China to overtake Australia as world’s top lithium miner by 2026, Fastmarkets says

Reuters | June 25, 2025

Lakkor Tso is one of the few large, high-quality lithium brine deposits in China. (Image courtesy of Zijin Mining.)

China by next year will overtake Australia as the world’s top miner of the battery metal lithium, according to a forecast from consultancy Fastmarkets, and its market prowess is expected to grow through 2035 even as many Chinese producers remain unprofitable.

The projections are the latest data point underscoring Beijing’s commanding presence across the global metals supply chain, with China the dominant miner or refiner of more than half the minerals considered critical by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“China’s got a very clear strategy to develop its mineral resources,” Paul Lusty, the consultancy’s head of battery raw materials research, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Fastmarkets Lithium and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas.

Australia has been the world’s largest lithium miner since taking that spot from Chile in 2017, but Australian miners have curtailed production or delayed expansions amid a global drop in lithium prices.

By next year, Chinese miners are likely to extract 8,000 to 10,000 more metric tons of lithium than Australian rivals, according to the Fastmarkets forecast. That would be a jump from 2023, when China was the world’s third-largest lithium producer.

By 2035, Chinese miners are likely to extract 900,000 metric tons of lithium, compared to Australia’s 680,000 metric tons, Chile’s 435,000 metric tons and Argentina’s 380,000 metric tons, according to the forecast.

Much of China’s growth has and likely will continue to come from mining a type of hard rock ore known as lepidolite, which is prolific in the southern part of the country.

China’s lepidolite mining is more costly than extracting lithium from salty brines and can cause more environmental harm due to toxic by-products such as thallium and tantalum that pollute water supplies.

China’s lithium miners have been reticent to cut production due to support from the Chinese government, “pressure” from local municipalities to keep operations open – and thus local jobs, and a desire to maintain market share as demand for the metal rises, Lusty said.

“This continued production – despite the lack of profitability within the market – starts to make a lot more sense when you consider all those factors,” he said.

Chinese battery giant is one of the largest producers of lepidolite and had paused production at a key mine last September before resuming output in February.

Beyond mining, China for years has been the world’s largest refiner of the ultralight metal, with roughly 70% market share. Lithium refineries turn the metal into a form that can be used to make cathodes for batteries.

Efforts by other countries to grow their own lithium refining should cut China’s market share to 60% by 2035, Fastmarkets forecasts.

China’s market prowess also extends to electric vehicle supply chain, with more than 60% of all EVs globally sold last year in that country, according to data from battery producer LG Energy Solutions.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Leslie Adler)

Gradiant to build lithium production plant in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Formation  

Staff Writer | June 24, 2025 | 

alkaLi’s commercial lithium production facility in the Marcellus Shale Formation of Pennsylvania. Image from Gradiant.

Water and resource recovery company Gradiant announced Tuesday that its wholly-owned lithium business, alkali, will design and build a commercial lithium production facility in Montrose, Susquehanna County, within the Marcellus Shale Formation of Pennsylvania.  

The site, the company said, is the world’s first to extract, concentrate and convert (EC²) lithium in a fully integrated, end-to-end process from oilfield produced water. 

This announcement builds on last year’s launch of alkaLi’s EC² platform, which Gradiant said guarantees a minimum 95% lithium recovery at customer sites—empowering producers to deliver battery-grade lithium carbonate in a more efficient, cost effective and sustainable environment. 

Gradiant’s alkaLi owns and operates the Pennsylvania facility—including equipment, land, water and mineral rights, and permits. This vertically integrated model, it said, could secure long-term US lithium supply while avoiding the permitting and ownership delays that often stall critical minerals projects. 

Currently in testing, Gradiant said the system has already proven 97% lithium recovery from produced water and 99.5% purity for battery-grade lithium carbonate.  

Gradiant said alkaLi has signed a multi-year offtake agreement to supply up to 5,000 metric tonnes annually of battery-grade lithium carbonate to a US lithium-ion battery manufacturer for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.  

“We now have a fully operational lithium production asset in the U.S. that proves what EC² can deliver,” Gradiant CEO Anurag Bajpayee said in a news release.  

“This isn’t a concept—it’s a live facility demonstrating that clean, domestic lithium production is both viable and scalable,” Bajpayee said. “Our goal isn’t to compete with customers, but to empower them—and the broader industry—to meet surging demand for battery-grade lithium and accelerate the clean energy transition. This strategic investment in the Marcellus Shale, which could supply 50% of U.S. lithium demand, validates the maturity of alkaLi’s technology and secures a long-term domestic supply.” 

The company said commercial operations are on track for early 2026. 

Halliburton to design demonstration wells for GeoFrame Energy’s DLE project in Texas

Staff Writer | June 23, 2025 | 

GeoFrame Energy’s lithium project site in Mt Vernon, Texas. Image: GeoFrame Energy.

Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) announced Monday it has secured a contract for GeoFrame Energy’s geothermal and direct lithium extraction (DLE) project in Texas.

The company said it will plan and design the first demonstration phase wells in the Smackover Formation of East Texas. GeoFrame has said it is set to become the first company to deliver battery-grade lithium carbonate from this US reservoir to the market.

According to GeoFrame, the project is expected to produce approximately 83,500 metric tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually—enough to meet 100% of domestic demand. This would mark a turning point in ending US dependence on Chinese lithium imports, it said.

“GeoFrame Energy is in an excellent position to capitalize on the current demand for lithium through brine extraction,” Halliburton’s vice president of low carbon solutions Duane Sherritt said in a news release.

“Halliburton’s 100-year legacy of well expertise and execution, combined with innovation to support new energy projects and decades of experience in the Smackover Formation, makes us the best candidate to help support GeoFrame Energy’s vision.”

“Halliburton, as a critical member of our team, will support the drilling phase of our project through the construction, design, and operation of the demonstration wells and the expansion into full field development,” GeoFrame CEO Bruce Cutright stated.

