EXPLAINER: Why are high gold prices bad for the Amazon rainforest?

Reuters | April 25, 2023 | 

Stock image.

High gold prices are bad news for the Amazon rainforest, fueling demand for the metal and increasing illegal mining linked to deforestation and violence against Indigenous communities.


Prices for the precious metal – traditionally seen as a safe-haven investment during times of political and financial uncertainty – are close to a record high after rising above $2,000 an ounce earlier in April.

Is there gold in the Amazon rainforest?

Gold mining has been taking place in parts of the Amazon basin – spanning nine countries in South America – since the late 16th century.

For centuries, miners have used shovels and rudimentary pans to search for small pieces of gold deposited in mud or sand often found in and near rivers running through the Amazon.

In recent decades, the Amazon basin has been a focal point of small-scale illegal gold mining, which has skyrocketed since the early 2000s as high gold prices have created a gold rush.

Where are the Amazon’s illegal gold mining hotspots?

Brazil, home to the largest share of the Amazon rainforest, along with Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, all have areas heavily impacted by illegal gold mining.

Indigenous groups are often affected, with more than 20% of Indigenous lands overlapped by mining concessions and illegal mining, according to the World Resources Institute.

The largest small-scale mining area in Brazil is around the Tapajós river basin in the northern state of Pará.

Another hotspot is Indigenous Yanomami lands on the border between Venezuela and Brazil, where illegal mining increased 20-fold from 2015 to 2020.

Peru is the world’s sixth-largest gold producer and illegal gold mining is widespread in the rainforest region of Madre de Dios along its southeastern border with Brazil, one of the Amazon’s most biodiverse corners.

How does illegal mining damage the rainforest?

The hunt for gold has attracted wildcat prospectors who have destroyed forests, poisoned rivers and brought fatal diseases to Indigenous Amazon communities.

A series of gold rushes in the past decade in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia have destroyed swathes of once-pristine forest, sometimes leaving in their wake desert-like landscapes strewn with barren craters.

Mercury, used by illegal miners to separate gold from grit, pollutes rivers and contaminates soil and food.

Stagnant water in mining wells also provides breeding sites for mosquitoes that carry diseases such as malaria, often initially brought into the area by miners.

Traffickers in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, a gold mining hub, prey on women and girls from poor indigenous farming communities, offering well-paid jobs and then forcing them into sex work in bars frequented by miners.

What can be done to halt illegal gold mining?

Combating illegal gold mining is complex and authorities have struggled to combat the problem.

In April, President Joe Biden announced plans to contribute $500 million to a fund to curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and stem the drivers of forest clearance, including illegal gold mining.

The proposal would need approval by Congress.

In recent years, Brazil and Peru’s military have raided mining camps, arrested and prosecuted miners, and seized equipment such as river dredgers and bulldozers.

In 2019, Peru sent more than a thousand police and military officers to try and eradicate illegal mining in the La Pampa region in Madre de Dios after deforestation soared after a spike in gold prices.

And in February, Brazil’s environmental protection agency launched an armed operation to try to expel thousands of illegal gold miners from the country’s largest Indigenous reserve, home to the Yanomami people.

But law enforcement operations tend to only temporarily halt illegal mining in a particular area. Mines soon spring up elsewhere in what is known as the “balloon effect” – squeezing mining out of one area can make it expand in others.

Laws protecting Indigenous rights, including the rights of communities to be consulted about major extractive projects planned in their lands, need to be strengthened to keep miners out, environmentalists say.

In Ecuador, Indigenous groups have mounted successful legal challenges before the country’s top court to protect their lands from illegal mining.

To combat illegal mining, Ecuador’s Cofan Indigenous people have also launched Ecuador’s first uniformed and tech-backed Indigenous guard, which regularly patrols their lands to keep miners out.

(By Anastasia Moloney and Andre Fabio Cabette; Editing by Tom Finn and Helen Popper)

CANADIAN IMPERIALI$M

Canada concerned with Mexico’s proposed mining reforms

Reuters | April 26, 2023 |

Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (Image courtesy of Mexican President’s Office.)

Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng expressed concern with Mexico’s proposed mining reforms in a call with Mexican Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro on Tuesday, the trade ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.


The mining reforms, proposed by the Mexican government last month, would include shortening concessions to 15 from 50 years, tightening rules for water permits and requirements to give back at least 10% of profits to communities and disclose mining impacts. Last week, the Mexican parliament’s lower house voted to press ahead with the proposed overhaul.

The proposal could affect Canadian investment in Mexico’s mining sector and have impacts on North American competitiveness and supply chain resiliency, the Canadian trade ministry said.

Ng also “urged Mexico to ensure they are upholding the spirit of commitments made by leaders at the North American Leaders Summit and of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.”

The mining law overhaul has also been criticized by industry leaders, who say it would cost Mexico billions of dollars in lost investment and jobs.

Mexico is Canada’s third-largest trading partner after the United States and China and two-way trade between the two countries was valued at C$49.7 billion ($36.5 billion) in 2022.

In her call with Buenrostro, who is scheduled to visit Canada in June, Ng reiterated the importance of consultations with “all stakeholders regarding the proposed reforms, including with Canadian companies, which represent the largest group of foreign investors in Mexico’s mining sector.”

($1 = 1.3628 Canadian dollars)

(By Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Surplus and stocks to mitigate Myanmar’s Wa State tin mining ban

Reuters | April 25, 2023 | 

The largest end-use for tin is soldering in semiconductors. Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Plans by Myanmar’s Wa militia to suspend mining in areas it controls from August sent tin prices up 15% to 10-week highs, but a market surplus and high inventories are likely to offset the worst effects of a ban in the short-term.


Benchmark tin prices hit $28,440 a tonne on Tuesday last week, the highest since February 3. Prices of the soldering metal were last around $26,250.

The International Tin Association (ITA) estimates Wa State represents about 10% of the world’s tin concentrate supply and that China accounted for about 47% or 181,000 tonnes of tin consumption last year of which 47,700 tonnes, or 26%, came from Myanmar.

“High visible refined tin inventories in China and likely tin concentrate stocks within Myanmar should dampen the impact of any short-term disruption to mining activities,” said Citi analyst Tom Mulqueen.

