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Asia Mining

China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – April 13, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.

China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.

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Gold rush unleashed: The global struggle for control over Central Asia’s mineral wealth – by Zeynep Gizem Özpınar (Daily Sabah – April 10, 2025)

https://www.dailysabah.com/

Central Asia’s mineral wealth sparks global rivalry, shaping the region’s economic and geopolitical future

Central Asia is becoming increasingly critical on the world stage in terms of rare earth elements and strategic minerals. These resources have become indispensable in many sectors, from modern technology to the defence industry, from renewable energy to advanced manufacturing processes.

Since rare earth elements have a wide range of uses, from semiconductors to batteries, from military equipment to wind turbines, countries with these minerals are strategically important. While the competition of global powers in this field is increasing, the riches of Central Asia turn the region into not only an economic centre of attraction but also a geopolitical battleground.

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Column: China primes rare earths weapon as trade war escalates – by Andy Home (Reuters – April 10, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

As U.S. President Donald Trump turns up the tariff heat on China, Beijing is targeting ever more of the United States’ critical material supply chains.

Weird and wonderful metals such as antimony, gallium and germanium have already been sucked into the escalating trade war with China restricting exports and banning sales to the United States. Beijing has just raised the mineral threat another level by adding seven rare earths to its dual-use list of restricted exports.

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Is Indonesia’s ‘Nickel Nationalism’ A Smart Strategy? – Analysis – by Dr. Sameer Kumar (Eurasia Review – April 4, 2025)

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Indonesia sits atop the world’s biggest nickel reserves – a metal essential for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and the renewable energy transition. In recent years, Jakarta has boldly wielded its resource might by banning exports of raw nickel ore to force global companies to invest in domestic processing.

This “nickel nationalism” has catapulted Indonesia into becoming a major player in the EV supply chain, attracting billions in foreign investment and fostering local industry. President Joko Widodo touts it as a smart strategy to move Indonesia up the value chain.

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China deploys rare earths as weapon in trade war with Trump (Bloomberg News – April 7, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

China has expanded its use of critical minerals as a trade weapon with curbs on exports of rare earths, threatening to shake-up the global supply of key materials used widely in high-tech manufacturing from electric vehicles to weaponry.

As part of its retaliation to President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on imported Chinese goods, Beijing said Friday it will tighten controls on exports of seven types of rare earths. The country is by far the world’s biggest supplier of the minerals, which comprise 17 elements in the periodic table.

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China hits back at US tariffs with rare earth export controls – by Amy Lv, Lewis Jackson and Eric Onstad (Reuters – April 4, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

China placed export restrictions on key rare earth elements on Friday as part of its sweeping response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, potentially squeezing supply to the U.S. and the West of minerals vital to everything from defense to electric cars.

China produces around 90% of the world’s refined rare earths, a group of 17 elements used across the defense, electric vehicle, clean energy and electronics industries. The United States imports most of its rare earths, and most come from China.

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Surat diamond workers threaten to go on strike from March 30 (Hindustan Times/MSN.com – March 29, 2025)

https://www.msn.com/en-in/

Ahmedabad: The diamond workers of Surat have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from March 30 if their demands are not met, including wage hike and higher price. The looming strike marks the peak of months of rising tensions in an industry that polishes 80% of the world’s diamonds but is now grappling with its worst crisis since 2008.

“We will take out a rally in Katargam area of Surat on Sunday before going on an indefinite strike if the government does not meet our demands by then. We expect at least 1.5 to 2 lakh workers to join us in the strike,” said Bhavesh Tank, vice-president of Diamond Workers Union Gujarat (DWUG) which has given the strike call.

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Multiple Dams Fail at Indonesian Nickel-Mining Facilities – by Ellen Moore (Earthworks.org – March 28, 2025)

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Three people are feared dead and hundreds more are at risk of negative health impacts after multiple tailings dams, which store toxic mine waste, collapsed inside an industrial park in Indonesia. According to media and worker testimony, on March 16, the PT Huayue Nickel Cobalt tailings storage facility was breached, and liquified tailings flowed into the Bahadopi River.

The breach flooded facilities at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) and the village of Labota with a wave of red water, putting the health of workers and 341 families at risk through exposure to heavy metals.

