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Asia Mining

Why China Is So Interested in Kazakhstan – by Daisuke Wakabayashi (New York Times – July 18, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Kazakhstan’s bounty of so-called critical minerals has enriched the country and grabbed the attention of entrepreneurs scrambling to control the ingredients needed to fight climate change.

Kenges Rakishev, one of the richest men in Kazakhstan, stepped off a private jet at a Soviet-era airport and hopped into the lead car of a convoy of sport utility vehicles. The cars tore down a two-lane road, zipping past the snow-covered steppe in eastern Kazakhstan at 90 miles per hour.

Riding shotgun, Mr. Rakishev gestured toward the vast emptiness. “Nothing, right?” he said with a chuckle. “But it’s a unique opportunity.” That opportunity is in nickel, a key mineral used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies. Kazakhstan, a mineral-rich country in Central Asia, has a lot of nickel, and Mr. Rakishev is investing tens of millions of dollars to extract it.

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Turkey Top Envoy Goes to Niger in Bid to Secure Uranium Supplies – by Selcan Hacaoglu (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Turkey’s foreign, defense and energy ministers visited Niger on Wednesday to secure access to the West African nation’s rich uranium deposits.

The delegation, which is led by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and includes top spy chief Ibrahim Kalin, wants to tap Nigerien supplies of the fissile mineral to fuel Turkey’s nascent nuclear-power industry, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak to the media.

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Indonesian onslaught wipes out Australia’s nickel industry – by Kristie Batten (Mining.com – July 14, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

An influx of cheap nickel supply from Indonesia has all but killed off Western Australia’s long-running nickel sector. Nickel prices halved in 2023, dipping below $16,000 per tonne in December as surpluses widened. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Indonesia accounted for 49% of nickel production in 2023, up from less than 5% just eight years ago.

Nickel sector decimated

The impact on Australia’s nickel industry has been dramatic. ASX 200 producer IGO paid A$1.1 billion ($744 million) for nickel miner Western Areas in mid-2022. Just 18 months later, the entire value of the acquisition had been written off and the Cosmos development project was suspended, resulting in the loss of 400 jobs.

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Cancellation of Nickel Investments Should Be a Wake-Up Call for Indonesia – by Krista Shennum (The Diplomat – July 05, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

The government’s break-neck drive to exploit its nickel deposits should not come at the expense of human rights and the environment.

On June 24, two multinational mining and mineral processing giants, France-based Eramet and Germany-based BASF, announced that they would cancel plans for a $2.6 billion nickel-cobalt refinery located within the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), in North Maluku, Indonesia.

The companies cited commercial reasons, but the Indonesian government would be short-sighted to ignore other concerns. In an indirect reference to human rights and environmental concerns with nickel processing operations at IWIP, a BASF spokesperson said the company needs a “secure, responsible, and sustainable supply of critical raw materials.” Implicit in the companies’ statements is that they are concerned about increasing their reputational risk through a new investment at IWIP.

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Blood nickel: What electric-vehicle hunger has wrought, and how Canada can help – by Mark Selby (Globe and Mail – July 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.

Blood diamonds, blood cobalt, and now blood nickel. Governments leading the global shift toward electric vehicles promise cleaner cities and a new era of sustainable energy and improved resource usage.

But just as governments promote EVs on environmental grounds, manufacturers are forced to source nickel from a region enabling the wanton destruction of ecologically sensitive lands, reckless treatment of workers, and the fundamental deterioration of living conditions. There is only one solution to this problem: the world needs more Canadian nickel.

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[Tungsten] The U.S. needs more of this critical metal — and China owns 80% of its supply chain – by Evelyn Cheng (CNBC – July 2, 2024)

https://www.cnbc.com/

BEIJING — China dominates the supply chain for many of the world’s critical minerals, but so far it’s held off on sweeping restrictions on at least one: tungsten.

The metal is nearly as hard as diamond and has a high energy density. That’s made tungsten an important material in weapons, autos, electric car batteries, semiconductors and industrial cutting machines. Chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Nvidia both use the metal. “I don’t expect any saber-rattling over tungsten,” said Lewis Black, CEO of Canada-based Almonty Industries, which is spending at least $75 million to reopen a tungsten mine in South Korea later this year.

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Rising Chinese aluminium output pressures alumina supply – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 1, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) – China’s production of primary aluminium is closing in on last year’s record highs as previously idled capacity ramps up in Yunnan province. The country increased production by 5% year-on-year to 3.65 million metric tons in May, according to the latest estimate from the International Aluminium Institute.

National output is now running close to an annualised 43.0 million tons, within touching distance of the record highs seen in September and October last year.

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Japan finds over 200 million tonnes of battery metals in seabed – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 25, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Japanese researchers have found more than 200 million tonnes of manganese nodules rich in battery metals in the Pacific Ocean, within the country’s exclusive economic zone. The team of experts from the University of Tokyo and the Nippon Foundation said the fist-sized nodules cover an extensive area of the seabed near Minamitorishima, a remote Tokyo Island.