“We think market concern of major future disruption to Indonesian and/or Myanmar tin exports is excessive and believe a softening of fears will translate to weaker tin prices after the mid-April jump.”


Tin inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange at 8,150 tonnes are up 570% since September last year.

“All else equal, restrictions from August would quickly flip the market into deficit, but the extent and duration of volume losses (with potential for pre-stocking) remains uncertain,” Macquarie analysts said in a note.


Macquarie had expected a tin market surplus of 5,000 tonnes this year and global demand at 362,000 tonnes in March.

More than half of global tin supply is used as solder for circuit boards for the semiconductor industry, which is expected to consume less tin due to an economic slowdown and a brake on spending on consumer electronics.

“Stalled China demand and the likelihood of higher supplies from places like Peru and Congo mean the impact of any ban in Myanmar will be limited,” a metals-focused fund manager said.


In Peru, the San Rafael de Minsur tin mine, the world’s fourth largest, recently restarted operations after a roughly 10-week halt due to protests.

Alphamin Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo produced 12,493 tonnes of tin last year, up 14% from 2021.

(By Pratima Desai; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Landowners working on injunction against Barrick’s restart of Porgera gold mine

Bruno Venditti | April 25, 2023 

The Porgera mine is located in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea.

 (Image courtesy of Porgera Joint Venture.)

The Porgera Landowners Association (PLOA) members are working on an injunction to impede the restart of the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.


The operator, Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) (NYSE: GOLD), and its Chinese partner, Zijin Mining, became embroiled in a dispute with the PNG government in April 2020, when Prime Minister James Marape rejected their application for a lease extension.

Barrick had faced backlash from landowners and residents over what they claim are negative social, environmental and economic impacts from the mine.

The standoff was resolved in April 2021 through two deals, which gave the PNG government a majority stake in Porgera. Barrick and Zijin agreed to halve their stakes. New Porgera, as the mine is now called, is 51% owned by PNG stakeholders, including local landowners and the Enga provincial government.

The government of Papua New Guinea, Barrick Niugini Limited and New Porgera Limited signed an agreement in March to progress towards resumption of operations at the mine.

Members of the PLOA, however, say they did not participate in the negotiations and that Barrick and other stakeholders should have involved them in a discussion forum before making decisions about the restart.

“We did not sign anything,” Nixon Mangape, one of the traditional landowners and former National Parliament of PNG member told MINING.com.

Mangape said he served Barrick with a no trespass notice on April 20.

“I was born and raised there. No compensation or resettlement agreement was signed with landowners,” Mangape said. “No major contracts were given to us for 30 years. We became spectators in our own land.”

The Porgera Landowners Association represents 10,000 landowners of the 24 clans that own traditional land in and around the mining area.

“The landowners have simply said they have had enough, they want their land back and Barrick gone, where there is no remedy available other than to return the land back to its lawful owners and pay for the damage they have caused,” he said.

He added that the PLOA has drafted a court injunction they plan to submit if they are not involved in negotiations.

The Porgera mine hosts an orebody with measured and indicated resources of 10 million ounces and inferred resources of 3.4 million ounces of gold. It produced about 600,000 ounces of gold in 2019 before being put on care and maintenance. After the initial ramp up and optimization of the Wangima pit, Porgera is forecast to produce an average of 700,000 ounces per year.

Barrick said in a statement that the agreement signed in March does not change the right of landowners to participate in New Porgera Limited under the Porgera Project Commencement Agreement (PPCA) or otherwise change their rights at law.

“The New Porgera Progress Agreement recorded the recommitment of the parties to reopening the mine on the terms agreed in the PPCA, which will be to the benefit of all stakeholders including landowners,” said the company.

“Under the PPCA, all parties agreed that Barrick Niugini was to remain in possession of the Porgera mine site and would continue to maintain the mine on a care and maintenance basis until ‘New Porgera’ commences. Mr. Nixon Mangape personally signed the PPCA on behalf of MRE, and any suggestion that we are trespassing on the land is simply wrong and inconsistent with the PPCA.”

Chile’s state lithium push emerges as test for Latam resource nationalism

Reuters | April 27, 2023 |

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric. (Image courtesy of Boric’s campaign.)

Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s pitch last week to enshrine greater state control over lithium is emerging as the latest test for the resource nationalism embraced by Latin America’s ascendant left but which has proven tough to implement in practice.


While the former student protest leader’s proposal to give the government a majority stake in all future lithium projects faces an uncertain path in Congress, its mere introduction shook one of the mining industry’s most lucrative corners.

The push from Boric, 37, also highlights the long-running regional tension between governments’ hunger for control of coveted commodities and future profits versus their ongoing need for private sector capital and know-how.

“In Chile, its probably going to be the most significant case,” said Carlos Pascual, top energy executive with IHS Markit, referring to other regional efforts to exert more government control over the mineralseen as key to a greener future and citing Chile’s outsize role in the global metals market as the world’s top producer of copper and No. 2 in lithium.

“This is seen as an opportunity to ensure direct revenues to the state just as many countries decided to make the decision to nationalize oil in a different era,” he added.

Last year, Boric’s fellow leftist in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, enacted a sweeping lithium nationalization and later ordered the creation of a new state-run lithium company, LitioMx, even though the country is still far from selling its first cargo of the ultra-light metal.

Lithium is in high demand for rechargeable batteries for future fleets of electric vehicles in the global transition to green energy.

Lopez Obrador, who reveres the country’s landmark 1938 oil nationalization, justified his policy as its logical extension. He invoked past abuses at the hands of colonial masters and more recent corporate titans, arguing that only the government can prevent exploitation and ensure broadly-distributed benefits.

Across the world, nationalizing oil industries in particular has proved attractive as a means of cashing in on valuable raw materials and boosting development, even as competitive commodity markets often see more output and innovation.

Illustrating the challenges of starting from scratch, a Mexican official knowledgeable about government plans for mining, however played down the possibility the new state lithium miner might achieve production anytime soon, instead touting a different option.

“LitioMx could drive the value chain by importing lithium,” the official told Reuters.

Asked for comment, a spokesman for Mexico’s energy ministry stressed that LitioMx remains focused on finding and extracting lithium, and while future imports could be considered “it’s too early for that.”

