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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Energy transition: The benefit and risk behind metals and minerals dominance in Canada – by Jon Wojnicki and Dr. Lance Mortlock (Canadian Mining Journal – April 3, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The demand for critical metals and minerals is advancing dramatically as energy transition gathers momentum globally. Rare metals and minerals are essential to many clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, electricity transmission, and electric vehicles (EVs).

But when comparing fossil fuel-based resources such as hydrocarbons with the metals and minerals needed to meet emerging needs to build renewable power generation assets and energy storage devices, the numbers are staggering. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it takes six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car to power an EV and nine times more for a wind plant than its gas-fired counterpart.

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OPINION: A critical push to speed up mine approvals – The Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – April 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s quest for critical minerals has led to an astonishing promise: The federal government says it can slash the time it takes a proposed mine to get through the regulatory review process from 12 to 15 years – to just five.

Without access to a supply of pixie dust or a time machine, this commitment will demand a phenomenal amount of goodwill and co-operation from industry, First Nations and the provinces and territories.

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Electra inks cobalt supply agreement for Temiskaming refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Luxembourg multinational Eurasian Resources Group to provide plant feed from Democratic Republic of Congo starting in 2026

Electra Battery Materials has struck a deal to secure a supply of “ethically sourced” cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to feed its refinery project in Temiskaming.

The Toronto company announced it’s signed a binding letter of intent with Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), considered a global leader in the metal, to ship concentrated cobalt from its Metalkol operation in the African country to Electra’s still-to-be-completed facility in northeastern Ontario

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An invite to revise critical minerals list – by David Godkin (Canadian Mining Journal – April 3, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Low prices dampen investment for development

Natural Resources Canada barely got its invite out the door to the critical minerals industry in January when more bad news hit. Plummeting prices for metals such as lithium and nickel pushed the ministry’s pitch for help updating the criteria of Canada’s list of 31 critical minerals list to the back burner. Instead, some in the industry were demanding government intervention, up to and including the feds spending taxpayer money on new critical minerals projects.

How bad was the hit to lithium and nickel prices? Enough for companies to capitulate and begin shutting down capacity and production, said Canada Nickel Company CEO Mark Selby (and former head of commodities research). This occurred most recently on Feb. 12 when Glencore announced it was transitioning its Koniambo Nickel operation in New Caledonia into care and maintenance.

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Gallium Has More Than Doubled in Price on China Export Curbs (Bloomberg News – April 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Prices for gallium are close to their highest since 2011 as China’s export restrictions crimp global supply and hurt buyers of the metal used in a swathe of high-tech applications.

Beijing last year placed gallium and germanium under stricter government oversight — largely seen as a tit-for-tat response to the US-China trade war on technology. Gallium exports ground to a halt in August and September of 2023 and, while flows have restarted since then, volumes are still significantly lower.

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Canada needs to act with a sense of urgency on critical minerals – by Abbas Ali Khan (Canadian Mining Journal – April 2, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

What will it take for Canada to reach its ambitious critical minerals goals? I was asked that question in Houston at a conference attended by lawyers from across the world on the future of energy.

My answer was that Canada’s preliminary steps towards a viable strategy will require much more significant involvement by the government, including financial support, streamlining approval processes, and removing regulatory barriers, if meaningful progress is to be made.

The following three areas that need prompt attention:

-Reducing overregulation.
-Far greater investment by all levels of government.
-Responding to geopolitical tensions and protectionism.

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How Gulf states are putting their money into mining – by Harry Dempsey and Chloe Cornish (Financial Times – March 31, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Hungry to diversify their economies beyond fossil fuels, Middle Eastern powers are investing in the resources needed to produce clean energy

In the summer of 2023, Rothschild bankers working for Zambia’s government were close to finalising a shortlist of buyers for a prized copper mine.

Mopani, a troubled but rare asset formerly owned by resources giant Glencore, had drawn offers worth hundreds of millions of dollars from big names in the mining world eager to gain access to a metal that is crucial to clean energy technologies of the future.

