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FILE PHOTO: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves towards his supporters during a roadshow as part of an election campaign, in Kolkata, India, May 28, 2024.
Hard Numbers: India’s exit polls, China’s moonshot, America’s launch woes, African gold
3: The world’s biggest democratic event has ended with polls closing on India’s multi-week election, and all indications are that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will cruise to a third term. No surprise there, but Modi’s attempts to build inroads in opposition strongholds appear to have fallen somewhat short. Official election results are due Tuesday.
4.4: China’s Chang-e 6 probe intends to collect a 4.4-pound sample from the surface of the far side of the moon after its second successful landing attempt. China is the only country to have landed probes on the dark side of the moon, which is challenging because radio communications from Earth are blocked by the moon’s mass and need to be relayed by a special satellite.
2: Meanwhile, NASA delayed the launch of Boeing’s new Starliner rocket on Sunday for the second time after a crucial computer program failed to load just minutes before launch, pushing back the arrival of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing’s public relations have been in turmoil following multiple safety failures on its airliners, but a successful launch could make it just the second private company to ferry people to the ISS.
30 billion: A Swiss NGO estimates that over $30 billion worth of gold is smuggled out of Africa each year, with the lion’s share going to private refiners in the United Arab Emirates who then push the metal onto legitimate markets. The silver lining? With so much of the industry concentrated in the UAE, the NGO says targeted enforcement efforts could prove effective.Hydraulic excavators scoop the broken rock into 100- or 150-tonne haul trucks at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank mine in Nunavut June 28, 2011.
Nunavut’s golden birthday present
The traditional 25th-anniversary gift is silver, but how about mines full of precious minerals? The vast northern Canadian territory of Nunavut turns 25 on Monday, and for its birthday it’ll also start having more control over decisions about its lands, waters, and reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, cobalt, and rare earth metals.
Background: Nunavut, which makes up about a fifth of Canada’s land mass, was created in 1999 from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories. The split was driven by the Inuit nation’s desire for a culturally grounded government closer to the people and lands it administers.
A January 2024 land transfer agreement gives Nunavut a say over many functions previously managed in Ottawa, putting it on the path to equal footing with the rest of Canada. As the territory’s Premier P.J. Akeeagok says, now “we'll decide our own future.”
The transfer of power from the federal to territorial governments will happen over the next three years.
If geopolitics are on your radar, Nunavut should be too. Nunavut yields minerals that are essential for battery production, which will be a source of increasing global leverage during the energy transition.
The draw of Nunavut’s (literal) goldmine of resources has already caused geopolitical tension. In 2020, Canada blocked a CA$230 million Chinese takeover of a Nunavut gold mine on national security grounds. That dealt an economic blow to the North, but sizzling US-China-Canada tensions surrounding the arrest on a US warrant of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and the subsequent imprisonment of two Canadians in China likely helped kill the deal. Plus, China’s assertion that it’s already an “important stakeholder in Arctic affairs” with a right to a greater role in the region — even though it is nearly 2,000 miles south of the Arctic Circle — is ringing national security alarm bells.
While the territorial government’s new autonomy over its resources won’t override the federal government’s national security concerns, we’ll be watching as Nunavut balances local economic interests with geopolitical dynamics.
For a more lighthearted geopolitical ‘dispute’ involving Nunavut, check out the 50-year Canada-Denmark “Whiskey War.”