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Companies such as Ford (F) are collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into electric vehicles (EVs). But as the industry transitions toward zero carbon emissions, battery supply chains could stand in the way of those ambitions.

Yahoo Finance

Ford CEO on EV transition: 'Batteries are the constraint'

The discovery of major lithium deposits is being seen as a mixed blessing in India's troubled Kashmir region, where hopes for a major economic boost are tempered by fears of human displacement and damage to the territory's fragile ecology.

Lithium Discovery Seen as Mixed Blessing in India's Kashmir

China set a quota for the first batch of rare-earth mining in 2023 at 120,000 tons on Friday, up by about 20 percent compared with last year's level, with a quota for smelting and separation at 115,000 tons, also up from 97,200 tons in 2022.

Global Times

China hikes rare-earth quota by nearly 20% amid rising demand

Companies such as Eramet, Wealth Minerals, Lithium Power International, Minera Salar Blanco, Simco and BYD are ready to fully start operations as soon as Chile's national lithium policy is published.

bnamericas

Foreign companies queue up to boost Chile's lithium sector

Clayton Utz has advised Japan Australia Rare Earths B.V. (JARE) on a $200 million capital investment and priority supply agreement with Lynas Rare Earths Australia.

Australasian Lawyer

Clayton Utz advises Japan Australia Rare Earths on capital and supply agreements

The increasing demand for electric vehicles has set China's attention on Africa as it seeks out the lithium it needs to produce EVs batteries.

ESI Africa

China's moves to dominate lithium mining in Africa

As the whole of Europe moves towards the energy transition, French mining group Eramet is developing techniques to recycle critical metals used in electric cars.

The aim is to reuse metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium to make new batteries.

It is all part of the effort to stick to The European Parliament’s new law banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2035.

Euronews

This company has come up with a cutting-edge way to recycle EV batteries

A trade deal with Chile shows Brussels is trying to appear to be a development partner rather than a neocolonial extractor.

Financial Times

EU seeks to tone down the imperial style in search for critical minerals

Chile’s government plans to require all new lithium projects to tap a production technique that’s barely used commercially anywhere in a bid to reduce water losses.

Mining.com

Chile pushes new lithium extraction method in risk to future supply

Geopolitical dynamics in the battery metals space have taken center stage in the past year as governments around the world continue to pursue green policies and wake up to supply chain vulnerabilities.

Investing News Network

Hard Work Needed as North America Builds Battery Metals Supply Chain

Beijing’s industrial policy essentially pushed Western companies out of the rare earth mining and processing business. It's time to fight back.

THE NATIONAL INTEREST

Rare Earths Supply Chains and Confrontation with China

Argentina's mining exports hit historic levels last year, the government said on Tuesday, powered by surging lithium income as the South American agricultural powerhouse targets profits from the metal key to meeting booming electric vehicle (EV) demand.



Reuters

Argentine mining exports hit 10-year high as lithium, EVs take off

The Metals Company (TMC) on Tuesday released the results of a lifecycle assessment of the environmental impacts of the company’s NORI-D Polymetallic Nodule Project carried out by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.



Study shows seafloor cobalt, nickel mining dramatically lowers battery metals environmental impact

An unexpected decline in the price of an essential battery material, along with those of other commodities, is good news for buyers. But experts disagree on how long the low prices will last.

The New York Times

Falling Lithium Prices Are Making Electric Cars More Affordable

The electrification of automobiles is projected to drive the lithium-ion battery market, considerably increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries in the near future. The growing awareness of the amount of carbon emissions released into the environment from automobiles, plus the recent advances made in battery technology, has helped spur the adoption of electric vehicles around the globe.

Batteries News

Lithium Producers Play a Vital Role in the Electrification of Vehicles

There’s an old adage for commodities that says, “the cure for high prices is high prices.” The inverse is true as well. In fact, I often heard this phrase when I worked in the oil industry. At the same time, I often heard people say “But this time is different. This time there is no easy cure.” I heard that in 2008 when oil prices first topped $100 a barrel. Many people were predicting $200 a barrel. But a funny thing happened. Those high oil prices caused a recession, which reduced demand, which reduced prices.

