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:

Drill hole NFGC-23-1820 cut 16.7 metres grading 36.2 grams gold per tonne from 45.3 metres depth, while 45 metres away hole NFGC-23-1827 returned 14.7 metres at 33.7 grams from 87.5 metres down-hole, New Found Gold said on Wednesday.

The holes were drilled from the west to the east to better test how a secondary set of gold veins and associated structures intersect at Iceberg on the Keats-Baseline fault zone, the company said.

“Infill and definition drilling at Iceberg and Iceberg East have provided us with a comprehensive picture of the near-surface expression of this portion of the fault,” Melissa Render, vice-president of exploration, said in a release. “The fault has demonstrated several times over that it is a very important structure.”

New Found is expanding the drill program at Iceberg and Iceberg East, using seismic data to help target more gold mineralization in the fault. The company started drilling on the project five years ago, completing 500,000 metres by last year and added another 150,000 to the planned total. There’s been no resource declared yet.

The Queensway project has consistently reported strong drill results, topping The Northern Miner’s weekly Drill Down rankings several times since it burst onto the scene in 2019 with a hole at the Keats target returning 19 metres grading 92.9 grams from 96 metres downhole.

Gold region

Queensway, on a 1,662-sq.-km area accessible via the Trans-Canada Highway 15 km west of Gander, is part of a region that has drawn investor Sprott Asset Management, Labrador Gold (TSXV: LAB; US-OTC: NKOSF) and Exploits Discovery (TSXV: NFLD) among others. MarathonGold was acquired in a $345-million all-stock deal in January by Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB) for its Valentine project now under construction about 200 km west of Gander.

Also from Iceberg on Wednesday, drill-hole NFGC-231838 cut 5.9 metres grading 40.5 grams gold from 14.1 metres depth and hole NFGC-23-1914 returned 12.8 metres at 13.9 grams gold from 29 metres. Drill hole NFGC-23-1323 intercepted 7.35 metres of 42.8 grams gold from 109 metres depth.

The near-surface Iceberg-Iceberg East high-grade segment of the Keats-Baseline fault has a strike length of 655 metres. When combined with the 400-metre high-grade segment of Keats Main, this near-surface, high-grade corridor covers over 1 km of strike. Iceberg-Iceberg East is 300 metres northeast of the Keats target along the Appleton fault zone.

The fault runs southwest to northeast with targets such as Monte Carlo, Keats West and K2 on its west side. The east side holds the Keats, Keats North, Iceberg, Iceberg East, Golden Joint, Lotto, Jackpot and Everest discoveries.

Disclosure: The Northern Miner Group is owned by Earthlabs, which has been an investor in New Found Gold.

The Vancouver-based BMC, owned by private, UK-based firm BMC Ltd., is developing the critical minerals project located 115 km southeast of Ross River. KZK was paused last year when the Kaska Nation said the federal and Yukon governments didn’t address their concerns over wildlife and the environment at the mine’s proposed site.

“The decision document reapproves the project to proceed through the regulatory phase of permitting,”Allan Nixon, vice president of external relations told The Northern Miner on Wednesday. “This is very positive news and we are pleased to have a new decision document. We are just in the process of reviewing it in detail as there have been some changes in a few of the terms and conditions.”

“We will continue to engage with Kaska to ensure we address any remaining concerns they may have and to ensure we are maximizing opportunities for their participation in and benefit from the project.”

The document, issued on Friday, represents a green light on BMC’s path towards developing KZK, one of the few pre-production critical minerals projects in the Far North to advance past the feasibility study stage and into permitting. BMC first submitted its proposal for mine in 2017.

Kudz Ze Kayah, or ‘caribou country’ in the Kaska language, will cost $376 million to develop, and the open pit operation would have a nine-year life. According to a 2020 feasibility study, KZK has an after-tax net present value (at a 7% discount rate) of $617 million, and an internal rate of return of 45.9%. The mine would produce 7.8 million oz. of silver, 56,500 oz. of gold, 235 million lb. of zinc, 32 million lb. of copper and 56 million lb. of lead in concentrate annually during steady-state operations.

The decision document presents the outcome of talks held in February between the Yukon and federal governments, the Ross River Dena Council (RRDC), Liard First Nation (LFN) and community members. Those consultations were ordered by Yukon Supreme Court chief Justice Suzanne Duncan, who found last January that the Crown failed in its duty to consult and accommodate Kaska’s environmental concerns.

New conditions on KZK

Government authorities concluded in the document that KZK should go ahead without review but under a new terms and conditions.

Regulators must consult with the Kaska on KZK’s technical details and its potential impacts on Indigenous rights; the Kaska will play a key role in the review of mine closure plans and land use; and Kaska will be consulted about reviewing environmental monitoring and financial security.

“(Governments) are committed to working closely with Kaska in the regulatory process to determine if the Kudz Ze Kayah project can proceed to licensing,” reads the document issued by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

The Yukon government will also set up an independent Finlayson caribou herd oversight committee composed of territorial officials, LFN and RRDC members. That body will monitor protection measures, such as temporary pauses of rock blasting and transportation routes to minimize disturbances to caribou.

Scott Donaldson, CEO of BMC, told The Northern Miner at PDAC last week that he looks forward to sitting down with the Kaska and working through the decision document.

“I’m confident we’ve worked very hard to adopt as many of the Kaska requests as we possibly could,” he said.

Donaldson said BMC’s next steps are its permitting issues and consultations, with a final investment decision on the project expected in the first half of next year.

The Kaska Nation chief did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kaska sought review

The dispute over KZK began in June 2022, when the federal and territorial governments approved it following an environmental and socio-economic assessment.

But weeks later, the Kaska, on behalf of the RRDC announced a civil lawsuit against the governments, alleging it wasn’t properly consulted over the mine’s potential environmental impacts, including on caribou herds.

The RRDC petitioned the court to review how regulatory authorities had approved KZK, which led to a judicial hearing in Whitehorse last April, where lawyers for the Kaska, BMC, the Attorney General of Canada and Yukon presented arguments for their respective positions.

Duncan reserved her position at the time until January, when she found that the federal and territorial governments partially fulfilled their duties to consult.

KZK mainly consists of the ABM open pit mine, with smaller resources in the Krakatoa open pit and underground mines. ABM hosts probable reserves of 15.7 million tonnes grading 5.8% zinc, 1.7% lead, 0.9% copper, 138 grams silver per tonne and 1.3 grams gold for contained metal of 135,800 tonnes copper, 265,700 tonnes lead, 915,000 tonnes zinc, 665,800 gold and 69.5 million oz. silver.

Cominco began exploring around the KZK deposit in 1977. Drilling in 1994 revealed copper, lead and zinc mineralization. BMC purchased the project from Teck Resources’ (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) in 2015.

Northwest Expo holds 40.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.1% copper and 0.7 gram gold per tonne for 100 million lb. copper and 871,000 oz. of gold, Northisle said on Wednesday. The deposit holds 30.6 million inferred tonnes at 0.1% copper and 0.6 gram gold for 62.8 million lb. copper and 558,000 oz. gold, the company said.

“Today’s new resource estimate at Northwest Expo has exceeded our expectations of defining a 40-to-50-million-tonne resource within the gold enriched Zone 1,” Northisle president and CEO Sam Lee said in a release. “This sets a strong basis for the rapid advancement of a potential high margin, near surface deposit.”

Shares in Northisle rose more than 11% to C$0.44 apiece in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon, valuing the company at C$99.2 million. They’ve ranged from C$0.12 to C$0.49 over the past 52 weeks.

Northisle is working on a prefeasibility study for North Island and is considering a staged approach with lower capital spending than the C$1.4 billion estimate in a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in 2021. The project, near BHP’s (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) former Island copper mine in Vancouver Island’s far north, holds about 8 million oz. gold in resources.

The entire project holds 567.7 million indicated tonnes grading 0.2% copper, 0.3 gram gold per tonne and 0.007% molybdenum for 2.4 billion lb. copper, 4.9 million oz. gold and 88.2 million lb. molybdenum. It has 447.9 million inferred tonnes at 0.2% copper, 0.2 gram gold and 0.006% molybdenum for 1.4 billion lb. copper, 3 million oz. gold and 54.9 million lb. molybdenum.

Higher-grade areas

A staged development would prioritize the higher-grade areas of the Northwest Expo, Red Dog and Hushamu targets. Studying the concept is expected to be completed by July and form the basis for advanced economic and technical studies, it said.

Northisle is planning to drill after March to increase the indicated resource and to step out south of Zone 1 in Northwest Expo and at the West Goodspeed discovery.

The Northwest Expo target has a net smelter revenue value of C$55 per tonne for the indicated resource as a whole and C$67 per tonne for a higher-grade zone in it, which is more than twice the net smelter value in the project’s PEA, the company said. The project also has 88% gold and 76% copper recoveries and a strip ratio of 2.5:1 waste vs ore, it said.

North Island has an after-tax net present value of C$1.1 billion with an 8% discount rate and a 19% internal rate of return, according to the PEA. The study assumed metal prices of $3.25 per lb. copper, $1,650 per oz. gold and $10 per lb. molybdenum.

The project lies on a 340-sq.-km property stretching 50 km northwest from the now closed Island copper mine. BHP produced copper and molybdenum concentrates there, as well as gold, silver and rhenium as by–products, from 1971 to 1995.

The planned listing, although the exact exchange wasn’t named, would start in this year’s third quarter to join more than 40% of the world’s public mining companies on the Canadian stock market, Southern Cross said on Tuesday. The company holds the Sunday Creek project and the Redcastle and Whroo joint ventures in Victoria and the Mt. Isa project in Queensland.

“A dual listing in both Australia and Canada will provide direct exposure to a diverse class of global investors,” managing director Michael Hudson said in a release. “It includes those North American investors who have over the last seven years directly benefited from the huge capital growth that has come from the Victorian goldfields.”

With about 70% of Southern Cross’ shareholders located outside of Australia, the company is betting the dual listing will more efficiently allow Australian and North American investors in on the company’s growth and high-grade gold story. The Sunday Creek project posted hole SDDSC107 which cut 0.7 metre at 3,511 grams gold per tonne from 684.3 metres depth. The hole’s first 30 cm graded 7,330 grams gold.

Southern Cross closed 20% higher on Tuesday in Sydney at A$2.05 apiece, valuing the company at A$184.1 million. Sweden-focused Mawson Gold (TSXV: MAW), which owns 51% of Southern Cross, gained 12% to close at C$0.65 in Toronto for a market capitalization of C$197.5 million.

Mawson Gold

Mawson Gold says it intends to distribute its shares in Southern Cross to Mawson shareholders this year. Mawson holds the Skellefteå North gold discovery and a portfolio of historical uranium resources in Sweden.

The Sunday Creek project, about 60 km north of Melbourne, lies within 194 sq. km of exploration tenements. It used four rigs to drill 19,000 metres on the Apollo, Rising Sun, Golden Dyke and Christina targets from September. Ten holes are being processed or in progress, the company said. The host rocks are intensely-altered in a steeply dipping zone where gold and antimony form in a relay of vein sets.

“When observed from above, the host resembles the side rails of a ladder where the sub-vertical mineralised vein sets are the rungs that extend from surface to depth,” the company said. “At Apollo and Rising Sun these individual ‘rungs’ have been defined over 600 metres depth extent from surface to 1,000 metres below surface, are 2 metres to 30 metres wide, and are 20 metres to 100 metres in strike.”

The company’s drill program has discovered 45 ‘rungs’ defined by high-grade intercepts to more than 7,000 grams gold. Step-out drilling is aiming to uncover the potential extent of this mineralized system.

The project is in the Melbourne structural zone in the Lachlan fold belt where the Sunday Creek mineralization is an interbedded turbidite sequence of siltstones and minor sandstones, the company said. They metamorphosed to sub-greenschist facies and folded into a set of open north-west trending folds.

Infill drilling over 84 holes for 22,470 metres in the southern part of the deposit produced better-than-expected results across Abore’s 1.6-km strike length, the company said after North American markets closed Monday. They’re among the best ever at Asanko, it said.

