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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Explained: What Is Minerals Security Partnership? Which Countries Are Part Of It And Why? – by Radifah Kabir (ABP Live.com – August 5, 2022)

https://news.abplive.com/

The Minerals Security Partnership was announced in June 2022, with an aim to strengthen critical mineral supply chains. Also know what are critical minerals, and why they are so important.

The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) is an ambitious new initiative to bolster critical mineral supply chains, announced by the United States (US) and key partner countries in June 2022. During the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto, the largest mining event in the world, the US and key partner countries made the announcement.

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Pacific nations are extraordinarily rich in critical minerals. But mining them may take a terrible toll – by Nick Bainton and Emilka Skrzypek (The Conversation – August 3, 2022)

https://theconversation.com/

Plundering the Pacific for its rich natural resources has a long pedigree. Think of the European companies strip-mining Nauru for its phosphate and leaving behind a moonscape.

There are worrying signs history may be about to repeat, as global demand soars for minerals critical to the clean energy transition. This demand is creating pressure to extract more minerals from the sensitive lands and seabeds across the Pacific. Pacific leaders may be attracted by the prospect of royalties and economic development – but there will be a price to pay in environmental damage.

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Column: Where there’s muck there’s brass … and critical minerals – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 26, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) – Scandium sits in the shadows of the periodic table. Even by the esoteric standards of other critical minerals, the soft, silvery metal with the atomic number 21 is something of an enigma.

The global market is thought to be somewhere between 15 and 25 tonnes in size, but no one is very sure. Production is potentially a lot higher. It’s difficult to say, however, since much of it is in China and production is always as a by-product of other metals.

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U.S. wants to end dependence on China rare earths, Yellen says – by Andrea Shalal (Reuters – July 18, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

SEOUL, July 18 (Reuters) – The United States wants to end its “undue dependence” on rare earths, solar panels and other key goods from China to prevent Beijing from cutting off supplies as it has done to other countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

Yellen, who arrived in Seoul late on Monday, told Reuters she was pushing for increased trade ties with South Korea and other trusted allies to improve the resilience of supply chains and avert possible manipulation by geopolitical rivals.

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Automakers ramping up investments into upstream nickel, cobalt – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 6, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Market research firm Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (Fitch Solutions) says automakers are increasing their upstream investments and supply contracts to secure enough battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt and battery-grade nickel, to drive forward their respective electric vehicle (EV) policies and to meet the decarbonisation targets set by governments globally.

Since the start of 2021, 21 such investments have been made – 16 of which were investments into lithium. These investments were made by automakers BMW, General Motors (GM), Tesla, Stellantis, Renault, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, BYD and Ford.

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Is V the new Li? – by Tamer Elbokl (Canadian Mining Journal – June 12, 2022)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Vanadium use to surge with battery growth

Energy storage has transformed the electricity industry with huge growth in the U.S., for example, of more than six times in the last few years. The demand is growing exponentially for the batteries used in portable devices, energy storage, and electric mobility. Both lithium and vanadium are reliable sources of energy storage.

Recently, the Biden administration announced it will spend more than $3 billion to support the domestic manufacturing of advanced batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage.

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Pro-China Agents Posed as Activists to Protest US, Canada Mines – by Margi Murphy (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Pro-Chinese agents posed as concerned local residents on social media to try and spark protests over the opening of rare earth mines in the US and Canada, cybersecurity researchers said in a new report.

The fake Twitter and Facebook accounts were created to give China, the largest producer of rare earth minerals, a competitive advantage, cybersecurity research company Mandiant disclosed on Tuesday.

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Column: U.S. forms ‘friendly’ coalition to secure critical minerals – by Andy Home (Reuters – June 30, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) – A metallic NATO is starting to take shape, though no-one is calling it that just yet. The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) is in theory open to all countries that are committed to “responsible critical mineral supply chains to support economic prosperity and climate objectives”.

But the coalition assembled by the United States is one of like-minded countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany with an Asian axis in the form of Japan and South Korea.

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Chinese bots spread disinformation about Canadian rare earths company in targeted attack, report alleges – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 28, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A prominent U.S. cybersecurity firm is alleging that Chinese government-funded campaigns are spreading disinformation about Canadian rare earths miner Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. in an attempt to cement China’s dominance in the sector and crush Canadian ambitions.