Cutright said the company plans to use geothermal brine to generate renewable electricity through zero-emission binary cycle generators. This process will power its direct lithium extraction and lithium carbonate production plant with renewable energy. The company will sell the excess geothermal power produced electricity to the grid.

Work is expected to begin in late 2025.

Nickel faces existential moment with half of mines unprofitable

Bloomberg News | February 26, 2024 |

A nickel briquette. Image from Sherritt International

Many of the world’s biggest nickel mines are facing an increasingly bleak future as they wake up to an existential threat: a near limitless supply of low-cost metal from Indonesia.


With roughly half of all nickel operations unprofitable at recent prices, the bosses of the largest mining companies last week sounded a warning that there was little prospect of a recovery.



The potential collapse of nickel mining from Australia to New Caledonia comes at a time when western governments are scrambling to secure the supply chains needed to decarbonize the global economy. But in an ironic twist, Indonesia’s coal-fired nickel output is pricing out greener metal that’s so far failed to command a market premium.

Wresting control of strategic metals from China has become a focal point of Joe Biden’s administration. Yet while US officials have dashed around the world looking to strike deals for materials such as cobalt and copper, the heaviest reverse has come in Chinese-backed Indonesian nickel, a key component of electric vehicles.

Indonesia now accounts for more than half of world supply, with the potential to reach three-quarters of all production toward the end of the decade.

“There is a serious structural challenge as a result of Indonesian nickel,” said Duncan Wanblad, chief executive officer of Anglo American Plc, after his company took a $500 million writedown on its nickel business last week. “They don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.”

Traditionally, nickel has been split into two categories: low grade for making stainless steel and high grade for batteries. A huge Indonesian expansion of low-grade production led to a surplus, and, crucially, processing innovations have allowed that glut to be refined into a high-quality product.

Commodity markets have always been susceptible to cyclical volatility, especially when sudden supply and demand imbalances get a push from wider macro upswings or downturns. But what’s happening in nickel right now is different, with the entire industry undergoing a structural shift that has upended forecasts and models.

For BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, nickel is a rounding error, contributing mostly losses to profits that routinely break $30 billion a year. Yet in recent years the company has championed the metal, seeing it as a key growth market that will help offset its retreat from fossil fuels.

Instead it’s turned into a disaster.

This week CEO Mike Henry conceded that the company will have to make a decision on whether to shutter its flagship nickel business in Australia within the next few months. Having already written down the business’s value by $2.5 billion, Henry said he expects the market to remain in surplus until at least 2030.

That means the pain is likely just starting.

Macquarie Group Ltd. calculates that about 250,000 tons of annual production — equivalent to about 7% of the total — has been taken out of the market by closures, with another 190,000 of planned output delayed.

Combined with economic slowdowns in China and the US and the choppy adoption of EVs, nickel has been pummeled. The price fell 45% last year, and is currently hovering around $17,000 a ton. According to Macquarie, at $18,000 a ton 35% of production is unprofitable, while at $15,000 a ton that jumps to 75%.

Anglo’s CEO Wanblad, who is reviewing nearly all the company’s mines in bid to cut costs, said that he will give the miner’s nickel business time in the face of the Indonesian threat.

“Our nickel business will undergo a fulsome review in terms of holding its head above water and making a viable profit,” he said. “I’m not giving up on the guys to come up with a plan that might help them readjust themselves into a position where they can function effectively.”

Glencore Plc, which has already moved to shutter its nickel operations on the islands of New Caledonia, is one of the world’s biggest producers with sprawling businesses in Canada and Australia. At current prices, that business will make just $500 million this year, with CEO Gary Nagle expecting prices to remain depressed.

“We see continuing strong production growth out of Indonesia,” Nagle said. “We do not expect significant price recovery in the short to medium term.”

With more than half a decade of oversupply ahead, more mines are likely to close before things get better. Should the market finally rebalance, that will leave Indonesia and China with even more market share then they already have.

Still, Indonesia’s rapid expansion has drawn criticism. Much of its production comes from coal-powered energy, giving it higher emissions per ton than rival producers, and its rapid expansion is eroding rainforests.

With little prospect of a near term recovery, western miners are pinning their hopes on state aid in the short term and a push toward customers — such as carmakers — demanding “greener” nickel in the future and being willing to pay more for it.

BHP this week called for the London Metal Exchange to expand its responsible sourcing policy to include environmental due diligence, helping to differentiate production from Indonesian and Chinese supply.

Still, as conceded by Glencore, so far buyers of nickel are unwilling to pay more.

“Right now there is not much of a premium in the market,” Nagle said.

(By Thomas Biesheuvel)

Fortescue’s Forrest urges LME to separate ‘clean’ nickel contracts

Reuters | February 26, 2024 

Andrew Forrest. (Image by Mines and Money, Flickr).

The London Metal Exchange (LME) should classify its nickel contracts into “clean” and “dirty” ones to give customers more choice, Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest said on Monday.


The comment by Forrest, chairman and founder of Fortescue Metals Group, is part of a push by miners and Australian lawmakers to save the country’s nickel industry after prices collapsed amid a jump in cheaper supplies from Indonesia.


Nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, is typically produced to higher environmental and regulatory standards in Australia than in Indonesia. That has Australian producers calling for a green premium.

“If you’ve got dirty nickel in your battery systems, then you want to know about that because you don’t want to propagate that and you want the choice to buy clean nickel if you can. So the London Metal Exchange must differentiate between clean and dirty,” Forrest told Australia’s national press club.

In an emailed response to Reuters, an LME spokesperson said the exchange “drives and supports the metals and mining industry on several sustainability measures to ensure transparency throughout the supply chain to consumers”.

The LME, the world’s biggest market for industrial metals, has linked up with German online platform Metalshub, which in 2022 developed a price index for class 1 nickel briquette premiums. Briquettes are solid forms of nickel obtained by compressing the metal’s powder or flakes.

“Low-carbon nickel can already be listed on Metalshub today and the transaction data supports identification of a credible ‘green premium’ to the LME price,” the spokesperson added.

