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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Eurobattery to buy Finland battery metals project – by Donna Slater (MiningWeekly.com – May 13, 2020)

https://m.miningweekly.com/

The option under the investment and shareholders agreement is linked to an obligation to provide successive cash financing for investments in the Hautalampi project.

Eurobattery will pay about €8.6-million over 48 months for the VHOy shares and the option premium, as well as the cash financing component.

The Hautalampi project is located at the same site as the Keretti (Outokumpu) copper mine, which operated during 1912 to 1989. The Hautalampi nickel/cobalt/copper orebody is located parallel to, and above, the exploited copper deposit. Existing surface and underground infrastructure provide significant location advantages in what is already a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction.

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Ted Cruz Seeks to End U.S. Dependence on China for Rare Earth Metals – by Daniel Flatley (Bloomberg News – May 11, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Senator Ted Cruz said he plans to introduce legislation on Tuesday that aims to end U.S. reliance on China for rare earth elements used in the manufacturing of products including consumer electronics, electric vehicles and fighter planes.

The bill is part of a push in Congress to shift supply chains, particularly in industries critical for national defense, away from China and back toward the U.S.

“Much like the Chinese Communist Party has threatened to cut off the U.S. from life-saving medicines made in China, the Chinese Communist Party could also cut off our access to these materials, significantly threatening U.S. national security,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, said in a statement.

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Some see promise in Wyo’s critical minerals. But are they viable? – by Patrick Dawson (Laramie Boomerang – May 10, 2020)

https://www.laramieboomerang.com/

Wyoming’s current coal market decline coincides with a sudden national awareness of the serious shortage of certain critical materials, including several with deposits located in the state.

With residents and lawmakers scrambling for new economic avenues, could Wyoming be the nation’s new go-to source for rare earth elements that now come mainly from China?

Last week, U.S. Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barasso sent letters to the Secretaries of Defense and Interior urging the Department of the Interior “to support the full range of domestic rare earths supply chain development, from extraction through separation and purification into the magnets, metals and alloyed forms of rare earths that are critical to our advanced weapons platforms.”

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As EV battery metal makers crash and burn, First Cobalt aims to open new refinery – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 5, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

The project would open a new chapter in the quest to build out an electric vehicle supply chain in North America

On Monday, Trent Mell, chief executive of First Cobalt Corp., travelled to his office in downtown Toronto for the first time in weeks to tell the world he hopes to open North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery — a key metal used in the batteries that power electric vehicles — by the end of the year.

The opening, years in the making, arrives at an awkward moment as social distancing policies keep people out of their cars, and the economic fallout from COVID-19 creates great uncertainty about the demand for electric vehicles, or EVs.

“There’s obviously the immediate pause” on EV adoption, Mell told the Financial Post on Monday.

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Citing pandemic, GOP lawmakers renew push for action on critical minerals – by Jacob Holzman (S&P Global Market Intelligence – April 21, 2020)

https://www.spglobal.com/

U.S. Republican lawmakers have renewed a push for federal critical minerals policies in light of the coronavirus pandemic, saying President Donald Trump should lift a mineral withdrawal near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, adjust federal oversight of uranium mining pollution and fast-track permitting of mineral refineries as part of future economic recovery plans.

On April 17, a group of 21 House Republicans including House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote to Trump requesting the president “undo” a mineral withdrawal, or land withdrawal, covering more than 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.

The mineral withdrawal, established in 2012 by the Obama administration, clarifies the authorities held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission over regulating groundwater pollution from in situ leach uranium mining.

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Congo artisanal cobalt programme expands with industry backing – by Helen Reid (Reuters U.S. – April 21, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A programme to monitor and improve artisanal cobalt mines in Democratic Republic of Congo will double the number of mining sites it covers this year through a partnership between RCS Global and the Responsible Minerals Initiative.

RCS Global, a company in Berlin that audits supply chains, started the Better Mining programme in 2018, collecting data on cobalt mine sites in Congo and giving mine operators “corrective action” plans when mining practices were found to be unsafe.

Teaming up with the Washington, D.C.-based RMI, a part of the Responsible Business Alliance, will allow the programme to grow from three sites to six this year, and to 12 or more sites by 2023, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

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American quandary: How to secure weapons-grade minerals without China – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters India – April 22, 2020)

https://in.reuters.com/

MOUNTAIN PASS, Calif. (Reuters) – The United States wants to curb its reliance on China for specialized minerals used to make weapons and high-tech equipment, but it faces a Catch-22.

It only has one rare earths mine – and government scientists have been told not to work with it because of its Chinese ties. The mine is southern California’s Mountain Pass, home to the world’s eighth-largest reserves of the rare earths used in missiles, fighter jets, night-vision goggles and other devices.

But the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has told government scientists not to collaborate with the mine’s owner, MP Materials, the DOE’s Critical Materials Institute told Reuters.

