BILLIONAIRE BUDDIES

Rinehart’s $1B SpaceX bet targets mining beyond Earth

Cecilia Jamasmie | June 15, 2026 |

Gina Rinehart has backed Elon Musk with a massive investment in SpaceX. (Image: Hancock Prospecting.)

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has taken a “significant stake” in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, betting that the world’s largest space company could become a major driver of demand for critical minerals and off-Earth infrastructure.

Hancock Prospecting said Monday it received an allocation of SpaceX shares in the company’s record-breaking initial public offering last week, though it did not disclose the size of the investment. 

The Australian Financial Review reported the stake is worth more than $1 billion. SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, raised $75 billion in the largest IPO on record and closed its first trading day up 19%.

“This is a significant investment for Hancock,” Rinehart said in the statement. SpaceX is “operating in sectors that are crucial and with long-term potential.”

The investment deepens ties between the mining and space sectors as governments and private companies increasingly explore how critical minerals, water and energy resources could support future activity beyond Earth.

Hancock has built one of the largest critical minerals portfolios outside China, including stakes in Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC) and MP Materials (NYSE: MP), positioning the company to benefit if space development becomes a meaningful source of demand.

An investment exceeding $1 billion would rank among Rinehart’s largest holdings outside Hancock’s core iron ore operations in Western Australia. The billionaire has expanded aggressively into rare earths and other strategic minerals in recent years.

“We also see the possibility of mutually beneficial arrangements between SpaceX and Hancock Prospecting’s significant critical minerals investments,” Hancock CEO Garry Korte said in the statement. “We look forward to the potential of working with the SpaceX team on its exciting journey.”

Moon economics

Industry experts increasingly argue mining will need to expand into more challenging environments, from the Arctic and deep oceans to, eventually, the Moon and asteroids. NASA’s Artemis program aims to establish pilot processing facilities for lunar resources by 2032, initially focusing on water, energy and lunar soil before advancing toward metals and minerals.

Last week, NASA unveiled the crew of Artemis III and offered an optimistic update on the mission’s progress, but left unanswered a key question: whether the mission will be ready to launch next year. 

Much of Artemis III’s success depends on Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which are developing lunar landers designed to transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface. Before that can happen, Artemis III must first demonstrate critical manoeuvres with versions of those spacecraft closer to Earth.

Lunar water is viewed as one of the most valuable resources because it can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen for life support and rocket fuel. That shifts the early economics of space mining away from metal production and toward building infrastructure for long-duration exploration missions.

Asteroids and lunar deposits are believed to contain nickel, iron and platinum-group metals, but extracting them remains a formidable challenge. Even as launch costs fall, operators would still need to identify targets, travel to them, extract material and either process it in space or return it to Earth economically.

Long road

Private companies are nevertheless advancing the sector. AstroForge recently raised $40 million for a mission designed to rendezvous with a metallic near-Earth asteroid, with future plans to extract and refine materials. The company also received the first commercial licence from the US Federal Communications Commission to operate in deep space, establishing an early regulatory precedent for private missions beyond Earth orbit.

The economics remain daunting. Using NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission as a benchmark, analysts estimate iridium prices would need to rise roughly 140,000-fold for a comparable asteroid-mining venture to break even, highlighting how far the industry remains from commercial-scale returns.

The legal landscape is also unresolved. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits national sovereignty claims over celestial bodies, while ownership rights to extracted resources remain contested. China and Russia have not joined the US-led Artemis Accords, and the 1979 Moon Agreement lacks support from major space powers, leaving significant uncertainty over how future lunar and asteroid resources will be governed.

 

Mining’s next boom is off the map: Arctic ice, abyssal plains and asteroids

Frik Els | June 12, 2026 | 

Image courtesy of OSIRIS-REx – NASA

Research firm BMI’s new Metals And Mining Megatrends To 2050: Navigating A New Era Of Technology, Geopolitics And Green Transformation argues that over the next quarter century, the mining industry will increasingly venture north of the 60th parallel, kilometres below the ocean surface and, eventually, beyond Earth’s orbit.

The pull towards the arctic, the seafloor and ultimately space has many drivers. Historic reserves are maturing, ore grades are declining and the energy transition and the trillion dollar data center build-out are creating supply bottlenecks from specialty materials like indium phosphide and samarium-cobalt through to everyday essentials like copper.

Robotics will be next decade’s metals chokepoint (look for a tipping point once humanoids start building humanoids) but physical AI and autonomy are already making it cheaper to operate and explore safely in harsh and high-cost environments.

AI and subsurface intelligence are helping miners deal with deeper deposits, lower grades and long development timelines, with one example showing how AI-supported geoscience can reduce uncertainty and improve permitting confidence.

Operational AI is also moving into plants and fleets, including Vale’s AI-powered processing plant in Minas Gerais, which lifted productivity by 25%, and autonomous drilling work between Sandvik and Rio Tinto.

Higher prices can also make difficult deposits look commercially viable and government support policies like on- near- and friend-shoring can push capital toward projects that previously looked too remote, too expensive or too risky – a $200 billion government war chest would do that.

The Arctic comes first

Of BMI’s three frontier themes, the Arctic is the closest to mainstream mining. Warming temperatures and changing ice conditions are opening seasonal access to parts of the region, while geopolitics is increasing the value of mineral deposits in Canada, the US, Greenland, Russia and Northern Europe.

