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China Goes After South America’s New Treasure: Lithium PART I – by Sabina Nicholls (Dialogo Americas – July 29, 2023)

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With its vast salt flats, Latin America is rich in a metal that has become more sought after than gold: lithium. Known as white gold or the oil of the 21st century, this metal is now essential for energy transition and the booming market for electric cars.

The so-called Lithium Triangle, located in the Andean highlands and comprising Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, covers 52 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, which has aroused the interest of the world’s main economic players and has spurred a race to acquire this metal in South America. Having access to lithium is now synonymous with power.

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The Mining World Turns to Saudi Cash for Critical Metal Supply – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – July 30, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A $2.6 billion deal announced last week has set the stage for a potentially landmark shift in the metal and mining investment landscape: the arrival of Saudi Arabia as a pivotal player. The agreement with Vale SA gives the kingdom a 10% slice in one of the world’s crucial suppliers of nickel and copper — essential metals needed to decarbonize.

It’s also held other talks, including with Barrick Gold Corp. about investing in a big Pakistan copper mine, according to people familiar with the matter. Speaking privately, executives at top miners said the value of Thursday’s deal made clear that the Saudis are ready to splash cash around.

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What the Niger coup means for China’s presence in the Sahel region – by (South China Morning Post – July 31, 2023)

https://www.scmp.com/

Last week’s military coup in Niger is adding to the growing pains for China’s investments in the Sahel region. On Wednesday, a group of soldiers from the presidential guard detained Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, citing a worsening security and economic situation.

In the past three years there have also been coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Chad and Sudan, all countries where China has extensive economic interests especially in the mining and petroleum industries and is looking to extend its multibillion-dollar trade and investment scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative.

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The revolution underway in India’s diamond industry – by Priti Gupta and Ben Morris (BBC.com – March 17, 2023)

https://www.bbc.com/

Chintan Suhagiya is only 26, but already has seven years experience working in India’s diamond industry. Starting out, he ferried diamonds around his company, based in the world’s diamond polishing capital, Surat in western India. But over the years he learnt how to inspect diamonds and now he grades their quality, using specialist equipment.

His career has been transformed by a seismic shift in the diamond industry. Until two years ago, all the diamonds he inspected were natural – pulled from the ground at diamond mines. Now he works with diamonds grown in special machines, part of the industry that barely existed 10 years ago but, thanks to improved technology, has seen explosive growth.

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China’s Threat to Ban Critical Minerals Exports Is a Bluff – by Agathe Demarais (Foreign Policy – July 27, 2023)

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Embargoes have unintended consequences—and would hurt China more than the West.

Weaponizing commodities is in fashion. In September 2022, Russia cut off gas flows to Europe in a bid to weaken European economies after its invasion of Ukraine. Almost one year later, in July 2023, the Chinese government announced that exports of gallium and germanium, two niche metals used in technology manufacturing, would henceforth require licenses.

These metals share two features. First, they form part of a group of around 30 raw materials that are crucial for the green energy transition, digital hardware, and defense production. Second, as is the case for many critical raw materials, China holds a dominant position for the mining and processing of gallium and germanium, giving Beijing leverage over Western economies.

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The Little Known Metals Giant that Rules a Global Market – by Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – July 25, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — When China’s Vital Materials Co. bought up a $600 million stockpile of obscure critical minerals in early 2020, it barely raised an eyebrow outside the niche world of minor metals.

Spin forward a few years, and the influence of a company some people in the industry have still barely heard of is a timely illustration of the scale of the challenge to loosen China’s grip on what have become key raw materials.

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Rich lode of EV metals could boost Taliban and its new Chinese partners – by Gerry Shih and Lorenzo Tugnoli (Washington Post – July 20, 2023)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Pentagon dubbed Afghanistan ‘the Saudi Arabia of lithium.’ Now, it is American rivals that are angling to exploit those coveted reserves.

CHAPA DARA, Afghanistan — Sayed Wali Sajid spent years fighting American soldiers in the barren hills and fertile fields of the Pech River Valley, one of the deadliest theaters of the 20-year insurgency. But nothing confounded the Taliban commander, he said, like the new wave of foreigners who began showing up, one after another, in late 2021.

Once, Sajid spotted a foreigner hiking alone along a path where Islamic State extremists were known to kidnap outsiders. Another time, five men and women evaded Sajid’s soldiers in the dark to scour the mountain. The newcomers, Sajid recalled, were giddy, persistent, almost single-minded in their quest for something few locals believed held any value at all.

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Nickel’s at a Crossroads as Supply Boom Hits LME, Macquarie Says – by Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The nickel market is at a “turning point” with a wave of supply of the battery metal about to hit the London Metal Exchange and push down prices, according to strategists at Macquarie Group Ltd.