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How science may assist green metals exploration efforts – by Staff (Mining.com – March 26,2024)

https://www.mining.com/

A recent paper in the journal Science Advances sheds new light on how concentrations of metals used in renewable energy technologies can be transported from deep within the earth’s interior mantle by low-temperature, carbon-rich melts.

The article details how an international team led by Isra Ezad, a postdoctoral research fellow at Australia’s Macquarie University, carried out high-pressure and high-temperature experiments creating small amounts of molten carbonate material at conditions similar to those around 90 kilometres depth in the mantle, below the earth’s crust.

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Canada leads on critical minerals while the U.S. falters – by Barry Butterfield Nebraska Examiner – March 22, 2024)

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/

While the United States dawdles, Canada has quietly taken the lead in countering China’s grip on the global supply of critical metals. Both the United States and Canada have raised the alarm over China’s control of mineral supply chains, but only our northern neighbors are taking decisive action to do something about it.

It is not rocket science to figure out how to solve the crisis. Nor is it hard to tell whether a country is serious when it proposes a solution. Canada wants to slash the time it takes to get new mines up and running, and it’s zeroing in on streamlining regulatory review and improving its mine permitting process.

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Canadian government invests more money into Saskatchewan’s rare earth element production – by Brody Langager (Global News – March 14, 2024)

https://globalnews.ca/

The Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatoon will receive more federal funding to help commercialize some of the processes at the facility.

Federal Minister for PrairiesCan Dan Vandal said $6 million will improve the process to separate unrecovered rare earth oxides from radioactive monazite tailings. He said these oxides would normally be disposed of and that more rare earth material will be recovered from these processes.

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African Development Bank chief criticizes opaque loans tied to Africa’s natural resources – by Taiwo Adebayo (Associated Press – March 12, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The head of the African Development Bank is calling for an end to loans given in exchange for the continent’s rich supplies of oil or critical minerals used in smartphones and electric car batteries, deals that have helped China gain control over mineral mining in places like Congo and have left some African countries in financial crisis.

“They are just bad, first and foremost, because you can’t price the assets properly,” Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview with The Associated Press in Lagos, Nigeria, last week. “If you have minerals or oil under the ground, how do you come up with a price for a long-term contract? It’s a challenge.”

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Fall in battery metal prices a concern for Canada and allies, says Jonathan Wilkinson – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – March 5, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Supply key to three battery plants to be built here in coming years

Slumping prices for the minerals needed in the energy transition away from fossil fuels is a concern for Canada and its allies, says Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, since it is preventing capital from moving into projects the country wants to develop.

“It is a concern for a number of countries like Canada that produce these minerals and hope to produce many more going forward,” he said. “It is something that Australia, Canada, the European Union and others are talking about.”

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‘Vulnerabilities are obvious’ as U.S. moves to build critical mineral supply chain, undersecretary says – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 6, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

U.S., Canada partner to reduce dependence on China by supporting mining, processing and recycling projects

The United States has “no better partner than Canada” as it seeks to build out a global critical minerals supply chain, says undersecretary of economic growth Jose Fernandez.

“Our partnership with Canada in this space is frankly second to none,” he said after speaking at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto on March 4.

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SRG Mining calls off financing deal with China-based buyer after Champagne intervenes – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

SRG Mining Inc. has called off its financing deal with a privately held Chinese company, after Canada’s Industry Minister publicly chastised the miner for trying to skirt a national security review related to the agreement.

Last summer, China-based Carbon One New Energy Group Co. Ltd., also known as C-One, proposed buying a 19.4-per-cent stake in SRG’s Lola graphite project in West Africa for $16.9-million. For the first few months after the deal was announced, Montreal-based SRG told its investors that the deal was subject to a national-security review by the Canadian federal government.

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Canada concerned about critical metals market manipulation, minister says – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 2 (Reuters) – Canada is concerned about market manipulation and dumping in key metals used in electric vehicle batteries, a federal Canadian minister told Reuters, adding the country wants to explore a U.S.-mooted alternative pricing model.

Canada, along with Australia and the U.S., is looking to develop its critical mineral supply chain to break the monopoly of China which controls over 90% of key metals that are crucial for energy transition.

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