Brazilian niobium miner CBMM eyes European car market – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 7, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Brazil niobium miner Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM) has inked a deal with British high-performance luxury carmaker Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) to supply niobium for the production of ultra-light, high-speed cars.

CBMM will work with BAC to develop a new sports car using high amounts of niobium a metal that makes steel more resistant.

The partners expect the final product, a race car for use on the streets, will be more fuel-efficient due to its light weight and greater speed.

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Crisis: More studies needed: The U.S. responds to a critical minerals “emergency” with additional reports – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips -October 1, 2020)

http://resourceclips.com/

A national emergency normally calls for action. But although the U.S. faces “an unusual and extraordinary threat”—not referring to insurrectionary riots but foreign dependency on critical minerals—the country intends to respond with more studies and reports. Such was the gist of President Donald Trump’s September 30 executive order.

Yet he made his awareness of the problem manifest. Referring to 35 critical minerals the U.S. deems essential for uses including national security, economic well-being, electronics, transportation and infrastructure, Trump cited U.S. Geological Survey data showing his country imports over half its supply of 31 of the 35 minerals. For 14 of the minerals, the U.S. depends completely on foreign sources.

That leaves the country vulnerable “to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster or other supply disruptions. Our national security, foreign policy and economy require a consistent supply of each of these minerals.”

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Editorial: Cell phones are killing gorillas (Iowa State Daily – October 6, 2020)

https://www.iowastatedaily.com/

The United States throws away about 152 million phones every year. Worldwide, 400 million people have an old, spare cell phone that they keep.

Besides the fact that throwing away cell phones is e-waste, properly disposing of and recycling your old phones can help an endangered species: the Western lowland gorillas.

A mineral called coltan is found in cell phones, which is mined in the rainforests the gorillas call home, thus destroying their habitats.

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The tech crisis that isn’t: China controls the world’s rare earth supply chains – by Scott Fulton 111 (ZDNET.com – October 2, 2020)

https://www.zdnet.com/

They’re called either the Diaoyu Archipelago or the Senkaku Islands — eight rocks just a few miles wide, if that, situated about 125 miles southwest of Okinawa.

They’re uninhabited, and generally so strategically unimportant that during negotiations for the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951 that established Japan’s territorial borders, diplomats forgot to mention them. They remained “occupied” by the US until 1972.

Today, Japan claims them, but so does China and so does Taiwan. From a distance, they look like the tops of old furniture floating just above the waterline after a flood.

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After hitting pause on aluminum tariffs, Trump looks to collaborate with Canada on 35 ‘critical minerals’ – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 2, 2020)

https://financialpost.com/

Executive order opens door for U.S. government investment in projects outside its borders, but Canada likely to be wary

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump labelled Canada a national security threat based on its aluminum exports, his administration is taking steps to strengthen the two countries’ collaboration on critical minerals, possibly including aluminum.

On Wednesday, one night after the first debate with former vice-president Joe Biden, his rival in the run-up to the presidential election in November, Trump signed an executive order that opens the door for potential U.S. government investment in projects related to 35 so-called “critical minerals,” and even projects located outside its borders, in an effort to decrease its dependence on China.

The latest executive order describes its reliance on China as “particularly concerning” and accuses the country of using “aggressive economic practices” to dominate the minerals sector.

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US grabs stake in battery metals miner to fight Chinese control – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 5, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

The US government is taking a $25 million equity stake in Dublin-based battery metals miner TechMet, as part of a push by President Donald Trump to reduce the country’s reliance on supply chains dominated by China.

The backing from the $60 billion US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will help TechMet develop a nickel and cobalt mine in Brazil. Both metals are key in the production of the batteries that power electric cars and cell phones.

TechMet’s Brazilian Nickel project, in the north-eastern state of Piauí, is estimated to hold as much as 72 million tonnes of nickel and cobalt.

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Trump Moves to Expand Rare Earths Mining, Cites China Threat – by Joe Deaux and Ranjeetha Pakiam (Bloomberg News – September 30, 2020)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding domestic production of rare-earth minerals that are vital to many critical manufacturing sectors, reducing dependence on China.

The order, which declares a national emergency in the mining industry, directs the Interior Department to explore using the Defense Production Act to hasten the development of mines. The administration has previously used the law to accelerate production of medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.

The president’s actions are a direct consequence of China’s dominance of the sector for decades, said Gavin Wendt, a senior resource analyst at MineLife Pty.