Unsurprisingly, mining companies are less than ecstatic about the statist tilt of Lopez Obrador and Boric, who stressed that under his plan private miners would be able to partner with a not-yet-created state-owned producer, but only as minority stakeholders.

“It’s a brave bet to ask an investor to prefer an uncertain marriage with a state company and a minority stake risking capital and technology as opposed to simply flying alone,” said Armando Ortega, who chairs the executive committee of Baramin, Mexico’s biggest producer of barite, a mineral used in oil drilling.

Statist trend

Chile and neighbors Bolivia and Argentina are believed to hold more than half of the world’s extractable lithium in otherworldly salt flats that typically employ evaporation pools to concentrate the metal, though new technologies are also being developed.

The ruling socialists of Bolivia have also insisted that the state take the driver’s seat in unlocking its huge but untapped reserves, although it is counting on the help of partners like Chinese battery giant CATL to do so.

Peru, a mining powerhouse best known for copper, might have pursued a similar approach to Boric to bolster its development of lithium had former President Pedro Castillo not been ousted late last year.

The leftist Castillo won a narrow victory in 2021, pledging to nationalize the ultra-light metal along with other minerals including copper, but later moderated his position, leaving the promise unfulfilled.

Ivan Merino, who was Castillo’s first energy and mining minister, said in an interview on Monday that Peru is for now watching from the sidelines as the resource nationalism trend gains steam.

“It’s now almost commonplace,” he said. “We will see history made, but without participating in it.”

That leaves the exception to the trend, Argentina, as an increasingly likely Latin American destination for new private capital for lithium.

“That’s not because Argentina is doing what needs to be done, but rather because of our neighborhood’s upheavals and the world’s spiking demand,” said Santiago Dondo, its former deputy minister for mining.

A strong pipeline of lithium projects in Argentina, the world’s No. 4 producer, are already close to coming online.

Dondo said the four political parties in the main opposition coalition to outgoing leftist President Alberto Fernandez recently voted to endorse private enterprise as the sector’s main motor ahead of elections later this year.

He noted that local control over mining in three key provinces in northwest Argentina managed to help thwart any moves toward lithium nationalization at the national level a couple years ago, boosting investor sentiment.

But Dondo still worries that lithium could be eclipsed by another battery technology.

“We don’t know how many years we’ll have this huge window of opportunity,” he said. “Change in the energy transition is getting faster all the time.”

(By David Alire Garcia and Marco Aquino in Lima; Editing by Christian Plumb and Marguerita Choy)

Lithium mining decisions must be in the public interest, Chile economy minister says

Bloomberg News | April 25, 2023 |

Photo: Nicolás Grau’s Twitter page

Chile’s government gave the clearest sign yet that the state will play an active role in deciding how some of the world’s biggest lithium deposits will be developed in partnership with the private sector.


“The objective is control,” Economy Minister Nicolas Grau said in an interview Tuesday. Control being “that the different fundamental decisions the company makes respond to the interests that we have as a country.”

President Gabriel Boric unveiled a new model last week in which the state will take a controlling stake in future public-private partnerships in the biggest brine deposits. But his administration left state copper giant Codelco in charge of negotiating terms on a case-by-case basis, including with the two incumbent producers, SQM and Albemarle Corp. That left analysts wondering if companies could maintain operational control under the new design.

While negotiations between Codelco and prospective partners will determine the new contracts, at the end of the day, companies’ strategic decisions must be aligned with national interests, Grau said from his office in downtown Santiago.

The government is engaged in a delicate dance of seeking a bigger role for the state while attempting to attract more private capital, defend the environment and move further down the value chain. There’s a lot at stake given Chile has the biggest reserves of a metal that’s critical to the clean-energy transition.

To be sure, the government understands that for the new model to work, the private sector has to be motivated to invest, Grau said. So far, the industry’s reaction has been “rather positive,” he said.

In a statement Monday, SQM, whose contract expires in 2030, said it expects to reach an agreement to continue producing the battery metal under the new model. Albemarle, however, said it would negotiate with Chile closer to the end of its contract in 2043. The two firms can either keep full control of the operation for the rest of the contract and then risk losing it or let the state take a majority stake with the understanding it could keep operating longer.

While Codelco will be the state’s representative in new contracts, in the future that role will be played by a dedicated lithium enterprise. The government plans to present a bill to create a national lithium company later this year, Grau said.

Officials will have to negotiate with lawmakers to secure the bill’s approval, although the administration will propose that the state firm participates in downstream operations such as cathode processing.

“We are going to propose that the national lithium company plays a role in the entire value chain,” Grau said.

(By Matthew Malinowski and James Attwood, with assistance from Eduardo Thomson)

Column: Chile uses an old copper template for new lithium plan

Reuters | April 25, 2023 | 

Chilenización del cobre – 11 July 1971. Image: Codelco

Chile’s assertion of state control over its lithium industry has sent shock waves through the new energy metals sector.


The country’s two big lithium producers, SQM and Albemarle, have seen their share prices fall on the prospect of having to relinquish majority control of their operations or risk losing their licences once they expire in 2030 and 2043 respectively.

Shares in companies such as Pilbara Minerals, Australia’s biggest lithium producer, have risen on the premise of slower investment and project growth in Chile, which hosts the world’s largest deposits of the battery metal.

Chile has been here before.

The country nationalized its copper sector in 1971, provoking international outrage, particularly in the United States. 

President Gabriel Boric’s lithium “nationalization” is a more benign version, using an even earlier copper model.

Moreover, Chile is far from the only country seeking to channel the new energy metals boom.

The copper model – good and bad

If President Boric’s lithium policy is an echo of past copper policy, the comparison is with the “Chileanization” program of the Eduardo Frei Montalva administration in the late 1960s.

Frei embarked on a creeping nationalization, buying 51% stakes in existing copper mines and projects and wrapping them into the Copper Office, renamed in 1966 as the Corporacion Nacional de Cobre (Codelco).

All the US companies that then controlled Chile’s copper production negotiated a reduction of their holdings. Kennecott Copper led the way, selling in 1967 a 51% stake in the El Teniente mine with the proceeds reinvested in an expansion program.

