Monthly Archives: June 2022

Green ammonia plays a prominent role in the 20 million tonne renewable hydrogen target of the European Commissions REPowerEU plan. Now its time for the EU to put its money where its mouth is, writes Joel Moser.

Joel Moser is the CEO of First Ammonia, a leader in the production of green ammonia. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs.

When Russia first invaded parts of Ukraine in 2014, it should have been a turning point in the way the EU viewed its significant dependency on Russian fossil fuels. Unfortunately, since then the EU has only increased its relative share of Russian natural gas.

Russian gas made up more than 40% of all of Europes gas consumption in 2021 providing Vladimir Putins huge leverage over the EU.

Fortunately, there is now finally a clear sense of urgency that, with Russias second invasion, the EU must do something. And if it is done well, it can deliver a huge win-win: Lessening its dependence upon fossil fuels, generally, and accelerating its green transition.

The ammonia sector can play a central role in this transition: The EUs ammonia sector uses about 10 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas annually, mostly as a feedstock to make fertilizers. And of course, Europe cant just stop using fertilizers because they are essential to help guarantee food security for the EU and the world.

But what if instead of continuing ammonias reliance of natural gas, we could substitute that Russian fossil fuel with homemade renewable energy? And what if that same renewable energy-based resource, specifically green ammonia made from water and renewable power, can also serve as a fuel for transportation and power generation?

That is the power of green ammonia.

Green Ammonia could help Europe directly meet almost 30% of the 35 BCM savings the EU hopes to achieve in industry by 2030 in its newly presented REPowerEU plan.

Thats why it was great to see that during the REPowerEU presentation, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans praised the benefits that ammonia can bring as a renewable hydrogen carrier.

For example, ammonia has the highest volumetric energy density out of all the hydrogen-based technologies much more than hydrogen gas, liquified hydrogen or methanol which makes it relatively cheap and easy to transport renewables over large distances.

Green ammonia is also relatively easy and cheap to deploy, because Europe can make use of existing infrastructure. There are around 270 ammonia sea terminals in place worldwide, of which about 30 in the EU.

These terminals can be directly used for green ammonia in the fertilizers sector without technical limitations, and with some extensions also to the other use cases of green ammonia, such as long-term energy storage and fuels in the maritime sector and power generation.

Therefore, the REPowerEU plan aims to domestically produce several million tonnes of renewable hydrogen based on ammonia. It also wants to import from outside the EU no less than 4 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen-based ammonia in the coming years.

But of course, this high import target would mean Europe risks jumping from one dependency into another. And that might not chime with its broader agenda of strategic autonomy, where the EU wants to become more self-sufficient when it comes to critical raw materials and other means.

While the EU should certainly look for secure ways to source green ammonia from foreign sources, it should also look deeper within. And it has a big capacity to do so.

For example, First Ammonia applied for funding under the Innovation Fund of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). We did so for our plan to build a 300-megawatt plant in Brunsbttel, Germany, that will produce green ammonia with a first-of-a-kind, industrial-scale solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC).

This innovative system, which produces green ammonia in-line with the production of grren hydrogen, is significantly more efficient than current production technology and is designed as a modular unit that can easily scale.

Efficient use of renewable power is significant as Europe only has a limited capacity to generate renewables and a big number of end uses. Our technology would also allow us to stop our ammonia production for about 10 hours per day, during the peak demand hours so we do not put pressure on the grid.

Indeed, our off-peak use of renewable power actually promotes the development of additional renewable power by adding net revenue to the market for green power, reducing demand curtailments and stabilizing the renewable grid.

Europe is at a crossroads now. It has a dual objective of reaching its ambitious 2030 climate targets, while quickly reducing its dependency on Russias fossil fuels.

These seemingly competing objectives can be achieved by prioritising the financial support to green ammonia projects, allowing Europe to shift its ammonia sector away from natural gas and making green ammonia the workhorse of the EUs future hydrogen economy.

