New Mineral Processing Plant To Be Built In Canada

A piece of processing equipment at
the new processing plant in Saskatoon

SASKATOON (TSP) -- The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) plans to construct a mineral processing plant in Saskatoon designed to improve the processes involved in recovering valuable metals and minerals.  According to Craig Murray, VP of SRC's mining and minerals division, the company expects the plant to be fully operational in the next few months and says the plant will support companies across the globe involved in processing minerals such as potash, gold, base metals, and especially rare earth minerals. SRC expects that the plant's pilot scale demonstrations  will increase mining yields and decrease overall cost of production.  According to Lynne Yelich, minister of state for Western Economic Diversification, the facility increases the SRC's ability to develop, test, scale-up and demonstrate more efficient ways for companies to extract and process rare earth minerals. Source: SRC To Build New Mineral Processing Plant In City (Reliability: High)

Comment: According to Yelich the new processing plant will be the only one of its kind in Saskatchewan and one of the very few within Canada with the ability to process rare earth minerals.

Canadian Group Working To Increase Transparency In Mining And Exploration

Mines such as this Cricket Resources mine in
Canada provide the US with  critical minerals.

OTTAWA, CANADA (Mining Association of Canada)--On September 6, 2012, a working group of Canadian national-level mining and exploration associations and transparency-focused NGOs announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve Canada's transparency in extractive company payments to governments. The group intends to develop a framework for disclosure of payments for Canadian oil and mining companies by June 2013. There is currently no mandatory framework in place in Canada, although many companies participate in voluntary reporting such as EITI. Involved parties state that this working group's collaboration will likely allow citizens, investors, and communities "achieve accountable, responsible and sound management of natural resources." Source: Canada's mining industry joins forces with NGOs to improve transparency (Reliability: Moderate)

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/06/4792762/canadas-mining-industry-joins.html#storylink=cpy

Comment: As the US is 100 percent import-reliant on Canada for such critical minerals as Cesium and Rubidium (Source: USGS), an increase in transparency among Canadian sources would almost certainly improve the risk analysis capacity of American officials and investors.