mezzenga said in a media statement. “You can’t get much more sustainable than that!”

The document was produced in the absence of an organic law to regulate the issue, which had become a point of concern for foreign investors, particularly in the mining sector. 

The manual, which is informed by constitutional standards and international treaties for the implementation of prior, free and informed consultation, was issued by Ministerial Agreement 002 on March 6, 2024.

The guide is considered to be of mandatory application before authorizing the prospecting, exploration, exploitation and commercialization of mineral resources. It also details the processing times for the approval of each of these activities when they are to take place in or around vulnerable communities and Indigenous lands that could be environmentally or culturally affected. 

The manual states that prior consultation dialogues may lead to the modification of certain mining projects. However, it also highlights that the results of the prior, free and informed consultation process are not binding, which means that the government could choose to greenlight projects even without the consent of the affected communities.

This last point set off the alarms of environmental groups and on March 8, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Cofeniae) issued a communiqué rejecting the manual and saying that it is aimed at ignoring the rights that are protected by what is known as “organic law reservation.” In their view, the manual is an attempt to impose an extractive agenda and bypass democratic controls.

The “organic law reservation” principle states that higher laws are infringed upon when a lower law is issued on a topic that is regulated by the Constitution, as is prior consultation in this case.

“Continuing with its extractivist and neoliberal agenda, President Noboa turns our rights into a mere administrative procedure to facilitate the interests of the mining industry and speed up the approval process of mining concessions,” the statement reads. 

The government, on the other hand, defends that the manual was created following previous statements of the Constitutional Court and Article 7 of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, which states that no segment of a national population has the right to veto development policies that affect an entire country.

In the court-mandated overhaul of the Mineral Tenure Act (MTA), which must be completed by early 2025, the industry has been reduced to listen-only status, AME president and CEO Keerit Jutla says. The industry was caught by surprise Thursday, when B.C. issued interim orders to protect Gitxaala Nation and Ehattesaht Nation’s mineral interests, and also outlined a process for cooperation and consultation for modernizing the Mineral Tenure Act.

“Industry and stakeholders are not being engaged in the manner and weight and importance that we should be,” Jutla said in an interview. “We’re getting brought in on these issues at the very last minute. And when we are, we’re being asked to sign NDAs and to kind of listen to feedback. But that’s all it is, feedback; it’s not input into a decision being made. It’s just FYI.”

Jutla questions the current state of industry engagement, and highlights a lasting disconnect between industry consultations and government actions. “Ensuring their ability to explore is at the crux of our members’ interests,” Jutla said.

Regulatory uncertainties hit junior companies and individual prospectors hard, stifling innovation and growth. These entities struggle with financial and operational barriers due to unclear regulations.

“Not everyone has the bankroll of tech companies. Every dollar matters,” Jutla said.

The AME does not expect more interim measures that restrict mineral claims in other parts of the province. “It remains business as usual for our members in the rest of B.C.,” he said.

Orders in council

B.C.’s Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation ministry said in two statements the interim measures were implemented following an agreement with Gitxaała and Ehattesaht nations.

The interim measures respond to a Supreme Court decision from September 2023, requiring consultation with First Nations prior to mineral registration. The ruling aims to address the adverse impacts on their lands, mandating B.C. to revise the MTA within 18 months to incorporate consultation requirements. Following the new provincial measures, First Nations temporarily halted some appeals, impacting mining activities and new permits in Gitxaała and Ehattesaht territories and halting new mineral claims without their consent.

“The current MTA is entirely inconsistent with and undermines our title and rights, including our inherent rights to self-determination and self-governance,” B.C. Assembly of First Nations regional chief Terry Teegee said in a statement.

The mines ministry said that cooperation, consultation with First Nations, and engagement with industry and interested groups will launch this month.

Despite governmental investments such as the C$24-million launch of a critical mineral strategy earlier this year, there remains “a significant lack of clarity and certainty” on mining investments, Jutla says.

This ambiguity hurts the industry’s ability to plan and operate efficiently. “We do not have clarity on the regulatory framework, and we do not have certainty on the land base,” he said.

Building bridges

Despite these challenges, Jutla still believes it’s possible for the industry, government, and Indigenous communities to work harmoniously together to foster mutual respect, understanding, and economic prosperity.

“We can’t build that bright future unless we’re all talking and working together in a very good positive way, building innovative solutions,” Jutla said.

AME advocates for early and frequent engagement and encourages its members to build strong, respectful relationships with Indigenous communities.

“The stronger of a relationship you have with anyone, the better you can do any type of business,” Jutla said. “It’s right to respect Indigenous rights, traditions, and interests in land-use decisions. It is reasonable for the industry to seek clarity and certainty as the government moves forward.”

Perseus is offering A$0.55 cash per each share of OreCorp it does not already own, which values the target company at A$258 million ($172m). The bid represents a 4% premium over its rival Silvercorp Metals (TSX, NYSE: SVM). 

Silvercorp approached OreCorp in August last year, hoping to obtain the Nyanzaga gold project in Tanzania, located near Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) Bulyanhulu mine and AngloGold Ashanti’s (JSE: ANG) (NYSE:AU) Geita mine.

Both bidders, who have been battling for OreCorp since, claim Tanzanian authorities are ready to approve their offers.

The Nyanzaga mine would cost $474 million to build and is slated to produce 242,000 ounces gold per year over its first decade, according to a feasibility study issued in August 2022.

Perseus has three operating mines in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, producing gold at a rate of more than 535,000 ounces per year.

Vancouver-based Silvercorp has two producing precious metals mines in China and has been looking to diversify its portfolio. Its bid for OreCorp closes on March 22 unless extended. 

The province’s current Mineral Tenure Act (MTA) permits anyone with a free miner certificate to acquire mineral claims online through an automated system in First Nations’ territories, without their consultation or consent.

In October 2021, the Gitxaała Nation filed a legal challenge in Supreme Court seeking to overturn the province’s granting of multiple mineral claims from 2018 to 2020 on Banks Island, in their territory on BC’s northern coast.