Australia’s nickel industry is shedding hundreds of jobs. Forrest’s private investment arm Wyloo Metals said last month it would put its Western Australian nickel operations on care and maintenance at the end of May due to low prices. It bought those assets last year for $504 million.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Jan Harvey)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

JPMorgan’s mystery ‘nickel’ rocks: The hunt for clues begins with a kick

Bloomberg News | March 24, 2023 

Nickel briquettes. Image courtesy of Sherritt International Corp.

The revelation that about $2 million of “nickel” on the London Metal Exchange was actually just bags of stones has thrown a spotlight on the sprawling web of warehouses and metal stashes underpinning the billions of dollars of derivatives traded daily on the LME.


Over the past week, warehouse staff from Busan in South Korea to Genoa in Italy have rushed to check tens of thousands of two-ton bags of nickel – in some cases, by literally kicking them.

The LME advised warehouse operators to wear steel toe-capped boots for safety, one person who received the instructions said. The rule of thumb: If it hurts when you kick it, it’s probably nickel.

The mass inspection, which also included more carefully calibrated checks like weighing and scanning the bags, came after the LME last week announced it had discovered “irregularities” in nine nickel contracts. Bloomberg has reported that the contracts – now invalidated – belonged to JPMorgan Chase & Co. No other issues were found across the LME’s global network of warehouses, the exchange said on Thursday.

Attention will now turn to the question of how the bags of stones could have been bought and sold as nickel on the LME – long viewed by traders as the one place where they don’t need to second guess the contents of their cargoes.

The first sign of trouble came after some of the bags of “nickel” were bought from an LME-registered warehouse in Rotterdam by two trading companies, Trafigura Group and Stratton Metals. When the bags were delivered out, their weights didn’t match the paperwork. Inside, rather than nickel briquettes — which look like lumps of charcoal for barbecuing — the bags had stones instead.

When the rest of the Rotterdam warehouse was searched, the bags underlying nine LME contracts belonging to JPMorgan were also found to contain stones.

There are two possible explanations: either the bags were already full of stones when they were first delivered into Access World’s Rotterdam warehouse, or someone sneaked into the warehouse to steal the nickel.

Access World is leaning toward the second theory, according to people familiar with the matter, because it has a record of the material being weighed when it first entered the warehouse.

It’s far from the first time the metals industry has had to deal with scandals and theft, and nickel’s high value makes it a favorite of fraudsters. Just last month, Trafigura said it had been the victim of a “systematic fraud” whereby it spent some $600 million on cargoes of nickel that turned out not to contain the metal. (Trafigura has said the LME saga isn’t connected to its legal case over the alleged fraud.) In 2017, banks lost over $300 million after discovering fake warehouse receipts for nickel stored in Access World warehouses in Asia — in that case, outside of the LME’s network.

Metals traders joke about how the oldest known written complaint – on a clay tablet housed in the British Museum – details a deal gone wrong over substandard copper.

But in today’s world, the LME’s system is the one place where metal is assumed to be unquestionably safe. The exchange’s contracts, which are the global benchmark for industrial metals like copper, nickel and zinc, are backed by physical metal in the network of warehouses around the world.

While the vast majority of trades on the exchange are purely financial transactions involving hedge funds seeking to bet on the price of metals, or producers looking to hedge, anyone who holds a contract to expiry receives a parcel of metal in an LME-registered warehouse. The whole system relies on warehouse companies to vouch for the metal they have loaded in when they produce an LME “warrant” – a warehouse receipt that can be delivered against an LME contract.

“Elevated prices on base metals make them a natural target for fraud and theft,” said Simon Collins, former head of metals at Trafigura and the CEO of digital trading platform TradeCloud. “Commodity companies need to protect themselves via stringent procedures around people, processes and technology.”

Access World has said it believes the nine warrants suspended by the LME were an isolated case, “specific to one warehouse in Rotterdam.” A promotional video for the company’s facility in Rotterdam’s port area shows a brightly lit warehouse filled with stacks of shiny metal, as well as numerous security cameras.

One headache for investigators is that it’s far from clear when any nefarious activity took place: the material was first delivered into the Rotterdam warehouse several years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

It may have gone undetected for years, because of a quirk specific to the nickel market. Unlike aluminum and copper, which are kept in neat stacks in warehouses, most of the nickel in the LME is in the form of briquettes in bags. Warehousing and shipping companies typically don’t look inside the bags, checking only that the seals haven’t been tampered with. They issue warehouse receipts on what is called a “said to contain” basis – meaning they cannot vouch for the contents.

The number of problem bags was small, affecting only a few dozen tons of nickel. But the news that just a few of the LME’s nickel contracts were compromised has led traders to reconsider the assumption that LME registered metal is always perfectly secure.

The price of nickel for immediate delivery plunged to the biggest discount to three-month futures in 15 years this week, in a sign that some traders were suddenly wary of taking delivery of LME nickel contracts.

Read More: Nickel price slumps as global production soars

For the LME, the warehouse issue represents yet another headache as it wades through the fallout of its last nickel crisis a year ago. It also comes as the exchange is finally preparing to resume regular trading hours in nickel — now scheduled for Monday — when the market will open during the Asian day for the first time since early March 2022.

(By Jack Farchy, Archie Hunter, Alfred Cang and Mark Burton)

Saskatchewan province adds lithium to mining portfolio
Cecilia Jamasmie | November 12, 2021 | 

Saskatchewan produces a large volume of lithium-enriched brine water. 

(Image courtesy of Prairie Lithium.)

Canadian junior Prairie Lithium reached a milestone this week as it finished drilling the province of Saskatchewan’s first dedicated lithium well, which could make the battery metal the region’s third largest resource offering after potash and uranium.


The junior has been using proprietary technology to extract the sought-after battery metal from subsurface brine water since 2020, when the company’s first extraction tests began.

The salty underground water is then mixed with an ion exchange material in a tank, and is eventually converted into lithium chloride.