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Why green ammonia will be the workhorse of EU's future hydrogen economy - EURACTIV

Home of Canada's first and only rare earths mine, Northwest Territories is rich in minerals critical to clean energy revolution North of 60 Mining News July 1, 2022

Rare earths from the Nechalacho Mine being delivered into the supply chain marks the opening of a new critical minerals chapter in the story of mining in Northwest Territories a saga that includes a 1930s gold rush to the territory's capital, a whole new town to support the Pine Point zinc mine, and the unlikely discovery of world-class diamond deposits in the famed Lac de Gras region.

"We have an opportunity to add to our rich and long-standing mining story," Northwest Territories Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Caroline Wawzonek said during the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum last November.

Building upon the economic foundation that the mining of gold, zinc, and diamonds has provided for Northwest Territories' economy for nearly a century, this North of 60 jurisdiction is now looking at a future that includes being a reliable and responsible source of the bismuth, beryllium, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, lithium, nickel, rare earths, tungsten, vanadium, and other metals critical to low-carbon energy, electric vehicles, and digital technologies.

"From our beginnings in base metals like zinc, lead, and gold, we progressed to becoming the birthplace of ethically sourced diamonds in the 1990s," Wawzonek said during a June 17 address at the Arctic Development Expo in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. "The breadth of our mineral potential is expanding even further, thanks to the presence of green economy metals like rare earth minerals, lithium, nickel, and cobalt needed to meet the demand of clean technologies along with many other resources recognized as critical or strategic minerals and metals."

The International Energy Agency forecasts that the annual supplies of minerals and metals being fed into the burgeoning EV and battery storage sectors will need to expand by 30 times between 2020 and 2040 to build the renewable energy infrastructure and electric vehicles necessary to achieve global climate goals.

This has industry and governments investing heavily into ensuring there are abundant, reliable, and responsibly mined supplies of the raw material needed to build the renewable energy revolution a list of critical minerals and metals that Northwest Territories could help supply.

Wawzonek told North of 60 Mining News that NWT hosts known deposits and occurrences with 23 of 31 minerals that have been deemed critical by the Canadian government, and this vast northern territory, which is roughly twice the size of Texas, remains largely underexplored.

Above and beyond being a reliable North American source of these critical minerals often imported from places like China, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Russia, the permitting system in NWT ensures that the mined commodities produced in the territory meet high environmental, social, and governance standards.

What sets the NWT permitting system apart is indigenous involvement throughout the process, which allows NWT's First People to consider both the impacts and benefits of a proposed mining project. This process, which requires a recommendation by an indigenous review board prior to government approval, has been criticized for adding time to the permitting process.

The NWT industry minister, however, contends that having ingenious involvement built directly into the process results in consensus building with residents and a permitted mining project that has ESG at its very core.

"We are world leaders in these measures, well known for our environmental oversight, Indigenous representation in regulatory processes, and the recognition of traditional knowledge," she said. "In fact, the NWT model; the ESG-I, with its unique approach to collaborative and consensus-based legislative development, resource royalty sharing, and socio-economic and benefit agreements, is anchored by the critical leadership of NWT Indigenous Governments in resource exploration and development in Canada."

Canada's first REE mine

The newly developed Nechalacho Mine is an operating example of the advantages NWT has to offer, both in terms of rich critical minerals potential and the strength of the ESG-I model in the territory.

In addition to being the first rare earths mine in all of Canada, Nechalacho boasts environmental advantages and a relationship with local indigenous companies that bolster the ESG score of this producer of a group of elements critical to EVs, wind turbines, and a broad array of other modern industrial and consumer products.

Australia-based Vital Metals Ltd., which operates Nechalacho Mine through its Canadian subsidiary Cheetah Resources Corp., is working hard to ensure that as many benefits as possible from mining rare earths at Nechalacho are realized by NWT businesses and people.

"It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a community to build a project. A community of indigenous and non-indigenous suppliers, employees, and not-for-profits," said Cheetah Resources Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Affairs David Connelly. "Without this community, the Nechalacho rare earth project could not exist, and the NWT would not host Canada's first rare earth mine."

Cheetah believes the money it spends with local businesses is "sticky," meaning that it leads to additional benefits in the territory. As such, the company acquires roughly 90% of its goods and services from NWT businesses, excluding machinery not made or sold locally.

