KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government said it signed seven mining contracts Thursday amounting to $6.5 billion in investment, in the biggest such round of deals since seizing power two years ago.
The seven contracts are with locally based companies, many of whom have foreign partners in countries including China, Iran, and Turkey. They include the extraction and processing of iron ore, lead, zinc and gold in four provinces: Herat, Ghor, Logar and Takhar.
While Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault was in Beijing this week to discuss ways China and Canada can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, one of China’s major state-run media organizations wrote an editorial headlined “Western concerns about China’s coal power growth unnecessary.”
Global Times, which operates under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, said while “China’s decision to build more new coal-fired power plants has raised questions in the West as to whether the country will meet its 2030 carbon pledge … the concern is unnecessary as China’s pursuit of carbon goals is on par with its focus on economic development.”
China this year has continued a coal spree that started in the summer of 2022, approving more permits for new coal plants, commissioning newly built plants and even bringing long-dormant plants back online despite the approaching 2030 deadline for the nation to reach peak carbon emissions, according to new research.
The country approved permits for 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity in the first half of 2023, maintaining the previous pace of approving two plants per week, according to a report published by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Tuesday. China also doubled its commissioning of coal plants year on year, plugging 17.1GW into the grid in the first half of the year, according to the report.
“It’s very ironic that, in order to mitigate the impact of global warming, you have to cut down our trees … just to support the initiatives of Elon Musk.”
The small, crescent-shaped island of Sibuyan sits at the dead center of the Philippine archipelago. Venturing there from Manila is a 15-hour journey by bus and ferry, which keeps most vacationers away from its glistening sandbars and unspoiled old-growth forests.
The water from all its 36 rivers and streams is drinkable, locals say; it has never been connected to any other landmass, preserving unique plant and animal life. Natural scientists have called it the “Galapagos of Asia.”
Aug 30 (Reuters) – Nickel smelters in top producer Indonesia are making rare purchases of ore from the Philippines to ease tight supplies, people familiar with the matter said, upending trade flows of the raw material and pushing up costs across the supply chain.
Jakarta recently delayed the issuing of mining quotas and suspended operations at a key site of state miner Aneka Tambang (ANTM.JK) (Antam) after an investigation into corrupt practices in issuing mining allowances.
A vast stretch of mountains in Padder Valley nestled along Kishtwar district’s border with Ladakh is believed to house sapphire reserves worth Rs 10,000 crore, which could possibly change the fate of one of the most backward districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Gulabgarh (Kishtwar): Mohammad Abbas recalls with excitement the days of yore when he would join the hunt in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district to search the world’s most precious sapphires.
Kishtwar’s sapphire mines are sepulchered in the inaccessible mountains towering at an altitude of nearly 16,000 feet, around Sumchan and Bilakoth areas of Padder Valley in Machail – which is one of the most remote regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
Half of the world’s biggest lithium mines put on the market since 2018 were bought by Chinese companies, underscoring the tightening grip of the world’s second-largest economy over the global battery metal supply chain.
But a closer look suggests national interest arguments are posing a hurdle to future deals where the United States and its allies are concerned, pushing China deeper into emerging markets for new sources of the coveted raw material.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there is a risk of a “new model of colonialism” if nations with critical minerals do not regard custodianship as a “global responsibility”, as firms race to secure resources central to energy transition goals.
“We are experiencing this challenge for critical materials, rare earths and others. These things are abundant in some places and not present at all in others, but all of humankind needs them,” Modi said at a Business 20 summit in New Delhi on Sunday.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Commodities are part of our everyday lives. From crude and edible oil to minerals and metals. The shift to clean energy and deployment of clean technologies across the world in recent years has put the spotlight on a group of minerals – cobalt, lithium, nickel, graphite, copper, neodymium, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, silicon, zinc, rare earths and others – that are heavily used in these technologies.
The rise of electric cars, wind and solar projects and battery storage systems has also triggered a massive demand for these critical minerals, leading to a race among countries to secure their supplies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
The U.S. transition to cleaner energy technology is underway, supported by new incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. Benefits to the planet could be significant. Yet so could the geopolitical risks to the United States.
Moving from fossil fuels to wind and solar power means shifting from reliance on resources the United States produces to reliance on imported ones. And for many of the materials — lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt — the United States’ long-term adversary China is a key producer, processor or both.
Japan official secures agreements in five African nations in move aimed at mitigating Tokyo’s reliance on China for key minerals
TOKYO – Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura has spent a week visiting five countries in southern Africa with Ichiro Takahara, chairman and CEO of the state’s Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).
Prior to his departure, Nishimura told Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper that he aimed to secure access to important minerals including rare earths, cobalt, lithium and nickel during the trip.
LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 22 (Reuters) – BHP Group reported its lowest annual profit in three years, but the decline isn’t the most worrying factor for the world’s biggest mining company. That prize goes to an increasingly uncertain outlook for its key commodities.
BHP (BHP.AX) said on Tuesday the company’s underlying attributable profit for the year ended June 30 dropped to $13.42 billion from $21.32 billion a year earlier. This was below a Refinitiv estimate of $13.89 billion, and the lower profit resulted in the divided being slashed to $0.80 a share from $1.75 the prior financial year.
The fate of Indonesia’s unrivaled stocks of nickel — a critical mineral used to make batteries for electric vehicles — is caught in the conflict between the United States and China.
He is known as the Minister for Everything. From the government offices of Indonesia’s capital to dusty mines on remote islands, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan commands authority as the nation’s essential power broker.
A four-star general turned business magnate turned cabinet officer, Mr. Luhut’s paramount aspiration is transforming Indonesia into a hub for the production of electric vehicles. But as he pursues that goal, he and his country are increasingly vulnerable to geopolitical forces beyond their control.
Trudeau’s environment minister is picking fights with Canada’s premiers while advising the government of coal powered China.
Justin Trudeau’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, is pulling double duty as an official adviser to the Chinese government. Turns out, he also wants to make Beijing an ally on the environmental issue and will head to coal-powered China at the end of the month after lecturing Canada’s premiers on using fossil fuels.
During an exclusive interview Guilbeault granted to environmental activist media outlet the National Observer, he acknowledged that he’d be criticized for the trip.
Aug 17 (Reuters) – Electric-vehicle batteries and other car parts are the latest products under scrutiny as part of Washington’s effort to stamp out U.S. links to forced labor in Chinese supply chains, according to a document seen by Reuters, agency statistics and sources.
Until now, enforcement of a year-old U.S. law that bans the import of goods made in Xinjiang, China, has focused mainly on solar panels, tomatoes and cotton apparel. But now, components that may include lithium-ion batteries, tires and major automobile raw materials aluminum and steel are increasingly subject to detentions at the border.
