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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

A Toxic Pit Could Be a Gold Mine for Rare-Earth Elements – by Jim Robbins (New York Times – May 13, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Mining continues at the Continental Pit. Nearby is the Berkeley Pit, a site for acid mine drainage that poses an opportunity for extracting valuable metals.

There’s a tale told about a miner who found copper cans in his garbage dump in the early days of mining. Wastewater from copper mining had flowed through his land, he said, and turned steel cans into copper. The story might be apocryphal, but the process is real, and it’s called cementation. Montana Resources, the mining company that took over from the Anaconda Copper Company, still uses this alchemical trick in a process at its Continental Pit mine in Butte, Mont.

Next to the mine is the Berkeley Pit, which is filled with 50 billion gallons of a highly acidic, toxic brew. Montana Resources pipes liquid from the pit, enabling it to cascade onto piles of scrap iron. The iron becomes copper and is gathered for production.

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Syrian leader al-Sharaa may propose Ukraine-style mineral deal to Trump – by Kateryna Danishevska (News Ukraine – May 13, 2025)

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa may offer Washington access to the country’s oil and gas fields, inspired by the recent mineral deal between Ukraine and the United States, according to Reuters and The Times. According to Western media, the Syrian leader may also propose building a Trump Tower in Damascus in honor of the US president.

Additionally, al-Sharaa’s strategic plan reportedly includes efforts to ease tensions with Israel. Several sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that these proposals are part of the Syrian leader’s broader attempt to secure a face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming trip to the Middle East.

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A gallium lens on China’s minerals dominance and how to break it – by Andy Home (Reuters- May 12, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

The price of gallium has been rising ever since China started restricting exports of the exotic metal in August 2023. This is not surprising since China has a near monopoly on global gallium production, just as it does across the critical materials spectrum.

How much should we care that the price of something most people have never heard of is trading at 14-year highs? After all, global production last year was just 760 metric tons, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Even at today’s elevated prices the world market’s nominal value is a modest $550 million.

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Greater Sudbury mayor focused on critical minerals – by Jenny Lamothe (Sudbury.com – May 8, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mineral processing, a home permitting boom and push to grow the city’s population emphasized in State of the City address

It was the city’s Latin motto, Aedificemus, that gave rise to the theme of Mayor Paul Lefebvre’s annual State of the City address, which he translated as “Come, let us build together.” Hosted by the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, the May 1 speech was the mayor’s third address since he was elected in 2022.

A packed house heard the mayor speak to the economic progress and vision for the city, and saw the first ever showing of the artist rendition of the new downtown events centre facade.

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Northern Myanmar Poses a Challenge to China’s Critical Minerals Strategy – by Wai Yan Phyo Naing and Lin Sae-phoo (The Diplomat – May 9, 2025)

https://thediplomat.com/

Myanmar is China’s top source of raw rare earth elements. As conflict threatens that supply chain, Beijing is moving more directly to intervene in Myanmar’s civil war.

Amid the ongoing conflicts between Myanmar’s military junta and various ethnic armed groups, two recent meetings – one between representatives of the Kachin Independence Army and Chinese officials, and the other between the Myanmar junta and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – have taken place in Yunnan, China, which borders northern Myanmar.

China, acting not only as a mediator but also as a stakeholder, has been actively involved in the conflict developments in the northern and northeastern parts of Myanmar.

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Digging to zero? Inside the race to decarbonise mining – by Ben Payton (Reuters – May 7, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

The resources needed to decarbonise the world economy lie buried beneath the Earth. There is no alternative to digging them out if the energy transition is to take place. Without mining, there will be no silicon for solar panels, no steel for wind turbines, no lithium, cobalt or nickel for electric vehicles.

However mining itself accounts for 4-7% of global emissions. While an estimated 75-85% of the sector’s emissions come from methane released from coal mines, this problem is expected to abate over the next 25 years as the world gets on course for net-zero.

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How the United States Lost the Rare Earth Materials War to China – by David S. Abraham (The New Republic – May 5, 2025)

https://newrepublic.com/

Chinese dominance in this critical sector of the economy did not happen by accident—it was a policy choice.

Last month, in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, China imposed new export controls on rare earth materials and magnets. Officially, these aren’t bans—but practically, shipments have stopped. This is no small issue: America’s tech leadership, military readiness, and clean energy ambitions all rely on rare earths.

This latest disruption exposes a strategic vulnerability—one that we, not China, created through years of strategic neglect. Without immediate action to rebuild our industrial base, spur innovation, and train a skilled workforce, we will lose our economic and military advantage.