The Gitxaała claimed they never consented to issuance of claims, were not consulted, and were never notified of the pending decisions. The lawsuit asked the province to invalidate existing claims and suspend staking in Gitxaala territory.

The court began hearing arguments in April 2023 and in September ruled that the province must consult with Indigenous groups before granting mineral claims, upholding the Crown’s duty.

The judge found that the province owes a constitutional duty to consult with First Nations prior to registering mineral tenures under the MTA and that there are negative impacts to Gitxaała Nation’s and Ehattesaht First Nation’s territories and rights from registration of mineral claims and gave BC 18 months to reform the MTA to incorporate the duty to consult.

Gitxaała and Ehattesaht had remaining concerns that the impacts on their rights found by the court would continue while MTA reform was underway and until a new regime was in place. The Nations filed appeals including requested orders to quash specific mineral claims and prevent new claim registrations until a consultation regime is in place. They have agreed not to proceed with those aspects of their appeals in light of protective measures enacted by the Province.

“This resolution demonstrates that meeting in person, government to government, allows us to develop solutions together, and I want to recognize and express my gratitude to Ehattesaht and Gitxaała for coming to the table with us to move forward the important work of reforming the Mineral Tenure Act,” Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, said in Thursday’s news release.

“These interim measures mean that instead of ongoing litigation that could have far more significant and longer-term impacts to the sector, we are instead able to focus on our work together to reform the act,” she said.

The two Nations and the Ministry have also agreed to support amendments to the interim orders if Ehattesaht or Gitxaała reach agreement with companies seeking to explore or mine in their territories.

“Gitxaała is ready to work with the Province and other First Nations to ensure BC meets its commitment to establish a mineral tenure law that aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and respects Gitxaała laws,” Gitxaała-elected Chief Councillor Linda Innes said.

“The orders enacted by the Province are an important step to begin this work together.”

The Canadian miner, which reported a loss of $92.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, booked a $90.6 million charge related to the anticipated closure of the operation, which would leave about 5,800 direct and indirect employees in limbo.

The company also recorded impairment charge of $10.1 million related to materials inventory at San Jose, Burkina Faso’s Yaramoko, and Argentina’s Lindero mines.

After adjusting for impairment charges and other non-recurring items, the company’s adjusted attributable net income in the last quarter last year was $20.6 million or $0.07 per share. This compares to $6.4 million or $0.02 per share in Q4 2022 and can be explained primarily due to higher gold sales and prices.

Despite promising exploration results at the newly identified Yessi vein, the Vancouver-based miner is moving forward with its plans to close the San Jose mine, but said a decision on whether the Yessi discovery can support operations beyond 2024 will be made in the second half of the year. 

Chief executive Jorge Ganoza said this year Fortuna Silver will focus its exploration efforts on the Diamba Sud gold project in Senegal and the Seguela gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire.

Africa expansion

The precious metals producer inked a deal earlier this week with Australia’s Turaco Gold (ASX: TCG) that gives it the option to gain a 80% interest in five exploration permits that make up the junior’s Tongon North project in Côte d’Ivoire.

Under the agreement, Fortuna is required to make an initial payment of $100,000 to Turaco and invest a minimum of $3.5 million in the project over the next three years.

If Fortuna decides to exercise the option, Turaco can choose to either co-venture with Fortuna, maintaining a 20% interest, or sell its remaining stake for $1.5 million in cash.

The deal would expand Fortuna’s presence in the region, adding to a portfolio that also includes the Yaramoko gold mine in Burkina Faso.

The company also has operating mines in Argentina and Peru. 

The quest for substitutes for fossil fuels has increased the need for metals used in the batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and in green-energy applications. Minerals and metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese can be found in potato-sized nodules on the ocean floor. Reserves are estimated to be worth anywhere from $8 trillion to more than $16 trillion and they are in areas where companies, including deep-sea mining pioneer The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC), plan to target. 

According to the report, entitled “How to lose half a trillion” by non-profit Planet Tracker, extracting metals from the seafloor could cost the mining industry $30 to $132 billion in value destruction.

François Mosnier, head of Oceans and report lead author at Planet Tracker, told MINING.COM this estimate is the result of adding the combined value loss the activity would cause for both ocean floor and terrestrial miners.

“For the deep sea mining sector, focusing only on polymetallic nodules in international waters, the cost would reach $35 billion-$49 billion of value destruction,” Mosnier said. 

“This amount was computed based on the estimated invested capital in the sector in 2043 ($115 billion), the industry’s estimated return on invested capital (-2%) and the industry’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and long-term growth (3%).”

Put simply, the deep-sea mining industry would not beat the cost of the capital it requires to exist, he said.

“Before factoring in any environmental impacts, the economics already appear uncompelling,” Mosnier said. “High operating expenditures mean that returns will be negative for investors in deep sea mining, which will also destroy value in other sectors, such as terrestrial mining and fishing.”

On top of that, major global banks such Credit Suisse, Lloyds, NatWest, and Standard Chartered, Dutch bank ABN Amro, and Spanish group Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, have all introduced policies that rule out funding deep-sea exploration and extraction.

The report highlights the positive financial impact of respecting nature as sectors dependent on preserving intact ecosystems have outperformed those exploiting resources threefold over the last three decades.

It also urges investors to focus on nature preservation rather than resource extraction a repeats its call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.

Ready to start

While the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has yet to set rules for the extraction of minerals and metals from the ocean floor, there already is a country that doesn’t need to wait: Norway.

The nation secured in December parliamentary majority to go ahead with plans to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration, despite environmental groups and the fishing industry’s warnings that the move would risk the biodiversity of vulnerable ecosystems.

The European country, where vast oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest nations, plans to search for minerals on its extended continental shelf.

China is another nation investing heavily in deep-sea mining technology, including remotely operated vehicles, vessels, and sonar scanning systems.

Chinese companies, according to the Pentagon, hold more International Seabed Authority contracts (five out of 31 for exploration and development) than any other country.

