The bold paragraph below caught my eye. Not sure how wide spread...

The bold paragraph below caught my eye. Not sure how wide spread the cash-strapped Canadian miners are but it might extend SYR's flake graphite run as the only source in town. It will put more pressure on the 7 others SYR is negotiating with to sign on the dotted line.

Chinese investment can’t be the solution for cash-strapped Canadian miners seeking financial backing, according to Canada’s natural resources minister.

“We need to be working to solve access to capital issues, but the answer cannot be investment from Chinese state-owned industries,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday in an interview.

Chinese firms have been pursuing investments in Canadian junior mining companies in recent months, suggesting that tougher federal government rules imposed in 2022 haven’t dissuaded China from delving deeper into the country’s mining sector. Canada and its allies have been discouraging efforts by China to deepen ties in domestic critical minerals companies to counter the Asian nation’s industry dominance.

Transactions like Zijin Mining Group Co.’s plans to take a 15% stake in Vancouver-based copper company Solaris Resources Inc., announced in January, are testing Canada’s national security rules. China’s Yintai Gold, meanwhile, reached an agreement last month with Osino Resources Corp. to buy the Canadian gold explorer for C$368 million ($271 million).

Canada’s crackdown “may not have totally dissuaded the Chinese, but they will all have to go through a national security review,” Wilkinson said.

Junior graphite explorer SRG Mining Inc. backtracked on plans to secure C$17 million from a Chinese firm for a 19.4% stake in the Montreal-based company on Tuesday, a day after drawing criticism from Canada’s industry minister. Some miners have argued that the Canadian rules constrict access to capital when small mining firms are struggling to raise money.

Canada did a crackdown in November 2022. Looks like the Chinese are being persistent. A snippet from the Nov 2022 article below

China has built up stakes in more than two dozen Canadian mining companies, including some of the industry’s biggest names. Canada’s latest crackdown on foreign investments in critical minerals is about to put a chill on such activity. At least 27 public companies including Teck Resources Ltd., Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. have shareholders with ties to China, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Attracting such investors -- or encouraging them to increase their holdings -- will now be much harder given Canada’s latest efforts to protect its minerals wealth.

“Canada has said it doesn’t want to see injections of capital from state-influenced investors,” said Subrata Bhattacharjee, who specializes in foreign investment law at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. “That’s going to leave some mining companies in a bind in terms of finding alternate sources of financing. ”Chinese firms have been involved in 89 announced acquisitions and investments in Canadian metals and mining companies in the past decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The value of those transactions is $14 billion. Many deals involve companies tied to the 31 critical minerals identified by Canada.