THE DISPATCH

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The Friday Dispatch

TACO Tuesday. Is the Hormuz Toll a boon for Canada? Diamonds are not forever?

What a week. Iran denied U.S. talks, oil pushed past $108, TC Energy's CEO told Reuters the Hormuz crisis makes LNG Canada Phase 2 more likely — and Carney was in Houston at CERAWeek signing energy deals with nine countries. Meanwhile, Diavik pulled its last diamond out of the ground in the NWT, closing a 23-year chapter in Canadian mining history.

A lot moved this week. Let's get into it.

🟡 Precious Metals

Gold is pulling back from its $5,589 all-time high but experts say the structural bull case hasn't changed — silver had a wild ride and is finding its floor, while the TSX junior exploration board is on fire.

What will happen to gold and silver prices this March, according to experts
Gold hit an all-time high of $5,589/oz before pulling back to ~$5,400, with portfolio managers at Midas Funds forecasting a continued grind higher as central banks flee dollar-denominated assets.
Top Canadian mining stocks this week: Getty Copper gains 167%
A BC copper-molybdenum explorer adjacent to Teck's Highland Valley mine completed a merger, cleared its debt, and surged 167% on resuming trading — the kind of junior re-rating story your readers live for.
Top Mining Winners and Losers in the 2026 Energy Crisis: Where to Invest Now
With diesel above $5/gallon for nine straight days, this breakdown of who's winning and losing in the current energy crisis is required reading for anyone evaluating operational mining stocks.
TSX Today: What to watch for in stocks on Friday, March 27
Barrick Mining, Canadian Natural Resources, and Cenovus Energy led trading volume on the TSX Thursday, even as gold and silver intraday swings rattled the metals and mining complex.
Rio Tinto calls time on diamond business as last mine closes
After 23 years and 150 million carats, Rio Tinto's Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories delivered its final production this week — closing out an era for Canada's North and signalling the full maturation of the NWT mining cycle.

⚡ Energy & Oil Markets

Canada's energy sector is having its biggest week in years — LNG Canada Phase 2 is moving fast, Carney took the "energy superpower" message to CERAWeek, and Ottawa just signed its first federal-provincial environmental review streamlining deal.

LNG Canada, Coastal GasLink sign pipeline deal, bringing projects closer to reality
TC Energy and LNG Canada established a "comprehensive commercial framework" this week for Coastal GasLink Phase 2, moving a doubling of Canada's LNG export capacity one step closer to a final investment decision.
Iran war makes second phase of LNG Canada more likely, TC Energy CEO says
TC Energy's CEO told Reuters at CERAWeek that the Hormuz crisis has materially increased the probability of an LNG Canada Phase 2 FID, as Asian buyers accelerate their search for non-Middle East supply chains.
Canada advances global energy leadership at CERAWeek
Minister Hodgson committed Canada to 17 new energy and minerals export agreements across nine countries at CERAWeek in Houston, framing Canada as the "supplier of choice" for allies in an unstable global market.
Canada invests in energy innovation to become a clean energy superpower
Ottawa announced this week a new tranche of clean energy R&D funding targeting hydrogen, geothermal, and carbon capture technologies — part of a broader push to make Canada a full-spectrum energy exporter.
Mark Carney signs deal with Nova Scotia to simplify some environmental reviews
The federal government signed its first "one project, one review" bilateral environmental deal with Nova Scotia this week — a meaningful step toward the streamlined permitting system the mining and energy sectors have been demanding for a decade.

🔋 Critical Minerals & Battery Metals

Canada's graphite strategy got a lot more real this week with a binding government supply deal — and the feds are betting big on a Trump-connected rare earth project in northern Quebec.

NMG signs new graphite supply deal with Canadian Government
Nouveau Monde Graphite locked in a binding agreement for Canada to purchase 30,000 tonnes per year of flake graphite concentrate on a take-or-pay basis for seven years, backed by $335M in financing from Export Development Canada and the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
Canada loaning millions to proposed Nunavik rare earth mining project linked to Trump White House
Ottawa has committed $175 million to the Strange Lake rare earth project in northern Quebec — Canada's most aggressive pre-permit mining loan ever — to develop a full dysprosium and terbium extraction-to-refining chain as a direct alternative to China's rare earth monopoly.
M&A Trends in the Canadian Gold and Critical Minerals Sector
A breakdown of what's driving consolidation across Canadian gold and critical minerals, with deal flow accelerating as high commodity prices and federal backing improve the economics of acquisitions that were marginal two years ago.
Critical minerals in focus as major Toronto mining conference underway
A good post-PDAC recap of what the world's biggest mining conference produced this year: clustering processing capacity, attracting major foreign miners, and cautiously deepening U.S. supply chain ties.
The world is scrambling for energy but can't count on Canada
A blunt editorial arguing that a decade of regulatory delays has left Canada structurally unable to respond quickly to the global supply crisis — and that the infrastructure gaps won't be closed just by signing new MoUs.

☢️ Nuclear & Uranium

The race for uranium is officially global — and Canada's Athabasca Basin is at the centre of it, with a structural fuel supply bottleneck adding urgency to every new exploration announcement.

