Taseko secures final permit for Arizona copper mine




14th September 2023
By: Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media 

Senior Deputy Editor Online

Canadian mining company Taseko Mines has received the final permit to build its 85-million-pound-a-year copper mine in Arizona.

The company on Thursday announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had issued the final underground injection control permit (UIC) for the Florence copper project.


“We now have one of a very few construction-ready, fully permitted copper projects in North America. With approvals in place from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and now the EPA, we can commence construction of the Florence Copper commercial production facility,” said Taseko president and CEO Stuart McDonald.

With procurement well advanced, the next steps would be mobilisation of contractors for the wellfield and SX/EW plant construction.


“We continue to advance discussions with potential lenders and royalty providers for the remainder of the project financing package and expect to have additional commitments in place before construction spending ramps up.”

When commercial operations begin, Florence Copper will have a yearly production capacity of 85-million pounds of copper at $1.11 per pound C1 cash costs over a 22-year mine life. Based on a March 2023 technical report for the project, which is supported by results from the successful operation of a production test facility, the project has an after-tax net present value of $930-million at a copper price of $3.75/lb.

“The Florence copper project is one of the least capital-intensive copper projects in the world and will have an environmental footprint smaller than any conventional openpit or underground mining operation of comparable size. Low water use, low energy consumption and low carbon emissions make Florence copper an exceptionally green project that will supply refined copper to the rapidly growing US domestic market,” said McDonald.

US committee recommends royalties on minerals for EVs in sweeping reform proposal

Reuters | September 12, 2023 | 

Aerial view of a dirt road at Thacker Pass Nevada. 

A federal committee on Tuesday recommended imposing royalties on US hardrock mining for the first time, a move it said could increase domestic production by providing funds for the agencies in charge of issuing new mining permits.


The proposal was part of a suite of recommendations aimed at increasing supply of the materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel that are needed for a domestic electric vehicle (EV) industry that is key to President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

In a 168-page report, the Interagency Working Group on Mining Laws, Regulations and Permitting broadly encouraged Congress to reform the General Mining Law of 1872, which established a system that provides free and open exploration of federal mineral deposits.

In addition to recommending royalties of 4% to 8%, the interagency group advocated for moving to a system of leasing federal lands for mining and encouraging mining claimants to develop claims in a timely manner by increasing fees over time.

Such changes would put the industry on more even footing with those like oil and gas and coal.

Increased funds could both shore up agency staff needed to speed mine permitting, engage with local communities and protect taxpayers from the cost of cleaning up abandoned mines.

“Agreeing to play by the same rules that other people are playing by can help with the public perception of the mining industry,” an Interior Department official said. “Also, if a community or a state is going to receive some of the revenue from this, then that can also either lower opposition or provide funding to address some of the issues that are causing the opposition.”

Automakers, miners, and mining states like Nevada have pressed for faster, more efficient mine permitting. Some tribes have asked for greater transparency and engagement around mine planning, while others and environmentalists have called for more studies on the pollution and safety risks of hard rock mining, pushing the federal government to limit mines.

The committee is led by the Interior Department and includes representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture, Energy and State departments, the White House and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

(By Nichola Groom; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

A Volcano In The U.S. Could Contain The Biggest Lithium Deposit In The World

Scientists think a massive volcanic eruption left behind enough lithium at the McDermitt Caldera to power the EV transition for decades.

By José Rodríguez Jr.
Monday Sept 11,2023

The site of a former supervolcano at the Oregon and Nevada border could turn out to be the largest lithium deposit in the U.S. and, possibly, the world. New research suggests that the McDermitt Caldera could contain over 132 million tons of lithium, which is enough to meet global demand for decades. This could give the U.S. a massive boost to its EV supply chain, and from a domestic source, no less.

The amount of lithium at the caldera has the potential to dwarf that of the former largest known lithium deposit in the world, the Atacama Salt Flat in Bolivia, according to the Independent. Based on volume alone, McDermitt could yield 12 times more lithium than the Atacama Salt Flat. And, more importantly, the lithium that miners plan to extract from the caldera can be collected in a way that’s allegedly less harmful to the environment.

It’s no secret that lithium extraction is a dirty process, and that it produces a lot of harmful byproducts. The two main methods of extraction are mining lithium ore from the Earth and brine recovery. The former requires heating up rock to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit using fossil fuels. And the latter is a costly, labor-intensive process that requires pumping out underground aquifers.

But due to the way the caldera formed — after a massive volcanic eruption 16 million years ago — harvesting its volcanic sedimentary lithium could be done through a third method of extraction that’s less invasive and less labor-intense. Popular Science describes it as such:

When volcanic minerals containing lithium flow into nearby valleys and react with the loose dirt, they leave behind lithium-rich sediments that require little energy and processing to separate.



