Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals – Page 57

Billionaire Gertler Buys Royalty Rights in Congo Cobalt Project – by Michael Kavanagh and William Clowes (Bloomberg News – November 17, 2020)

November 18, 2020

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — A company controlled by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who is under U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption, bought rights from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company to royalties from one of the world’s largest cobalt projects.

While the contract was published by the mining company Gecamines in October, it was signed in June 2017 — six months before the U.S. government blacklisted the businessman for “opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals” in Congo.

Gertler has never been charged with a crime and denies any wrongdoing, and he’s hired a number of lawyers in the U.S. to fight the sanctions. The previously unreported royalty stream relates to Eurasian Resources Group Sarl’s Metalkol project and means Gertler’s companies are entitled to a share of revenue from three of the biggest cobalt mines globally.

Belgium’s reckoning with a brutal history in Congo – by Neil Munshi (Financial Times – November 12, 2020)

November 13, 2020

https://www.ft.com/

The cleaners who came for King Leopold II in Brussels this July knew what to do. Many times over the past few years, they have used chemicals to dissolve words such as “assassin”, “racist” and “murderer” scrawled across the statue on the Place du Trône.

As before, they removed the blood-red paint protesters had dumped on his hands. But this time they missed a spot: the fingertips and palm of his curled right hand were still crimson.

As protests following the killing of George Floyd in the US reverberated around the world this summer, Belgium, like many other countries, experienced its own reckoning: with a brutal colonial past, with the systemic racism that inhibits its black citizens today and with the question of what exactly it owes to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which it exploited for 75 years.

B.C. miner’s shareholders win big in Congo bribery case – by Geoffrey York and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 13, 2020)

November 13, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Twelve years after an Israeli billionaire secretly bribed Congolese officials to grease the wheels for his takeover of a Canadian-owned mine, its shareholders have finally won millions of dollars in compensation. But the ruling leaves nothing for an impoverished Congolese community that lost hundreds of potential jobs in the deal.

The development project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, owned by Vancouver-based Africo Resources Ltd., was touted as potentially one of the world’s richest copper and cobalt mines, generating jobs and other local benefits such as water, health care and education.

Instead, according to U.S. court rulings, Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler bribed the Congolese officials and told them that the Canadian company must be “screwed and finished totally.” After a series of further deals, the project was mothballed and never built.

Microbes Can Mine Valuable Elements From Rocks in Space – by George Dvorsky (Gizmodo.com.au – November 11, 2020)

November 11, 2020

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/

Recent experiments aboard the International Space Station have shown that some microbes can harvest valuable rare-earth elements from rocks, even when exposed to microgravity conditions. The unexpected finding shows how microbes could boost our ability to live and work in space.

On Earth, some microscopic organisms have shown their worth as effective miners, extracting rare-earth elements (REEs) from rocks. New experimental evidence published today in Nature Communications shows that, when it comes to leaching REEs from rocks, at least one strain of bacteria is largely unaffected by microgravity and low-gravity conditions.

This is potentially good news for future space explorers, as biomining microbes could provide a means for acquiring REEs while in space, on the Moon, or on Mars.

EV makers’ battery choices raise questions about future cobalt demand – by Henrique Ribeiro (S&P Global – November 11, 2020)

November 11, 2020

https://www.spglobal.com/

The recent resurgence in the use of cobalt-free battery formulation, especially in the Chinese battery market, has raised questions about the future of cobalt demand in the electric vehicles (EV) sector.

The use of cobalt in lithium-ion batteries has always generated concerns due to its high cost, as well as the use of child labor in “artisanal mining” at the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 60% of the world’s cobalt is produced.

However, market participants believe cobalt will remain key in the coming EV boom – even though Tesla has announced plans to completely get rid of cobalt in the near future.

Australia tells the world it is open for business when it comes to critical minerals – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 8, 2020)

November 9, 2020

https://www.mining.com/

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources recently published the second edition of the Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus, a document aimed at highlighting the country’s position on critical materials supply.

To prepare the report, the Australian government examined lists of critical minerals published in markets such as the United States, the European Union and Japan, and matched those against Australia’s known geological endowment.

The result is a list of 24 critical minerals that are either being produced or could be produced in Australia.

Mining for metals needed for electric cars faces obstacles in Canada due to low prices – by Dan Healing (Global News – November 8, 2020)

November 9, 2020

https://globalnews.ca/

There’s opportunity for Canada to help supply the world’s growing need for “energy transition metals” used in electric vehicle and power storage batteries but it faces stiff competition from other countries, especially China, observers say.

Last month, the federal and Ontario governments announced they will each contribute $295 million to help Ford Canada produce electric vehicles in Oakville, Ont., while also vowing to help Fiat Chrysler in its plans to invest up to $1.5 billion at its Windsor, Ont., plant.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, CEO of EV manufacturer Tesla, has promised big contracts for miners around the world who increase nickel production for the batteries his vehicles are soon going to need.

