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International Media Resource Articles

Flooded Mine in Congo Is Latest Threat to Global Copper Supply – by William Clowes, Thomas Biesheuvel and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – May 29, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The status of one of the world’s most important copper mines remains clouded in uncertainty, more than a week after seismic activity caused widespread flooding deep below ground.

(Bloomberg) — The status of one of the world’s most important copper mines remains clouded in uncertainty, more than a week after seismic activity caused widespread flooding deep below ground. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.’s Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world’s top sources of copper and was on course to become the third-biggest supplier of the key energy-transition metal this year.

Yet its current condition is a mystery, with contrasting messages from its biggest shareholders. Some information has been disclosed: water levels have risen after pumping and electrical infrastructure in the Kakula underground mine was damaged.

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North Dakota coal mine to become processing site for Minnesota nickel – by Jeff Beach (North Dakota Monitor – May 28, 2025)

https://northdakotamonitor.com/

Project contingent on approval from regulatory agencies

BEULAH, N.D. – A former coal mine in western North Dakota that will be converted into a processing site for nickel mined in Minnesota was touted Wednesday as a way for the U.S. to reduce its reliance on China and other countries for critical minerals needed for electronics and electric vehicles.

The processing plant operated by Talon Metals will bring 150 jobs to Beulah, with processing expected to begin in 2028. Electric vehicle maker Tesla has contracted to buy about half the nickel processed in Beulah. Mike Kicis, president of Talon Metals, said the Department of Defense is another likely user of the nickel and other minerals.

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Glencore shifts $30b in assets to Australia in major restructure – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 29, 2025)

https://www.afr.com/

Glencore has shifted more than $30 billion in foreign assets into an Australian subsidiary in a huge restructure designed to make it easier to strike a future mega-merger with a rival commodities giant.

Coal mines in Canada, South Africa and Colombia, a copper resource in Argentina and a South African manganese, chrome and vanadium business are among the assets shifted into the local Glencore Investment Pty Ltd. The restructure comes less than a year after Glencore publicly debated the merits of demerging its flagship coal division, and eight months after it tried to engage Rio Tinto in merger talks for the second time in a decade.

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Blood Batteries: How Congo’s Conflict Is Shaking the World’s Rare Earths Market – by Veer Puri (Oberver Research Foundation – May 26, 2025)

https://www.orfonline.org/

Global tech giants face a reckoning as Congo’s conflict exposes the dark side of ‘conflict-free’ minerals.

The recent bout of violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has translated into a systematic shock for rare earth and critical mineral markets globally. With the DRC supplying much of the world’s tantalum and cobalt—essential components in producing electric vehicles (EVs), smartphones, and modern weaponry—the ongoing violence in the region has triggered a major geopolitical and economic disruption.

Supported by Rwandan intelligence and benefitting from artisanal mining networks, the M23 rebel group’s resurgence exposes the “conflict-free” certification systems of the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) and the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI), and accelerates a worldwide search for substitutes. With tantalum prices surging heavily since late 2024, the crisis highlights how localised violence can set off domino effects across critical sectors such as renewable energy and defence.

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De Beers to Cut over 1,000 Jobs at Debswana Unit – by Leah Meirovich (Rapaport Magazine – May 26, 2025)

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Botswana President Duma Boko has announced plans for the termination of over 1,000 workers at Debswana, the government’s joint venture with De Beers.

Boko made the declaration at a recent address to civil servants. He said the ongoing downturn in the diamond market motivated the layoffs, a move the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) condemned, according to a statement it released recently.

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Critical minerals take back seat in WA as gold hits record prices – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – May 25, 2025)

https://www.abc.net.au/

A profile image of a man with dark, spiky hair.

In Australia’s resources sector, Tim Goyder has been the man with the Midas touch in recent years. At one point in 2023, his stock holdings in one-time market darlings Liontown Resources and Chalice Mining saw him become a paper billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1.09 billion.

But as fast as the Perth-based mining investor joined the Australian Financial Review’s annual Rich List, such is the swings and roundabouts of commodity price cycles, he slipped off. That is not to say Mr Goyder has lost his golden touch, but his personal fortune reflects the downturn in critical minerals such as lithium and nickel. “Two years ago, everyone was saying lithium was the thing to be in, which I still believe,” he said.

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Cobalt Crossroads: Why Indonesia Still Trails Behind the DRC in the Tech Supply Race? – by M. Ismail Anshari (Modern Diplomacy – May 26, 2025)

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is widely recognized as the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for around 70% of total global output.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is widely recognized as the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for around 70% of total global output. Numerous foreign mining companies operate in the DRC, employing local miners and simultaneously contributing to the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

However, the country’s mining practices face significant challenges in meeting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards, challenges that risk disrupting the supply chains of global technology firms. Despite this, many major tech companies still prefer cobalt sourced from the DRC over exploring alternatives like Indonesia, another resource-rich nation.