The Independent cites the latest research from the scientists themselves, who add that:

“Developing a sustainable and diverse supply chain to meet lower-carbon energy and national security goals requires mining the highest-grade domestic lithium resources with the lowest waste:ore strip ratios to minimise both the volume of material extracted from the Earth,”the researchers noted in a study, published in Science Advances.

“Volcano sedimentary lithium resources have the potential to meet this requirement, as they tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste:ore strip ratios.”

The scientists suggest that mining in the right places will yield abundant lithium in a way that leaves little waste. It’s almost too good to be true: to happen upon the largest lithium deposit in the world right here in our own backyard. And to be able to pull most of that lithium in an allegedly less-harmful way.

The Bureau of Land Management is currently seeking public input in response to the proposal to expand lithium exploration in the McDermitt Caldera in anticipation of future mining. The proposal has already drawn criticism and protests from area tribes, including the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone and Burns Paiute, as Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

The tribes oppose the proposed mine on the Nevada side at Thacker Pass, citing its would-be location atop sacred land. Depending on the outcome of a series of lawsuits brought by the tribes, and on whether the lithium is to be found at the McDermitt Caldera in such large quantities, mining could begin in 2026.

Tesla supplier weighs Indonesia battery metal unit IPO
Bloomberg News | September 14, 2023 | 

Credit: CNGR Advanced Material Co.

Chinese battery metals producer CNGR Advanced Material Co. is weighing an initial public offering of Indonesian assets as soon as the end of 2024, according to people familiar with the matter.


The Shenzhen-listed company is in talks with potential financial advisers for a Jakarta IPO that could raise at least $300 million, or as much as $500 million if the market is favorable, the people said. CNGR is in the process of preparing the Indonesian unit — which will include its smelter assets in the country — for listing, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

Indonesia’s capacity to produce nickel matte, an intermediate product that can be further refined for use in electric vehicle batteries, could jump fourfold, according to a BloombergNEF report last month. Tesla Inc. struck long-term deals last year with existing suppliers CNGR and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. that will last through 2025, in a bid to secure supplies amid intensifying competition.

Deliberations are ongoing and CNGR could decide not to proceed with an Indonesian listing, the people said. A representative for CNGR declined to comment.

CNGR has two nickel matte production lines with a combined annual capacity of 27.5 kilotons, a post on its WeChat showed. It launched its nickel matte production line in Morowali Industrial Park in October last year, according to a statement on its website, and opened a second facility in Weda Bay in January.

Indonesia’s booming IPO market this year was led by miners, as the nation’s large reserves of nickel give it an edge to supply raw materials for electric vehicle batteries. In March, PT Trimegah Bangun Persada, also known as Harita Nickel, raised about $645 million in the country’s second biggest listing this year, while PT Merdeka Battery Materials raised $610 million in the third largest listing.

(By Fathiya Dahrul, with assistance from Annie Lee)

Panama lawmakers to visit First Quantum mine amid contract debate

Reuters | September 13, 2023 | 

Cobre Panamá operation. (Image courtesy of First Quantum Minerals).

Some Panamanian members of congress will visit First Quantum’s copper mine next week, as a vote looms on a contract which would guarantee the Central American government annual income of $375 million, a lawmaker said on Wednesday.


The contract is a hot issue in Panama where opponents object to its environmental impact and permits to broaden operations.

Juan Diego Vasquez, a member of the congressional trade commission holding consultations on the contract, told Reuters the visit is scheduled for Tuesday, adding he is aiming to change it to another day so more officials can attend.

Authorities from the government of President Laurentino Cortizo have said they will take any findings from the visit into account to clear any doubts about the contract among lawmakers and the population and mull appropriate changes.

“I am going to wait for the commission to finish that process and then we will evaluate… We have always been willing to listen and improve (the contract) to the extent that it can be improved, but at this moment I would not want to get ahead,” Trade Minister Federico Alfaro Boyd told reporters on Tuesday.

Cortizo’s administration and the Canadian miner agreed on the final text for a contract to operate the key Cobre Panama copper mine in March.

Boyd told Reuters at the time he was confident the text would get the green light from authorities. First Quantum did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the contract’s future.

Panama is set to hold general elections next year. Most presidential candidates have come out in favor of the contract, but the reception has been mixed among lawmakers.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered near Panama’s presidency to protest the contract on Wednesday, demanding more environmental protection and fewer expansion permits.

Authorities said in March the country would receive about 10 times more money with the new contract than what it was getting under the previous deal.

First Quantum paid $57 million in royalties during 2022, from Cobre Panama’s $3 billion sales revenue, according to company data.

(By Valentine Hilaire and Elida Moreno; Editing by Christian Plumb and Christopher Cushing)

GEMOLOGY

De Beers ends lab-grown engagement diamonds foray as prices drop

Bloomberg News | September 13, 2023 |

Lab-grown diamonds. (Reference image by GrownDiamond, Pixabay).

