News of the day: Lithium legal battles, inflation on the rise, rate hike possibility, Stelco explainer, mining investment supercycle and more

It’s Monday, Oct. 19. Here are the top stories we’re following today.

The TSX Venture Exchange singled out Emerita Resources Corp. as its best performing overall stock in a 2021 ranking. Today, the mining exploration company finds itself embroiled in litigation and beset by disputes with one of its co-founders, several former top executives, investors and even regulators.

The Consumer Price Index report, released by Statistics Canada on Monday, showed that overall prices rose 3.1 per cent year-over-year, up from three per cent in August. The bulk of the increases stemmed from higher energy prices, which were 19 per cent higher compared with the same time last year.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem came across as hawkish in an interview with reporters at an International Monetary Fund meeting and that has economists wondering if policymakers will continue to shrug off above-target inflation.

Hamilton-based Stelco Holdings Inc. sent shockwaves through an already embattled Canadian steel industry when U.S. parent company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced on Sept. 28 it would indefinitely idle its Hamilton plant and lay off hundreds of workers. In response, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has threatened legal action if Stelco does not preserve its Ontario jobs, citing commitments agreed upon under the Investment Canada Act when Cleveland-Cliffs first assumed ownership of the company.

The world is entering the “largest investment supercycle in the history of the metals and mining industry,” says Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson. “Critical minerals are no longer simply industrial commodities,” he said at an event hosted by Canada House in London on Monday. “They are the inputs that will decide which economies can grow, which can compete and which countries will secure their economic futures.”