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Asia Mining

Stellantis in talks with Vale to invest in Indonesian nickel smelter – by A. Anantha Lakshi and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – May 13, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Deal would bring rare western investor to world’s biggest producer of commodity critical to electric cars

Stellantis is in talks with Vale and China’s Huayou Cobalt to invest in a nickel smelter in Indonesia and secure supplies of the battery metal critical to its electric vehicle expansion plans, in a deal that if finalised would bring a rare western investor into Indonesia’s nickel industry.

Stellantis, owner of the Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep brands, is in discussions with Vale Indonesia to invest in a high-pressure acid leaching plant that converts low-grade nickel ore to battery-grade metal, three people familiar with the matter said.

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US Blames China’s CMOC for Predatory Tactics Behind Cobalt Glut – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – May 14, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — China’s CMOC Group Ltd. is being accused by a top US official of using “predatory” tactics to depress prices of a key battery metal by flooding the market with cobalt from Democratic Republic of Congo mines.

“What we’re seeing now, I feel, is a variation of predatory pricing,” Jose Fernandez, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, said Monday at a conference in New York sponsored by the Cobalt Institute industry group.

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Banned 10 years ago, 26,000 rat-hole coal mines not closed yet: Meghalaya HC panel (Deccan Herald – May 8, 2024)

https://www.deccanherald.com/

Shillong: Not one of the 26,000 abandoned rat-hole coal mines in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district has so far been closed despite an order, posing risk of loss of human lives as well as livestock, the Meghalaya High Court was informed.

The rat-hole mining and transportation of coal in the Himalayan state were banned 10 years ago by the National Green Tribunal. Over 14 lakh metric tons of already mined coal is left to be transported, a one-man committee formed by the high court to monitor the mining and transportation of coal said in its 22nd interim report on Tuesday.

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Without Indonesia’s Nickel, EVs Have No Future in America – by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan (Foreign Policy – May 1, 2024)

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The IRA and Senate opposition to a free trade deal with Jakarta are undermining the United States’ green transition.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan is Indonesia’s coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs.

Without Indonesian nickel, the United States’ electric vehicle market will flounder. My nation sits on the world’s largest reserves of the metal that is central to EV batteries. In 2023, Indonesia exported over half the world’s nickel products. In the coming years, this share is projected to grow.

Yet some members of the U.S. Congress, working together with Indonesia’s foreign competitors, have resolved to stymie the import of refined nickel from my country. So far, they are succeeding. But when taken together with measures passed in March compelling companies to shift away from selling gas-powered vehicles, it is ultimately U.S. auto workers who will lose out.

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US, Philippines Eye Partnership to Cut China’s Nickel Dominance – by Peter Martin and Jennifer Jacobs (Bloomberg News – April 30, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. and the Philippines are in discussions over ways to prevent China from dominating nickel processing in the Southeast Asian nation, a key supplier of the metal that’s crucial for electric vehicle batteries.

One measure under consideration is a trilateral arrangement through which the Philippines would supply raw nickel material, the U.S. would provide financing, and a third country such as Japan, South Korea or Australia would offer the technology required for smelting and refining, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Tensions grow as China ramps up global mining for green tech (BBC.com – April 29, 2024)

https://www.bbc.com/

Earlier this year, Ai Qing was woken up in the middle of the night by angry chants outside her dormitory in northern Argentina. She peered out of the window to see Argentine workers surrounding the compound and blockading the entrance with flaming tyres.

“It was getting scary because I could see the sky being lit up by the fire. It had become a riot,” says Ms Ai, who works for a Chinese company extracting lithium from salt flats in the Andes mountains, for use in batteries.

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Copper smelters in China wary of BHP-Anglo tie-up – by Siyi Liu, Julian Luk, Mai Nguyen and Melanie Burton (Reuters – April 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Chinese smelters, the world’s biggest buyers of mined copper, are concerned they will lose power to negotiate prices if BHP Group, known locally as “the big miner”, succeeds in its bid for rival Anglo American.

BHP, the world’s largest listed mining group, is fine-tuning an offer that could make it the biggest producer of copper, a metal in high demand as the world seeks to shift towards electric vehicles and a lower carbon economy.The proposed takeover would give BHP control of roughly 10% of global mined supplies, surpassing Chile’s Codelco and Freeport-McMoRan.

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Rock & Ruler: Golconda’s Trail of Diamonds – by Amrita Amesur (Sarmaya – June 17, 2021)

https://sarmaya.in/

What the chain of diamonds trickling from the marketplaces of Golconda tells us about the dynasties that branded and traded, and won and lost them

When it comes to diamonds, they say, nothing surpasses Golconda. Before the current problematic era of Blood diamonds, Golconda’s rocks shone the brightest. The only known source of the stone till the early 18th century, the mines of Golconda produced diamonds unparalleled in their ability to spawn legends and bewitch the beholder.

