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#Pentagon plans #AI-based program to estimate prices for critical minerals

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

The US Department of Defense plans to develop a program to estimate prices and predict supplies of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals, a move aimed at boosting market transparency but one that throws a new, uncertain variable into global metals markets.

The program, which received little attention after it was announced on a Pentagon website in October, is part of Washington’s broader efforts to jumpstart US production of critical minerals used in weapons manufacturing and the energy transition.

US output lags market leader China partly because attempts to build new American mines can be heavily influenced by commodity price swings.

The Pentagon’s work is being run by its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) division, which was formed in response to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite and helped develop the Internet and the mRNA vaccine for Covid-19.

DARPA and the US Geological Survey plan to hire one or more private contractors to develop an artificial intelligence-backed model that would construct a metal’s “structural price” based on where and when it is produced, as well as labor, supply and other costs, according to documents seen by Reuters that describe the program, including a slide deck that DARPA presented last November to prospective contractors.

#Vale’s $10 billion spend on #Canada targets existing potential

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Vale Base Metals chairman Mark Cutifani is undertaking a unit-wide asset review that will likely find more potential at the company’s operations in Sudbury, Ontario; Thompson, Manitoba; and Voisey’s Bay and Long Harbour, Newfoundland; Olson said.

Vale also may have an announcement soon on the Bécancour nickel sulphide processing project it’s advancing to supply 25,000 tonnes of nickel a year to General Motors, she said. That deal, announced just over one year ago could be worth about C$762 million per year.

“There’s just a clarity and a certainty in regulation and Canada is a mining country and with that comes a lower risk, and equally you have the wonderful benefit of renewable and clean power,” Olson said. “Canada has a great opportunity to further establish itself as a leader in our industry with community and Indigenous rights leaders.”

#Pentagon to deliver report on domestic seafloor mining by March

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law on Jan. 3, US President Joe Biden has directed the House Armed Services Committee to submit a report on the domestic processing of seafloor polymetallic nodules.

The Pentagon will deliver a report assessing deep-sea mining by March 1.

Last month, 31 members of Congress wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense and the Pentagon urging the Department of Defense to “explore every avenue to strengthen our rare earth and critical mineral supply chains”, emphasizing “the importance of evaluating and planning for seabed mining as a new vector of competition…”

In November 2023, a bipartisan coalition led by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reintroduced a resolution urging the US Senate to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They argued that sitting out risks letting the rest of the world dictate maritime agendas, from seabed mining to critical subsea infrastructure.

#China likely to beat #Europe, #US in meeting battery metals demand through recycling – study

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

China is the most likely candidate to first meet its entire demand for the three most important raw materials for batteries – lithium, cobalt and nickel – through recycling, new research has found.

According to a study by a team at the University of Münster, the race to achieve a complete circular economy for key battery metals will see Europe arriving in second and the US in third place.

In detail, the results show that China is expected to be able to employ recycling to meet its own demand for primary lithium for electric vehicles from 2059 onwards; in Europe and the US, this will not happen until after 2070.

When it comes to cobalt, recycling is expected to ensure that China will be able to meet its needs after 2045, at the earliest; in Europe, this will happen in 2052 and in the US not until 2056.

Finally, for nickel, China can probably meet demand through recycling in 2046 at the earliest, with Europe following in 2058 and the US from 2064 onwards, according to the report.

#China metals firms see #US rules unlikely to upend supply chains

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Chinese firms producing and processing battery materials see new US rules aimed at limiting Beijing’s grip on the electric-vehicle industry as less stringent than feared, allowing them to preserve a key role in the global supply chain.

Washington’s move, which seeks to cut China out of US tax credits and curb the country’s control over joint ventures, created uncertainty at the end of last week, with questions swirling around the status of Chinese-owned battery-material operations outside the mainland, and over the impact on the wider car and battery industry.