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 updated resources at Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford project, a feasibility study for Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Quebec operations and innovative drilling technology.

BHP lost its appeal to block a US$6 billion lawsuit over the 2015 collapse of the Fundao dam from proceeding in English courts, as reported by Reuters. The Court of Appeal overturned previous judgments barring the lawsuit from moving forward, enabling the company to be liable at home for overseas actions since the claimants did not seek compensation through Brazilian litigation. BHP is considering a Supreme Court appeal.

The United Nations launched an international panel meant to recommend to corporations how best to assess, track and verify their commitments to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as reported by Corporate Knights. The panel of 16 experts is chaired by Catherine McKenna, former Canadian environment minister, and is expected to report back to the UN Secretary General by the next climate summit, COP27, which will be held in November.

When long-standing drilling methods aren’t suited for a new site, mining companies turn to newer technologies for their projects. For targeting narrow deposits, Novamera has devised a method that uses directional drilling and navigational tools to “enable surgical mining” and Roc-Drill has experimented with equipment to comply with stringent noise laws. As for accessing drill holes faster and reacting to anomalies, Carlson Software is looking to guide operators into better-informed drilling.

A Komatsu employee died on Thursday at Suncor’s Base Plant in Alberta from injuries related to an incident at a shovel maintenance pad in the mine. The Base Plant Mine was the site of a second fatality earlier this year. Following the tragic death of the contractor, Suncor has postponed its July 13 Oil Sands Operations Presentation to this fall in order to focus on its response to the incident.

Battery cathode metals prices have been diverging, with nickel and cobalt prices falling while lithium’s remains strong, the situation stemming from the Chinese market turning to lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP), as reported by Nikkei Asia. Lithium prices are up 70 per cent since the end of 2021, whereas nickel gains have been eight per cent while cobalt has gone down five per cent over the same period. LFP batteries are favoured for their lower materials cost, around 20 per cent less than that of nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries.

A new mineral resource estimate for Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford nickel sulfide project north of Timmins, Ontario, more than doubles its measured and indicated resources, as reported by Northern Ontario Business. The update estimates 3.48 million tonnes of nickel from 1.43 billion tonnes of mineralized material at 0.24 per cent nickel. The company expects a feasibility study for the project to be completed by the end of the year. 

Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) has published the results of the feasibility study for its natural graphite operation in Quebec, placing its net-present value at $1.6 billion. The study includes phase 2 of NMG’s Matawinie mine and its Bécancour battery material plant project. The former’s projected annual average production stands at 103,328 tonnes of high-purity flake graphite concentrate, while the latter is expected to produce 42,616 tonnes per annum of anode material and 3,007 tonnes per annum of purified jumbo flakes.

Vital Metals announced it had produced high-grade concentrate from its first feed at its Saskatoon rare earths extraction facility, achieving a 43.7 per cent total rare earth oxide (TREO) grade and 75.2 per cent recovery in its first run for a single pass. The first run processed 2,300 kilograms of concentrate mined at Vital’s Nechalacho rare earth mine and crushed at a Saskatchewan Research Council facility. Following these results, the plant will now be adjusted for further trials and recovery improvements.

Monarch Mining has begun feeding ore from its Beaufor mine to its nearby Beacon mill east of Val d’Or, Quebec, with the first gold pour from the recommissioning project expected later this month, as reported by Mining.com. The mine and mill, opened in the 1930s, were acquired by the company in 2017 and 2016, respectively, but went into care and maintenance in 2019.  

The federal government announced it will invest over $2 million into two battery electric vehicle research and development efforts taking place at NORCAT and Cambrian College, as reported by Northern Ontario Business. NORCAT will use the funds to add a battery electric LHD to its underground facility. Cambrian College intends to establish a battery electric vehicle laboratory within its Centre for Smart Mining.

That’s all for this week. If you’ve got feedback, you can always reach us at editor@cim.org. If you’ve got something to add, why not join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram pages?