Canada ready to provide vital minerals to U.S., Trudeau says – by Robert Fife and Marieke Walsh (Globe and Mail – September 29, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says Canada is ready and willing to supply the United States with strategically important minerals used in consumer and industrial products as Washington steps up efforts to cut its dependence on China.

At a White House meeting in late June, Mr. Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to negotiate a joint strategy on mineral collaboration. The United States is also seeking alliances with Australia, Japan and the European Union, which also fear relying too much on China for these minerals.

“I brought up this at the top of my conversation in my last meeting with Donald Trump, where I highlighted that Canada has many of the rare-earth minerals that are so necessary for modern technologies,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference on Monday in Toronto. The rare earths are 17 minerals used in high-tech and military products such as smartphones, electric cars and fifth-generation fighter jets.

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Canada, U.S. drafting plans to curb China’s dominance in critical rare-earth minerals – by Robert Fife, Steven Chase and Daniel LeBlanc (Globe and Mail – September 30, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada and the United States are drawing up plans to reduce their reliance on China for rare-earth minerals that are critical to high-tech and military products, such as smartphones and fighter jets.

The “joint action plan” – now being drafted by senior Canadian and U.S. officials – will be presented to the political party that forms the next government after the Oct. 21 election, according to a federal briefing document obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The document says the action plan should include defence funding for critical-minerals projects and strategic investments in North American processing facilities, as well as greater research and development in extraction of these rare-earth materials.

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Indian rare earth miner V.V. Mineral targets African assets after local ban – by Sudarshan Varadhan (Reuters Africa – September 24, 2019)

https://af.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI, Sept 24 (Reuters) – India’s V.V. Mineral, a beach sand miner hit by a domestic law which effectively banned private companies from extracting rare earth deposits, has applied for licenses to start operations in Kenya and Tanzania, the company’s chairman said on Tuesday.

V.V. Mineral was India’s largest exporter of rare earth minerals such as garnet, ilumenite and rutile over the last decade, but it started facing regulatory and legal trouble in 2013, which culminated in a blanket ban this year on beach sand mining by private companies.

“We have applied for two licenses to extract beach sand minerals in an area covering 300 square kilometers in Kenya, and a 15 square kilometre area in Tanzania,” S. Vaikundarajan, chairman and founder of V.V. Mineral told Reuters.

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Miners push for U.S. Congress to vote on electric vehicle supply chain bills – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters U.S. – September 23, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mining executives eager to speed U.S. production of lithium and other metals for the burgeoning electric vehicle industry are frustrated that the U.S. Congress has yet to pass legislation designed to streamline mine permitting and fund geological studies, among other steps.

Earlier this year, Washington’s trade war with Beijing threatened to curb Chinese shipments to the United States of rare earth minerals used in defense equipment. China is also the world’s largest electric vehicle battery producer, processor of lithium and consumer of copper.

“We don’t have great clarity on what the legislative timelines are,” said Keith Phillips, chief executive of Piedmont Lithium Ltd (PLL.AX), which is developing a lithium mine in North Carolina. “This pending legislation would be a big positive” to help secure investment.

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Canada primed for rare earth revival – by Sarah Treleaven (CIM Magazine – September 16, 2019)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

As China threatens to halt exports of vital rare earth metals, some Canadian companies believe that their time has come

As the U.S.-China trade war heats up, with U.S. president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping placing tariffs on an increasing amount of goods, even while occasionally offering a more conciliatory appeal for new talks, a small but cautiously optimistic group of miners are wondering if this impasse might finally herald their time in the spotlight.

The focus of that spotlight is rare earths, a group of elements that are increasingly in demand because they make up crucial components of cell phones, electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries and medical devices, as well as many other industrial and military applications. The manufacturing of permanent magnets represents the single most important end use for rare earths, accounting for almost a quarter of total consumption.

Major reserves can be found in China, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Malaysia, though China currently produces close to 90 per cent of the global supply. (The only other meaningful producer is the Lynas Corporation in Australia.)