De Beers decided to call time on offering lab-grown diamonds for engagement rings even as the man-made alternatives continue to cannibalize demand in one of the company’s most important markets.


After vowing for years that it wouldn’t sell stones created in laboratories, in 2018 De Beers reversed that position and only this year started testing sales of the diamonds in the crucial engagement-ring sector. The diamond industry leader said Wednesday that the trial showed that it wasn’t a sustainable market.

De Beers’ move comes as the kinds of stones that go into the cheaper one- or two-carat solitaire bridal rings popular in the US have experienced far sharper price drops than the rest of the market, with the lower-cost lab-grown competition seen behind the collapse.

World’s largest diamond miner De Beers to sell synthetic stones

De Beers has said the current weakness is a natural downswing in demand after the pandemic, with engagement rings particularly vulnerable. The company concedes that there has been some penetration into the category from synthetic stones, but doesn’t see it as a structural shift.

Lab-grown diamonds — physically identical stones that can be made in matter of weeks in a microwave chamber — have long been seen as an existential threat to the natural mining industry. Proponents say they can offer a cheaper alternative without many of the environmental or social downsides sometimes attached to mined diamonds.

While the price of some natural stones used in lower-quality engagement rings have plummeted in the past year, the fall in lab-grown prices has been even steeper. De Beers has said it expects lab-grown prices to continue to decline as more supply comes into the market

Retailers would need to double the number of lab-grown carats they sell every two years, just to maintain profits, De Beers said.

(By Thomas Biesheuvel)

Welcome to the crazy world of China’s lithium mine auctions

Bloomberg News | September 13, 2023 | 

Yunnan province, China. Stock image.

Welcome to the world of China’s lithium auctions, where vast numbers of bids are placed, firms end up spending over a thousand times the opening price, and buyers promising hundreds of millions of dollars have walked without paying.


China is the biggest producer of electric vehicles and lithium is a key element in the batteries that power them. But the country holds just a fraction of the world’s identified reserves, which means it has to import over half of what it needs.

The latest sales of licenses to mine the critical mineral will take place in the southwestern province of Yunnan next month. The local government has put five-year exploration rights to two projects in the cities of Kunming and Yuxi up for grabs, underscoring Beijing’s determination to accelerate the domestic development of one of the most crucial resources for the global transition away from fossil fuels.

The auctions will be closely watched after heated competition drove up the price of two mines in neighboring Sichuan in August. A unit of Inner Mongolia Dazhong Mining Co. won the rights to the province’s Barkam mine with a winning bid of 4.2 billion yuan ($580 million), which was over 1,300 times the starting price. The auction drew more than 11,000 bids. The second mine in Jinchuan county fetched 1 billion yuan, with a subsidiary of Sichuan Energy Industry Investment Group paying nearly 1,800 times the opening price.

Sotheby’s might sniff at how the auctions were conducted. The sales in Sichuan were “hot in the sense that there are so many bids,” Daiwa Capital Markets’ analysts Dennis Ip and Leo Ho said in an email. But that’s partly explained by the low opening price and the tiny increment — just 100,000 yuan — at which the bids proceeded, which inflated their number, according to the analysts.

In addition, some firms entered the contest to ensure their future eligibility for other auctions, they said.

But even if some of the drama surrounding the auctions seems concocted, it shouldn’t mask Beijing’s serious intent when it comes to marshaling the resources necessary to feed its world-leading electric car and battery industries.

“China has put more emphasis on the exploration and development of domestic lithium resources,” said Susan Zou, an analyst at Rystad Energy. It wants to expand both mining and processing as a dual insurance policy to counter geopolitical risks and protectionist moves around the world to secure the supply of critical minerals.


There’s a growing urgency for China to defend its dominance of the supply chain. The US has stepped up efforts to build its own networks with allies like Canada and Australia. Some nations are also seeking to keep more revenue at home by adding processing plants that can raise the value of their lithium exports.

Some Chinese firms that have expanded their global footprint — snapping up resources from Argentina to Zimbabwe — have started to meet setbacks due to political tensions and resource nationalism. In recent weeks, Ganfeng Lithium Group Co.’s joint venture in Mali was ordered to suspend some operations while nine of its lithium concessions were canceled by Mexico. Last year, Canada ordered three Chinese companies to divest stakes in firms listed in Toronto under tougher rules for foreign investment.

The backdrop is a roller-coaster in prices. Lithium carbonate, a refined form of the metal, has collapsed to 189,500 yuan a ton after a two-year rally took it to a record of 597,500 yuan in November. Still, it remains about four times higher than the historic low hit in 2020. Global demand, meanwhile, is expected to grow nearly five times by the end of the decade, according to BloombergNEF.