NWT suppliers use the "sticky dollars" received from the goods and services provided at Nechalacho to pay their local employees, buy from other NWT suppliers, pay rent to local landlords, donate to community charities, and pay municipal, school, and territorial taxes and fees.

In addition to doing business with as many local businesses as possible, Cheetah has set the standard for indigenous hire more than 75% of the workers at Nechalacho in 2021 were Canada's First People.

The ability to achieve such a high First Nation hire rate has a lot to do with contracting Det'on Cho Nahanni Construction Ltd., a Northwest Territories-based First Nations company, to carry out the mining and earthworks at Nechalacho.

"The Yellowknives Dene First Nation is pleased to be the first Indigenous group in Canada to be responsible for mineral extraction on their traditional territory," said Yellowknives Dene First Nations Chief Ernest Betsina. "When indigenous people conduct the mining operations, they are better able to control the process, resulting in better safeguarding of the environment."

When it comes to safeguarding the environment, Nechalacho boasts advantages that set it apart from competitors it is near-surface, very high-grade, and needs minimal processing to produce a concentrated ore product ready to ship for processing.

The ore dug up by Det'on Cho Nahanni Construction is simply crushed and fed through an ore sorter that discards the non-mineralized rocks creating a high-grade ore without the need for water or chemicals. This sorted ore concentrate is bagged and shipped to Saskatchewan where it is processed into mixed rare earths carbonate.

Vital began feeding the first Nechalacho ore through a dense media separation plant at its new rare earth extraction facility in Saskatchewan earlier this month.

"We have been a rare earth miner for more than 12 months and now we can commence production of rare earth carbonate," said Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins. "We are excited to have reached this milestone at Saskatoon despite the challenges surrounding supply chains and logistics across the world."

Mixed rare earth carbonates produced in Saskatchewan will be shipped to separate facilities for the final separation into the individual rare earth oxides needed for EV motors, wind turbine generators, speakers, computer hard drives, medical imaging devices, and a plethora of other high-tech devices.

Putting NWT at the front end of a supply chain critical to the transition to low-carbon energy and transportation.

"It sends a signal that Canada is indeed a serious player in the international drive toward a sustainable, reliable, responsibly mined source of critical rare earth elements independent of China and also of Russia," said Wawzonek.

Bridging the gap

Like the rest of Canada's North and Alaska, NWT is a vast and remote land with limited transportation and energy infrastructure. This often makes the economics of mining even high-grade deposits, especially those that produce a concentrate that must be shipped elsewhere for processing, out of reach.

The territory, which has been working to bridge this gap between its rich mineral resources and the markets that need them, hopes the federal government's C$3.8 billion (US$3 billion) budget to support Canada's critical minerals strategy includes funds to continue this effort.

The recently completed 97-kilometer (60 miles) Tlicho Highway to the community of Whati is an example of recent efforts to extend infrastructure closer to the territory's critical mineral potential.

Funded by a partnership between the federal, territorial, and Tlicho First Nations governments, this recently completed project extends road access to within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project, which will need road access to deliver concentrates to market.

Located about 150 road-kilometers (95 miles) north of Hay River and the northern end of the rail system in NWT, NICO is a near-development stage project that includes an intriguing mix of critical and precious metals.

According to a 2020 plan, a mine at NICO and an associated refinery would produce an average of 1,800 metric tons of battery-grade cobalt sulfate; 1,700 metric tons of bismuth; 300 metric tons of copper; and 47,000 oz of gold annually over the first 14 years of mining.

This mix of metals in NWT makes NICO an intriguing prospect for those wanting to see more critical minerals mined and refined in North America.

According to an annual minerals report published by the U.S. Geological Survey in February, DRC accounted for roughly 69% of the cobalt mined during 2021.

"This country has a high-risk index for doing business owing to poor infrastructure, resource nationalism, a high perception of corruption, and a lack of transparency as well as wars," USGS wrote about DRC in a 2018 report on cobalt.

Russia, the world's second-largest producer, accounted for another 6%.