The “win-win” state-private balancing act was upset in 1971 when President Salvador Allende won Chilean elections on a platform of speeding up the process.

The hard nationalization that followed saw US copper companies stripped of their shares for minimal compensation after the government offset book value with previous “excess profits”.

There was legal blowback, including court seizures of physical copper cargoes, and economic and political blowback from the United States.

LEADING TO THE CIA AND HENRY KISSINGER OVERTHROWING THE SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT OF SALVADORE ALLENDE IN 1973

Chile’s copper grab was part of a broader trend of developing countries taking state control of their mineral riches. Zambia, the world’s second largest copper producer at the time, did exactly the same three years later in 1974.

Lithium play

Codelco is still owned by the Chilean government and now the world’s largest copper producer.

Even the neo-liberals of the Augusto Pinochet regime kept the national jewel in the crown as they opened the rest of the country’s’ copper sector up to the private sector.

Indeed, it was only in 2019 that Chile formally revoked the law requiring 10% of Codelco’s export sales be directed to the military, although technocrats had long since replaced generals on the company’s board.

It is now Codelco that is tasked with taking control of the country’s lithium sector.

There is no need for expropriation since the Chilean state owns the country’s reserves. Rather, there will be a “negotiated nationalization” similar to that of the copper industry in the 1960s.

Talks with SQM will start almost immediately, according to Economy Minister Nicolas Grau. SQM said that it needs an additional $2 billion to meet the new lithium plan’s sustainability goals, an echo of Kennecott’s sale-for-investment copper deal of 1967.

Others, particularly smaller operators at the exploration stage, may welcome the prospect of state support.

CleanTech Lithium, which is working on direct extraction rather than brine evaporation in Chile, noted the new policy was one of “partnership rather than nationalization” and “may offer the potential for further opportunity”.

Given the Chilean government’s interest in steering its industry towards more sustainable lithium extraction, state participation could turn out to be enabler rather than a dead weight for such companies.

Everything, of course, depends on how the policy is executed.

Join the club

Chile is not alone in seeking to assert control of its mineral resources as the world gears up for a new metals age.

Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year and in February this year handed over responsibility for developing them to the country’s energy ministry.

Zimbabwe has banned the export of unprocessed lithium, citing the need to constrain illegal artisan mining.

The shining example for others is Indonesia, which has used export controls to force its nickel miners downstream.

Exports of ore were banned from 2020, leading operators to build first nickel pig iron smelters and more recently processing plants capable of producing nickel in battery-friendly form.

The EU last year won a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruling that Indonesia’s ban on exports was a breach of WTO trade rules.

Indonesia has forged ahead anyway and now boasts the world’s largest nickel production sector, which it is rapidly leveraging into a global battery-materials hub.

Breaking the free-market rules has proved to be a massive accelerator for Indonesia, showing that state intervention doesn’t always come at the price of slower industrial progress.

It’s not just producer countries that are using government muscle to shape metal supply chains.

Such is the scramble for all sorts of critical minerals that governments in consuming countries are stepping in as well.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will subsidize half the cost of smelting and mine development projects of important minerals including lithium by Japanese companies, according to Nikkei Asia.

The European Union is actively seeking what it terms “mutually beneficial partnerships” with emerging producers as part of its critical raw materials policy.

The United States, desperate to reduce reliance on China, is pumping money into its mining and metals sector and hasn’t shied away from state participation either.

The US Defense Department is a direct investor in both the light and heavy rare earth processing facilities being constructed in partnership with Australia’s Mynas Corp.

Chile isn’t an outlier when it comes to the new energy metals age, it’s part of a growing club of nations.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Chile’s lithium nationalization shines light on emerging tech

Reuters | April 24, 2023 | 

Lithium brines are found in the middle of Chile’s Salar de Atacama and contain the world’s highest known concentrations of lithium and potassium. (Image courtesy of SQM.)

Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s plan to nationalize his country’s immense lithium industry is putting the spotlight on an emerging crop of filtration technologies aimed at revolutionizing how the metal is produced for the electric vehicle industry.


In a national prime time address, Boric said last Thursday a new state-owned company would work to slash the environmental impacts of lithium production by shifting away from evaporation ponds, traditionally used to remove the metal from brine, in favor of direct lithium extraction (DLE).

While neighboring Bolivia, as well as General Motors Co, Rio Tinto Ltd and other companies, have made their own DLE bets, Boric’s move represents the biggest vote of confidence to date in the commercially unproven suite of technologies given plans to deploy it across Chile’s vast lithium reserves, the world’s largest.

“This is the best chance we have at transitioning to a sustainable and developed economy,” said Boric, a leftist 37-year-old elected in late 2021.

DLE technologies are designed to extract the metal from salty brines in Chile’s Atacama Desert and elsewhere in the world using filters, membranes, ceramic beads or other equipment that can typically be housed in a small warehouse.


While multiple companies are working to develop competing versions, the broad promise of DLE is a boost to global lithium production with a footprint far smaller than open-pit mines and evaporation ponds often are the size of multiple football fields and unpopular with local communities.

Many DLE technologies use lots of potable water and electricity. None have yet to work independently at commercial scale. If Chile could help one or more DLE technology succeed, it would cement the country’s dominant role in the global lithium and EV industries for decades to come.

“The devil is in the details, but it’s a great opportunity for technological innovation of brine processing, either way,” Chris Berry, an independent lithium industry consultant, said of Boric’s plan.

SQM and Albemarle Corp, Chile’s two existing lithium producers, use evaporation ponds to produce the metal. Both are studying DLE, though neither have deployed it. Livent Corp uses a variation of DLE technology in Argentina alongside evaporation ponds.

“Now that regulatory bodies are forcing the issue, it’s only going to speed up the innovation and commercialization,” said Teague Egan, CEO of privately held EnergyX, which is building a DLE test facility in northern Chile and has a development project with GM.

The goal for Boric and the DLE industry is to extract lithium from brine and reinject what is left back underground, in a closed loop process that does not affect water tables.

“Boric recognizes you can’t just evaporate all the water and wreck the geological structures,” said John Burba, who helped pioneer one DLE technology in the 1970s and is now CEO of International Battery Metals Ltd, which builds portable DLE plants.

Lake Resources NL, Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd, Renault SA and Stellantis NV are also supporting DLE projects.