The plunge in prices may have accounted for the failure of an earlier auction in February, when a unit of Xinjiang Zhite New Materials Co. won the exploration rights to a mine in the autonomous region for 6 billion yuan, but then failed to follow through with payment.

Prices probably fell too far for the project to be economical, according to Daiwa’s analysts.

And a sale in May last year for a firm with a controlling stake in another lithium mine in Sichuan initially fell through after the winner didn’t pay its 2 billion yuan bid. But the auction did attract nearly 1 million online viewers over the course of its five days.

The upcoming sales in Yunnan will require bidders to place deposits once offers reach a certain level to avoid a repeat of the failed auctions.

(By Annie Lee)

Europe’s mining quest faces a hurdle: angry locals
Reuters | September 13, 2023 | 

Drilling at Mina do Barroso lithium project in northern Portugal. (Image courtesy of Savannah Resources)

In Portugal’s northern Barroso region, Maria Loureiro weeps at the prospect of losing her family’s land to a mine that could become one of Europe’s biggest producers of lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries and other clean technologies.


“I don’t want them to take away what has been left to me by my parents and grandparents,” 55-year-old Loureiro said. “I don’t want the mine … I will fight it to the death.”


She is among local activists in Portugal and elsewhere whose determination to halt mine developments – via protests, legal challenges or simply refusing to sell or rent the land needed – threatens to slow the European Union’s green transition.

Their opposition could also frustrate plans for the EU to reduce its dependence on China by producing more itself of the raw materials needed for technology like EVs.

With 60,000 tonnes of known reserves, Portugal is already Europe’s biggest producer of lithium, traditionally mined for ceramics. Barroso, whose lush mountain pastures are a Food and Agriculture Organization heritage site, contains one of its richest deposits.

London-based Savannah Resources wants to build four open-pit mines there, producing enough lithium each year for around half a million EV batteries.

“All eyes are on a project like this,” Martin Jackson​​​​, head of battery raw materials at consultancy CRU, said of Savannah’s plans, which got a favourable assessment from Portugal’s APA environment agency in May.

“It is a key test for Portugal and Europe as a whole.”

The European Commission’s planned Critical Raw Materials Act would see the EU mine at least 10% of the lithium, cobalt and similar materials it uses by 2030 and refine and recycle more as global competition grows for those resources.

Michael Schmidt, senior analyst at Germany’s DERA mineral resources agency said current and planned mining projects could cover 25-35% of EU lithium demand by 2030, although meeting the 10% target for materials like nickel and cobalt would be harder.

Referring to the Barroso project and another in France, he said it would be “a disaster if either … doesn’t succeed”.

“While Europe would be able to procure the minerals elsewhere, what would be the costs? Suppliers would be able to dictate prices and conditions,” Schmidt said.

Portugal’s lithium reserves have “an important role to play” in meeting the EU’s target, the environment ministry said, adding that new mines would bring money and jobs for local communities. In a statement, it also pledged “the highest social and environmental standards”.

But Barroso farmer Nelson Gomes, 47, part of the UDCB movement campaigning against mining expansion, is sceptical.

“They (governments) are trying to clean up cities by polluting villages,” he said.
“Colonialism”

Opposition to mining projects elsewhere in Europe has also focused on environmental damage.

Last month, climate activist Greta Thunberg protested against plans to develop a huge rare earth metals deposit at Kiruna, in Sweden’s far north, which the area’s indigenous Sami people have decried as “colonialism”.

“Are we to be sacrificed so that people in big cities can have electric cars?,” Sami community representative Karin Kvarfordt Niia said.

State-owned miner LKAB’s spokesperson Anders Lindberg said it could minimize the effects on the Sami, who without new mines to hasten electrification would face threats from accelerated climate change to their traditional way of life.

Savannah described as a “major milestone” the APA’s green light in May for its Barroso project, subject to conditions regarding the removal of vegetation and use of river water.

Last week, APA also approved a new mine in nearby Montalegre for local operator Lusorecursos.

But with only 15 of 916 submissions in a public consultation supporting the project, Savannah faces a struggle to win over locals who have said they will fight it and the APA in court. The company, which aims to start production at Barroso in 2026, has earmarked $40 million for community projects and stressed other benefits including a new road.

“It’s like they are telling us that they’re going to cut off one of our arms or legs and then offer one of the best doctors in the world to heal us,” said UDCB’s Catarina Alves Scarrott.

Savannah expects to pay about 15 million euros ($16 million) to secure the 840 hectares it needs, about 75% of which is traditional “baldios”, or common land.

It is offering an annual 335 euros per hectare to rent the baldios and 2-2.5 euros per square metre to buy private plots – at least twice their market value, according to Scarrott and Savannah. So far it has secured just 93 hectares.

“Most of the population … will not accept any money because people know what is at stake: their home,” said Aida Fernandes, head of Barroso’s baldios association, which has rejected the company’s offer.