Highlights include four holes over 120 metres of strike length: hole ABPC23-224 cut 45 metres grading 12.4 grams gold per tonne from 191 metres depth; hole ABPC23-226 intercepted 37 metres at 10.6 grams from 199 metres; hole ABPC23-239 returned 54 metres at 3.3 grams from 207 metres; and hole ABPC23-228 cut 41 metres grading 3.3 grams from 191 metres depth.

The new zone will help Galiano convert inferred resources below the pit shell to the indicated category and evaluate the potential to expand the pit. The company plans to update Abore resource and reserve estimates and provide 2024 production and cost guidance after drilling is completed in April.

“The results of this program are expected to affect the size and geometry of the Abore reserve pit,” Matt Badylak, Galiano’s president and CEO, said in a release. “The impact this will have on mineral reserves and ore delivery in 2024 is currently being evaluated through pit optimization and redesign.”

Raj Ray, a mining analyst at BMO Capital Markets, called Galiano’s drill report a “slight positive” in a note published early on Tuesday.

Double output

Abore has 12.8 measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.2 grams for 477,000 oz. contained metal and 3.6 inferred tonnes at 1.2 grams for 131,000 oz. gold, according to a 2022 feasibility study. The report envisioned extending Asanko by 8.5 years and more than doubling last year’s output of 134,000 oz. to 250,000 oz. starting next year.

Asanko has four main open-pit mining areas – Abore, Miradani North, Nkran and Esaase. Gold Fields said last year it’s considering selling its share of the asset, the company’s smallest in Ghana.

Galliano is drilling more to determine the extent of the new mineralization. The zone is mainly in Abore’s granite and is characterized by significant hydrothermal alteration and high-density quartz veining, the company said. It is open along strike in both directions and is untested at depth.

The drill program also found more mineralization across Abore. Hole ABPC23-246 cut 18 metres grading 8.2 grams from 172 metres; hole ABPC23-259 returned 24 metres at 5.4 grams from 263 metres; and hole ABPC23-223 cut 27 metres at 4.2 grams from 246 metres.

Abore is located directly on the mine’s haul road about 13 km north of the site’s processing plant. The deposit sits along the Esaase shear corridor, which also hosts the Esaase deposit, and forms part of the northeast striking Asankrangwa gold belt.

“These excellent results demonstrate that Abore has significant upside potential beyond the current reserves,” Chris Pettman, Galiano’s vice-president of exploration, said in the release. “Seeing significant intervals of high-grade gold along the entire 1,600 metre strike length of the deposit, and the discovery of the new high-grade south zone, gives us confidence that Abore will continue to grow.”

Galiano shares traded down around 3% at $1.15 apiece on Tuesday morning in New York for a $259 million market cap. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of $0.48 and $1.19.

The Porgera mine in the hills of the Pacific island country was under care and maintenance from April 2020 to December 2023 while Barrick and partner Zijin Mining renegotiated terms with the government. Hiring is going better than envisioned and the mine will ramp up this year, Bristow said in an exclusive interview with The Northern Miner last week.

“We poured our first bar of gold under the new company – we don’t make too much fuss about it,” Bristow said with a laugh in the Barrick headquarters in Toronto before turning more serious. “We’ve got some work to do re-erecting the power towers after people blew them up.”

Tribal conflicts and protests have downed power lines several times since Porgera started production in 1990 under Canada’s Placer Dome which Barrick acquired in 2006 and may continue even with the new agreement. Assaults on illegal miners and toxic waste claims dogged the operation, like at the Acacia mine in Tanzania.

But Bristow, who’s led the company since it merged in 2019 with the South African company he built, Randgold Resources, transformed Acacia after what he called “a great deal for a crippled organization.”

Barrick had 72% of Acacia but no management control when authorities shut it down forcing the company to take it private and renegotiate operations over several years. At the giant Reko Diq copper project in Pakistan, it took a decade to resolve arbitration in Barrick’s favour, and four years to sort out Papua New Guinea’s nationalization of Porgera.

Reko Diq

Now, Porgera has an ownership structure where locals control more than half the company and its profit, similar to how Barrick is developing Reko Diq with half split evenly between the central government and Baluchistan state, leaving Barrick with half. Operating in locations deemed risky is about building partnerships because without permissions, the mines shut, Bristow says.

“It’s all about licence to operate,” he said. “Mining rights are binary. You either have a mine or you don’t. You can’t sort of say ‘I’m in a tough jurisdiction, so I’m going to discount it by 20%.’ I mean, there’s no such thing.”

All gold miners have benefited from the metal achieving record prices this month – $2,177.10 per oz. on Monday – which Bristow ascribed to global risks such as slackening economic growth and rising geopolitical tensions.

But Barrick’s gold and copper production fell slightly in 2023. The company has had to contend with an 18-month delay to permits at the Goldrush project, part of its Nevada Gold Mines partnership with Newmont (NYSE: NEM; TSX: NGT), and a slow start to commissioning at the Pueblo Viejo mine expansion in the Dominican Republic.

Reported talks to acquire the shut Cobre Panama copper mine in Central America from First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM), which Bristow again denied, saw no deal even though it would have suited the CEO’s penchant for expanding more into the energy transition metal and turning around troubled assets. Especially ones marred by poor relations with governments.

Site visits

Bristow, a hands-on CEO, visits each of the company’s roughly 20 sites at least three times a year, with the fourth round reserved for those that need attention or new initiatives.

“I don’t believe in offices,” the South African native said. “For mining to be successful and agile, the mine management should own their businesses. That calls for a better quality general manager on the mines and we look to more CEO-style people.”

Bristow has long stated his aversion to paying a premium for projects. Between China increasing its reach in the world economy more aggressively from about 2005, through a 2011 gold price peak and fall until it started rising again in 2019, the CEO figures the industry had to write off almost US$80 billion in value because of deals often sweetened with cash on top of premiums.

“There are moments when you will pay a premium, it depends how the market values the asset,” he said. “When you pay premiums on premiums, you’ve got to rely on the gold price to get yourself into the money. I’ve never done that.”

Bristow’s Randgold Resources brought African assets into the merger with Barrick, including the Loulo and Gounkoto mines in western Mali, Tongon in Ivory Coast and Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo where it doubled the gold reserve within two years to 10 million ounces. Kibali, Africa’s largest gold mine, still has 10 million oz. in reserves more than a decade after starting production.

Greenfields expansion

This year, Barrick is focused on Nevada, where the company is increasing greenfields exploration spending to replicate discoveries like Fourmile and Goldrush with a 20-million-oz. find that could boost Barrick’s gold production. It was 4.1 million oz. last year.

At Goldrush underground, where permits at last arrived in December, crews are preparing to install ventilation ducts allowing annual output to increase to 400,000 oz. by 2028 from 130,000 oz. this year, the CEO said. Permit delays had affected cash flow, he said.

While mining in the U.S. might be considered less risky than say, the remote northeast DRC home of Kibali, America has its own hazards, such as litigation by anti-mining groups and lengthy permits processes. During the pandemic, when many states suffered lack of revenue for services, Barrick and Newmont stepped up to pay their taxes in Nevada ahead of time.

“No matter how you own it, a mine is actually is a national asset,” he said. “When you invest in it to develop it, you should be investing in its people and its businesses, and people should benefit out of it and the economic benefits should be split. It should be shared.”

Diamond drill hole PIU-01 returned 0.5% copper, 0.7 gram gold per tonne and 3.1 grams silver for 1.1% copper equivalent over 304 metres from 198 metres depth, the company said on Monday.

The hole was designed to extend copper-gold mineralization to depth on the southwestern margin of the Piuquenes Central porphyry in San Juan province near the Chilean border, Pampa said in a release. Supergene copper enrichment was observed from 220-380 metres downhole, coincident and overlapping with primary mineralization from 350 metres.

“Excellent progress is being done on the second hole which has been designed to further test the depth and lateral extensions,” Pampa Metals president and CEO Joseph van den Elsen said. “Subsequent drill programs will also test the undrilled Piuquenes East porphyry target and other nearby targets.”

Shares in Pampa Metals rose more than 6% to C$0.24 apiece in Toronto on Monday, valuing the company at almost C$14 million.

Assays results from 502-867 metres, the end of the hole, are expected shortly, Pampa said. Strong primary mineralization associated with intense porphyry A type quartz stockwork veining is evident from 350-650 metres, it said. From 650 metres on, veining and mineralization becomes less intense.

In November, Pampa said it had entered into an option and joint venture agreement to acquire an 80% interest in the project. The following month the company reported 0.5% copper, 0.5 gram gold for 0.87% copper equivalent over 413.5 metres.

Piuquenes covers 18.8 sq. km in the San Juan Miocene porphyry belt, “the world’s hottest copper porphyry exploration belt,” the company says.

Other projects in the area include Los Azules held by McEwen Copper, a unit of McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX; TSX: MUX), Fortescue Minerals’ (ASX: FMG) Rincoes de Araya, Aldebaran Resources’ (TSXV: ALDE) El Altar and Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) El Pachón.

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.”

The after-tax net present value (at an 8% discount) for Boardwalk is now pegged at $2.3 billion, with an after-tax internal rate of return of 20.6%, according to an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) released on Thursday.

That’s up from the after-tax NPV of $1.7 billion and IRR of 17.8% in the initial PEA, released in May. The payback period has been cut from 4.1 years to 3.5 years, on a pre-tax basis.

Company shares hit C$0.90 apiece in Toronto on Friday afternoon, valuing the company at C$39.4 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of C$0.72 and C$1.72.

Greenview Resources’ (G2L) direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology will enable lithium recovery of 98% at Boardwalk, LithiumBank said. G2L’s technology uses reagents that cost one-third less than those used in the May PEA.

“Updating the Boardwalk PEA to incorporate our licensed technology from G2L to further enhance the asset is an important part of our development strategy,” said LithiumBank CEO Rob Shewchuk. “Our goal is to provide de-risked, construction-ready direct lithium brine projects to major developers. Boardwalk is the most advanced to date, but we will continue to apply our model to the rest of our portfolio to create attractive, buildable assets.”

Brine hotspot

The update comes as lithium brine activity picks up on the Prairies, despite a drop in lithium prices. In Alberta, E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL) and Volt Lithium (TSXV: VLT), also plan to deploy DLE technology at their projects. In neighbouring Saskatchewan, uranium-focused Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN) has optioned Grounded Lithium‘s (TSXV: GRD) Kindersley project, while EMP Metals (CSE: EMPS) is advancing its own lithium brine project.

Operational costs are now estimated to be $4,588 per tonne of lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM), at an assumed lithium price of $26,000 per tonne, 34% lower than the $6,807 per tonne in the initial PEA.

Lithium carbonate, a precursor to lithium hydroxide used in electric vehicle batteries, sat at 101,500 yuan ($14,105) per tonne on Friday, down from about 170,000 yuan in September, according to Trading Economics.

The update also raises production over the project’s 20-year life to 34,005 tonnes per year, compared to 31,350 tonnes in the May PEA.

Construction costs for the operation – outlined in the initial PEA – come to almost $2.1 billion, including a $575 million processing plant, $276 million for brine wellfield services, $265 million for other infrastructure and $360 million for contingencies.

The company expects Boardwalk, located about 350 km northwest of Edmonton near Valleyview, to also produce high-grade lithium sulphate (Li2SO4) eluate at a concentration of 3,238 mg per litre.

Power could be generated on-site using gas turbines that would also lower the project’s carbon footprint, LithiumBank said. The proposed turbines can run on 80% hydrogen when a reliable supply is available.

Commercial production is possible within three years under provincial permitting rules, LithiumBank said.

The company anticipates converting the inferred resource estimate at Boardwalk to measured in the coming months, and commissioning its 10,000-litre-per-day lithium brine pilot plant being assembled in at its Calgary facility.

LithiumBank’s other main focus is its 5,687-sq.-km Park Place lithium brine project about 50 km south of Boardwalk.

A hydrogeological study conducted at Park Place in February 2023 indicates its 76.3 billion cubic metres of lithium-bearing brine is the largest by volume held by a single operator in North America. The brine is contained within the 6,563-sq.-km Crown mineral rights-only land package that includes infrastructure and geological data from decades of oil and gas activity.

Delta Resources (TSXV: DLTA) says new drill results improve the economics of its Delta-1 gold project in northern Ontario.

