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NOVEMBER 28 — DECEMBER 11, 2022 / VOL. 108 ISSUE 24 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS • SINCE 1915 / $5.25 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM
West faces daunting task to compete with China in critical minerals race, summit hears CRITICAL MINERALS
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| Develop domestic talent, think long-term, say speakers
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE
ngaging in the global critical minerals market means facing up to the huge challenge presented by China, says Neo Performance Materials’ (TSX: NEO) CEO and president Constantine Karayannopoulos. Speaking during an exclusive Q&A session at the Critical Minerals Summit 2022, held at the National Club in downtown Toronto on Nov. 9, Karayannopoulos outlined the task ahead for Western countries and companies. “We should do a session just on that alone,” the CEO told moderator and summit organizer Tracy Weslosky, who is also the CEO of InvestorIntel. China poorly understood While the CEO said that Neo has four plants, including two rare earth refineries in China, many Westerners have failed to understand the how and why of the east Asian country’s industrial development. “For the last 20 years there has been a very rational, deliberate industrial strategy that would have been very easy to predict today if you had been following how each successive five-year plan plays into that industrial strategy,” he said. “They’re absolutely determined to dominate the electric vehicle market [and] 34% of all EVs are made and sold in China…in order to achieve that they need raw material security.” For China to achieve its decarbonization and electrification targets will require trillions of dollars of investment, as it will for the rest of the world, Karayannopoulos explained. “That’s mind boggling. There’s a massive task ahead of us and I don’t think governments around the world really appreciate how complex this is. I consider myself an environmentalist. [But] you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want to decarbonize…we need more factories to take whatever comes out of the mines and make them into the products that will allow us to decarbonize.” But such enormous industrial development in the West will have to be done by skilled professionals, and Weslosky asked Karayannopoulos where they would come from.
Integra’s Andrée St-Germain on overcoming self-doubt and the importance of ‘paying your dues’ | CFO speaks about pivoting from banking to mining
SPEAKER SERIES
Critical Minerals Institute director Byron King, left, moderates a panel at the Critical Minerals Summit in Toronto on Nov. 9. CRITICAL MINERALS INSTITUTE
“It has taken two decades for the supply chains to migrate from North America to Asia,” he said. “It will take at least as long for them to come back. And it starts with education. China graduates more engineers than in North America we’re graduating graduates!” Diversify supply, but wisely The Neo president also touched on where critical minerals might be mined in the coming years, and gave the example of his company’s efforts to source rare earths from Greenland. In August, it announced it had secured a licence from Hudson Resources (TSXV: HUD) for its Sarfartoq Carbonatite Complex to explore for neodymium and praseodymium at relatively high ratios of 25%-40% total rare earth oxides, according to a 2011 preliminary economic assessment. He acknowledged that the largely undeveloped country guards its resources closely, and permits no oil and gas development and no uranium mining. But he added that Neo took the time to consult properly with the Greenlandic government. “We really need to understand the lay of the land, to make sure that you’ve done all the right things. Don’t walk into people’s geography and expect to be in business just like that,” he said. Karayannopoulos spoke at the summit just hours after it was announced that his company was awarded a grant of up to €18.7 million ($25.3 million) from the Esto-
nian government under Europe’s Just Transition Fund for its rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing plant in the Baltic state. It was reportedly the first ever grant given out to a critical minerals company in the European Union. Both that facility and its Greenland project are part of the Toronto-based company’s aim to diversify rare earth sources and expand supply chains. Karayannopoulos’ talk was among several presentations and panel discussions held at the summit where the subject of China was prominent. Beijing’s top-down advantage Of the many ways by which China has climbed to the top of the critical minerals market, its political system — unburdened by electoral mandates — is a major factor. “[China] has a longer term outlook than we do in the U.S. and we teeter totter more than China because of the political structure,” said Jacob Koelsch, a research associate at government relations firm J.A. Green, on a panel about government investment in critical minerals. “We can’t match their continuity of planning and development,” he said. And China’s massive critical minerals development can be organized through longer planning periods than in democratic countries, explained Alastair Neill, director of the Critical Minerals See CHINA / 20
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BY AMANDA STUTT
t the most recent Mining Legends Speaker Series event at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, guest speaker Andrée St-Germain, CFO of Integra Resources (TSXV: ITR; NYSE-AM: ITRG) and the 2018 recipient of the Young Mining Professionals’ Eira Thomas Award, spoke candidly about her career pivot from investment banking into mining and why it was the ‘scariest decision’ of her life. Organized by The Northern Miner, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and Young Mining Professionals, the Mining Legends Speaker Series pairs CMHF inductees (in this case Bob Quartermain) with accomplished young talent and gives the audience a chance to ask questions to bridge the knowledge gap in the industry and discuss the opportunities and challenges inherent to the future of mining. St-Germain holds an MBA in Finance from York University and began her career in investment banking at Dundee Capital markets, working with mining companies on M&A advisory and financing. In 2013 she joined Golden Queen Mining as CFO, and then moved to Integra Gold as CFO in early 2017 and helped oversee its sale to Eldorado Gold that same year for $590 million. She is also a director of Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM) and an advisor at Wyloo Metals, which took over Ontario-focused Noront
SITE VISIT: REUNION GOLD RAMPS UP DRILLING IN GUYANA / 8
Integra Resources CFO Andrée St-Germain, left, speaks with Northern Miner Group President Anthony Vaccaro. THE NORTHERN MINER See ST-GERMAIN / 20
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