Savannah’s CEO Dale Ferguson told Reuters the land issue is “certainly something we need to resolve … via dialogue” but that the process was going well.

Ferguson – who will be succeeded this month by Portuguese Emanuel Proenca – said a 30-year mining lease “safeguards Savannah’s access” to the necessary land, and that it “will use the mechanisms provided in Portuguese law but only when it is not possible to reach an agreement”.

The Portuguese government could authorize a compulsory purchase in the public interest but no such request has been received, the environment ministry said, noting that such an order would require the payment of fair compensation.
Europe-wide

An annual camp-out against the mine organized by UDCB in August brought together locals and more than 200 activists from Portugal and countries including France and lithium-rich Chile.

Shouting “Barroso is not for sale” and “Savannah, get off our mountains”, they marched around the village of Covas with its rustic stone houses. Some carried animal skulls to highlight what they say are threats to the region’s fauna.

“This is a Europe-wide problem, as multinationals dig all over the continent,” said Teresa Camille, 54, whose group Stop Mine 03 is campaigning against plans for a mine in France that could supply lithium for around 700,000 EV batteries a year.

Gunilla Hogberg Bjorck, who represents opponents of southern Sweden’s Norra Karr rare earths project, held up since 2009 by concerns it could pollute drinking water, fears the EU’s push for mining independence will be a “catastrophe” for environmental law.

“Politicians listen to those who shout loudest and have most money – and that’s the mining industry,” she said.

(By Catarina Demony, Miguel Pereira, Pietro Lombardi and Simon Johnson; Editing by Aislinn Laing and Catherine Evans)

 

Operators rebel against proposed new surge pricing for pints at U.K. pubs

Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg News

The price of your next pint may have something in common with your next flight. Then again, it might not. It depends on where you drink.

The U.K.’s biggest pub operator, Stonegate Group, whose venues include Slug & Lettuce and Be At One has introduced “dynamic pricing” to pints and other drinks at 800 of its 4,500 venues during busy times like weekends. The price will go up when the place is packed; it might go drop below the standard price at less crowded times, in an effort to induce customers to come in. 

But that doesn’t mean it will get more expensive to drink on Saturdays everywhere. Many operators, including the ubiquitous U.K. pub chain J D Wetherspoon, say they won’t be hiking prices up and down. A representative for the company, which has nearly 900 locations across the U.K. and Ireland, says that they have no plans to implement dynamic pricing. Greene King, which operates 2,700 pubs, hotels and restaurants in the U.K., also confirmed that it doesn’t intend to use surge pricing in the near or distant future. 

The concept mirrors the practice of airlines and hotel companies that increase prices for seats and rooms at busy times, in line with demand. Uber users will also be very familiar with “surge pricing” as they try to get home from the pub on a late Friday evening. 

Heath Ball, owner of the award-winning pub The Red Lion and Sun in North London, U.K., adamantly disagrees with the idea of surge pricing. His customers are, he says, very sensitive to price hikes because of the U.K.’s stubbornly high inflation rate. Ball says that if he has to raise prices, he will increase them across the board, rather than on targeted days and times. Flex pricing won’t do pubs any favors, he insists.  “Everyone hates being charged more for things like flights on school holiday time or concerts,” he says. “I don’t want going to the pub to feel like an event, I want it to be something people do with their mates all the time.” 

Unhappy Hour

Ball is currently in Bristol for the MA Leaders Club conference, an event focused on people in the pub trade. There, Stonegate’s surge pricing initiative has dominated conversation. The move has been dubbed “unhappy hour” by operators at the conference who agree that it’s not the press anyone wants when customers’ budgets are already squeezed. 

The price hikes, which were first reported by the Telegraph, will result in the cost of pints being increased by 20 cents, for example, on weekends at a Stonegate Central London venue. Though that’s not a large amount, it adds up after a few rounds especially in the midst of the rising price of beer. The average cost of a pint of lager in a U.K. pub now costs 4.58 pounds, according to data from the Office of National Statistics. In 2019, that same pint cost 3.70 pounds. Stories of eight-pound pints regularly cause grumbling on social media. 

Surge pricing is not new to Stonegate. Its pubs have implemented surge pricing in the past, hiking up the price of their pours by much as one pound (US$1.25) during major events like the FIFA World Cup in 2022. 

A spokesperson for Stonegate said in a release that “on occasions pricing may marginally increase in selective pubs and bars due to the increased cost demands on the business with additional staffing or licensing requirements such as additional door team members.” The spokesperson also flagged cost-saving promotions they offer, like happy hours and two-for-one cocktails. 

The pub industry in the U.K. has been struggling in recent years. The number of pubs around the country has dropped by a quarter since 2000, according to data from the British Beer and Pub Association. Post-pandemic, the businesses have struggled with rising costs of energy and raw materials like cooking oils. They have also faced problems both with hiring and retaining staff. 