Drill hole D1-24-90 cut 10 metres grading 15.94 grams gold per tonne from 113 metres depth including 1 metre at 57.80 grams and 0.9 metre at 99.4 grams, Delta said on Friday. Drill hole D1-24-87 returned 10.5 metres at 1.66 grams from 30 metres depth and drill hole D1-24-88 intersected 12.2 metres at 1.05 grams from 85 metres, the company said.

The results from the site 50 km west of Thunder Bay on Lake Superior come from a group of four holes, and one extension hole for a total of 1,371 metres in the company’s 5,000-metre drill campaign this year. It aims to fill in gaps from Delta’s previous drilling in a 2-km strike to a 250-metre vertical depth, and to expand that envelope east, west and deeper.

“Once more, the gold zones continue to show continuity and homogeneity,” president and CEO André Tessier said in a release. “Drill hole D1-24-90 was especially excellent with high grades that are sure to help the economics of the deposit.”

Shares in Delta Resources were unchanged in Toronto on Friday, but they had risen 21% over the past five days to C$0.12 apiece, valuing the company at C$11.3 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of C$0.09 and C$0.61.

Last May, the company hit a market capitalization of C$39.2 million after reporting drill hole D1-23-38 cut 1-metre intervals of 1,636 grams and 697 grams.

Shebandowan belt

Delta is focusing on the 107-sq.-km project near the Trans-Canada Highway in the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt. It covers a 19-km strike of the Shebandowan structural zone. Gold mineralized zones form a 2.3-km strike, with a higher-grade segment of nearly 950 metres, to a depth of about 250 metres, the company said.

The Delta-1 project is to receive as much as $200,000 in Ontario government funding through the Ontario Junior Exploration Program when the company completes exploration, it said.

The company also holds the 194-sq.-km Delta-2 volcanic massive sulphide gold project in the Chibougamau area about 650 km north of Montreal. It’s betting on similarities to the area’s former Lemoine mine which produced 760,000 tonnes grading 9.6% zinc, 4.2% copper, 4.5 grams gold and 84 grams silver from 1975 to 1983.

Drilling

At Delta-1, the gold zone is dipping shallowly towards the south in contrast to the steep north dip in sections to the west, the company said. The gold zone might have been rotated along northeast-trending structures and drilling last year may have missed the zone, it added.

Hole D1-24-90 targeted the gold zone 50 metres up-dip from the intercept of hole D1-23-67 which cut 40.2 metres grading 0.66 gram including 20.2 metres at 0.95 gram, Delta said.

Last year’s hole D1-23-65 cut 35.5 metres grading 1.39 grams and the company targeted drill hole D1-24-88 at mineralization 60 metres up-dip from it. Drilling overshot the Beta gold zone but intersected the Gamma zone from 85 metres down hole, Delta said.

Drill hole D1-24-87 aimed to intersect the gold zone 50 metres up-dip from the intercept of drill hole D1-23-33 which returned 89.7 metres grading 1.15 grams gold, Delta said. The new hole intersected gold at 30 metres depth, the Gamma zone at 70 metres down and a narrow 0.8 metre zone at 22.3 grams from 130 metres, the company said.

Drill hole 1274-24-293 intersected 22.7 metres grading 3.5% copper, 0.7 gram gold per tonne, and 6.6 grams silver from 120 metres depth including 10.6 metres at 5.4% copper, 1.3 grams gold and 9.6 grams silver, Abitibi reported on Thursday. Drill hole 1274-24-294 cut 34 metres at 3% copper, 1.5 grams gold and 6 grams silver from 135 metres depth, it said.

“These are some of the highest-grade intercepts in the project’s history and show a way to potentially increase the grade of our block model,” Abitibi CEO Jonathon Deluce said in a news release. “Investigating the significant increase in grade in #293 when compared to the historical results will be a key objective of ours.”

The results support the project’s near-surface open-pit potential, Abitibi said, adding that the project feeds into the global energy transition’s need to expand copper production by nearly three times current levels by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.

Shares in Abitibi Metals, which was known until last year as Goldseek (CSE: GSK), gained 3% on Thursday morning in Toronto to C$0.69 apiece, valuing the company at C$68.5 million. They’ve risen from C$0.14 in November.

Giustra-backed

Abitibi is advancing a plan to earn 80% of the project over seven years from Soquem, a subsidiary of Investment Quebec. The junior holds 9.9% of the project and last year raised more than C$14 million from investors such as Frank Giustra, who helped start Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM, NYSE: WPM; LSE: WPM) and Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV), for a four-year work program.

B26 holds 7 million indicated tonnes grading 2.9% copper-equivalent (1.3% copper, 1.8% zinc, 0.6 gram gold per tonne and 43 grams silver); and 4.4 million inferred tonnes at 3% copper-equivalent (2% copper, 0.2% zinc, 1.1 grams gold and 9 grams silver), according to a 2018 resource estimate by Soquem.

Abitibi’s initial 10,000-metre drill program has completed 6,088 metres across 20 holes so far. The company plans 20,000 more metres this year.

The 33-sq.-km site is 7 km south of the former Selbaie mine, where BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) produced copper, zinc, gold and silver from 1958 until 1993. There’s still a nearby working power line that served the Selbaie mine. B26 is 90 km west of the town of Matagami, which has a skilled mining workforce for Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) complex there.

Beats old holes

The results released Thursday are associated with well-defined mineralization in a network of nearly massive chalcopyrite veins, the company said. The grade within the first 140 metres of hole 1274-24-293 showed 4% copper-equivalent compared with 1.2% copper-equivalent in a similar stretch of historical hole B26-40, it said.

“This represents an opportunity to investigate other areas in the deposit where the grade could be understated,” it said. “Overall, the style of mineralization observed in the two holes close together could follow a braided deformation pattern which can explain part of the grade variations observed.”

Abitibi plans to review historical cores to determine areas which require re-assaying to test for higher grades, as well as areas to duplicate to confirm whether there is a similar increase in grade. More drilling may test the down-dip and lateral expansion potential of the lens, it said.

Greg Chamandy, a former CEO of Montreal-based Gildan Activewear whom Abitibi calls a strategic investor like Giustra, said the assays are a great start.

“The results highlight the exceptionally high grade of the deposit,” Chamandy said in the company’s release. “With a well-capitalized treasury, strong leadership and one of the most promising copper and gold projects in North America, Abitibi is in an excellent position.”

CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV: CVV) says “rare” new drill results help expand the Pike zone at its West McArthur joint venture uranium project with Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) in northern Saskatchewan. The shares jumped.

Drill hole WMA082-4 at the eastern Athabasca Basin site intersected 13.8% uranium equivalent (eU₃O₈) over 16.8 metres, including 40.3% over 4.7 metres and 13.5% eU₃O₈ over 2.4 metres at the Pike zone, the company said in a release on Wednesday.

Shares in CanAlaska Uranium rose 34% to C$0.61 apiece in Toronto on Wednesday morning, valuing the company at C$90.1 million.

“It is extremely rare to intersect uranium mineralization of this grade and width anywhere in the world, including the Athabasca basin,” CanAlaska CEO Cory Belyk said in the release. “Since initial discovery in 2022, the CanAlaska team has believed Pike zone had the potential for Cigar- and McArthur River-like uranium grades and thickness based on prior drilling results.”

Cameco’s Cigar Lake and McArthur River-Key Lake uranium mines in Canada’s globally-important region for the heavy metal to make nuclear fuel are among the highest grade and largest in the country. Interest in uranium projects is accelerating as uranium has more than doubled in price to $102 per lb over the last 12 months.

Project generator

CanAlaska, which calls itself a project generator, owns 83.4% of the West McArthur project while Cameco has the rest. CanAlaska holds interests in 5,000 sq. km of the Athabasca Basin, also including the Moon Lake South project owned with Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN).

Winter drilling at West McArthur will continue seeking to expand the Pike zone discovery and along strike unconformity testing to the northeast and southwest, the company said. CanAlaska alone is paying for this year’s exploration program at the project as it increases its majority ownership, it said.

The lower sandstone column of drill hole WMA082-4 contains several fault zones of quartz dissolution and clay-filled breccias extending over 80 metres above the uranium mineralization, the company said. The drill hole is about 30 metres along strike to the northeast of drill hole WMA082-2, which intersected 1.03% U₃O₈ over 6.3 metres, including a sub-interval of 2.82% U₃O₈ over 1.9 metres as reported in January. The unconformity target at Pike zone remains open in all directions around WMA082-4, it said.

The site is characterized by massive to semi-massive, blebby, disseminated, clay-hosted and fracture-controlled uranium mineralization associated with yellow and orange uranium secondaries where the Athabasca sandstone and the underlying basement rocks meet, CanAlaska said.

“The geologists have been laser focused on determining the geological controls in a clear and methodical approach,” Belyk said. “Tier one uranium deposits always occur as ‘pearls on a string’ and we have now found a pearl.”

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.”

Diamond drillhole EFO7D cut 34 metres grading 0.5 gram PGE including 10 metres at 1.2 grams PGE per tonne, 0.2% nickel and 891 parts per million copper from 388 metres down-hole, the company said on Monday. The PGE component includes 10 metres at 0.89 gram palladium, 0.19 gram platinum and 0.1 gram gold, it said.

“The key driver of this discovery is the implementation of artificial intelligence through our alliance partner Earth AI,” Legacy Minerals CEO and managing director Christopher Byrne said in a release. “This is the first confirmed discovery of magmatic-related nickel-copper sulphide mineralization in the 700 km long ultramafic belt that hosts the Fontenoy project.”

Explorers and miners are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to process big loads of data, streamline operations for increased productivity and spot opportunities to innovate and lower costs. Proponents predict AI will be indispensable to help the industry ramp up the supply of battery metals for the global energy transition to fight climate change. Electric vehicles, for example, need roughly four times as much copper as traditional automobiles.

Faster, cheaper

San Francisco-based Earth AI says it has made mineral deposit discoveries in two out of three tries compared with an industry average of 0.5%. Its predictive technology, trained on remote sensing, geophysical and exploration data, spots nickel, copper, zinc and vanadium prospects more than 100 times faster and cost-effectively than traditional methods, the company says.

“Our AI for mineral discovery is key to the diversification of the global critical metals supply chains by finding maiden deposits in unexplored areas at a fraction of the usual cost,” Earth AI CEO and founder Roman Teslyuk said in a release. “The discovery in Fontenoy, the second for us after the recent discovery of a greenfield molybdenum deposit, confirms that the future of mining lies in our technology.”

The Fontenoy discovery cost A$500,000 in exploration, Earth AI figures. That is 200 times less than the A$100 million spent by KoBold Metals. It’s a start-up also using AI backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, which is exploring in Zambia, Quebec and Australia, where it signed a deal with BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP).

Shares in Legacy Minerals closed A$0.01 higher at A$0.14 apiece on Monday in Sydney, valuing the company at A$14.8 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of A$0.11 to A$0.21.

Massive sulphides

The Fontenoy project contains disseminated and veined copper-gold mineralization over a strike length of 8 km, Legacy says. It is interpreted to represent McPhillamys-style volcanogenic hosted massive sulphide mineralization.

A nickel-copper-PGE surface anomalism found south of the discovery intercept is now a priority area for follow up, Legacy said. There’s an opportunity to follow up with electrical geophysics for future drill targeting. Diamond drill planning is underway, it said.

Earth AI, which has an in-house drilling unit, completed three diamond-cored holes for a total 1,633.7 metres at the site about 150 km northwest of Canberra. Fontenoy was historically drilled by companies searching for shallow nickel-laterite deposits but not PGE or magmatic-related nickel-copper sulphide mineralization.

The AI explorer didn’t drill survey holes, but used predictive software to lower costs and speed the search process. It then sampled two-metre areas where sulphides had been logged and sent 283.8 metres for analysis, the company said.

“Mining with the help of AI has recently been at the top of the news, but it is precisely this discovery that is important for the market,” Earth AI said. “Previously, Earth AI discovered a greenfield molybdenum deposit in Australia in a region eight other companies explored and came up with nothing.”

