Does mining need saving?
Some issues of The Northern Miner are more fun to put together than others. Our March 2024 edition, unfortunately, offers a sobering read. It’s filled with news of shuttered mines…
Opinion/Commentary
Iron ore boom of the 2000s repeating – this time with critical metals
A headline published in The Age back in July 2003 reads: “[Andrew] Forrest has a grand $1.2bn plan for tiny Perth mining company.” That company was called Allied Mining and…
Cash crunch has junior miners feeling ‘despondent’
According to Mining Intelligence data, mining financings tumbled by around 13% last year, after falling a precipitous 45% the previous year. Numbers from the Prospectors and Developers Association aren’t in…
How LFP batteries brought EV metal markets back to earth
When Elon Musk first announced Tesla’s move to LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries in February 2020, many were skeptical. LFP didn’t seem to fit with Tesla’s luxury and sporty carmaker…
A roadmap for green metals after a brutal 2023
Last year was a bloodbath for mining stocks tied to the green energy transition. But with markets rallying in the early part of 2024, ‘green miners’ continue to lag. Unfortunately,…
Does upside outweigh risks in copper-rich Chile?
Nationalization continues to be a hot topic in mining circles. As supply chains tighten and long-term demand drivers strengthen, resource-rich nations are looking to capture a greater share of their…
2024 belongs to an offbeat pairing — uranium and gold
As demand for EV and base metals is expected to slow along with global growth in 2024, two very different metals are likely to stand out from the commodity pack:…
Why prices will soon catch up with the commodity supply crunch
Today we’re unpacking the poorly understood world of commodity inventories. We’ll look at the critical role they play in maintaining market stability and why it could come unstuck in the…
2023’s key theme? Narrowed access to resources — whether mineral or cash
It’s December — time for our year in review. This year was notable for takeovers. Newmont paid US$21.2 billion for copper-rich gold miner Newcrest Mining; Glencore negotiated a US$8.9-billion deal…
The missing link toward net zero? The power grid
Electric guzzling EV’s, trucks, trains and buses will soon move billions of people and cargo around this planet each day. So, what’s the best strategy to play this multi-decade investment…
Follow the money trail to critical metals
One investing strategy in mining is to watch the insiders. By insiders, I mean the big players in the industry. That is, the directors of multi-billion-dollar companies, mining magnates and…
IAA slapdown gives feds a chance to live up to rhetoric on critical minerals
“Accelerating activity in the critical minerals space is essential to meeting global clean energy needs and to building a prosperous economy that will thrive in our net-zero future. Simply put,…