US, UK make progress on critical minerals agreement, US says

The Buenos Aires-based firm is looking at three projects — in San Juan, Santa Cruz and Salta provinces — and has received partnership interest from a mining company.

The rush for metals needed to power electric vehicles has “clearly brought the sector into a spotlight that it wasn’t in a few years ago,” BMO analyst says.

Commodities from copper to iron ore fell after China set a cautious economic growth target of about 5% for the year.

The Chilean state-owned firm had envisaged turning its mainly underground Salvador mine into an open pit by first half of 2023.

MetalCorp's main assets are the North Rock copper-nickel project and the Big Lake copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Ontario.

The property covers 39,943 hectares in north-central Saskatchewan.

The area’s most advanced project is Ring of Fire Metals’ Eagle’s Nest nickel project.

China has built up stakes in more than two dozen Canadian mining companies, including some of the industry’s biggest names.

Kazakhstan's largest copper producer and miner KAZ Minerals will also participate in the project.