Canada’s eight largest pension funds hold some C$2.1 trillion in assets but only a quarter was even invested in the country last year, according to research by Montreal-based fund manager Letko Brosseau. The so-called Maple Eight devoted just 3% to domestic equities, the lowest of a group of six countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, data show.

“They’ve taken the vast majority of this money – 75% of it – and invested it outside Canada to create jobs outside of Canada to the detriment of Canadians,” Lassonde, a founder of Franco-Nevada (TSX: FNV; NYSE: FNV) and a former president of Newmont (NYSE: NEM; TSX: NGT), said in a phone interview this month. “Essentially, the mining industry has been ignored.”

Pension funds are not investing in large Canadian mining companies, which may in turn invest in juniors, in part because few domestic options remain. Switzerland-based Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) acquisition of most of Teck Resources’ (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) coking coal assets in November for about C$9 billion is the latest large deal scooping up Canadian assets.

Xstrata, now part of Glencore, bought nickel giant Falconbridge for C$39 billion in 2006, the same year Brazil’s Vale (NYSE: VALE) purchased the country’s other main nickel producer, Inco, for C$19 billion. Australia’s Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) followed a year later in acquiring aluminum producer Alcan for C$38 billion. Lassonde and Giustra say pension fund investing might have helped them stay.

“We’re talking about very large companies, mining giants that we lost to foreigners,” said Giustra, who founded Lions Gate Entertainment (Fahrenheit 9/11, The Hunger Games) and helped start Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM, NYSE: WPM; LSE: WPM) and Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV).

“These aren’t risky companies. This was the backbone of our mining industry in this country.”

Rules eroded

Indeed, Canadian pensions were required to invest 90% of their assets domestically in 1990, but federal governments gradually reduced the limit before removing it entirely in 2005. Total domestic exposure as a percentage of assets ranges from 55% held by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to 13% run by Public Sector Pension Investments (PSP). The average of other pension funds around the world is 52%, according to Letko Brosseau.   

Pensions are the largest repository of wealth in many countries and globally hold nearly $50 trillion. Reaching net zero emissions by 2050 will require annual clean energy investment worldwide to more than triple by 2030 to around $4 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency. Just mining enough battery metals over the next three years will cost as much as $450 billion, the agency said. In 2022, Ottawa budgeted nearly C$4 billion in spending on critical minerals by 2030 but it’s not clear how pension funds are being engaged to support projects.  

“The government of Canada continues to engage with critical minerals stakeholders, including pension plans and other institutional, arms-length investors,” Michael MacDonald, a spokesman for the federal Natural Resources Ministry, said in an emailed reply to questions.

It was MacDonald’s only reference to pension funds in what was otherwise a page-long list of government programs stemming from its critical minerals strategy. He suggested the Canada Development Investment Corp. (CDEV), a federal Crown corporation that advises the government on financial matters, might explain how mining companies could seek funding from the C$15 billion Canada Growth Fund. CDEV didn’t reply in time for this story.

Pensions mum

Pension funds themselves were even more reticent to discuss the issue. Only the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), which Lassonde praised for its resource funding, replied to emails seeking comment. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), and the PSP didn’t reply or declined to speak.

“CDPQ is active in the mining sector in Quebec and Canada and has an investment team dedicated to the sector,” Kate Monfette, the pension’s media director, said by email. “Among other things, with a fund like Sodémex which supports exploration projects, we remain on the lookout for developments and opportunities in the mining and materials ecosystem. Our priority is to focus on the most promising companies in order to help them develop while generating a return for our depositors.”

British Columbia Investment Management (BCI) said it invests 29.4% in Canada and referred other inquiries to its annual report. OMERS said it wouldn’t comment on the topic.

Canada should consider Australia’s example, Lassonde and Giustra said. Its pensions, which are called superannuation funds, hold A$3.5 trillion (C$3.1 trillion), the third-largest amount behind the US and the UK. Domestic equities make up 21.9% of their assets. The large stakes prevent foreign takeovers, the entrepreneurs argued.

“That’s what keeps their domestic mining industry alive,” Giustra said. “We’re a comparable country in terms of how prolific our mining opportunities are, same as Australia, and we don’t have that same opportunity.”

Letko Brosseau says Canada’s top eight pension funds have invested more in China than in Canadian companies: C$88 billion versus C$81 billion. CPP has 2% in domestic shares, BCI has 0.5% and OTPP has 0.1%, the firm says.  

Economics urged

Giustra said mining CEOs must lobby pension funds with moral suasion for why they should invest in Canada and make an economic argument. With China’s current woes from property market turmoil and a long-term population decline in motion, its boom years are over and it’s time for Canadian pension funds to repatriate funds to the world’s second-largest country by landmass that has top-tier mining regulations.

Lassonde went further and said federal and provincial governments must legislate pension funds to increase their investments in Canadian resource companies. He’s backed Letko Brosseau’s presentations to finance ministers in BC and Ontario as well as to officials in Ottawa.

“We’re trying to get to the decision makers and trying to make them understand what Canada is losing by doing nothing,” he said. “They created these funds, it’s in their power to legislate how these funds are managed.”

Giustra, who heads private equity firm Fiore Group invested in Aris Gold (TSX: ARIS) with mines in Colombia, and Ontario-focused explorer West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV: WRLG), said Canadian asset managers slashed their non-pension dedicated mining funds to C$2.8 billion in 2022 from C$16 billion in 2010.

“There’s just no source of capital, the industry starves,” he said. “You don’t have the seniors funding them, the pension funds aren’t there and we’ve lost the traditional mining funds here as well.”

Lassonde, who led a group of investors assembling an offer in May for Teck’s coking coal assets that was later beat by Glencore, said he approached BCI and Ontario pensions for input but got no response.

“If you want steel and you want the lowest carbon-emitting steel in the world, it’s that coal, OK, and there was nobody to talk to,” he said. “In Australia, we could have done this deal in about five days.”

So what happened to cause prices to tumble? 

The pandemic years brought generational volatility to diamond supply. In 2020, production dipped to the lowest levels since the 1990s. A recovery in 2021 through 2023 ensued. However, the new “normal” for output is still some 15-30 million carats below pre-2020 levels.   

Global diamond production should hit 118 million carats this year, which compares to an estimated 110 million carats in 2020, but well short of the 136 million carats in 2019 and the 147 million carats in 2018. 

Demand for diamonds has been equally volatile over the last four years, impacting both rough and polished prices.  

Last year, the industry experienced a “bullwhip effect” of sorts as producers and traders rushed to replenish depleted stock following furious demand in 2021 and early 2022. The flood of new goods resulted in the buyers of rough diamonds (the midstream comprised of rough buyers, polishers and jewelry manufacturers) stringently curtailing new purchases as 2023 wound down. 

As a result, in last year’s fourth quarter, De Beers’ sales fell some 70% year-over-year in value terms – equating to an estimated $1 billion build in stock. Russia’s Alrosa suspended all sales outright in October and November, resulting in the accumulation of stock worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  

While the majors’ healthier balance sheets give them more flexibility in such situations, the impact on smaller, independent producers has been more immediate and consequential. 

In late October, Canada’s Stornoway Diamonds filed for bankruptcy for a second time. The first time was in 2019 and the Renard mine in Quebec was most recently run by creditors of the previously listed company, including Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR) and Investissement Québec. Stornoway put Renard on indefinite care and maintenance following what it described as a “significant and sudden drop” in global diamond prices. The mine, which began production in late 2016, has produced upwards of 2 million carats annually. 

In early November, South Africa’s Petra Diamonds (LSE: PDL) deferred as much as $60 million in capital projects related to the extension of its two primary assets, the Cullinan and Finsch mines. The impact on supply will likely be felt in the back half of 2024 and into 2025.

Lab-made diamonds have also had an impact on the natural diamond sector. However, while they currently make up about 20% of global diamond jewelry demand, they have yet to gain wide acceptance outside of the United States. It should also be recognized that they have added incremental demand – i.e. some buyers of lab-grown diamonds would never have considered a natural diamond. 

2024 wildcard

Going into 2024, it is likely that miners will release into the market at least some excess stock they hold on any sign of a demand recovery. However, by the second half of the year, the market’s medium and longer-term supply dynamic could become more noticeable. 

An added “wildcard” will be the impact of wider Western sanctions on Russian diamonds, which come into full force this year. While the immediate impact of the embargo may not be as acute as some are projecting, the risk of further supply disruptions remains a possibility, especially in the medium term.  

As of March, all 1-carat-plus polished Russian stones (including those cut and polished outside of Russia) will be targeted by the G-7 countries and the larger European Union. As of September, the threshold will be expanded to include all stones 0.5 carat and larger. That said, the half-carat cutoff still excludes the majority of Russian supply by volume and an estimated 30-40% by value as Russian production is disproportionately skewed towards smaller diamonds.  

On a more micro supply note, commercial production at the newly inaugurated Luele mine (formerly referred to as Luaxe) in Angola will ramp up this year. A nearly completed first-phase processing plant will allow the mine to produce up to 4-5 million carats annually, making it an important source of new supply as aging mines around the world are depleted.  

During a press conference in November, Angolan officials said that Luele production could be “gradually” expanded as additional plant phases are added – which could eventually triple output. Luele’s resource is estimated at over 600 million carats, which could support a 60-plus year mine life. 

A moderate recovery in both rough and polished prices is likely this year. Price gains from seasonal restocking early in the year will probably be modest, as supply that was held back late last year is sold. However, by mid-year the midstream’s efforts to control supply could start to take effect. That could be further compounded by the global supply impact of the sanctions on Russian diamonds. 

Any price rise would still need to be supported by demand – for example, via a “soft landing” in a global macro-economic sense, which financial markets are implying. Demand out of China, the diamond industry’s second largest end-consumer market remains another key variable as the nation grapples with a secular slowdown in its economy and what some consider an emerging property crisis. 

Paul Zimnisky is a chartered financial analyst and independent diamond industry consultant based in New York (www.paulzimnisky.com). He can be reached at paul@paulzimnisky.com and followed on X @paulzimnisky. 

Few that is, except for Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM), which has hired a dozen heavy duty mechanics from Mexico to work at its Macassa mine in Kirkland Lake, northern Ontario.

“Being able to attract 12 skilled mechanics is a great win for us,” Nathan Cloet, human resources director for Agnico’s Ontario region told The Northern Miner. “In this market environment it’s hard to find skilled mechanics. The mining industry across Canada and Ontario does not necessarily leverage immigration as much as they could or should. So for us, we want to try this out.”

The workers are part of a new program Agnico is piloting that seeks to fill positions with employees from sister operations, in this case its La India mine in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora, which closed last year after it reached its end of life. The program is putting the workers and their families on a permanent residency-track and Cloet expects they’ll start working at Macassa by March or April.

Agnico’s program comes as Canada’s mining labour force is expected to face even more shortages in the next decade, mainly due to workers retiring, but also from waning interest in mining among young people, according to the Ottawa-based Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR).

The council’s 2023 Canadian Mining Outlook report forecasts the industry’s total workforce will — in a baseline scenario — decrease by 5% to 170,796 in 2033. That’s due to decreasing commodity prices in line with World Bank projections and higher interest rates. Even to meet that reduced level, 158,220 jobs will have to be filled over the 2023-2033 period across the mining and milling, support services and primary metal manufacturing sub-sectors.

Meanwhile, only 137,934 people are projected to enter the industry, leaving an employment gap of 20,287 across all sub-sectors.

Labouring to meet needs

In Cloet’s view, competition for skilled mining labour is tight in northeastern Ontario, could worsen as older workers retire.

“We have continuous needs for hiring,” he said. “Even the 12 workers we hired don’t meet our needs for Macassa. It’s an ongoing concern we’re trying to address.”

He’s quick to note that Agnico first tried to find Canadian workers for the roles. When it couldn’t, it had to go through the labour market impact assessment (LMIA) process, which requires employers to show that no Canadian or permanent residents are available to fill the job.

Cloet acknowledged that employing foreign labourers might raise issues about skills transfer and tensions about hiring non-Canadian workers, but he also said that the 12 mechanics will be paid the same as a Canadian would be.

“There are risks,” he said. “But for us, it helps that these people already have worked for us. We believe this can be successful. In the framework of Canada immigration, I would advocate that it’s something to try.”

