Municipal leaders talk future ‘billion-dollar’ lithium industry in Thunder Bay, Ont., at AMO conference – by Sarah Law (CBC News Thunder Bay – August 24, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Leaders in Thunder Bay, Ont., voiced some of the city’s top priorities at the Association of Municipalities Ontario’s (AMO) annual general meeting and conference this week. The conference gives municipal leaders the chance to meet with provincial ministers and raise local concerns at a larger level in the hopes of getting more support.

The city sent Coun. Kristen Oliver and Coun. Shelby Ch’ng — chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the intergovernmental affairs committee — along with mayor Ken Boshcoff and city manager Norm Gale to London, Ont., to participate in a marathon of meetings.

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OBITUARY: Don Bubar remembered as ‘key architect’ of critical minerals narrative – by Blair McBride (Mining.com – August 24, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

As enthusiasm for zero-emission technologies accelerates into the mainstream, Canada has lost one of its earliest and most ardent champions of critical minerals.

Donald Stephen Bubar, founder and longtime president of Avalon Advanced Materials passed away on July 30 at the age of 68 from neurodegenerative diseases. The mining veteran, who worked as a field geologist and with several base and precious metals projects, recognized years before most others the importance of critical minerals for the future economy. And in his decades of involvement with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), advocated for greater and earlier engagement with Indigenous communities.

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A new ‘arms race’ is on among countries for critical minerals – by Surojit Gupta (Times of India – August 25, 2023)

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.

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Electric cars and solar cells rely on Chinese minerals. Here’s how to curb the risks. – by Editorial Board (Washington Post – August 25, 2023)

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.

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Inconvenient truth: Green energy is the colour of Congolese blood – by Gerry Chidiac (Troy Media – August 24, 2023)

https://troymedia.com/

The toxic truth behind “green energy” technologies, cobalt, and the exploitation of the Congo

If there’s a hell, it’s a teenage mother with a sick child strapped to her back, breaking rocks and putting them into a sack while she and her baby breathe in toxic dust. If she’s lucky, she’ll make a dollar or two and they will buy something to eat. They will both be dead in less than a year.

This is not a dystopian fantasy. This is the reality for an artisan cobalt miner in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She is the one who gathers the minerals needed so you can recharge your smartphone, your laptop, your headphones, and your shiny electric vehicle.

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Frenzy of Foreign Suitors Wooing Australian Lithium Miners (Asia Financial – August 23, 2023)

https://www.asiafinancial.com/

The deals mania comes as Australia undertakes a critical minerals strategy that envisages major collaborations with investors and global partners to become a renewables superpower

Emerging Australian lithium companies have seen a surge of buyouts from suitors seeking to secure cheaper supplies of electric-vehicle battery materials.

Companies such as Albemarle Corp, the biggest lithium producer, have been seeking buys in Australia, which makes the most lithium in the world and has more than 80 lithium-related companies listed on its main stock exchange. Their interest has been driven by falling prices for the commodity and a move by major producer Chile to nationalise its lithium industry earlier this year.

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The Electric-Vehicle Bubble Starts to Deflate – by Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal – August 21, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

Biden is imitating China just as its industrial policy starts to crack.

It’s ironic, to say the least, that the U.S. is seeking to imitate China’s economic model at the moment that its industrial policy fractures. Look no further than its collapsing electric-vehicle bubble, which is a lesson in how industries built by government often also fail because of government.

Tesla last week slashed its prices in China to boost sales in an oversaturated EV market. In July Tesla and other auto makers in China agreed to stop their EV price war, only to scrap the cease-fire days later owing to government antitrust concerns. While lower prices may benefit consumers, auto makers in China are bleeding red ink and going bust.

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Lithium Craze Sparks 1,100% Stock Gains as Well as Deep Losses – by Georgina McKay and James Fernyhough (Yahoo News/Bloomberg – August 22, 2023)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Investors who bought Australian lithium stocks at the start of the year could have doubled their money or lost more than half of it — reflecting the extreme volatility of companies mining one of the world’s hottest commodities.