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The Economics of Deep-Sea Mining Don’t Add Up – by Victor Vescovo (Time Magazine – May 22, 2023)

https://time.com/

Deep-seafloor mining is a complex topic that leaves out a crucial starting point: mining the potato-sized rocks on the seafloor called “nodules” only yields four metals of any economic consequence: nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Since copper and manganese are plentiful on land, deep-seafloor mining is really all about nickel and cobalt. And, unlike many have tried to claim, you cannot in fact get meaningful amounts of rare earth elements from the seafloor.

In the early 2020s, deep-seafloor mining was advertised as a source of key metals for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, battery technology has moved dramatically forward with new chemistries that require no cobalt or nickel and instead use inexpensive iron, phosphorus, and sodium.

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289 miners trapped in shaft at South African gold mine (NBC News – May 23, 2025)

https://www.nbcnews.com/

South Africa‘s Sibanye Stillwater said Friday that efforts were under way to rescue 289 mine workers trapped underground at one of its shafts at the Kloof gold mine near Johannesburg. The workers were safe and gathered at an assembly point in the underground gold mine, one of the company’s deepest located around 60 km (37 miles) west of Johannesburg, it said.

It did not provide details on the incident, though a Sibanye spokesperson confirmed it had occurred in the mine’s Kloof 7 shaft, adding that all the miners were accounted for and the company was providing them with food.

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Column: US aluminum smelters vie with Big Tech for scarce power – by Andy Home (Reuters – May 22, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

It’s forty-five years since anyone built a primary aluminum smelter in the United States. When Alumax fired up the Mt Holly plant in South Carolina in 1980, the country’s tally of smelters rose to 33 with combined annual capacity of almost five million metric tons of aluminum.

Today that number has shrunk to six. Two are fully curtailed. Two, including Mt Holly, are running below capacity. Annual production has shrunk to 700,000 tons. Emirates Global Aluminium hopes to reverse the tide with a new plant in Oklahoma. It joins Century Aluminum, which was awarded federal funding by the Joe Biden administration for a new “green” low-carbon smelter somewhere in the Ohio/Mississippi River Basins.

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Expert-Speak:Riches Or Curses: Africa’s Critical Minerals Dilemma – by Letlhokwa George Mpedi (Forbes Africa – May 21, 2025)

https://www.forbesafrica.com/

Letlhokwa George Mpedi serves as Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

In 2024, a group of Australian researchers (Boafo et al.) asked a pertinent question: “The race for critical minerals in Africa: A blessing or another resource curse?” The continent is abundant with natural resources, but this has often been to our detriment. As the African Development Bank (AfDB) referred to it, Africa is faced with the paradox of plenty.

In other words, despite an abundance of natural resources, countries often contend with little to no economic growth, low GDP and worrying developmental metrics. Now, we are seeing greater demand for critical or rare minerals, particularly through the lens of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the just transition, and this paradox emerges once again. Studies suggest that there is a clear boom.

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Who will benefit from melting glaciers?- In a remote corner of North America, salmon and mining companies are vying for new territory. – by Max Graham (Grist.org – May 21, 2025)

https://grist.org/

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. It was produced by Grist and co-published with Alaska Public Media.

The Tulsequah Glacier meanders down a broad valley in northwest British Columbia, 7 miles from the Alaska border. At the foot of the glacier sits a silty, gray lake, a reservoir of glacial runoff. The lake is vast, deeper than Seattle’s Space Needle is tall. But it didn’t exist a few decades ago, before 2 miles of ice had melted.

On an overcast day, a helicopter carrying three salmon scientists zoomed up the valley. As it neared the lake, the pilot banked to the right and flew over the south side of the basin, whirring over a narrow outlet where it drains into the Tulsequah River. He landed on a beach of small boulders and the researchers clambered out one by one.

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Hopes of lithium revival dashed as prices crater to four-year lows – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – May 21, 2025)

https://www.afr.com/

Just last week investors betting on a resurgence in lithium were cheering some much-needed positive news after Core Lithium unveiled a plan to revive its mothballed operations near Darwin.

On the surface, it was a momentous decision. Core was the first miner in Australia to consider reopening an idled operation since the downturn began, signalling that sentiment may finally be turning. The news sent the stock surging more than 40 per cent last week.

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Canada’s crude oil shift to China schools Trump in unintended consequences – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – May 22, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

If there is a law of unintended consequences, then a good example is how commodity markets are adjusting to both the realities and the perceived threats of the tariff war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump’s trade and tariff measures have forced commodity producers, traders and buyers to rethink long-established relationships, adapt to emerging realities and try to predict what may happen. What is becoming clear is that commodity markets are adjusting not only to actual measures imposed by the Trump administration, but also to the possibility of future actions, which has created a desire to limit exposure to the United States.

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India’s steel expansion threatens climate goals and global efforts to clean up industry: report – by Sibi Arasu (Associated Press – May 19, 2025)

https://apnews.com/

BENGALURU, India (AP) — India’s plans to double steel production by the end of the decade could jeopardize its national climate goals and a key global target to reduce planet-heating gas emissions from the steel industry, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report by Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks energy projects around the globe, said efforts to decarbonize steelmaking are gaining traction around the world. However, in India, which is the world’s second largest steel-producing nation, overwhelming reliance on coal-based technologies presents a big challenge.

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