Provincial Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre said lithium is “having a moment” right now, and the demand is expected to increase by five-fold by 2030.

The pilot project processing facility, in Emerald Park, successfully extracted 99.7% of lithium from the brine in “a matter of minutes,” Eyre said in the statement.

Eyre said this process is cleaner than the traditional way of extracting the mineral from hard rock and creates a sustainable use for the oil wells.

“Which is the beautiful irony, that oil field brine will power electric vehicles of the future. What’s not green about that?”

Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan supports the development of lithium exploration and extraction technologies, providing funding programs like the Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Initiative and Saskatchewan Advantage Innovation Fund — both used by Prairie Lithium.
Top battery player

The province currently produces uranium, potash and helium, but a total of 22 of the 31 minerals Canada has classified as “critical” have been discovered in Saskatchewan.

Experts have flagged the country’s potential to become a top player in the global EV battery market thanks to its lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, aluminum and manganese deposits.

Having most of key ingredients for advanced battery manufacturing and storage technology, however, is not enough. Without an ecosystem that allows for the creation of a market and industry for batteries, Canada could miss the chance to position itself as a top competitor in the global electric vehicles battery supply chain.

Value-adding, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence director Simon Moores has said, could see Canada gaining a big piece of the growing lithium-ion and EVs market.

Ottawa has taken steps to support the fledgling battery materials sector. The province of Quebec acquired last year 50% of troubled Nemaska Lithium (TSX: NMX) in a new joint venture with Livent Corp. and the Pallinghurst Group.

Australia’s Piedmont Lithium (ASX: PLL) and its 19%-owned Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA) completed in August the acquisition of Canada’s North American Lithium (NAL). The move was part of their plan to create a potential lithium production hub in the Abitibi region of Quebec.
Cobalt and nickel too

In Ontario, the federal and provincial governments offered a combined C$10 million ($8m) to help First Cobalt (TSX-V: FCC) develop a refinery, which would be the sole producer of refined cobalt in North America.

Cobalt is already, though not exclusively, processed in Canada. Sherritt International brings nickel and cobalt mixed sulphide intermediate from Cuba to Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

The plant has the capacity to produce up to 35,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,800 tonnes of cobalt (100% basis) per year.

Brazil’s Vale (NYSE: VALE) also produces refined cobalt as a by-product at nickel mines in Sudbury, Ontario.

The world’s largest miner, BHP, (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) is only days away of making official its acquisition of Noront Resources (TSX-V: NOT), which would give it access to the Eagle’s Nest nickel and copper deposit in the “Ring of Fire” in northern Ontario.

Sherritt plans to expand Cuban nickel mine
Canadian Mining Journal Staff | November 4, 2021 

The Moa nickel mine in Cuba is a joint venture of Sherritt and General Nickel.

 Credit: Sherritt International

Sherritt International (TSX: S) is making plans to expand production and lengthen the life of the Moa nickel-cobalt mine in Cuba. Moa is a joint venture of Sherritt (50%) and General Nickel Co. of Cuba (50%).


The plan calls for a multi-phased approach, and work will include a new slurry preparation plant and expansion of other circuits at the mill. Existing equipment at Sherritt’s 100%-owned refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, is part of the plan.

Moa is a lateritic nickel deposit mined by open pit methods. The ore is pressure acid leached on-site and then transported to the refinery in Canada. Finished nickel and cobalt are produced as well as a byproduct ammonium sulphate fertilizer.

The most recent 43-101 resource estimate at Moa was completed in 2019. At that time, the project had 111.9 million measured tonnes grading 1.03% nickel and 0.13% cobalt. The indicated portion was 46 million tonnes at 0.94% nickel and 0.12% cobalt. The inferred resource was 32.6 million tonnes grading 0.89% nickel and 0.13% cobalt.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)

ONTARIO

Noront receives official Wyloo offer, trumping BHP bid

The success of either bid will put high-profile Ring of Fire nickel asset in Australian hands.

Canadian Mining Journal Staff | September 7, 2021 

Noront Resources’ Esker camp in Ontario’s Ring of Fire. Credit: Noront Resources

Noront Resources (TSXV: NOT) has finally received a formal offer from Wyloo Resources – more than three months after Wyloo first floated a proposal to acquire the Ring of Fire junior in late May.


The C$0.70 per share offer trumps BHP’s (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) friendly C$0.55 per share bid for Noront, made in late July.

It’s also more than double what Wyloo first proposed in May — C$0.315 per share.

The success of either bid will put high-profile Ring of Fire nickel asset in Australian hands.

Wyloo, a private company controlled by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, submitted the offer to Noront’s board on Friday, Sept. 3, after Noront invited it on Aug. 31 to make its proposal official. Wyloo says it wants to develop a “Future Metals” hub in Ontario, building on Noront’s Eagle’s Nest project, a high-grade nickel-copper-PGE deposit in the remote Ring of Fire region.

But even though it has now formally submitted its offer, the Perth-based company has continued to lob criticisms at Noront’s board. In its most recent statement, it implied that Noront’s directors and officers have continued to support BHP’s bid because under a lockup agreement signed with the giant Australia-based miner, they gain earlier access to certain options or share awards – a benefit with a gross monetary value of C$10 billion ($7.9bn) at BHP’s offer price. In addition, Wyloo doesn’t like the terms of a confidentiality agreement it has now entered into in order to conduct due diligence.

According to Noront’s July 27 support agreement with BHP, the junior can only provide confidential information to another party only if it signs a confidentiality agreement and agrees to a standstill provision. In the interest of Noront shareholders, the company says that BHP has agreed to waive the standstill requirement.

However, Wyloo says the confidentiality agreement still restricts its ability to communicate directly with shareholders.

For its part, Noront says the agreement and the terms of its support agreement with BHP are standard.

“Wyloo’s assertions that, among other things, the exercise of options and share awards by Noront officers and directors is unusual is simply incorrect,” the company said. “The acceleration provisions provided in the support agreement for the options and share awards are also customary for a transaction of this nature and are fully disclosed in the support agreement and other public filings relating to the proposed transaction with BHP.”

