After decades of geopolitical tensions over access to oil, the transition to clean energy is setting up a global competition over another natural resource: rare earth elements.
The 17 metals, which aren’t scarce but are hard to find in economically viable concentrations, are significant to greening economies of the future and the defense industrial base of the United States and others.
Increasing global demand for the mineral could benefit countries with the world’s largest reserves.
BUENOS AIRES – Nearly 55% of the world’s lithium deposits lie in Latin America’s lithium triangle, the swath of territory encompassing Chile’s and Argentina’s northern regions and Bolivia’s southwest.
But as hopes of a windfall from increased electric vehicle production rise, anxieties are rising too over which country will come out on top—or whether cooperation between the three can help secure more advantageous deals.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
The current furnace was built in 1978 and one of the oldest of its kind in the world
Mining giant Glencore plans to have a new furnace at its Sudbury operations by 2026. The project is expected to cost more than $100 million.
The company’s current electric furnace was built in 1978, which makes it one of the longest-running furnaces of its kind in the world, according to Peter Xavier, vice-president of Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Rio Tinto chief executive officer Jakob Stausholm last month had a downbeat message for the mining giant’s Canadian aluminum operations with prices for the lightweight metal plummeting by almost half since briefly hitting a record high earlier this year.
“It is actually very difficult to have a profitable aluminum industry in North America at this time because Russian aluminum is flowing in,” Mr. Stausholm told Bloomberg News. “Right now we have the lowest aluminum price this year and you would have thought the Russia-Ukraine crisis would have led to higher prices in aluminum.”
LOGAR, Afghanistan — Somewhere in the Logar Mountains, overlooking the highway to Kabul, Asadullah Massoud trudged up to a four-story-tall cleft. Before him was a monochromatic pattern of gray stone, save for a seam of dull, almost-black rocks. “Look there. See that black line?” he said. “That’s chromite.”
An explosion thumped in the distance. Massoud looked up at the sound, but appeared unconcerned. That’s not fighting. We’re mining with the open-surface method, putting explosives and going from hill to hill,” he said.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — It is the new gold rush, and China is leading the hunt as prices surge. Only it’s not gold everyone’s looking for, it’s lithium. Many say the future of electric vehicle production and, more broadly, combatting climate change, depend on the rare metal.
Prices for the “green metal” have seen an almost 500% increase in the past year, according to Bloomberg. Sung Choi, a metals analyst at BloombergNEF, told VOA, “The cost of lithium has risen because virtually all automakers have jumped onto producing electric vehicles.”
Ring of Fire Metals (RoF Metals) has commenced two studies exploring the use of wind power and atmospheric carbon removal as part of planning for a net zero emissions mine in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire.
Stephen Crozier, RoF Metals VP Sustainability, said the findings from a study of the wind energy resource conducted by global renewable energy company Windlab earlier this year were promising.
“Our primary focus in the development of Eagle’s Nest is to implement low emissions technologies throughout the operation, wherever possible,” he said.
LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Employees and agents of a British subsidiary of mining and trading group Glencore (GLEN.L) used private jets to transfer cash to pay bribes to oil officials in West Africa, prosecutors told a London court on Wednesday.
Glencore Energy UK Limited paid – or failed to prevent the payment of – millions of dollars in bribes to officials in five African countries, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) told Southwark Crown Court on the first day of a sentencing hearing.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Ottawa is ordering Chinese state-owned companies to immediately divest their interests in three Canadian critical minerals companies, after the federal government faced an avalanche of criticism earlier in the year for allowing too much investment from the Asian superpower into the domestic mining sector.
The government’s order marks the second time in a week it has taken a more aggressive stand against China, after allowing it to acquire a Canadian critical minerals company earlier this year amid little scrutiny.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
EV Nickel envisions “clean nickel” mining and processing operation to supply the electric vehicle makers
A little bit of Mark Selby and Canada Nickel appears to be rubbing off on an exploration startup company in the Timmins mining camp. EV Nickel hopes to replicate the marketing success of Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project by proving up a low-grade, large-tonnage nickel resource at its Shaw Dome Project, 25 kilometres southeast of the city.
The Toronto company recently released some promising early assay results from last summer’s drilling program that show a new zone of nickel mineralization at the CarLang area of its enormous 30,000-hectare exploration property.
(Kitco News) Gold price is feeling the pain of seven months of consecutive losses — the longest string of declines in more than five decades. And this at a time when the Federal Reserve is about to announce its fourth consecutive 75-basis-point hike.
Spot gold is looking to wrap up October down 1.4% on the month, its seventh monthly decline in a row — something not seen since 1968. Year-to-date, gold is down around 10%. Since the end of March, gold has dropped more than 15%.
World’s largest nickel producer exploring governance structure similar to that used by oil group
Indonesia is studying the establishment of an Opec-like cartel for nickel and other key battery metals, highlighting the geopolitical confidence of nations that are rich in resources needed to make electric cars.
Bahlil Lahadalia, the country’s investment minister, said Jakarta was looking at mechanisms similar to those used by Opec, the group of 13 oil-producing nations, that could be employed in the supply of metals that are central to the energy transition.
A new Brazilian government under president-elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could mean more environmental responsibility, according to a group representing the mining cities of the country. Leftist former Brazilian President Lula was elected this Sunday for a third presidential term, winning over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
“In the last four years, there has been a reduction in environmental protection. The Amazon today is no man’s land,” said Waldir Salvador, institutional relations consultant at the Associacao dos Municipios Mineradores do Brasil, which represents 70% of the country’s mineral production.
https://thenevadaindependent.com/
There is an otherworldly feel to the crystalline-blue evaporation ponds that sit in Clayton Valley, an arid area in Nevada’s least populated county, Esmeralda. From above, the ponds look like a grid of pooled water arranged in a gradient that moves from a deep-sea blue to a light-sky tone. The man-made desert pools contain what is naturally underneath the ground: water.
Pumps, drilled deep into the Earth, pull brine from an underground aquifer, and pipes move the salty water into the expansive holding ponds. This is not just any water. It is rich in lithium, a mineral needed for electric cars and large-scale storage batteries, technologies in high demand as countries and industries seek to decarbonize national economies and electric grids.
Beijing’s growing investments in strategic resources in the DRC go hand in hand with increased military assistance intended to secure those assets.
GOMA, DRC — China’s growing investments in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allow it to demand special treatment.
The Congolese army has been deployed several times to protect Chinese mining interests in the volatile east of the country. In line with this cooperation, China has also offered training to the Congolese military personnel, as well as security assistance to Chinese companies.