Greenland is the clearest example. The island has urged the US and Europe to invest in its mining sector, warning that a lack of Western capital could leave it looking to China. The strategic case is obvious: Greenland’s mineral sector involves as many as 40 items on US and EU critical minerals lists, while China accounts for about 60% of global rare earth mine supply and nearly all rare earth refining.

But Greenland also shows why Arctic mining is difficult: deposits can be large, strategically important and still face long timelines because of remoteness, infrastructure gaps, permitting risk, local opposition and policy uncertainty.

Project momentum is building. Greenland approved the indirect transfer of the mining licence for Tanbreez after Critical Metals lifted its ownership to 92.5%, with the southern Greenland asset regarded as one of the largest undeveloped heavy rare earth deposits outside China. A preliminary economic assessment valued the project at about $3 billion, based on a 4.7-billion-tonne resource.

Critical Metals has also approved a $30 million program to accelerate Tanbreez, with first ore targeted for late 2028 or early 2029 and concentrate exports expected to follow in 2029. Offtake agreements already cover roughly three-quarters of expected rare earth concentrate output – an indication that many more Tanbreezes will be needed.

Greenland Resources secured a 30-year permit for the EU-backed Malmbjerg molybdenum project, which is expected to supply about 25% of the EU’s annual molybdenum demand over its first decade. Greenland Mines has also moved to buy the Sarfartoq rare earth project from Neo Performance Materials for $35 million.

Permitting is the Arctic’s first real test

Greenland’s Kvanefjeld rare earth project shows how quickly policy can change the investment case. Energy Transition Minerals has been told that Greenland intends not to renew the project’s exploration licence, a decision tied to the country’s 2021 Uranium Act, which effectively bans uranium prospecting, exploration and exploitation.

The move has put one of Greenland’s largest undeveloped critical minerals assets in doubt. The company has warned that Greenland’s actions amount to creeping expropriation as the dispute heads to court, while local opposition and shifting policy continue to cloud the project.

Canada’s North offers another warning. Nunavut has gold, diamonds, iron, cobalt and rare earth metals, and the territory now has more control over its resources after Canada formally gave Nunavut authority over its mineral reserves. But Nunavut covers 2.1 million sq. km, has a population of only about 40,000 and faces an almost complete lack of infrastructure, making operating costs exceptionally high.

The Mary River iron ore mine illustrates the approval risk. Baffinland’s proposed expansion suffered a major setback after the Nunavut Impact Review Board advised against the project on environmental grounds, citing potential effects on marine mammals, fish, caribou and Inuit culture. The review also followed community tensions, including a protest in which hunters from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet blocked access to the mine over concerns about icebreaking and narwhals.

Infrastructure is another constraint. Canada’s remote Arctic diamond mines depend on seasonal ice roads, but milder winters are making those logistics less reliable. The Winter Road serving Ekati, Diavik and Gahcho Kué costs about C$25 million to operate for two months, and a shortened season could make exploration-stage projects harder to justify. The region’s infrastructure deficit is so large that the economics of new critical mineral mines can depend on whether roads, power and ports arrive first.

Alaska’s Ambler district shows the same tension in the US. Trilogy Metals’ Arctic copper-zinc project has been accepted into the FAST-41 permitting program, a step that could help streamline approvals for one of the highest-grade undeveloped polymetallic deposits in the US. But the 340-km Ambler access road remains highly contentious.

Federal permits for the road were blocked under the Biden administration, then reinstated under Trump. Opponents argue the route would cut through sensitive wilderness, cross rivers and streams, affect caribou migration and threaten subsistence lifestyles. Environmental groups and Indigenous communities continue to oppose the project, with the Sierra Club saying 89 Tribes and First Nations have formally opposed the road.

That is the Arctic problem in one sentence: the minerals are strategic, but the land is not empty. Faster permitting may help projects move, but it can also intensify legal challenges and protests. Canada’s broader push to accelerate resource approvals has already faced Indigenous and environmental opposition, with some groups threatening demonstrations and legal action over legislation designed to fast-track natural resource and infrastructure projects.

Deep-sea mining moves into the regulatory fight

Deep-sea mining is less advanced than Arctic mining, but it is moving quickly into the policy arena. BMI identifies three main resource types: polymetallic nodules at depths of roughly 4,000-6,500 metres, seafloor massive sulphides at 1,000-3,500 metres and cobalt-rich crusts at 800-3,000 metres.

The mineral appeal is clear. Polymetallic nodules contain manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt and trace minerals used in EV batteries, electronics and solar panels. President Trump signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, with the administration seeking faster access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals in both US and international waters.

More than 1 billion tonnes of nodules are estimated to lie in US waters, and administration estimates put the potential economic impact at $300 billion over 10 years and 100,000 jobs. Overblown perhaps, but even a fraction of that will make a difference to meet future demand.

NOAA then moved to streamline deep-sea mining permitting under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, consolidating parts of the process and shortening review timelines. That gives companies a US pathway that could move faster than the UN-backed International Seabed Authority, which is still negotiating rules for commercial extraction in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The Metals Company is the most visible test case. The company is advancing plans for a US-based polymetallic nodule processing hub at the Port of Brownsville in Texas, with proposed capacity of 12 million tonnes per year. It has also signed a commercial agreement with Allseas to develop and operate what the companies describe as the world’s first commercial deep-sea nodule recovery system, targeting initial offshore recovery operations by late 2027.

