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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

China has ‘weaponized’ global critical mineral supply chain, US miners group says – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – December 4, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

China’s ban on U.S.-bound critical mineral exports is “mineral extortion,” Washington D.C.-based National Mining Association (NMA) president Rich Nolan said on Wednesday. The export ban announced a day earlier targets gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite. These minerals are needed for semiconductors, 5G phone tech, defence systems and electric vehicle batteries. Antimony is found in bullets. Nolan described the export ban as a calculated bid for geopolitical leverage.

“China has weaponized the world’s mineral supply chains,” he said in an emailed statement. “We must confront Chinese mineral extortion and recognize that U.S. mining policy is the foundation of our nation’s economic, energy and national security.”

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Rattled by China, West scrambles to rejig critical minerals supply chains – by Amy Lv, Divya Rajagopal and Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – December 6, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

BEIJING/TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) – China’s trade restrictions on strategic minerals are starting to hit Western companies where it hurts.

Blaming Beijing’s curbs on antimony exports announced in August, German chemicals and consumer goods heavyweight Henkel told customers last month it had declared force majeure and suspended deliveries of four types of adhesives and lubricants widely used by automakers, according to a Nov. 8 letter to clients reviewed by Reuters.

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North Carolina floods threaten mines key to global electronics industry – by Eva Dou (Washington Post – October 1, 2024)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

The high-purity quartz sand that’s mined in the town of Spruce Pine, N.C., is critical for making everything from semiconductors to solar panels.

Flooding in North Carolina has imperiled the operations of mines that produce the world’s purest quartz sand — an irreplaceable ingredient for manufacturing components at the heart of smartphones and other electronic devices.

The town of Spruce Pine, where these unique mines are located, remains in a dire situation, with power, water and cell service largely disconnected early Tuesday. While the floodwaters brought on by Helene have receded, local residents said many roads remained impassable. Some people were still trying desperately to confirm loved ones were safe.

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The role of minerals in Trump’s energy strategy dominance agenda – by Gregory Wischer and Shubham Dwivedi (Mining.com – December 3, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that his administration will pursue a path toward “US energy dominance”. He emphasized that “America is blessed with vast amounts of ‘Liquid Gold’ and other valuable minerals and resources,” declaring, “We will ‘DRILL BABY DRILL.’”

Achieving energy dominance will necessitate substantial quantities of minerals, ranging from tungsten in exploration drill bits to copper in electrical transmission lines. Crucially, this goal also requires secure mineral supply chains.

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China bans exports to US of gallium, germanium, antimony in response to chip sanctions – by Elaine Kurtenbach (Associated Press – December 3, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

BANGKOK (AP) — China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.

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Biden’s Angola visit aims to showcase his attempts to rival China – by Anne Soy (BBC.com – December 2, 2024)

https://www.bbc.com/

Apart from oil, Angola is also rich in minerals, including cobalt and lithium, which are essential for making batteries for electric vehicles.

Joe Biden has begun his long-anticipated maiden visit to sub-Saharan Africa as US president but it comes amidst uncertainty over future US-Africa relations as Donald Trump prepares to succeed him in January.

Biden’s visit to oil-rich Angola seeks to underline an attempt by America to focus more on trade and heavy investment in infrastructure, in what some analysts see as the most direct counter yet to China’s influence on the continent.

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‘Green’ energy needs metal. Can we combat climate change while reducing mining impacts? – by Kate S. Petersen (USA TODAY – December 1, 2024)

https://www.usatoday.com/

More than 2 miles across and nearly 2,000 feet deep, the mining operation in a social media photo has replaced any flora that might have once inhabited the now barren landscape. Nothing but soil and stone is visible until the horizon meets the sky.

In an apparent attempt to disparage the renewable energy transition, the post showcasing the image wrongly asserts the devastation was caused by mining for lithium – a key ingredient in electric car and grid storage batteries. In reality, the post shows a gold mine and is one of a suite of false claims about lithium mining USA TODAY has debunked.

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[Antimony] The Secret Metal That Helped Win WWII is Back, And Prices Are Soaring – by Editor Oil Price (Yahoo Finance – November 24, 2024)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

More than 100 years ago, a ship left a Nova Scotia harbor carrying a precious cargo that few today would recognize as valuable. The crew, full of optimism, was bound for Wales hoping that the metal they carried would lead them to riches. Unfortunately, they never made it.

