Asia Mining – Page 23 – Republic of Mining

How Vietnam Can Disrupt China’s Dominance in EVs – by Hugh Harsono (The Diplomat – June 19, 2023)

June 19, 2023

There’s a long way to go, but the country has most of the ingredients it needs to be a significant player in global EV supply chains.

Vietnam has one of the fastest growing middle classes in Southeast Asia, with a recent McKinsey report estimating that more than 36 million people could join Vietnam’s consuming class by 2030.
This growing middle class, along with the associated increase in its consumption capabilities, is just one facet driving Vietnam’s strong economic expansion, with the country’s GDP forecast to increase from $327 billion in 2022 to $470 billion by 2025.

China’s Maxed-Out Aluminum Industry Eyes Future in Indonesia (Bloomberg News – June 19, 2023)

June 19, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — China’s aluminum producers are following in the footsteps of their nickel peers by setting up smelters in Indonesia.

After two decades of rapid growth, China’s aluminum sector is bumping up against a domestic capacity ceiling imposed by President Xi Jinping’s government. At the same time, Indonesia wants to do for aluminum something like what it’s done with its nickel: stop exporting raw ore and get foreign investors to build smelters.

Surat Diamond Dealers Exploit Loopholes In Sierra Leone’s Diamond Trade (The Blunt Times – June 16, 2023)

June 19, 2023

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Many other dealers from Surat, travels to Sierra Leone multiple times a year, purchasing high-value rough diamonds from artisanal workers employed in the local diamond mines

Surat : Samrat Patel (name changed), a diamond dealer from Surat, has become a frequent visitor to Sierra Leone, a diamond mining country in West Africa. Patel, like many other dealers from Surat, travels to Sierra Leone multiple times a year, purchasing high-value rough diamonds from artisanal workers employed in the local diamond mines. However, these diamonds are often stolen from the mines by the workers and sold to dealers like Patel at throwaway prices, allowing them to earn significant profits back in Surat.

Sierra Leone, known for its diamond reserves, has attracted the attention of Surat’s diamond industry, primarily centered in the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing center. Patel’s visits to Sierra Leone have resulted in a lucrative bounty of rough diamonds that he brings back with him. The diamonds are concealed in bags to evade the scrutiny of customs officials at the airport, as carbon-based diamonds are not easily detectable by sophisticated scanning machines.

Australia taps global partners in landmark critical minerals strategy (Reuters – June 19, 2023)

June 19, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, June 20 (Reuters) – Australia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of raw minerals, unfurled a landmark strategy on Tuesday that outlines how it will work with investors and international partners to build a critical minerals processing industry for the energy transition.

The Labor government strategy aims to see Australia as a significant producer by 2030 of raw and processed critical minerals that are key to the energy transition, on its path to becoming a renewable superpower.

Ground Breakers: Iron ore squillionaire Gina Rinehart wants to sell our lithium to India – by Josh Chiat (Stockhead.com – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://stockhead.com.au/

Gina Rinehart is worth approximately a totopatrillion bucks these days, a quantum we’ve invented because Hancock’s Roy Hill royalties are so iron-clad these days it really doesn’t matter what Australia’s richest person is worth. She’s minted.

And while iron ore has been the bread and butter of Hancock going back to the Lang days, Gina’s interests have become more varied and adventurous over time. Gas, cattle stations and coal are some obvious ones.

Red floods near giant Indonesia nickel mine blight farms and fishing grounds – by Riza Salman Mongabay.com – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://news.mongabay.com/

KOLAKA, Indonesia — Ansal grabbed a makeshift raincoat, an empty rice sack, and ran home as the rain began to pound the fields of Pomalaa. A few hours later, after the rain stopped, the 49-year-old returned to his fields. “Everything is red,” Ansal told Mongabay Indonesia, here in Kolaka district in the province of Southeast Sulawesi.

In previous years, the occasional floods were more manageable, but this downpour caused the river to burst its banks. The ensuing overflow caked Ansal’s field in a layer of knee-deep sludge, drowning the newly planted rice under water the color of clay.

In China’s lithium hub, mining boom comes at a cost – by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton (Reuters – June 14, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

YICHUN, China, June 15 (Reuters) – Down a steep dirt road from the Baishi Huashan lithium mine in southern China, trucks laden with silvery grey ore rumble towards a cluster of smelters in the valley below that have sprung up to cash in on the electric vehicle battery boom.

The city of Yichun, China’s most prospective region for lithium, is ground zero in the country’s push to cut its reliance on imports of the metal for its battery industry, which makes three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion batteries.

