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Europe Mining

Europe’s quest for home-grown lithium – by Paul Krantz (The Parliament Magazine – July 20, 2023)

https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/

Lithium is the driving force behind our new battery-powered world, but can Europe ensure its supply keeps pace with demand? 

Earlier this year, the European Parliament approved the Fit for 55 package, the European Union’s ambitious plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Increasing use of electric vehicles will be essential to this plan – and to power those vehicles, Europe will need to significantly shore up its lithium supply.

According to a briefing prepared for the EU Parliament in 2021, Europe will need access to 18 times more lithium by 2030 and 60 times more by 2050, to meet projected demand for electric vehicles, which predominantly use lithium-powered batteries.

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UK to Offer Grants to Builders of Small Reactors in Nuclear Push – by Priscila Azevedo Rocha (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The UK announced a funding package to support nuclear power generated by small modular reactors in a bid to boost energy security while lowering the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The government will provide grants totaling £157 million ($205 million) for companies to accelerate their nuclear business in the UK, as well as develop new reactors, it said on Tuesday with the launch of a competition.

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When coal was king in the Welsh valleys of the Rhondda – by Dana Huntley (British Heritage Travel – June 15, 2023)

https://britishheritage.com/

The scars left behind by the collieries of Wales’ Rhondda Valley are beginning to heal, but some things never change.

Scarcely an hour’s drive west of the pristine villages, prosperous cottage gardens, and sylvan landscapes of the Cotswolds lies the southern Welsh county of mid-Glamorgan. Throngs of touring coaches, camera-wielding photojournalists, and well-heeled tourists don’t come here. These are the valleys of the Rhondda.

In the Valleys

Fanning out above the Welsh capital of Cardiff, these valleys are the coalfields of South Wales, narrow glens snaking their way south to north, from the Bristol Channel coast toward the Brecon Beacons. Every few miles up and down the hills lie the skeletal remains of a pit head, rusting silently, majestic.

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UK Needs to Revive Rich Mining History to Counter China – by Alan Crawford (Bloomberg News – July 5, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — When work began at the South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, the first English settlement in America had only just been established, and the world’s trade with the Far East was controlled by Portugal. It shut in 1998 after more than four centuries of continuous operation, a victim of sinking prices.

Now, South Crofty is part of a wave of mining activity across England’s southwestern tip aiming to resuscitate an industry that until recently looked all-but dead. Tin, copper, tungsten and lithium, along with associated geothermal energy, are the focus of companies trying to capitalize on the surge in demand for the raw materials that are key to the shift to clean energy.

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Why the world finds itself in a Greenland ‘gold rush’ – by Isabeau van Halm (Energy Monitor – July 3, 2023)

https://www.energymonitor.ai/

Melting ice in Greenland is exposing the country’s critical mineral resources. Mining companies, governments and billionaires are all eyeing the largely underexplored wealth.

Ice loss from Greenland hit a new record this year. The latest report from the European Space Agency shows that ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica has increased fivefold since the 1990s due to climate change. The receding ice is exposing Greenland’s rich mineral resources. Still largely unexplored, companies and governments are now eyeing mining in Greenland, including for the critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

The Artic has long been of geopolitical significance. Areas with vast mineral deposits can be found in north-east Asia, and northern Canada has large reserves of nickel, copper, cobalt and rare earths, among others. Both Russia and China are building nuclear-powered icebreaker ships that are able to mine the Arctic. In 2019, former US President Donald Trump said he wanted to buy Greenland.

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UK’s first commercial lithium mine could supply two-thirds of the country’s needs by 2030 – by Julia Robinson (Chemistry World – July 4, 2023)

https://www.chemistryworld.com/

The UK’s first commercial lithium mine is to open in Cornwall, following a new partnership between Imerys, the world leader in mineral-based solutions, and British Lithium.

It has been estimated that the site contains enough lithium to sustain mining there for 30 years, producing around 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent annually. By the end of the decade, the mine should be producing enough of the metal for batteries to power 500,000 electrical vehicles per year.

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Trial over Spanish ecological disaster starts, 25 years on (France 24 – July 4, 2023)

https://www.france24.com/en/

Madrid (Spain) (AFP) – Twenty five years after one of Spain’s worst ecological disasters, a court case against the Swedish mining company involved opened Tuesday in the southern city of Seville.

The case, being brought by the regional government in Andalusia, holds mining company Boliden responsible for a 1998 toxic spill that contaminated a vast stretch of rivers and wetlands with heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium and mercury.

