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Jakarta. Indonesian nickel and batteries might have a better chance of penetrating the American market should president hopeful Kamala Harris win the upcoming US election, according to a senior economist. 

But a Harris government might only grant entry for Indonesian nickel if it met its green standards, Bhima Yudhistira, the executive director at the economic think-tank Celios, said Tuesday. 

Read more at: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesian-nickel-has-better-chance-of-entering-us-market-if-harris-wins

India remains highly dependent on imports for minerals critical to accelerating its energy transition, with a full reliance on shipping in lithium, cobalt and nickel, according to a report released Monday (October 28, 2024).

The report, published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), said that India’s demand for critical minerals is expected to more than double by 2030, while domestic mining operations may take over a decade to start producing.

Read more at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/energy-transition-india-remains-highly-dependent-on-imports-of-critical-minerals-says-report/article68806064.ece

https://ieefa.org/resources/indias-hunt-critical-minerals

• Lynas facility near Houston shows challenges facing industry
• Beijing controls about 70% of production of the key minerals

A couple hours outside Houston, in a remote field near a Dow Chemical Co. plant, America’s bid to undercut China’s grip on the global supply of rare earth minerals critical to high technology has yet to break ground.

Even when it does, China’s dominance of the market — it controls about 70% of output and more than 90% of refining — means that goal will likely remain out of reach.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-16/china-s-grip-on-rare-earths-undercuts-projects-from-us-to-japan

Carbonyl Iron Powder with high-purity, microscopically small ferrous spheres that have a precisely defined structure and size. Incorporated in the cores of high-frequency coils, this carbonyl iron powder intensifies the magnetic field that is generated when electricity flows into the iron core of the coils, and thus ensures stable direct current. To prevent the energy losses that typically occur with an electroconductive iron core, each of the tiny particles is surrounded by an electrically insulating layer. This suppresses leakage current in the core.

In this way, carbonyl iron powder makes sure that the sensitive electronic components in the compact devices we use every day receive a steady supply of the required voltage. It protects them from voltage fluctuations and makes them more efficient, so even very small high-frequency coils can be extremely powerful. Every tablet computer contains three or four such high-frequency coils with a carbonyl iron powder core, while a notebook has up to 10.

Read more at: https://www.basf.com/sa/en/we-create-chemistry/creating-chemistry-magazine/resources-environment-and-climate/steady-voltage-for-smartphones-tablets

The U.S. military has made its largest move so far in a novel national-security effort to fund mining initiatives in Canada. 

The Pentagon on Tuesday announced a $20 million US grant to create a cobalt refinery in northern Ontario’s Temiskaming Shores. The money will go to the Toronto-based Electra Battery Materials Corporation; the government of Canada is adding $3.6 million US ($4.9 million Cdn) of its own to the project.

This is the third and, by far largest, in a series of Washington’s grants to Canadian projects as part of an initiative announced when U.S. President Joe Biden visited Ottawa in 2022.

Read more at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-ontario-funding-cobalt-refinery-1.7298973