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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came to the White House Monday offering cheaper access to the continent’s rare earth minerals and an invitation to visit to play golf. President Donald Trump gifted his fellow world leader a pledge to not only honor a Biden-era agreement on nuclear-powered submarines, but speed up production in an effort to boost allied naval power in the Pacific.

China’s influence loomed over both deals, as well as Albanese’s entire visit. Over the course of the meeting in the Cabinet Room, the longstanding alliance between Australia and the U.S. seemed bolstered as both countries made moves to counter Beijing’s creeping influence over the Pacific and China’s dominance of the raw materials used in new technologies.

Read more at: https://time.com/7327042/trump-australia-rare-earth-minerals-china/

A U.S. metals company signed a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan on Monday.

Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organization — which is the country’s largest miner of critical minerals — signed a memorandum of understanding with Missouri-based U.S. Strategic Metals for collaboration plans that include setting up a poly-metallic refinery in Pakistan.

Read more at: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/u-s-firm-agrees-500-million-investment-deal-with-pakistan-for-critical-minerals/

Canada is re-positioning itself to take advantage of the growing electric vehicle supply chain, after years of overlooking the battery industry.

Despite the promising foundations for Canada to be a cornerstone of the North American battery supply chain, until recently it had appeared that there was a lack of support at the government/policy level to attract the industry. This is no longer the case, in just the last two weeks two cell manufacturers have been enticed to set up shop in Canada, with plans to build gigawatt-hour scale cell manufacturing facilities in the country.

Britishvolt, a UK-headquartered cell manufacturing startup, plans to build a 60GWh plant in Quebec. While Stromvolt, a Canadian headquartered startup, is planning a 10GWh plant in Ontario. Combined with announcements south of the boarder, North America has plans for over 400GWh of capacity to be built this decade. This is still short of the 508GWh annual demand the region will have by 2030, so expect more announcements to come.

Read more at: Canada Poised to Become Battery Leader in North America – Bloomberg

The U.S. has pumped millions of dollars into researching how to extract rare-earth minerals from abandoned coal fields, an approach some say won’t work. The Pentagon has invested in a U.S.-based rare-earth magnets manufacturer that sources many of its products from China. Canada has put money into a 21-year-old mining company that has never mined and handed an option to control its main asset to a business run by the chief executive’s son.

The U.S. and other Western governments are rushing to secure domestic supplies of materials including rare earths, lithium and boron, which are essential for growing technologies such as electric vehicles, satellites and wind turbines. They also want to develop the capability to process them.

The Senate this month approved a bipartisan, $250 billion bill to boost government spending on technology research and development to catch up with China, including funds for digging up and processing critical minerals at home and with allied nations.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-plans-to-spend-big-on-critical-minerals-choosing-where-isnt-easy-11624186800

Indonesia laid down its plans to have a complete battery production line onshore, with a state-owned holding firm to be set up by June.

The country has drafted an “end-to-end development” plan that would see four state firms supplying nickel ore, processing nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate, and then producing cathodes and batteries, Agus Tjahajana, who heads the task force on electric-vehicle development, said in a Thursday seminar.

Resource-rich Indonesia, home to a quarter of the world’s nickel reserves, has set its sights on moving up the supply chain to become a global hub for battery-making. The surge in demand for batteries, used to power everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles, has become a tailwind for Southeast Asia’s largest economy as it seeks a way out of a recession.

Top Battery Makers Discuss $20 Billion Indonesia EV Plans (1)

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-14/top-battery-makers-in-talks-over-20-billion-indonesia-ev-plans

Nickel tumbled after a major Chinese producer’s unexpected plan to add supply eased concerns about a structural deficit for the material that Elon Musk has said is the biggest concern for Tesla Inc. batteries.

Nickel is critical to the world’s clean-energy transition.

Tsingshan Holding Group Co., the world’s top stainless steel producer, will soon start supplying nickel matte to Chinese battery material producers and plans to expand its nickel investments in Indonesia. Matte is an intermediate product made from concentrate that can be further processed into battery-grade chemicals.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/nickel-slumps-as-key-producer-s-supply-plans-ease-deficit-fears