Virginia-based Mandiant Inc., which was founded by former U.S. government security experts, said in a report that Toronto-based Appia and two other rare earth companies, Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. and USA Rare Earth LLC, were targeted by an online network called Dragonbridge, a front for the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

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NEWS RELEASE: Minister Wilkinson Launches Discussion Paper to Inform Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy (Natural Resources Canada – June 14, 2022)

https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/home

TORONTO, June 14, 2022 /CNW/ – Critical minerals are essential to powering the green, digital economy of tomorrow. Increasing demand and constrained supply of these all-important minerals are presenting Canada with a generational economic opportunity, and the Government of Canada is committed to seizing that opportunity while delivering on its ambitious climate and nature goals.

Building on the government’s nearly $3.8-billion commitment on critical minerals in Budget 2022, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, released the Government of Canada’s Discussion Paper to inform Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy.

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Internal DND study calls green technology minerals 21st-century ‘oil weapon’ – by Chris Arsenault and Philippe Le Billon (CBC News Business – June 20, 2022)

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

Skyrocketing demand for copper, lithium and rare earths sparks geopolitical race, worrying environmentalists

Minerals needed to power the green transition from fossil fuels could become “the 21st-century version of the ‘oil weapon,'” warns an internal study commissioned by Canada’s Department of National Defence.

There is widespread agreement among scientists that drastic cuts in fossil fuel consumption are needed to stave off catastrophic climate change — and a transition to electric cars, wind and solar power form key pillars of this shift.

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Yellen Urges Less Dependence on Other Nations for Key Supplies – by Christopher Condon and Danielle Bochove (Yahoo Finance/Bloomberg – June 20, 2022)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US should work on shifting its dependence away from some rival nations for supplies of critical inputs as global supply-chain logjams have hurt the domestic economy.

“We saw during the pandemic that our supply chains were very brittle and really lacking in resilience,” she said Monday.

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Canadian explorer continues to advance project’s copper-nickel-cobalt plus PGM, clean energy potential (Mining Weekly – June 20, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

With significant demand and potential in Canada for high-grade palladium, platinum, rhodium, copper, nickel and cobalt, Canadian North Resources Inc. (CNRI) is at late-stage exploration and development of its mining property in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, in Canada, namely the Ferguson Lake project.

The company, which owns 100% of the project, has a mandate to create shareholder value from the advancement of its Ferguson Lake project, which holds substantial resources of copper (0.46-billion indicated and 0.95-billion inferred pounds), nickel (0.32-billion indicated and 0.55-billion inferred pounds) and cobalt (37-million indicated and 62-million inferred pounds) plus palladium (1.08-million indicated and 2.12-million ounces) and platinum (0.18-million indicated and 0.38-million inferred ounces).

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How Russia’s War Is Putting Green Tech Progress in Jeopardy – by Paul Hockenos (Yale Environment 360 – June 16, 2022)

https://e360.yale.edu/

The European Union relies heavily on Russia to supply nickel and other metals for electric vehicle batteries and other renewable technologies. War-related price increases and shortages of these metals could hinder Europe’s drive to sharply cut emissions by 2030 and beyond.

Volkswagen might as well hang a “sold out” sign on the doors of its European and U.S. factories. The world’s second-largest manufacturer of electric automobiles announced last month that any plug-in ordered after May won’t find its way to customers’ garages before 2023.

The German carmaker’s sales of nearly 100,000 battery electric models in the first quarter landed it behind only Tesla, but far from the pace needed for the 700,000 it planned to roll off its assembly lines this year. And Tesla, too, like almost all other EV carmakers, says it is highly unlikely to hit 2022’s sales targets.

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World cannot allow Russia, China to dominate critical minerals market: Wilkinson – by Mia Rabson (Victoria Timines Colonist/Canadian Press – June 16, 2022)

https://www.timescolonist.com/

OTTAWA — The strategic mistake made in allowing Russia to have global dominance in oil and gas cannot be repeated as the world looks to massively ramp up production of critical minerals, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson asserted this week.

Demand for critical minerals and metals — such as lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and copper — is exploding as demand climbs for everything from smartphones and laptops to wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars.

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