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Two workers die in clashes at Indonesia nickel smelter (Nikkei Asia – January 16, 2023)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Violence erupts as workers demonstrate for better pay and safety

JAKARTA (Reuters) — Two workers were killed in clashes and rioting at an Indonesian nickel smelting facility at the weekend, officials said on Monday, after violence erupted during a protest by a labor group demanding better pay and safety.

An Indonesian and a Chinese worker were killed during the unrest at the PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI) smelter, owned by China’s Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry, which involved protesters, workers and security personnel, said Didik Supranoto, a spokesperson for Central Sulawesi police.

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India’s Foray Into the EV Battery Market Lacks Some Key Ingredients – by Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – January 10, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — As the world tries to wean itself off dependence on China for crucial battery materials, India is taking bold steps to position itself as an alternative in the electric vehicle supply chain.

The government has unveiled incentives of at least $3.4 billion to expedite its lagging adoption of EVs as Prime Minister Narendra Modi vows to reach net zero by 2070. The idea is that manufacturing the costliest component — batteries — locally will make the end product more affordable for the mass market and set the country up as a potential exporter, tapping into surging global demand.

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Nickel market faces new shock as ‘Big Shot’ boosts metal output – by Alfred Cang, Jack Farchy and Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – January 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The billionaire at the center of last year’s nickel short squeeze is planning a major shift in his production mix, in a move that could reshape global supply dynamics and inject fresh volatility into the battered nickel market.

Xiang Guangda’s Tsingshan Holding Group Co. is seeking to profit from an unusually large premium in the price of refined nickel metal – the type that is deliverable on exchanges in London and Shanghai – over the intermediate forms that Tsingshan supplies for battery manufacturing, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Nickel Smelter Industry Activity In South Sulawesi Generates Public Protests – OpEd – by Silvanah (Eurasia Review – January 9, 2023)

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The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) noted that Indonesia has a nickel mine of 520,877.07 hectares (ha). The mines are spread across seven provinces, including Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, West Papua, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.

In 2020 the export value of Indonesia’s raw nickel ore is around $200 million. But in 2021 President Joko Widodo instituted a new ban on the export of raw ore in an effort to catalyze the domestic nickel processing industry.

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Shadowy hands behind unrest against Asia’s largest diamond mine – by Shantanu Guha Ray (Sunday Guardian Live – January 8, 2023)

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Buxwaha, Sagar (MP): Troubled by a medley of activists, the Aditya Birla group may have developed second thoughts over a big diamond project in Madhya Pradesh. And no one knows why the protests are happening, or what exactly the demands are of those protesting against the mining.

The mine is inside a forest in Buxwaha, located 200 kms from Sanchi, a sleepy town of stupas, hemispherical structures containing relics of Lord Buddha. The mine is huge, the biggest in Asia. The Bunder diamond block has 34 million carat diamonds, valued at a whopping Rs 55,000 crore. The mine has a potential to catapult India into the world’s ten top rough diamond producers and in the process put the diamonds of Africa to shame.

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China looks to Guinea’s vast Simandou iron ore mine to secure supply – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – January 8, 2023)

https://www.scmp.com

China is making a bigger bet on the huge Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea, which it sees as crucial as it tries to reduce reliance on Australian ore amid geopolitical tensions.

The mine – located in the Simandou mountain range of southern Guinea’s Nzérékoré region – is said to have the world’s largest untapped iron ore reserve of high quality, with an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes. The deposits have drawn Chinese multinationals including China Baowu Steel Group, the country’s largest iron and steel producer.

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Malaysia set to gain from Indonesia’s ban on bauxite exports – by Zunaira Saieed (The Straits Times – January 1, 2023)

https://www.straitstimes.com/

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia, once among the world’s top 10 biggest bauxite suppliers to China, is set to emerge as a beneficiary of Indonesia’s latest ban on its export.

According to Indonesia’s customs data, China imported 17.8 million tonnes in 2021 from the country, accounting for about 15 per cent of its total imports. China, the world’s largest consumer, imported 107.42 million tonnes of bauxite in 2021, according to data from Statista.

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The world needs chromite and lithium. Afghanistan has them. What happens next? – by Nabih Bulos (Los Angeles Times – November 3, 2022)

https://www.latimes.com/

LOGAR, Afghanistan — Somewhere in the Logar mountains, overlooking the highway to Kabul, Asadullah Massoud trudged up to a four-story-tall cleft. Before him was a monochromatic pattern of gray stone, save for a seam of dull, almost-black rocks. “Look there. See that black line?” he said. “That’s chromite.”