“Gone are the days where everyone thinks publicans are rolling in cash, people just aren’t going out as much anymore,” says Ball. 

 

Tilray CEO on beer acquisitions and signs of cannabis legalization in the U.S.

Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg

Now Showing

ks on an upward trend

The CEO of Tilray Brands anticipates creating beer infused with cannabis if the drug becomes legal across the United States. 

Last month, Tilray bought eight beer brands from Anheuser-Busch for US$85 million and followed it up with a deal to take over 100 per cent of cannabis beverage company Truss Beverage Co. from Molson Coors Canada.

“I’m buying these brands too because I think there’s a big opportunity in the beer business and my whole strategy is craft beer,” Irwin Simon, chairman and CEO of Tilray Brands, told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview.

“Upon legalization (in the U.S.) one day, we will infuse these drinks with THC, with CBD, but we’ll have the distribution and we’ll have the brands when and if legalization does happen.”

Cannabis remains federally illegal in the U.S., though 23 states have legalized the drug for recreational use and another 13 have legalized it for medicinal purposes.

U.S. LEGALIZATION?

Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended easing restrictions on cannabis by reclassifying it as a Schedule III drug, the same category as testosterone and anabolic steroids, rather than its current Schedule I distinction along with heroin and LSD.

For Simon, the move is the latest in a series of steps closer to federal cannabis legalization in the U.S.

“The news last week gives hope that the government will do something,” he said. “I think what’s going to happen, in my opinion. Medical cannabis will be legalized first and they’ll leave it up to each of the states.”

If federal legalization comes to pass in the U.S., Simon said his company will be in a position to benefit.

“Tilray today is well diversified, well positioned and with legalization happening in the U.S., we are set to capitalize on that in a big way too,” he added. 

 

SNC-Lavalin rebrand: Firm changing its name this month

Stéphane Rolland and Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

SNC-Lavalin is changing its name to AtkinsRéalis as it faces an "inflection point" in its 112-year history, according to CEO Ian Edwards, after a tumultuous decade for the engineering giant.

The rebrand follows 11 years marked by trouble with the law, including the Libya corruption scandal that tarnished its reputation and ensnared the highest office of the Canadian government, as well as lacklustre earnings at times.

The company also hopes to shed the costly backlog of big, over-budget rail contracts that has plagued it for years and launch expansion plans after a steady slim-down regimen and, until 2021, declining revenue and headcount.

"Four years ago when I became the CEO, I think we were very transparent: We said there's a part of the company which is excellent, performs really well; there's parts of the company which don't ... We're going to stop doing what's not working, we're going to do more of what working really well," Edwards told The Canadian Press in an interview.

"From here, it's all about growth."

The name change to AtkinsRéalis signifies an "inflection point" for the firm and offers a greater sense of belonging to employees who work for its subsidiaries, Edwards said.

The company sold its unprofitable activities in the oil sector two years ago for a fraction of what it had paid in 2014 and no longer bids on fixed-price construction contracts due to frequent cost overruns, which are typically borne by the contractor.

Last month, less than five years after SNC embarked on a mission to streamline its operations, Edwards told analysts on a conference call the company aimed to blaze a "methodical" trail of mergers and acquisitions starting as early as 2024.

In this week's interview, he said the company will focus on mostly U.S. acquisitions, with two deals "probably" coming next year, followed by more in 2025. “We will start small, and we'll do it very, very step by step. We're not going to go into big M&A," he said.

The hoped-for turning point could mark the end of a long purgatory for SNC investors. The stock has traced a solid recovery since the start of the year, rising more than 75 per cent to top $43 per share. But the price remains at levels comparable to 2012, when questionable practices first surfaced and prompted the departure of former chief executive Pierre Duhaime.

Doubts persist in the financial community that SNC's newfound momentum will continue, particularly given its inconsistent performance over the years, said National Bank analyst Maxim Sytchev. But those worries can overlook the fact the company has a new management team and board of directors, he added.

"While we think that while margin expansion is certainly possible, it is by no means an easy task," he said.

The Montreal-based company said its symbol on the Toronto Stock Exchange will change from SNC to ATRL as of Monday, Sept. 18.

The moniker "SNC" stems from early partners Surveyer, Nenniger and Chênevert, after whom the company was officially named in 1946, with the title later shortened to the three-letter abbreviation. SNC merged with its heavily indebted chief rival Lavalin in 1991.

The company says its new name combines "Atkins" — the U.K.-based engineering firm WS Atkins it bought in 2017 — with “Réalis," a word "inspired by the city of Montreal and the company’s French-Canadian roots," the company said in a release Tuesday.

“'Réalis' also resembles the verb 'to realize' or 'to make happen' which emphasizes our focus on outcomes and project delivery."