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Executive Order on Addressing the Threat to the Domestic Supply Chain from Reliance on Critical Minerals from Foreign Adversaries – by President Donald Trump (Whitehouse.gov – September 30, 2020)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that a strong America cannot be dependent on imports from foreign adversaries for the critical minerals that are increasingly necessary to maintain our economic and military strength in the 21st century.

Because of the national importance of reliable access to critical minerals, I signed Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017 (A Federal Strategy To Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals), which required the Secretary of the Interior to identify critical minerals and made it the policy of the Federal Government “to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals.”

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‘Astronomical’ rare earth demand growth forecast (MiningWeekly.com – September 29, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Research and advisory services firm Adamas Intelligence is forecasting “astronomical” demand growth for certain rare earth minerals in the 2030s and has said that the supply-side of the industry is unlikely to keep up with the growing demand.

Demand for magnet rare earths, such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, is rapidly growing, while surpluses of cerium and lanthanum are growing.

In a new report, the consultancy forecasts that magnet rare earth oxide demand will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7%. The value of global magnet rare earth oxide consumption will rise five-fold by 2030, from $2.98-billion this year to $15.65-billion at the end of the decade.

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Australia’s Jervois to buy cobalt, nickel refinery in Brazil – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 29, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Jervois Mining (ASX: JVR) is buying a nickel and cobalt refinery in Brazil from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio for 125 million reais ($22.1 million) in an effort to transform the company into a producer and refiner of battery metals.

The miner said the São Miguel Paulista refinery, in São Paulo, had a production capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of nickel and 2,000 mtpa of cobalt before it was placed on care and maintenance in 2016.

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Battery metal miners trying to tap electric car boom want Elon Musk to stop killing their buzz – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 26, 2020)

https://financialpost.com/

As investor anticipation mounted for Tesla Inc.’s much-hyped, self-proclaimed Battery Day on Wednesday, Trent Mell was upset just thinking about it.

Mell, chief executive of Toronto-based First Cobalt Corp., has spent three years trying to secure a ground floor seat in the burgeoning electric vehicle industry.

In 2017, his company bought a long-forgotten refinery in small-town northern Ontario that could, if everything goes right, produce five per cent of the world’s battery grade cobalt, about 25,000 tons, by 2021. It would be the first, and only, refinery in North America producing battery-grade cobalt.

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Cobalt will not be taken out of batteries anytime soon – First Cobalt – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – September 23, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Canada’s First Cobalt, which owns North America’s only permitted cobalt refinery, is confident that cobalt will continue to play an essential role in batteries, despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicting a future with no graphite and no cobalt.

Responding to Musk’s comments at the Tesla Battery Day on Tuesday, First Cobalt president and CEO Trent Mell said that cobalt would not be taken out of batteries anytime soon.

“Despite years of trying to remove cobalt from batteries, it has proven to be a formidable challenge, owing to its importance in keeping batteries safe and extending the life of cells,” he said.

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Tesla “battery day” a possible blow to cobalt miners – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 21, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla hosts its annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22, followed by the highly anticipated “battery technology day”, a worldwide live-streamed event during which the firm is expected to unveil its own new type of battery cell.

Speculation points to a cobalt-free battery that uses more of less costly metals such as nickel and manganese.

Tesla currently uses the nickel rich nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode chemistry, which has a low cobalt content of about 5%, for their cars produced outside China.

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Ending China’s chokehold on rare-earth minerals – by James Mattis, James O. Ellis Jr., Joe Felter, and Kori Schake (AEI.org/Bloomberg Opinion – September 18, 2020)

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China dominates the global market in rare-earth minerals, producing 70% of the world’s exports. But this isn’t a gift of nature — it’s the result of 15 years of industrial policy.

The Chinese government identified a critical economic chokehold, invested in building companies, subsidized production to underprice and ultimately destroy competition, and then constructed a monopoly.

U.S. supply chains — both military and commercial — are almost wholly dependent on China for processed rare earths for our advanced weaponry and microelectronics.

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EU deal could forge shiny future for Canada’s low-carbon metals – by Chris Turner (Corporate Knights – September 16, 2020)

https://www.corporateknights.com/

he Canada Nickel Company is a fledgling Ontario mining firm with a handful of leases in mineral-rich northern Ontario and ambitious plans to dig for nickel, cobalt and iron.

So it represents a particularly audacious move that the company recently announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary called NetZero Metals, charged with the task of mining those metals without a carbon footprint.

Green boasts can be a little suspect, especially since the net-zero goal is one that established players in industries like steel and oil have placed at the far end of a 30-year ramp.

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