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U.S. ‘falling behind’ in global race to develop electric vehicle supply chain – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters U.S. – September 17, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is losing the race to extract and refine minerals used to make electric vehicles and should do more to spur domestic production, a bipartisan group of senators said on Tuesday.

The push comes as China has grown to dominate the market for lithium, rare earths, cobalt and other so-called strategic minerals used to make a plethora of consumer products, a dominance that politicians have said poses a strategic threat to the United States.

The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a Tuesday hearing in part to keep the topic fresh in the national dialogue even as attention begins to lurch toward the 2020 presidential campaign.

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Revving up Greenland’s mineral production will take time – by Virginia Heffernan (Northern Miner – September 16, 2019)

Global mining news

The MV Happy Dragon had just sailed into safe harbour at Charleston, South Carolina when Hurricane Dorian forced the vessel back out to sea to await better weather.

The cargo ship was carrying more than 14,000 tonnes of anorthosite from Vancouver-based Hudson Resources’ (TSXV: HUD; US-OTC: HUDRF) White Mountain mine in Greenland for customers in the paints, coatings and fibreglass markets. Hudson has an agreement with Terra Firma, a privately-held chemical distributor, to market its anorthosite in the U.S. and a 10-year off-take agreement with an unnamed fibreglass producer.

Could White Mountain and other mineral deposits — especially those containing rare earth elements (REEs) used in most electronic devices and in the aerospace and defense industries— be what U.S. President Donald Trump had in mind when he offered last month to buy Greenland, an offer Denmark called “absurd”? That’s at least part of the story.

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California Miners Call for Legislation to Fight China’s Grip on Rare Earth Minerals – by Brad Jones (The Epoch Times – September 16, 2019)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

California miners have been warning Congress about China’s ever-tightening grip on rare earth minerals needed for national defense for years, and now they’ve taken their message to the White House.

In the last year or so, representatives of Public Lands for the People (PLP), a national mining rights advocacy group based in Southern California, and Scott Harn, editor and publisher of ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal, have made five trips to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers, their aides, and federal government departments.

PLP’s researcher Clark Pearson was invited to the White House in 2018, and since then he and Harn have spent a total of 35 days in Washington meeting with President Donald Trump’s key advisors.

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Cobalt 27 faces investor outcry amid accusations it’s selling ‘crown jewel’ assets at a loss – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 7, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Proposed buyout has some shareholders feeling like the company bought high and sold low as it tries to steer investors from cobalt to nickel

Toronto-based Cobalt 27 Capital Corp., which billed itself as an investment in the electric vehicle revolution, is facing outcries from some of its largest shareholders as it tries to sell its most valuable assets during a market low-point.

The company roared into the market in mid-2017 with an initial public offering, ultimately raising hundreds of millions of dollars to stockpile and acquire royalties on cobalt, an essential metal used in lithium-ion batteries. Within about a year the price of cobalt had hit a five-year peak, only to crash in the latter half of 2018 and never fully recover.

Now the company wants to steer its investors into nickel and to sell its main cobalt assets to its largest shareholder, Pala Investments. Other shareholders would receive $3.57 in cash, plus equity in Nickel 28, a new company that would hold the remaining assets including a stake in a nickel mine in Papua New Guinea.

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As Concern Over Critical Minerals Grows, U.S. Must Step Up – by Jeffrey A. Green (Real Clear Politics – September 5, 2019)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Jeffrey A. Green is president and founder of J.A. Green & Co., a bipartisan government relations firm.

There is more to President Trump’s engagement with Greenland than meets the eye. Though some have panned his comments, seasoned observers believe the president’s motivations are part of a broader effort to secure a U.S. supply of rare earth elements amid a burgeoning reliance on China for this essential material.

In June, the U.S. quietly signed an agreement with the Arctic country to survey its land to help spur mineral exploration. Greenland is believed to house a significant resource of rare earths, a group of elements necessary for critical defense and commercial technology.