This creates a dilemma for companies that need cobalt for the lithium-ion batteries powering EVs and a wide range of devices that make the world greener and more convenient.

The bismuth also found in abundance at NICO is an increasingly important ingredient as a substitute for lead in non-toxic alloys for water pipes and in semiconductors for solar power and potentially green hydrogen production.

Read more about research into bismuth's use in hydrogen production at Solar fuel made from artificial leaves in the June 15, 2022 edition of Metal Tech News.

Bismuth, however, is one of the rarest elements in Earth's crust and is seldom found in economically recoverable concentrations.

In fact, it is estimated that NICO accounts for 12% of the world's bismuth reserves deposits where it has been shown economic feasibility for recovering the metal.

When you throw in the copper and gold, NICO offers a mix of metals increasingly critical to an electric-centric world and a monetary metal traditionally seen as a safe-haven asset in times of financial or political uncertainty.

NICO, however, requires a road to deliver concentrates to Fortune's planned refinery in Alberta and onward to the renewable energy and other supply chains that need the metals to be produced.

Fortune plans to construct an industrial access road that will link the mine to the new Tlicho Highway, which will enable metal concentrates to be trucked to a railhead south of Great Slave Lake for delivery to the planned Alberta refinery.

NWT hopes that Ottawa will support further infrastructure development to critical minerals enriched areas of the territory.

"To transition into the next chapter of our storied mining history with our rich critical mineral potential, we need strong partners at the federal level and continue to make the case for significant infrastructure investment. By doing this, we will be able to capitalize on our true economic potential," said Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane.

The C$3.8 billion (US$3 billion) federal budget to support the development of critical minerals across Canada includes C$1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) specifically designated for infrastructure investments to unlock new mineral projects in critical regions.

Fireweed Metals

One of the most exciting new developments on the NWT critical minerals front was the territorial government's decision to sell the Mactung tungsten project to Fireweed Zinc Ltd. for C$15 million (US$11.8 million).

Stradling the NWT-Yukon border, Mactung hosts 33 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.88% tungsten trioxide, making it one of the largest known undeveloped, high-grade tungsten-skarn deposits in the world.

Despite Mactung's world-class size and grade, along with being advanced well into permitting, the former owner of the project, North American Tungsten, fell into financial difficulties and filed for creditor protection before it could develop the mine that would have produced roughly 6,450 metric tons of tungsten per year

NWT government acquired Mactung in 2015 and obtained a Class 4 Mining Land Use Approval for the tungsten mine project in 2020.

In June, Fireweed agreed to buy this advanced tungsten exploration project that borders the northeast side of its Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver property from the territorial government.

"We now have not only one of the largest undeveloped zinc resources in the world at our Macmillan Pass Project, but also one of the world's largest and highest-grade undeveloped tungsten projects at the advanced stage Mactung Project," said Fireweed CEO Brandon Macdonald.

Fireweed's agreement to buy Mactung comes only a month after it staked Gayna River, another NWT project enriched with critical minerals.

Lying roughly 180 kilometers north of Mactung, Gayna River is a highly prospective zinc-gallium-germanium-lead-silver project that was discovered in the 1970s and is the target of more than 28,000 meters of drilling completed by Rio Tinto.

To reflect the new critical mineral diversity offered by Mactung and Gayna River, the company has changed its name to Fireweed Metals Corp.

"Our projects host major deposits of zinc and tungsten, each with unique supply dynamics and compelling demand growth," said Fireweed Metals CEO Macdonald. "With both zinc and tungsten being designated as critical minerals by Canada, the US, and the EU, Fireweed is positioned to be a significant critical minerals player on the world stage and to help enable the transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy."

Government of Northwest Territories

For the territorial government, the deal with Fireweed represents another page in the next chapter of NWT's mining story a chapter where the northern Canada territory is a reliable and responsible supplier of the critical minerals required to build a technologically driven future powered by low-carbon energy.

"The NWT is a vibrant jurisdiction with opportunities in abundance. We are looking for new partnerships across a variety of ventures and areas of development," said Wawzonek. "We continue to build on our best practices and our strengths, and we are looking to welcome like-minded investors and partners. We are ready to raise our bar once again and are likely one of the best positioned jurisdictions to do that at this moment in time."