Lake Resources is working with Bill Gates-backed Lilac Solutions Inc to deploy Lilac’s DLE technology in Argentina. Lilac also plans to install a DLE test facility in Chile in coming weeks, said CEO Dave Snydacker.

“DLE is a great way for Chile to expand production in an environmentally friendly and scalable way,” said Snydacker.

Several prominent short sellers in recent years have alleged that DLE technologies from Lilac and Standard Lithium Ltd do not work, charges the companies have strongly denied.

In Chile, DLE companies see a business opportunity despite the nationalization plans given that Boric’s new state lithium company is expected to need technical support.

“Nationalization or not, they’ll require technology,” said Amanda Sanregret of privately held Summit Nanotech Corp, which earlier this month opened a Santiago office and DLE test facility.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Richard Chang)

Lithium developer joins race to produce green fuel in Chile’s arid desert

Bloomberg News | April 26, 2023 | 

Santiago, Chile. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A group of US investors is joining the race to produce green fuel from Chile’s vast renewable energy potential, with ambitions of building a $2.5 billion plant in the sun-drenched northern desert.


MAE — which began life as a solar venture backed by a group of investors led by James Calaway, the former chairman of lithium miner Orocobre and current chairman of Nevada-based lithium developer Ioneer — is now in talks with potential off-takers and is preparing to seek environmental permits later this year for a green ammonia plant, chief executive officer Gonzalo Moyano said in an interview.

Chile’s government is encouraging green hydrogen investment to harness the nation’s abundant solar and wind resources and create a new export industry. There are about 50 projects at different stages in the country, according to green hydrogen organization H2, some of them backed by utilities such as Engie, AES Andes, and Enel.

“The industry has a big potential especially within the European and Asian markets, with relevant decarbonization goals, while the geopolitical situation is accelerating demand for green hydrogen and ammonia,” Moyano said.

MAE’s Volta Project in the port city of Mejillones is slated to begin operations in 2027 at an annual rate of 300,000 metric tons, with output set to double in a later stage, he said.

(By Eduardo Thomson and Valentina Fuentes)

Albemarle holds talks on lithium nationalization plan

Reuters | April 25, 2023 | 

Chile’s Atacama salt flat, home to leading lithium producers Albemarle and SQM, accounts for around one-third the world’s supply. (Stock image)

Chile’s state development office Corfo said on Tuesday it met with US-based miner Albemarle to discuss the South American country’s plan to nationalize the lithium industry.


Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric last week announced that control of the country’s vast lithium operations would over time be transferred from Albemarle and SQM to a separate state-owned company.

The move shocked investors and foreign companies and raised concerns about the production and supply of lithium, a metal essential in electric vehicle batteries. Chile has the world’s largest lithium reserves.

Albemarle’s Chile manager, Ignacio Mehech, and Corfo Vice President Jose Miguel Benavente discussed the government’s plan, which focuses primarily on the Atacama salt flat where Albemarle has a contract to operate until 2043, Corfo said in a statement.

Corfo will continue owning mining properties, while mining would be carried out by lease contracts that “gradually incorporate the state” through public-private alliances with a state majority, the statement said.

Benavente said the “public-private association and a possible extension beyond 2043” would be defined at a later date, but added that the agreement should benefit both parties.

In a separate statement released after the meeting, Mehech said Boric’s statement about respecting contracts is an “unequivocal sign to the market that lets us maximize our commitment in Chile.” He added that Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of lithium, wants to grow in Chile and in the Atacama salt flat with new technologies.

“The new era of lithium is in total sync with the lithium strategy the government has outlined,” Mehech said, adding that the company is looking to advance its direct lithium extraction technology, which is a key element of the government’s plan.

Economy Minister Nicolas Grau told Reuters on Monday that the government will start official talks with both lithium operators through state-miner Codelco by the middle of this year and hopes to have an agreement before the end of Boric’s term in 2026.

On Monday, SQM CEO Ricardo Ramos also met with Corfo and said the Chilean lithium company, the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, would require $2 billion to enact the government’s plans. SQM’s contract expires in 2023.

(By Fabian Cambero, Brendan O’Boyle and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Paul Simao)

SQM expects to start talks on lithium with government soon
Reuters | April 26, 2023 

Image courtesy of SQM.

Chilean lithium miner SQM expects to start talks about lithium with Chilean authorities soon, its Chairman Gonzalo Guerrero said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday.


The South American nation announced last week a plan for a state-led model for the lithium industry where the country would have majority control over new lithium developments in partnerships with the private sector.


“SQM’s experience has allowed Chile to be a world leader in lithium,” Guerrero said in the letter, adding that the company “hopes to soon start conversation with authorities, with the goal of creating value for all involved groups.”

Guerrero also said the company’s 2023-2025 investment plan totals $3.4 billion, including maintenance, of which $1.4 billion was aimed at increasing lithium production in Chile.

The company seeks to increase current lithium carbonate capacity to 210,000 tonnes from 180,000 by the end of 2024 and lithium hydroxide capacity from 30,000 to 100,000 tonnes by 2025.

The plan also has around $450 million for a join venture project in Australia, but “not all in lithium.” Some of the funding will go to increasing plant capacity for iodine, nitrates and others.

On Monday, Economy Minister Nicolas Grau told Reuters that negotiations to increase state control of the Salar de Atacama would begin by mid-year.

The negotiation process will be carried out through the state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer.

SQM general manager, Ricardo Ramos, met this week with state development office Corfo to discuss the government’s lithium plan.

(By Fabian Cambero and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

SQM sees pathway to continue mining lithium in Chile’s new model
Bloomberg News | April 25, 2023 | 

Image from SQM.

SQM, the world’s No. 2 lithium producer, expects to reach an agreement to continue producing the battery metal under the Chilean government’s new public-private model for the industry.


The company is “convinced” that its technology and experience “will make it possible to reach reasonable agreements in the interest of the Chilean state as well as our diverse shareholders,” it said in a statement Monday after executives met with officials at state development agency Corfo.

SQM, the fertilizer-turned-lithium giant, runs the planet’s biggest and most profitable brine operation in Chile’s northern desert with a contract that expires in 2030. Under the government’s new policy, SQM can either keep full control of the operation for the rest of the contract and then risk losing it or let the state take a majority stake with the understanding it could keep operating longer. Copper producer Codelco will represent the state in negotiations with SQM.