ATHA Energy: Canada's biggest uranium land bet in the age of the nuclear fuel crunch
ATHA Energy controls 7 million acres of uranium exploration land across the Athabasca and Thelon Basins, with a flagship Nunavut project hosting a conceptual resource of up to 98 million pounds — positioned directly at the intersection of supply bottleneck and SMR fuel demand.
IsoEnergy's uranium portfolio positions for a structural supply gap
IsoEnergy is advancing the Hurricane deposit in Canada's Athabasca Basin — one of the world's highest-grade undeveloped uranium projects — against a backdrop where the World Nuclear Association says 54% of 2040 demand is uncovered by known sources.
The U.S. Imports ~95% of its uranium — one of the largest domestic producers
Energy Fuels shares jumped more than 53% in January as the U.S. scramble to build domestic uranium supply chains intensifies — a dynamic that directly benefits Canadian Athabasca Basin producers as the preferred allied supplier.
The race for uranium has gone global
Site preparation is beginning at new uranium projects with first production targeted for mid-2028, as utilities around the world accelerate contracting to get ahead of what analysts are calling an inevitable supply crunch.
The 2026 CNA Canadian Nuclear Factbook
The Canadian Nuclear Association's freshly released 2026 Factbook is your go-to reference document for reactor counts, uranium production figures, employment stats, and the full SMR project pipeline.

💥 Conflict Watch

Trump extended his Iran deadline to April 6th — Brent is above $108 today, Iran is still striking across the Middle East, and Macquarie is now projecting $200/barrel if this drags into June.

Oil prices rise higher as Iran denies U.S. talks, dimming de-escalation hopes
Brent surged past $104 Thursday after Iran's Foreign Minister flatly denied any direct talks with Washington are underway, extending the de-escalation uncertainty well into April.
Trump won't say it, but he's desperately trying to bring oil prices down
CTV News' analysis of Trump's April 6 deadline extension: the U.S. is buying time, not winning — and every additional day of conflict is pressure on Western economies that runs directly counter to Trump's domestic agenda.
Crude oil drives higher as traders brace for longer Mideast war
Bloomberg reports Brent settled above $108 Thursday as Iran continued drone and missile strikes across the region — with Macquarie publishing a note projecting $200/barrel if the conflict continues into June.
War in Iran: fuel prices remain high and volatile — IRU
A detailed breakdown of Brent dynamics since the conflict began: pre-war $70/barrel → $120 on March 9 → holding near $100-$108 this week, with Dutch TTF gas up 50-60% and IEA members releasing 400 million barrels from strategic reserves as a temporary buffer.
'Cascading effects' of Strait of Hormuz blockage getting worse — CBC
The blockade has stranded hundreds of tankers and prevented roughly 250 million barrels of Gulf oil from reaching markets — with downstream shortages of copper, nickel, cobalt, and fertilizer inputs already beginning to materialize.

🌍 Geopolitics & Trade

Canada is rewriting its foreign energy and minerals relationships in real time — and the question of whether to trust Washington is now openly debated in Ottawa.

Canada advances global energy leadership at CERAWeek
The BOE Report's coverage of Hodgson's CERAWeek presence: Canada has signed 17 energy and minerals agreements across nine countries since August 2025, making a visible push to diversify beyond a U.S.-only export model.
Critical minerals strategy risks shifting reliance from China to U.S.
Policy Options argues Canada's enthusiasm for the U.S. FORGE framework could simply replace Chinese dependency with American dependency — and that Ottawa needs to negotiate terms, not just sign on.
MiningWatch testifies before the Standing Committee on National Defence
MiningWatch Canada urged Parliament to clarify whether it will tolerate foreign state access to Canadian critical minerals — flagging a paradox where Canada simultaneously deepens U.S. defence supply chain collaboration and quietly re-engages with Chinese investors.
The impact of the trade war on defence — CGAI
A policy paper arguing that U.S. tariffs on Canadian critical minerals are directly undermining North American defence readiness — and that China is the only winner from the current Canada-U.S. trade standoff.
Canada's second chance in the global LNG race — Globe and Mail
The Globe argues Canada is better positioned than at any point since 2015 to capture long-term Asian LNG contracts — but only if permitting reform and Indigenous partnership frameworks move fast enough to meet the moment.

🤖 Technology & ESG

The Carney government moved on permitting reform this week — and a landmark reclamation story out of the NWT offers a rare good-news model for what responsible mine closure can look like.

Diavik diamond mine reaches final production
Diavik's final production week is also a responsible closure story: 23 years of operations, signed closure agreements with the Tłı̨chǫ Government and North Slave Métis Alliance, and active reclamation underway until 2029.
Prime Minister endorses "one project, one review" reform to expedite major projects
Carney's public endorsement of a single federal-provincial permitting review process — backed this week by a signed deal with Nova Scotia — is the most significant regulatory reform promise for the mining sector in a generation.
National energy corridor agreement brings Canada closer to a "United Canada" grid
Ten provinces and territories signed on to Ontario's national energy corridor framework this month — an interprovincial electricity grid upgrade that directly enables nuclear, hydro, and clean energy to flow to industrial mining and energy users.
ESG Compliance in Mining Industry Research and Forecast
Tighter emissions regulations, investor ESG mandates, and consumer pressure on supply chain ethics are converging to make ESG compliance a project financing condition — not just a reporting exercise — for Canadian miners in 2026.
Researchers find gaps in environmental impact assessments of mining projects
A Dalhousie University study reviewing 50 years and 227 Canadian mining project assessments found 20% of records were incomplete or missing — a data quality crisis that undermines both regulatory credibility and the permitting reform agenda.