A German U-boat lurking in the cold Atlantic waters fired a torpedo and the ship went down, sinking to the ocean floor along with its mysterious cargo. At the time, the metal seemed unimportant, but its true value wasn’t fully realized until later. Fast forward to today and that same metal is critical to modern military and industrial applications.

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Column: Trump 2.0 won’t reverse Biden’s critical minerals push – by Andy Home (Reuters – November 21, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Donald Trump has described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a “green scam” and vowed to repeal it after he returns to the White House in January. This is bad news for sectors such as electric vehicles (EV) and wind power, which have been major recipients of the Biden administration’s signature $369 billion energy transition legislation.

But some of the “new green deal” money has also been channeled to the US industrial base, such as the $75 million allocated for an upgrade of Constellium’s aluminum rolling mill in West Virginia.

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Challenges in critical minerals supply threaten global energy transitions – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – November 22, 2024)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

An unprecedented surge in demand for critical minerals on the back of global transitions to clean energy is posing significant challenges in meeting these goals, as the critical minerals sector experiences various challenges, says data and analytics company GlobalData.

“The global transition to clean energy is gaining momentum, heavily relying on renewable technologies such as solar PV cells and wind turbines, alongside energy transition solutions like hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture,” GlobalData explains, adding that this growing demand is putting pressure on minerals supply.

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Navigating ‘The Valley of Death’: Why Canada’s emerging critical minerals miners are struggling to survive and what can be done about it – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Martin Turenne, chief executive officer of FPX Nickel Corp. FPX-X is wired as an optimist. In the mining industry, you have to be, because the timelines are agonizingly long and the odds are often heavily stacked against you.

Mr. Turenne hopes to have a nickel mine and refinery in production at its Baptiste project in central British Columbia by the end of the decade. The grand plan is to supply nickel for Canada’s nascent electric vehicle battery industry. The early estimate to build what could eventually be a top 10 nickel operation globally is $2.6-billion.

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Vince Beiser on the Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future – by Catherine Putz (The Diplomat – November 18, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

“The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables is a crucial part of the cure for climate change. But it’s a cure with brutal side effects.”

The world, journalist Vince Beiser says, is moving into the “Electro-Digital Age” and at the heart of this new era is a set of ancient, naturally occurring minerals: metals. The critical metals necessary to run the modern world and, importantly, required to power the energy transition away from fossil fuels also produce extraordinary consequences for humanity and the planet.

In “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future,” Beiser charts a court across the world to understand how these metals are moved from the earth to our technology, and the competition that has arisen around them.

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Federal watchdog snaps at climate, Indigenous gaps in Ottawa’s critical minerals strategy – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – November 7, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Canada’s auditor general criticized the federal critical minerals strategy for not adequately probing the impact increased mining will have on the environment and Indigenous communities.

The government program issued in 2022 budgets $3.8 billion on critical minerals support over eight years. Yet, the strategy doesn’t properly measure results and progress on ecosystems and First Nations, the Office of the Auditor General, the government’s own watchdog, said in a report on Thursday. The matters included greenhouse gas emissions, the protection of culturally significant sites and improvements to local living conditions, it said.

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US Election: what a Trump or Harris victory means for critical minerals – by Caroline Peachey (Mining Technology – November 4, 2024)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

Both candidates have pledged their support for mining and recognise the strategic importance of critical minerals for the energy transition and national security.

In the most anticipated political event of the year, the 2024 US presidential elections will see Kamala Harris and Donald Trump battle for America’s vote on 5 November. It is an extremely tight race. Polls are predicting a “knife-edge” result, with outcomes in seven swing states set to decide who will become the next US president.

Both candidates have pledged their support for mining and recognise the strategic importance of critical minerals for the energy transition and national security. Here, Mining Technology looks at how critical minerals policy could be impacted by the election outcome.

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World’s biggest cobalt miner is gloomy on the EV metal’s future – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – November 6, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The world’s No. 1 cobalt miner is sounding the alarm over the shrinking role of the metal in electric vehicle batteries. Chinese company CMOC Group Ltd., which has been churning out cobalt much faster than rivals like Glencore Plc, said the importance of the raw material in the energy transition is declining rapidly.

The adoption of cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries has gained momentum in recent years, due to them being cheaper to manufacture. The proportion of EV batteries in China containing cobalt will drop to 31% in 2024, from 44% two years ago, according to consultancy CRU Group.

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