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‘Greater Sudbury has the winning hand,’ mayor says – Take our poll – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – May 3, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The world needs Sudbury’s critical minerals and the city must take full advantage of its opportunity, Paul Lefebvre says

The horizon looks very promising for Greater Sudbury, Mayor Paul Lefebvre told a packed house on Thursday. As the aromas of chicken parmesan and pasta sauce wafted through the upper hall at the Caruso Club, the audience — mostly members of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce and the regional business community — turned towards the podium, where Lefebvre stood for the annual State of the City address.

The mayor’s speech was uplifting and optimistic. He said Greater Sudbury is poised for great outcomes. After decades, we are finally starting to realize our potential, he said.

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Australian miners see opportunities during US and China trade war chaos – by David Claughton (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – May 5, 2025)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/

Australian mining companies are walking a tightrope between China, the nation’s biggest market for our resources, and the United States, our greatest ally. The trade war between them could open up some big opportunities but there is also a risk that Australian companies could get caught in the crossfire.

China has banned exports of some rare earths and critical minerals to the US, a move that threatens high-tech industries there. In August, the Chinese government embargoed the supply of gallium to the US. Gallium is a key component in thermometers, semiconductors, LED screens, smartphones, and Blu-ray technology.

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OPINION: Donald Trump’s Ukraine minerals deals looks to be more about oil and gas than rare earths – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 3, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On the morning of Pope Francis’s April 26 funeral, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, sat alone on two red chairs, facing one another, in the largely empty St. Peter’s Basilica. At the time, the topic of the impromptu mini-summit amid the baroque opulence of the Vatican was not known.

Less than a week later, all became clear. The two leaders were wrapping up the fraught Ukraine-U.S. minerals deal, discussions of which had sometimes been ill-tempered and explosive since Mr. Trump’s election campaign in the fall. On Thursday, in his evening address from Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky said, “In fact, now we have the first result of the Vatican meeting, which makes it truly historic.”

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After Ukraine deal, US turns its critical minerals gaze to Africa – by Andy Home (Reuters – May 6, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, – Away from the headlines around the minerals deal with Ukraine, the United States has pursued a potentially even more significant critical metals deal in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo reached out to the Donald Trump administration with a Ukrainian-style proposal in February in response to the rapid advance of the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group in the east of the country.

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Rio Tinto weighs up rare earths market – by Kristie Batten (Mining.com – May 1, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto is weighing a move into rare earths and other critical minerals as it responds to shifting global market dynamics and trade tensions. Following the company’s annual general meeting in Perth on Thursday, chief executive Jakob Stausholm said the board had discussed rare earths this week and would take a “serious look” at their potential role in Rio Tinto’s portfolio.

Stausholm said that as the company continues to optimize its iron ore operations in the Pilbara and advances developments like the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, it’s also reshaping its aluminum, copper, and lithium businesses to support the energy transition.

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With Minerals Deal, Trump Ties Himself to Future of Ukraine – by Kim Barker (New York Times – May 1, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The text of the agreement, made public by Ukraine’s government, made no mention of the security guarantees that Kyiv had long sought.

The minerals deal signed by the United States and Ukraine on Wednesday could bring untold money into a joint investment fund between the two countries that would help rebuild Ukraine whenever the war with Russia ends. But Ukraine’s untapped resources that are the subject of the deal will take years to extract and yield profits. And those could fail to deliver the kind of wealth that President Trump has long said they would.

It is not yet clear how the nine-page deal, the text of which Ukraine’s government made public on Thursday, will work in practice. Many specifics need to be worked out, but the deal will set up an investment fund, jointly managed by Kyiv and Washington.

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Pentagon’s AI metals program goes private in bid to boost Western supply deals – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – May 2, 2025)

https://www.msn.com/

(Reuters) -A U.S. government-created artificial intelligence program that aims to predict the supply and price of critical minerals has been transferred to the control of a non-profit organization that is helping miners and manufacturers strike supply deals.

Launched in late 2023 by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Open Price Exploration for National Security AI metals program is an attempt to counter China’s sweeping control of the critical minerals sector, as Reuters reported last year.

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US-Europe fault lines widen over critical raw materials at IEA energy security summit – by Julienne Raboca (Fastmarkets – April 28, 2025)

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US advocates for continued fossil fuel development

At a panel on integrating energy security within a broader security network, acting US Assistant Secretary for Energy – Tommy Joyce delivered a blunt assessment of clean energy technology vulnerabilities, directly challenging the European push for rapid decarbonization.

“For true energy security, we must leverage all resources that are affordable, that are available, and that are secure,” Joyce said. “It’s about energy addition, not subtraction. And there’s no world in which the demand for energy is going to decrease.”

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