Opponents to seafloor mining have long-warned that consequences of both exploration and extraction of minerals from the seabed are unknown and that more research should be conducted before going ahead.

Those that support the expansion of activity believe deep-sea mining is central to meeting the increasing demand of mineral growth. The demand for copper and rare earth metals is predicted to grow by 40%, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The agency also expects that the demand share for nickel, cobalt and lithium from clean energy technologies alone will grow by 60%, 70% and 90%, respectively. 

According to a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, producing battery metals from nodules could reduce emissions of CO² by 70-75%,  cut land use by 94% and eliminate 100% of solid waste.

First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) inked a $500-million deal last month to supply Jiangxi Copper from the Kansanshi mine in Zambia as the Vancouver-based miner strives to shore up finances after authorities shut its Cobre Panama mine in the Central American country.

“There are active conversations going on about how best to approach some of those kinds of issues,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told reporters in Toronto. “What you’re going to find increasingly moving forward is democratic countries around the world coming together to try to find pathways through which we actually are ensured of access of the minerals we’re going to need.”

The largest shareholder in First Quantum is Jiangxi Copper, but Wilkinson said the government won’t pursue investments that pre-date its critical minerals divestment strategy. It began in November 2022 by targeting three TSX-listed lithium companies. Ottawa hasn’t changed its stance on reviewing Chinese investments in Canadian critical mineral companies, he said, even as recent deals highlight continued interest from the mining and processing behemoth.

“We’ve been pretty clear that we are not interested in investment generally from state-owned enterprises,” Wilkinson said in reply to a question from The Northern Miner at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual conference in Toronto. “Certainly the ones that are raising significant flags would be those that actually require some kind of offtake agreements, those that require control – effectively controlling shareholders – or provide for significant board representation.”

Competing interests

The federal reviews must walk a line between competing interests. On one side are mining companies, especially at the junior level, who are facing what they believe is an unprecedented funding crunch from lack of stock markets investing in the industry and who turn to industrial power China for backing. On the other side is the rising trend of resource nationalism for security as countries in the West try to diminish China’s dominance in critical mineral mining and processing.

China’s Yintai said last month it would buy Osino Resources (TSXV: OSI; US-OTC: OSIIF) for C$368 million, Zijin Mining invested $97 million for 15% of Solaris Resources (TSX: SLS; US-OTC: SLSSF) in January and Vital Metals (ASX: VML) said in December that Shenghe Resources was buying stockpiles of rare earth elements mined at its Nechalacho project in the Northwest Territories.

Each of those deals might have some wiggle room under a review. Osino’s primary asset is the Twin Hills gold project in Namibia. Gold is not one of Canada’s 31 critical minerals. Solaris is digging for copper, a critical mineral, but 15% isn’t regarded as a controlling stake. Vital is an Australian company, so Ottawa doesn’t have direct recourse under Canada’s Investment Act, though it does have a say in permits for the project.

On Tuesday, Montreal-based SRG Mining (TSXV: SRG) said it’s cancelling a $12.5 million deal with China’s Carbon ONE New Energy Group to take a 19.4% stake in the graphite miner. It had said last week it would incorporate in Abu Dhabi while maintaining its Toronto listing.

“That was a helpful decision that they would essentially not re-domicile in order to accept Chinese investment,” Wilkinson said. “But certainly we will be looking at all transactions that involve Chinese state owned enterprises and those companies related to them.”

According to the scientists, diamond is known for its high thermal conductivity, which is four to five times higher than that of copper. For this reason, it is a particularly interesting material when it comes to cooling power electronics in electric transportation, photovoltaics or storage systems.

Until now, heat sinks made of copper or aluminum plates have increased the heat-emitting surface of components that produce heat, thus preventing damage due to overheating. But the new nano-membranes made from synthetic diamonds that are thinner than a human hair can be integrated directly into electronic components to cool the power electronics in electric vehicles, which transfer traction energy from the battery to the electric motor and convert the current from direct current to alternating current.

These flexible, electrically insulating nano-membranes have the potential to reduce the local heat load of electronic components, such as current regulators in electric motors, thus increasing the energy efficiency, service life and road performance of electric vehicles.

When used in the charging infrastructure, the diamond membranes also contribute to charging speeds that are five times higher than the current average.

The researchers pointed out that, generally speaking, applying a copper layer underneath the component improves the heat flow. However, there is an electrically insulating oxide or nitride layer between the copper and the component, which has poor thermal conductivity.

“We want to replace this intermediate layer with our diamond nanomembrane, which is extremely effective at transferring heat to the copper, as diamonds can be processed into conductive paths,” Matthias Mühle, head of the Diamond Technologies group at the Fraunhofer US Center Midwest CMW, said in a media statement. “As our membrane is flexible and free-standing, it can be positioned anywhere on the component or the copper or integrated directly into the cooling circuit.”

Mühle and his team achieved this by growing the polycrystalline diamond nanomembrane on a separate silicon wafer, then detaching it, turning it over and etching away the back of the diamond layer. This results in a free-standing, smooth diamond that can be heated at a low temperature of 80°C and subsequently attached to the component.

“The heat treatment automatically bonds the micrometre-thick membrane to the electronic component. The diamond is then no longer free-standing but integrated into the system,” the expert said.

The nanomembrane can be produced on a wafer scale four inches and larger, making it well-suited for industrial applications.

According to Mühle, a patent has already been filed for the development. Application tests with inverters and transformers in application fields such as electric transportation and telecommunications are due to start this year.

The deal is the largest mining investment in Ecuador’s history, according to the miner, and it is separate from an already committed $311 million for the project, included in the current Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) for Cascabel.

“[This deal] not only reinforces the protections for our key investment in Ecuador but also symbolizes a deepening of our relationship with the Ecuadorian State,” chief executive Scot Caldwell said.

SolGold released in February a new pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Cascabel in which it managed to slash upfront costs. Pre-production capital used for initial mine development, first process plant module and infrastructure is now estimated at $1.55 billion, compared to $2.75 billion from the PFS issued in April 2022.

