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

Canada, the top steel and aluminum exporter to the U.S., is hopeful of being left out of a Trump administration crackdown on foreign shipments.While the U.S. Commerce Department didn’t recommend giving its northern neighbour a pass when it outlined possible tariffs and quotas on Friday, it did acknowledge Canada’s importance to the U.S. aluminum industry. Canada accounts for...Read More

This report presents the results of the Fraser Institute's 2017 annual survey of mining and exploration companies. The survey is an attempt to assess how mineral endowments and public policy factors such as taxation and regulatory uncertainty affect exploration investment. The survey was circulated electronically to approximately 2,700 individuals between August 22nd and November 10th, 2017. Surve...Read More

A gap of about 50,000 ounces — or about 125 gold bars — is all that stands in the way of Newmont Mining Corp. from claiming the title of world’s biggest gold miner.The Greenwood Village, Colorado-based miner said Thursday its 2017 gold production was 5.27 million ounces, ending the year in a near dead-heat with industry leader Barrick Gold Corp., which produced 5.32 million...Read More

With cobalt prices soaring and fears of a potential shortage mounting, reports emerged Wednesday that Apple Inc. is in talks with a mining company to secure a direct supply of the scarce metal - a critical component of batteries.It's the type of deal that Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s chief executive Robin Goad has been trying to broker for years. Since 1996, Goad has raised tens of millions of dollars...Read More

Main ConclusionsDuring the 2015 federal election, Justin Trudeau's Liberals presented a fiscal plan to Canadians that proposed three years of deficit spending of no more than $10 billion annually with a return to a balanced budget by 2019/20. After forming government, they abandoned this fiscal plan-breaking a pledge to Canadians.Despite a growing economy, the Trudeau government has recorded annua...Read More

Commodity prices have finally risen to the point that miners can start new development projects, but the rally in metals prices also brings higher costs for producers.Both operating and capital costs tend to climb sharply during cyclical rallies for metals. However, some companies have proven more adept than others at generating returns in the face of this challenge.Stephen D. Walker, head of glob...Read More

The British Columbia government has committed to proceed with electoral reform. The government has set a deadline of November 2018 to have a referendum on proportional representation. Part of the consultation process includes designing the referendum question. This paper reviews precedent and good practices that have been established in Canada and by several international organizations on the craf...Read More

"Community capitalism" is the term used here to describe a politico-economic system in which a First Nation uses its assets (land, location, natural resources, and money) to generate income and provide social services for its members. The Fort McKay First Nation (FMFN) furnishes an important case study of community capitalism. As a result of its remarkable success, its characteristic features stan...Read More

Shares in Lithium X Energy Corp. plunged Thursday morning,  just days before the company is set to be acquired at a huge premium by a consortium of Chinese investors, suggesting market skepticism the deal will be completed. The Vancouver-based company traded as low as $1.77 per share, before recovering to close at $2.21, up four per cent on the day. The buyout deal, which would pay share...Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on imported aluminum next week.At a meeting with U.S. industry officials at the White House, Trump vowed to rebuild American steel and aluminum industries, saying they had been treated unfairly by other countries for decades.The move is likely to in...Read More

One Friday afternoon not so many months ago, Canadian billionaire Eric Sprott was sitting in a leather wingback chair in a dimly lit room, talking about a junior mining company that he just can’t stop investing in.The company, Garibaldi Resources Corp., is in the earliest stages of exploring for nickel in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, an area that has been relentlessly explored a...Read More

The aluminum and steel industry, which affects businesses from beer to cars, reacted to the prospect of steep U.S. tariffs. President Donald Trump is expected to make the announcement on Thursday, and the move could have far-reaching effects. It may benefit U.S. steel producers, but also raises the possibility of retaliation from other countries and higher costs for American shoppers.AK Steel and...Read More

Canada will take the harshest blows if U.S. President Donald Trump slaps heavy tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum, but any temptation to suspend NAFTA talks in retaliation should be avoided, Canada’s former chief negotiator on the trade agreement said Friday.Putting the NAFTA negotiations on hold pending a resolution of the dispute over steel tariffs would give the U.S. an excu...Read More

OTTAWA — A coalition of business associations are urging Ottawa not to intervene in a months-long backlog of grain shipments, saying the move would only cause widespread delays for other commodity shippers on Canada’s highly integrated rail system.In a letter obtained by the Financial Post Tuesday, a coalition of seven business associations urged Transportation Minister Marc Garneau to...Read More

One of the biggest diamonds found to date has been sold for US$40 million.The 910-carat Lesotho Legend was sold in a tender in Antwerp, Gem Diamonds Ltd. said Tuesday. The company found the stone, which is about the size of two golf balls, at its Letseng mine in the African country this yearWhile it’s the most Gem has yet received for a diamond, other companies have sold for more. Lucara Dia...Read More

SummaryBetween 2007 and 2016, Ontario was mired in a prolonged period of economic weakness during which it lost ground compared to the rest of the country on many important economic indicators.This bulletin examines the extent of Ontario's economic weakness during this decade by examining a range of economic metrics.Ontario underperformed the rest of the country in each of the metrics examined in...Read More

MOSCOW — There was a gold rush in Siberia Thursday when the hatch of a cargo plane accidentally flew open upon takeoff — scattering tons of gold bars on the runway, Russian news reports say.An AN-12 plane operated by the airline Nimbus took off for Krasnoyarsk carrying 9.3 tons of gold and other precious metals, said to be worth $368 million, according to a statement from the state Inv...Read More

Maria Ezpeleta was planning to fly to Toronto earlier this month to speak about the impact of mining projects on women when she heard the news: The panel session, on "tackling gender bias" in the mining sector, was called off.In an ironic twist, the discussion of gender bias had been ensnared by #MeToo - the growing movement to stop sexual harassment - because new accusations were surfacing again...Read More

A flurry of new deals announced Monday suggests that mergers and acquisitions among junior mining companies, particularly in the gold space, could be heating up after several slow months.In the biggest mining deal announced so far this year in Canada, the 127-year old Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co. proposed what it estimated as a US$462 million cash-and-share acquisition of Nevada-based Klondex Mine...Read More

Canada has one of the most expensive universal health-care systems in the developed world. However, there is an imbalance between the value Canadians receive and the relatively high amount of money they spend on their health-care system. Of particular concern is the fact that Canada has significantly fewer physicians and acute-care beds, and also ranks poorly for the availability of important medi...Read More