The lock-up agreements between BHP and Noront’s officers and directors will automatically terminate if Noront ends its support for the BHP bid in response to a higher offer.

Noront also confirmed it has no undisclosed agreements, understandings or incentives for its directors or officers in connection with the BHP offer.

Notably, while Wyloo is Noront’s biggest shareholder, the junior’s board did not support its proposal and adopted a poison pill provision to block it.

In its release on Aug. 30, Wyloo said it only made the initial offer because of Noront’s intention to strike a deal with BHP that it says undervalued the Ring of Fire assets.

“In April this year, we were deeply concerned when the Noront board proposed to farm out Noront’s exploration projects to BHP for only C$25 million,” said Luca Giacovazzi, head of Wyloo Metals. “Rather than consenting to such a transaction, we decided to make an offer to acquire the company. Our fears were justified when the Noront board completed a deeply discounted 5% placement to BHP, giving away a strategic toehold in the company to an obvious suitor.”

Giacovazzi added: “Since our initial proposal, we have listened to the feedback from shareholders who, like us, believe in the future of the Ring of Fire. We believe Noront shareholders deserve the chance to decide whether to join us in rebuilding the company, and not be pressured into selling all of their shares unless they want to.”

Noront has said that it sought a bid from BHP in its search for a superior offer to Wyloo’s initial proposal in May.

Wyloo, which now owns a 24.4% stake in Noront, asserts that given its holding and the superiority of its new offer to BHP’s bid, its proposal has a better chance of success. (The company can increase its interest to 37.2% by converting a $15 million convertible loan into common shares before the Sept. 30, 2021 maturity date.) However, the BHP bid only requires 50% of the shares not already owned by BHP to be tendered.
Details of the proposal

Wyloo says it will give shareholders the choice between retaining some or all of their shares in a revamped Noront, with a board of directors headed by Andrew Forrest, or taking the cash offer.

Other board members would include former Sherritt International CEO Ian Delaney; chairman and CEO of Queen’s Road Capital Investment Warren Gilman; and current Noront director Giacovazzi.

In a direct appeal to shareholders, Forrest pledged that Noront would make more progress under his leadership.

“After years of little progress, it’s understandable that shareholders have lost hope in Noront,” Forrest said in a statement. “I’ve personally been in the same position before. Seventeen years ago, people told me Fortescue’s deposits would never be mined because there was no infrastructure to access our projects. We proved those critics totally wrong and we want to do the same in the Ring of Fire. If shareholders share my view, that it’s impossible to place a value today on a new mining district with the immense potential of these assets, I invite them to hold on to their shares and come along for the ride.”

The company adds that it is also committed to creating business opportunities for First Nations communities, pointing to the success of its Billion Opportunities program created in 2011.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)

CANADA & SHERRITT SHOULD DO THE SAME



3 Mexican ships taking fuel, medical aid and food to Cuba


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Mexican ships carrying food, fuel and medical supplies were sailing to Cuba on Tuesday and a third was getting ready to head there Wednesday, in what experts said was Mexico's biggest aid run for Cuba in almost three decades.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The first ship left late Monday loaded with 100,000 barrels of diesel fuel that the Mexican government said would be used to provide power for Cuban hospitals.


A second ship operated by the Mexican navy left Tuesday, and the third ship will leave Wednesday. The Foreign Relations Department said those two ships are carrying oxygen tanks, needles and syringes as well as basic food items like powdered milk, cooking oil and beans.

The department described the shipments as “humanitarian assistance” to help Cuba weather the coronavirus pandemic.

Rafael Elias Rojas, a Cuban historian and professor at the College of Mexico, said that “this is a new phenomenon,” comparable only to Cuba's “special period” in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off the island's economic subsidies.

“There have been minor instances of aid during hurricane seasons, but the last big aid efforts of this scale or larger, were during the administration of (former Mexican president) Carlos Salinas de Gortari, when exchanges with Cuba increased significantly and when, as now, there was a deep economic crisis on the island," Rojas said.

Carlos Salinas de Gortari governed from 1988 to 1994. And until Mexico's democratic transition in 2000, Mexico's old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party had a longstanding policy of opposing U.S. interference in Cuba, in part because Mexico feared outside criticism of its own less-than-democratic regime.

Lorena Ruano, a professor at Mexico's Center for Economic Research and Teaching, said Mexico's policy was “to defend the sovereignty of other countries, so that 'others won't criticize me.'”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a fervent believer in that old policy, and last week he called Cuba an “example of resistance” and proposed that the entire country be declared a World Heritage site.

While much of Cuba seems stuck technologically in the middle of the last century, López Obrador did not appear to be speaking ironically when he proposed the world heritage designation, which is usually used by the United Nations to honor historical sites.

López Obrador praised Cuba’s ability to stand up to U.S. hostility since 1959, but did not mention recent street protests that were violently repressed by the Cuban government.

López Obrador has in the past stated his opposition to U.S. sanctions that limit commerce with the island, and said they should be ended.

On Thursday, the U.S. government tightened the sanctions on some Cuban officials over the suppression of the rare street protests earlier this month. The new sanctions target a Cuban official and a government special brigade that the United States says was involved in human rights abuses during the government crackdown.

Maria Verza, The Associated Press

Battery metals shortage threatens EV boom: 

Sherritt CEO

Jeff Lagerquist
Updated Mon., February 1, 202
Yahoo Finance Canada

Sherritt International (S.TO) is finally in the right place at the right time, according to the company’s departing CEO. The Canadian miner is counting on strong demand for electric vehicles to boost nickel prices as a global supply crunch looms for the key battery ingredient.

With automakers pouring billions into EV development, governments championing lofty climate goals, and more drivers looking to go electric, Sherritt is pinning its future on its open-pit Moa mine in Cuba. The joint-venture, half-owned by the Cuban government, sends mixed sulphides to Sherritt’s facility in Alberta to be refined into finished nickel and cobalt products.