According to SolGold, the size of the entire resource indicates the mine’s potential to be a multi-generational asset, potentially one of the 20 largest copper-gold mines in South America. Mine construction is set to start in 2025.

Investors have been skeptical of SolGold management’s ability to deliver the project to its potential. The company’s share price has halved over the past year, while the miner has had to cut spending to stay afloat, prompting a strategic review of its assets.

SolGold’s shares were trading 23.07% higher in London mid-afternoon to 8.13p. Year-to-date, however, the stock is down more than 18%. The company’s current market capitalization is £243 million (about $310m).

Vares, which produced first concentrate last week, is the result of Adriatic’s efforts to revive a former silver operation that was abandoned during the years of civil unrest that hit the region in the early 1990s.

The opening event took place at the Vares processing plant and was attended by the Nermin Nikšić, Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zdravko Marošević, Mayor of Vares and other authorities.

Adriatic Metals said it will now work on increasing processing activities to reach nameplate capacity of 800,000 tonnes by the fourth quarter of this year.

Chief executive officer, Paul Cronin, told MINING.COM that the original idea was to resume operations at the old open pit, which still has 7 million tonnes of resources. Studies conducted later showed high levels of harmful elements, particularly mercury, so Adriatic Metals chose not to go that route.

Instead, the junior invested in exploration and pinpointed what is now its flagship silver-zinc asset, which has been awarded the status of “project of special importance” by the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Adriatic, which went from the exploration phase to first concentrate production in less than seven years, invested $250 million to bring Vares back to life.

“I am delighted to celebrate this momentous occasion with the team who helped deliver this project,” Cronin said in the statement.

“This not only a significant milestone in Adriatic’s journey to becoming a mid-tier, European focused mining company, but also a turning point for the local community as well,” he noted. 

The company said the development included the use of the latest technology available and was completed using local workers and suppliers.

“It demonstrates that mining operations can be constructed and operated in a sustainable way in Europe, while supporting the economy and improve living standards both locally and nationally,” Cronin said.

The Vares project contributed to 25% of Bosnian 2022 foreign direct investment and is expected to account for 2% of the country’s GDP during operations.

About 27% of the mine’s employees are women, Adriatic noted, which exceeds the global mining workforce average of 15% according to a 2020 World Bank report. It also surpasses the approximately 10% representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The South America-focused company said its subsidiary Amarillo Mineracao do Brasil had advanced $15 million by way of a 10% interest-bearing secured loan as part of the deal for the project. It also agreed to spend at least $5 million on exploration expenditures at the project in the 12.5-month period ending on March 19, 2025.

Hochschild can chose to exercise the option to buy a 100% interest in Monte Do Carmo during that period by repaying the loan and making a $45 million cash payment to Cerrado Gold, in instalments, over the next three years.

“We are pleased to have secured the option to acquire Monte Do Carmo,” chief executive officer Eduardo Landin said in the statement. “With the project holding significantly advanced permitting and compelling exploration upside potential, the transaction aligns with our strategy of adding high quality, pre-production assets.”

The Monte Do Carmo project holds 21 mineral concessions over 82,542 hectares, and hosts multiple identified gold targets along a 30 km mineralized trend. These include the Serra Alta gold deposit, which has measured and indicated resources of 1,012k ounces of gold and inferred resources of 66,000 gold ounces and was the subject of a feasibility study in October 2023.

According to the study, Monte Do Carmo can generate an annual average output of 95,000 gold ounces during a nine-year life. Initial capex is estimated at $262 million and at a $1,750/ounce gold price, the payback should happen in just over two years. 

Hochschild already has an operating gold mine in Brazil, Mara Rosa, which achieved first production last month. The asset, in the state of Goias, remains on schedule to begin commercial production towards the end of the second quarter of this year.

The company has said Mara Rosa is expected to produce between 83,000 to 93,000 ounces of gold in 2024 at all-in sustaining costs of between $1,090 and $1,120 per ounce.

Analysts at UK investment bank Peel Hunt noted that previous to Tuesday’s announcement, Cerrado had identified several explorations targets at Monte Do Carmo. “We suspect it is this upside that appeals to Hochschild’s project team, seeing the potential to extend the life of the plant should the many prospects within a 10 km radius of the main deposit result in additional resources,” they wrote in a note to investors.

Canaccord Genuity experts said they saw the addition of the Monte do Carmo option as a positive move for Hochschild as it has the potential “to help rebuild its growth profile beyond the addition of the Mara Rosa mine”. 

Shares in Hochschild Mining jumped on the news to 104.4p and were trading 2.7% higher than Monday’s price mid-afternoon Tuesday in London at 102.7p each. That leaves the company with a market capitalization of about £527.22 million ($669 million).

Under a definitive purchase agreement signed Monday, Probe will acquire the McKenzie Break and Beaufor properties from Monarch, which has been placed under creditor protection since November 2023. The consideration is be payable in a combination of cash and shares.

The Beaufor property lies immediately next to Probe’s Novador project and consists of 23 mineral claims covering 6.9 square kilometres. The property hosts a current measured and indicated gold resource of 219,200 oz. at 5.3 g/t and inferred gold resource of 122,500 oz. at 4.7 g/t.

The McKenzie Break property is host to a high-grade gold deposit situated only 20 km north of the Novador project. The property hosts a current indicated gold resource of 146,000 oz. at an average grade of 3.2 g/t, plus an inferred gold resource of 250,600 oz. at 3.1 g/t.

“The tuck-in acquisition of the Beaufor and McKenzie Break properties is a strategic fit with our current development model in Val-d’Or,” Probe Gold CEO David Palmer said in a news release.

The Beaufor property, said Palmer, was “the missing piece” in the company’s Novador claim fabric and will complete its consolidation of the Courvan trend, which now includes the Courvan, Senore and Beaufor deposits. Beaufor is host to a former mine that has produced 1.2 million oz. in the past.