The nickel market has become increasingly disconnected since the huge short squeeze that roiled the market last year, as surging production of the most widely used forms of nickel drives those prices lower, while the refined metal traded on the LME is in much tighter supply.

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Why Heat Waves Are Deepening China’s Addiction to Coal – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – July 20, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

While pledging to reduce carbon emissions, the country is greatly increasing its use of the fossil fuel to generate electricity.

China has an answer to the heat waves now affecting much of the Northern Hemisphere: burn more coal to maintain a stable electricity supply for air-conditioning.

Even before this year, China was emitting almost a third of all energy-related greenhouse gases — more than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. China burns more coal every year than the rest of the world combined. Last month, China generated 14 percent more electricity from coal, its dominant fuel source, than it did in June 2022.

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Zimbabwe’s $1 Billion Lithium Plan Faces Setback as Chinese Partner Cuts Stake – by Antony Sguazzin (Bloomberg News – July 19, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s Moti Group said a Chinese company with which it planned to develop a $1 billion lithium processing plant in Zimbabwe was halving its stake in the venture, dealing the project a potential blow.

Moti Group’s Pulserate Investments holds a 10,000 hectare (24,710-acre) lithium exploration concession in the northeast of the country, Africa’s biggest producer of the metal according to the US Geological Survey.

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India sets sights on home-mined minerals to boost its clean energy plans – by Anupam Nath and Sibi Arasu (Associated Press – July 18, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

KALIAPANI, India (AP) — In the dusty mountains of eastern India, workers at the country’s largest chromium deposit have mined for the essential ore, rain or shine, for around 60 years.

The industry is fruitful in some ways — hundreds of trucks stacked with mineral-rich soil journey back and forth regularly between the mine and processing plants — but it is damaging in others. Farmers say their fields are stripped of fertile earth and livestock desperately comb through now-barren lands for feed.

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Detroit of Asia targets battery makers to stay ahead in EV race – by Danny Lee and Patpicha Tanakasempipat (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Thailand has long been an auto hub, attracting global giants like Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. and earning the moniker of the Detroit of Asia. Now, as the pivot to electric vehicles gathers pace, the country is determined to keep its grip on the economically crucial industry.

The nation has already attracted 75 billion baht ($2.2 billion) from the EV industry, led by a slew of Chinese investments from BYD Co., Great Wall Motor Co. and SAIC Motor Corp. Changan Auto Co. and GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co. are set to soon finalize their investment plans, and Chery Automobile Co. is also in talks.

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India has lifted the ban on lithium mining. Why? – by Naini Thaker (Forbes Magazine India – July 13, 2023)

https://www.forbesindia.com/

On Wednesday, the Centre announced that it has lifted the ban on lithium mining, along with five other minerals. The Cabinet approved the amendment in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) [MMDR] Act. As a result, now private companies can also mine these six minerals.

Around February, approximately 5.9 million tonnes of lithium resources were found in the Salal Haimana area of Reasi district in Jammu & Kashmir, as per the Geological Survey of India. In May, media reports suggested that lithium resources were traced in Rajasthan’s Degana as well. The lithium found in Jammu & Kashmir is supposedly of high quality—a grade of 500 ppm, compared to the normal grade of 200 ppm, claims India’s mining secretary.

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Hudbay, Japanese miner reach deal on Flin Flon exploration – by Eric Westhaver (The Reminder – July 12, 2023)

https://www.thereminder.ca/

Hudbay has reached a deal with a Japanese mining company that could lead to multiple years of mineral exploration near Flin Flon’s existing mine processing facilities.

Hudbay has reached a deal with a Japanese mining company that could lead to multiple years of mineral exploration around the Flin Flon area.

Hudbay announced July 6 that company representatives had signed a memorandum of understanding with Marubeni Corporation for “a multi-year exploration partnership focused on the discovery of new deposits within trucking distance of Hudbay’s existing processing facilities in Flin Flon.”

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‘Like hell’: India’s burning coalfields (France24.com -July 14, 2023)

https://www.france24.com/en/

Dhanbad (India) (AFP) – Deadly fires have raged for a century in mines in India’s Jharkhand state, where Savitri Mahto is one of 100,000 people risking their lives shovelling coal to supply insatiable demand.

“The land is charred because of the fires,” said Mahto, 22, illegally scavenging amid the flames on the edge of a vast commercial opencast mine for the dirty fossil fuel. “We live in fear every day”. Underground fires, which scientists believe started in a mine accident in 1916, create sinkholes that swallow people and homes. Coal pickers and activists report hundreds of people have died over the decades.

“Accidents have happened before, and they keep on happening because the land is sinking,” Mahto told AFP, as she tended a stack of burning rocks to produce coking coal, a more stable fuel sold for cooking and firing brick kilns.

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