The MiHR has also noted in its 2023 Canadian Mining Workplace Profile that immigrants are a relatively untapped potential talent pool. In 2022, immigrants represented about 30% of the country’s overall workforce, but only 10% of mining and quarrying, the report stated.

“From this perspective, the mining industry has been losing ground to other industries over the last decade and a half,” it said.

Leave no stone unturned

Mining and mineral engineering masters student Raisul Islam Atik has yet to formally enter the workforce, but he has discovered many opportunities through education in his 13 months in Canada.

While downsizing at Laurentian University in 2021 saw many of its courses cut, including environmental geoscience, its still-intact mineral engineering program drew Atik from his native Bangladesh, where he was studying the life cycle of electric vehicle batteries.

At Laurentian, he didn’t want to “seclude” himself from Canadian society as he said some other international students have done, and discovered there are many open roads into the industry.

“I wanted to take a different route, and I wanted to actually learn and immerse myself in whatever learning opportunities that I could get about this mining industry,” he said.

He began volunteering with the Modern Mining & Technology Sudbury organization that promotes awareness about mining. That eventually led him to being selected for the Mineral Industry Leadership Certificate at Laurentian, a program of training modules and site visits that also came with a $3,000 scholarship.

For the mentorship part of the program, he was paired with Morne Beukes, head of Canadian operations with mining engineering firm BBE Group.

“He’s an amazing man from South Africa,” Atik said. “I’m constantly in touch with him when I want to know something. As an international student, it was impossible for me to get access to such an experienced professional on my own.”

Reviewing barriers to entry

Even though Atik has made his way to the doorstep of Canada’s mining industry, many others like him might lose out on that opportunity after the federal government in January cut back on the number of international student permits.

Peggy Bell, founder and principal consultant with Resource Becoming, a non-profit consultancy that aims to enhance equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in mining, says the industry’s labour woes should be viewed in that larger context.

“EDI is a philosophy, and we need to develop diversity within mining, but it’s also a function to develop talent pools,” she said. “If we don’t have that access or if we don’t have the same number of new Canadians coming to the country to study, we potentially are losing that talent pool.”

Bell explained that attracting foreign – or Canadian – talent to the industry can also be sped up if mining companies re-examine their barriers to entry, such as the distinctions between qualifications, skills and experience.

She cited the Professional Engineers Ontario, which was the first association to act on legislation passed last May by the Ontario government that banned regulated professions from requiring Canadian work experience.

“How are we creating barriers for new Canadians and new talent?” she asked. “Can (miners or operators) accept a foreign degree with a certain amount of job experience? Or are they willing to accept the foreign degree and train the new employee on the job?”

The data, from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) which holds its 92^nd annual convention Mar. 3-6 in Toronto, shows just how much junior miners are struggling, despite a growing international recognition of mining’s importance.

Last year, for the first time in a decade, there wasn’t a single financing above C$125 million on the TSX Venture Exchange, where many junior mining exploration companies are listed. Deals at the C$200 million level had previously been fairly common, Jeff Killeen, policy and program director for PDAC, said in an interview.

“The juniors, particularly those outside of the critical mineral sphere, are facing more hurdles in terms of accessing capital,” Killeen said. “When they’re accessing it, there’s just smaller deals being done.”

Total financing on the TSX Venture has fallen for three years running, with the exchange falling far behind the main board in equity raised for the first time since 2017. Last year, the gap between the two grew to C$1.1 billion. With risk capital suffering overall though, junior miners actually “punched above their weight,” accounting for three quarters of all funds raised on the Venture Exchange last year.

Nearly C$8 billion in equity was raised on all Canadian exchanges last year for mining, up slightly from 2022, and on par with the 10-year average for fundraising.

“Arguably, the availability of capital hasn’t moved or materially improved over the last 10 years,” Killeen said. “It hasn’t declined, but it does seem to be moving in different directions.”

Precious metals exploration still draws the lion’s share of funding with C$2.1 billion raised last year. But PDAC figures show other metals gaining ground. Total capital for base and battery metals plus uranium has roughly tripled since 2020 to nearly C$2 billion, while funding for precious metals exploration shrunk by 19% last year alone.

More governments around the world waking up to the crucial role of metals in the energy transition is being reflected in new interest among international delegates coming to the PDAC convention, Killeen says.

“The global conversation is changing,” Killeen added. “There’s a growing awareness (about critical minerals) and people are recognizing PDAC is the place to come to.

“There’s a real global commitment that we’re seeing towards electrification, clean technology, and emissions reduction that’s only going to happen if the mineral industry is brought to that table.”

Mindful of the challenges its membership is facing, PDAC is aiming to make it easier for juniors to connect with potential investors this year by bringing corporate presentations onto the Investors Exchange floor for the first time.

The program also includes a series of critical minerals-related sessions that cross over between the technical program and the policy programs, as well as integrated sessions between the capital markets and the Indigenous and sustainability programs.

Advocacy

While capital has been difficult to access for at least the past three years, the federal government has recently put in place policies and incentives that amount to end-to-end supports for mineral companies, from exploration through to project construction.

The packages are part of its Critical Minerals Strategy, introduced in late 2022, which commits C$3.8 billion in total spending. The supports for mining are historic — but there is some room for improvement, according to PDAC.

The C$1.5 billion over seven years Critical Mineral Infrastructure Fund, for example, should be revamped as a perennial fund, Killeen says — especially considering the steep price tag of most infrastructure. (Initial applications for this funding, which will only dole out a total of C$300 million this year, are due Feb. 29.)

And PDAC wants to ensure that the Clean Technology Manufacturing input tax credit, which gives a 30% cash-back credit for critical minerals extraction and processing, can be applied to polymetallic projects that may contain precious metals as well as critical minerals.

As for regulatory initiatives, PDAC will be involved in hot-button topics such as how to prevent short-sellers from targeting junior miners — an issue that the Save Canadian Mining group, supported by big industry names such as Eric Sprott and Rob McEwen, has been asking regulators to address. The Canadian Investment and Regulatory Organization and the Canadian Securities Administrators said last year they would be forming a working group in early 2024 to study short-selling issues.

“We’ve been asking for what we think are logical changes to regulations around short selling for several years,” Killeen said.

In 2021, PDAC called for an alternative uptick rule (which would prevent short-selling in a stock that has dropped more than 10% in one day) to be instated, bringing Canada in line with U.S. regulations.

“We also at that time and have continued to ask for a more comprehensive framework for activist short sellers, so that there is more of a balance in our home marketplace with respect to disclosure.”.

PDAC is also advocating for changes to the flow-through regime that could attract a broader set of investors. The flow-through charity tax credit, which allows juniors to transfer exploration tax credits to investors, is used primarily by high earners. A change to the alternative minimum tax is yet to be formalized in any legislation, but the government has said is effective as of Jan. 1. It could jeopardize an investment stream that has raised nearly C$4 billion for exploration in Canada in the last three years.

Killeen says flow-through shares could be more appealing to a broader slice of investors if capital gains on the shares were assessed based on the issue price, rather than on a nil-cost basis as they currently are.

Optimism, despite near-term hurdles

As commodity prices have tumbled (with the exception of uranium and gold), challenges for juniors are likely to continue — at least in the short-term. But the conversation around mining globally is radically more supportive than even five years ago, leaving Killeen optimistic for juniors in the medium to long-term.

“If you think five or 10 years down the road from where we are today, I don’t know I’ve ever seen an overall environment that’s been as positive towards what mineral exploration and mining means for the future.”

Under the new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, auto manufacturers and importers must meet annual ZEV regulated sales targets. The targets begin for the 2026 model year, with a requirement that at least 20% of new light-duty vehicles offered for sale in that year be ZEVs. The requirements increase annually to 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. 

This is only one part of the government’s ambitious 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan put in place in 2022. The plan targets emissions reductions of 40% below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.  

These ambitious goals are similar to other countries. The United States aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. The European Union targets reducing emissions by at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. Even China has set the goal to increase renewable energy as the primary source of energy consumption from current levels of around 15% to 25% by 2030 — and pledged to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.  

These goals are admirable, but the reality is that meeting them will require more critical minerals than are currently in the production pipeline.  

To meet international EV adoption targets, the world will need 50 new lithium mines, 60 new nickel mines and 17 new cobalt mines by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Cathode materials, anode materials and battery cells will also require additional raw material, adding up to about 388 new mines, it says.  

This gap in production for energy transition metals provides an opportunity for Canada. As of 2021, there were only 70 metal mines in Canada, this compares to 270 metal mines operating across the US Investments in clean energy need to grow from $1.3 trillion today, to over $4 trillion by 2030 to meet governments’ goals, according to the IEA.

Spurring new development 

To help support their decarbonization plans, governments around the world have introduced more than 100 new initiatives over the last few years, ranging from trade and investment policies to restrictions on imports, exports and international ownership of resources.  

Some initiatives aim to help spur investment into natural resources domestically (and with countries deemed ‘friendly.’ Some policies giving the state more control over and revenue from resources have been quickly rolled out, shifting the playing field for investors. Recent examples include Mexico nationalizing its lithium industry in 2022, and Chile raising copper mining royalties while increasing the role of state-owned miner Codelco. Other countries are also reviewing their mining policies and encouraging investment in the industry through tax and other incentives.  

The changing geopolitical environment has further complicated government goals. The supply chain issues during Covid-19, and the shift towards domestic production and ‘friend-shoring’ have seen governments favour domestic supplies of critical minerals and securing minerals from allied countries. All while many years of under-investment in mining infrastructure and processing facilities in Western nations presents big hurdles to self-sufficiency.

Production woes 

Geopolitics, namely tensions between the US and China and the West and Russia, have introduced new supply risks as global trade splinters. But even friendly nations could present supply risks caused by changing political landscapes, social unrest, or civil wars. For example, unrest in Mexico, Peru and Chile has led to strikes and temporary mine closures. While geopolitical risks are top of mind, the main supply constraint for critical minerals remains the need for increased mine production along with new infrastructure to refine the minerals, a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) found last year (Geopolitics of the Energy Transition: Critical Metals).

To compound the problem, the recent decline in battery metal prices is further delaying mining projects due to lack of capital. Lithium prices have plummeted more than 80%, while other battery metal inputs, such as cobalt, nickel, and graphite are down more than 30%. If prices don’t recover, it will deepen shortages of materials in the coming years, putting the brakes on governments’ ambitious agendas to decarbonize their economies. 

Analysis from S&P Global Market Intelligence (June 2023) reports that the global average lead times for mine development from discovery to production is 15.7 years, and in Canada this timeline is about nearly 26 months longer.   

Investor interest in mining is currently very low partly because of the long-time horizon and the uncertainty that exploration stage projects will be economically viable. 

Mine developers in Canada have formidable barriers to overcome. One key problem is that funding for mine innovation per project, at a reasonable dollar amount, with a fair cost of capital, is limited. Lack of infrastructure in remote regions of Canada can also create extra barriers and increase the capital costs for mine developers. The Canadian government addressed the difficulties mining companies face in its 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy pledging that it would partner with the private sector to finance new projects, support building infrastructure needed to develop priority deposits, streamline permitting and regulatory processes and strengthen Indigenous engagement to boost mine supply.

The federal government currently offers incentives to mining companies mostly in the form of tax credits. Some of those include capital cost allowances; exploration expense claims, which are 100% deductible in the year they occur; and the ability to carry forward unused balances or transfer them to investors as flow-through shares. (Flow-through shares allow a mineral exploration company to “flow through” certain expenses to a shareholder; the expenses can then reduce the investor’s taxable income.) Other incentives include the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit and the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit.    

Mining companies can also get federal government support through the Clean Growth Hub, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, and access joint funding and research opportunities through CanmetMining. 

More to be done 

However, to meet energy transition goals, more is needed. Ottawa could improve the chances of developing successful domestic supplies by making all steps of mine study, metallurgy, and materials testing in battery and vehicles eligible for flow-through tax credits until 2030. This should include any end customer testing by global OEMs or their battery manufacturers. Having a more defined and expanded flow-through tax credit system would increase markets’ willingness to fill the funding gap.  

