Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals – Page 10

Manitoba open for business with new critical minerals strategy, premier says (CBC News Manitoba – July 25, 2023)

July 27, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/

Six-pillar strategy includes a focus on Indigenous involvement

The province is open for business in the critical mineral sector, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said Tuesday. Manitoba’s critical minerals strategy, unveiled during a news conference, outlines ways to get new mines open faster, expand the industries associated with mining, attract new investment, advance Indigenous involvement and create jobs across the province.

“Manitoba is like the Costco of critical minerals — if you need it, we have it,” said Stefanson. “Gold, diamonds, nickel, lithium, potash, and the list goes on.” Manitoba is home to 29 of 31 minerals on Canada’s 2021 critical minerals list. These include lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earth elements, which are the six minerals recognized as having the greatest opportunity for economic growth, a news release from the province said.

China’s Threat to Ban Critical Minerals Exports Is a Bluff – by Agathe Demarais (Foreign Policy – July 27, 2023)

July 27, 2023

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Embargoes have unintended consequences—and would hurt China more than the West.

Weaponizing commodities is in fashion. In September 2022, Russia cut off gas flows to Europe in a bid to weaken European economies after its invasion of Ukraine. Almost one year later, in July 2023, the Chinese government announced that exports of gallium and germanium, two niche metals used in technology manufacturing, would henceforth require licenses.

These metals share two features. First, they form part of a group of around 30 raw materials that are crucial for the green energy transition, digital hardware, and defense production. Second, as is the case for many critical raw materials, China holds a dominant position for the mining and processing of gallium and germanium, giving Beijing leverage over Western economies.

Pentagon Seeks Supply of Chip-Mineral Gallium After China Curbs Exports – by Tony Capaccio (Bloomberg News – July 26, 2023)

July 27, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Pentagon plans to issue a first-time contract to US or Canadian companies by year-end to recover gallium, a mineral used in semiconductors and military radar systems, after China curbed exports this month.

China announced the restrictions on gallium and another mineral, germanium, in a move seen as part of the country’s tit-for-tat trade war on technology with the US and Europe. The two metals are crucial to the semiconductor, telecommunications and renewable energy industries. The curbs prompted US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to voice her concern during a recent visit to Beijing.

OPINION: NWT is rich in critical minerals, but its economy faces neglect and inadequacy – by Caroline Cochrane (Globe and Mail – July 27, 2023)

July 27, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Caroline Cochrane is Premier of the Northwest Territories.

We stand at a critical juncture for the Northwest Territories. Throughout our history, the NWT has thrived on abundant mining activities, boasting a wealth of zinc, gold, diamonds and countless other valuable resources, including oil and gas. We are blessed with a land of immense potential, including being home to 23 of the 31 critical minerals essential for the green economy.

This should be cause for celebration, but instead, we are once again on the outside looking in. The race to supply allied economies with these vital minerals is under way, and unless Canada acts swiftly to invest in transportation corridors, telecommunications infrastructure and cleaner, more affordable energy in the North, the NWT and our people risk being left behind.

The Little Known Metals Giant that Rules a Global Market – by Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – July 25, 2023)

July 27, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — When China’s Vital Materials Co. bought up a $600 million stockpile of obscure critical minerals in early 2020, it barely raised an eyebrow outside the niche world of minor metals.

Spin forward a few years, and the influence of a company some people in the industry have still barely heard of is a timely illustration of the scale of the challenge to loosen China’s grip on what have become key raw materials.

The Energy Transition Will Require Cobalt. America’s Only Mine Can’t Get Off the Ground. – by David Uberti and Rhiannon Hoyle (Wall Street Journal – July 22, 2023)

July 24, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/

The U.S. is playing catch-up in battery supply chains dominated by China

Etched into a mountain in the Idaho wilderness, at an elevation of roughly 8,000 feet, a cobalt mine three decades in the making demonstrates how America’s clean-energy ambitions are clashing with market realities. Miners have spent years traveling the 42-mile dirt road to the site, pushing the project forward in fits and starts while confronting wildfire, permitting fights, market swings and a corporate takeover.

Those fortunes were finally supposed to turn this spring with the launch of what the project’s Australian owner billed as the only cobalt mine of its kind in the U.S. China dominates the processing of cobalt, a metal used in cellphones, jet engines, munitions, and, increasingly, electric-vehicle batteries.

China hits back against Western sanctions (The Economist – July 23, 2023)

July 24, 2023

https://www.economist.com/

China produces 98% of the world’s raw gallium, a key ingredient in advanced military technology. This includes America’s next-generation missile-defence and radar systems.

In 2019, as China’s trade war with America was heating up, the People’s Daily predicted that China’s monopoly on rare earths, minerals crucial to the production of most modern hardware, would become a tool to counter American pressure. “Don’t say we didn’t warn you,” the Communist Party mouthpiece thundered. For years the bluster was just that.

Between 2009 and 2020 the number of Chinese export controls on the books ballooned nine-fold, according to the oecd, a club of mostly rich countries. Yet these restrictions were haphazard, informal and aimed at narrow targets—random warning shots rather than a strategic offensive.