An explosion thumped in the distance. Massoud looked up, but appeared unconcerned. “That’s not fighting. We’re mining with the open-surface method, putting explosives and going from hill to hill,” he said.

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Ottawa’s crackdown on Chinese investment in the critical minerals sector left out major miners, critics say – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 24, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

This past summer, Power Metals Corp. chief executive officer Johnathan More fielded questions from the federal government about the roughly 5-per-cent equity position Chinese state-owned Sinomine Rare Metals Resources Co. held in his tiny exploration company. What struck him was how naive some of the queries were.

“They were coming at us saying, ‘Oh, they’re buying your company, they’re taking you over?’” he said. “I’m like, ‘no.’ This is how uneducated the government is.” Patiently, Mr. More explained that Sinomine owned a tiny, non-controlling stake, worth a mere $1.5-million.

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Chinese Companies Are Flocking to Indonesia for Its Nickel – by Yudith Ho and Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – December 15, 2022)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Over a decade, they’ve poured upwards of $14 billion into two ore-rich islands to lock in supplies for battery production.

ABOUT 3,000 miles south of Beijing, Chinese mining companies have set up operations in the heart of the world’s largest known nickel reserves. On the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera, they’ve built refineries, smelters, a new metallurgy school-even a nickel museum.

Together, they’ve plowed US$3.2 billion into the remote islands this year alone, bringing the total to US$14.2 billion in investment over the past 10 years-enough to secure their nickel supply into the next decade.

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Turquoise Hill shareholders back Rio Tinto takeover, signalling end to a long saga – by Naimul Karim (Financial Times – December 9, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Mining giant keen to gain control of one of the world’s largest new copper and gold mines

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.‘s shareholders voted in favour of Rio Tinto Ltd.’s US$3.3 billion proposal to take full control of the Montreal-based miner on Dec. 9, signalling an end to a rocky journey that included the postponement of three previous votes, multiple takeover offers from Rio, and side deals with minority owners that were abruptly terminated.

The deal will, however, need the final approval of the Supreme Court of Yukon where a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14, the companies said. About 86.6 per cent of all votes cast and 60.5 per cent of the votes by Turquoise’s minority shareholders approved the takeover, the company said in a press release.

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Mass Protests in Mongolia Decry ‘Coal Mafia,’ Corruption – by Julian Dierkes (The Diplomat – December 6, 2022)

https://thediplomat.com/

For the second time this year, Mongolians are protesting against the government in significant numbers. In April, protests seemed to primarily grow out of younger Mongolians’ disappointed expectations with the government.

Today’s protests were sparked by apparent revelations about grand corruption, involving coal deliveries by state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, one of the country’s largest mining companies, to China.

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Chinese Carmaker BYD Eyes Chilean Lithium Deals in Search for EV Fuel – by James Attwood, Yvonne Yue Li and Danny Lee (Bloomberg News – December 6, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Chinese electric-car juggernaut BYD Co. is looking to get into the lithium business in Latin America and Africa after prices of the key battery component surged to “unreasonable” and “not healthy” levels.

BYD is scouring the world for lithium supplies, Executive Vice President Stella Li said in an interview Tuesday. In Chile, it’s in talks to enter into a mining project and is applying for permits to process the raw material into cathode for batteries. The automaker is also looking to invest in African lithium projects, although it’s detected infrastructure shortfalls there.

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The dirty road to clean energy: how China’s electric vehicle boom is ravaging the environment – by Antonia Timmerman (RestofWorld.org – November 28, 2022)

https://restofworld.org/

In neighboring Indonesia, nickel extraction is causing environmental and social devastation.

This March, a group of women gathered under the roof of a modest wooden shop in the Kurisa fishing village on Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo. They held iced drinks in their hands and babies to their breasts.

It was a hot, dusty afternoon, and some of the older children were playing tag. The women were gossiping, but mostly, they talked about how there were no fish for their husbands to catch these days. “Making a living from the sea isn’t enough anymore,” said one woman. “Kurisa is dying.”

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Global nickel cartel off the table as Canada’s trade minister rebuffs Indonesia’s approach – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 28, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is keen to strengthen Canada’s relationship with Indonesia, but not so much so that it’s willing to join the nickel cartel that the emerging Asian power is trying to get off the ground.

“It’s an idea that Indonesia has proposed to us, but we are not looking at that particular model in the way that they have proposed,” Trade Minister Mary Ng said after she and three fellow cabinet ministers released the government’s first ever Indo-Pacific Strategy in Vancouver on Nov. 27.

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