Oil Price

Can The Lithium Price Boom Be Compared To Oil’s Last Supercycle

Federal scientists are using recon flights and field research to track down metals that are key to the energy transition.


Grist

A government program hopes to find critical minerals right beneath our feet

A recent report by Deloitte Canada makes a case for decarbonizing commercial vehicles as a measure that is eventually less expensive than maintaining internal combustion vehicles and that has a greater impact on emissions reductions than doing so on passenger vehicles.

Electrification of Canada’s commercial vehicles may yield benefits earlier rather than later – report

How a battle over mineral resources in Argentina could determine the fight against global warming.



Al Jazeera

Argentina’s ‘white gold’: Will its lithium boom end badly?

Almost 6 metric million tons of lithium have been discovered in Indian-administered Kashmir. Authorities hope lithium mining will help India become more self-reliant. Critics say it will only worsen global warming.

DW News

India: Mixed reactions to major lithium discovery

A Japanese trading company has announced its intention to start a new rare earth supply chain, in a move that will be important to the manufacture of electric vehicles, according to an industry expert.

Pinsent Masons

Japan to start new rare earth supply chain for electric vehicle production

The EU is shooting for greater independence to source materials like lithium needed to make batteries for electric vehicles. Could activists like those in the Spanish city Caceres stand in the way of a new mining wave?

EU green-tech homeshoring plans face resistance in Spain

As the energy revolution continues to march onward, several pension funds and carmakers have taken notice and are investing in critical minerals projects to tackle a looming battery metals shortage.

Baystreet

Auto Giants Gobbling Up Critical Battery Metal Supply Chain Assets

Mkango Resources Ltd. are pleased to announce that they have closed the previously announced £1.5 million investment by CoTec into Mkango’s subsidiary, Maginito Limited. In connection therewith, Maginito and CoTec have agreed to collaborate on the commercialisation of downstream rare earth technologies in the United States and Mkango Rare Earths UK Ltd has been transferred to become a subsidiary of Maginito.

Globe Newswire

Completion of £1.5 Million Investment by CoTec Into Maginito Limited and Co-Operation Agreement Signed for Development of Rare Earth Technologies in the United States

Despite efforts from the United States and the EU to diversify their supply chains of critical minerals, China is expected to raise its share of the global supply of some of the metals key to accelerating the energy transition. China is a large supplier of lithium and cobalt, which are used in batteries and are critical for the rollout of renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Critical Metals Race Accelerates Amid Boom In Lithium Supply

Conservationists are spooked by Brussels’ plans to ramp up mining of critical raw materials, but advocates say it’s needed to hit the bloc’s green goals.

Politico

Europe’s green dilemma: Mining key minerals without destroying nature

A South Korean city home to one of the world’s biggest steelmakers is betting its manufacturing expertise, billions of dollars in investments and government incentives can help it dominate a 21st century industry: electric vehicle batteries. 

Bloomberg

Battery Makers Plow $31 Billion Into Remaking Korean Steel Hub

Japan and Canada are discussing collaboration on building strong supply chains for battery metals, Japan's industry minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said on Tuesday.

Japan, Canada in talks over collaboration in battery metals supply chain

Blair Way, the Company’s President, CEO, & Director, comments: “The Corvette Property is shaping up as an extraordinary discovery and the strong support shown for this capital raising is a testament to that. We are now fully funded to undertake an expanded exploration, environmental and prefeasibility study programs well into 2024 and continue to deliver our business plan without the fear of uncertain market conditions facing the world currently. 

Patriot Battery Metals Announces C$50M Flow-Through Financing

Canada has one of the largest deposits of minerals that are essential to manufacture of electric cars.

CNBC

Canada is aiming to beat China in the critical race for rare earth metals

Japan and Canada are looking to join forces to build stronger supply chains for battery metals.

A public-private mission led by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and including 16 companies that work with batteries, visited Canada last week for talks on constructing sustainable and resilient supply chains, he said.

Asia Financial

Japan, Canada to Build Joint Battery Metals Supply Chain

While the mining sector has started to pick up in the Arab Gulf states, Iran has introduced measures to expand its mining and metals sector in recent years as part of plans to diversify its economy away from oil revenues.