OPINION: How our green transition and hunger for battery metals devastate Africa and the Congo – by Siddharth Kara (Globe and Mail – July 22, 2023)

July 24, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Siddharth Kara is associate professor of human trafficking and modern slavery at Nottingham University and the author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

During one of my trips to the Congo, I met Jolie in her small home of cracked brick walls and rusted roofing in the cobalt-mining town of Kolwezi. Although Jolie had invited me to her home that day to discuss her story, the moment I arrived it felt as if she regretted my presence. She did not wish to speak at length.

To prevent Jolie and everyone else I’ve interviewed from being identified and targeted for reprisal, I have used pseudonyms for them and am withholding the dates on which we met. This is also to protect my continuing research, which delves into the often unseen, yet heavy cost that the Global South pays for the First World’s ideals and conveniences.

Mining Deploys Innovative Tech to Find Copper, Other EV Metals – by Yusuf Khan (Wall Street Journal – July 20, 2023)

July 21, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/

Startups are developing new ways to increase yields and reduce waste, as the search for critical minerals intensifies

Miners are turning to machine learning, cutting-edge chemistry and other innovative means to increase the supply of critical materials such as copper and graphite amid the rising demand for green technologies.

In 2011, Nico Cuevas, a Mexican immigrant and Arizona resident, realized Tesla would require a source of graphite for battery anodes to build electric vehicles in the U.S. Fortunately, it just so happened that a friend’s family owned an artisanal graphite mine in Mexico. Unfortunately it mined the wrong type of graphite.

Critical minerals processing, manufacture, recycling to be focus of $1.5 billion in federal innovation funding – by Mehanaz Yakub (Electric Autonomy – July 19, 2023)

July 20, 2023

https://electricautonomy.ca/

Last fall, the government said it would use $1.5 billion from the Strategic Innovation Fund to accelerate investment in critical minerals projects. Last week, it unveiled its criteria for eligibility.

The federal government has revealed what types of projects are eligible for the $1.5 billion from the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) earmarked in the 2022 federal budget to accelerate investments in critical minerals projects.

A Mineral Strategy for American Security – by Kevin Stitt (Wall Street Journal – July 16, 2023)

July 17, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/

Mr. Stitt, a Republican, is governor of Oklahoma.

China hasn’t been shy about its ambition to become the world’s superpower. But before Beijing can achieve that goal, it first needs to monopolize the world’s supply of critical minerals. The U.S. has been asleep at the wheel on this growing threat to America’s economic and national security.

Chemical elements such as neodymium, lithium and zinc are vital to modern life. They are used to make wind turbines, cell phones, satellites and precision-guided munitions. The U.S. economy can’t function without secure access to a reliable supply of these critical minerals.

First Nations won’t be excluded from critical minerals ‘gold rush,’ say leaders – by Jason Warick (CBC News Saskatoon – July 13, 2023)

July 14, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/

Sask. chief delivering message Friday in Washington to senior White House, corporate officials

Some are calling it Saskatchewan’s third “gold rush” — the frenzy to stake claims for lithium and other critical minerals. First Nations say they were pushed to the sidelines during previous waves of development and that won’t happen again. They’re set to deliver that message to a powerful international audience on Friday.

“We are willing partners, willing to do business. We aren’t the boogeyman,” Thunderchild First Nation Chief Delbert Wapass said. “But we won’t sit back. This new gold rush will not happen without us.”

China controls the supply of crucial war minerals (The Economist – July 13, 2023)

July 14, 2023

https://www.economist.com/

Recent moves to restrict their flow highlight a danger to the West

In 2014 tom price, a commodities strategist, visited a “funny little building” in China’s south-west. It was a warehouse where Fanya, a local trading firm, stored metals including gallium, germanium and indium. The company’s “stockpiles” simply sat in boxes on shelves.

Yet for some of the minerals, these meagre supplies represented the majority of global stocks. A year later Fanya was closed by China’s government, which kept the stash—as well as the reserves and plants to produce more.

This time it’s different? The rush to mine Indigenous lands – by Mark Trahant (Alaska Beacon – July 13, 2023)

July 14, 2023

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The Aspen Institute: The mining industry has a long history of failing to respect community interests, breaking agreements, destroying sacred sites, and forcing displacements; Indigenous communities have been ‘disproportionately impacted’

WASHINGTON – This won’t be an easy conversation: Can tribal nations love mining? Or at least accept mining as a necessary step in the creation of a clean economy? And can governments and international mining companies figure out how to respect and work fairly with Indigenous communities?

The conversation is weighted by history. The mining industry, and governments, have to sell the idea that, this time it’s different. This time the industry will respect cultural and religious sites. This time the industry will clean up its own mess. This time it will reward tribal communities as owners instead of serving up resources as colonies. Why would anyone believe that? Why should a tribe expect this time to be different?

Column: Critical minerals supply improves but many risks remain – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 14, 2023)

July 14, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) – First the good news. The supply of minerals critical to the green energy transition could move close to levels needed to support climate pledges by 2030, according to the first annual review of the sector by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Investment in the critical minerals pipeline grew by 20% in 2021 and by 30% in 2022, led by lithium, copper and nickel. Exploration spending was up by 20% last year with Canada and Australia both registering year-on-year growth of over 40%, notably in hard-rock lithium plays, according to the IEA.