THANKS ALBERTA

Canada will exceed its methane reduction targets, Trudeau says

Social Sharing

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

UN official notes Canada was 'one of the largest expanders 

of fossil fuel last year'

David Thurton · CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2023

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to a speaker as he participates in the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 20, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that Canada's methane reduction efforts are ahead of schedule and it's in a position to exceed its targets for reducing one of the most potent planet-warming gases.

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trudeau confirmed Canada is on track to meet and even exceed its methane emissions targets.

"Canada has committed to reduce by 2030 methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by at least 75 per cent below 2012 levels," Trudeau told world leaders. "Today, I can announce that the draft regulations we will share soon will be designed to help us exceed this ambitious target."

• After leading the world on cutting methane, Canada faces stringent new standards in U.S. and Europe

• CBC INVESTIGATES
  Canada is sitting on 12 'carbon bombs.' Here's where they are

• Why producing a barrel of oil causes higher emissions in Saskatchewan compared to Alberta

Trudeau did not elaborate further on how far Canada might surpass its targets. Further details are expected when the federal government releases its upstream oil and gas methane regulations this fall. 

A news release from Environment and Climate Change Canada says that when the regulations are enacted, "they will achieve significant methane emissions reductions" through performance standards and increased stringency for sites at "highest risk of unintentional releases (fugitive emissions.)"

An oil producer burns methane gases by flaring. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

In 2021, Environment and Climate Change Canada confirmed that under current federal and provincial methane regulations, the country was on track to meet its interim 2025 target of a 40 to 45 per cent reduction by 2025.

On Wednesday, Trudeau also promised to deliver "a framework to cap emissions" from the oil and gas sector by the end of this year.

UN ranks Canada among the 'first movers and doers'

The 2016 Paris Agreement commits countries to working toward limiting warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The planet is inching closer to surpassing that target; the United Nations says the world already has warmed by at least 1.1 C.

According to the UN, global climate pledges have placed the world on track for a temperature rise of between 2.4 C and 2.6 C by 2100.

Canada was among more than 30 select countries that were allowed to speak at the Climate Ambition Summit. The summit featured the work of "first movers and doers," according to the UN. The United States and the United Kingdom were not invited to speak.

"I think if we were to ask the question if Canada would have been here ten years ago under a Stephen Harper government, the answer is, obviously, no," said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault at a news conference outside the event.

• Industry group says emissions from Canadian oil and gas extraction down 24%, but that doesn't include oilsands

• Guilbeault not giving up on getting a global commitment to phase out unabated fossil fuels

• Cheaper for industry to meet methane reduction targets than to pay carbon tax on emissions: study

But as Trudeau was being introduced, some voices suggested some of Canada's actions ran counter to the values of the climate ambition summit.

"Canada was one of the largest expanders of fossil fuel last year," United Nations Under-Secretary-General Melissa Fleming noted as she introduced Trudeau.

The David Suzuki Foundation welcomed the prospect of Canada exceeding its methane targets. Still, the foundation's senior climate policy adviser Tom Green said the real work lies in better methane emissions accounting. 

"We have a bigger problem in Canada, which is that we're very poor at actually measuring and knowing how much methane we have today and how much we had in the past," Green said. "So we've got to improve on what's called measurement, reporting and verification."

Green noted both the natural resources and innovation ministers have a shared mandate to establish a global centre for excellence on methane detection and elimination. He called on the government to fulfil that promise.

RUSSIAN DIAMONDS
Alrosa suspends diamond supply for Sept-Oct – India’s trade body

Reuters | September 20, 2023 | 

The main markets for Alrosa, which employs about 32,000 people, are the US and Asia (Photo: Dmitry Amelkin, Transformation Director of Alrosa’s Polishing Division. Courtesy of Alrosa | Twitter. )

Russian diamond producer Alrosa has suspended rough diamond supply for September and October after a request from India’s leading trade body, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said on Wednesday.


The move aims to avert a supply glut in the global market and aid diamond prices amid weak demand, GJEPC chair Vipul Shah told Reuters. The trade body had reached out to several global mining companies earlier this month to raise concerns on issues impacting diamond trade, he added.

Shah also said the GJEPC had communicated with top diamond producer De Beers, a unit of Anglo American, which had pledged to “provide complete flexibility to all their clients.”

De Beers said separately it “will continue to take a responsible approach to rough diamond sales, supplying to demand, and will focus on additional supply flexibility.”