The ongoing francophone emphasis is key. Edwards, who hails from the United Kingdom, cancelled an English-only speech in 2021 in the wake of controversies over unilingual anglophone CEOs' serving atop several Montreal-based companies.

Asked if the identity shift might mark a break with the firm's Montreal history, Edwards smiled.

"You know, we acquired Atkins. So it's not like a reverse," he said.

"We're kind of hoping that the 'Réalis' part of the name put those fears to bed ... This is absolutely staying a Quebec-based business with a head office in Montreal. Because there's no plans to move."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2023.

POSTMODERN MANICHAEISM

TKO Group, which houses WWE and UFC, begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange

Michelle Chapman, The Associated Press

The UFC logo is shown on a fighters hand during UFC Fight Night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Saturday, September, 14, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Shares of TKO Group, the new company that houses WWE and UFC, opened at US$102 per share in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. has closed its previously announced deal with World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. The pairing of WWE with the company that runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship creates a $21.4 billion sports entertainment company.

In a presentation after the deal was announced in April, the WWE and Endeavor said that they will cross-promote to drive brand awareness and deepen penetration of their overlapping fan base of more than 700 million UFC fans and 1.2 billion WWE fans worldwide.

Endeavor has a 51 per cent controlling interest in the new company. Existing WWE shareholders hold a 49% stake.

"With UFC and WWE under one roof, we will provide unrivalled experiences for more than a billion passionate fans worldwide,” Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor and TKO Group, said in a statement.

Jefferies analyst Randal Konik likes the combination of UFC and WWE.

“We like the assets of UFC and WWE in a world where linear TV is losing market share to streaming, thus live sports content is in high demand,” he wrote in a note to clients. “The upcoming rights expirations for both WWE and UFC present meaningful upside opportunities to the cash flows of both UFC and WWE in their own rights and will further drive EBITDA margins in each franchise incrementally higher.”

TKO Group Holdings Inc. is trading on the NYSE under the “TKO” ticker symbol.

 

PWHL, Canadian Tire reach multi-year agreement on sponsorship deal

BNN Bloomberg

A man cycles by a Canadian Tire store in North Vancouver on May 10, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

 

The Professional Women's Hockey League has struck a multi-year agreement with Canadian Tire to be the league's first funding partner. 

The collaboration includes sponsorship of the PWHL’s inaugural draft on Sept. 18 in Toronto.

Canadian Tire has committed to allocate a minimum of 50 per cent of its sponsorship dollars towards women’s professional sports by 2026 through its Women’s Sports Initiative.

The company was one of the premier sponsors which permanently ended its relationship with Hockey Canada because of the national sporting organization's handling of sexual assault allegations in the past.

The PWHL was officially introduced on Aug. 29 with an announcement naming its six markets between Canada and the U.S. 

The teams will be in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the New York City area, with play set to begin in January.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2023.

WORKERS CAPITAL

AIMCo opens first Asia office in Singapore, remains leery of China

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) is opening its first Asian office, but the Edmonton-based fund manager says it will steer well clear of China to focus instead on markets with less geopolitical risk.

The official opening Tuesday of AIMCo's new Singapore office marks the first foray into the Asia-Pacific region for what is one of Canada's largest institutional investors, with $158 billion of assets under management as of 2022.

CEO Evan Siddall said AIMCo, which invests on behalf of 17 pension, endowment and government fund clients in Alberta and manages more than 30 pools of capital, has up until recently been missing out on some of the investment opportunities that exist within the large, fast-growing economies of the Asian continent.

"We really are very under-represented in Asia. You know, we have less (investment) in Asia than we do in Alberta," Siddall said in an interview.

"I don't want to look in the rear-view mirror, but we've missed opportunities for sure."

Siddall said the Singapore office opening is part of a larger push by AIMCo towards greater diversification globally. The fund manager — which invests in public and private markets, real estate and infrastructure — already has offices in Calgary, Toronto, London and Luxembourg, in addition to Edmonton, and will be opening a New York City office soon.

But Siddall said Asia is important, as many countries there have economic growth that's outstripping that of the U.S and Europe. 

"In many of them, we just don't have any experience. But on a risk-adjusted basis, we think we can and we should do more (in Asia)," he said. 

"We have no rule of thumb, we have no target ... but it's more than we're doing now, and it's a fair bit more."

AIMCo is lagging behind many other Canadian institutional investors when it comes to establishing a foothold in Asia. A report by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada found that between 2003 and 2017, Canadian pension funds invested $25 billion in the region.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board has had an on-the-ground presence on the continent for over a decade, and currently has offices in Singapore as well as Hong Kong and Mumbai. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board also has offices in Mumbai and Hong Kong.

However, Canadian pension funds have also been under scrutiny recently for their exposure to China, particularly given questions around the health of that country's economy as well as its ongoing tensions with the West.

