Local View: Why should we trust anything claimed by Talon Metals?
A new mine plan was recently released for Talon Metals’ proposed Tamarack nickel mine project in Aitkin County. The Dec. 27 News Tribune story, “
Proposed nickel mine near Tamarack alters design
,” reported again that Talon Metals agreed in 2022 to supply nickel to Tesla. Such claims can also be found in past press releases from the company and on the company’s website.
Talon Metals’ own investor documentation, however, says otherwise.
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The company provides additional details on its so-called “Tesla supply agreement” in the document, “
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
,” published Nov. 14. It is found at sedar.com, which stores financial documents required for stocks listed on the Toronto stock exchange. Talon’s registered office is in the British Virgin Islands while its financial statements are in Canadian dollars. The company, in essence, is Canadian.
Page 35 of the document details the “Conditions Relating to the Tesla Supply Agreement.” They include:
- Talon earning a 60% interest in the Tamarack North Project. It currently has a 51% interest and has provided no plan or schedule to meet this condition.
- Talon commencing commercial production at the Tamarack North Project this year. However, in its newly released mine plan (its updated
, or environmental assessment worksheet), the company sets a 2029 date as the earliest for nickel production. As such, it won’t meet this condition.
- The parties completing negotiations and executing detailed supply terms and conditions for a supply agreement. That is to say, an actual supply agreement must still be negotiated.
In essence, Talon, in this management and analysis filing, says there is no supply agreement, simply an agreement to attempt to negotiate a supply agreement if it can produce nickel before the end of 2025. And we know from the newly updated Talon EAW that the company doesn’t expect to have nickel production until at least 2029.
Yet the press continues to report, with Talon Metals apparently choosing not to correct it, that the company has an agreement with Tesla to supply nickel. And Talon continues to include this on its website. Talon apparently doesn’t point the press to its investor documents that suggest otherwise.
This seems to me an intent to deceive. How can we then trust anything Talon says?
Talon makes all kinds of claims about how safe and environmentally responsible it is, but with no evidence. Talon seems to be all talk.
Minnesota should better vet foreign mining companies prior to mineral-lease and permitting requests to provide some confidence that the company is not just a marketing effort intent on deceiving our citizens.
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Tom W. Anderson of Tamarack, Minnesota, is a principle technologist for the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, or ATIS (
), a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that assists businesses with information and communications technology. His views expressed here are his own, written exclusively for publication in the News Tribune.