Flexibility includes purchase deferrals and buybacks.

Sanctions-hit Alrosa said the suspension would “strengthen the stability of the supply chain of rough and polished diamonds already by the beginning of next year.”

The news comes as the Group of Seven (G7) countries is expected to announce an import ban on Russian diamonds in the next two or three weeks to tighten a squeeze on Russia’s capacity to finance the war in Ukraine.

The plan could transform the global diamond supply chain, but implementation will depend heavily on India, whose diamond industry employs millions of people who cut and polish 90% of the world’s diamonds.

India’s gems and jewellery exports fell nearly 4.4% by value between April to August this year to $12.4 billion from last year, according to government data released last week.

Exports fell on relatively muted demand for polished diamonds from major consumers the United States and China, Shah said.

It’s too early to say whether the two-month halt will help prevent overstocking adequately, he added, amid the shutdown of manufacturing centres in India during the Diwali festival in November.

(By Shivangi Acharya, Clara Denina and Polina Devitt; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Mark Potter)

NO SEABED MINING

Norway’s Aker BP may explore for seabed minerals, CEO says

Reuters | September 20, 2023 |

Norway is opening its Arctic waters to commercial mineral exploration. (Photo: Maris Maskalans | Stock image)

Norway’s second-largest listed oil and gas company, Aker BP, said it would consider applying for licences to mine minerals from the seabed if parliament approves a plan for such exploration.


Norway could become the first country to start commercial deep sea mining if parliament gives the go-ahead to explore the remote Mid-Atlantic ridge for minerals such as copper, cobalt and rare earth elements, in a vote expected early next year.

“If parliament opens (oceans for seabed mining), we will consider applying for licenses,” Aker BP CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo on Wednesday.

Aker BP has a group of about 10 people working on seabed minerals.

“We are currently monitoring the situation. We still need to understand whether it can be economic, and how to explore,” Hersvik added.

Norway’s government says deep sea mining could help Europe reduce its dependence on China for the supply of critical minerals needed to build electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.

The move is controversial with conservationists, who warn that mining the ocean floor would threaten the biodiversity of vital ecosystems.

Mineral-rich massive sulphide deposits have been formed by so-called hydrothermal vents along mid-ocean ridges, where unique species are also found living near active vents.

“If there’s a ‘go’ for seabed minerals, we will definitely not target the active hydrothermal wells, because of potential environmental impact,” Hersvik said.

So far, several Norwegian seabed mineral startups, such as Green Minerals and Loke Marine Minerals, have said they would seek permits to explore Norwegian waters.

Loke, established in 2019, has attracted Anglo-French engineering firm TechnipFMC and shipping company Wilhelmsen, as investors.

But Aker BP would be by far the biggest player, if it goes ahead. It is also a part of the larger Aker Group, which includes oil service company Aker Solutions.

“We are looking at seabed minerals as part of the whole group,” Aker Solutions CEO Kjetel Digre told Reuters.

(By Nerijus Adomaitis, Editing by Terje Solsvik and Sharon Singleton)

Looming strike by miners raises worry about India coal supplies

Bloomberg News | September 20, 2023

Indian coal miners. (Image from archives)

The world’s biggest coal producer, state-owned Coal India Ltd., is facing a potential three-day strike across its core and subsidiary units, according to a stock exchange filing, prompting fears of supply disruptions across the country.


The mining giant said it wrote to India’s Chief Labour Commissioner asking to take necessary action to maintain uninterrupted coal supply, stressing that the industry is a “Public Utility Service”. Coal India’s average daily production is nearly 2 million tons, which includes both coking and non coking coal. The fuel provides around 70% of India’s electricity needs.

A Coal India spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to a phone call seeking comment.

A.K. Jha, general secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, said that the workers affiliated with five national trade unions have been forced to threaten a strike due to a wage dispute. He said that the workers will neither produce coal nor allow its dispatch for three days. Negotiations with management for a possible solution haven’t yet started, he added.

The strike would come as India enters the month-long Hindu festive season, during which power usage increases as factories crank up production to meet a spending surge. The season follows a particularly hot and dry summer which caused demand spikes across the country. Erratic weather also affected hydropower production, another key energy source India relies on to maintain grid stability.

As a result, state-run power producers have extended coal import mandates to replenish stockpiles.

