The past year was a difficult one overall for the metals, with the main standouts to the upside being a geopolitical risk-driven gain in gold, a China-driven rise in iron ore and a surge in uranium on broadening global support for nuclear power (Figure 1). A jump in global interest rates to near two-decade highs saw recession fears persist all year, and while one still did not actually eru...Read More

This year the post-global health crisis boom was brought to an end by a surge in inflation to forty-year highs, a major rise in global interest rates in an attempt to curb the rising prices and surging geopolitical risk after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While precious metals held up reasonably well as markets turned to them as a risk hedge, by Q2/22 the higher interest rates put an end t...Read More

Chile is the world leader in copper production, at 28.5% of the total in 2020, and this looks set to continue, with the country having the largest global reserves, at 23.0% of total. It is also the global leader for molybdenum, which is often found along with copper, and is a major lithium player, holding 51.1% of global reserves. Read More

Newfoundland has become a gold exploration hotspot over the past few years, with the sector seeing some of its strongest activity ever. While the province remains a small contributor to Canadian gold production, it has a substantial mineral industry well supported by the government, focused on iron ore, copper and nickel, and the surge in exploration suggests that gold output from the...Read More

Nevada is the core of the U.S. gold output, accounting for by far the majority, at 75.4% on average for the past year. The state looks set to remain a dominant player in U.S. gold, as it accounts for 49% of total U.S. reserves, with Alaska slightly ahead with 51% of reserves, but just 8.6% of current production. The U.S. accounts for 6.1% of global gold output, making Nevada one of the largest gol...Read More

The Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia has historically been a major site of Canadian gold production, beginning as early as the mid 1800s. There was a wave of production in the 1990s which cooled as the gold price declined, but larger scale production resumed in 2017, and the area has seen surging exploration interest over the past year, given that the region has some of the largest...Read More

In this report we outline the Quebec gold mining industry, including its major producers, and a survey of many of the junior miners focused on the province. Quebec accounts for 34% of Canadian gold production (second to Ontario, with 44%) and remains a major focus for both producers and junior miners.Read More

Red Lake has been one of the most prolific gold mining districts in Canada and the world, with exploration having started in the 1920s, and production, which began in the 1930s, continuing to the present day. The district is known for the high grade of its gold, its infrastructure, and strong institutional support, given the long history of mining in the area.Read More

Energy consumption is a driver of economic growth. Policymakers in Ontario have made poor policy decisions, resulting in rising electricity costs, lower employment, and lower competitiveness, while achieving minimal environmental benefits. This publication presents a series of collected essays that critique the reasoning behind Ontario's electricity policy changes and spell out the long term conse...Read More

Pursuit Minerals Limited (ASX:PUR) today announced that it is adding aportfolio of high quality vanadium projects to its existing portfolio of assets. The company has secured multiple vanadiumprojects across Sweden and Finland that are at different stages of advancement,containing sites of significant historical vanadium mineralisation. They are inpolitically stable jurisdictions in areas of excel...Read More

Rumble Resources Ltd (ASX:RTR) has today updated the market on its planned 2018 exploration programs across its four projects - Braeside, Munarra Gully, Nemesis and Earaheedy projects, all of which are on track to be drilled tested in the coming months. Given the prospective nature of all four projects, each drill program offers the chance for RTR to make high grade discoveries.It should be noted...Read More

Archer Exploration Limited (ASX:AXE) today announced it has signed a Collaboration Agreement with Flex-G Pty. Ltd. (FlexeGRAPH) to jointly develop graphite and graphene based advanced materials for the thermal management of electric vehicle batteries, internal combustion engines, and high-performance computing systems.The agreement stipulates advanced materials development, processing and evaluati...Read More

Speciality Metals InternationalLimited (ASX:SEI) today announced that its latest sampling program has yieldedsome impressive lithium results within its explorationconcessions over parts of Salarde Pintados and Salar Bellavista in theAtacama region of Northern Chile.Sampling has focused on surfacesaline crusts showing strong evidence of evaporation of subsurface brines to the surface. In particular...Read More

Lucara Diamond Corp. has recovered yet another massive diamond in Botswana, at a site previously owned by giant De Beers.The 472-carat light brown stone is the third largest found by Vancouver-based Lucara at the Karowe mine. The site has proven a windfall for the Canadian miner which now produces some of the biggest and best diamonds in the world.“The early sampling work that was done on Ka...Read More

Deep sea mud off the coast of Japan contains enough rare earth metals to supply the world for centuries to come, a new study reveals.The study published this week in Scientific Reports says the deposit, which lies within the Japanese exclusive economic zone, contains 16 million tons of rare-earth oxides, enough to meet the demand for yttrium for 780 years, europium for 620 years, terbium for 420 y...Read More