The McKenzie Break property is also within trucking distance of Novador and hosts higher-grade gold resources with “tremendous” exploration upside, Palmer added.

Novador represents a district-scale land package comprising 436 sq. km., making it one of the largest landholdings in Québec’s Val-d’Or mining camp. Its current measured and indicated resource totals over 2 million oz. (41.8 million tonnes grading 1.52 g/t).

A preliminary economic assessment this year estimated a C$910 million net present value (at 5% discount) for the project, with an internal rate of return of 24.4%. Annual production is expected to average 255,000 oz. over a mine life of 12.6 years.

Overall, the transaction will add 365,200 measured and indicated and 373,100 inferred oz. of higher-grade gold to Probe’s current resource inventory, and will provide an additional 85 sq. km. of underexplored ground for further expansion and discovery.

Upon closing, the company’s landholding in the Val-d’Or region will total 685 square kilometres.

While experts continue to debate the potential implications of adopting AI at both a personal and business level, the mining industry has not stayed still waiting for the conclusions.

The sector has already embarked on a quest to transform operations from the traditional heavy-equipment and men-on-site operations, to mines that integrate connectivity, automation and AI.

On a visit to MWC Barcelona, an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry, MINING.COM was able to see how the world of telecommunications and mining are increasingly intertwined. 

Invited by telecommunications giant Huawei, MINING.com — the first mining media to ever attend MWC — saw sensors, smart cameras and 5G relay boxes ready to be deployed to mines around the world.

There was buzz around the new generation of mobile internet — “5.5G,” or “5G Advanced”. The new standard is expected to make the networks themselves more “intelligent” through the application of AI and machine learning, while also boosting performance and reducing overall power consumption.

When Huawei vice president of global marketing and solutions for mining and oil and gas, Jack Chan, was asked why the company began developing solutions for the industry, the answer was as quick as clear: safety.

“In China we have almost 3 million coal miners working in 4,400 coal mines, which are underground and often register deadly accidents,” Chan said. “When taking workers out of the tunnels and into a room full of screens displaying numbers, graphs and images, not only a company is saving lives, but is also more appealing to the new generations.”

Chan added that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure is crucial to support intelligent mining. Without fast and reliable communication networks, robust computing power, rapid data storage, and vigilant network security, essential tasks, including real-time monitoring and instant data exchange would be impossible, he explained.

“Young people don’t want to spend hours underground, hot and breathing recycled air, but they are happy to sit in a room with air conditioner and monitor activities in real time,” he said.

Data on extraction, personnel location and danger detection is centralized on a system designed to eliminate problems caused by human error and miscommunication. Instead of people, robots patrol and inspect the dark and narrow underground corridors.

“AI service architects and AI algorithm engineers will become key roles in the era of intelligence,” Chan predicts.

Remote and digital solutions are common in other coal operations, such as those in Canada and Australia, but China has lagged and now the government has set the goal of achieving basic digitalization of all mines by 2035.

Huawei is a step ahead with is AI-based Pangu Mining, a suit of applications launched in July last year, which were developed based on the pilot verification of large AI models at industrial levels. 

The name Pangu comes from ancient Chinese mythology and folklore. The legendary figure is associated with the creation of the world.

There are altogether 21 application scenarios related to nine operating activities, namely, coal mining, tunneling, primary transportation, auxiliary transportation, lifting, safety monitoring, rock burst prevention, coal preparation, and coking.

Rock bursts are a particularly challenging issue in mining. The primary means of preventing rock bursts is drilling destress holes, whose quality matters. Shandong Energy has managed to address this challenge in its Lilou and Xinjulong coal mines by deploying Huawei’s AI model. 

Thanks to its visual recognition capabilities, Pangu can intelligently analyze the quality of stress relief drilling, and assist rock burst prevention personnel in quality verification, reducing their review workload by 82%. It used to take three days to complete such checks; now the time has been shortened to 10 minutes, with a 100% acceptance rate.

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, has also adopted Huawei solutions with the goal of turning around under-performing mines and projects that have crimped both production and profit.

The state-owned company is looking to streamline structures and prioritize productive areas at a time when copper output is at the lowest level in a quarter of a century.

It’s all about connectivity

Being a telecommunications company at heart, Huawei has been able to deploy connectivity solutions, from networks to an operative system able to run a wide range of equipment and smart machines. Named Harmony, the OS enables different devices to speak the same language, facilitating better connection and collaboration, and bringing a simple, continuous, secure and reliable interaction experience in all scenarios.

“In the era of intelligence, digital intelligence transformation can be accelerated only by combining AI technology with industry cognition and valuable data accumulated by enterprises,” Jason Liu, President, Learning & Certification Services of Huawei told the audience during MWC Barcelona 2024.

Liu said AI solutions should be used as a tool, not as a replacement of human intelligence.

Pangu, for instance, can detect a problem, inform the location and characteristic of such problem and provide solutions suggestions. The application is predictive, in the sense it can fill in the blanks at a very deep level.

AI is enabling mining companies to become insight‐driven enterprises that utilize data to make faster, accurate decisions, improve health and safety, boost efficiency through error elimination and reduce operations footprint.

Digital thinking is not just a tool for mining companies, but a core value that shapes their business. One of Huawei’s key messages is that to succeed in the industry, miners need to foster an organizational culture that embraces innovation and adapts to changing technologies.

FICSH is the highest authority and largest Shuar Indigenous organization. It was legally established in 1964 and includes 50 associations comprising 500 Shuar communities and approximately 143,000 Shuar Indigenous people.

The Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, on the other hand, is a network of public, private and academic actors that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation throughout Ecuador.

The agreement between these two organizations and Solaris was signed during a ceremony that took place in the context of the convention of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), happening this week in Toronto. 

According to the miner, the deal aims to promote the economic and social development of Shuar communities represented by FICSH, including the communities of Warints and Yawi which host the Warintza copper-gold project on their lands, situated in the southeastern part of the Andean country. 