SQM has budgeted more than $2 billion on technologies that enable it to eliminate the use of underground fresh water, make its brine evaporation process more efficient and introduce direct extraction. That would bring it in line with sustainability practices laid out in the government’s new strategy, it said in the statement.

Shares in Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, as the company is known formally, fell by a record on Friday after the new development model was announced, before regaining some ground Monday. The stock was down 1.7% at 9:34am in New York on Tuesday.

(By James Attwood)

Argentina Eyes $5.6 Billion In Lithium Exports By 2025

By Michael Kern - Apr 24, 2023

Argentina is planning to boost its lithium exports to 200,000 tons over the next three years, expecting revenues to hit $5.6 billion by 2025, Mining.com has reported, citing government information. This should rise further to $8.7 billion by 2030.

At the moment, Argentina’s lithium production capacity stands at 37,500 tons but actual production is less than that, at 33,000 tons annually.

Argentina is one point of the so-called lithium triangle that also includes Chile and Bolivia and contains most of the world’s lithium. The commodity has become very hot in recent years because of the push for the electrification of global transport.

As a result, Argentina enjoyed a 234-percent surge in its lithium exports last year, with those representing a fifth of all mined commodity exports for the country.

In the first quarter of the year, Argentina’s lithium exports surged 133 percent in terms of value to a total of $233 million. March was the best month of the three, with lithium exports up by 93 percent on the year and worth $91 million.

Lithium export revenues for the full year are seen at some $6 billion, according to the country’s economy ministry.

Argentina has the world’s third-largest lithium reserves, which represent 9 percent of global reserves. Together with Chile and Bolivia, the country accounts for 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves.

JP Morgan has estimated that thanks to its lithium riches, Argentina could become the third-largest producer of the metal in the world by 2030.

At the same time, because of the danger of a supply squeeze in lithium, EV makers are considering alternatives to the currently dominant battery technology. This might cast a shadow over the long-term prospects of the lithium triangle, but none of the challenging technologies have yet made a dent in lithium demand.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

Argentina’s lithium pipeline promises ‘white gold’ boom as Chile tightens control

Reuters | April 24, 2023 

The Pastos Grandes lithium project is in the Salta Province of Argentina.

 (Image courtesy of Lithium Americas.)

In Argentina’s mountainous north, a strong pipeline of lithium projects close to coming online looks set to unlock a wave of production that could see its output of the key electric vehicle battery metal as much as triple within the next two years.


The world’s fourth largest producer of the silvery-white metal sits within the so-called “lithium triangle” and has been luring investment from Canadian to Chinese mining firms with a regional and market-led model, even as a wave of resource nationalism has spread in the region.


Neighboring Chile, the region’s top lithium producer, last week unveiled plans for a state-led public-private model, spooking investors. Bolivia has long maintained strict control over its huge though largely untapped resources, while Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year.

In Argentina, despite state energy firm YPF starting to explore for lithium last year, the sector has largely been driven by private enterprise and regular approvals of new projects as the government has looked to bring in more export dollars through mining, a rare bright spot amid economic turmoil.

“Argentina has granted concessions to projects for the last 10 years,” said Franco Mignacco, president of Argentina’s Chamber of Mining Business. “That’s why today we have this level of lithium investment and development and the chance of growth.”


Mignacco estimated that Argentina’s current 40,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate production could triple by 2024-2025 to 120,000 tonnes, which could take it past China and closer to Chile which currently produces some 180,000 tonnes per year.

That would be driven by new projects coming online on top of the two currently in production. The country has six lithium projects under construction and 15 in the advanced exploration or feasibility stage, Mignacco said.

That contrasts with Chile, where the industry is dominated by established players SQM and Albemarle, with few new projects underway. In Bolivia the government only recently okayed a new project by a Chinese consortium.

Argentina’s production boost would come from the expansion of the only two producing operations – US firm Livent’s Fénix project in Catamarca and Australian Allkem Ltd’s Salar de Olaroz mine in Jujuy – both expected to double output to 42,500 tonnes in the years ahead.

These would be joined by the Cauchari-Olaroz project, owned by China’s Ganfeng Lithium Co and Canada’s Lithium Americas Corp, which in the second half of 2023 is set to begin production with capacity for 40,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.
‘Pro-market strategy’

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile together sit atop half of the world’s resources of the mineral under otherworldly salt flats in the high-altitude Andean plains.

But strategies for developing it are diverging.

“Argentina’s lithium sector has thrived through a decentralized, pro-market strategy,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at The Wilson Center, adding in contrast Bolivia’s lithium sector had “repeatedly stalled as a result of excessive state control.”

Chile, he said, may have found a “savvy middle ground” with its public-private model, which would hand the state majority control over all new lithium projects in a nationalist shift, but would still give private enterprise a key role to play.

The wave of resource nationalism had prompted some talk amongst officials of a potential OPEC-style lithium cartel in the region, though analysts see it as unrealistic given the diverse industry models and levels of development.

Argentina, meanwhile, faces challenges including economic turmoil with high inflation and capital controls which complicate business, while the country is headed for general elections in October creating political uncertainty.

Its lithium pipeline, though, may keep the sector bubbling and even gaining ground on rivals. Overtaking neighbor Chile would be highly unlikely but some analysts were aiming high.

“Chile today produces and exports much more lithium than Argentina,” said Natacha Izquierdo, analyst at consultancy ABCEB. “But if the projects we have here today come to fruition, Argentina could overtake it.”

(By Lucila Sigal and Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Marguerita Choy)

Japan to subsidize half the costs of lithium, critical minerals projects – report

Staff Writer | April 24, 2023 |

Electric vehicles charging. (Reference image by Ivan Radic, Flickr).

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will subsidize up to half the cost of mine development and smelting projects for lithium and other critical minerals by Japanese companies, Nikkei Asia reported on Sunday.


Lithium, manganese, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earths are reportedly the main targets for support.

The initiative seeks to secure raw materials used in manufacturing electric car engines and batteries. Japan is planning to diversify its supply chains, as, like most countries, it is dependent on China for many key minerals.

