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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

The New EV Gold-Rush: Automakers Scramble to Get Into Mining – by Mike Colias and Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – May 15, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

A scarcity of EV battery materials pushes car companies and miners to work closer together; for both, there is a learning curve

When General Motors began outlining plans in 2020 to fully switch to electric vehicles, it didn’t account for one critical factor: Many of the battery minerals needed to fulfill its plans were still in the ground.

“I remember seeing a report from our raw-materials team at the time saying, ‘There is plenty of lithium out there. There is plenty of nickel’,” said Sham Kunjur, an industrial engineer now in charge of securing the raw materials for GM’s batteries. “We will buy them from the open market.”

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Opinion: Alarming drop in mining derails drive for Net Zero – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Financial Post – May 11, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Green transition will take six times the mineral output world is producing now

The latest key Canadian and global mining production numbers are out, and they’re grim. The International Energy Agency says that to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, we need to be producing six times the current global output of mineral inputs just to build the turbines, transmission lines, batteries and other items essential for low-carbon energy infrastructure.

Instead, we are mining less than we did in 2019. While policy-makers constrain new investments in fossil fuels, the raw materials we need in order to develop alternative forms of energy are not coming along quickly enough. The result seems likely to be an energy crunch.

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Pro Take: Can Nickel, Cobalt and Other Battery Metals Be Sourced Sustainably? – by Yusuf Khan (Wall Street Journal – May 11, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

Environmental worries over Indonesian nickel are being used to build a case for deep sea mining

As companies and countries withdraw their support for seabed mining, the about-face is raising broader questions about how metals used in battery production are sourced and the scale of the associated environmental costs. The sourcing of nickel particularly has been in the spotlight.

Last week, A.P. Moller-Maersk became the latest company to drop its investment in The Metals Company, a prospective seabed miner based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Lockheed Martin and Norway’s Storebrand also have recently sold their interests in deep-sea mining companies.

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Indonesia emerges as a cobalt powerhouse amid surge in demand – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – May 10, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Demand for cobalt is set to more than double by 2030 to 388,000 tonnes as the electric vehicle (EV) sector shifts into overdrive, says a new Benchmark Mineral Intelligence report. The outlook entails compound yearly cobalt demand growth of 10% over the weak 2022 figures, according to the Benchmark agency’s May 10 report commissioned by the Istanbul, Turkey-based Cobalt Institute.

“The industry is optimistic the cobalt market will continue to grow in the coming years, driven by the success of cobalt’s use in superalloys and hard metals, and particularly in EVs,” the Cobalt Institute’s interim director general, Caroline Braibant, said in an email to The Northern Miner.

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Why China Is Investing in Africa’s Green Energy Future – by Kate Bartlett (Voice of America – May 3, 2023)

https://www.voanews.com/

JOHANNESBURG — A wind farm in Namibia and a floating solar farm on Zimbabwe’s massive Kariba Dam are among the new green energy projects Chinese companies are looking at investing in this year after Beijing pledged to help African countries address their energy problems with renewable sources rather than fossil fuels.

“Chinese overseas renewable energy investments aim to deliver China’s international climate commitments of accelerating the energy transition away from fossil fuels in Africa, China’s largest trading partner,” Lei Bian, a policy fellow at the The London School of Economics and Political Science, told VOA.

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Rio buys scandium project – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – April 28,2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Rio Tinto has struck a $14-million deal with ASX-listed Platina Resources to acquire its Platina scandium project, in New South Wales. The project comprises a long-life, high-grade scalable resource that could produce up to 40 t/y of scandium oxide, for an estimated period of 30 years.

Rio currently produces scandium oxide from titanium dioxide production waste streams at Sorel-Tracy in Quebec. Once operational, the Platina scandium project will enable Rio Tinto to more than double its yearly scandium production.

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Canada’s goal to weaken China’s grip on rare earth mining hits snag as prices plunge – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 25, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Vital Metals’ construction halt a reality check on what it will take to diversify

The supply chain snarls of the past few years put a wind at the back of rare earth companies, with governments around the world eager to support a homegrown sector. Now, the current economic turbulence and potential for a recession are testing that momentum.

Last week, Australia’s Vital Metals Ltd. announced that it had halted construction on its half-finished rare earth processing facility in Saskatoon, after its costs rose substantially in recent years.

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The U.S. Wants a Rare-Earths Supply Chain. Here’s Why It Won’t Come Easily. – by Yusuf Khan (Wall Street Journal – April 25, 2023)

https://www.wsj.com/

New tax credit bill seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the processing of critical minerals

A bipartisan bill set to be introduced in Congress this week would offer a tax credit for establishing rare-earth magnet production in the U.S., a crucial component for the clean-energy transition. MP Materials efforts to build a local supply chain demonstrate the challenge for American producers.