To date, government incentives outlined in The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy appear to help manufacturers (i.e. funding for processing plants and auto manufacturers) more than miners. This could be in part because processing plants and auto manufactures are usually larger companies and entering into contracts with them is easier for government. These facilities are also higher visibility, can often be built faster and provide jobs in more populated areas.  

Mining has made immense leaps in technology across recent decades, each step ushered into reality by rigorous third-party engineering and community support. However, critical mining innovation is distinct from precious metals mining innovation, — especially for lithium and graphite — and there are viable projects in critical minerals mining that are facing hurdles that deserve focused support from Ottawa.  

The plans announced to date are a start but more action is needed on already outlined plans, such as reducing red tape between federal, provincial and local governments, and increasing incentives (and longer time horizons) for investors. There’s also room to loosen restrictions on investor incentives, and make access to government funding and loan programs simpler.  

In short, the Canadian government should consider refining and redoubling its plans for industry support of mine project development, especially in the exploration and mine-site design and planning stages to support domestic production of critical minerals to meet the ambitious energy transition goals.   

Chantelle Schieven is head of research at Toronto-based Capitalight Research (capitalightresearch.com).

But the project, where recent drilling returned 3.5 metres of 31.7 grams gold per tonne at the Hinge target, isn’t the only one Fury expects to advance this year.

In a recent interview, Atkinson also discussed the potential of Fury’s Éléonore South JV with Newmont in Quebec, and its large Committee Bay gold project in Nunavut.

He spoke to Henry Lazenby, western editor of The Northern Miner, at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC) in January. Watch the full video below.

JV Videos are sponsored content in arrangement with The Northern Miner. 

The Jersey-based company’s initial public offering on the ASX, where it is expected to begin trading under the ticker MAC on Feb. 20, was oversubscribed by about A$25 million, the company said on Friday.

The financing will strengthen the company’s balance sheet as it prepares to pay Glencore (LSE: GLEN) $75 million by June as part of the $1.1 billion purchase of CSA about 700 km northwest of Sydney, BMO Capital Markets said on Friday. The deal was done in 2022.

“The listing can also fund additional exploration and development at the CSA mine, improve working capital, and/or reduce or support refinancing of current debt,” BMO mining analyst Jackie Przybylowski wrote in a note. “Proceeds of the ASX listing could also support future acquisitions.”

One target could be Glencore’s Mt. Isa copper mine in Queensland, the analyst said. The purchase of the cash flow-producing operation would elevate Metals Acquisition to a mid-tier copper miner, the analyst said.

Production growth

ASX shares in Metals Acquisition are expected to list at A$17 apiece. The funds will help the company potentially increase production growth at CSA as well as pay for exploration, company chair Patrice Merrin and CEO Mick McMullen said in the release.

“Owning and operating an Australian copper mine we have long felt it was logical to dual list,” said McMullen, former CEO and president of Detour Gold in Ontario before Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL) bought it for C$4.9 billion in 2019.

Metals Acquisition, formed in 2021, says it’s focused on operating and acquiring metals and mining businesses critical for electrification and decarbonization in high quality, stable jurisdictions. Its sole asset so far is the CSA mine, 11 km northwest of Cobar in New South Wales.

The mine produces about 40,000 tonnes of copper annually, according to the company. It’s one of Australia’s oldest and deepest underground mines, stretching back about 150 years and reaching 1.9 km down. Ore is processed onsite and transported by rail 700 km to the Port of Newcastle for export to smelters in Asia.

Streams sold

CSA also produced about 431,000 oz. payable silver annually from 2019 to 2021. Metals Acquisition sold a $90 million silver stream and a $75 million copper stream to Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR; NYSE: OR) in 2022.

Glencore has a 1.5% net smelter return royalty on the life of the mine and holds about $100 million in equity of Metals Acquisition. At least $775 million of the CSA purchase is to be in cash, the companies agreed.

Shares in Metals Acquisition fell about 1% to $12.51 apiece on Friday morning in New York after gaining nearly 20% in the last month, valuing the company at $628 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of $8.49 and $13.47.

Lynch said he noticed persistent and suspicious trading patterns in his company’s stock, leading him to investigate. He founded Save Canadian Mining in 2019, rallying industry leaders to address and combat what he believes are illegal short-selling practices targeting the junior mining sector.

Lynch spoke with Henry Lazenby, western editor of The Northern Miner, at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC) in January.

Watch the full video below.

However, Hoffman, who focuses on companies with a market cap of under $1.5 billion that raise less than $100 million, says there’s been a “bifurcation” in the market. He confirmed that cash raised last year went to developers and late-stage explorers, with earlier exploration stage companies having a tougher time raising funds.

“We’ve seen a record amount of cancelled deals last year where companies announced the financing but they couldn’t fill it — so they cancelled it or changed the terms,” Hoffman said. “That’s something we hadn’t seen too much in the past.”

Hoffman spoke to Henry Lazenby, western editor of The Northern Miner, at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC) in Vancouver. Watch the full video below.

In an interview at AME Roundup in January, the chair of Equinox Gold and founder of Pan American Silver discussed how that tension will be resolved, cost pressures in the sector, and why investors feel that “bigger is better.” 

Beaty spoke with Northern Miner Western Editor Henry Lazenby. 

A new agreement announced Thursday gives the Nisga’a a majority stake in the newly formed Nations Royalty. Vega Mining will acquire from the Nisga’a the rights to five existing annual benefit payment entitlements with projects in the Golden Triangle, in exchange for common shares in Vega’s capital. The privately-owned Vega — about which little public information is available — will be renamed Nations Royalty Corp.

The Nisga’a’s current royalty portfolio includes Newmont’s (NYSE: NEM) Brucejack gold mine, Seabridge Gold’s (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) KSM copper-gold-silver-molybdenum project, Ascot Resources’ (TSX: AOT) Premier Gold project and Red Mountain deposit; and new Moly LLC’s Kitsault molybdenum project.

The company is speaking with other First Nations and Indigenous groups to encourage them to join Nations, for the aim of combining royalties from mining projects and welcoming external investors as shareholders.

“Our people have a history of leadership and innovation, from significant legal victories to the first modern treaty in British Columbia,” said Eva Clayton, president of Nisga’a Lisims government. “Today, we embark on this new venture with Indigenous groups and leaders from the mining industry to promote cooperation and progress, ushering in a new era in Indigenous business, as well as Canada’s mining and natural resources sector.”

The deal comes as First Nations increasingly seek to benefit from resource development across Canada, and especially in BC, where Indigenous peoples including the Tahltan Nation and Williams Lake First Nation have reached participation agreements in mining projects. It also marks a contrast with the approach of settling disputes between Indigenous land claims and mining interests through the court system.

As part of the deal, Vega will complete a private placement for just over 11 million subscription receipts of shares at C$0.90 apiece, to raise at least C$10 million. Existing Vega shareholders will hold about 15.9% of issued and outstanding shares, the Nisga’a will hold 76.5% and investors in the financing will get about 7.6%. No timeline was given for the deal’s closing.

Frank Giustra, mining financier and CEO of Fiore Group, and now strategic advisor to Nations, said he’s honoured to collaborate with the Nisga’a and other First Nations in establishing the company.

“Almost two decades ago, I played a role in developing the metals streaming concept as a co-founder of Wheaton Precious Metals and I see Nations Royalty as a vitally important successor to this concept,” he said. “A core focus of the company is to build capacity for Indigenous people in the management of public companies and capital markets, which we hope will result in the creation of additional Indigenous economic ventures.”

Northwest BC mining veteran and Nations co-founder Robert McLeod is expected to be appointed as interim CEO and president of the company, though the goal is to have it managed and run by Indigenous people. McLeod played a major role in forming Nations and in bringing the Nisga’a and Vega together.

Diamond drill hole Wine 23-29 cut 31.5 metres averaging 1.9% copper and 1.92% nickel (2.31% nickel-equivalent) from 36.5 metres depth, the company reported. The hole included 9.6 metres grading 2.2% copper and 1.56% nickel from 4.2 metres, in what NiCAN calls the Upper zone. Hole wine 22-6 returned 9.8 metres of 2.09% copper and 1.23% nickel from 7.4 metres in that zone.

The results were from NiCAN’s third phase of exploration at Wine, completed last year. The campaign comprised 2,209 metres of drilling across 17 holes, designed to test the main Wine target and greenfield targets throughout the Wine gabbro. The company initially targeted only 1,700 metres, but improved drill productivity allowed the addition of 500 metres, NiCAN said.  

“We are happy to report the results from the additional drilling at the Wine Occurrence, expanding the mineralized zones and allowing for a significant improvement in interpretation,” said NiCAN president and CEO Brad Humphrey. “[The] Upper zone is significant and further work is required to determine the full extent of the zone.”

The program followed up on results from drilling completed in last year’s first quarter, when a new nickel bearing horizon inside the Wine gabbro was discovered. 

NiCAN said it believes the mineralization hosted by the Wine gabbro might resemble the nickel-copper deposits in the Lynn Lake area, north of Wine, where the historic Farley mine produced about 22.2 million tonnes grading 1% nickel and 0.5% copper.

The company was formed in April 2022 with a vision for nickel-copper exploration projects situated in known mineral belts in low-risk jurisdictions. Just months after it was established, NiCAN reported highlight drill results at Wine including 27.3 metres at 2.01% nickel, 1.81% copper, 0.09% cobalt, 0.2 gram gold per tonne and 0.28 gram palladium (or 2.61% nickel equivalent) from 43 metres depth.  

The 56.8-sq.-km Wine property is located 50 km southwest of Snow Lake – about 680 km north of Winnipeg – in a suture zone between the Flin Flon and Snow Lake greenstone belts. 

Northeast of Wine, NiCAN also holds the 24-sq.-km Pipy project, inside the Thompson nickel belt, beside Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) Thompson mine.

Company shares traded at C$0.16 on Wednesday at mid-day in Toronto, touching the ceiling of its 52-week range of C$0.04 and C$0.16. It has a market capitalization of C$11.4 million.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for a sharp turnaround in 2024. Dampening that outlook further is the string of negative news over the last week.

Mining billionaire Andrew Forests’ privately owned Wyloo Metals announced a shutdown of its nickel operations in Western Australia due to falling prices. Lithium giant Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) revealed job cuts and a trimming of its capital expenditure. It also unloaded its stake in Liontown (ASX: LTR) after last years’ failed takeover bid. LTR’s stock price has now plunged more than 44% since the new year.

Even the insiders have lost faith. Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) CEO, Dale Henderson, sold around 1.2 million shares following the company’s latest earnings result.

But to get a handle on what 2024 looks like, we should first clarify why green metal stocks sold down so heavily in 2023.

You see, mega renewable energy projects are expensive. So too are the mining developments which supply the raw materials for these metal intensive projects. Given we’ve just embarked on one of the most hawkish monetary regimes in modern history, it explains why the sector plummeted last year.

But according to the former chief of commodities at Goldman Sachs, Jeff Currie, ‘green’ metals could return with a vengeance this year. That’s based primarily on expected rate cuts.

You see, rising rates have diminished the public’s appetite for extravagant renewable mega-projects. It’s perhaps one of the reasons why crude came back into focus last year. Fossil fuels are energy dense, making them a relatively cheap option. We could also add uranium to the list, another energy-packed commodity that can supply reliable, base load power.

But the key point from Currie is this: in a high-cost environment, traditional energies reign. He labels them the ‘brown’ commodities.

So why could 2024 see a major pivot back to ‘green’ metals?

It’s simple really. The idea of capital-intensive green energy projects becomes a difficult pill to swallow in an economy struggling against the rising cost of living.

This observation seems rather obvious in hindsight, just look at 2023. As the narrative of ‘higher for longer’ took effect last year, Brent crude surged to $94 per barrel and uranium erupted into multi-year highs.

Meanwhile, metals tied to the green energy transition like lithium, rare earths, and graphite, fell through the floor, eliminating most of the gains that emerged during the early 2020s.

But, with rate cuts looming, could the narrative from 2023 make a dramatic U-turn? In other words, will investment flood out of the brown commodities back toward the green? It’s certainly possible.

We saw oil and gas stocks tumble in the final weeks of 2023 as expectations of rate cuts grew in the US. Large-cap lithium producers then (briefly) emerged from heavily sold-off levels.

