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Asia Mining

Canada’s SRG Mining plans move to the Middle East to avoid national security review – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 26, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s SRG Mining Inc. is planning on moving to the Middle East in an attempt to skirt a Canadian national security review into a key financing deal with China-based Carbon ONE New Energy Group Co. Ltd.

Last summer, when Montreal-based SRG announced that China’s C-One was buying a 19.4-per-cent stake for $16.9-million, it warned the deal would be scrutinized by Ottawa on national-security grounds. Late in the year, SRG flagged that it was looking at redomiciling the company, and on Monday said in a press release that it plans on relocating to the United Arab Emirates, where it will have “expanded strategic optionality.”

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France’s $1.6 Billion Uranium Deal With Mongolia Faces Delays – by Ilya Arkhipov, Samy Adghirni and Francois de Beaupuy (Bloomberg News – February 22, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A $1.6 billion uranium mining deal between France and Mongolia that is part of French efforts to diversify supplies to power its fleet of nuclear reactors is running into political hurdles.

A debate about protecting strategic resources in Mongolia risks delaying the finalization of the agreement until after elections in June, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. Progress has also been hampered after the Asian country’s chief negotiator stepped down, a third person said, meaning the deal had to be redrafted.

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Nickel faces existential moment with half of mines unprofitable – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – February 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Many of the world’s biggest nickel mines are facing an increasingly bleak future as they wake up to an existential threat: a near limitless supply of low-cost metal from Indonesia. With roughly half of all nickel operations unprofitable at recent prices, the bosses of the largest mining companies last week sounded a warning that there was little prospect of a recovery.

The potential collapse of nickel mining from Australia to New Caledonia comes at a time when western governments are scrambling to secure the supply chains needed to decarbonize the global economy. But in an ironic twist, Indonesia’s coal-fired nickel output is pricing out greener metal that’s so far failed to command a market premium.

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Indonesia to wipe out global nickel rivals, warns French miner Eramet chief – by Harry Dempsey and Sarah White (Financial Times – February 24, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

South-east Asian country’s low-cost production of metal vital to electric cars has made traditional suppliers uncompetitive, says Christel Bories

Indonesia’s low-cost nickel suppliers will wipe out rivals in the next few years, cementing the country as the world’s dominant producer of the metal vital to electric car batteries, the head of French miner Eramet has warned.

The south-east Asian nation could end up accounting for more than three-quarters of the world’s highest class of pure nickel in five years from now, Christel Bories told the Financial Times, with radical consequences for competitors elsewhere.

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Turkey suspends search for SSR Mining employees who went missing after landslide – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A rescue effort to find nine employees of SSR Mining Inc. who went missing after a landslide at a gold mine in Turkey last week has been suspended, as authorities try to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

On Feb. 13, a landslide slammed into SSR Mining’s Çöpler mine in Turkey, hitting the company’s onsite heap leach gold processing plant. Despite a search and rescue effort involving more than 400 members of Turkey’s national disaster relief agency, the missing workers have not been found.

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West challenges China’s critical minerals hold on Africa – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 16, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) – China’s CMOC Group overtook Glencore to become the world’s largest producer of cobalt last year as it ramped up its new Kisanfu mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company’s production leapt by 174% year-on-year to 55,526 metric tons, accounting for over a quarter of global demand of 213,000 tons.

Kisanfu, in which Chinese battery giant CATL owns a minority stake, has flooded the cobalt market. The Cobalt Institute estimates global production exceeded demand by 12,500 tons in 2023, making it one of the “biggest surpluses in recent years”.

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Indonesia Has Grand Ambitions for Its Nickel Industry – by Christina Lu (Foreign Policy – February 13, 2024)

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As the country heads to the polls this week, the future of Jakarta’s bid is set to come into sharper focus.

Long before the energy transition gained momentum around the world, nickel powerhouse Indonesia dreamed of harnessing its mineral riches to transform its economy and wield greater leverage in the international marketplace.

The global shift away from fossil fuels and the growing demand for the critical minerals powering green technology have turbocharged Jakarta’s ambitions. Nickel is a key component in electric vehicle batteries, yet few countries can claim as big of a stake over the global nickel sector as Indonesia, which is home to some of the world’s biggest nickel reserves and mined half of the global supply in 2022.

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How China Built BYD, Its Tesla Killer – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – February 12, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The leading Chinese electric vehicle company, with origins as a battery maker, has posted two years of million-car growth in sales.

China’s BYD was a battery manufacturer trying its hand at building cars when it showed off its newest model in 2007. American executives at the Guangzhou auto show gaped at the car’s uneven purple paint job and the poor fit of its doors. “They were the laughingstock of the industry,” said Michael Dunne, a China auto industry analyst. Nobody is laughing at BYD now.

