Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals – Page 19

EU sets critical mineral goals, but faces struggle to hit them – by Philip Blenkinsop (Reuters – December 18, 2023)

December 19, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUSSELS, Dec 18 (Reuters) – The European Union has set targets to dig up, recycle and refine lithium, cobalt and other metals it needs for its green transition, but a shortage of new money, crippling energy costs and local opposition could put them beyond reach.

The bloc will likely need to find ways to trim demand, find substitute materials and forge partnerships that break China’s stranglehold on mineral supplies. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), due to enter force in early 2024, says the bloc should mine 10%, recycle 25% and process 40% of its annual needs of 17 key raw materials by 2030.

Could the DRC become the Saudi Arabia of the electric vehicle age? – by Jason Mitchell (BNE Intellinews – December 7, 2023)

December 8, 2023

https://intellinews.com/

Perhaps no country has more to gain from the ‘clean’ energy transition than the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which sits atop some of the world’s biggest copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium reserves.

The planet’s cobalt reserves total 7.6mn tonnes of which the DRC has 3.5mn tonnes, followed by Australia with 1.4mn tonnes and Indonesia with 600,000 tonnes, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). In 2022, the DRC produced an estimated 130,000 tonnes of the metal, or 70% of the world’s production (Indonesia, in second place, produced only 10,000 tonnes).

Arrests and attacks: tracking China’s illegal mining in African countries – by Smruthi Nadig (Mining Technology – December 6, 2023)

December 8, 2023

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

While Africa makes billions from Chinese investment in its mineral-rich countries, exploitation and illegal mining activities have become part of the deal.

China’s massive metals industry can only maintain its size using imported minerals, frequently from limited suppliers. As part of its Belt and Road Initiative, the country has actively invested in mining assets in Africa and Latin America, and is beginning to engage in overseas refining and downstream facilities.

Many countries have welcomed this with open arms. Africa’s mining and mineral extraction industries, especially in countries like Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana, have attracted billions of dollars from China, one of the continent’s biggest participants. The vast reserves of cobalt, lithium, copper, and other minerals essential to modern technology production have attracted investment and operations in several African countries.

Lithium is not oil: A critical minerals perspective on what makes a resilient energy transition – by David G. Victor (World Economic Forum – December 5, 2023)

December 5, 2023

https://www.weforum.org/

After years in a wilderness of neglect, fears of energy security are back. Policy-makers and geopolitical strategists are worrying, again, about familiar problems – such as Europe’s excessive dependence on natural gas that’s no longer flowing from Russia and flakiness in global oil supplies.

Alongside those worries is a fresh fear: that the transition to a new, clean energy system will create a host of new dependencies and insecurities on the purveyors of critical materials such as lithium, copper, graphite, aluminum, nickel and rare earth minerals.

Insight: Western start-ups seek to break China’s grip on rare earths refining – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – December 4, 2023)

December 5, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Start-up tech firms are racing to transform the way rare earths are refined for the clean energy transition, a push aimed at turbocharging the West’s expansion into the niche sector that underpins billions of electronic devices.

The existing standard to refine these strategic minerals, known as solvent extraction, is an expensive and dirty process that China has spent the past 30 years mastering. MP Materials (MP.N), Lynas Rare Earths (LYC.AX) and other Western rare earths companies have struggled at times to deploy it due to technical complexities and pollution concerns.

The U.S. Strategic Minerals Situation Is Critical – by Christina Lu (Foreign Policy – June 30, 2023)

December 5, 2023

Home

Desperate to diversify away from Beijing, Washington is ramping up efforts to jump-start its struggling domestic industry.

Washington’s focus on plugging strategic vulnerabilities amid worsening U.S.-China relations has also reignited U.S. efforts to control crucial, yet often overlooked, materials: critical minerals. It’s not just rare earths, with all their applications for clean energy and fast jets: Entire forests have been felled with legislation meant to jump-start the U.S. foray into rare earths, to little avail so far.

The critical minerals race is about simpler things such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and, according to the U.S. Defense Department, about two dozen other key ingredients for everything needed to make the country safer, cleaner, and more prosperous. The problem is where to get them all.

Canada must do more to connect the electric vehicle supply chain, industry executives say – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – December 4, 2023)

December 4, 2023December 4, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian ambition to be a force in electric vehicles could be driven off course by insufficient support for key segments within the supply chain, including critical-mineral processing, or the lack of a strategy to attract capital with incentives from government, senior industry executives say.

The country is already playing catch-up with Europe, the United States and China, which have plowed ahead with massive investments as demand for zero-emission transport trends higher.