Over his more than 14 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

Email: [emailprotected] Phone: (907) 726-1095https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-lasley-ab073b12/

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NWT mining future takes a critical turn - North of 60 Mining News

In the not-so-distant future, the average, middle-income American may wake up on a chilly spring morning in a home warmed by solar panels, then travel in an electric vehicle to work in a building where the computers and lights are powered by wind. Clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries for energy storage are the backbone of future energy systems we need to grow our economy and reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

These clean energy technologies all rely on a handful of critical minerals including cobalt, lithium, nickel and rare earths. As these technologies become even more prevalent in our society as we transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to carbon neutrality, demand for critical minerals is projected to increase upward of 500 percent by 2050.

The Biden-Harris administration is seizing this enormous economic growth and job creation opportunity by increasing domestic mining, processing and recycling. But even with strong domestic actions, resource-rich developing countries will be essential to meeting demand. Both our energy future and the success of major U.S. companies depends on securing reliable critical mineral supply chains. A recent analysis commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) found minerals needed for clean energy including cobalt, graphite, lithium and aluminum in over 70 countries where we work.

To secure our energy future while promoting our values, the United States together with the global community must redouble our efforts to promote transparency, accountability and good governance in the extractive sector. Costly supply chain disruptions are more likely to occur when sourcing minerals from countries with weak governance, or where corruption and conflict are common. China dominates global mineral supply chains and has moved aggressively to control production in resource-rich developing countries with poor governance records.

Chinas overseas lending has come under international scrutiny over allegations of a lack of transparency, excessive debt levels, non-competitive processes and weak environment, labor and human rights standards. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, the government is reviewing $6 billion dollars of China-backed investments over concerns that the deals have failed to generate the local benefits promised. In efforts to combat corruption, illicit activities and human rights abuses at home as well as abroad, the United States is increasingly sanctioning bad actors in the DRC and elsewhere, such as the mining tycoon Dan Gertler, whose reported abuses in the DRC exacted an enormous human and economic toll, according to the U.S. Treasurys Office.

The United States government is implementing a variety of measures to secure minerals including increasing domestic and allied production and processing capacity, investing in minerals recycling, and we even have a national stockpile of critical minerals. The new Minerals Security Partnership, announced on June 14 by the United States and other countries with high critical minerals investment and offtake potential, complements these efforts by helping catalyze additional investment across the full value chain, supporting the ability of countries to reap the full economic benefit of their geological resources. It also aims to raise environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards and promote recycling.

USAIDs recent Mining and the Green Energy Transition report examines the challenges and opportunities posed by the green energy mining boom in developing countries. New mining investments in countries such as the DRC, Indonesia and Peru have the potential to be a source of wealth and jobs for their people, but they also pose increased risks of pollution, conflict, corruption and human rights and labor violations.

We must mine better, fairer and cleaner. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also help the United States and our partners secure reliable mineral supply chains. Here are two things we can do:

First, make mineral supply chains more responsible, transparent and accountable. The Biden-Harris administration has made countering corruption a core U.S. national security issue and released the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. USAID can help. We have over 20 years of experience establishing ethical supply chains for diamonds, gold and other conflict minerals, increasing civil society oversight as well as improving benefit sharing for local communities. We also have two decades of experience supporting the implementation of global transparency and anti-corruption standards such as the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. We must build on and amplify our anti-corruption work to ensure the energy transition works for everyones futures.

Second, strengthen our partnerships with the private sector. It must be part of the solution. For example, a decade ago USAID and the Department of State co-founded the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade, which includes major American companies such as Apple, Ford, Google and Intel as well as civil society groups. Among its successes, the Public-Private Alliance laid the groundwork for the very first traceable, conflict-free gold supply chain from the DRC. In 2017, the Department of Labor joined the alliance and together we began addressing more labor and human rights issues in mineral supply chains. We are currently expanding the scope of the Public-Private Alliance to address green energy minerals directly.

