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Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap, where we catch you up on some of the news you may have missed. This week’s headlines include Teck signing an agreement with Westshore Terminals to ship steelmaking coal, the Saskatchewan government granting $31 million in funding towards building a processing facility for rare earth elements and Artemis Gold releasing a prefeasibility study on its Blackwater gold project.

While commodities across the board were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March, many metals, including gold, silver and copper, have since recovered and are even on an upward trajectory. However, the outlook for commodities for the rest of 2020 remains uncertain. As gold prices are reaching historic highs, a potential second wave of COVID-19 and renewed tensions between the U.S. and China could once again reduce global economic activity and decrease commodity prices.

Teck Resources has signed an agreement in principle with Westshore Terminals on the shipment of steelmaking coal following the expiry of their current contract next March. According to the non-binding agreement, Teck will ship between five and seven million tonnes of steelmaking coal between April and December 2021 and for each 12-month period afterwards, for a total shipment of 32.5 million tonnes. The agreement comes seven months after Teck CEO and president Don Lindsay accused Westshore Terminals of contaminating its shipments of metallurgical coal.

The Innu communities of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam and Matimekush-Lac John have negotiated an impact and benefit agreement with Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC), in which Rio Tinto has a majority stake, after almost seven decades of conflict. The two communities have contended that they never consented to IOC’s operations in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in Sept-Iles, Quebec, on their ancestral land or have received any financial compensation from the project, and have challenged the company in a lawsuit that has reached the Supreme Court of Canada twice. The agreement will address environmental cooperation, benefit sharing and economic development such as training, jobs and contracts within the communities, and will be presented to the two communities prior to signing.

Suncor and McMurray Métis have signed a long-term relationship agreement, as reported by My McMurray. The agreement is meant to provide a plan for key regulatory applications and joint priorities. The agreement also outlines the responsibilities of both parties including the environment, business contracting and skills, employment and training.

In August 2010, a groundfall trapped 33 miners 700 metres below ground at the San Jose mine in northern Chile. The ensuing rescue mission lasted three months, as the Chilean government and mining companies across the world worked together in using drilling and mine rescue technology to rescue all of the miners. Former CIM president Roy Slack explains how the Cementation Group carried out one of the three rescue plans at the mine and what key lessons were learned during the rescue. Watch online at CIM Academy.

The government of Saskatchewan has granted $31 million in funding to the Saskatchewan Research Council in order to build and operate a processing facility for rare earth elements (REE) in the province. The facility would be the first of its kind in Canada, would establish a provincial supply chain for REEs and, according to Premier Scott Moe, would stimulate the provincial resource sector and ensure its competitiveness. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall and finish in late 2022.

The Quebec government and Pallinghurst Group have pledged up to $600 million to recapitalize Nemaska Lithium and protect it from bankruptcy, as reported by The Globe and Mail. Nemaska has accepted a credit bid from the Quebec government, Pallinghurst and Orion Mine Finance, its biggest secured creditor, in which the former two will buy all of the company’s outstanding shares and join assets with Orion to form a new company, if the bid receives court approval. The company plans to build a hard rock mine and an electrochemical plant in Quebec that would create a new supply of lithium to be used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and phones.

Artemis Gold has released the results from a revised prefeasibility study on its newly acquired Blackwater gold project in central British Columbia. According to the study, the project would produce a total of 7.5 million ounces of gold over a 23-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of US$616 per ounce and an after-tax net present value estimated at $2.25 billion at a five per cent discount rate. The initial capital cost of the project is estimated at $592 million, while additional capital costs for expansion are estimated at $426 million and $398 million for the second and third phases, respectively.

Hatch engineers Alisha Giglio and Janice Bolen have analyzed how steel producers can make small changes in the steel production process in order to reduce their carbon emissions. In a new research paper, Giglio and Bolen discuss how adjusting production methods, such as transitioning to electric arc furnaces, reusing and recycling, turning to hydrogen and more can reduce emissions from steel production. However, since steelmaking accounts for between seven and nine per cent of global emissions, producers will need to make larger changes alongside incremental ones.

A new Geoscience BC report suggests that analyzing DNA from bacteria in soil could help locate mineral deposits buried under glacial overburden. Researchers from the University of British Columbia compared the quantity and species of bacteria found in soil samples collected over ore deposits with soils from other areas in south central British Columbia and found that indicator bacterial species helped distinguish the soils. According to Geoscience BC, the new technique could help explorers discover new mineral deposits in the province.

Midland Exploration has announced that a BHP subsidiary, Rio Algom, will fund its nickel exploration in Quebec’s Nunavik region. Rio Algom will fund up to $1.4 million per year, for a minimum of two years, for the exploration company to identify, test and develop exploration targets for new significant nickel deposits in the area. The company also stated that the subsidiary may propose additional exploration work valued at up to $700,000 before advancing any identified project to the second phase.

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