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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

What to know about Russia’s growing footprint in Africa – by Mark Banchereau and Jessica Donati (Associated Press – June 6, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa’s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States. Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

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Emerging Sudbury nickel-copper miner strikes milling deal with Glencore – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining will extract, ship 20,000 tonne bulk sample to Strathcona mill

Sudbury upstart Magna Mining has signed a toll milling agreement with Glencore in preparation for early-stage test mining at its Crean Hill Project.

The nickel and copper mine development company issued a June 4 news release of its plans to transport a 20,000-tonne surface bulk sample across town to Glencore’s Strathcona mill to make into a concentrate material. The bulk sample is being extracted from a mineralized area at Crean Hill called the 109 Footwall Zone.

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Can the West ‘friendshore’ enough critical minerals? – by Gregory Wischer and Shubham Dwivedi (Asia Times – June 6, 2024)

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Western nations have sufficient reserves to decouple from China but mining those deposits at a market profit won’t be easy

Over the coming years, Western countries will require tremendous volumes of critical minerals given the demand for mineral-rich technologies like electric vehicle batteries.

A popular policy proposal for supplying and de-risking this mineral demand in industrialized Western countries is “friendshoring,” where partner countries source extracted minerals from each other instead of relying on geopolitical adversaries, namely China.

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Fueling the Future: Sudbury conference focuses on critical minerals – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – June 5, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Those who attended also talked about the supply chain to deliver them

Once again, Cambrian College was the site of the BEV In-Depth: Mines to Mobility conference. This third annual conference, held last week, gathered players in the Battery Electric Vehicle future of Ontario to listen, learn and exchange ideas.

“It is a natural fit for us – and Sudbury – to step forward into this future,” said Shawn Poland, Cambrian’s vice president of External Partnerships, Strategic Enrollment. “Cambrian and other Sudbury institutions can play an important role in research and development.”

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Traders Are Desperate for Copper Deals and Miners Are Cashing In – by Archie Hunter and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A heated competition for copper among some of the biggest commodity traders is creating opportunities for miners to negotiate favorable terms ranging from huge upfront payments to extra-long contracts.

Recent moves by cash-flush energy traders including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. to expand in metals — a market long dominated by Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group — are raising tensions and sparking a scramble for contracts, at a time when the industry is already facing an unprecedented supply squeeze in copper ore.

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South Korea, Africa leaders pledge deeper ties, critical mineral development – by Hyonhee Shin (Reuters – June 4, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

GOYANG, South Korea, June 4 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and the leaders of African countries agreed on Tuesday to forge deeper trade and business cooperation and launched a “critical minerals dialogue” aimed at sustainable development of the continent’s resources.

Hosting a first-ever summit with the leaders of 48 African nations, Yoon said South Korea would increase development aid for Africa to $10 billion over the next six years as it looks to tap the continent’s rich mineral resources and potential as a vast export market.

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EU Policy. Commission clinches raw materials deal with Australia – by Marta Pacheco (Euronews Green – May 28, 2024)

https://www.euronews.com/

The European Commission today (28 May) announced it has forged its 13th trade partnership designed to source critical raw materials from outside the bloc, with Australia.

Valdis Dombrovskis and Thierry Breton, respectively commissioners for trade and the internal market, appeared alongside signatory Australian trade minister Don Farrell, claiming the deal was “based on mutual benefits” — enabling the EU to diversify supply, and the development of Canberra’s domestic critical minerals sector.

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What’s behind a historic, unusual U.S. military cash transfer to Canadian mines – by Alexander Panetta (CBC News World – May 26, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/

The Pentagon fears global unrest, a shortage of raw materials, and seeks to kickstart projects here

The United States was growing desperate, months before its entry into the Second World War. It was gravely short of aluminum, and scrambling for suppliers. Its solution: turn north to Canada.

American public money flooded into Quebec, building the aluminum industry that supplied raw materials for Allied planes and tanks. “I would be willing to buy aluminum from anybody,” said Harry Truman, then still a U.S. senator, in 1941 hearings on the topic.