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China’s rare earth exports leap in March after coronavirus-hit January, February – by Tom Daly (Reuters U.S. – April 14, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s rare earth exports rose 19.2% year-on-year in March, customs data showed on Tuesday, hitting their highest since at least 2014 as a backlog of product was shipped, helping the industry rebound from a January-February slump due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Exports totalled 5,551.4 tonnes last month, the General Administration of Customs said, up from 4,659 tonnes a year earlier. The March number exceeded exports in January and February 2020 combined and was the highest monthly total in records on the customs website going back to June 2014.

China is the world’s dominant producer of rare earth materials, a group of 17 minerals prized for their use in consumer electronics and sophisticated military equipment.

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DeepGreen to make run for battery metals from seafloor – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 7, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

DeepGreen Metals, a Canadian start-up planning to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seafloor, has added a new area to its seabed portfolio, which it believes could potentially help it solve the bottleneck supply of critical battery metals needed for the world’s green energy transition.

The strategic acquisition of Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML), announced Tuesday, gives the Vancouver-based company exploration rights to a third area inside the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean.

The 4,000-kilometre swath of ocean, stretching from Hawaii to Mexico, is known for containing enough nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese to build over 250 million electric vehicle batteries.

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Coronavirus highlights new logistics risk in battery supply chains – by Jacob Holzman (SPG Global Market Intelligence – April 2, 2020)

https://www.spglobal.com/

The coronavirus pandemic is uncovering new risk in the global supply chain for lithium-ion batteries as countries that are pivotal in producing lithium and other metals needed for battery manufacturing roll out restrictions in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an information provider specializing in the lithium-ion battery sector, wrote in a recent report that the coronavirus outbreak has led to a logistical slowdown throughout the supply chain, stretching around the world.

In Australia, a major producer of lithium, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies warned members of stringent interstate travel restrictions. In South America, Chile has implemented a national curfew, and parts of Santiago are in quarantine, while Argentina has a countrywide quarantine.

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Coronavirus slows U.S. push to produce electric vehicle minerals – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters Canada – March 26, 2020)

https://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic is hobbling U.S. efforts to produce lithium, rare earths and other materials used in electric vehicles and high-tech equipment, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s plan to curb Chinese control of the strategic minerals sector.

As the pandemic has killed nearly 20,000 across the globe, U.S. junior miners have slowed engineering work, environmental reviews and loan applications. “We can just hit pause,” said Keith Phillips, chief executive of North Carolina’s Piedmont Lithium Ltd.

Piedmont, Lithium Americas Corp and ioneer Ltd, both of which have Nevada projects, have said they now face engineering or regulatory setbacks that could push back mine construction.

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COLUMN-U.S. looks beyond tariffs to secure critical titanium supply – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – March 13, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) – First there was steel. Then there was aluminium. Now titanium joins the list of metals found to be threatening the national security of the United States.

The U.S. Commerce Department launched a so-called Section 232 investigation into titanium sponge imports in March last year and submitted it to the White House in November.

Commerce found that U.S. import dependency, amounting to 68% of the country’s consumption in 2018, threatens the viability of the last U.S. producer of this intermediate form of a metal critical to both civilian and military aircraft manufacturers. President Donald Trump agrees.

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Canada and the U.S. to co-operate on securing critical minerals for the green economy – by Robert Fife (Globe and Mail – March 3, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada and the United States need to take advantage of the rising global demand for clean energy by harnessing their rare-earth minerals that are critical to electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines, says a senior U.S. official.

Francis Fannon, assistant secretary of state for energy resources, told The Globe and Mail Monday that the two countries are working together to secure a stable supply of critical minerals for North America’s manufacturing and high-tech industries that will drive the green economy.

“The world is going to need more minerals because the call for cleaner forms of energy is significant and it is of a scale of the likes that the world has never seen before,” he said. “The public demand for clean forms of energy is skyrocketing.”

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U.S. Launches Tool to Stake Claim to World’s Rare Earth Minerals – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – March 1, 2020)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — In a high-tech twist on hammering pickets into the ground, the U.S. State Department has helped launch an online tool aimed at staking America’s claim to many of the world’s rare-earth minerals.

The U.S. has become increasingly concerned about securing a stable supply of critical minerals used in car batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. Many of those resources are located in emerging markets that may be seen as too risky by American investors looking for “best-in-class” standards.

That raises the potential for “two really bad outcomes,” Francis Fannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources, said in an interview.

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UPDATE 2-China hikes H1 rare earth output quota as industry grapples with virus – by Min Zhang and Tom Daly (Reuters U.S. – February 19, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

BEIJING, Feb 19 (Reuters) – China has raised its output quota for rare earth minerals in the first half of 2020 by 10% from a year earlier, a government notice showed on Wednesday, looking to step up production after a coronavirus outbreak disrupted activity in the sector.

China is the world’s top producer of rare earths, a prized group of 17 elements used in everything from ceramics to consumer electronics. The quotas are typically issued twice a year and closely watched as a supply indicator.

The first rare earth mining output quota for 2020 was set at 66,000 tonnes, equal to 50% of last year’s total allocation of 132,000 tonnes, according to a notice from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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