President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, marking his latest attempt to boost U.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
The order, which Trump signed in private, seeks to jumpstart the mining of both U.S. and international waters as part of a push to offset China’s sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.
Nickel-hydrogen technology is safe, durable, and long-lasting – now it’s affordable too.
Battery technology that has powered the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and numerous satellites is now storing energy on Earth, enabling intermittent renewable energy sources to provide steady power.
These extremely durable batteries were made more affordable for the average consumer by California-based EnerVenue Inc., which was able to bring down the cost of the technology by removing the need for expensive platinum, making terrestrial applications more feasible. With the cost-saving innovations, the batteries could be used for power plants, businesses, and homes.
April 18 (Reuters) – The White House on Friday said it will fast-track permitting for 10 mining projects across the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s push to expand critical minerals production.
The projects – which would supply copper, antimony and other minerals – have been granted FAST-41 status, a federal initiative launched in 2015 to streamline approvals of critical infrastructure.
Carved into a mountain range in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, where temperatures often reach 118F (48C), a vast mining complex more than a century old is on the front lines of a race to unlock millions of tons of copper.
After 154 years of digging at Morenci, all the easily recoverable copper has been mined. Left behind are towering piles of waste rock that hold nearly 10 million tons of the metal seen as critical to global electrification. It’s a cache that could prove key to President Donald Trump’s ambition to boost US production of critical minerals.
An LNG tanker is expected to arrive in Canada on April 1 to start cooling down LNG Canada’s plant in Kitimat, British Columbia, considered the final step before the plant begins production of the superchilled gas.
“The delivery is expected in early April and is critical to our safe start-up and commissioning process now underway, and to achieving our first cargo by the middle of 2025,” LNG Canada told Reuters on Monday.
The company is Canada’s first liquefied natural gas export facility and when complete is expected to export 14 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of the superchilled gas.
Once LNG Canada enters service, Canadian gas exports to the U.S. will likely decline, traders said, as Canadian energy firms will have another outlet for their fuel and will sell more to other countries. For now, the U.S. is the only outlet for Canadian gas.
North Americans and Europeans need reliable processes to refine both light and heavy rare earth metals.
The processes currently available in North American and Europe to refine light and heavy rare earth elements do not meet the economic and environmental standard.
Prior to going into mining in unexplored part of the world:
1. We need immediate research and development to improve the existing technologies.
2. Build refineries in the existing mines with infrastructure using developed technologies.
3. Take the price control of the Rare Earth Elements by tariffs or other means until the local refineries optimize the refining processes and operating cost.
We do not want to send the concentrate to another country to do final refining.
Process Development:
“Two different rare earth elements may be fractions of an angstrom different in diameter — that means it’s very difficult to separate using physical means. The processes that are used right now … can be 100 steps,” Chrisey said, also noting that the procedure can be very expensive and environmentally hazardous due to the chemicals used to separate and purify the metals.
Molycorp was struggling to stay solvent. Those new innovative technologies? They didn’t generate significant revenue or work as designed. By 2013, the company’s revenues were in free fall.
Molycorp’s most profitable assets being transferred to Chinese-linked Neo Materials, where he formerly served as CEO. Molycorp’s final remaining husk declared bankruptcy in 2014. Unsurprisingly, the majority of Neo Materials’ revenue-producing operations are now in China. To make matters worse, the Mountain Pass mine was purchased out of bankruptcy by a consortium that included a Chinese-owned firm.
Mountain Pass was now sending U.S.-mined rare earth concentrate to China for processing. The dream of a one-stop American rare earths solution was over, and the private sector had little appetite for reviving it.
Crucial innovation is also needed to break China’s stranglehold on the sector without sacrificing environmental quality, industry analysts said, with concerns over current processes’ toxic waste impeding projects.
Technical complexities, partnership strains and pollution concerns are hampering companies’ ability to wrest market share away from China, which according to the International Energy Agency controls 87% of global rare earths refining capacity.
Late last year, U.S.-based MP said it was commissioning refining equipment near its California mine as part of an intricate calibration process that has so far not succeeded, leaving the company reliant on China for refining and thus nearly all of its revenue.
The town of Mountain Pass, California, is home to the largest rare-earth element mine in the U.S. Its story began in the 1940s, when prospectors went searching for uranium.
The U.S. contains potential sources for many of them, and powerful voices in politics and business insist that the country must exploit them. But despite skyrocketing demand for the energy-critical elements, would-be domestic producers just can’t compete with global forces. This then is a story of comprehensive failure — but not the obvious one. Molycorp’s impending demise reflects failure by politicians and the media to understand how weak China’s grip on the metals market really is, and failure by Wall Street to understand the most basic dynamics of supply and demand, and failure by Silicon Valley to distinguish between hype and hard numbers.
China’s refining expertise has allowed the country to engineer rare earths prices at different stages in the processing chains to its advantage, including low prices for finished products, to inhibit foreign competition.
Beijing for years has allowed imports of lightly processed rock known as rare earths concentrate for refining. The strategy helps ensure prices that incentivize other countries to dig new mines but not build processing plants.
China plans to prohibit non-state companies from mining rare earths, further tightening its control over a strategic sector that has emerged as a battleground in its trade war with the US. The government said only large state-owned groups can mine, smelt or separate the minerals and proposed banning private firms from the activities, according to draft rules issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) predict the country’s unparalleled dominance of the world’s supplies of rare earths – critical to hi-tech and green industries – could be coming to an end.
In a study published last week by the peer-reviewed journal Chinese Rare Earths, the scientists warned that the country’s estimated 62 per cent share of the raw materials may fall to just 28 per cent by 2035 as new sources emerge.
Modelling by the researchers predicted a further drop to 23 per cent in 2040, with China “entirely losing its former dominant position” as the opening up of mining frontiers in Africa, South America and Australia potentially reshapes the industry.
The results suggest “fundamental shifts” were under way, the paper said.
Even China’s heavy rare earths stronghold in southern China – concentrated in its ion-adsorption clays – could be threatened by Greenland’s Kvanefjeld and a number of South American projects, according to the paper.
The study was led by researchers at the CAS Ganjiang Innovation Academy in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, eastern China – one of the world’s largest production centres of the critically important metals.
(Reuters) -The United States is open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with Congo, the State Department said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday, after a Congolese senator contacted U.S. officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.
Democratic Republic of Congo, which is rich in cobalt, lithium and uranium among other minerals.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced 32 projects representing a total investment up to $50 million to support the development of Canada’s critical mineral value chains to create good jobs, support economic opportunities, bolster our energy security by reducing reliance on authoritarian governments and contribute to a resilient and secure future.
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Anglo American’s sale of its Brazilian nickel business to China’s MMG Ltd presents a corporate win-win.
Anglo fulfills its promise to shareholders by simplifying its portfolio and gaining up to $500m. Meanwhile, MMG, a major copper, cobalt, and zinc producer, diversifies into nickel and expands into Brazil, targeting the resilient segment of the nickel market.
However, this raises concerns for Western nations trying to reduce reliance on China for nickel supply, as Chinese firms already control about 75% of Indonesia’s refining capacity. With other Western nickel producers seeking to sell due to low prices, China’s dominance could increase further.
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