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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Greenland’s Rare-Earth Election – by Robinson Meyer (The Atlantic – May 3, 2021)

https://www.theatlantic.com/

A vote last month answered an important question about the world’s largest island.

Tunulliarfik Fjord has always played an outsize role in global history. One thousand years ago, the Viking Erik the Red settled there, the last outpost in the Norse expansion into North America.

When the United States established a protectorate over Greenland during World War II, it built one of its first airports in what is now Narsarsuaq, a large town on the fjord. And now Tunulliarfik is the site of a mining project that has overturned politics on Greenland.

Since 1979, the ruling Siumut party has dominated Greenland’s elections; in all those years it has lost power only once, in 2009, after the island reformed its government and loosened ties with Denmark, which has ruled it for three centuries.

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Deep-sea mining tests resume as lost robot rescued – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 30, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Belgium’s Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR) resumed on Friday tests that could lead to the mining of battery minerals from the Pacific Ocean floor after it managed to recover a robot stranded at a depth of thousands of metres.

The company reported Wednesday that its Patania II, a 25-tonne mining robot prototype, had uncoupled from a 5km-long (3.1 miles) cable connecting it to the surface.

The unit of Belgium’s DEME Group is with a group of European scientists to determine the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining. They are working on GSR’s concession in the Clarion Clipperton Zone.

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Cobalt price jump underscores reliance on metal for electric vehicle batteries – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – April 30, 2021)

https://www.ft.com/

The price of cobalt has jumped 40 per cent so far this year on persistent demand from electric vehicle makers, underlining the challenge in reducing reliance on the rare metal to make batteries for longer-range cars.

Electric carmakers including Tesla and Volkswagen have pledged over the coming years to reduce their use of cobalt, which is largely dependent on mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, deterred by human rights abuses in the supply chain and by the high price.

Prices for the world’s most expensive battery metal hit their highest level since January 2019 in March — at $25 a pound — and currently hover around $21, according to data company Fastmarkets. Analysts at RBC say they expect cobalt prices to reach $28.50 a pound this year, and rise to $40 in 2024 as alternatives are expected to remain scarce.

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US Department of Energy provides funds for First Cobalt’s Iron Creek project – by Staff (Northern Miner – April 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute is giving Toronto-based junior First Cobalt (TSXV: FCC; US-OTC: FTSSF) US$600,000 over two years for research on mineral processing techniques for the company’s Iron Creek copper-cobalt project in Idaho.

The funding, matched by the company, will be spent on “identifying more efficient and environmentally friendly methods to process cobalt ore from pyrite material,” First Cobalt announced in a press release, and will be part of a “collaborative research effort” with the Colorado School of Mines’ Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (KIEM).

Trent Mell, First Cobalt’s president and CEO, said the company plans to build an underground mine and processing facility at Iron Creek and “can take advantage of new and emerging technologies that reduce waste material coming out of the mine and reduce the amount of energy required to process the ore.”

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Deep-Sea Mining Robot Lost on Cobalt-Rich Floor of Pacific – by Jonathan Tirone (Bloomberg News – April 28, 2021)

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

(Bloomberg) — A deep-sea mining robot on test mission to bring up rocks rich in cobalt and nickel from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has malfunctioned.

Controversial plans to mine the ocean floor face a key test this year when a United Nations body unveils rules that could spur the exploitation of hundreds of billions of dollars of battery metals.

Environmentalists say that would endanger fragile marine ecosystems, while the industry argues that extracting metals needed for the green-energy transition would cause less damage than terrestrial mining.

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Cobalt hunter eyes Gowganda, Elk Lake for processing hub – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 26, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Battery Mineral Resources posts resource estimate of cobalt and silver deposit

Battery Mineral Resources (BMR) has come out of the shadows to post a first-time resource for a cobalt and silver property, southwest of Gowganda.

The low key Vancouver-based explorer, formerly known as Fusion Gold, released a maiden resource of more than a million pounds of cobalt at its McAra Project, according to an April 22 news release.

As the largest claims holder in the historic Gowganda-Cobalt silver mining camp, BMR thinks there’s enough mine potential among its nine exploration properties clustered in this area to consider establishing a processing plant.

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The West needs to level the playing field to compete with China – by Anthony Milewski (Northern Miner – April 23, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Access to the raw materials of the new green economy is increasingly a high-stakes chess match along geopolitical lines dividing the East and the West. China controls access to the bulk of raw and midstream materials that the world needs for its transition to a low-carbon intensity economy. This control has become a critical vulnerability in the Western world’s emerging Industry 4.0 supply chains.

The mechanics of the emerging green economy rely on carbon friendly modes of transport such as electric vehicles, as well as mobile technology, energy storage, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies fueling increased computing power, and renewable power sources — all made from mined materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium.

China’s drive to become the dominant commodity superpower started in the 1990s when it started opening up its economy to the world. The central government mandated unprecedented infrastructure spending, prompting the start of the commodity supercycle that lasted until late in the 2000s. In turn, the enormous demand for raw materials sparked a mining investment boom.

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China is switching its investment focus in Africa from oil to minerals – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – April 25, 2021)

https://www.scmp.com/

The visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this year was indicative of a shift in Beijing’s lending and investment focus for Africa, according to analysts.

During his trip to Kinshasa in January, Wang promised that Beijing would write off loans to the Central African nation worth about US$28 million to help it deal with the impact of Covid-19 and provide US$17 million in other financial support.