Lithium mining is dominated by small and mid-sized firms in Australia, the world’s No.1 producer of the critical electric vehicle battery ingredient. Previously unknown companies have soared in value after striking large deposits of lithium-bearing spodumene, mainly in Western Australia, while others have sputtered on uncertainty.

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Sayona advances planning for Quebec lithium carbonate plant – by Silvia Pikal (CIM Magazine – August 21, 2023)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

NAL is set to become the only lithium operation with a concentrator and carbonate plant all on the same site in North America

Australian miner Sayona Mining Limited announced it is moving forward with the restart of a lithium carbonate production plant at its North American Lithium (NAL) operation in Quebec, bringing it closer to becoming a downstream producer of lithium chemicals.

In late June, the company released the results of a preliminary study for the standalone lithium carbonate project, outlining the production of 372,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate from 2.9 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate from the NAL mine over a project life of 16 years. All-in sustaining costs per tonne of lithium carbonate are estimated to be $15,996.

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Biden’s ‘EVolution’: A Race Against Consumer Choice? – by Brigham McCown (The Messenger – August 22, 2023)

https://themessenger.com/

Brigham McCown is a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on American Energy Security at Hudson Institute and a professor at Miami University.

The Biden administration has taken significant executive actions this summer to address what it perceives as an urgent climate crisis. In rapid succession, it announced major regulatory initiatives by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut power plant greenhouse gas emissions and one drastically curtailing vehicle tailpipe emissions.

Across the Mall, the Department of Energy was planning additional efficiency standards to wean Americans from natural gas furnaces. In an about-face, the Biden Department of Justice suddenly announced its support for a limited federal role in energy by asking the 9th Circuit of Appeals to rehear a prior case in which it said that Berkeley, California’s decision to ban gas stoves was preempted by federal law.

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Momentum builds for Piedmont Lithium’s ambitious production plans as portfolio expands in Africa – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – August 18, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Piedmont Lithium (Nasdaq: PLL; ASX: PLL) this week acquired a 22.5% stake in Atlantic Lithium’s (ASX: A11) flagship Ewoyaa project in Ghana after committing $17 million to fund the project through its definitive feasibility study, adding an Africa asset to its expanding portfolio of operations.

It completed the second stage of the investment agreement signed in 2021. Under the deal, Piedmont can earn a 50% equity interest in Atlantic’s Ghanaian lithium portfolio, headlined by the Ewoyaa project. The first stage involved a $15 million investment into Atlantic, previously IronRidge Resources.

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How Geopolitics Is Complicating the Move to Clean Energy – by Peter S. Goodman (New York Times – August 18, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

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.

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Stellantis invests more than $100 million in California lithium project – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – August 17, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Automaker Stellantis said it would invest more than $100 million in California’s Controlled Thermal Resources, its latest bet on the direct lithium extraction (DLE) sector amid the global hunt for new sources of the electric vehicle battery metal.

The investment by the Chrysler and Jeep parent announced on Thursday comes as the green energy transition and U.S. Inflation Reduction Act have fueled concerns that supplies of lithium and other materials may fall short of strong demand forecasts.

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Race to Control Electric-Vehicle Supply Chains Leads to Africa – by Alexandra Wexler (Wall Street Journal – August 16, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

To bypass China, Western companies are investing in facilities to process battery metals in countries such as Tanzania, Mauritius and South Africa

JOHANNESBURG—Pressure to create supply chains for electric-vehicle batteries that bypass China is prompting Western miners to do something they have long avoided: process their metals in Africa.

China dominates both the production and processing of critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium that are key to the energy transition. That has led to growing concerns among Western governments, including in Washington, about their dependence on Beijing.

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Lithium Royalty wins legal victory in dispute over revenue from Thacker Pass mine in Nevada – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – August 17, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Lithium Royalty Corp. has won a court battle over a stake in one of the world’s largest lithium projects, the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, setting the stage for a settlement analysts estimate could be worth more than $300-million.

Toronto-based Lithium Royalty, which has helped finance 32 mining projects, spent the past two years in a dispute with asset manager Orion Resource Partners over a royalty on future revenues from Thacker Pass, which is owned by Vancouver-based Lithium Americas Corp.

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