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 Alamos Gold closing its acquisition of Argonaut Gold, production potentially never resuming at Victoria Gold’s Yukon mine, and the Foran Mining board greenlighting the construction of the McIlvenna Bay project.  

Wildfire season continues to affect mining operations in Canada. Last week, Suncor and Cenovus evacuated their respective Firebag and Sunrise oil sands sites in Alberta. Over the weekend, Champion Iron Ore temporarily ceased operations at its Bloom Lake mine, though workers have begun to return to the site, as reported by Reuters. On Monday, Rio Tinto announced it was forced to pause operations at the Iron Ore Company of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador due to the same wildfire, following an evacuation order from the local government. Imperial Oil has also begun to remove non-essential employees from its Kearl oil sands mine. 

The federal government and the B.C. government are providing $195 million for the development of critical minerals infrastructure in northwest B.C., as reported by Canadian Mining Journal. The investment will help improve several highways that are important for mining activities by widening shoulders, strengthening Wi-Fi access and more. It is estimated that the upgrades will create up to 3,000 jobs during construction. 

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) launched a new program this week that will award Indigenous youth the opportunity to participate in the 2025 PDAC Convention, which will take place from March 2 to 5 in Toronto next year. Up to five participants will be chosen to take part in the Indigenous Youth and Early Career Ambassador Program. Participants can nominate themselves, be nominated by a member of their community or by a PDAC corporate member. 

The former head of the Yukon Water Board alleged two years ago that Victoria Gold Corp. disregarded the conditions of its water licence by failing to re-contour slopes at its Eagle gold mine to save millions of dollars, as reported by The Canadian Press. It is estimated that around 300 million litres of cyanide solution leaked out from the mine’s heap leach pad when a portion of it failed and slid outside of its containment area last month. Victoria Gold shared that it is unsure if it has the financial capacity to fix the environmental impact of the disaster or if production at the mine will resume, prompting the Yukon government to consider taking control of the mine. The company is trying to store and treat the contaminated water at the site, though it is running out of space in its storage ponds. 

The federal government is giving $770,000 to the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) to help support the organization’s initiatives to tackle systemic barriers that affect women’s participation in the mining industry. The funding, which will be allocated over two and a half years, will assist MiHR’s efforts to collaborate with mining companies to create more inclusive workplaces and increase women’s participation in the Canadian mining workforce, which is currently at 16 per cent—much lower than other industries, which average 48 per cent. 

Construction of Foran Mining’s underground McIlvenna Bay copper and zinc mine in Saskatchewan will move forward after receiving board approval, as reported by Engineering News. The capital cost for phase one construction of the project is estimated to be $604 million. Early works have already commenced at the site, and the company is expecting to begin hot commissioning in the second half of 2025, with a ramp-up to commercial production projected for the first half of 2026. 

Alamos Gold’s acquisition of Argonaut Gold and its flagship Magino open-pit gold mine in Ontario has been finalized, as reported by Northern Ontario Business. The all-share deal, valued at US$325 million, received court approval and will enable Alamos to merge its Island Gold mine with Argonaut’s neighbouring Magino mine. The combined operations, which will now be known as the Island Gold District, have given Alamos access to a new processing facility constructed by Argonaut, which is good timing for the major underground expansion at Island Gold that is scheduled for completion in 2026.  

U.S.-based steel company Cleveland-Cliffs’ plan to acquire Canadian steelmaker Stelco is expected to receive the green light from Canada’s federal government, as reported by The Globe and Mail. The $3.85 billion deal will be reviewed by Industry Minister François-Phillippe Champagne to ensure that there are no national security threats. The deal is not expected to be affected by the government’s recently introduced measures that aim to limit foreign takeovers of big Canadian mining companies that have critical minerals operations, as steel itself is not a critical mineral (high-purity iron ore used in steelmaking was recently added to the list).  

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has begun a crucial, two-week-long council and assembly meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, in an attempt to finalize global regulations for seabed mining by next year, amidst pressure from miners like The Metals Company, which is hoping to submit a mining licence application sometime this year, as reported by Mining.com. The organization will also gather on July 29 to elect a new secretary-general, with marine biologist Leticia Carvalho running against current secretary-general Michael Lodge. The outcome could potentially shift the ISA’s stance on deep-sea mining. 

BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale continue to ramp up production of iron ore despite a price slump of the commodity, as reported by Bloomberg. The slump has been exacerbated by China, which was previously a top buyer of the commodity, due to the country’s decreased demand for iron ore during its ongoing property crisis. 

Glycine leaching technology relies on glycine, a safe and biodegradable compound used as a food additive, to selectively extract metals from ore while using lower amounts of reagents such as cyanide compared to traditional leaching processes, as reported by Lynn Greiner for the June/July issue of CIM Magazine. Czechia-based Draslovka has used that technology to develop two glycine leaching products—GlyCat utilizes glycine along with small amounts of cyanide to recover precious metals like silver and gold, while GlyLeach is designed to recover base metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt. 

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?