Other entrants are moving as well. Deep Sea Minerals’ application under the US Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act has been deemed compliant by NOAA, putting the company into the federal review process for polymetallic nodule exploration and potential recovery across a proposed 150,000 sq. km Pacific concession.

The seabed rulebook is still unfinished

The richest international seabed areas sit beyond national jurisdiction. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the deep seabed is treated as the common heritage of humankind, with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) responsible for regulating mineral activity there. The US has not ratified UNCLOS, and its move to permit seabed mining under domestic law has created a direct governance conflict.

That conflict is now central to the sector’s future. Trump’s seabed push has collided with the ISA framework, with critics warning that unilateral licensing in international waters could undermine multilateral ocean governance. The dispute is already visible in the clash between US permitting efforts and the UN ocean treaty framework.

The ISA also has unresolved internal problems. Legal experts argue that the authority cannot lawfully approve deep-seabed mining without benefit-sharing rules, because UNCLOS requires financial and economic benefits from mining beyond national jurisdiction to be shared equitably. That leaves seabed mining caught between pressure to commercialize and the still-unresolved question of who benefits from minerals taken from the global commons.

Environmental opposition is growing. Governments are weighing commercial mining against a global moratorium while the ISA negotiates a mining code, and about 40 countries support some form of moratorium or precautionary pause. The debate has reached a critical point as policymakers weigh whether the deep ocean should remain protected while science and regulations catch up.

The High Seas Treaty adds another layer. The agreement, formally known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, allows the creation of conservation zones in international waters and requires governments to cooperate with bodies such as the ISA. The treaty does not mention mining directly, but it is expected to increase scrutiny of seabed extraction and tighten the squeeze on deep-sea miners.

Norway shows how fast the politics can turn. The country became the first to open its waters to commercial deep-sea mining exploration, covering about 280,000 sq. km of Arctic seabed, but later paused its Arctic seabed mining plans after political pressure. WWF-Norway also sued the government, arguing that the opening decision failed to properly assess environmental consequences and breached national law. The lawsuit underlines how environmental groups are turning to courts to slow seabed mining.

The science remains a major hurdle. A deep-sea mining trial at 4,280 metres, using baseline data from 3,000 tonnes of polymetallic nodules, found that macrofaunal animal density fell 37% and species richness declined 32% within mining tracks over the study period. The findings added weight to concerns that commercial-scale seabed disturbance could have significant ecosystem impacts.

The industry can point to technical milestones. TMC and SGS produced the world’s first nickel sulphate from seafloor polymetallic nodules, a step toward battery-grade processing. But a successful flowsheet is not the same as a permitted, financed and socially accepted mining industry. Deep-sea mining still has to prove that it can operate commercially without triggering unacceptable ecological or legal costs.

Space remains the long-dated frontier

Lunar and asteroid deposits are thought to contain nickel, iron and platinum group metals. The challenge is that space is not remote in the ordinary mining sense. It is remote in a way that makes every kilogram, every manoeuvre and every failed component expensive.

Falling launch costs help (that SpaceX is the biggest IPO in history is not just luck), but they do not solve the whole problem. A commercial space-mining operation would still need to identify a target, reach it, dock or land, extract material, process or concentrate it, and either use it in space or return it to Earth. That is a very different business from putting satellites into low Earth orbit.

Private companies are still pushing ahead. AstroForge raised $40 million for a third mission planned as a ride-along on Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 moon mission, part of its plan to harvest precious metals from asteroids. Its Vestri probe is designed to dock with a metallic near-earth asteroid, while a later mission would attempt extraction, refining and return. The company’s roadmap shows how asteroid mining is moving from concept to early mission architecture.

AstroForge also received the first-ever FCC commercial license to operate in deep space, a precedent for private missions beyond earth orbit. The licence covered the company’s Odin mission and communications with ground partners, marking an important regulatory step for commercial activity outside the earth-moon system.

The Moon may become the first practical testing ground. NASA is looking to operate a pilot processing plant for lunar resources by 2032 under Artemis, beginning with energy, water and lunar soil before later moving toward minerals and metals. The first customers may not be metal buyers, but space operators seeking water, oxygen or fuel.

Lunar water is central to that logic. Ice trapped in regolith can be split into oxygen and hydrogen, supporting human presence and providing rocket propellant for deeper-space missions. That makes mining lunar water less of a metal-supply story and more of an infrastructure story for long-term space exploration.

Returning metals to earth remains a much harder commercial case. Using NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample-return mission as a rough benchmark, iridium would need to rise roughly 140,000-fold for an asteroid-mining venture to break even. That does not rule out progress over several decades, but it shows why near-term asteroid mining economics remain extremely challenging.

The legal framework is also incomplete. The Outer Space Treaty bars sovereignty claims over the Moon and other celestial bodies, while private resource rights remain contested. The 1979 Moon Agreement has not been ratified by any major space power, and China and Russia have not joined the US-led Artemis Accords. That leaves major powers eyeing lunar resources in a legal environment full of gaps.

High risk, low carbon

AI-driven integration will matter because frontier projects need better exploration targeting, remote monitoring, autonomous systems, predictive maintenance and digital permitting evidence. Onshoring and supply chain diversification will matter because governments may be willing to support expensive projects if they reduce reliance on China or other concentrated suppliers.