Geological surveys will determine the profitability and quality of mines to be subsidized, Nikkei reported, adding that the initiative will also cover mine development and smelting operations.

China accounts for 60% to 70% lithium and cobalt processing for battery cathode materials and 70% of graphite processing for anode materials, according to the International Energy Agency. China is also responsible for almost all the world’s rare-earths processing.

Companies receiving the subsidies will be required to continue operations for at least five years from the start of mining and the smelting process, according to the Asian news agency. The Japanese government is also targeting a sevenfold increase in domestic battery production capacity to an annual 150 gigawatt-hours in 2030.

Agnico Eagle executive chair makes $20 million; company faces opposition to pay practices
David Milstead - The Globe and Mail | April 26, 2023 | 

Agnico Eagle Chairman Sean Boyd. Image from The Northern Miner.

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. has the largest executive paycheque among major Canadian miners for 2022 – and the biggest problem with unhappy shareholders.


In the proxy circular for its annual meeting, to be held Friday, the company disclosed for the first time that it paid one-time bonuses to top executives to reward them for the company’s February, 2022, merger with Kirkland Lake Gold, including $10-million to executive chairman Sean Boyd, the former chief executive officer of Agnico Eagle. That pushed Mr. Boyd’s total pay above $20-million, higher than the CEO of any other metals miner in the S&P/TSX 60.

The company lays out an extensive explanation for the bonuses in its proxy statement to shareholders, citing “the transformational nature of the merger” which cemented “the company’s position as a ‘super senior’ in the gold mining industry.” The company also pushed up its estimate of cost savings from the merger to US$425-million over the first 10 years, from a previous forecast of $320-million.

However, Agnico Eagle is facing trouble in its shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation, or say on pay, to be held Friday. Last year, the company had the worst say on pay vote result in Canada, with only 24 per cent of shareholders approving of Agnico Eagle’s compensation philosophy.

This year, two major proxy advisers have advised shareholders to vote “no” once again in the nonbinding vote. And they’re also advocating shareholders vote against Robert Gemmell, the chair of the company’s compensation committee. Institutional Shareholder Services, one of the two advisers along with Glass Lewis & Co., says Agnico Eagle’s compensation committee “has failed to adequately address pay-for-performance concerns, and significant problematic pay practices have been identified.”

The special merger bonuses, ISS says, “were made without considering rigorous performance criteria.” Since they were made in cash, they aren’t tied to the company’s future long-term performance, ISS argues.

If Agnico Eagle fails its say on pay vote Friday, it will be the rare Canadian company to lose two consecutive votes. Wealth management company CI Financial Inc. failed in both 2021 and 2022, the only company last year to have lost two years in a row.

Chris Vollmershausen, the company’s general counsel, said in an e-mailed statement that the company feels the one-time bonus payments “were fair, reasonable, and well-earned, given the extraordinary economic benefits derived for the shareholders of Agnico Eagle” and the company has “significantly strengthened our approach to executive compensation in recent years based on direct input and feedback from our investors.” As 2022 compensation, the bonuses were properly disclosed in the 2023 circular, he said.

“We believe the issues raised by the proxy advisory firms undervalue the company’s strong performance in 2022 and unduly emphasize exceptional one-time events that do not reflect Agnico Eagle’s current and overall approach to executive compensation,” the e-mail said.

Agnico Eagle says that when it announced the merger, it anticipated a leadership team of Mr. Boyd, Anthony Makuch as CEO, and Ammar Al-Joundi as president of the combined company following the Kirkland merger. But Mr. Makuch, the Kirkland CEO, left suddenly 15 days after the merger, receiving a severance package the company valued at $13.5-million.

Agnico Eagle then promoted Mr. Al-Joundi to a combined CEO/president role. “This change is expected to result in significant savings,” the company tells shareholders in its proxy circular.

The company also cites the cost savings from cutting the number of executives at the vice-president level and above from 39 to 31 people.

Agnico Eagle’s compensation changes also included making share awards in December, rather than earlier in the year, to avoid the problem that occurs when the shares fall during the year; eliminating stock options for executives and toughening its post-merger severance terms.

All told, Mr. Boyd made $20.1-million, including a salary of $2.9-million, $6.6-million in share awards, the $8-million special bonus, and other compensation. That’s up nearly 30 per cent from 2021′s $15.7-million. (Agnico Eagle, like several other miners, reports compensation figures in U.S. dollars; The Globe and Mail has converted the pay into Canadian dollars for comparison purposes using the same exchange rates used by the companies in their pay disclosures.)

Mr. Al-Joundi made $9.9-million in 2022, including a $2-million merger bonus.

Mr. Boyd’s pay package allowed him to top Barrick Gold Inc. CEO Mark Bristow. Barrick, the most valuable miner in Canada by market capitalization, is often a pay leader. Mr. Bristow made $17.4-million, down from $18.1-million in 2021. The decline largely came because his $5.3-million bonus was down about $500,000 from 2021.

Executive chairman John Thornton made $4.1-million, roughly the same as 2021.

Barrick’s TSX-listed stock was essentially flat in 2022. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, Barrick’s revenue dropped by 8 per cent and net income fell more than 80 per cent from 2021 thanks to a big asset writedown.

Former Teck Resources Ltd. CEO Donald Lindsay was also in the $10-million-plus club, earning just under $13-million, down from $13.2-million in 2021. His bonus of $2.86-million was about $200,000 less than 2021′s – although Teck revenue was up more than 35 per cent and net income increased nearly 16 per cent, according to S&P.

Among other metals miners in the S&P/TSX 60:

Franco Nevada Corp. CEO Paul Brink made $5.4-million, up nearly 14 per cent from 2021. The company’s shares had a total return of 6.5 per cent, but net income fell by 4.5 per cent.

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. CEO Randy Smallwood made just under $6.7-million, up 5.8 per cent from 2021. The shares dropped slightly while profits fell by more than 11 per cent.

Kinross Gold Corp. CEO Paul Rollinson’s total compensation was essentially unchanged at about $8.8-million. The shares fell 22 per cent in 2022. Net income swung from US$221-million to a US$605-million loss.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. CEO Tristan Pascall made $4.9-million in his first year at the helm. His father, Philip Pascall, made $7.4-million in 2021, his final full year in the job.