Blood Diamonds: The Grim Fate of Miners in Panna’s Diamond Industry – by Akansha Deshmukh (Qrius.com – April 23, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://qrius.com/

Panna district, renowned for its diamond mines and dubbed ‘Heera Nagri’ (city of diamonds) by many, belies its affluent reputation upon closer inspection.

Despite its population of over a million individuals spanning 9 tehsils and 1033 villages according to the 2011 census, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj listed Panna among the 250 most underdeveloped districts in India.

Panna ranks a dismal 41st out of 45 districts in Madhya Pradesh’s human development index (HDI). It is also among its five poorest districts, receiving funding from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF), which allocates funds to districts facing significant obstacles to progress.

Arab nations seek collaboration with Chinese firms to explore mining sector – by Nirmal Narayanan (Arab News – June 12, 2023)

June 12, 2023

https://www.arabnews.com/

RIYADH: Arab nations will explore partnerships with China to accelerate the sustainable growth of the mining sector in the region, according to speakers at a panel discussion at the Arab-China Business Conference held in Riyadh.

Khalid Nouh, CEO of Industrialization & Energy Services Co., also known as TAQA, said China’s know-how and technical expertise could help Saudi Arabia explore its full potential in the mining sector.

RPT-COLUMN-Nickel prices coming supply glut but stocks keep falling – by Andy Home (June 7, 2023)

June 8, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) – Nickel has been the under-performer of the London Metal Exchange (LME) base metals pack this year. LME three-month nickel sank to a nine-month low of $20,310 per tonne last week and at a current $21,500 is now down by 31% since the start of the year.

Nickel is pricing in a looming supply glut as Indonesia builds out ever more production capacity in its race to be an electric vehicle battery metals giant. The country’s mined output grew by 48% last year and by another 41% in the first three months of this year, according to The International Nickel Study Group.

China’s EV Battery Sector Is Preparing a New Breakthrough – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2023)

June 6, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — One of China’s top battery-makers reckons it has cracked a technology to provide even cheaper and more powerful packs for electric vehicles. Gotion High-Tech Co. recently unveiled a lithium-iron-manganese-phosphate battery — LMFP for short — which it says will power an EV for 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on each charge. Until now, it’s largely the more expensive nickel-cobalt batteries have provided that kind of range.

“It’s an upgrade, it’s a leap for energy density,” Cheng Qian, executive president of Gotion’s international business unit, said in a phone interview from Tokyo.

China’s Monopoly over Critical Minerals – by Katherine Wells (Georgetown Security Studies Review – June 1, 2023)

June 2, 2023

https://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/

As part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken to investing in critical mineral mines globally. One of these investment hotspots is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 2020, the DRC was the world’s largest cobalt miner, producing 41 of all cobalt resources.

Although not the largest producer of copper – Chile produces 27 percent of the global copper production – the DRC boasts the highest-quality copper reserves in the world, with mines estimated to contain copper with grades above 3 percent, 2.4 percent higher than the average supply globally. The mining industry is central to the DRC’s economy, making up over 90 percent of its exports.

Whitehaven says coal is a ‘critical mineral’ for defence allies – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – June 1, 2023)

June 2, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Whitehaven Coal managing director Paul Flynn has urged the Albanese government to consider coal’s role in powering defence allies like Japan and South Korea when reviewing its list of minerals that are “critical” to economic growth and national security.

Coal is not among the 26 minerals considered “critical” by the Australian government although coking coal for steelmaking is one of the 34 minerals considered “critical” by the European Commission.

Column: China’s soft economic data will mean lower commodity imports, but not yet – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – June 1, 2023)

June 2, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON — A run of weak economic data in China is likely to show up in softer imports of key commodities, albeit with a lag given the time taken to physically ship resources from around the globe.

The manufacturing indicator, the official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), dropped to a five-month low of 48.8 points in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday. This was the second month the measure was below the 50-level that separates expansion from contraction, and it was also weaker than the median forecast for a rise in May to 49.4 from April’s 49.2.

Tensions with China not impacting this Chinese-owned lithium mine in Manitoba – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – June 1, 2023)

June 1, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

The Tanco mine, one of Canada’s two lithium producers, hopes to expand against the odds

Ottawa surprised the mining world with its decision in November to bar three Chinese companies from buying stakes in Canada’s lithium businesses due to national security concerns.

Since then, investments from Chinese miners into Canadian companies that own properties containing minerals, such as lithium, copper or nickel, that are in high demand and needed for the energy transition away from fossil fuels have been unheard of.