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OPINION: Make no mistake, there’s an economic war happening, and the West is losing – by George Salamis and Mike St-Pierre (Globe and Mail – May 23, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

George Salamis, Lieutenant-Colonel (Hon) of the Royal Westminster Regiment, is executive chair of Integra Resources, a Canadian-based mining company that develops gold and silver mines in Canada and the U.S. Mike St-Pierre is a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy.

A global race is under way to secure critical minerals essential to power the next generation of civilian and military technology and to electrify the future. Control of global supply chains has become the new strategic centre of gravity, where access to minerals and metals are strategic weapons. The West is losing the resource war that targets our core social and political values. At stake is the national security of the West.

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Critical minerals need insulation from China’s market manipulation – by Angus Barker (Australian Strategic Policy Institution – May 21, 2024)

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/

Investors can handle lots of different risks. They can price risks in construction, interest rates, weather and, with hedging, price movements in product markets. But the one risk they can’t price is political risk, the chance of some government action ruining profits. You can’t hedge against it.

How should we respond when, as the chief executive of critical-minerals company Iluka said this month, when accusing China of rigging rare earths prices, ‘monopolistic production, combined with interference in pricing … is resulting in market failure’? How should we respond when price risk is political risk?

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Ottawa, Washington join forces to fund junior Canadian critical-minerals companies in face of trade war with China – by Naill McGee (Globe and Mail – May 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ottawa and Washington have teamed up for the first time to invest in two Canadian mining exploration companies, as both governments attempt to bolster the North American critical-minerals supply chain in the face of an escalating trade war with China.

Ontario cobalt developer Fortune Minerals Ltd. and Quebec graphite exploration company Lomiko Metals Inc. have been awarded about $32.4-million in combined funding, the U.S. and Canada said in a joint statement Thursday. The Canadian contribution is part of the $3.8-billion in funding for the critical-minerals sector that was unveiled in the 2023 federal budget and is coming from Natural Resources Canada.

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Congo Demands International Embargo on Rwandan Mineral Exports – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – May 15, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Democratic Republic of Congo called for an international embargo of metal exports from neighboring Rwanda, whose government it accuses of using rebel groups to steal its natural resources.

All mining products from Rwanda should be considered “blood minerals,” because their sale allegedly supports conflict in eastern Congo, Mines Minister Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi said in a May 8 statement released on Tuesday. “All stakeholders, including end consumers of mining products,” should commit to a responsible supply chain, and “an embargo be decreed against Rwanda,” she said.

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Opinion: We’re falling further behind China in critical minerals – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Financial Post – May 16, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

China is working hard to maintain its control of the rare earths markets that are critical to net-zero. We’re barely in the game

At the time, the opening of a small rare earths mine in the Northwest Territories in 2021 was heralded as an important step in breaking China’s monopoly over this strategic commodity. Rare earths are used in everything from electric vehicles and cell phones to wind turbines and jet engines.

China currently extracts more than 60 per cent of rare earth elements and processes as much as 90 per cent of global supply. The case of Vital Metals and the Nechalacho mine show just how far it’s willing to go to maintain a stranglehold on the rare earths market. What was once a hopeful story is now a cautionary tale.

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Seeking Access to Congo’s Metals, White House Aims to Ease Sanctions – by Eric Lipton (New York Times – May 16, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

A deal to allow the Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler to cash out his mining positions in the Democratic Republic of Congo has enraged human rights activists and some government officials.

Three years after Biden administration officials tightened sanctions on a billionaire Israeli mining executive for corrupt business practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have reversed themselves and are offering the executive a deal they hope will bolster the supply of a metal vital to electric vehicles.

The plan would allow the executive, Dan Gertler, to sell off his remaining stakes in three giant copper and cobalt mining operations in Congo. Once Mr. Gertler sells his positions, the Biden administration hopes Western-leaning companies will be more willing to invest in Congo, perhaps delivering a greater supply of cobalt to the United States as automakers race to increase domestic production of batteries.

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US Blames China’s CMOC for Predatory Tactics Behind Cobalt Glut – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – May 14, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — China’s CMOC Group Ltd. is being accused by a top US official of using “predatory” tactics to depress prices of a key battery metal by flooding the market with cobalt from Democratic Republic of Congo mines.

“What we’re seeing now, I feel, is a variation of predatory pricing,” Jose Fernandez, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, said Monday at a conference in New York sponsored by the Cobalt Institute industry group.

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