The company passed Tesla in worldwide sales of fully electric cars late last year. BYD is building assembly lines in Brazil, Hungary, Thailand and Uzbekistan and preparing to do so in Indonesia and Mexico. It is rapidly expanding exports to Europe. And the company is on the cusp of passing Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, as the market leader in China.

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Israel’s Diamond Trade Is Stuck Between Two Crises – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – February 8, 2024)

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The global downturn is a bigger challenge for the market than the war is, says bourse president Boaz Moldawsky.

October 7 was supposed to be a joyous day for Boaz Moldawsky, president of the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE). His daughter gave birth at 11 p.m. the night before. The Hamas attack on Israel started early the next morning.

Moldawsky was in Tel Aviv when it all kicked off. As many did, he brushed off the first rocket siren at 6:30 a.m. as an ordinary warning that happens from time to time. Within a few hours, it became clear that something more serious was happening. “At the beginning, nobody thought it was something so big,” Moldawsky says. “But after a few hours, we saw the catastrophe.”

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Australia to propose green mining standards amid slump in EV metals – by Ryohtaroh Satch (Nikkei Asia – February 7, 2024)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Resources minister cites need to protect industry as Asian competition grows

TOKYO — Australia will propose setting up international standards for ethical and environmentally friendly mining in an attempt to command higher prices for its minerals amid a sluggish market and competition from countries like Indonesia.

“It’s a long-term project, but there’s no doubt there’s something I’ll be raising,” Minister for Resources Madeleine King told Nikkei Asia while visiting Tokyo last week. King said she will propose the idea at the PDAC 2024 Convention, a mineral industry trade event, in Canada in March.

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Surat’s Shining Moment: India’s ‘DREAM’ Destination to Transform Surat into Global Diamond Trade Centre – by Shubhangi Sharma (News 18.com – February 7, 2024)

https://www.news18.com/

The business landscape of Surat, India’s Diamond City, is on the brink of a great leap forward steered by the colossal Surat Diamond Bourse and a new international airport. Already bustling with exceptionally vibrant business activity, Surat is gearing up to chart greater heights globally with its diamond prowess in focus.

Surat Airport in Gujarat was officially granted the status of an ‘International Airport’ after being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 17. This development marks the third international airport in Gujarat, alongside Ahmedabad and Rajkot, and holds significant potential for India’s prominent diamond industry.

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China’s refined nickel trade signals new production trends – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 6, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – China’s net imports of refined nickel fell to a near-decade low in 2023, capturing the tectonic shifts playing out in the global production chain. China’s call on Class I high-purity nickel has been waning for many months as the country ramps up imports of other forms of the metal from Indonesia.

Much of that Indonesian material has traditionally been nickel pig iron (NPI) heading for China’s stainless steel sector. More recently, trade flows have included rising amounts of matte and mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) destined for conversion into electric vehicle batteries.

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INTERVIEW: Let’s get real about EVs’ environmental impact, rare metal expert says – by Sei Matsumoto (Nikkei Asia – February 2, 2024)

https://asia.nikkei.com

Decades needed to find cost-effective clean energy tech: Tokyo University’s Toru Okabe

TOKYO — As the world embraces electric vehicles as a solution to carbon dioxide emissions, there is too little discussion of the environmental harm associated with the metals needed to build them, says one of Japan’s foremost researchers in the field.

“EVs are supposed to be environmentally friendly, but they are causing environmental problems, and that is a reality that is probably difficult for companies to say if they are aware of it,” Toru Okabe, a professor and the director of the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science, told Nikkei.

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China’s Tougher Coal Mining Rules Could Threaten Supply Again (Bloomberg News – February 6, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Stricter regulation of Chinese coal mines to reduce fatalities could raise the risk of renewed supply disruptions and higher prices in the world’s biggest market for the fuel.

A string of disasters over the last 12 months, including 53 deaths in a landslide at an open-pit mine in Inner Mongolia, has refocused the authorities on accident prevention. More than 2,000 investigations into mine safety were conducted last year. From May 1, the penalties for breaches will include forced closures and fines of up to 20 million yuan ($2.8 million).

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Asia-Pacific’s mineral exporters face bumpy ride amid China’s ‘sputtering demand’, property woes – by Biman Mukherji (South China Morning Post – February 6, 2024)

https://www.scmp.com/

China’s property woes following the liquidation of embattled developer Evergrande have raised concerns of slower demand for raw materials from the world’s leading metal producer and weigh on suppliers across the Asia-Pacific.

China accounts for more than half of the world’s minerals demand for metals production, and the property sector and infrastructure are two of the largest segments fuelling demand for products like steel, copper and aluminium.

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