Vikram Reddy, vice president of the rating agency ICRA, said it’s difficult to quantify the impact of a potential strike on coal production, but after the September rains lowered power demand the country’s plants should have sufficient stocks to weather the disruption, and power supply should remain unaffected.

Reddy added that given a number of state generators are currently running on low reserves, Coal India should cooperate with the government and smaller players to ensure that all plants are well stocked ahead of the strike.

A Ministry of Coal spokesperson didn’t’ immediately reply to comment requests by phone and email.

(By Rakesh Sharma)

Russia becomes UAE’s top gold source after being shut out of west

Bloomberg News | September 20, 2023 | 

Dubai gold souk. Stock image.

Russia became the United Arab Emirates’ top source of gold last year after Western countries imposed sanctions on supplies following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.


The UAE last year imported 96.4 tons of gold from Russia, more than any other country, according to the United Nations’ Comtrade database. That’s roughly a third of Russia’s annual mine production, and a more than 15-fold increase year-on-year in the UAE’s gold imports from the country.




The UAE has long been a key hub for precious metals, particularly from Africa and India, but last year was the first time it played a major role in trading Russian gold. Before the war, almost all of Russia’s bullion was shipped to London, the world’s top market, but it rapidly became taboo among the banks that used to handle it.

Western sanctions have severed Russia’s usual export routes, forcing the country’s miners to find new ways to sell their metal. Little-known traders in Dubai, Istanbul and Hong Kong have taken over the trade, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.

Other key suppliers of gold to the UAE last year were Mali and Ghana, which shipped 95.7 tons and 81 tons respectively. Switzerland was the top destination for the Arab nation’s gold exports, taking 145 tons.

(By Eddie Spence)

Congo sees expanded UAE mining investment, seeks Inga partners

Bloomberg News | September 20, 2023 | 

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Democratic Republic of Congo is still looking for partners for the world’s biggest hydropower project and expects expanded mining investments from the United Arab Emirates as the central African nation prepares for December elections.


While talks have stalled over development of the 44-gigawatt Grand Inga project with Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest and his company, Fortescue Future Industries Ltd., President Felix Tshisekedi told reporters in New York there is interest in the project from other potential partners.

“It’s not impossible that tomorrow we could see a kind of consortium developing around the World Bank, Chinese investors, maybe Europeans,” along with Fortescue, he said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Tshisekedi expects to meet this week with Fortescue, which wants to develop a green hydrogen project in Congo. The company declined to comment on Wednesday.

The Congolese leader is looking to position the resource-rich country as a destination for investors seeking climate-change solutions. Besides hydropower, he’s pitching carbon credits to protect the world’s second-largest tropical forest and investment in critical green-energy minerals including copper and cobalt. Congo is the world’s biggest producer of cobalt.

Abu Dhabi-based Primera Group Ltd. will soon increase investments to include those two metals after starting a gold venture with the government in January, Tshisekedi said. The group is also planning a smelter to produce tantalum, tin and tungsten in partnership with a state mining company.

The plans signal an openness to new investors beyond the Chinese and European companies that control most of Congo’s mining and telecoms industries. The UAE could soon offer development programs in education and already provided equipment and training to the nation’s soldiers that helped repel a recent offensive by the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo, he said.

Conflict has plagued resource-rich eastern Congo for decades, and animosity between its government and neighbor Rwanda has raised fears of wider fighting. Congo accuses Rwanda of backing M23, a claim Kigali denies.

Congo’s government is also renegotiating a $6.2 billion minerals-for-infrastructure contract with China that Tshisekedi said would result in “a new adventure” between the two countries. China’s domination of Congo’s copper and cobalt mines has become a concern for Western governments worried about access to key minerals for batteries.

Another concern among Western diplomats ahead of elections has been a recent opposition leader’s murder and arrests of political opponents and a prominent journalist.

Stanis Bujakera, a Jeune Afrique correspondent, was detained this month and accused of allegedly spreading false information about the death of former minister Cherubin Okende Senga in a report by the agency. Bujakera is also deputy publication director of Congo’s Actualite.cd and a Reuters contributor.

“Stanis Bujakera is a young man whom I like very much,” Tshisekedi told reporters. “I regret what happened to him but I cannot obstruct justice and not allow it to shed light” on the killing, he said.