“Things are all coming into alignment for us all at once after five, six, seven years of slogging in the wilderness of low nickel prices and dealing with debt,” David Pathe told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview.

Board chair Richard Lapthorne called Pathe’s nine-years stint in the top job “as difficult to manage as any the company has faced in its over 90-year history” when Sherritt announced it was looking for new leadership last November.

He wasn’t kidding. Sherritt bought a mine in Madagascar in 2007 for $1.6 billion, just as nickel prices hit all-time highs. When Pathe took over as CEO in 2012, nickel consistently sold for about a third of peak prices, saddling the company with a money-losing project on top of hefty debts.

Pathe also led Sherritt as U.S. President Barack Obama took historic steps to normalize American-Cuban relations beginning in 2015. When Donald Trump took office in 2017, the U.S. reimposed restrictions, leaving the island nation without enough foreign currency to pay Sherritt’s utility arm. Trump recently put Cuba back on America’s list of state sponsors of terror, blocking newly-elected President Joe Biden from quickly reverting to Obama-era policies.

With Biden in the White House, a major balance sheet overhaul completed in August, and the costly Madagascar mine off the books, Sherritt is hunting for a successor to run the company as a tech-driven, low-cost nickel producer for the growing EV market.

EV batteries are expected to command as much as 37 per cent of global nickel production by 2040, according to the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Lithium ‘supply crunch’ looms

While Sherritt’s total nickel output is a fraction of mining giants like Vale (VALE), Russia's Norilsk Nickel and BHP’s (BHP) operations in Western Australia, Pathe said the focus among its larger peers has been producing cheaper grades of the metal for making stainless steel.

EV batteries are expected to command as much as 37 per cent of global nickel production by 2040, according to the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, up from just seven per cent in 2020. However, Sherritt estimates more than 70 per cent of the total nickel supply in 2025 will be lower quality, and therefore useless to the EV battery market.

“For some metals, the energy transition could be like the Chinese economic boom on steroids,” Wood Mackenzie analysts said in a report released in September, predicting nickel demand will increase by two-thirds by 2040.

Pathe points to years of weak prices to explain why no new significant class one nickel capacity has been added since the financial crisis. His shortage prediction follows a public plea from the highest-profile executive in the automotive world.

In July, Tesla (TSLA) boss Elon Musk said he would offer miners “a giant contract for a long period of time” if they can produce nickel in an environmentally sensitive way.

“We think there is a coming supply crunch, particularly on the class one nickel side,” Pathe said. “We’re now well positioned to take advantage of that. If battery demand comes anywhere close to meeting some of the projections for the next five, 10, 15 years, there simply isn’t enough class one nickel production to meet demand.”
Automakers wary of upstream investment

The long-awaited shift to electric vehicles is gaining traction as governments in Canada and the United States build EV adoption into their respective plans for net zero emissions by 2050.

In Canada, General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) each announced billion dollar investments to produce electric vehicles in Ontario in the last six months. Last week, GM said it plans to make all of its global operations and vehicles carbon neutral by 2040, and sell only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.

The cash price for nickel on the London Metal Exchange pushed above US$18,300 per tonne in January, its highest level since February 2019, before retreating below US$18,000 to end the month. According to Wood Mackenzie, that’s too low to incentivize miners to produce enough battery metals for “a large number of EVs in a short space of time.”

Pathe expects automakers will forge closer ties with miners, either through long-term off-take contracts or financial stakes in companies, in order to lock in high-quality supply at a consistent price.

Wood Mackenzie notes Tesla, GM, Volkawagen (VOW.DE), Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC) already have partnerships with battery producers. However, they said the auto industry is wary of investing too far “upstream” in mining assets.

“We have noted OEMs like Tesla and BMW signing off-take deals for metals directly with mining companies. However, with the exception of a few small examples, OEMs are yet to take the plunge in terms of investing in mining,” Wood Mackenzie analysts wrote in a report. “The relative scarcity of battery raw materials, and the potential scramble for them, may warrant a change in attitude.”

Don DeMarco, an analyst at National Bank who covers Sherritt, said it’s “certainly possible” that miners and automakers will team up to maintain a steady supply of battery metals and hedge against volatile commodity prices. Pathe said Sherritt does not name its customers publicly for competitive reasons.

“What I will say is we’ve seen an uptick in investor interest, and the number of meeting requests,” he said. “I think you’ll see the automakers generally doing interesting things in the next two to three years.”

Sherritt’s Toronto-listed stock has climbed more than 150 per cent in the past six months, against a backdrop of improving nickel prices. However, shares remains more than 95 per cent below their all-time peak in 2007, around the time of the company’s ill-fated foray in Madagascar.

Editor's Edition: Biden is surrounded by 'climate hawks'

Joe Biden has not wasted any time in advancing his clean energy agenda. The 46th American president nixed the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoined the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office. He also appointed a number climate hawks to key positions in his administration, signalling that green thinking will guide key departments such as treasury and transportation for the next four years. Tom Rand, managing partner at ArcTern Ventures, tells Yahoo Finance Canada that's it's hard to overstate how bullish a Biden White House is for clean tech investment. That sentiment has fuelled a stock market rally for companies in the electric vehicle and renewable energy sectors since the election, as well as warnings about a second clean technology bubble. In Canada, Rand expects lawmakers to be more willing to embrace climate-focused policies and support the clean tech sector with financial incentives as their counterparts south of the border increasingly link climate and the economy. He said investors would be wise to follow developments at the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for hints about how America plans to modernize its electricity grid, and which companies stand to benefit. Those developments, he said, often carry over to Canada.

Environmental advocates concerned by Alberta's new rules for coal mining

Alberta gov't quietly 'modernizes' coal policy

SILENCE IN DARKNESS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 
IS THE MEANING OF QUIETLY

MODERNIZATION BEING OPEN FACE OPEN PIT STRIP MINING
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS NEXT TO JASPER NATIONAL PARK
WHAT LUSCAR*** TRIED TO PUSH THROUGH TWO DECADES AGO!!!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/environmental-advocates-concerned-by-alberta-s-new-rules-for-coal-mining-1.4952655
NOW PLAYING

Environmentalists are angry that the Alberta government has changed a policy about open-pit coal mines without public consultation.