But don’t expect a smooth recovery in the green metal market. We’re living through a period of historically elevated geopolitical tension.

Right now, the Middle East conflict is ripe for escalation. That means crude oil prices could erupt, bringing an inflationary spike.

We’ve already seen several prominent shipping companies divert vessels away from the Red Sea following attacks in December by the Houthis in Yemen on foreign cargo vessels and oil tankers.

With ships re-routing around the Cape of Good Hope, on the southern tip of Africa, delivery times have increased by up to two weeks. With that comes higher freight costs and more inflationary pressures on the global economy.

Geopolitics is a key reason why we could see a continuation of the arm wrestle between inflation versus deflation this year. There’s no clear path that signals one will win over the other.

But despite the geopolitical risks, there are potentially huge opportunities on offer.

According to the Economist, 2024 is set to be the biggest election year in history. Almost half the world’s population is lining up to vote, from India to the US. This is going to be a colossal year in politics. With incumbent governments looking to extend their time in office, expect extravagant infrastructure announcements this year. Renewables could be a major focus.

So, how do you prepare a portfolio for potential boom conditions in a year that promises plenty of geo-and-political instability? Focus on beaten-down sectors. As Rick Rule says, you’re either a contrarian or a victim.

Right now, green metals have lost their flavour. But that could offer ripe pickings for investors betting against the herd.

James Cooper runs the commodities investment service Diggers and Drillers. You can also follow him on X (Twitter) @JCooperGeo.

The bank conducted an investigation leading to the terminations after a male banker in Toronto made a bullying and harassment complaint through the bank’s reporting structure, the paper said, citing spokesman John Fenton.

The fired staff, plus two others who resigned, had targeted the employee in person and on Teams chats, the Globe said, citing four sources it didn’t name because they weren’t authorized to speak. Five of the six were junior staff in the metals and mining unit while the other was a director overseeing them, it said.

Fenton called the behaviour completely unacceptable and said all BMO employees must meet the bank’s standards of respect, inclusivity and professionalism.

Fenton and colleagues didn’t immediately reply to emails from The Northern Miner seeking comment.

BMO advised Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) last year in its $8.9 billion deal to sell its coal unit to Glencore (LSE: GLEN) and was lead bookrunner in a $184 million capital raising for billionaire Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Electric (TSX: IE; NYSE AM: IE).

Revenue declined to $243.7 million from 2.7 million carats sold at an average value of $90 per carat compared with $297.3 million from the same amount sold at an average value of $112 per carat in 2022, the Toronto-based company said in a news release on Tuesday.

Sales suffered after India, the world’s largest gem cutter, imposed a two-month ban on diamond imports ending in December while China’s sluggish economy slowed buying by polishers and jewelry store restocking, Mountain Province said in reports this week and in November.

The mine, about 280 km northeast of Yellowknife, produced 5.6 million carats last year. It was the low end of a forecast for as much as 6.1 million carats after a mid-year processing halt. The stoppage lowered processing to 73% of capacity in the year’s first half and 84% in the second. Gahcho Kué nearly tripled ore processing during the fourth quarter compared to the year-ago period, making it the year’s strongest three months. 

“We expect to carry this momentum into 2024 notwithstanding some expected seasonal reduction in performance numbers in the early months due to cold weather,” president and CEO Mark Wall said in the release. “The market is now reopened and we continue to monitor it closely to maximise value from our sales pipeline.”

Mountain Province operates Gahcho Kué in a 49-51% partnership with Anglo American (LSE: AAL) unit De Beers. Mountain is one of the last junior diamond companies in Canada as deposits dry up nearly 30 years after the heyday of exploration across the country’s north. In recent years, De Beers shut its Snap Lake mine near Gahcho Kué and its Victor mine in northern Ontario.

More kimberlites

Still, Mountain has 1,130 sq. km of mineral claims around Gahcho Kué including the Kelvin kimberlite estimated to contain 8.5 million tonnes grading 1.6 carats per tonne at a value of $63 per carat for 13.62 million carats. Its Faraday 2 kimberlite is estimated to contain about 2 million tonnes grading 2.63 carats per tonne at a value of $140 per carat for 5.4 million carats.

De Beers, the largest diamond producer by value, is looking for demand in China to increase in the medium-term as the Asian giant weathers stock and property markets turmoil. Sanctions on Russian state producer Alrosa will impact supply and greater scrutiny of ethical production will gather pace, the miner said last year.

“Global rough diamond production is not expected to fully return to pre-Covid levels in carat volume in the foreseeable future,” De Beers said in a report, citing Rio Tinto’s (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) 2020 closure of the Argyle mine in Australia cutting 10% of world output. “While there are several notable diamond projects on the horizon that may be able to fill the gap to some extent, these projects will take some time to reach full production.”

It said new diamond projects include Luaxe in Angola by Alrosa and state miner Endiama planning to hit full annual production in 2027 of about 8 million carats; De Beers’ Chidliak project on Baffin Island, Nunavut, for 1-2 million carats a year by an unspecified date; and Lucara Diamond’s (TSX: LUC) Karowe mine underground expansion in Botswana due to add less than 1 million carats a year by 2028.

In Russia, Alrosa is planning the Mir project for 3 million carats a year by 2032; the Maiskaya project for 2 million carats a year in 2025; and the Vodorazdelnye Galechniki project for less than 1 million carats a year by 2026, De Beers said.

Closures and output rollbacks are expected at several large mines that could cut 17-20 million carats of annual production by 2030, or about 15% of 2022’s world output, the miner said.

These include Rio Tinto’s Diavik and Burgundy Diamond Mines’ (ASX: BDM) Ekati in the Northwest Territories. Burgundy acquired Ekati when it purchased its former owner Arctic Canadian Diamond last March for $136 million. Closures are also expected at Alrosa’s Nyurbinskaya and Almazy-Anabara mines in Russia, De Beers said.

“The board of OreCorp carefully considered the proposal over the weekend with its advisers and notified Perseus that it was not considered to be a superior proposal” to Silvercorp’s Dec. 27 bid, OreCorp said on Monday in a release.

Perth, Australia-based Perseus’s offer values OreCorp at A$258 million, 4% more than Silvercorp’s offer and would give shareholders more cash, Perseus said.

“This offer is demonstrably superior to the Silvercorp takeover in terms of price based on recent Silvercorp trading and in terms of consideration certainty, being all cash,” Perseus executive chairman and CEO Jeff Quartermaine said in a release. “It would ensure that OreCorp’s shareholders receive full value and certainty for their shares.”

Perseus and Silvercorp are vying for OreCorp’s Nyanzaga project in Tanzania near Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) Bulyanhulu mine. Nyanzaga would cost $474 million to build and produce 242,000 oz. gold per year over its first decade, according to a feasibility study issued in August 2022. Both bidders, who have been competing for OreCorp at least since August, claim Tanzanian authorities are ready to approve their offers.

While Perseus is bidding less than Silvercorp’s nominal proposal of A$276.5 million, Silvercorp shares slid to C$3.11 each on Friday from C$3.66 on Dec. 26, reducing its offer.

East vs West

Perseus, which has a stock market value of A$2.5 billion and owns 19.9% of OreCorp, produced 535,000 oz. of gold last year from three gold mines in West Africa, Yaouré and Sissingué in Côte d’Ivoire and Edikan in Ghana. It’s preparing to develop the Meyas Sand gold project in Sudan.

Silvercorp, with assets in China and a market value of about C$550 million, last year produced 1.8 million silver-equivalent oz. (including mostly silver and 1,342 oz. gold), 7.4 million lb. zinc and 16.8 million lb. lead.

Nyanzaga, which could reach annual output of 295,000 oz., is about 30 km northeast of Barrick’s Bulyanhulu and 60 km east of AngloGold Ashanti‘s (NYSE:AU) Geita gold mine. They’re in the Lake Victoria Goldfields about 1,000 km northwest of the capital, Dar es Salaam.

The project has an after-tax net present value of $618 million at a 5% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 25% based on a $1,750 per oz. gold price, according to the feasibility study. The government of Tanzania holds a 16% non-dilutable free carried interest in the project.

Africa know-how

Perseus knocked Silvercorp, saying it lacked experience in Africa and enough funding to develop Nyanzaga, adding risk to shareholders and dilution with equity raisings. Silvercorp’s stewardship could potentially involve costly debt or royalty deals that could require collateral and complicate financing. It could see a reduced Nyanzaga project and lower returns, Perseus said.

“Perseus has put this new offer directly to OreCorp shareholders on the basis that it represents a compelling opportunity,” Quartermaine said. “Perseus has the financial capacity, technical expertise, and in-country relationships required to optimally develop OreCorp’s Nyanzaga.”

Last month, Silvercorp said it’s well-positioned to fund and immediately move to advance Nyanzaga towards commercial production.

“This transaction aims to create a globally diversified precious metals producer, and will provide enhanced trading liquidity, re-rating potential and the opportunity to participate in further upside from the Nyanzaga project and Silvercorp’s existing mining portfolio,” the company said.

“Silvercorp has designed, permitted and constructed multiple mining and processing facilities, requiring it to establish and maintain constructive relationships with diverse stakeholders, including communities, regulators and various levels of government.”

Shares in OreCorp closed 4.7% higher at A56¢ apiece on Monday, valuing the company at A$258.1 million. Silvercorp traded 4.2% stronger on Monday morning in Toronto at C$3.24, valuing it at C$573.6 million. Perseus shares were unchanged at C$1.54 apiece.

Drilling intercepted six gold intervals in one hole, 23FR045, to expand the new parallel zone beside the Froyo gold zone, the company said on Friday.

It cut 10.5 metres grading 2.81 grams gold per tonne from 14.1 metres down hole; 5 metres of 4.18 grams from 30 metres; 9 metres of 8.54 grams from 43 metres; 13 metres of 5.21 grams from 62 metres; 12 metres of 2.74 grams from 85 metres; and 7 metres of 2.74 grams from 136 metres.

“These are all near surface gold intervals further improving the potential economics of an open-pit mining scenario,” president and CEO Colin Padget said in a release. “Founders’ technical team has also added several new holes to further test the extent of this mineralization, both along strike and further to depth.”

Founders plans to issue its first Antino resource estimate next year as it vies to rival Newmont’s (TSX: NGT) Merian and Zijin Mining’s Rosebel gold mines on the Guiana Shield in Suriname. The company is starting a 30,000-metre drill program this year at the 238-sq.-km Antino, the South American country’s most advanced project on a property that’s produced 500,000 oz. of artisanal gold historically.

More assays

Initial drilling is testing the parallel gold zone to depth and along strike at the site on the Marowijne Greenstone Belt across the Lawa River from French Guiana. The program targets expansion and resource definition within the Froyo gold zone plus exploration across unmapped concessions areas. Fast lab turnaround times should provide a steady flow of drill results every two to three weeks, Padget said. 

Founders has said it plans to issue a preliminary economic assessment in 2026 followed by a feasibility study.

The company acquired three-quarters of the project last year from Nana Resources through an option with Orea Mining (TSX: OREA). Nana retains a quarter. Previous holders drilled more than 32,000 metres historically. An assay issued in November, the highest grade so far, showed 3 metres grading 99.51 grams including 1 metre of 231.92 grams from 25 metres depth.

The Guiana Shield occupies a chunk of the continent’s northeast, stretching from Colombia to Guiana and including parts of Venezuela and Brazil. Rosebel produced 5.6 million oz. of gold from 2004 to 2021 for Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) before Zijin bought it in late 2022 for $360 million.

Shares in Founders Metals gained 5% to C$1.48 apiece at mid-Friday in Toronto, valuing the company at C$75.6 million. It’s traded in a 52-week range of C$0.20 to C$1.78.

The operation’s output would equal 31.2 million lb. and could produce uranium at $75 per lb. U₃O₈, according to the preliminary economic assessment (PEA).

The PEA pegs the project’s post-tax net present value (at 8% discount) at $239 million, its internal rate of return at 56% and with initial capital costs of $47.5 million.

“As a late-stage development project located in the western United States, Churchrock is well positioned to address some of the potential nuclear utility security of supply concerns clearly reflected in spot uranium prices which have risen dramatically and now exceed C$90 per lb.,” Laramide CEO Marc Henderson said in a news release.