Future-facing commodities will matter because copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earths are the metals most likely to justify frontier risk. Low-carbon mining will matter because Arctic diesel dependence, seabed ecosystem disturbance and space launch emissions will all be judged against tighter environmental standards.

China’s dominance is the strategic backdrop. The IEA sees limited progress in critical mineral supply diversification, with China leading the refining of 19 of 20 energy-related strategic minerals covered in its outlook and a potential 30% copper supply shortfall by 2035 under the current project pipeline. That explains why governments are backing new supply routes, including policy action to reduce critical mineral concentration and EU-US coordination on critical minerals supply chains.

Low-carbon operations will be part of the same competition. Fortescue’s Pilbara green grid, including solar, wind and battery storage, shows how major miners are starting to treat power systems as strategic infrastructure rather than a side issue.

The company expects to complete a system with 1.2 GW of solar, more than 600 MW of wind and 4-5 GWh of battery storage, highlighting how renewable power and storage can reduce exposure to diesel supply shocks. Frontier mines will face even greater pressure to solve that problem early.

Winners and losers

BMI’s likely winners are well-capitalized miners, first movers with strategic licences, advanced operators with data depth and specialist technology providers that can supply autonomous equipment, remote systems, subsea vehicles, vessels, sensors and low-carbon power solutions.

The likely losers are capital-constrained miners, companies tied to legacy portfolios with limited exposure to critical minerals, high-cost operators that cannot improve efficiency, and developers that underestimate permitting, Indigenous rights, environmental opposition or international law.

'Marine unicorns' aren't loving Arctic noise

Martin Kuebler  

DW

04/28/2026

Narwhals are fleeing Canada's far north. Researchers suspect a link to noise pollution from increasing ship traffic.

When the winter ice begins to melt, the speckled gray narwhals leave Baffin Bay and head toward the safe waters off Mittimatalik for the summer

Image: John E Marriott/All Canada Photos/picture alliance

For Alex Ootoowak, watching the speckled gray narwhals migrate in the icy waters of the Arctic during hunting season is a cherished childhood memory.

"It felt like a never-ending, looped-over scene of whales just constantly swimming past you all in the same direction, all migrating throughout the day, sometimes more than a day," said Ootoowak, who lives in Mittimatalik, also known as Pond Inlet, in Canada's far north. "You're always taught to be extra, extra quiet and careful […] because they're so sensitive."

The world's 80,000-plus narwhals mainly live in northeastern Canada and Greenland. For Ootoowak and others in Canada's Inuit communities, narwhal meat has been key to their survival for at least 1,000 years. It's an important source of protein, iron and vitamin C, and hunting is regulated by the government.

Climate change in the Arctic: Canada's melting permafrost  07:42

"This is our means of staying healthy and connected to the land and our culture," Ootoowak told DW. "It's not something we do just to kill and take animals for sport."
Narwhal numbers dwindling

But Ootoowak hasn't seen a migration like those of childhood for a long time. Over the last 20 years, hunters have noticed that the whales have become skinnier and harder to catch. By 2021, there were only about 2,000 left in the area — a 90% drop from more than 20,000 in the early 2000s.

Narwhal whale blubber and skin, sometimes eaten raw, is an important part of Inuit culture

Image: Yvette Cardozo/Visually/picture alliance

It's not clear why the whales are disappearing, and what's driving them away. Researchers suspect climate change may be playing a role, with the Arctic region warming four times faster than the rest of the planet.

"A whole host of things are changing — not just the ice, the water temperature, species, all the way from the bottom of the food chain all the way up," said Kristin Westdal, a marine mammal expert with Canadian marine conservation network Oceans North.

But she said the effects of climate change are gradual, and the drop in the whale population came over a relatively short time period. "And the only thing that changed that quickly in that habitat was the volume of ships coming through."

In 2015, a local mine run by a company called Baffinland opened a port nearby. Within two years, roughly 4 million tons of iron ore were shipped through the waters off Mittimatalik — and noise pollution increased dramatically.

Noise pollution may be driving whales away

Concerned about what the new noise was doing to the narwhals, Ootoowak and Westdal set up two listening stations in Milne Inlet, to the west of Mittimatalik. Within a couple of years, they were able to expand their acoustic monitoring program by collaborating with acoustics experts at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, based in San Diego.

By lowering special microphones called hydrophones through holes in the ice and 800 meters (nearly half a mile) down into the water, they've listened to the Arctic seascape 24/7 — marine life like barking seals and clicking narwhals foraging for food, but also rumbling engines from growing ship traffic. And they've found that these ship noises may be behind the drop in narwhal numbers.

The long tusk of the male narwhal, roughly 2 meters (6 feet) in length, is often mistaken for a horn

Image: Visually/picture alliance

The monitoring team published a study in 2025 which found that "narwhals appear to either move away or stop vocalizing" when vessels came within 12 to 24 miles (20 to 40 kilometers). And the whales were responding to noises below the threshold of 120 decibels — like a loud thunderclap, or a roaring chainsaw — which is considered the disturbance threshold for midsized whales like the narwhal.

Hunters, too, have noticed that narwhals begin behaving differently when a ship is nearby.

"As soon as the ship starts their engines, they move away or stop feeding, stop doing their deep dives where they're feeding on fish at the bottom of the ocean," said Ootoowak. Whales, he said, have learned to avoid the heavily traveled shipping channel when boats are in the area.

Are narwhals heading to Greenland?