He said also that China would fund infrastructure projects in the DRC, as it became the 45th country to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s grand plan to boost interconnectivity and trade around the world.

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Opinion: More U.S. mineral mining would blunt electric vehicle makers’ dangerous reliance on China – by Robert W. Chase (Cleveland.com – April 25, 2021)

https://www.cleveland.com/

MARIETTA, Ohio — In the 1970s, the harmful effects of an oil embargo shocked Americans. The sudden realization that we needed to take responsibility for our own energy future had quite an impact. Politicians responded accordingly.

Now we must address a huge new concern — the danger of becoming hostage to China for critically important industrial materials.

It’s only a matter of time. China is our leading supplier of minerals and metals, giving it great leverage over our supply chains for advanced technologies. Consider the possibility of waking to the news that China has cut off exports of electric-vehicle battery metals — lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth minerals.

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Florida Toxic Waste Crisis Could Be Key to China Rare Earths Fight – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – April 6, 2021)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

Leaks of wastewater at a former phosphate mine prompted evacuation orders and a state of emergency near Tampa recently amid fears that a pile of radioactive mine tailings could collapse. Believe it or not, U.S. President Joe Biden should have seen an opportunity wrapped in this crisis.

That’s because cleaning up the vast and neglected phosphogypsum stacks that dot Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S. could help solve U.S. dependence on imported critical materials, all while removing the looming threat of environmental disaster from local residents.

Phosphogypsum is a byproduct of producing fertilizer from phosphate rock, with more than five metric tons produced for every ton of useful phosphoric acid. It’s worthless in its raw form thanks to concentrations of uranium, radium and other heavy metals that make it too radioactive for use as a soil improver or construction material — purposes for which it would otherwise be well-suited.

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Here’s an inside look at Canada’s first rare earth mining project in the N.W.T. – by Liny Lamberink (CBC North – April 20, 2021)

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

Kyle Bayha says he’s been a minority at all of his past jobs. But for the last five weeks, the Délı̨nę, Northwest Territories man has been working at the Nechalacho demonstration project as an employee of Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction Corporation.

There, about 110 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife, the workforce is 80 per cent Indigenous he said. “Oh, it means lots,” he told reporters.

Cheetah Resources, which operates the project and owns the resources near the surface of the rare earth deposit, invited media for a tour of Nechalacho on Monday.

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Greenland Minerals seeks talks with new gov’t over fate of rare earths project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 21, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Greenland Minerals (ASX: GGG) said on Wednesday it was seeking to engage in talks with Greenland’s authorities over its Kvanefjeld rare earth project, as the newly-formed government opposes the development.

The uranium and rare earths-rich Arctic island has gained notoriety in the past two years following former US President Donald Trump’s offer to buy it.

The move sought to partly help address Chinese dominance of the rare earths market, as the nation accounts for almost 80% of the global mined supply of the elements used in everything from hi-tech electronics to military equipment.

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Mining association says Canada’s rare earth support too modest to displace reliance on China – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – April 20, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has welcomed several expanded and refined measures proposed in the 2021 federal Budget to support the establishment and growth of a domestic battery supply chain, but CEO Pierre Gratton said specific support targeting rare earth elements (REEs) was too modest and was insufficient to displace reliance on China.

Designed to support a domestic battery electric vehicle (BEV) supply chain, the Budget that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presented on Monday proposed the expansion of the Strategic Innovation Fund – Net Zero Accelerator to C$8-billion, and introduced tax incentives.

“We need battery grade nickel, cobalt, lithium and graphite and we are pleased to see programmes and tax measures that we believe can support filling or expanding domestic production of these materials,” said Gratton.

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East of Yellowknife, a new mine tries to be different – by Ollie Williams (Cabin Radio – April 19, 2021)

https://cabinradio.ca/

Nechalacho, the NWT’s first new metals mine in decades, is about to enter production. Its owners envisage a model of smaller-scale mining, Indigenous involvement, and environmental responsibility.

The mine, around 100 km east of Yellowknife, is the first Canadian producer of rare earth elements – minerals that, in small quantities, power key parts of vehicles (especially electric vehicles) and various green technologies.

Phase one of the mine is small by NWT mining standards, sustaining around 30 seasonal jobs. This summer, 600,000 tons of rock will be mined, of which around 100,000 tons is expected to be valuable.

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NEWS RELEASE: 2021 Budget Doubles Down on Battery Electric Vehicle Supply Chain (Mining Association of Canada – April 19, 2021)

Modest First Steps on Rare Earths Insufficient to Displace Reliance on China

Ottawa, April 19th, 2021 – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) welcomes several expanded and refined measures proposed in Budget 2021 to help position Canada for success on the “Mines to Mobility” pathway.

Designed to support the establishment and growth of a domestic battery electric vehicle (BEV) supply chain, Budget 2021’s proposed expansion of the Strategic Innovation Fund – Net Zero Accelerator to $8 billion, and the introduction of tax incentives and project scaling supports are important tools for success.

“To establish an end-to-end BEV supply chain in Canada, we need to expand the production and manufacturing of critical minerals in Canada,” said Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of MAC. “We need battery grade nickel, cobalt, lithium and graphite and we are pleased to see programs and tax measures that we believe can support filling or expanding domestic production of these materials.”

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