According to a Reuters report earlier this month, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has laid off at least five employees at its Hong Kong office as it steps back from deals in China.

Last spring, representatives of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation told a parliamentary committee studying Canada-China relations that they had paused new direct investment in China because of the increasing risks associated with that country.

Siddall said geopolitics is a significant risk factor in investing, and is the reason AIMCo has chosen to focus on the comparatively safe Singapore market rather than setting its sights on the world's second-largest economy. 

"We're not rushing into China. We basically have almost nothing (invested) in China and really only in passive instruments," Siddall said.

"There are some countries, where the rule of law and corruption are concerns, that we would rather just avoid, frankly." 

After reporting a loss of 3.4 per cent for 2022, AIMCo says its performance has improved significantly in 2023. The fund manager said for the six-month period ending June 30, its net investment return was 4.5 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2023.

PRICE GOUGING PROFITEERING

Grocer Empire reports Q1 profit and sales up from year ago

The Canadian Press

Empire Co. Ltd. says it earned $261.0 million in its latest quarter, up from $187.5 million in the same quarter last year, boosted by the sale of its 56 gas stations in Western Canada to Shell Canada.

The grocer, which owns Sobeys and Safeway and other banners, says the profit amounted to $1.03 per share for the quarter ended Aug. 5, up from a profit of 71 cents per share a year earlier.

Sales in what was Empire's first quarter totalled $8.08 billion, up from $7.94 billion in the same quarter last year. 

Same-store sales were up 3.0 per cent, while same-store sales, excluding fuel, were up 4.1 per cent.

On an adjusted basis, Empire says it earned 78 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 71 cents per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for an adjusted profit of 75 cents per share, based on estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2023.

It will take 20 years for feds to break even with Volkswagen, Stellantis deals: PBO

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

The parliamentary budget officer says it will take the federal and Ontario governments until 2043 to break even on their electric-vehicle battery deals with two automotive giants.

The governments announced subsidies for Volkswagen and Stellantis-LG Energy Solution this year to entice them to build electric vehicle battery plants in Canada.

A report released by the PBO on Tuesday says it will take 20 years for government revenues generated from the production of both plants to equal the production subsidies, which will total $28.2 billion by the end of 2032. 

In March, Canada reached a deal that will see Volkswagen get up to $13.2 billion in production subsidies for batteries they produce at a plant planned for St. Thomas, Ont.

Stellantis later asked for a similar deal for a plant it's constructing in Windsor, Ont., and ultimately secured a $15-billion agreement.

The production subsidies for both plants are supposed to mirror incentives offered by the U.S. through the Inflation Reduction Act, a law passed in the summer of 2022 that makes significant investments in the green economy.

The cost of the Canadian production subsidies are to be shared between the federal and Ontario governments, with Ottawa shouldering two-thirds of the cost.

However, the PBO report includes a notable caveat: the analysis does not include any additional government revenue that may be generated from spillover effects in the economy.

That's in contrast to the federal government's five-year break-even calculation for the Volkswagen deal, which includes expected revenue from production increases across the supply chain.

The Liberals have argued that these hefty production subsidies will have larger effects in the economy by encouraging more companies involved in the automotive industry to invest in Canada. That, in turn, would help push the country ahead with its green transition plans.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the PBO's findings demonstrate that the agreements are "good deals." 

"While the parliamentary budget officer's report does not capture many of the broader economic impacts on the supply chain, it does highlight, once again, that the investments will generate economic benefits far greater than our government's contribution," Champagne said in a statement published on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The federal government has not provided a break-even estimate for the Stellantis deal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2023.

International Petroleum to expand Blackrod, Alta. facility

Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg

International Petroleum Corp. is expanding its facility in Blackrod, Alta., with the goal of producing oil at a new development project by the end of 2026.

The company says the US$850-million project is expected to produce 30,000 barrels of oil daily by 2028. IPC holds a 100 per cent working interest in the project.

“We took a strategic decision at the start of this year to sanction the Greenfield development project, which hasn’t been done in quite some time,” William Lundin, chief operating officer of International Petroleum, told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview on Tuesday.

“This asset has a significant amount of resource at play.”

A greenfield project refers to a development on bare, undeveloped land.

Lundin said the project is particularly exciting given its proximity to a pipeline leading to Edmonton, which can then connect to shipping options through the Trans Mountain pipeline. 

TRANS MOUNTAIN TIMELINE

The beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline has faced several delays, including the possibility of another nine months due to a route change. In a worst-case scenario, the pipeline won’t be finished until the end of 2024.

“It might be a little delayed potentially, as we’re hearing some rumblings about that, but I think we’ll be in good time,” Lundin said. “By the time Blackrod comes on, I’m sure that pipeline will be in service.”

With files from Bloomberg News