A bumpy road for metals and mining – by Alex Brinded (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining – November 27, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.iom3.org/

Post London Metal Exchange Week 2023, Wood Mackenzie hosted a briefing on the risks and opportunities for metals and mining amid accelerated energy transition pressures.

‘The current metals super-cycle, which is a major component of the global energy transition, could stall due to a gloomy global macroeconomic environment, geopolitics and a lack of investment in new production facilities,’ according to analysts from Wood Mackenzie.

Speaking at a briefing in London, Nick Pickens, Research Director of Global Mining at the firm, highlighted that US$200bln of new mining projects are required by 2030, as well as more efficient and creative methods of recycling existing scrap metals.

Will the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund have impact? The miners behind 3 northern projects hope so – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Sudbury – November 22, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Companies say the money could help accelerate production timelines for priority metals

The long-awaited Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF) launched on Monday, and several northern Ontario mining companies are hopeful their projects will be selected by Ottawa.

With $1.5 billion available over the next seven years, there is a lot of money at play. Up to $300 million is available in the first call for proposals, which ends in late February. The program has two streams. One focuses on pre-construction and project development, and the other looks at infrastructure deployment.

Electra Battery Materials waiting on funders to help launch Temiskaming cobalt refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 23, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto plant developer looks to lock up US$60 million to start supplying North American battery manufacturers

Electra Battery Materials will continue to hold off on completing the last phases of construction its Temiskaming cobalt refinery until it can secure the remaining US$60 million to finish the job.

“We’ll be very careful before we press start,” said Trent Mell, the company’s president-CEO in a recent conference call and webcast on its third-quarter performance. Most of the refinery’s remaining equipment, ordered and fabricated overseas, has arrived on site but won’t be installed until project financing comes through.

Rare earth discoveries mean coal mines could have a key role to play in the energy transition – by Anmar Frangoul (CNBC.com – November 24, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/

From Pennsylvania to the north of England, coal mines helped to power the Industrial Revolution, turbocharging the economic growth of countries around the world. Today, however, the production and use of coal has become a thorny issue, with critics slamming the fossil fuel’s huge impact on the environment.

Organizations like Greenpeace describe coal as “the dirtiest, most polluting way of producing energy.” From the UN Secretary General to the International Energy Agency, talk of phasing out coal is becoming increasingly common.

Tearing up the Earth for EVs and a fossil-fuel future – by John Chilibeck (Sudbury Star – November 24, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Study shows hundreds of new mines would have to open to find metals needed to meet Canada’s and other countries’ targets for more electric vehicles

The world will have to open 388 new mines within the next decade to meet government objectives for electric vehicle purchases, an unlikely scenario given how difficult and time-consuming it is to site such operations, warns a new study.

The Fraser Institute report, released Thursday, raises a daunting question: are mining rules too stringent, particularly in Canada and other rich countries, to electrify much of our energy needs and get vehicles with traditional combustion-fuel engines off the road?

Canada uncorks $1.5B critical minerals fund – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – November 20, 2023)

November 22, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

The Canadian government is looking for critical mineral projects to back with a $1.5 billion fund. The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund is organized to support clean energy and electrification projects as well as transportation and infrastructure construction that helps get the minerals to market.

First off from a $300-million pool, applicants can seek up to $50 million per project, while provincial and territorial governments can apply for as much as $100 million for each project. Applications are being accepted until the end of February.

National security-driven policy decisions to recast critical minerals space in 2024 – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – November 20, 2023)

November 20, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

While governments around the world are beginning to understand the strategic importance of critical minerals, miners may struggle in 2024 to position themselves to benefit as states battle for control of resources.

Rebecca Campbell, a partner at international law firm White & Case LLP, says an undue concentration of critical mineral markets, escalating geopolitical tensions over resource control, and shifting global supply chains, all pose heightened risks for miners.

Opinion: Net-zero policies colliding with economic reality – by Henry Geraedts (Financial Post – November 17, 2023)

November 20, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Renewables aren’t reliable and many companies are discovering they don’t pay for themselves even with unsustainably high subsidies

Across the advanced economies, the politics of net zero are colliding with reality, yet most politicians seem oblivious to the dynamics at play. The inconvenient truth is that the clean energy transition is not unfolding as foretold. Three decades and trillions of dollars in subsidies later, wind and solar still represent single-digit percentages of global energy demand, which continues to grow. Demand for hydrocarbons, meanwhile, remains at over 80 per cent of the total.

Exxon and Chevron recently invested a combined US$110 billion in long-term U.S. oil and gas development, driving home the reality that liquid hydrocarbons will be as indispensable post-2050 as they are today.