The proposed alliance aims to create projects that support the provision of medical services in remote communities, as well as initiatives focused on the development and delivery of intercultural education. It also proposes the provision of training and technical assistance related to productive agricultural and business development, project management and accounting, and training and support for the formalization of artisanal mining in FICSH territories.

“The Shuar communities of Warints and Yawi support this agreement which follows from our request for FICSH to represent us and our interests and extend benefits to other member communities,” Froilan Juank, president of Yawi Center and member of the Board of Directors of the Strategic Alliance, said in a media statement.

“We reject the false statements made by foreign non-governmental organizations and the Shuar Arutam People’s Associations (PSHA) which ignore our voice and speak against our interests. We are the legitimate registered owners of the Ancestral Lands on which the Warintza project resides and we have the right and have chosen, through our General Assembly, to participate in the project through our Strategic Alliance and Impact and Benefits Agreement.”

Juank’s words refer to a complaint against Solaris presented by the PSHA, MiningWatch Canadá y Amazon Watch before the British Columbia Securities Commission on February 29, 2024, which states that the miner has moved forward with the Warintza project, which overlaps Shuar Arutam-titled territory, despite the community’s opposition.

“The PSHA is part of the ancestral Shuar nationality, made up of 47 centers, comprising six associations, in which approximately 12,000 people live. The PSHA was formally recognized by the Ecuadorian government as a collective organization representing the 47 centers, including those in the area of direct influence of the Warintza project,” the complaint reads.

“However, the presence of companies and mining projects in its titled territory, such as the Warintza project managed by Solaris and its subsidiary, Lowell Minerals Exploration Ecuador S.A., lack explicit consultation by the PSHA. For this reason, the PSHA maintains a firm stance against mining in its territories, opposing Solaris’ Warintza project.”

Warintza and the Shuar lands are located in the Cordillera del Condor, in an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon that borders Peru. The region is famous for its rare species and large gold and copper deposits.

In a paper published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, researchers from the Colorado School of Mines explain that such streams are also better at detoxifying specific forms of aluminum, cadmium, arsenic and zinc already present.

According to the scientists, under favourable conditions, the zone lining a stream channel stores nutrients and oxygen that meet the nutritional and respiratory needs of local invertebrates and fish. That zone also serves as a filter in which chemical processes and microbes reduce the toxicity and mobility of metals.

However, the research group also found that when mining-related contaminants enter a stream, they reduce the filtration capacity of this reactive zone. That’s because inflows of acidic, metal-rich abandoned mine drainage create an iron-rich mineral barrier—notable for its rust colour—that blocks the entry of stream water into the streambed, where the filtration occurs.

Such barrier reduces the species diversity of microorganisms inhabiting the streambed, and the types of micro-organisms that thrive under these conditions convert metals dissolved in the water to minerals that further clog the stream channel, limiting the exchange of nutrients between the stream and groundwater beneath it.

“This was an important finding because the lack of exchange between the stream and groundwater also prevented this stream from serving as a natural filter for toxic metals,” Beth Hoagland, corresponding author of the article, said in a media statement. “Metals such as aluminum and copper accumulated in this stream to levels that are harmful to aquatic species.”

The research was conducted in two streams in the San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado, a region that saw extensive mining starting in the late 1800s and continuing for more than a century. The region is now the US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site known as the Bonita Peak Mining District.

“Our research highlights the dynamic interplay between hydrology, geochemistry and microbiology at the groundwater-surface water interface of acid mine drainage streams,” Hoagland said.

The researcher pointed out that streams, such as Cement Creek, that receive flows from the abandoned mines are particularly vulnerable to becoming acidic and containing toxic levels of metals that are harmful to fish, invertebrates and other living organisms that live in or interact with them. In such streams, exchange between groundwater and streamwater is limited due to higher concentrations of dissolved metal, which clogs the connections of the two water sources. That and higher acidity result in a low diversity of microbiota.

The research also shows that streams that have ample exchange between stream water and shallow groundwater may harbour microorganisms that reduce the release of toxic forms of metals to downstream ecosystems.

“This finding can help regulators and scientists develop remediation strategies that will enhance this stream function thereby reducing toxic metal loads from mine waste,” Hoagland said.

On December 18, 2023, the company officially brought the Velardeña properties back into production, with mining occurring in six stopes. The plan was to steadily ramp up daily production to 150 tonnes per day in March, and ultimately reach a full production rate of 325 tonnes in the second quarter.

A month before that, it began producing gold-rich pyrite flotation concentrates from Velardeña, which have been stockpiled at the mines since late 2015, when they were last operational. Afterwards, mining activities were suspended due to combination of low metals prices, mining dilution and metallurgical challenges.

This time around, Golden had hoped the newly restarted Velardeña mines would be able to deliver positive cash flow in the first half of 2024 after progressively increasing the production rate.

However, the performance of the mine and processing plant during the first few months has not achieved the projected results, the miner said in a press release Thursday.

As a result, the company said it will now evaluate potential alternatives for the Velardeña properties, which may include a sale of properties or the winding up of certain Mexico operations.

Golden Minerals said its primary focus now is the exploration-stage Yoquivo property in Chihuahua state, containing an inferred resource of 17.2 million oz. gold equivalent within 937,000 tonnes grading 410 g/t silver and 2.1 g/t gold.

Golden Minerals’ stock plunged 37.5% to C$0.45 by midday Thursday following the announcement. It fell as much as 45.5% to a 52-week low of C$0.37 earlier in the session.

The company’s market capitalization is estimated at $4.4 million.

The Nordic country’s government under Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson intends to report by May 15 on how it can write new legislation. A 2018 law by the previous government halted uranium exploration and mining projects, sidelining Vancouver-based District’s Viken and Melbourne-based Aura’s Häggån (pronounced HAY-gorn) projects in central Sweden that hold uranium, vanadium and other metals.

District’s Viken deposit, 570 km north of Stockholm, is among the world’s largest deposits of uranium and vanadium based on a 2010 historical resource estimate. It showed 2.8 billion inferred tonnes grading 170 parts per million (ppm) uranium and 2,680 ppm vanadium for 1 billion lb. contained uranium and 16 billion lb. vanadium.