(By Michael J. Kavanagh)

Barrick says big miners show interest in Pakistan copper project

Bloomberg News | September 20, 2023 |

Barrick Gold has targeted 2028 as the year of first production for Pakistan’s Reko Diq copper-gold mine. Barrick Gold photo

Barrick Gold Corp.’s top executive says it’s not just Saudi Arabia interested in his company’s massive copper project in Pakistan — some major mining companies are, too.


The Canadian miner’s $7 billion Reko Diq project in Balochistan — a region bordering Afghanistan and Iran — boasts one of the world’s largest copper deposits and could become a major source of the wiring metal. Barrick is the only mining company that hasn’t shied away from the project’s risky geography, after Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc sold its stake in the project last year.

Now, Barrick chief executive officer Mark Bristow said he’s seeing newfound “interest” from multinational mining firms that have been hesitant to venture into tricky regions of the world.

“They have an interest,” Bristow said in a Tuesday interview at the Denver Gold Forum. “Of course, they’re a lot more conservative than I am, but as we open up these areas, whatever way you look at copper, there’s not enough of it.”

Bristow declined to elaborate on what he meant by interest.

Large metals producers are scouring the world for copper assets as demand for battery metals accelerates to underpin the global transition to cleaner energy. BHP Group, Rio Tinto Group and Glencore Plc are actively looking to increase their copper exposure while gold majors like Barrick and Newmont Corp. have made moves to boost output of the industrial metal.

Reko Diq has attracted interest from Saudi Arabia, whose presence could serve to stabilize the project in a contentious part of the world. Bloomberg previously reported that the Saudis held talks about investing in the development.

“We would not have have a problem if Saudi Arabia and Pakistan came to an agreement” on a stake, Bristow said. “The Saudis are very interested in participating.”

(By Jacob Lorinc)

Cleveland-Cliffs clashes with US Steel as sale process gets underway

Reuters | September 20, 2023 |

Credit: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

US Steel Corp is locked in a spat with rival steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs Inc over a confidentiality pact that would allow the latter to participate in a sale process that is underway, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.


US Steel has not opened its books to Cliffs since announcing on Aug. 13 it will explore a sale, even as it accepts initial bids this week from other potential acquirers, because Cliffs will not agree to its conditions, the sources said.

Cliffs has refused to sign a six-month standstill agreement that would prevent it from challenging US Steel’s board of directors, because it wants to keep its options open as it pursues the company, the sources said.

US Steel has made the standstill a condition to allowing Cliffs to carry out due diligence and participate in its sale process, the sources added. It has also told Cliffs that all bidders are being granted access to its sale process on the same terms, according to the sources.

Cliffs opened its books to US Steel, given that close to half the value of its $7.1 billion offer is in stock, the sources said. Cliffs has also delivered letters to US Steel from Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, UBS, MUFG and Truist Securities attesting to their commitment to fund its bid, the sources added.

The banks did not need to review US Steel’s books to commit to a deal because of the merits of the potential combination, according to one of the sources.

Cliffs also did not need access to US Steel’s books to press ahead with its bid, but has tried to negotiate a confidentiality agreement so it can be part of the sale process, that source added.

US Steel has said it has received interest from “multiple other parties” in a potential deal involving the entire company or some of its assets, but has not named them. Reuters has reported that ArcelorMittal is one of the parties that has been working on a potential bid for US Steel.

It remains unclear whether US Steel will agree to a deal with any party. The sources requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters. Representatives for US Steel and Cliffs declined to comment. ArcelorMittal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cliffs would break into the world’s top 10 steel producers, which are mostly from Asia, should its bid for US Steel succeed. Cliffs’ commitment to keeping US Steel’s blast furnaces running has won it the support of United Steelworkers. The union’s workers at US Steel will only support Cliffs as an acquirer, its international president Thomas Conway has said.

Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves has said in interviews and earnings calls that criticism of blast furnaces’ carbon emissions ignores that electric arc furnaces cannot make the steel many car makers want. US Steel has been gradually transitioning to electric arc furnaces, which are cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly.

US Steel on Monday forecast third-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates and said each of its segments outperformed prior expectations, driven by a decline in raw material costs and higher prices for flat-rolled products. It said its forecast included the projected impact from the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike, which has weighed both on US Steel and Cliffs given that car makers are major customers.

