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 a partnership to advance the Ring of Fire road link in Ontario, Ivanhoe Mines on track to begin smelting Kamoa-Kakula copper by year’s end, and Lundin Mining’s disclosure lawsuit moves forward in Ontario. 

Vale Base Metals and Glencore Canada have agreed to jointly evaluate a potential brownfield copper development project at their adjacent properties in the Sudbury Basin in Ontario, leveraging infrastructure at Glencore’s inactive Nickel Rim South mine. The project would involve deepening Glencore’s existing mine shaft and developing new drifts to access nearby copper deposits. It is estimated the project could produce 880 kilotonnes of copper over 21 years. Detailed engineering, permitting and consultations are planned for 2026, with a final investment decision expected in the first half of 2027. 

Thesis Gold released results from a prefeasibility study for its Lawyers-Ranch gold-silver project in British Columbia, outlining a plan for combined open-pit and underground mining with centralized ore processing. The study projects a 15-year mine life, with 76 million tonnes of ore processed and 2.84 million gold-equivalent ounces produced over the life of the mine. The initial capital expenditure is estimated at around $736 million. The company plans to launch an environmental assessment this month and undertake a feasibility study in 2026. 

Barrick Mining is exploring an initial public offering of a subsidiary that would hold its North American gold assets. If it goes ahead, the subsidiary would be centred on Barrick’s joint venture interests in Nevada Gold Mines in the U.S. and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, along with its wholly owned Fourmile gold discovery in Nevada. Barrick also announced this week that it has completed the sale of its interests in the Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire to the Atlantic Group for up to US$305 million. Last week, the company also finalized the sale of its Hemlo gold mine in Ontario to Carcetti Capital (to be renamed Hemlo Mining Corp.) for up to US$1.09 billion. 

The Ontario government and Marten Falls First Nation inked a partnership agreement to advance construction of the proposed all-season Marten Falls Community Access Road, a key link to the Ring of Fire region. The agreement provides up to $39.5 million for community infrastructure and supports an expedited environmental assessment for the road, which the nation is to submit by Feb. 20, 2026. Pending all necessary approvals, construction of the road could begin as early as August 2026.  

Ivanhoe Mines has said heat-up has begun at the 500,000-tonne-per-year direct-to-blister copper smelter at its Kamoa-Kakula mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The facility is designed to smelt feed from the complex’s concentrators, producing 99.7 per cent copper anodes when fully operational. First concentrate feed is expected by year end. 

Canada’s Supreme Court has allowed a securities class action against Lundin Mining to proceed in Ontario’s Superior Court, Mining Weekly reported. The case concerns whether Lundin should have disclosed a 2017 pit wall instability and rockslide at its Candelaria copper-gold mine in Chile sooner, with the lawsuit alleging it was a “material change” that required immediate reporting. Lundin has not admitted liability and plans to defend the case. 

Northcliff Resources is offering local First Nations an ownership stake in the proposed Sisson tungsten-molybdenum mine in New Brunswick, a shift from a 2017 agreement that largely focused on royalties, Canadian Mining Journal reported. Although six chiefs signed the original deal, opposition to the project has persisted, and chiefs have since sought assurances that Northcliff will comply with the 40 stipulations outlined in the project’s environmental impact assessment. 

B2Gold’s Goose gold mine in Nunavut opened in September, and CIM Magazine’s Ailbhe Goodbody was on site for the grand opening. The Goose mine—B2Gold’s first Canadian operation—reached commercial production in October and is expected to have a nine-year mine life, with ore extracted from four open pits and one underground mine. B2Gold was able to speed up construction of the Goose mine by tapping the Arctic expertise its in-house team developed while building the Julietta and Kupol mines in Russia for the company’s predecessor, Bema Gold. 

Underground mine ventilation keeps workers safe by supplying oxygen, removing contaminants and managing heat and humidity, but traditional systems can be inefficient and costly, Mehanaz Yakub reported for CIM Magazine. New approaches focus on delivering air only where and when it is needed, along with modelling tools that help plan airflow, test emergency scenarios and reduce energy use. 

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?