Our best chance to tackle the most severe impacts of the climate crisis lies in rapid deployment of clean energy technologies, but they must not be sourced at the expense of human and labor rights, sustainable development goals, accountable governance, human health or environmental integrity. With thoughtful, strategic approaches we can avoid a new green resource curse while tackling climate change, creating new jobs and protecting the environment.

Gillian Caldwell serves as the chief climate officer and is responsible for directing and overseeing all climate and environment work across USAID. She previously served as the CEO of Global Witness. She launched and led 1Sky from 2007 to 2010, a cross-sector campaign with over 600 allied organizations to pass legislation in the U.S. to address the climate crisis. She worked as a consultant for more than 70 non-profits, foundations and universities on strategic planning and organizational development.

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Green energy minerals: Key role in the race for climate action - The Hill

It seems that even the most astute U.S. commentators and analysts are somewhat out of date in their attitude towards the American policy of provoking China and a possible anti-Chinese international alliance whilst working on many visible levels to demonstrate overwhelming power through NATO.

The position of the liberals seems to be that any such policy is in breach of good common sense, especially because it is dangerously rhetorical and possibly ephemeral given the parlous present state of the U.S. economy. This is well-represented in a recent paper by Joseph Stiglitz.

Part of this is of course very true but mundane, for the American economy has been a woeful, if a major component of the world system since 2008, and possibly since the early 1970s. Certainly, from 2014 to 2019 the annual growth rate of the world economy was 3.4%, but the U.S. economy grew at 2.4%. The American trading pattern is at best moribund. It is the only major capitalist economy whose major trading partners are its next-door neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

Referring back to Stiglitz, if the U.S. economy were indeed stable, growing, and favoring the increased prosperity of the great majority of its 330 million people, then the present bellicosity would not arise so readily. Indeed, it might split the nation and throw out presidents.

The failure of productivity growth at the heart of the real economy combined with the enormous direction of capital and property towards speculative land, property, and resource investments has led to gigantism in financial flows in close association with tragically low real economic growth and increasing income and wealth maldistribution. But here we are concerned with the immediate global political impact of this, which is the development of the now ingrained policy of universal political distraction wherein civil society is waylaid and directed to the populist, nationalist, and very immediate and emotional arena of foreign policy.

Where the latter might have more traditionally been an outcome of professional diplomacy geared to problems of international power and status over the long-term, it has now increasingly passed into the hands of opportunist political leaders and their advisors, who take every favorable chance to get the measure of modern political man by aiming the attention of all people to the problems caused by the recalcitrant foreigners. The latter no longer need be carefully demarcated as ideological, territorial, or commercial antagonists.

Given the emergency condition of the economy, enmity on economic grounds (obviously China, previously Japan) might even be forgiven. But that is not the argument here. In contrast, to say the rhetoric against Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, centered on trade and investment, the present anti-Eastern moves are far more inchoate. This is because a cloudy vagueness is all the better for disguising what is happening. U.S. civil society is being distracted from the central problems of internal socioeconomic disarray and directed towards a focus on the problems caused by the others. In this regard, the Ukraine war is a welcome addition to the global stance.

Of course, the U.S. is not alone nations of particular foreign aggression such as the UK and France share the same internal problems on a smaller scale long years of low productivity growth fostering failures in real manufacturing, agriculture, and basic services and infrastructures, whilst increasing the enormous prosperity of a small number of main capitalist players whose power lies not in astute innovativeness but in its opposite in the shelter provided by highly complex financial instruments. The result is a communal capitalist failure of low productivity, growth, and welfare. Thus, GDP per annum in the euro area has grown by only 1.9% between 2014 and 2019, and its position overall in the global Economic Freedom Index has fallen to 69.2 compared to that of Japan at 74.1. It was not so long ago that Western Europeans were contrasting Japans high economic growth with its low degrees of social choice and political freedom.

