China Crackdowns on Bitcoin Mining

The US Dept. of Justice revealed its support for Rio Tinto's Resolute copper project in a court filing that would allow for the exchange of 2,400 acres and privatize lands that lie above the copper deposit, despite opposition from Native American groups and environmentalists.

According to Peter Aleshire of the Payson Roundup, the US Justice Department filed a brief with the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals opposing environmental and Apache groups claims that the exchange violates treaties and religious freedom laws. 

The brief states that the land trade will not impose “a substantial burden on anyone, even if it severely impacts their religious exercise.”

The Biden DOJ is opposing the appeal filed by the Apache Stronghold group that filed the original motion to stop the construction of the copper project on religious and free speech grounds. 

This land swap is critical for the operations of the Resolute mine’s block caving excavation method as part of the copper deposit lies underneath the Oak Flat campground, public and protected land. 

This land swap would privatize the land and cut off public access for safety reasons. The underground excavation of this copper ore could destabilize and collapse the land near the surface, creating a two-mile-wide crater which could affect the Oak Flat campground.  

In 2014, President Barack Obama signed a bill that approved Rio Tinto’s proposal to exchange land for another nearby lot of land, with the warning that it could not occur until an environmental report on the mine was published. The Trump administration published that report on January 15, satisfying the conditions for the exchange to go through within 60 days.

A local group called Apache Stronghold promptly sued to stop the federal government from issuing a final environmental impact statement and executing the transfer. In their original complaint, Apache Stronghold argued that the land transfer violated their religious freedom and the Treaty of Santa Fe, signed by the Western Apaches and the federal government in 1852.

In March 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had directed the US Forest Service to rescind the environmental impact assessment that allowed the land exchange to happen, citing the requirement for more time to study the impact. 

After a federal judge ruled that the deal could proceed and denied the request for an injunction from Apache Stronghold, they appealed, bring the case up to the Ninth Circuit and where Biden filed its opposition to this. 

Rio Tinto has tried for more than 25 years to move forward with its Arizona’s copper project. Rio and its 45-per-cent partner, BHP, have spent more than $2 billion on Resolution Copper to date, including reclamation of an older copper mine site and sinking a second shaft.

Resolution is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits and it could produce over 20 million tonnes of copper over 40 years.

The case around Resolute is one case among many, that is showing the difficult regulatory loopholes that delay new mines in the United States. 

Arizona recently stalled another copper project, with Canada’s Hudbay Minerals (TSX, NYSE: HBM) currently appealing a 2019 district court decision which halted its proposed Rosemont project, saying it believed that the court had misinterpreted federal mining laws and Forest Service regulations.

Resolution and Rosemont are just two mines in the United States that are facing a permitting process that delays projects and invites litigation from opposition.  

According to a Reuters news story, it can take 10 or more years to get a mining permit in the United States, though the process in Canada and Australia lasts two to three years.

Mining companies in the US hope Biden’s interest in a domestic supply of critical minerals and green energy will help put industry complaints of a time-consuming and litigious permitting process at the forefront.

Environmental reviews and permits under the National Environmental Policy Act take roughly nine years to complete, said Jonathan Evans, CEO of Lithium Americas who is building the Thacker Pass lithium mine and is facing regulatory hurdles over a rare wildflower.

The 2015 Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), signed into law by President Obama, established a more efficient environmental review and permitting process for major infrastructure projects that cost $200 million plus.

Large, complex wind, solar and renewable power transmission projects have been able to take advantage of the FAST-41 process to expedite permitting and approval. 

The Trump administration added mining to the list of industries that can receive fast-tracked permitting before he left office in early 2021. But FAST-41 will expire in December 2022 unless the act is extended.

Reversing dependence on mineral imports is a herculean task. This permitting risk plus the high cost of building a hard rock mine and environmental and local opposition create high hurdles for mining companies to overcome. 

In the meantime, there are affordable supplies of metals and minerals from Canada, Mexico, South Africa, South America, and especially China while the United States sorts out its permitting processes and comes to grips with material impact of the energy transition. 

There 1058 technical reports from US mining projects on Prospector Portal. 

Canada Outlines Plan to Combat China’s Dominance over Critical Minerals

A report from Canada’s natural resources department was presented to the country's legislative body, raising the alarm on the importance of a domestic supply of critical minerals, particularly in light of China’s dominance. 

Currently, China owns ~80% of the global processing capacity for rare earths, and it has been investing for decades in buying mineral assets around the world. According to data collected by the report’s authors, China will continue to have ~67% of the global capacity to build lithium-ion batteries by 2030. 

The report says it is time for the Canadian government to leverage the Canadian mining expertise and take steps to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign markets while positioning itself on global markets.

The report points out that Canada has all the elements to reduce its foreign dependence on foreign metal supplies, as it produces 60 minerals, including critical minerals. It is the only nation in the western hemisphere that has copper, cobalt, rare earth elements, graphite, lithium, manganese and nickel deposits, which are all needed to produce advanced batteries for electric vehicles.

There are 3056 technical reports for projects in Canada on Prospector Portal.