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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.”

#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.

#Norway lawmakers back deep-sea mining in Arctic Ocean

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Norway has secured a parliamentary majority to go ahead with plans to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration, despite environmental groups and the fishing industry’s warnings that the move would risk the biodiversity of vulnerable ecosystems.

The country’s minority centre-left government and two large opposition parties backed on Tuesday a government’s proposal announced in June to position the country as a frontrunner in commercial-scale deep-sea mining.

The move by the European country, where vast oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest nations, has as goal to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.

#Bloomberg: #Volvo Cars Goes for Blockchain Tech to Avoid Unethical #Cobalt

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Volvo Cars will use blockchain technology to trace the origin of cobalt used in its batteries in an effort to avoid supplies produced by children and under unethical conditions.

The commodity, an important ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, is mainly extracted in Congo, which last year produced more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt.

While the mineral is mainly taken out of the ground by large industrial mines, about 17% is dug by hand by thousands of miners operating in the southeastern Katanga region before being sold on to intermediaries, according to trading house Darton Commodities. At that point, it’s difficult to distinguish from ethically mined cobalt.

Metals

Chinese demand for cobalt raw material will be healthy this year, Jinchuan exec says

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Demand for cobalt raw material in China will be healthy this year as there is “no stock” in the country, according to the head of Jinchuan International’s nickel and cobalt division.

http://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3184563/Minor-and-precious-metals/Chinas-demand-for-cobalt-raw-material-will-be-healthy-this-year.html