Ootoowak said it wasn't clear where the whales were going, but he has a theory. On a visit to northern Greenland in 2024, to the east across Baffin Bay — where narwhals usually spend the summer months — he spoke with local hunters who told him of whales that had started showing up in their waters, right around the time shipping increased off Mittimatalik.


"They said narwhals that were appearing were 'foreign' because they were longer and skinnier and behaved very different to their narwhal," said Ootoowak. The hunters, he added, said the whales were easier prey and tasted different, too.

Outi Tervo, a senior scientist at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, has also been researching narwhals and noise pollution. She has observed that noises from shipping and oil and gas exploration can cause narwhals to stop foraging for food, which lines up with Ootoowak's observation of seeing skinnier narwhals.

Tervo said she hasn't seen any evidence that the whales have relocated from Canada to Greenland, but said an increase in unfamiliar sounds could be pushing them to migrate.

Climate change in Greenland brings eco concerns, opportunity  04:38

For narwhals, who rely on echolocation to communicate and hunt, she said the ability to hear is what the ability to see is to humans. So just as bright headlights or a flashlight to the eyes would temporarily blind us humans, sounds that interfere with narwhal echolocation profoundly disrupt their activity and push them to be "ready to escape," she said.

Tervo said habitats for narwhals are limited, and they've adapted to life in the Arctic. "They can't swim to the Caribbean and spend the winter there," she pointed out. "So I do think that it's very important to take the needs of the animals into consideration and try to make some safe havens for them."

Noise a growing concern as Arctic opens up

The good news, however, is that the sound monitoring project spearheaded by Ootoowak and Westdal has raised awareness about noise pollution in Canada's Arctic.

The local mining company, Baffinland, has lowered its shipping speed to 9 knots and is using fixed routes. It's also agreed to stricter rules for when icebreakers can be deployed. Cruise ships have also been quick to get on board, agreeing to speed limits and no-go zones.

As ice retreats in the Arctic, the region is seeing increased maritime traffic

Image: Adrian Wyld/AP Photo/picture alliance

"I would say it's generally positive," said Ootoowak, pointing out that the 2025 hunt was the first time in a decade that people were happy with what they caught during the fall migration. "It's going to take some time working with industry, working with government to get these things moved forward into policy."

Westdal said stronger oversight, cooperation with local communities and much more data would be key to keeping noise pollution under control, especially as companies eye the increasingly ice-free waters of the Northwest Passage for international shipping.

"We are seeing a slow and steady increase of people showing interest and trying to get through there, whether it be cruise ships, pleasure vessels or the occasional commercial vessel," she said. "And I think that having policies and regulations in place in the Arctic is going to be really important in getting ahead of what's coming."

This article was based on an episode of Living Planet produced by Kathleen Schuster.

Edited by: Sarah Steffen
Martin Kuebler Senior editor and reporter based in Brussels, with a focus on environmental issues

 

Canada Approves Construction of an Arctic Mineral Port on Baffin Island

Baffin Island (GRID-Arendal / CC BY SA 2.0)

Published Feb 1, 2026 2:46 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

At a time when Canada is prioritizing development of Arctic infrastructure, a new port and railway project in Baffin Island has received construction approval. The project, Steensby Railway, is a critical component of expanding production in the Mary River iron ore mine in the northern Baffin Island. The iron ore mine is one of the most northern mines in the world. Notably, Mary River is known as the world’s highest-grade direct ship (run-of-mine) iron ore development.

Last week, the operator of the Mary River mine, Baffinland, announced that consultations with the local community of Inuit had been completed. The Inuit supported the issuance of key regulatory licenses required for the Steensby project to begin.

“With over a decade of experience in operating the High Arctic, we are moving ahead with the Steensby component,” said Jowdat Waheed, acting CEO of Baffinland. “Negotiations for the financing package are at a very advanced stage, and as soon as it is complete, construction will commence.”

The Steensby project was originally approved by the Nunavut Impact Review Board back in 2012. However, the project was shelved as Baffinland preferred to expand the current transport route - from the mine north to Milne Inlet. At the time, the company considered the option as less costly. But in 2022, the federal government rejected the mine expansion plans following fierce protests by the Inuit groups. The community members feared that the expansion plans could have effects on the habitats of key marine mammals, including narwhal, which is an important food source for the Inuit people.

After this opposition, Baffinland decided to focus on the Steensby project, which is a southern route from the mine. The proposal is to transport the iron ore via rail south to a new deep-water port at Steensby Inlet. This will eliminate the long haul trucking to Milne port, which Baffinland said would lower production costs and environmental impacts.

Baffinland wants to build a 149-kilometer railway, connecting the Mary River mine to Steensby port. The federal government has expressed support for the project as it aligns with the vision to develop Canada’s northern economy and supply of critical minerals. The project construction is expected to begin later in 2026 and take three years to complete. The project is estimated to cost around $3 billion.

Once completed, the Steensby component will enable production at Mary River to increase from about 4.2 million tonnes per annum to 22 million tonnes per annum in four years.

Top image: GRID-Arendal / CC BY SA 2.0

Canada gives mineral-rich Arctic region of Nunavut control over its resources

THAT MAKES IT A PROVINCE

Reuters | January 18, 2024 |

The Northern Lights over the Meliadine mine in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut. Agnico Eagle photo

Canada on Thursday formally gave the giant Arctic territory of Nunavut control over its reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, cobalt and rare earth metals, a move that could boost exploration and development.


