Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap, and happy Victoria Day long weekend to our Canadian readers! Before you join the cottage-bound weekend traffic, let us get you caught up on the mining news from CIM Magazine and elsewhere that you might have missed. Among this week’s headlines: Ottawa promises to indemnify Kinder Morgan against B.C.’s delays, Nutrien sells its stake in SQM, and Teck Resources launches a production-scale machine learning system.

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Barrick Gold and Glencore expect to get a new license for their Kabanga nickel joint venture in Tanzania after “productive” talks with the country’s government, Barrick told Bloomberg on Monday. Tanzania made changes to its mining license structure in January, causing the two companies to apply for a prospecting license to replace the retention license they previously held.

Teck Resources switched on a new machine learning system for predictive haul truck maintenance at its Fording River steelmaking coal operation in British Columbia, we reported on Tuesday. The system has been online since early April, and within the first three weeks of operation ten trucks were correctly identified as needing maintenance.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the federal government was prepared to indemnify Kinder Morgan against any “politically motivated” delays to the Trans Mountain expansion project caused by British Columbia, and excoriated B.C. Premier John Horgan for taking what he called “unconstitutional” measures to prevent the project from going ahead. Morneau said that while Kinder Morgan and the federal government are currently in discussions, if the company chose to walk away from the project he believes “plenty of investors” would be interested in taking it up.

United States President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the nuclear accord with Iran, and reinstate sanctions against the country, may have fallout for the global resource sector. On Wednesday French energy giant Total suggested it would exit its Iranian gas project if it could not secure a waiver from U.S. sanctions. Multiple other European companies have also said they will wind down business in Iran.

Yesterday Nutrien announced it had sold a 24 per cent stake in Chilean lithium producer Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) for US$4.07 billion, a premium that surprised analysts, to China’s Tinaqi Lithium Corp, the Financial Post reported. Antitrust regulators in China and India required Nutrien – the company created from the merger of PotashCorp and Agrium – to sell its stake in SQM as a condition of the deal, because SQM produces both lithium and potash. Nutrien’s dominance of the potash market concerned regulators.

In other Teck Resources news, the company is launching a six-vehicle autonomous haul truck pilot project at its Highland Valley Copper operation (HVC) to better understand the technology and whether it can play a role in extending the mine’s life. In addition to that pilot, HVC is also employing MineSense’s shovel-mounted sensors to analyze the contents of the shovel bucket and sort waste rock from valuable ore.

The mining industry has long known about the imminent skills shortage it is facing. Now it’s time to update the discussion and focus on creative solutions. In our May cover story, uploaded yesterday, we reported on national, international and provincial collaborations, experimental career development programs at mining companies, and third-party training programs attempting to address the looming challenge.

In society news, on Saturday Prince Harry will wed American actress Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. The wedding has generated media speculation about whether the royal wedding bands will be made of the same Welsh gold that has been used in nearly a century of royal jewelry. We recounted the history of the gold belt in northern Wales with a royal connection, and the longstanding allure of Welsh gold, in our March/April mining lore. Check it out tonight if you’re planning to get up early tomorrow to watch the ceremony.

The CIM office will be closed on Monday, and from all of us at the institute and the magazine we hope you have a relaxing holiday weekend.