These metals-rich rocks are located at depths of about 5,500 metres and are thought to be very similar to the polymetallic nodules found in the Clarion-Clipperton zone in the Pacific, as they hold cobalt, nickel and copper in addition to manganese.

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Afghanistan’s Lithium Treasure: China’s Key To EV Dominance – OpEd – by Altaf Moti (Eurasia Review – June 25, 2024)

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The global electrification drive, spearheaded by the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) industry, has intensified the race to secure lithium, a vital component in EV batteries. This has thrust Afghanistan, boasting some of the world’s largest untapped lithium reserves, onto the center stage.

Often referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium,” Afghanistan’s estimated lithium reserves are pegged at around 2.3 million tons, making it a highly coveted prospect for countries vying for dominance in the clean energy sector.

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Blaze at South Korea lithium battery plant kills 22 workers – by Daewoung Kim, Hongji Kim and Hyunsu Yim (Reuters – June 24, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

HWASEONG, South Korea, June 24 (Reuters) – A lithium battery factory in South Korea was set on fire after multiple batteries exploded on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, fire officials said.

The fire and a series of explosions ripped through the factory run by primary battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul. The victims likely succumbed to extremely toxic gas within seconds of the blaze getting out of control, the officials said. It was unclear what caused the explosions and the fire was largely extinguished in about six hours.

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The Dirty, Deadly Price We Pay for Clean Cars – by Janet Paskin, Yang Yang, Naomi Ng and Jessica Beck (Bloomberg News – June 17, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Never miss an episode. Follow The Big Take Asia podcast today.

Indonesia’s nickel business is booming. The metal is a key component in electric car batteries, but its success has a dark side. The country’s nickel mines and processing plants have a history of fatal accidents, with workers being run over by forklifts and burnt to death in smelter fires.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host Janet Paskin speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Matt Campbell about his investigation into the mines. He found that nickel sourced from these plants are present in the supply chain that feeds virtually every major seller of EVs, and is an indispensable part of the car industry’s green revolution.

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China’s EV drive accelerates in Latin America – by Margaret Myers (East Asia Forum – June 2024)

https://eastasiaforum.org/

Margaret Myers is director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.

As the United States slaps tariffs on Chinese electronic vehicles (EV) and the EU increases its own protective measures, the Latin American market remains relatively open to imports of Chinese cars and investment in local EV production and critical minerals. Efforts in Washington and Brussels to level the EV playing field will likely result in trade diversion to Latin America and other regions, encouraging a process already well underway.

China has been active in expanding its capacity in overseas EV sales and manufacturing, with a growing focus on developing markets. Even amid protectionist measures in the Global North, China’s total exports of low-cost EVs jumped 102 per cent year-on-year from 2021 to 2022, with Chinese companies exporting nearly 630,000 fully electric vehicles in 2022.

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Striking a Balance: The Philippines’ Path to Sustainable Critical Minerals Development – by Rocco Cartusciello (The Diplomat – June 21, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

Manila is under pressure to begin exploiting its rich mineral deposits, but it needs to carefully consider the likely social and environmental costs.

The demand for critical minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements, has surged in recent years due to their role as essential components for modern technologies and green energy solutions. Under the Paris Agreement, meeting the world’s climate stabilization goal requires quadrupling mineral requirements for renewable energy technologies by 2040.

The Philippines, with largely untapped reserves of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, and silver, stands to economically benefit from this global surge in demand, necessitating greater investment in its mining sector. Currently, only 5 percent of these reserves have been explored, and just 3 percent are covered by mining contracts.

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EV transition drives Indonesia’s ‘dirty’ nickel boom – by A. Anantha Lakshmi (Financial Times – June 20, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Environmentalists accuse Jakarta of prioritising mining of key commodity over nation’s biodiverse rainforests

In just four years, Indonesia’s nickel industry has undergone a transformation — becoming a pivotal supplier of the commodity critical to electric vehicle batteries. But, as its importance grows, so has the south-east Asian nation’s reputation as a producer of “dirty” nickel.

Indonesia is now the world’s dominant supplier of the metal, following a boom triggered by President Joko Widodo’s ban on exports of raw nickel ore, in a bid to force foreign businesses to invest in the country and set up domestic processing plants.

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Cobalt Conundrum: India’s Deep-Sea Mining Push Challenges China’s Dominance, Sparks Tensions With Sri Lanka – Analysis – by Girish Linganna (Eurasia Review – June 21, 2024)

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India is rushing to get permission to explore a cobalt-rich underwater mountain located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. However, there are other countries interested in the same area. Sri Lanka is also looking to mine precious minerals there, adding to the competition.

Cobalt is a critical mineral used in rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles. It also plays a key role in making alloys for jet engines, gas turbines and cutting tools. Additionally, cobalt is used in medical implants and as a catalyst in the chemical industry.

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