The assessment comes as the price of uranium, which sat at $92.50 per lb. on Thursday has risen above its post-Fukushima slump and reached levels not seen since 2007. The increase, driven by several factors including rising demand for the nuclear metal as countries try to wean themselves off fossil fuels has helped push some uranium projects towards production.

Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR; NYSE: UUUU) last month announced the start of production at its mines in neighbouring Arizona and Utah.

Total capital costs for Churchrock, located near the namesake town in northwestern New Mexico, come to $270.1 million including sustaining costs to year 37 and reclamation and closure.

Life-of-mine operating costs, which include uranium recovery, on-site yellowcake production and hauling costs to Laramide’s Crownpoint processing plant come to $909.4 million.

The PEA assumes a uranium recovery rate of about 68%, and development of a steady state, 3,000-gallon-per-minute ISR operation that would include satellite plants at Churchrock, the Crownpoint plant and associated wells.

Churchrock hosts 33.9 million inferred tons grading 0.075% U₃O₈ containing 50.8 million lb. U₃O₈, according to a 2017 resource estimate. That resource was based on 569,232.9 metres of drilling across 1,694 holes conducted by previous exploration companies and Laramide, which acquired the Churchrock properties in 2017.

The New Mexico project is also among just a handful of uranium sites in North America where ISR mining is being pursued. The method involves pumping a solution through underground boreholes, where the solution separates the uranium from the rock and pumps it back to the surface for extraction. It’s generally less costly than traditional hard rock mining, doesn’t require the digging of large pits and leaves fewer tailings. 

Bluestone stock traded at C$0.47 at midday Wednesday in Toronto, valuing the company at C$69.1 million. It has been within a 52-week window of C$0.18 to C$0.65.

The Vancouver-based company, which is 26% owned by the Lundin family trust, is proposing the $572 million project that environmentalists are fighting. Located near the border with El Salvador, it would produce 2.7 million oz. gold over 14 years, according to a feasibility study issued in early 2022. In July, the company began a review to sell its assets.

“After dedicating over two years to obtaining the environmental permit amendment, we are pleased,” president, CEO and chairman Peter Hemstead said in a release. “We will continue with our strategic review, and having the environmental permit in hand helps de-risk the project.”

Environmentalists contend the project, which Bluestone acquired from fellow Canadian miner Goldcorp in 2017 for C$18 million plus shares valued at roughly 9.9% of Bluestone, will pollute the Güija lagoon and Lempa river, the main water source for San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital.

Hemstead says the local community supports the project.

“The design for Cerro Blanco reflects safe and responsible mining practices and sustainable socio-environmental management that can contribute significant economic growth, infrastructure, training and job opportunities to Guatemala,” he said.

Silver too

The project has an after-tax net present value of $1.1 billion at a 5% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 30%, according to the feasibility study. It also forecast output of 10.2 million oz. silver from processing 53.9 million tonnes of ore in a three-stage development.

The company review is considering the sale of part or all of its assets, a sale of the company and a merger or other business deal, the CEO said.

Bluestone’s environmental approval comes as new Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in on Monday after a pro-democracy and anti-corruption campaign. Opponents in Central America’s most populous country tried to use the courts to prevent him from taking office after his landslide victory in August.

Elements of the military, the judiciary and conservative political parties attempted to annul the election and suspend Arevalo’s Semilla party. Although the party holds only 23 of the legislature’s 160 seats, a member was elected Congress president.

Bluestone plans to use dry stack tailings management and an independently monitored water treatment plant in Cerro Blanco’s open-pit configuration. Goldcorp, now part of Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), drilled 43,000 metres on Cerro Blanco and built 3.4 km of underground works when it held the project.

Montage Gold (TSXV: MAU; US-OTC: MAUTF) plans to start building its $712 million Koné gold project in Côte d’Ivoire late this year after an updated feasibility study nearly doubled its net present value.

The project 470 km northwest of coastal Abidjan, the West African country’s largest city, has a net present value of $1.1 billion at a 5% discount rate with a 31% internal rate of return, Montage said on Wednesday.

That compares with $746 million (46% less) at a 5% discount rate and 35% return in an April 2022 study. The new report is based on a gold price of $1,850 and versus $1,600 nearly two years ago. The new study benefits from including the Gbongogo Main deposit of 12 million indicated tonnes grading 1.45 grams gold per tonne for 560,000 oz. gold, Montage said.

“This change has materially de-risked the financial parameters of the project and demonstrates the significant impact of discovering higher grade satellite deposits,” CEO Rick Clark said in a release. “We will now focus on repeating this success as we advance the next near-term satellite deposits within the project, notably Diouma North and Petit Yao.”

Koné’s forecast construction cost rose 31% from $544 million in the 2022 study. The project may become Côte d’Ivoire’s largest gold mine with an average annual gold production of 349,000 oz. during its first three years at an all-in sustaining cost of less than $1,000 per oz. and a payback period of 2.6 years.

New reserve

The 2,259-sq.-km property holds 174.3 million probable tonnes grading 0.72 gram gold for 4 million oz. contained gold, according to a new estimate this week. Koné may produce 3.6 million oz. gold over a 16-year mine life, Montage said.

All-in sustaining costs are forecast at $899 per oz. in the first three years and $998 over the life of the mine.

Overall life-of-mine capital costs increased 5% compared with the former report to $877 million although sustaining capital fell by $126 million, Montage said.

The company says it expects permits to be approved by October. It’s starting more drilling this month on Diouma North and Petit Yao. Diouma North is 2 km south of Gbongogo Main and less than 500 metres from the planned haul road. Recent drilling there cut 17.5 metres grading 2.75 grams, 11 metres at 2.21 grams and 14 metres at 2.16 grams.

Petit Yao, 3 km from the planned haul road, has shown drill results of 12 metres grading 4.15 grams, 6 metres at 10.82 grams and 3 metres at 15.51 grams, Montage said.

Against the backdrop of continued geopolitical and inflationary pressures, 2023 saw some ESG backlash influence investor narratives in certain jurisdictions, though less so their practices. ESG took the top spot again in key mining industry risk reports, while community protests and governance issues made news in regions worldwide, many based on ESG issues. Globally, we saw a growing entrenchment of ESG and corporate sustainability principles in expectations of how the industry conducts its business.

For 2024, the World Economic Forum’s managing director has forecasted “an unstable global order characterized by polarizing narratives and insecurity, the worsening impacts of extreme weather, and economic uncertainty.” This sets the stage for what promises to be an unpredictable year, with environmental and social issues remaining a core focus. We know that spotting trends to inform strategic action can be challenging, so here are our top 10 mining ESG trends that mining companies should take note of and take action on in 2024.

1. Net-Zero Acceleration. Climate change risk and decarbonization are likely to remain a key focus in 2024. Net-zero commitments are becoming a standard expectation, and industry leaders are moving from covering only scope 1 and 2, to also include scope 3. According to Net Zero Tracker, half of the world’s largest companies have now adopted net zero targets, though doubts remain about how attainable they are. Investors will increasingly pressure companies to demonstrate adequate and credible climate plans.
2. Beyond Carbon: Biodiversity Rising. With incontrovertible evidence of the vicious circle that interlocks climate change and nature loss, biodiversity is now a rapidly rising topic. This shift is driven by a growing awareness of the scope of crisis before us and the associated material risks to business and society. The year will see leading companies begin to align with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) recommendations, which aim to integrate nature into financial decision-making and disclosure.  
3. Tailings Management A Critical Focus. Tailings management, having entrenched its position in the investor spotlight in 2023, will remain a key focus. After ICMM members’ first disclosure on alignment with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) last year, there will be escalating pressure on the rest of the industry to follow suit, with the new Global Tailings Management Institute (GTMI) spearheading enforcement, assurance, and oversight. Rapid commercialization of a range of technological advancements will help companies move towards more responsible management, too.
4. Practical EDI Gaining Ground. Mirroring a global shift towards workplace inclusivity, the mining sector will make further progress on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI, or DEI) initiatives in 2024. The new TSM Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Workplaces Protocol and ICMM member DEI position statement and commitment have spurred renewed focus and action, as the industry acknowledges the need for greater efforts to tackle its ongoing workforce and talent management challenges.
5. Standardization of ESG Reporting for Capital Markets. The widespread adoption of the IFRS Foundation’s new disclosure standards will transform voluntary sustainability reporting in 2024. The IFRS has now taken over responsibility for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), both well-known by investors. The new, single, global baseline of sustainability disclosures designed for capital markets will rapidly become the global reference for ESG disclosure, expected to bring much-needed consistency and comparability.
6. Global Regulations Require Adaptation. A wave of new and updated sustainability regulations is sweeping across the globe, and mining will face the challenge of adapting to new regulatory requirements across various jurisdictions, especially those linked to the EU. High-profile emerging mandatory regulations include disclosure on climate change and modern slavery in multiple jurisdictions and broad standardized non-financial reporting in the EU. Meanwhile, at least 64 jurisdictions are analyzing how to integrate the IFRS Foundation disclosure standards in their regulations. 
7. Surging Investor Demands and Shareholder Activism. Echoing global public sentiment, investors will continue to ramp up pressure for robust ESG performance and transparency. A 2023 KPMG survey found that over half of M&A dealmakers have cancelled deals due to material findings of an ESG due diligence process. And headlines such as Glencore’s climate plan being rejected by investors, attempts to sue Shell directors personally for climate risk mismanagement, and the Global Investor Mining Commission on Mining 2030 announcing strong support from investors with US$11 trillion in assets under management signal a clear trend. Meanwhile, a recent proxy firm policy survey shows the “double materiality” debate continues, but climate-related risk disclosure will be central to investor demands and shareholder activism. TCFD alignment is becoming a standard expectation in the face of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events worldwide.
8.  Growing Executive and Board Competency Risk. Surveys from PwC, BCG, and the INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre during 2023 found that only 27-47% of board directors understand ESG risks and have sufficient ESG competence, on topics ranging from climate change to human rights and EDI. Such findings expose a growing disconnect between evolving investor expectations of fiduciary duty and oversight, and the ESG capabilities of directors and company leaders. ESG upskilling to ensure effective management and governance is expected to be a priority for many companies in the year ahead.
9. Technological Innovation Enabling Performance and Assessment. Technological innovations are likely to play a key role in advancing sustainability priorities. Current commercialization of relevant technologies ranges from the use of AI and data analytics to assess and oversee ESG performance, manage cybersecurity risks, and support health and safety outcomes, to innovative solutions for resource optimization and tailings management (e.g. biomining, bioremediation, waste-to-value, satellite and other real-time monitoring). Along with innovations in materials movement and renewable energy solutions including hydrogen and solar, we are likely to see more rapid innovation foster improved sustainability outcomes and assessment.
10. Focus on Sustainable and Responsible Supply Chains. Many companies mapping their supply chains in response to pressure to do so, are struggling immensely. Yet further progress in responsible sourcing and supply chain transparency is likely, given regulatory trends and amplified investor expectations to focus on sustainability across the entire value chain. This year will see many companies venture into understanding their Scope 3 emissions and human rights risks especially.

As the work and disclosure of sustainability continue to mature, rumblings of ESG fatigue and discontent continue too, with some starting to favour the language of “responsible business” instead.  Either way, the core principles of prioritizing risk management, responsible governance, and resilience stand firm; embedding sustainability in how we mine and invest is a trend set to persist despite rising polarization and politicization, war and contentious elections, and unpredictable market behaviour in 2024.

Many mining companies will continue to grapple with increasing ESG performance and reporting expectations, but this will also offer strategic opportunities. The ESG commitments of both investors and miners will be tested in the year ahead. Those who deploy the principles underpinning ESG in risk management and business strategies will better position themselves to strengthen both social licence and financial performance.

To help readers navigate the complexities of the mining ESG landscape in the year ahead, Sympact has compiled a complimentary report: Mining ESG: 2023 in Review and What to Expect in 2024. 

Rachel Dekker and Elizabeth Freele are the co-founders and managing partners of mining sustainability think tank and ESG consultancy Sympact. Sympact supports companies in ensuring their social performance meets growing expectations through advisory services, ESG training, and thought leadership.