A Blog for Browsing Mining, Mineral Processing, and Metals Info

In August, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, making a historic investment to rebuild industries that the U.S. invented but allowed China and other nations to capture. The legislation includes important production tax credits for critical mineral producers and refiners as well as manufacturers. But more is needed, including permitting reform, to gain energy independence from hostile nations such as China.

Credit Suisse estimates that the legislation’s tax incentives — combined with ensuing private capital investments — may total $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. Having kicked off this green gold rush, it behooves us to now think about protecting these investments.

A particular threat is China’s domination of the world’s mineral supply chains, thanks to Beijing’s massive subsidies and predatory trade behavior.  World Trade Organization rules have proved fruitless in dissuading Beijing from using its alarming grip on raw materials as a source of geopolitical leverage.

This will undoubtedly affect America’s electric vehicle (EV) ambitions. The building blocks for EVs are still largely imported — even as demand for key battery metals is exploding. It’s predicted that by 2040, the demand for EV inputs of lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt could increase by a staggering 30 times. Unfortunately, China has already established a stranglehold on these resources, since Beijing controls 70% of the world’s lithium supplies and almost all of the world’s graphite. Especially concerning is China’s control of cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo that use child labor.

Read more at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/25/us-must-build-ev-batteries-and-advanced-technologi/

The chief executive of Vale SA said on Friday the Brazilian iron ore miner is reconsidering a near-term spin-off of its base metals business and an eventual public listing.

The Brazilian miner had a longstanding plan to sell the unit that was still being considered as recently as 2021.

But rather than selling all or part of it, the company is now looking to separate and ring-fence the copper and nickel unit from the iron ore business as the two have different growth prospects, Eduardo Bartolomeo said at the FT Mining Summit.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/vale-ceo-says-iron-ore-miner-will-spin-off-copper-nickel-unit-2022-10-21/

The White House selected 20 U.S. manufacturers and processors across 12 states for some of the first green metals funding from the US$135 billion pool initially approved almost a year ago in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.  
 
The U.S. is among countries in the West that want to lessen dependency on China, Russia and other regimes like the Democratic Republic of Congo that control global supplies in key minerals or mineral processing facilities needed for transitions to sustainable energy and widespread modern tech gadgets.

Read more at: https://www.northernminer.com/news/biden-hands-out-first-ev-battery-metals-funding-to-albemarle-piedmont-and-talon-among-others/1003847646/

“The need for critical minerals is heightened with a focus on the electrification movement in transportation and will continue to accelerate”.

“Over the next five years, there will be more attention on recycled content and domestic supply.”

The last twelve months proved turbulent for the electrical products market. This is true whether you’re a raw material miner, refiner, manufacturer, or end user. Indeed, ongoing issues with battery metal prices and supply security affected millions. After demand rose dramatically, Chinese battery makers began snapping up resources left and right. This left major automakers scrambling to shore up supply agreements for raw materials and the associated downstream battery supply chains.

Both cost and security of supply have become significant concerns across both commercial and defense industries. In fact, these worries have made it all the way to the White House. As with rare earth metals, the reliance on overseas supply sources leaves the supply chain dangerously exposed.

What’s more, the companies see a closed-loop domestic recycling industry as critical. This is not only for self-sufficiency, but for environmental reasons. Without an adequate recycling industry, electronic components like batteries will only continue to end up in landfills.

SINGAPORE: Singapore Exchange (SGX) is set to launch its first lithium and cobalt contracts, adding to efforts by commodity exchanges to get battery materials companies and investors interested in using futures.

SGX is due to kick off trading in two lithium and two cobalt contracts.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) and CME Group Inc already offer futures for both metals, although trading liquidity is still far below established commodities contracts.

Demand for battery minerals is expanding rapidly as the global auto industry accelerates a push toward electric vehicles, triggering big price swings.

A global index of lithium prices has more than quadrupled in the past year, while Chinese lithium carbonate just hit a fresh record last week.

Read more at: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2022/09/27/sgx-set-to-unveil————-ev-metals-futures

Scorching gains for lithium, a raw material vital for powering electric vehicles, threaten to push costs even higher for Chinese battery makers, and the government is finding itself powerless to do anything about it.

Even after a meeting last week where Chinese authorities pleaded with major producers to stabilize prices, lithium carbonate surged to a fresh record, rising to 500,500 yuan ($70,716) a ton. In yuan terms, that exceeds the level prevailing when Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk called prices “insane” earlier this year.

“In the short term, I don’t think the meeting will help China cool the rally,” said Peng Xu, analyst at BloombergNEF. Prices for seaborne spodumene — a partly processed form of lithium — are increasing amid a supply-demand mismatch and that’s squeezing the margins of Chinese lithium refiners, Xu said, adding there’s still room for further gains from current price levels.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-22/china-may-find-it-hard-to-cool-lithium-s-rally-this-time-around

The growing market for electric vehicle batteries is expected to boost Glencore’s recycling operations in Sudbury, Ont.

The mining giant has been recycling metals at its Sudbury smelter for 32 years. 

Those alloys, which come from things like aircraft engine turbines or even parts from machine shops, are melted down, granulated and shipped to a facility in Norway, where they are separated into their base elements like nickel and cobalt.

Read more at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/battery-recycling-glencore-sudbury-1.6590472