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a devolution agreement in the Nunavut capital Iqaluit with Premier P.J. Akeeagok, granting the territory the right to collect royalties that would otherwise go to the federal government.

Nunavut, a region of growing strategic importance as climate change makes shipping lanes and resources more accessible, covers 810,000 square miles (2.1 million square km) but has a population of only 40,000. An almost complete lack of infrastructure means operating costs are exorbitant.

“We can now bring decision-making about our land and waters home. It means that we, the people most invested in our homeland, will be the ones managing our natural resources,” Akeeagok said in a statement.

Challenges include harsh weather, lack of infrastructure, high costs, major social problems and a largely unskilled and undereducated Inuit aboriginal workforce.

Nunavut, created in 1999, was the only one of Canada’s three northern territories that had not negotiated devolution. Talks on the agreement started in October 2014.

Companies active in Nunavut include Agnico-Eagle Mines, operator of the territory’s only working gold mine.

Nunavut is home to some of the minerals critical for battery production. Canada has pledged billions in incentives to woo companies involved in all levels of the electric vehicle supply chain as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions.

But operating mines can be a complex affair in Nunavut, where some communities are concerned about potential pollution.

In 2022, Ottawa rejected a request by Baffinland Iron Mine Corp – part-owned by ArcelorMittal – to double production at its Mary River iron ore mine in the north of Nunavut, citing the environmental impact.

In 2020, Canada rejected Shandong Gold Mining’s bid for an indebted local gold producer amid concerns about a Chinese state-owned entity operating in the Arctic.

(By Natalie Maerzluft and David Ljunggren; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)

Shipping frenzy threatens Indigenous food security

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Arctic shipping and the noise and environmental pollution left in its wake are driving narwhals and other animals farther away from those who depend on them.

Lisa Koperqualuk points to the Inuit community of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), a northern Baffin Island hamlet with a population of around 1,500, as an example of how shipping has affected Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland stretching through Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

Over the past decade, the number of ships has increased in Mittimatalik’s waters. The increase of ships includes shipping vessels transporting iron from the Mary River Mine on Baffin Island 160 kilometres south of the community, as well as cruise and cargo ships, carrying both tourists and supplies to the North. It’s caused narwhals to veer far from their normal migratory routes to escape the noise and environmental pollution of shipping, Koperqualuk said. Over the past five years, the average number of ships passing through Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) because of the mine is around 71, Peter Akman, head of stakeholder relations and communications, told Canada's National Observer. However, that number was around 10 ships lower in 2022, as numbers can fluctuate depending on the size of the ships, Akman added.

In 2022, 22 cruise ships visited Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) with more ships expected in 2023, according to a territorial website commenting on the town's infrastructure plan. A handful of private yachts also visit the island throughout the shipping season, according to Nunatsiaq News.

That, in turn, has forced Inuit hunters from Mittimatalik to adapt and travel long distances to find narwhals and other marine life. Meat from narwhals and other whales is an important cultural food, often referred to in Inuit communities as country food for its comfort and symbolism of home.

Koperqualuk, vice-chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and president of the Canadian wing of the Inuit political organization, attended the International Maritime Organization’s meeting last week to advocate for Inuit demands, including new guidelines for underwater noise and reductions to greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry. The outcome was disappointing for her and other Indigenous communities to the south.

Koperqualuk told Canada’s National Observer new voluntary guidelines for underwater noise were agreed upon at the IMO, which is a United Nations agency responsible for regulating international shipping. However, they are dependent upon the “trust” and “goodwill” of individual ship owners. There are no mechanisms to ensure the ships comply, Koperqualuk said.



Baffinland, the company who operates Mary River Mine, told Canada's National Observer that they use several mitigation measures to help curb effects on marine life, Akman said.

The company employs six full-time and four part-time Inuit shipping monitors based in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) to address community concerns and questions. The Inuit shipping monitors also track vessels in the region and report when ships exceed speed limits or stray from a set route.

Ships that carry product for the mine are confined to a narrow shipping route, travel in convoys to reduce underwater sound, and are restricted to a maximum speed of nine knots, which is around 16 kilometres an hour, Akman said.

The company also tracks narwhal numbers and shares it with a working group composed of government agencies, non-governmental organizations and Inuit-led organizations.

"We have voluntarily implemented these strict mitigation measures to reduce the potential impact of our shipping activities on marine mammals, especially narwhal," Akman said.

However, until shipping can move away from fossil fuels like diesel and natural gas, the industry will still pollute waters, including through black carbon. IMO members agreed to a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 when compared to 2008 levels, which would keep global warming to 1.7 C, Bloomberg reports. But that number fell short of the 1.5 C limit that Inuit and Indigenous communities in the South Pacific were demanding. The shipping industry will reach its share of the world’s carbon budget — which also aims to limit warming to 1.5 C — by approximately 2032, according to Bloomberg.

Koperqualuk called the Pacific islanders “climate champions” for pushing the IMO for reductions and believed it was those communities that secured a better deal.

“If it hadn't been for them, I think the deal, the new strategy would have been still weaker; the outcome could have been worse,” she said.

Inuit share the same values and viewpoints as Pacific islanders because both regions share the same vulnerability to a changing climate, as well as a dependence on ocean ecosystems.