Published Sunday, May 24, 2020 

CTV.COM

TORONTO -- Upcoming changes to Alberta's coal regulations are expected to create hundreds of jobs in the province, but environmental advocates worry that the work will come at the expense of the ecosystem alongside the Rocky Mountains.

Alberta's energy ministry announced May 15 that the province's 44-year-old coal policy will be replaced June 1 by a new set of rules that bring coal producers in line with those looking to develop other commodities.

"Rescinding the outdated coal policy … will help attract new investment for an important industry and protect jobs for Albertans," Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a press release announcing the changes.

Related Stories
Lawsuits likely if Biden cancels Keystone XL, Canadian observers warn

One of those changes opens up land that runs alongside the Rockies to developers of open-pit coal mines, though most of the mountains themselves remain protected.

Robin Campbell, the president of the Coal Association of Canada, told CTV News that he is aware of at least six companies looking at establishing coal mines in the Foothills region and sending the coal to Asia where it would be used in steel production.

According to Campbell, each mine would likely employ between 300 and 350 people.

"With the COVID-19 impact on the economy, this is an opportunity for our industry to help bring back economic activity into Alberta," he said.

Environmental advocates, however, are concerned about the impact that economic activity would have on the grizzly bears, caribou and other wild animals in the Foothills.

"Coal mines are known to be very destructive to these species," Shaun Fluker, an environmental law professor at the University of Calgary, told CTV News.

Fluker described the area opened up for coal-mine development as "a significant swath of public lands." It also contains rivers and other waterways.

"There's definitely going to be an impact on the sensitive wildlife populations that reside in the area," Nissa Petterson, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, told CTV News.

In addition to the impacts on the ecosystem, Petterson said she is concerned that the changes were made without public consultation.


***Search Results

The Plans to Strip-Mine Coal in the Mountains - Alberta Views ...
https://albertaviews.ca › plans-strip-mine-coal-mountains
Jul 1, 2019 - In most places where metallurgical coal is mined, giant machines scrape off ... of Hinton when the nearby Luscar and Gregg River mines closed down. ... even bring clients to the mines instead of nearby Jasper National Park.

Fighting Frankenmine - Alberta Views - The Magazine for ...
https://albertaviews.ca › fighting-frankenmine
Jul 1, 2005 - Mountain Park coal would have been more expensive to mine because the ... At the same time, CRC announced the “Luscar Coal Income Fund,” a ... by the province and essential to grizzly bears from Jasper National Park.

Luscar | Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
https://www.business-humanrights.org › luscar
Groups Demand New Environmental Assessment of Massive Open-Pit Coal Mine on Doorstep of Jasper National Park. Author: Sierra Legal Defence Fund.

[PDF]
Luscar & Gregg River Mines Land Management Plan ...
https://open.alberta.ca › dataset › resource › download › 2013-luscargreggri...
Mar 4, 2013 - Provincial Park lies south of the Luscar and Gregg River Mine sites, ... Jasper National Park representatives; other coal mining companies; and.

[PDF]

Luscar and Gregg River Mines Land Management Plan
https://www.nrcan.gc.ca › files › mineralsmetals › files › pdf › rmd-rrm
Whitehorse Wildland Provincial Park lies south of ... and Jasper National Park (JNP) lies to the west of ... Modern open-pit coal mining in the Luscar and Gregg.

Just outside Jasper National Park, a coal mine threatens an ...
https://thenarwhal.ca › just-outside-jasper-national-park-a-coal-mine-threat...
Mar 1, 2019 - In the Rocky Mountains east of Jasper, a small Indigenous community has been praying that a coal-mine expansion won't impact its ability to ...
Missing: LUSCAR ‎| Must include: LUSCAR

Cardinal Divide - Alberta Wilderness Association
https://albertawilderness.ca › issues › wildlands › areas-of-concern › cardin...
The Cardinal Divide area is adjacent to the eastern side of Jasper National Park. ... Coal mining, coupled with unmanaged motorized recreation, has deterioration ... The Cheviot mine was meant to replace the older Luscar Mine and maintain ...

Fueling the fire over Cheviot | Ammsa.com
https://ammsa.com › publications › windspeaker › fueling-fire-over-cheviot
... the proposed Cheviot Mine project, located near the Jasper National Park. ... old Luscar mine, which will deplete its coal reserves within the next three years.

Experience Our Coal History by experiencetravelguides - issuu
https://issuu.com › experiencetravelguides › docs › experience_our_coal_h...
Mar 18, 2019 - Luscar. TECK COALCARDINAL RIVER MINE. Watson Creek. Leyland Cadomin ... Entrance. Brûlé. Jasper Jasper National National Park Park.

Sherritt fined $1-million for polluting incidents that impacted ...
https://www.theglobeandmail.com › news › national › article36476916
Oct 3, 2017 - Toronto-based Sherritt International Corp. operations are seen in this file ... Coal Valley Mine about 120 kilometres east of Jasper National Park ...

Caldwells Bad Investment Advice

Theo Caldwell, yes the Caldwell Investment Banker,

- Theo Caldwell, president of Caldwell Asset Management, Inc., is an investment advisor in the United States and Canada.

in the National Pest whines about Canada's support for Cuba through both business investment and tourism. He makes spurious claims, unsubstantiated by a single fact, in his opinion piece.

He claims;

"It grates against our national character that Canada continues to do business with Cuba, thereby helping to prop up Fidel Castro's tyrannical regime."

Oh really. Which national character is that? Perhaps it grates the right wing supporters of the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party, but they are far from the majority of Canadians. In fact one of the ironies is that Alberta, home of the Republican Lite Right Wing in Canada is also the source of the greatest trading partners with Cuba; Sherritt Mining.