These efforts follow a growing interest, within U.S. policy circles, in rare earth dependency. However, if policymakers want to get serious about securing U.S. access to rare earths, any real solution must include investing in our domestic production capabilities.

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‘Most renewable energy companies’ linked with claims of abuses in mines – by Kate Hodal (The Guardian – September 5, 2019)

https://www.theguardian.com/

Corporate watchdog urges clean-up of supply chains as analysis finds weak regulation and enforcement has led to lack of scrutiny

Most of the world’s top companies extracting key minerals for electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines have been linked with human rights abuses in their mines, research has found.

Analysis published by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), an international corporate watchdog, revealed that 87% of the 23 largest companies mining cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel and zinc – the six minerals essential to the renewable energy industry – have faced allegations of abuse including land rights infringements, corruption, violence or death over the past 10 years.

As the global economy switches to low-carbon technologies to combat global heating, demand for minerals could rise by as much as 900% by 2050, according to World Bank estimates. In order to prevent further human rights abuses, renewable energy companies urgently need to clean up their supply chains, said BHRRC senior researcher Eniko Horvath.

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Greenland’s Rare-Earth Minerals Make It Trump’s Treasure Island – by Kiliii Yuya and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 28, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The country’s hostile wilderness becomes a new front in the trade war.

Cast an ultraviolet flashlight on the hills around Narsaq, a coastal town in southern Greenland, after dusk, and the rocks light up like embers.

With a land mass larger than Mexico and a population of only about 56,000 people, Greenland is a small economy, heavily reliant on fishing, agriculture, and about $500 million of annual subsidies from Denmark, which has claimed the island as a territory since the early 18th century. The fluorescence in the hills, however, could change all that.

Greenland’s minerals, metals, gems, and potentially oil are of particular interest to those who want full independence from Denmark by 2021, the 300th anniversary of colonization. The island has won back some rights to self-rule over the years, most recently in a 2008 referendum that transferred powers including authority over mineral resources to the Parliament of Greenland.

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The 17 reasons Donald Trump really wants Greenland – by Catherine Philp (The Australian – August 26, 2019)

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/

They are 17 in number and between them are becoming the driving force for the 21st century. Their names are unfamiliar but they power most of our household technology.

Nicknamed the “vitamins of modern life”, these rare earth elements possess unique magnetic and lighting properties that are central to the production of civilian and military technology.

Now, as the trade war with China heats up, the US faces being cut off from the supply of a natural resource crucial to the trappings of modern life: rechargeable batteries, smartphones, missile guidance systems, electric cars and more.

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[Seabed Mining] Progress at snail’s pace – by Donal Hickey (Irish Examiner – August 25, 2019)

https://www.irishexaminer.com/

Over the years, we’ve had controversies about the need to save rare snails which had got in the way of roadworks in places such as Ballyvourney, Co Cork, and the Pollardstown Fen nature reserve in Co Kildare. Some politicians tried to trivialise the issue and mock campaigners, but they missed the point.

The real story was that the presence of these snails was a sign of a valuable environment which was worth protecting. Now, the focus is taking a completely different turn, and another obscure snail comes into the picture.

Ironically, this ocean resident may be a victim of the drive to manufacture electric cars which are supposed to protect the environment. The seabed may well have to be mined to obtain some essential materials for electric car batteries, with negative effects on marine life. The seabed, more than half the world’s surface, contains more nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals than all land reserves combined.

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The forgotten factor in Donald Trump’s quest to buy Greenland — rare-earth elements – by Genna Buck (National Post – August 22, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

Do you have a drawer — or perhaps a whole garage — piled with old or broken electronic devices left to languish after you’ve upgraded? You’re not alone. And you are sitting on a gold mine, or maybe something even more valuable.

Rare-earth elements are an essential component of smartphones, computers and tablets, as well as many industrial, defence and energy applications, especially wind turbines.

There are 15 or 17 of these elements, depending on how you count, and they’re not actually all that rare — just complicated, expensive and environmentally destructive to mine. The vast majority come from China. This has led to worries they could become a trump card, so to speak, in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.

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