The Report Card on Alberta's Elementary Schools 2018 reports a variety of relevant, objective indicators of school performance. These indicators are used to calculate an overall rating for each school. On the basis of this rating, the schools are ranked. The Report Card brings all of this information together in one easily accessible public document so that anyone can analyze and compare the perfo...Read More

Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ)announced this morning that it has kicked off reverse circulation (RC) drillingat its Forrestania Gold Project in Western Australia. CLZ will be drilling withthe view to uncover a new gold system at the recently uncovered Van Uden Westprospect, and to enhance known mineralisation at the Lady Lila and Kat Gapprospects. The targets areas have beenuntouched for some 18 years...Read More

ArgentMinerals Limited (ASX:ARD) has achieved a significant new milestone for theKempfield polymetallic project. ARD reports the successful separation ofprimary material into potentially marketable commercial grade zinc and leadconcentrates that also contain silver and gold.The extraction of zinc and lead into separate concentrates marks asignificant advance towards project development, as the com...Read More

Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) today updated the market on its FraserRange nickel-cobalt project in WA. While CLZ is primarily concentrating its attention on goldexploration at its flagship Forrestania Gold Project, it has also completed areview of its Fraser Range dataset. The review identified 'excellent cobaltanomalism' at the project's Rubys Reward prospect, including up to 1399ppmcobalt. The...Read More

Caeneus Minerals (ASX:CAD) this morning provided an explorationupdate regarding its 80% owned Pardoo Project in WA's Pilbara region. CAD reported that it has completed a 10 hole RC programmeat the Pardoo Highway nickel-copper-cobalt deposit that it owns in a joint venturewith Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD). The Highway deposit has been a focus for past explorersprimarily attempting to identify the sourc...Read More

Just months after Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. laid off hundreds of workers and shuttered the largest high-grade uranium mine in Canada, the market for the radioactive metal used in nuclear power generation is suddenly in flux, as tensions between the U.S. and Russia flare.Last week, in response to new U.S. sanctions, Russian lawmakers proposed measures that would halt enriched uranium exports to...Read More

Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) has finalised its acquisitionof advanced cathode material production technology, acquiring 99.7% of theequity in Brisbane-based technology company - the Very Small Particle Company (VSPC).Cathode powder producer, VSPC, has spent 14 years andapproximately A$30 million developing some of the world's most advancedmanufacturing techniques for the production of cathode ma...Read More

Colorado-based gold explorer, DatelineResources (ASX:DTR), today revealed its discovery of near-surface visible goldmineralisation at Mineral Hill, which forms part of its Lucky Strike tenements.This newly exposed vein holdssignificant potential - initial exploration activities have unveiled geological similaritiesto the Lucky Strike vein, trending in the same direction.Encouragingly, this recentl...Read More

Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) has released an operational update for the three months to 31 March. In the quarter, MEI confirmed high-grade cobalt mineralisation at Mulligan with rock chip samples grading up to 9.71% cobalt and 16.5 g/t gold, and picked up two new primary cobalt projects in Canada - the Gillies Limit Project and the Burt Cobalt Project, as shown below:In addition, assay results fro...Read More

Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ) todayannounced that an updated desktop review has identified newprimary cobalt targets at the Cangai Cobalt Project(previously Jackaderry North).A key finding is the material exploration upside for cobalt mineralisationacross both Cangai cobalt/copper projects.Exploration for new cobalt targets is set to progress concurrentlywith the Cangai Copper Mine expansion campaign....Read More

Following its announcement yesterday that it had finalised its acquisition of the Very Small Particle Company, Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT) has this morning informed the market it has found abundant lithium micas within the ore found at its Lepidolite Hill project.Test work on ore-sorting products confirms LIT's successful separation of lithium micas using an X-ray transmission ore-sorting method,...Read More

Archer Exploration Limited (ASX:AXE) has today announced the signing of a Collaboration Agreement and a complementary Research Service Agreement with The University of New South Wales (UNSW) to develop and implement AXE's graphite and graphene materials for use in lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. The aim of the research will be to achieve technological advances through AXE's graphite an...Read More

Empire Resources Ltd (ASX:ERL) hasprovided an update on its progress at the Penny's Find Gold Mine.The Penny's Find Joint Venture (PFJV)has now commenced its fourth toll treatment campaign at the Lakewood Milllocated on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia. ERL has indicated that the latest tollcampaign will process some 28,000 tonnesof high grade ore from the open pit at Lakew...Read More