As well Albertans travel to Cuba, as Caldwell further whines about claiming that Cubans will go to jail and be tortured if they visit Canada's Delta Hotel Resorts.

The tragic irony of sipping a Cuba Libre beside the pool in a hotel that native Cubans are forbidden from entering under pain of imprisonment, and within walking distance of one of Castro's torture chambers,

And Alberta farmers have long traded cattle and bull semen with current Cuban Leader Raul Castro, who has spent years cross breeding Latin American cattle with Alberta Angus.

He concludes;

"But whether or not the despot has gone on to his reward, passing power to his equally brutal brother Raul, tyranny is tyranny and Canada ought to have nothing to do with it."

Not good investment advice. One would expect better from a capitalist like Caldwell. But with his cold war mentality he is out in the cold on his anti-Cuba strategy.

Cuba Fund Has Biggest-Ever Surge After Castro Resigns (Update3)
Bloomberg
Castro's decision is ``a clear step towards the possibility of the US resuming trade with Cuba,'' Miami-based investor Thomas J. Herzfeld said during a ...
How to profit from Castro's resignation CNNMoney.com
Investing in a Post-Castro Cuba U.S. News & World Report
Equity revolution! Globe and Mail
Stocks with Cuban exposure rise on Castro resignation CBC News
Cuba: The Investment Play Conde Nast Portfolio

The real question here is does Caldwell live by the principles he espouses? Well not really. Sure his Caldwell Canada Mutual Fund (Caldwell Investment Mgmt Ltd.) isn't invested in Sherritt.

But they are invested in Talisman Energy, the big oil company that invested in Sudan known for promoting slavery, torture, etc. making Cuba look like a workers paradise. That offended the national character of Canadians who forced Talisman to divest of its investment in Sudan.

No thanks to Theo Caldwell or his investment fund.

Caldwell focuses on companies with at least $500 million in market capitalization, and his current Caldwell Canada holdings are predominantly mid-cap stocks. He will re-assess the portfolio at least once every quarter and expects the portfolio turnover to be 100% or higher.

He wants to be fully invested at all times and is comfortable having a stock holding of 5% to 10% of the portfolio. In terms of his sell discipline, "once stocks stop going up, we sell," he says.

Caldwell will make significant sector bets. Compared to the S&P/TSX Composite Index benchmark, as of Feb. 15, Caldwell Canada is close to 100% overweight in both the energy and the basic materials sectors, and "considerably" overweight in communications and media.

By comparison, the fund is underweight by more than 80% in financial services. "As an owner of the fund, you will be overweight in the sectors that have been doing the best," he says.

But Caldwell will limit his sector exposure. Overall, his portfolio won't hold more than double the index weight in any sector or 10%, whichever is greater.

He'll also avoid some well known "sin stocks." Along with the strategy of owning "high flyers," the focus is on companies that at their core are "deep down helping people," says Caldwell. "So we don't own alcohol, tobacco or gambling companies. I don't need to own them to make this work."

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The Ugly Canadian

While Harper trumpeted Canada's generosity towards Tanzania, money promised by the previous Liberal Government and still not up to the actual commitment of 20% of the GDP, the real face of Canada was shown by the Mining companies that Harper had in tow with him. The same gang he had in tow with him when he visited Latin America earlier this year. For Harper 'aid' means investment opportunities.

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — The goal was to leave the image of a benevolent Canada investing in the health of poor Africans, but in the end it was another Canada, that of its globe-hopping mining companies, that stole the day.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent eight hours yesterday in this commercial centre on the Indian Ocean, visiting a school, lunching with Tanzania's President and announcing a $105-million contribution to a new health-care initiative in Africa and Asia.

Yet it was a 45-minute meeting with officials from a dozen Canadian investors, led by mining giant Barrick Gold Corp., that dominated Mr. Harper's news conference with President Jakaya Kikwete.

Thanks in large part to Barrick's three gold mines, Canada has emerged as Tanzania's largest foreign investor, prompting a resource boom that helped Tanzania record a 6.2-per-cent growth rate last year.

Yet the mining success has prompted allegations that royalties are too low and that Tanzania's people, still among the world's poorest, are not sharing adequately in the bonanza.

Adding to this is a nasty labour dispute at Barrick's Bulyanhulu gold mine, where 1,000 of the 1,900 workers have been on what the company calls an illegal strike for the past month.

A court hearing scheduled for yesterday, at which the union hoped to obtain an injunction to stop Barrick from hiring replacement workers, was postponed to today for reasons that were unclear.

Mr. Harper would not comment on the strike other than to say that he expects Canadian companies to "act responsibly within the laws of the land" when they are abroad. He praised Tanzania for creating a stable political and business environment that encourages Canadian companies to invest.

Mr. Kikwete was also diplomatic when the subject turned to Canada's investment in the mining industry and in particular the work of a committee created to advise the Tanzanian government on whether to change the royalty regime.

"We are not blaming the mining companies," the President said, noting that the companies are living within Tanzanian law.

He added that the goal of the review is to achieve a "win-win situation" for the companies and the government.

"We'd like to see more and more Canadian investment," Mr. Kikwete said.

It was the second time in recent months that Mr. Harper had met Barrick officials during an international trip. In July, he stopped off at Barrick's offices in Santiago, Chile, where the company is developing the massive Pascua Lama mining project in the Andes, despite protests from environmentalists.

Joan Kuyek, the national co-ordinator of MiningWatch, a group that critiques what it sees as irresponsible mining practices around the world, says Barrick's Tanzanian operation displaced thousands of small-scale miners and gives little back to Tanzania.

"If Mr. Harper met only with people chosen to have him meet with and didn't meet with the small-scale miners, didn't meet with the people who have to deal with the social and economic and environmental price that these mines are racking up in Tanzania, and didn't meet with their representatives, well I think that's pretty shocking," Ms. Kuyek said.

See:

Cold Gold

Afghanistan or Africa

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