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INSIGHT: Myanmar rebels disrupt China rare earth trade, sparking regional scramble – by Devjyot Ghoshal, Poppy Mcpherson, Amy Lv and Neha Arora (Reuters – March 27, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

When armed rebels seized northern Myanmar’s rare-earths mining belt in October, they dealt a blow to the country’s embattled military junta – and wrested control of a key global resource. By capturing sites that produce roughly half of the world’s heavy rare earths, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rebels have been able to throttle the supply of minerals used in wind turbines and electric vehicles, sending prices of one key element skyward.

The KIA is seeking leverage against neighbouring China, which supports the junta and has invested heavily in rare earths mining in Myanmar’s Kachin state, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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Indonesian watchdog demands prosecution for environmental crime ‘cartels’ – by Hans Nicholas Jong (Mongabay.com – March 14, 2025)

Mongabay – Conservation News

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, has filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, accusing 47 companies of environmental destruction and corruption. The companies, which operate in industries like palm oil, mining and forestry, are accused of being responsible for 437 trillion rupiah ($26.5 billion) in state losses.

Based on field investigations and spatial analysis, Walhi says it has identified 18 forms of gratuities paid by the companies to officials in the 47 cases. In some of these cases, Walhi found that officials had approved the rescinding of forest status for certain areas by revising zoning plans, thereby allowing the companies to clear forests for their concessions.

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China flexes rare earth dominance with million-tonne discovery – by Staff (Mining.com – March 19, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

China solidified its global dominance in rare earth elements mining with a new discovery that its experts say is likely to be the largest middle and heavy rare earth deposit in the country. The discovery was first reported in the Chinese paper Workers’ Daily late January, then confirmed and published by the China Geological Survey (CGS) under the Ministry of Natural Resources.

According to the CGS, the deposit could host as much as 1.15 million tonnes of resources containing key rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which are being sought after globally. Once tapped, it would yield about 470,000 tonnes of these strategic minerals, it estimated.

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European bismuth prices rocket to record highs on China export curbs – by Ashitha Shivaprasad, Anmol Choubey and Amy Lv (Reuters – March 19, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Bismuth prices in Europe have surged to all-time highs as China’s export controls squeeze supplies of the mineral used in atomic research, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, according to traders and experts.

Prices of bismuth have jumped to $40 a lb on the European spot market, an all-time high, up from $6 per lb in late January, a more than six-fold rise. In the United States, bismuth prices are even higher – at $55 a lb compared with $6.5-$7 before China’s export curbs.

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Eye on ‘net zero’, India makes big push to secure critical minerals – by Bhasker Tripathi (Reuters/Scroll India – March 17, 2025)

https://scroll.in/

The country fully imports several critical minerals used in green technologies including lithium, cobalt and nickel.

As the world rushes to secure minerals critical for rapidly-expanding clean energy technologies, India is joining the fray to try to meet its ambitious green energy goals.

India said in January the government and state mining companies would spend 343 billion Indian rupee ($3.94 billion) to boost local production, recycling and imports of critical minerals in a bid to secure enough for its energy transition, in an initiative coined the “National Critical Mineral Mission”.

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Dubai’s Meteoric Rise to Global Diamond Hub – by Avi Krawitz (Rapaport Magazine – February 18, 2025)

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The Emirati city’s central location and favorable business conditions have helped push it to prominence as a trading center.

Amid the frantic schedule of Dubai Diamond Week in November, executives of KGK Group casually welcomed visitors to their new diamond and jewelry office. Nestled on the 51st floor of Almas Tower, home of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), the 1,200-square-meter space has a spectacular view of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers district and the ever-rising Dubai skyline.

KGK, a Mumbai-based manufacturer, expanded its presence in Almas to accommodate the distribution of polished diamonds from its non-Indian manufacturing facilities. Its factories in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa account for 50% to 60% of the company’s production, says vice chairman Sanjay Kothari.

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Nickel miners dig up Indonesia’s Gebe Island despite Indigenous and legal opposition – by Jaya Barends (Mongabay.com – March 11, 2025)

Mongabay – Conservation News

GEBE ISLAND, Indonesia — Abdul Manan Magtiblo watched the excavator dump a piece of Gebe Island into the back of a truck. Barely a thicket remained on the buzz-cut upland above Umera village as the vehicle drove off to the nearby port.

“That’s the PT Bartra Putra Mulia [BPM] nickel mine,” Manan, the village chief, told Mongabay Indonesia. Locals like Manan say life has become harder since 2020, when the company began operating here on Gebe, a remote island of fewer than 6,000 people in the Halmahera Sea, on Indonesia’s Pacific rim.

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