“It is a significant step towards lifting the current uranium mining moratorium,” District CEO Garrett Ainsworth said this week. “The Swedish government has made its intentions clear by stating that ‘the current ban on uranium mining will be removed.’”

While Sweden’s uranium output is minor by global comparisons, its resources account for 27% of Europe’s, according to the country’s geological survey. The heavy metal has more than doubled its price in the past 12 months to $102 per lb. as nuclear power continues its resurgence as a cleaner energy than fossil fuels and major producers such as Kazakhstan, Canada and Niger report supply hiccups.

Uranium wasted

Kristersson’s government, which came to power in September 2022, stated last August it would reverse the uranium mining ban. However, the administration has been occupied trying to stem a surge in gang violence afflicting the country while resisting the anti-immigrant policies of a coalition party it relies on for support. As it stands, the uranium ban requires miners to separate the heavy metal from processing and discard it.

“If the European Union is to become the first climate-neutral continent, access to sustainable metals and minerals must be ensured,” Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari said Friday. “We need to use the uranium we have, instead of sorting it out and considering it as waste.”

Shares in District Metals gained 15% since Friday to 30¢ apiece in Toronto, valuing the company at $32.5 million.

In November, Sweden approved plans to build two large-scale reactors by 2035 and the equivalent of 10 new reactors a decade later. The country depends on nuclear energy for about 40% of its power and said it intends to remove fossil fuels from its grid by 2040.

Project boosted

Uranium is only a minor component of Aura’s Häggån project about 650 km north of Stockholm. But adding uranium lifts the project’s after-tax net present value to as much as $1.6 billion at an 8% discount rate from $1.3 billion at the same rate, Aura said in a 2023 scoping study.

David Talbot, managing director and head of equity research at Red Cloud Securities in Toronto, said Häggån makes up A$48.6 million or 7.1% of its A$679.4 million corporate net asset value estimate.

“We anticipate this to increase should the uranium mining ban be overturned and management demonstrate a reasonable path to production,” Talbot said in a note on Tuesday. “We view the potential uranium mining ban repeal in Sweden as a very positive development and optimistically look forward to the results of the inquiry in May.”

Aura Energy closed 9% higher in Sydney on Tuesday at A$0.24 for a A$135 million market capitalization. The company plans to apply for a 25-year exploitation permit this year. After the ban was invoked, the company filed a compensation claim against the government, but now company managing director and CEO Andrew Grove welcomes Kristersson’s efforts.

“It is the start of a process which I hope will result in new legislation that not only makes it legally possible to mine uranium, but also provides a predictable permit process for uranium extraction alongside the mining of other metals,” Grove said this week. “It makes sense economically and environmentally to make full use of these resources.”

The initial startup supply will be sourced from local artisanal mining cooperatives, promoting responsible sourcing, the company said, adding that rare earth concentrate supply is expected to ramp up from 100 to 500 tons per month by mid-2024.

The company said it is exploring mineral concessions for acquisition, intending to secure 2-3 exclusive sources of rare earth concentrate and other minerals for purchase and operation by the end of 2024.

These proprietary concessions will significantly boost supply and reduce costs, complementing the artisanal supply chain, Canada Rare Earth said.

“By establishing our proprietary operations, we are simultaneously expanding Canada Rare Earth’s supply capabilities while instituting a more controlled and secure source of rare earth minerals from the Kivu Provinces, a region well known for its rich mineral resources,” Simba Essential Minerals CEO Steve Sadiki said in a news release.

Canada Rare Earth’s project portfolio also includes the Red Wine complex in the Central Mineral Belt of Labrador, as well as prospective refinery sites located in Brazil.

“BatMan builds on NREL’s expertise using laser ablation, advanced computational models, and materials characterization to address key challenges in battery manufacturing,” said Bertrand Tremolet de Villers, project co-lead and senior scientist in NREL’s Thin Film and Manufacturing Sciences group.

“This new, high-throughput laser patterning process—demonstrated at scale with state-of-the-art roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques—uses laser pulses to quickly and precisely modify and optimize electrode structures, offering a massive leap in battery capabilities with minimal added manufacturing cost.”

According to Tremolet de Villers and his team, the material makeup, thickness, and structural design of electrodes can impact battery capacity, voltage, and charging speed. For example, doubling the thickness of electrodes from 50 μm to 100 μm increases the energy density of a battery cell by about 16%. However, this increased thickness makes it more difficult to charge the battery quickly without causing long-term damage from lithium plating, which reduces the battery’s lifetime.

Given this state of affairs, the EV industry needs a breakthrough battery design that combines the benefits of thicker electrodes and fast charging without increasing manufacturing costs. The BatMan research team is answering the call with a process that optimizes electrode structures and streamlines battery production.

The pore network

Prior NREL research illuminated how intricate patterns of tiny holes in an electrode—known as the pore network—can unlock battery improvements. These microscopic pores create access points to increase ionic diffusion, allowing the ions to move more quickly during charge and discharge without damaging the battery. As a manufacturing bonus, these pores also speed up electrolyte saturation during the wetting process, which consists of injecting a liquid electrolyte into the cell to facilitate the flow of ions between electrodes.

“Early conversations between NREL’s battery researchers and material scientists uncovered an opportunity to utilize laser ablation to configure these pore networks,” said Donal Finegan, project co-lead and senior scientist in NREL’s Energy Storage group. “With support from our industry partners, BatMan established a new process to incorporate this technique into battery manufacturing. But first, we needed to know which pore patterns would yield the greatest battery benefits.”

Genetic algorithms

To evaluate different pore channel shapes, depth, and distribution, the researchers turned to NREL’s Lithium-Ion Battery Secondary Pore Network Design Optimization Analytical Diffusion Model. The genetic algorithm also considered the specific hardware limitations of the laser used to create the pores. These advanced models helped identify the optimal pore arrangement: a hexagonal pattern of laser-ablated pores with a depth of 50% of the electrode coating thickness. The study also found that adding straight channels across the width of the electrode dramatically improved electrode wetting when compared to unstructured electrodes.