The bill, to be introduced by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R., Pa.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), includes a $20-a-kilogram credit for U.S.-made magnets, while manufacturers sourcing 90% of their component parts from U.S. producers could be entitled to a $30-a-kilogram credit, according to a draft seen by The Wall Street Journal. The credit is planned to be phased out by Dec. 31, 2035.

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Australia seeks Japan’s help to be critical minerals ‘superpower’ – by Michael Smith (Australian Financial Review – April 21, 2023)

https://www.afr.com/

Tokyo | Australian critical mineral producers say Japan offers crucial capital and a growing market for their products at a time when the federal government is promoting investment from “like-minded” countries instead of dominant player China.

A delegation of Australian critical minerals companies visiting Tokyo this week said they were optimistic about Japan’s ability to replicate the huge investments it has made in Australian gas and iron ore over the decades, but they also warned it was pointless trying to compete with China.

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Indigenous leaders say Saskatchewan ‘woke up a sleeping giant’ by overstepping on critical minerals – by Kevin Philipupillai (Hill Times – April 20, 2023)

https://www.hilltimes.com/

Indigenous leaders are looking to the courts and to the federal government to uphold their rights over critical minerals following recent provincial assertions of control, but a former Liberal staffer says this is not a fight the federal government should be wading into.

The Biden administration’s April 12 vehicle emissions standards announcement, which put a U.S. government-sized thumb on the scale in favour of electric vehicle production, added to the existing pressure to approve and launch critical minerals mines in Canada to supply key materials for electric vehicle batteries. But the race to develop these resources has exacerbated tensions between provinces and the Indigenous nations on whose traditional territory the resources are located.

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N.W.T. rare earth mine owner halts construction of processing plant citing depressed market Social Sharing – by Francis Tessier-Burns (CBC News North – April 20, 2023)

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

The final cost of the plant has grown from $20 million to $60 million

Mere months after a visit from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promoting the importance of critical minerals, Canada’s only rare earth mineral mining project is stopping the construction of its processing plant in Saskatchewan.

In a recent news release, Vital Metals, owner of the N.W.T.’s Nechalacho mine project, said the current scale of operations at its North T pit “will not achieve positive cash flow from the project.” Now the company is looking for new funding sources and partners “to potentially build a sustainable business model for the Saskatoon business.”

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Yellowknife emerging as EV metals hub – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – April 10, 2023)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

The Northwest Territories capital city of Yellowknife is emerging as a northern link in North America’s electric vehicle supply chain. Already home to Canada’s only rare earths mine, a 160-kilometers (100 miles) area around this northern mining town happens to be enriched with the lithium and cobalt that is in massive demand for EV batteries, along with numerous other minerals critical to both Canada and the United States.

A roughly 9,600-square-kilometer (3,700 square miles) area that extends 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Yellowknife to Vital Metal Ltd.’s Nechalacho rare earths mine is riddled with hardrock lithium sources known as pegmatites.

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Africa has ‘golden opportunity’ in battery commodities market – by Simone Lieditke (MiningWeekly.com – April 14,2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The battery commodities market is experiencing a golden age of growth and development, spurred by rapid technological advances and the growing demand for batteries to support cleaner mobility and the roll-out of variable renewables generators.

Global battery demand is forecast to grow by some 1 615 GWh, or 384.5%, over the next eight years, according to statistics aggregator Statista. This anticipated upsurge in demand for lithium-ion and other batteries is largely attributed to the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), which are expected to progressively replace internal combustion engine passenger cars.

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Canada is sitting on a critical minerals mother lode. But is it ready for the new gold rush? – by Christian Paas-Lang (CBC News Politics – April 8,2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Proponents say Canada must do more to turn aspiration into action

Drive two hours north of Ottawa, put on a hard hat and bright orange vest, descend into a pit — and you find yourself on the frontline in the fight to be part of the new, green economy.

A mining project might not be what comes to mind when you think of the transition to a lower emissions economy. But embedded in electric vehicles, solar panels and hydrogen fuel storage are metals and minerals that come from mines like the one in Lac-des-Îles, Que.

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Australia and Germany to partner on critical minerals – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – April 11, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australia and Germany will collaborate on new opportunities for critical mineral projects, with Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King signing a joint Declaration of Intent with Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dr Franziska Brantner.

The Declaration will support a joint study to help Australia meet its ambitions to develop value-added industries around critical minerals, from extraction to refinement and recycling, and to help Germany secure reliable supplies of critical minerals to underpin its manufacturing and recycling activities.

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