The federal government has acknowledged the Arctic is warming at four times the speed of the rest of the planet, creating drastic changes to the environment and Inuit way of life. In the South Pacific, entire islands are at risk of being submerged by sea level rise.

For example, shipping impacts the Arctic differently than in other locales due to the cold water of the Arctic Ocean, which causes sounds to travel farther, Koperqualuk said. Inuit harvesters have observed that marine life can hear ships even a day away, moving a day or two ahead of the arrival of a ship, she added.

“What we succeeded in doing was having an Inuit knowledge or Indigenous knowledge taken into consideration when operating ships as they pass through the Arctic waters.”

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Inuit, environmental groups praise cruises for agreeing to avoid Eclipse Sound

Story by The Canadian Press • June 3, 2023

Inuit, environmental groups praise cruises for agreeing to avoid Eclipse Sound© Provided by The Canadian Press

POND INLET, Nunavut — A marine conservation charity and Inuit hunters are praising cruise operators for agreeing to avoid a Nunavut waterway where thousands of narwhal migrate each summer.

The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators recently said its members' ships would not travel through Eclipse Sound this summer and instead go through the Pond Inlet strait.

Oceans North and the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization had requested the move as numbers of summering narwhal in the area off the northeastern coast of Baffin Island have decreased, which they say is due to increased shipping traffic.

“Narwhal continue to decline in our area and have not bounced back to historical numbers as we had hoped," David Qamaniq, chair of the hunters and trappers organization, said in a news release. "We thank the cruise ship operators for working with us this year to protect the animals that remain."

Aerial surveys have shown a drop in the number of narwhal migrating to Eclipse Sound from Baffin Bay. Surveys conducted for Baffinland Iron Mines Corp, which operates the Mary River Mine, estimate numbers decreased from 5,019 in 2020, to 2,595 in 2021. The company said, however, its 2022 estimate shows an increase to 4,592.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada estimated there were more than 12,000 narwhal in Eclipse Sound in 2016 and more than 20,000 in 2004.

"This area historically is some of the most important narwhal habitat anywhere in the world," said Chris Debicki, Ocean North's vice president of policy development, noting Milne Inlet, a small arm of Eclipse Sound, is a critical calving area.

"Displacing narwhal from that area not only moves narwhal out of their preferred habitat, but also potentially makes it much harder for harvesters to participate in narwhal hunts."

Hunters from Mittimatalik, or Pond Inlet, rely on narwhal for food, livelihoods and culture.

While cruise ships avoiding Eclipse Sound will make a difference, Debicki said, they make up just a fraction of ship traffic. The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators said its ships accounted for 14 per cent of those travelling through the area last year with 15 ships making 26 trips. It said 14 of its members have planned 32 stops in Pond Inlet this summer.

Oceans North said the majority of ships are travelling to and from the Mary River Mine, with 44 vessels making 76 trips in Eclipse Sound and adjacent fiords in 2022, or around 40 per cent of all ship traffic.

A report from working groups from the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission and Canada/Greenland Joint Commission on Beluga and Narwhal published earlier this year concluded increased shipping traffic is "by far the most likely cause" of declining narwhal numbers in Eclipse Sound, particularly from the iron ore mine.

Baffinland has criticized the report and said factors other than shipping may have led to the decrease. It said that includes changing ice conditions and predator-prey dynamics, which the report disputes.

Baffinland spokesperson Peter Akman said the company welcomes the decision by the cruise operators association and "any measures that protect marine life and balance the needs of the local community as a whole."

He noted Baffinland has several voluntary mitigation measures including the use of convoys, avoiding restricted areas, using a fixed shipping route and capping vessel speeds at nine knots. Akman added the company employs six full-time and four part-time Inuit shipping monitors in Pond Inlet.

Last summer the company raised concerns about cruise ships travelling too fast in the area. Akman said it has continued to reach out to Oceans North, the Association of Arctic Expedition and Cruise Operators and cruise ships approved to travel through the community this summer to support its marine mitigation measures.

Baffinland, which began operations in 2015, has a request with the Nunavut Impact Review Board to increase the amount of ore its allowed to ship from the mine to six million tonnes from 4.2 million tonnes, as it has been permitted annually since 2018, using up to 84 ore carriers. It is additionally asking to ship ore that was stranded at the Milne port last year, as well as any that could be left behind at the end of this year's shipping season.

Oceans North and the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization have called on the federal government to issue an interim order under the Canada Shipping Act to close the Eclipse Sound and adjacent fiord system this summer to all non-essential vessels and enforce a speed limit of nine knots. They said Transport Canada should also work with Baffinland to reduce shipping through Eclipse Sound and Milne Inlet.

"We believe these to be the minimum steps needed toward reducing the risk of extirpation of the Eclipse Sound narwhal population," a March letter from the organizations states.

Transport Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2023.

— By Emily Blake in Yellowknife

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press

MINING IS NOT SUSTAINABLE

So long Milne Inlet: After expansion rejection, Baffinland turns to Steensby rail

Fri, February 17, 2023 

A ship is loaded at Baffinland's Milne Inlet port on North Baffin Island. (Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. - image credit)

Baffinland Iron Mines is reviving a plan put on the backburner years ago, to ship ore from its Mary River mine in Nunavut using a railway south to Steensby Inlet.

The announcement follows a decision in November from Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal to reject the company's Phase 2 expansion proposal. That plan would have seen a 100-kilometre railway built from the mine north to Milne Inlet. Right now, the company uses a tote road to bring ore to that port.