If we have good reason to think that change is needed, then some recognition of the very simple process that we are now living under deserves more attention. Historically, in most capitalist nations, foreign policy has supposedly resulted as an outcome of international games and strategies. Now we are seeing foreign policy formed on domestic issues, not in order to address them but to direct attention from them. Of course, rational international strategies have often been upset by real threats arising outside this reasoning, normally from within regimes where rational considerations have been overwhelmed by emotional certainties, often along borders that simply get out of hand. But this is not the present global situation in the main.

Large capitalist nations are causing problems on a host of levels, but global opinion is generally under their control. There is no conspiracy. It appears to be a mechanism of this phase of global democratic capitalism, the leadership of which is comprehensively shy of anything but the most turgid policy possibilities inside their overall political economies. The U.S. case is simply the most obvious and the most important its military capability alone is staggering in any comparative context; its natural resource base remains unbelievably rich and beneficent. It also has the power to influence the course of action of many other nations, including those of NATO but by no means bounded by any formal organization.

We might add a note of amelioration. Compared to many democratic capitalist nations, American governments of whatever political persuasion do face intransigent institutional problems in developing any radical socioeconomic policy package. Very rarely has any White House had a commanding majority in the U.S. Congress, so any important legislation can be blocked at a variety of interstices. Seemingly progressive regimes, perhaps daring enough to go beyond the neoliberal consensus, such as those of Clinton and Obama (and indeed Tony Blair in Britain, Lionel Jospin in France, or Felipe Gonzlez in Spain), have time and again turned their backs on any new deal packages for basic reform yet failed to evolve alternative policies of either economic growth or social welfare that might have founded sustained progressive changes for civil society.

This is not simply a story of absolute power corrupting absolutely. It is a matter of choices within highly constrained policy regimes. Where a combination of central political institutions and much-vaunted constitutional regulations continue to permit power to adhere to oil and agricultural interests, defense contractors and the military, and financial oligopolies, then decisive innovation beyond the box in either polity or economy becomes crippled.

As long as distraction is cheaper than reform it will remain favored within the power elites of populist democracy. Where distraction in the direction of the foreign other is established, it surely will become increasingly difficult to shift. When future presidential and other electoral contests are based on the question of who looks the hardest of warriors, then checks and balances will move from being one annoying arena of distraction to being obsolete.

If you're interested in writing for International Policy Digest - please send us an email via submissions@intpolicydigest.org

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Distraction Capitalism 101. The Basic Engine of US Foreign Policy - International Policy Digest

Credit: iStock

The boom times only look that way in hindsight. We may come to remember 2021 as the sweet spot between the initial shock COVID-19 dealt to the world economy and the twin perils of inflation and rising interest rates that threaten recession in 2022.

Both literally and figuratively, 2021 was a year for healing. The deployment of vaccines dramatically defanged the pandemics lethal bite, even as new coronavirus variants found ways around our defences. Meanwhile the British Columbia economy played catch-up on the ground lost in 2020, growing an estimated 5 percent and returning the province effectively to full employment.

Credit where its due: public policy had a lot to do with it. Government stimulus, initially focused on individuals, shifted to small business and hard-hit sectors with nary a word about austerity. Meanwhile, central banks kept overnight lending rates near all-time lows. Money could be had seemingly for free.

In 2021 we began to notice the consequences, though, first with a spring spike in lumber prices as the long under-capitalized forest industry struggled to meet house-bound consumers sudden passion for home improvement. Then supply-chain issues popped up across the global economy as companies reconfigured their sources of inputs to ward off pandemic-related disruptions and geopolitical realignments of an increasingly bipolar world.

By fall, it would manifest itself as across-the-board inflation. Indeed, disruption to the free flow of goods felt all the more acute here in British Columbia, where catastrophic weather events had a material effect on the economy. Not only would a once-in-a-millennium heat dome in June result in close to 600 fatalitiesmaking it the most deadly weather event in Canadian historyan unprecedented tornado struck Vancouvers Point Grey. A succession of atmospheric rivers of rain in November precipitated flooding and washouts that, for more than a week, severed all direct highway and rail transport between the southwest coast and the rest of Canada. Gasoline sales were subject to rationing for weeks.

But remember, these were the good times.