The Donana National Park wetlands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are home to the endangered Iberian lynx and are a vital stopover point for millions of birds migrating between Europe and Africa. The catastrophe occurred when a wastewater reserve pool burst at Boliden’s Los Frailes lead and zinc mine in the city of Aznalcollar, spewing more than five million cubic metres (17.5 million cubic feet) of highly acid sludge into the river and groundwater.

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Column: Europe’s clashes over coal may extend well beyond Poland – by Gavin Maguire (Reuters – June 20, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LITTLETON, Colorado, June 20 (Reuters) – European Union members clashed over proposals to extend subsidies for coal plants this week and could not agree on planned new rules for the bloc’s power market, which has been in disarray since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

The disagreements centered around prolonging subsidies for coal plants to keep capacity on standby to avert blackouts, with Poland cited as a key regional power producer that may be negatively affected if the subsidies were scrapped.

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Norway considers opening Germany-sized area to deep-sea mining – by Staff (Mining.com – June 9, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Norway’s government is gearing up to establish itself as a frontrunner in deep-sea mining, with plans to open an oceanic area nearly the size of Germany to extract essential battery metals from its sea floor.

The move comes as companies and nations shift their attention to the mineral-rich ocean floor, a valuable source of materials for smartphones and electric vehicles.

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Global production of critical metals unlikely to meet EU demand – by Staff (Mining.com – June 1, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

A recent study by Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology found that the current global production levels of raw materials will not match the demand of the European Union’s EV industry, not even when accounting for recycling.

The paper points out that the metals that are highly sought after, such as dysprosium, neodymium, manganese and niobium, are of great economic importance to the EU, while their supply is limited and it takes time to scale up raw material production.

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Will a Russian diamond ban be effective? – by Tom Espiner (BBC.com – May 19, 2023)

https://www.bbc.com/

The UK has announced a ban on Russian diamonds as it tightens sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Countries in the G7 bloc also want to be able to trace the gemstones to block Russian exports as they try to limit cash flowing into Russia’s war chest. But how effective will these schemes be, and could there be unintended consequences?

How important are Russian diamond exports?

Russia’s diamond trade, worth about $4bn (£3.2bn) per year, makes up a small proportion of its overall exports. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s total exports reached $489.8bn in 2021, according to the central bank, with oil and gas making up $240.7bn of that.

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The View from England: Win their hearts, and minds will follow – by Chris Hinde (Northern Miner – May 19, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

I shed tears within 30 pages. I expect you would too and, if you’re a miner, so you should. In a recently-published novel we are taken back to a small mining town in October 1966 when our industry killed children, young children, half a school of them.

Published by Faber & Faber, ‘A Terrible Kindness’ reminds us (as Jo Browning Wroe writes in her opening sentence) of when “something dreadful happened in Wales.” In Aberfan on that dark morning, 116 children (mostly between the ages of seven and 10) went to school and didn’t come back.

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G-7 to Chase Russia’s Diamonds While Stopping Short of Total Ban – by Alex Wickham and Alberto Nardelli (Bloomberg News – May 18, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Group of Seven countries agreed to work together to track Russian diamonds, but stopped short of slapping Moscow with an outright ban on the lucrative gem trade.

Leaders in a statement released Friday at their summit in Hiroshima, Japan, pledged to work together to “restrict trade in and use of diamonds mined, processed or produced in Russia” and coordinate future “restrictive measures, including through tracing technologies.”

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How Russia’s Wagner Group funds its role in Putin’s Ukraine war by plundering Africa’s resources – by Debora Patta and Sarah Carter (CBS News – May 16, 2023)

https://www.cbsnews.com/

Garoua-Boulaï, Cameroon — Much of the bloodiest fighting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of ill-equipped Russian forces have died on the front lines since the end of last year. Many of those fighters have not been enlisted Russian soldiers, but mercenaries recruited and paid by the Wagner Group, a private army run by President Vladimir Putin’s long-time associate Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin’s seemingly endless supply of hired guns in Ukraine requires deep pockets, and a CBS News investigation has found that he’s funding his operations in large part by putting his private army to work in Africa.

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EU Nears Critical-Materials Agreements With Argentina and Chile – by Jorge Valero and Alberto Nardell(Bloomberg News – May 17, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The European Union is working on deals with Argentina and Chile that will widen its access to critical minerals and metals such as lithium needed for electric-vehicle batteries as part of its goal of creating a less carbon-intensive economy.

Preliminary memorandums of understanding could be signed during the next four months, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, which added that further partnerships are possible in South America and beyond.

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