Baffinland CEO Brian Penney announced the new plan at a conference in Ottawa earlier this month.

"Our focus over the next 18 months is to begin the transition to a southern railway operation. At this moment — we are passionately working to secure the financing need to get the Steensby Project up and running," Penney said, at the Northern Lights conference and trade show.

"This has been our plan all along and the Phase 2 expansion was a step toward this plan."

The proposal to build a railway south to Steensby Inlet was approved a decade ago when the mine was given the green light. It would have included an all-season deep-water port, and ice-breaking ore carriers travelling through Foxe Basin.

Baffinland soon changed plans, though — saying it couldn't raise the money to build the Steensby railway — and opted for a road and port at Milne Inlet.

CBC

Penney says the railway south to Steensby is about five times more expensive than the one Baffinland had proposed to build to Milne Inlet.

Now, Penney says, things have changed. He says the company has now demonstrated the size of the resource and the mine's potential lifespan — making it easier to raise capital.

Penney also says the mine's high-grade iron ore requires less processing, and so that makes it vital in light of "the world's need and growing willingness to reduce its carbon footprint."

"While other metals are also vital, green steel is required in virtually every aspect of that shift. And green steel is critically dependent on high grade ore. Which puts Nunavut at the centre of it all."

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.

Baffinland spokesperson Peter Akman said the Steensby plan is already approved under the company's existing project certificate and water licence. He said the company would now need to apply for some additional permits for the railway and port infrastructure at Steensby.

A statement from Minister Vandal's office confirmed the earlier approval of the Steensby plan.

"The southern route through Steensby Inlet has previously received approval through the appropriate review process and we are encouraged by Baffinland's continued engagement with local communities and Inuit partners," the statement reads.

Lori Idlout, Nunavut's MP, predicts there will be a lot of concern among nearby communities about the new plan.

She said the rejection of the Phase 2 proposal should have been a signal to Baffinland "that they need to work better with Inuit."

"And obviously with this announcement, it sounds like they're not planning to do that."

 

Canadian miner working on proposal to keep Nunavut iron mine open

The company had previously said it needed to expand its Mary River operation in order to keep it viable — but its expansion plans weren't approved.

By

 Emma Tranter, Nunatsiaq News

 -

December 28, 2022

1

Baffinland staff meet with community members in Arctic Bay on Dec. 8, as part of consultations on the company’s sustained operations proposal. (Baffinland via Nunatsiaq News)

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. is developing a proposal to keep its Mary River iron ore mine running.

The plan, which the company calls a “Sustaining Operations Proposal,” comes a little more than a month after federal Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal’s Nov. 16 rejection of its phase two proposal to expand operations and double its shipping output from the mine, about 150 kilometers southwest of Pond Inlet.

Baffinland had said it needed to expand its Mary River operation in order to keep it viable. Without the government’s approval of the expansion, the company said it might have to close the mine.

Baffinland began posting information about its plan to keep the mine going on its Facebook page on Dec. 7.

The company recently finished a tour of three of the five North Baffin communities to get feedback on the proposal, said Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. spokesperson Peter Akman in an email.

“Following review of feedback from these parties, the final submission will be provided to the regulators,” he said. The Nunavut Impact Review Board advises the federal government on the social and economic impacts of development projects.

Akman said Baffinland representatives visited Arctic Bay, Clyde River and Pond Inlet, but bad weather meant the team’s flights to Igloolik and Sanirajak were cancelled. Visits to those communities will be made in the new year, he said.

Clyde River Mayor Alan Cormack told Nunatsiaq News he attended the meeting, where he told Baffinland representatives his concerns about the mine’s potential environmental impacts.

“I’m worried about the amount of shipping,” he said.

Despite that, Cormack said he wants to see more Inuit working at the mine if it were to stay open.

Nunatsiaq News was unable to reach the mayors of Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet.

Baffinland’s proposal seeks to continue the mine’s current operations of trucking and shipping six million tonnes of iron ore per year, which the company first started doing in 2018 and was approved again to do in 2022.

But continuing to operate at current levels means Baffinland needs to apply to the Nunavut Impact Review Board to amend the Mary River project certificate. At this point, it is only approved to ship 4.2 million tonnes in 2023.

“Baffinland will be asking communities to consider an option that will see the project continue at the current permitted levels,” Akman said.

He said the company is looking for feedback from the communities and will also “address communities’ questions and uncertainties arising from the minister’s rejection of the Phase 2 Proposal.”

“Application materials filed would reflect community and [Qikiqtani Inuit Association] feedback and information that has been part of previous regulatory and monitoring processes,” Akman said.

“It is our hope that this approach would reduce the regulatory burden for participants, while meeting the need to provide certainty for the operations.”

Brian Penney, Baffinland’s chief executive officer, said in a statement the company is asking Inuit to “consider options for regulatory and operational stability for the current project, to give all of us an opportunity to focus on the long-term vision for Mary River.”

“Ultimately, Baffinland must switch to a rail operation for the economic longevity of the project, but continuing the approved trucking and shipping levels in 2023 and beyond would allow us to sustain operations, maintain important commercial relationships, continue to provide employment and deliver benefits to communities on North Baffin Island,” he said.

Penney is scheduled to speak at the upcoming Northern Lights conference in Ottawa in February, where he plans to address the future of the Mary River mine.