Tanzania Finalizing Permit For its First Rare-Earth Metals Mine – by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala (Bloomberg News – November 5, 2020)

November 5, 2020

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Tanzania is in the final stages of approving a permit for the country’s first rare earths mine to Australian company Peak Resources Ltd. as the government seeks a bigger share of revenue from natural resources.

The state is also finalizing a gold-mining license for another Australian company, OreCorp Ltd. at the Nyanzaga project in the northwest of the country, according to Mining Minister Doto Biteko.

The East African nation is Africa’s fourth-biggest producer of the precious metal and plans to increase mineral earnings by at least a third during the next three years. It also has vast deposits of coal, rare-earth metals, iron ore and gemstones.

China sends warning it can cripple US defence system by turning off rare earths tap – by Robin Bromby (Small Caps.com.au – October 28, 2020)

October 29, 2020

https://smallcaps.com.au/

China is reported to be cutting off rare earth supplies to the United States defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin and other American companies in retaliation for the companies supplying Taiwan with military hardware.

But this move should not be read merely as a tit-for-tat against a few particular companies. It is, however, a clear signal to the US defence establishment that China holds the whip hand.

Rare earths are crucial in the manufacture of advanced weapon applications. Without them, the Chinese could hobble the US military (and the forces of its allies) while itself having full operational capacity in a time of conflict.

ARGUMENT: How the United States Handed China its Rare Earth Monopoly – by Jamil Hijazi and James Kennedy (Foreign Policy – October 27, 2020)

October 29, 2020

https://foreignpolicy.com/

At the end of September, U.S. President Donald Trump released an executive order amounting to an all-hands-on-deck call to end China’s monopoly on rare earths, the metals and alloys used in many high-tech devices.

It was high time; China’s dominance of these resources has resulted in the transfer of entire U.S. industries (medical imaging, for example), technologies, and jobs to China while also compromising the U.S. defense industry’s supply chain.

China didn’t always dominate the Rare Earth (RE) industry. In fact, up until 1980, 99 percent of the world’s heavy REs were a byproduct of U.S. mining operations for titanium, zircon, and phosphate.

Alaskan cobalt could supply EV demands – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – October 29, 2020)

October 29, 2020

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Whether it is the exponential growth in electric vehicles traveling global highways, the massive need for storing energy at solar and wind electrical generating facilities, or cutting the cords on our electronic devices, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on lithium-ion batteries.

And this is driving up the demand for cobalt, a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of these energy storage cells.

“Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materials for rechargeable batteries – primarily lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and nickel-metal-hydride batteries – which are used in consumer electronics, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, energy storage units, and power tools,” the United States Geological Survey wrote in the cobalt section of a 2018 report on critical minerals.

Election Will Decide Fate of Alaska Gold Mine, Shift to E-Cars – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg News – October 29, 2020)

October 29, 2020

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Oil drilling in the Arctic and the Pebble gold mine in Alaska aren’t actually on the ballot — but they might as well be.

The controversial projects are hanging in the balance of the presidential election, with Joe Biden’s vow to scuttle them. And dozens of other oil, gas and mining ventures planned across the U.S. face heightened risk of rejection or longer permitting times as the Democratic nominee focuses on promoting cleaner alternatives.

The threat extends even to some projects that already have federal permits. Lawsuits challenging government approvals create an opening for settlement agreements that result in more analysis and possibly canceled authorizations, said Height Securities LLC analyst Josh Price.

Gold, high tech metals spur exploration in Ontario’s Near and Far North – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 26, 2020)

October 27, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Three junior miners advance their projects down the path of mine development

A British junior miner continues to drill off a gold deposit near Armstrong in northwestern Ontario.

Landore Resources has started a 14,000-metre fall-winter drill program to begin infilling and expanding its BAM Gold Deposit on its Junior Lake property, 235 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

The Guernsey-headquartered company has two drill rigs turning to explore within and beneath an already defined deposit of more than a million ounces, and then step out to the east and west.

China passes export control law with potential for rare-earths ban Iori Kawate (Nikkei Asia – October 19, 2020)

October 20, 2020

https://asia.nikkei.com/

BEIJING — China’s top legislature on Saturday passed a law on export control, allowing the government to ban exports of strategic materials and advanced technology to specific foreign companies on its equivalent of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List.

“China may take countermeasures against any country or region that abuses export-control measures and poses a threat to China’s national security and interests, according to the law,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The inclusion of the phrase “and interests” suggests that the law will give the government more leeway to move against those it wants to punish.

Canada, Australia and U.S. launch the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – October 16, 2020)

October 19, 2020

http://resourceclips.com/

Increasing concern about the need for non-Chinese supply chains has generated much talk but fewer tangible efforts. Recent news, however, outlines plans formulated by two of the world’s major mining countries along with the world’s largest economy.

Canada, Australia and the U.S. intend to work together on the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative. Following bi-national MOUs that the U.S. signed with each of the others, the CMMI intends to have the trans-national trio pool its knowledge, co-operate on research and provide publicly available info.

The collaboration calls for the three countries to:

-share data
-unify critical minerals analyses
-build on existing datasets
-identify gaps in knowledge
-learn more about critical minerals in different deposit types
-enhance working relationships