These mines put the gem on the world map and marked India as the original home of the adamas, the Greek root word for this indestructible jewel. For this reason, Golconda’s ancient mines, pre-dating dynasties of the last two millennia, were a source of wealth and influence for the powers that controlled them through the ages.

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What’s Causing China’s Diamond Slump? – by Avi Krawitz (Rapaport Magazine – April 24, 2024)

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In mid-2023, as China’s real-estate crisis lingered, property firms started to offer gold bars as an incentive to buy their apartments. Unlike real estate, gold is perceived to hold its value, the theory went. Then again, companies also presented new cars, cell phones, free decorations and parking lots to woo customers and boost sales.

Their efforts bore little fruit, however, as supply continued to outweigh demand. Housing starts have fallen by more than 60% relative to pre-pandemic levels, according to a February Report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Chinese Nickel Billionaire Boosts Australian Miner in Indonesia – by Eddie Spence and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – April 22, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A little-known Australian company is becoming the Western face of a Chinese nickel behemoth. In under a decade, Nickel Industries Ltd. has gone from a relatively small miner to the world’s sixth-biggest producer of a metal used in products from batteries to stainless steel.

Riding a Chinese-led boom in Indonesia’s nickel sector, it owns or has stakes in five plants in the country that churn out more of the commodity than household names like BHP Group Ltd.

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Canada and allies considering trade measures against China and Indonesia over manipulation of nickel market, Freeland says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada and its allies are weighing taking trade action against China and Indonesia in the nickel market, as the two Asian countries tighten their collective grip in the critical mineral.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global output of nickel to 55 per cent in the past decade, with much of that new production controlled by China-based mining companies with ties to the authoritarian Beijing government.

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Indonesia’s grand ambition to become an EV leader rests on nickel mining boom – by Yvonne Lau (Canada’s National Observer – April 19, 2024)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

The Kawasi people of Indonesia’s Obi Islands have long fished for tuna, red snapper and grouper, and grown coconut, cashew and clove trees. But some village residents say their land and water have been destroyed and the quality of life has plummeted in the years since Harita Nickel, the $5-billion arm of Indonesian conglomerate Harita Group, started mining, refining and processing nickel in their backyard.

“We lost our plantation land to grow crops for our survival and future generations. We lost the right to express our opinions. The water has become cloudy, with white foam coming out of the pipes. We see that the fish are dying. Residents are now being monitored for skin diseases, coughing and sore eyes,” according to 36-year-old Nurhayati Jumadi, a mother of two and lifelong resident of Kawasi village with about 4,500 people.

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Southeast Asia’s potential in critical minerals – by Han Phoumin (Australian Strategic Policy Institute – April 15, 2024)

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/

Global critical mineral demand is expected to increase dramatically in coming decades, from a 7.1 million tonnes in 2020 to 42.3 million tonnes in 2050. Global commitments to decarbonisation are the main drivers of this growth, because clean-energy technologies depend on large quantities of critical minerals. But all manner of sophisticated industries, including defence manufacturing, will also compete for these materials.

Secure and reliable critical mineral supply chains will be vital for energy transition. The supply chains are the secret to scaling up installation of wind turbines, advanced batteries, electrolysers and clean-energy grids.

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Japan, U.S., Philippines to strengthen nickel supply chains – by Takeru Tsuzuki and Hiroyuki Tanaka (Asia News Network – April 15, 2024)

 Asia News Network – Bringing Asia Closer

The three countries will accelerate the creation of a supply chain that is not overly dependent on China to bolster their economic security, with the Philippines being the world’s second-largest producer of nickel ore.

WASHINGTON – Japan, the United States and the Philippines agreed to forge ties to strengthen supply chains of nickel — a critical mineral essential for the batteries used in electric vehicles — at a trilateral summit at the White House on Thursday.

The Philippines is the world’s second-largest producer of nickel ore, and China is the second-largest producer of refined nickel. The three countries will accelerate the creation of a supply chain that is not overly dependent on China to bolster their economic security.

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Vietnam to Step Up Actions to Tame Gold Market, Combat Smuggling – by Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen (Bloomberg News – April 7, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Stabilizing the gold market has become a pressing issue for Vietnam with smugglers taking advantage of higher local prices to slip in the precious metal, leading to exchange rate distortions and weakness in the dong that’s hurting the economy.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and members of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council are among top authorities who have been urging for solutions in recent months.

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