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#US #CriticalMinerals talks advance with #EU, #Japan on price floor

Posted on March 13, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

A display of critical metals featuring a metal ingot labeled 'CRITICAL METALS', two batteries, and assorted rocks, with the flags of the United States, European Union, and Japan in the background alongside the Statue of Liberty and Tokyo Tower.

The US, Japan and the European Union are set to announce plans in the coming weeks to lay the foundation for a trade agreement in critical minerals, according to people familiar with the preparations.

The Office of the US Trade Representative, which has led negotiations with Brussels and Tokyo on the framework, will also head talks for a trade deal that is set to include a price floor and tariffs for the materials to counter any market distortions by China, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Global efforts to diversify critical minerals supply chains intensified after Beijing last year imposed sweeping export controls, including on rare earths and critical minerals, in response to President Donald Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs, which set a 10% levy on nearly all American imports.

Beijing has threatened it would retaliate against the formation of a bloc that would target its exports.

The supply crunch has eased somewhat since its worst point last summer and fall, but companies still complain that they don’t receive the quantities they need and have ordered from Chinese suppliers.

#Trump eyes #Pentagon #AI program for trade block’s #CriticalMinerals pricing

Posted on February 25, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Control room at The Pentagon analyzing critical minerals pricing and trends with AI, featuring charts on lithium and rare earth element prices, alongside displays of global supply and top producers.

The Trump administration plans to use a Pentagon-created artificial intelligence program to help set reference prices for critical minerals as it works to build a global metals trading zone, three sources with direct knowledge of the effort told Reuters.

Vice President JD Vance earlier this month proposed that the U.S. and more than 50 other countries impose “reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production” that would be backed by “adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity.”

Those reference prices will be set by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Open Price Exploration for National Security (OPEN) AI metals program, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The move sheds light on how the administration aims to shape market pricing, even as the AI technology has faced skepticism for whether it can retool how critical minerals are bought and sold.

The OPEN program was launched in 2023 by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the goal of calculating what a metal should be priced at when labor, processing and other costs are factored in and when alleged Chinese market manipulation is factored out.

The processes currently available in North American and Europe to refine light and heavy rare earth elements do not meet the economic and environmental standard.

March 24, 2025

Why #Greenland? not #Mountainpass, #California for #RareEarth elements?

Prior to going into mining in unexplored part of the world:

1. We need immediate research and development to improve the existing technologies.

2. Build refineries in the existing mines with infrastructure using developed technologies.

3. Take the price control of the Rare Earth Elements by tariffs or other means until the local refineries optimize the refining processes and operating cost.

We do not want to send the concentrate to another country to do final refining.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-eyes-pentagon-ai-program-trade-blocks-minerals-pricing-sources-say-2026-02-24/

#US Agencies Have Developed #CriticalMinerals Price Floor System

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

An image representing critical minerals with an upward growth graph, rocks, and battery cans, featuring flags of the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the EU in the background.

The US has developed a critical minerals price floor system that it’s pitching to allies as the Trump administration and more than 50 countries look to reduce dependence on China for the resources that are deemed critical to national security.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said multiple US agencies have developed the system and are having conversations with allies and partners. It’s the latest update to progress being made by the US and its allies to ringfence Western companies from China’s pressure on those markets.

#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.

#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.