For B.C.s natural resource companies and their suppliers, 2021 was a tremendous year. As you can see in the Top 100 list, forest and mining companies posted revenue and profit gains well into the double digits. In the case of West Fraser Timber, where revenues shot up 140 percent, higher wood prices and volume sales were further leveraged by consolidation, as the company digested its takeover of Toronto-based sheet board manufacturer Norbord Inc.

Likewise, copper producer First Quantum Minerals evidenced impeccable timing in ramping up its massive Cobre Panama mine in Central America, just as a world fixated on electric vehicles took a run on the sublimely conductive metal. It was a similar story at perennial Top 100 heavyweights Teck Resources, Canfor Corp. and Finning International. Thanks to the commodities boom, the number of B.C.-based companies in the 12 figures doubled year-over-year, to four. Slower-growing Crown corporations, traditionally prominent among the provinces corporate titans, were all but banished from the top 10 as a result.

Meanwhile, B.C.s secular growth stories kept on doing their thing. Consumer-focused Lululemon Athletica, Premium Brands and upstart Article (parent name: TradeMango Solutions) all posted double-digit revenue growth again last year. Fresh off their initial public offerings over the previous two years, customer service automation company Telus International, web content distributor BBTV Holdings and health sciences startup AbCellera Biologics all crashed the list for the first time. Propelled by its ambitious acquisition of CRH Medical, Well Health Technologies almost made the cut on the back of a stupendous 500% year-over-year revenue surge. (It appears on our Next 10 list.)

READ MORE: The 2021 Top 100: Go Home, and Go Big

Not every sector thrived, of course. Continued COVID-related restrictions and public aversion to meetings and travel took their toll on the likes of past Top 100 inductees Coast Hotels and Wall Financial. Restaurant franchise networks like A&W Food Services, The Keg and Boston Pizza had another challenging year that left them off the list. A concerted push into e-commerce could not overcome the loss of foot traffic in Aritzia stores. Crown-owned transportation companies were not immune either, with Translink, BC Transit, BC Ferries and the Vancouver Airport Authority all operating well below capacity, though in the first three cases still big enough to be included in the Top 100. BC Lottery Corp. suffered from the loss of casino revenues, while the hobbled Great Canadian Gaming, a long-time Top 100 alumnus, was finally snapped up by New Yorks Apollo Global Management.

Other B.C. companies taken out last yearthough under happier circumstancesincluded gold producer Pretium Resources, bought by Newcrest Mining of Australia, and wood pellet manufacturer Pinnacle Renewable Energy, now part of United Kingdom-based Drax Group. Energy shipper Teekay LNG Partners became the property of New York-headquartered alternative investment firm Stonepeak.

Just when its revenues gained serious traction, pot grower Tilray moved its headquarters from Nanaimo to Leamington, Ont., where its merger partner Aphria is based. Formerly Prince George-based BID Group relocated to Mirabel, Quebec. Capstone Mining Corp. merged with Bermuda-based Mantos Copper late in the year to become Capstone Copper, with the headquarters consolidated in Vancouver.

All in all, the big got bigger, though perhaps fewer in number. The aggregate 16.7 percent jump in Top 100 revenues to more than $225 billiona recordbelies the fact the cut-off for the No. 100 company barely budged, at just over $340 million. Most of the $32 billion in additional revenues since 2020 came from a few giant resource companies, in other words.

Since mid-2020, B.C.s economy has received a well-timed boost from higher prices for many resource-based goodsnotably natural gas, lumber and pulp, metals and minerals, and some parts of the agri-food complex. Buoyant commodity markets served as a helpful tailwind for the provincial economy as we came out of the COVID recession, Business Council of B.C. senior policy advisor Jock Finlayson and chief economist Ken Peacock wrote in a year-end commentary in January. Their outlook came with a subtle warning, though: In 2022, slower economic growthglobally and in North Americawill reduce the contribution of commodities to B.C.s rebound.

As we know too well from experience, commodity booms come and go. Continuing to build and diversify B.C.s economy will require nurturing the leadership and innovation of a next generation of corporate titans.

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The 2022 Top 100: Anything but Normal - BCBusiness