With a target pore network identified, the BatMan team began working toward small-scale prototyping and characterization of the laser-patterned electrode. The scientists used an Amplitude Laser Group femtosecond laser system with high-speed galvanometer-controlled scanning optics for the laser ablation, working closely with the Amplitude team to achieve precise control of the laser based on position, power, frequency, and number of pulses. 

“Our collaboration with NREL helped integrate the laser into their existing research capabilities to support the BatMan project goals,” said Quentin Mocaer, line manager at Amplitude. “We also received valuable insights into how future system designs and new technologies could further improve this process at an industrial scale.”

NREL researchers applied advanced characterization tools to evaluate the performance of the laser-ablated electrodes. First, researchers applied X-ray nano-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy to analyze the morphological features of the electrode structure and validate battery enhancements. Next, NREL’s multiphysics models illustrated how improved uniformity in the structures reduced the risk of lithium plating during fast charging. Finally, the BatMan team assembled small battery cells to assess the optimized electrode architectures in action. Electrochemical analysis of the laser-ablated cells demonstrated superior fast-charge performance, with nearly 100% more capacity after 800 cycles. 

Roll-to-roll

After numerous cycles of laser ablation, characterization, and adjustment, it was time to scale up the process for high-throughput demonstration. Most battery manufacturing facilities use a continuous roller-based processing line, known as a roll-to-roll line, that bonds the active material mixture onto a foil surface. Researchers used NREL’s roll-to-roll line to demonstrate and de-risk the compatibility of this new process to encourage adoption by battery manufacturers.

“After nearly three years of research, our team successfully processed 700 meters of double-sided electrode material, proving that laser ablation is a scalable and economically feasible technique for roll-to-roll production of lithium-ion batteries,” Finegan said. “The magnitude of this demonstration was unique to NREL and showcases how strategic laboratory support can advance industry processes.”

NREL returned the optimized electrode material to BatMan’s manufacturing partner Clarios, where experts assembled commercially relevant 27-Ah batteries for further evaluation. Early inspection using Liminal Insights’ EchoStat acoustic imaging indicates that the laser-ablated electrodes wet faster and more uniformly than baseline cells. Additional non-destructive diagnostics will validate the expected performance improvements and ensure battery safety and quality before this technology enters the marketplace.

Time will tell how long it will take before laser-ablated cells find their way into electric vehicles, but the NREL team is optimistic. Techno-economic analysis of the laser patterning process estimates a minimal added cost to battery manufacturing of under $1.50/kWh—that is less than 2%—and the performance advantages are undeniable. NREL researchers also found that the graphite debris collected during the laser ablation process can be directly reused to make new battery cells without any significant impact on the cells’ performance, which presents an opportunity to further reduce the cost of laser ablating electrodes.

“Our lab-scale experimentation shows that laser-ablated electrodes could double the rate of charge of electric vehicles,” Finegan said. “This is a technology evolution that could alter conventional manufacturing, not only for lithium-ion batteries but also next-generation battery chemistries.”

This new material is expected to be non-flammable and a safer alternative to liquid electrolytes commonly found in lithium-ion batteries.

To improve the high-voltage stability of chloride-based solid electrolyte (Li3MCl6), the research team proposed the optimal composition and design principle of chloride-based solid electrolyte (Li3MCl5F) substituted with fluorine(F), which has strong chemical bonding ability.

For the proposed strategy to achieve this goal, LLNL contributed by utilizing their cutting-edge supercomputing resources for calculations and subsequent experimental validations were conducted at KIST. The collaborative research team adopted a cost-effective and time-saving strategy, wherein computational science guides the initial material design, followed by rigorous laboratory validation.

The chloride-based solid electrolyte synthesized based on the design principle proposed by the team was applied to an all-solid-state battery to evaluate its electrochemical stability under high-voltage conditions. It showed high-voltage stability exceeding 4 V, comparable to that of commercial lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes. Accordingly, fluorine(F)-substituted chloride-based solid electrolytes are expected to replace sulphide-based solid electrolytes that are unstable at high voltages, accelerating the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries.

The Korea-US joint research team will now conduct follow-up research on the synthesis process of the material, alongside the optimization of electrode and cell manufacturing processes. These concerted efforts aim to hasten the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries.

In the event of successful commercialization, the joint team will be able to capture the market for solid-state electrolytes, a key component of all-solid-state batteries, in the US, one of the largest consumers of secondary batteries such as energy storage systems and electric vehicles.

“This work provides a new design principle for fluorine-substituted high-voltage stable chloride-based solid-state electrolytes, which will accelerate the commercialization of high-energy-density next-generation lithium all-solid-state batteries without fire hazards,” Seungho Yu, one of the researchers at KITS, said in a media statement.

Once the world’s third-largest silver mine, Escobal was acquired by Pan American through its $1 billion takeover of Tahoe Resources in 2018. A year prior, Tahoe was forced to halt operations at Escobal after Guatemala’s Supreme Court suspended the mine licence.

That decision supported a claim brought by environment and human rights group CALAS against the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), alleging it violated the local Indigenous people’s right of consultation in advance of granting the Escobal mining licence to Tahoe’s Guatemalan subsidiary.

A group of protesters that year near the town of Casillas blocked access to Escobal, delaying shipments and supplies.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling ordered MEM to carry out a consultation with the local Indigenous population, the Xinka communities, and it also upheld the licence suspension for Tahoe’s smaller Juan Bosco mine.

The underground operation, located in southeast Guatemala, about 3 km from San Rafael Las Flores, was in operations from 2014-2017. According to Pan American, it has 264 million oz. in proven and probable silver reserves and a 4,500 tonne-per-day plant throughput capability.

Escobal operations are on care and maintenance pending completion of an ILO 169 consultation. No timeline has been set for a completion of the consultation process or a restart of operations.