(By Greg Roumeliotis, Anirban Sen and David Carnevali; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Recharging Community Consent: Mining companies, battery minerals, and the battle to break from the past

September 20, 2023 By Oxfam

The mining sector must not repeat the mistakes of the past in the rush to source the minerals needed for the rechargeable batteries needed to transition our global economy to renewable power, warned Oxfam today. Most mining companies do not currently have the necessary policies in place to respect the rights of communities impacted, especially Indigenous communities who are particularly vulnerable to an expanding mining sector.

In a new analysis released today, Recharging Community Consent, Oxfam analyzed the policies of 43 mining companies on several intersecting issues related to human rights due diligence, gender justice, and the protection of human rights defenders in the mining sector concluded that the battery mining sector’s approach to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is not yet ready to support a just energy transition.

“Rechargeable batteries can unlock a much-needed energy transformation, helping electrify trucks, cars, and trains and providing storage renewable energies, but we must learn from the mistakes of the past and ensure the risks and dangers of impacted communities where mining occurs are fully taken into account and done with their consent,” said Scott A. Sellwood, Policy Lead, Human Rights and Extractives, Oxfam. “In our collective pursuit for a more just energy transition, mining companies must break free from a history of violence and abuse that has undermined Indigenous communities.”

Today’s rechargeable batteries require minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and copper, among others. Demand for these battery minerals is surging as governments rush to implement their decarbonization goals amid fears of mineral supply shortages and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Recent studies with large data sets of mining projects have found that between 54 and 80 percent of these minerals are located on or near the lands of Indigenous peoples—putting them at unique risks of a mining sector expanding to meet decarbonization goals.

For Indigenous peoples, FPIC is a human right guaranteed under international law that safeguards the protection and realization of their collective autonomies, resilience, and right to self-determination. FPIC is a collective decision-making process that ensures Indigenous peoples have a say in whether and how mining moves forward.

Oxfam’s assessment of the publicly available Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) policies of 43 companies engaged in the exploration and production of five transition minerals used in rechargeable batteries has found that the mining sector is not sufficiently ready to support a just energy transition:

• While more than half of the companies surveyed have policy commitments to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples, only 13 companies make explicit reference to FPIC, and almost all of those commitments to FPIC are qualified with language such as “seek to achieve” or “aim to achieve,” leaving open the possibility that if consent is not provided, they will simply move ahead with their projects regardless. Only two companies have clear and unequivocal public commitments to respect FPIC.
• Half of the companies surveyed have human rights policies, but more companies need to detail their human rights due diligence process and commit to disclose regularly and proactively on how they are performing.
• Only 2 companies surveyed publicly commit to explicitly integrate gender analysis as part of their impact assessment or consultation processes.
• Only 8 of the 43 companies surveyed publicly recognize the legitimacy of human rights defenders and have zero tolerance for any form of retaliation against those defenders.

“While it is encouraging to see the uptake in human rights due diligence by the mining industry, companies supplying raw minerals for clean energy projects need to increase their ambition and unequivocally commit not to proceed with mining projects if they do not receive community consent,” said Sellwood. “There should be no trade-offs between respecting Indigenous rights or the rights of frontline communities and acting urgently to tackle the climate emergency.”

Police crackdown on $1.2 billion illegal gold operations in Brazil

By MINING.COM Staff September 20, 2023 


Image: Policia Federal do Brasil

The Brazilian Federal Police carried out on Wednesday an operation against illegal gold mining and trade in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

According to investigations, the ore extracted from the territory and Venezuela was sold abroad. The illegal actions generated almost R$6 billion (US$1.2 billion).

The scheme would involve the smuggling of Venezuelan gold, which would enter Brazil clandestinely as payment for the export of food through markets in Roraima and Amazonas.

Hired transport companies would hide the smuggled gold inside trucks, which would enter Roraima without the necessary procedures and payment of taxes.

Subsequently, the ore would be purchased by other members of the scheme and sent to illegal mining companies, responsible for making payments to supermarkets and food distributors.

Four arrest warrants and another 48 search and seizure warrants were issued in at least 8 Brazilian states.

Among those arrested is businessman Brubeyk do Nascimento, who was detained in a luxury condominium in Manaus.

He was arrested previously in 2020 with two Americans while attempting to ship 35 kg of gold to the United States illegally.

Between 2015 and 2020, Brazil traded 229 tonnes of gold with evidence of illegality, equivalent to almost half of the gold produced and exported by the country, according to the NGO Instituto Escolhas.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MINING.COM