The Northern Miner’s most clicked stories of 2022

As we end off 2022, The Northern Miner takes a look at the top 10 most-clicked stories on our website from Jan. 1 to Dec. 15.  

No. 1: Canada’s Top Ten precious metals juniors 

By Northern Miner Staff (Jul. 7, 2022) 

Our most-read story of the year ranked the Top Ten Canadian-headquartered precious metals juniors according to market capitalization as of Jun. 7, 2022. The list of companies with projects that are not yet in production was compiled by Mining Intelligence and included: NovaGold Resources, Seabridge Gold, Osisko Mining, New Found Gold, Rupert Resources, Artemis Gold, Skeena Resources, Sabina Gold & Silver, New Pacific Metals, and Discovery Silver. 

No. 2: Union at Saskatchewan Mosaic potash plant seeks mediation for higher wages  

By Colin McClelland (Nov. 18, 2022) 

A union representing workers at Mosaic’s potash mine in Esterhazy, Sask. says it has filed for provincial mediation after negotiations for higher wages broke down. 

Some 750 workers at the site about 230 km east of Regina have been without a contract since Feb. 1, Dan Bailey, union representative with Unifor Local 892, said by phone from Regina. 

“Cost of living is a concern,” Bailey said. “The employer is certainly in a situation, if you just review recent quarterly reports, that they should be able to work with its employees and assist in dealing with the increases to the cost of living.” 

No. 3: New Found’s Queensway drilling lifts explorer back into billion-dollar territory 

Colin McClelland (Nov. 29, 2022) 

New Found Gold’s high-grade Queensway project in central Newfoundland may be fundamentally altered after surprising drilling results from a zone it nearly dismissed.   

This week the Vancouver-based company reported diamond drill hole NFGC-22-960 at the Keats West area intersected 42.6 grams gold per tonne over 32 metres. That followed last week’s 18.6 grams gold per tonne over 15.95 metres in hole NFGC-22-773, located 200 metres up-plunge.  

No. 4: New drill results from Kerkasha project in Eritrea suggest large gold discovery, says Alpha  

By Naimul Karim (May 25, 2022) 

Alpha Exploration has reported drill results from its first campaign on the Aburna gold prospect, part of the company’s Kerkasha project in Eritrea, based on which it expects is “a large gold discovery” in the property.    

Highlights from the latest results of the 19-hole program that ended in March included 22 metres grading 4.5 grams gold per tonne starting from 47 metres depth in drill hole ABR-018 and 5 metres grading 1.94 grams gold starting from 71 metres in hole ABR-017.   

“These results… continue to support the view that Alpha has found what could be a large gold discovery at Aburna with widespread gold mineralization,” the company’s CEO Michael Hopley said in a press release.  

No. 5: RANKED: World’s biggest nickel projects – 2022 

By Amanda Stutt (Mar. 30, 2022) 

Nickel is used mainly in the steelmaking process, but also in production of batteries for electric vehicles, and it is the metal that has grabbed the most headlines so far this year. 

With the nickel price spiking 250% to a high of US$101,365 a tonne earlier in the year, driven in large part by a short squeeze centred on Chinese tycoon Xiang Guangda, who had amassed a big wager that nickel prices would fall through his company Tsingshan Holding Group Co., this article identifies the top 10 largest nickel deposits based on contained nickel resources that could form part of the global supply landscape in the future. 

No. 6: Shelby Yee and Alex Dorsch named Young Mining Professionals of the Year  

By Carl Williams (Apr. 21, 2022) 

The Young Mining Professionals (YMP) awards, presented in association with The Northern Miner, recognize two mining professionals under 40 who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and innovative thinking, and provided value to their companies and shareholders. 

Shelby Yee, the CEO and co-founder of RockMass Technologies, a Toronto-headquartered mining and geosciences technology start-up, has won the 2022 Eira Thomas award. Alex Dorsch, managing director and CEO of Chalice Mining, an Australia-based explorer and developer, has won the Peter Munk award.  

No. 7: U.S. military to assess Canada critical minerals projects for funding, but none approved yet 

By Colin McClelland (Nov. 17, 2022) 

Canadian battery mineral miners and explorers are sniffing around hundreds of millions of dollars in potential funding from the United States military, but there are no firm deals yet to take advantage of an alliance dating back to World War II.   

The concept of the U.S. funding projects in Canada to help sidestep China’s control over lithium and rare earth element (REE) processing broke into the open this month at a conference in Washington, D.C. However, some companies say they’ve been aware of the initiative for years.  

No. 8: American Pacific Mining rides high on third round of Madison drilling 

By Henry Lazenby (Feb. 14, 2022) 

Despite coming off recent highs, the Toronto-quoted shares in copper explorer American Pacific Mining continue to trade nearly 520% higher over the 12-month frame following a third successful drill campaign by partner Rio Tinto at the Madison project in Montana, says CEO Warwick Smith. 

The company’s wholly owned Madison copper-gold project is currently under an earn-in with an option to make a joint venture agreement, whereby Rio, in a June 2020 deal, undertook to spend US$30 million to earn up to 70% of the project. 

No. 9: Cypress tests world’s first battery-grade lithium from hydrochloride process at Nevada plant  

By Colin McClelland (Oct. 25, 2022) 

Cypress Development says it has successfully tested the world’s first hydrochloric acid process to extract battery-grade lithium carbonate from clay at its half-a-billion-dollar project in Nevada. 
 
The Clayton Valley lithium project about 270 km northwest of Las Vegas is producing lithium carbonate at a 99.94% purity level, Cypress chief executive officer Bill Willoughby said in an interview this month. That purity exceeds battery grade which is 99.5%. 

No. 10: Mining’s top ten ‘S’ trends in ESG for 2022 

By Elizabeth Freele and Rachel Dekker (Jan. 19, 2022) 

The year 2021 was a big one for ESG. Extreme weather, pandemic ripple effects across healthcare, education, and the economy, the COP26 climate summit (and protests), and new sustainability legislation prompted calls for corporate action on a range of social and environmental topics.  

While climate action has taken centre stage, awareness of social sustainability issues has magnified too. As ESG integration becomes more sophisticated, performance standards raise the bar, and ever more disclosure expectations emerge, many companies want guidance on where to focus.