FASCISM U$A

Montana Republicans vote to ban trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from House floor

Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan
April 26, 2023

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, enters the House on Wednesday before a vote on her censure. 

(Mike Clark for the Daily Montanan)

Rep. Zooey Zephyr will not be allowed on the floor or gallery of the Montana House of Representatives for the remainder of the legislative session and will only be allowed to participate via Zoom after Republicans on Wednesday voted to punish the Missoula Democrat for what they said were her breaches of decorum and House rules.

The House voted 68 to 32 on party lines after providing notice Tuesday it would take action with respect to her conduct. Republicans Casey Knudsen of Malta and David Bedey of Hamilton, who have previously taken votes in support of Zephyr, said they had to support the motion given events of Monday.

The censure motion followed a protest that erupted in the House gallery two days earlier. Majority Leader Sue Vinton, R-Billings, read the motion, which elicited gasps from members of the public watching from a conference room because the gallery was closed to the public.

Vinton said Zephyr had disrupted orderly proceedings and put legislators, pages and others at risk of harm as a result: “Freedom in this body involves obedience to all the rules of the this body, including the rules of decorum.”

Since last week, Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, has not recognized Zephyr’s attempts to speak on behalf of her constituents after she said Republicans would have “blood on (their) hands” if they supported Senate Bill 99, which would ban gender-affirming care for minors if signed by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte.

Wednesday, Zephyr spoke prior to the vote and said she was defending democracy and her community, whose art, history and health care she said has been systematically targeted.

“When I rose up and said there is blood on your hands, I was not being hyperbolic,” Zephyr said, who has had friends die by suicide. “I was speaking to the consequences of the votes that we as legislators take in this body.”

Republicans have a supermajority this session, and hardliners in the Freedom Caucus misgendered Zephyr in a statement last Tuesday calling for censure.

Youth suicide rates are high in Montana, and suicide among transgender youth are even higher. A story in the Guardian from December 2022 said more than 50% of transgender and non-binary youth in the U.S. considered suicide in the past year.

Zephyr is the first openly transgender legislator serving in the Montana House. The controversy has drawn national media attention since last week.

In not recognizing Zephyr, Regier has argued she breached decorum in telling Republicans they should be “ashamed” of themselves for voting in favor of SB99, but Zephyr has stood her ground, and constituents and other supporters have backed her.

Monday, an estimated 200-300 demonstrators rallied at the Capitol to support Zephyr, privacy and democracy, and later on the House floor, protestors broke into chanting to let Zephyr speak after Regier again did not recognize her attempt to be heard on a bill.

“Bullshit!” one person yelled. Others soon joined in, chanting, “Whose house? Our house,” and calling on Republican leadership to “let her speak.”


Regier had asked people in the gallery to remain quiet, and after people started chanting, law enforcement forcibly removed people from the area. Seven people were booked and released in the county jail for trespassing.

In response to the calls to allow Zephyr to speak, Regier has said he isn’t silencing Zephyr at all, but rather, maintaining decorum via House rules. He has requested an apology from the freshman representative.

“The choice not to follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made. The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr,” Regier said Tuesday.

During the protest that erupted on the floor, lawmakers were moved to the wings of the House floor, and Republicans largely left the chamber. Democrats stayed in the chamber in support of Zephyr.

Zephyr stood mostly alone on the floor watching as people yelled in support of her and as police – some of them in riot gear – were brought in to clear the gallery.

“When my constituents and community members witnessed my microphone being disabled, they courageously came forward to defend their democratic right to be heard — and some were arrested in the process,” Zephyr said in a statement that evening. “I stood by them in solidarity and will continue to do so.”

In the notice of action Tuesday, Regier, Speaker Pro Tem Rhonda Knudsen, and Majority Leader Sue Vinton said they would close the gallery to take up the 1 p.m. motion to “maintain decorum and ensure safety.” The notice said the public could observe the proceeding from the legislative website or a committee room with televised public viewing.

The Montana Constitution says no one will be deprived of their right to observe public bodies unless privacy rights exceed the merits of public disclosure, and it also protects people’s right to participate.

Republican leadership has not responded to a question requesting the legal rationale for the closure. House Democrats opposed it.

“Montana’s Constitution guarantees citizens the right to participate in their government, and that includes the right to observe a floor session from the gallery. It’s disappointing, but not surprising given the GOP’s disregard for Montanans’ rights throughout this session,” said House Democrats.

The Senate gallery also was closed Wednesday.

On several occasions starting last Thursday, Democrats protested Zephyr’s lack of recognition on the floor, but all but two or three Republicans have voted to support Regier’s ruling that Zephyr should not be recognized because of what the Speaker says are her violations of decorum rules.

“It’s up to the speaker on who gets recognized and who doesn’t,” Regier told reporters last Thursday. “So, until that trust is restored, and I can assure the integrity of the House is a priority, then I think it’s going to be a pause.”

Tuesday’s floor session was canceled as leadership considered its next steps and looked at the state Constitution and the House and joint rules to see what kind of further action to pursue against Zephyr after Monday’s protests.

Notice

House Republican leadership sent notice to Zephyr and every member of the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening notifying them they would bring a motion related to Zephyr’s conduct on the floor on Monday, when she stood with a microphone in the air as dozens of protesters chanted to “Let Zooey speak.”

The letter said the body would determine whether Zephyr’s conduct “violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity, or decorum” of the House and whether to “impose disciplinary consequences for those actions.”

The letter also said the House gallery would be closed for the day.

Regier, Speaker Pro Tem Rhonda Knudsen and Majority Leader Sue Vinton issued a news release Monday evening in which they called what transpired Monday a “riot by far-left agitators” which they said “endangered legislators and staff.”

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, D-Helena, said the floor session would be canceled, which was confirmed about a half-hour later when Regier held a news conference to say Zephyr was not being “silenced” and that “the only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.” He left his brief news conference without taking questions from members of the Montana press.

Earlier that morning, Regier had also told the Senate Finance and Claims Committee that an affordable housing bill he is sponsoring, which had been supported by Abbott, that he didn’t know the future of the bill due to “recent events that have happened over in the House.”


Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and Twitter.