Iran’s lithium discovery and potential implications to the global battery and electric mobility ecosystem

Electra Battery Materials Corporation announced today that it has successfully recovered lithium, a critical mineral needed for the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain, in its black mass recycling trial being conducted at its refinery north of Toronto

Business Wire

Electra Produces Lithium from Battery Recycling Trial, Significantly Improving its Project Economics

India’s northern federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir will auction a lithium block discovered last month, the country’s mines minister said in parliament on Monday.

India to auction newly found lithium reserve

Japan and Canada are discussing collaboration on building strong supply chains for battery metals, Japan's industry minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said on Tuesday.



The United States has only one rare earths mine and has no capability to process rare earth minerals.

Rebellion Research

Are There Rare Earth Metals In The US?

Mining is dirty work. But it's the work of the future

The rare earths race entails difficult choices

There aren’t many places on Earth as far removed from the political scheming of the European Union’s rain-soaked headquarters in Brussels as Chile’s Salar de Atacama. 



White gold rush: How the race for raw materials will reshape the world

China’s efforts to ramp up lithium extraction could see it accounting for nearly a third of the world’s supply by the middle of the decade, according to UBS AG.



China could control a third of the world’s lithium by 2025

Inspections target illegal mining of a key battery material

China Lithium Probe Puts Spotlight on Reserves and ESG Risks

US and EU officials will launch new talks on trade in critical minerals as Ursula von der Leyen visits the White House on Friday

US and EU to launch new talks on critical minerals trade in green tech race

Bloc is looking to respond to Biden’s IRA incentives and diversify away from China and Russia

The Wall Street Journal

EU Draft Law Sets Out Moves to Secure Supply of Critical Energy Transition Materials

Huge lithium deposits have been discovered in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir, but extraction carries risks in environmentally fragile Himalayas.

Eco-Business

India’s lithium discovery comes with environmental costs

Japan has acquired its first interest in heavy rare-earth elements, which are essential for magnets used in electric vehicle motors, in a step toward weaning off a reliance on China, the world's top producer.

Nikkei Asia

Japan takes first stake in heavy rare earths to reduce China reliance

The demand for lithium is rising as it has become a critical component needed in electric vehicle batteries.

Is the U.S. falling behind China in Africa’s lithium industry?

The Iranian government claimed last week it had found a new deposit of lithium in the Hamedan province, worth 10% of all global lithium resources, but experts say this marks no shift in EU-Iran diplomatic ties.

Euractiv

Iranian lithium deposits: EU can ‘easily’ do without, experts say

Tesla (TSLA.O) will eliminate the use of rare earths in its next-generation electric vehicles (EV).

Tesla hits the brakes but rare earths juggernaut rolls on

Tepid global demand for metals driven by recession fears and China’s weak economic recovery have done little to shake the belief among miners that battery materials are heading for an epic bull run.

Battery Metal Frenzy Outshines Recovery Fears at Mining Show

At Tesla's Investor Day in March 2023, it announced that its next generation of electric motors would contain no rare earth materials.

IdTechEx

How Can Tesla Shift Away from Rare Earths?

Mining & Metals | Battery Metals

If you go back 75 years, Durham’s main export was not education, but coal.

Palatinate

Black gold: a brief history of coal mining in County Durham

The seaborne coal market grew by almost 6% during 2022, reversing the negative trend of the previous years. As more countries chose to boost their use of conventional energy, coal was again in high demand. However, Australia’s coal exports were still down last year, mainly as a result of China’s choice of alternative markets for its coal needs.

Hellenic Shipping News

Australian Coal Exports Down in 2022, Despite Overall Rise in Seaborne Coal Trade

Most of the roughly 2.5 tons of natural uranium ore concentrate (UOC) recently declared missing from a site in Libya have been found at that site, the U.N. nuclear watchdog told member states on Friday in a statement seen by Reuters.




Exclusive: IAEA confirms almost all missing uranium in Libya now accounted for

At least 13 million Indians in the poorest regions depend on the country’s coal ecosystem for a living, but many of them risk losing their jobs and incomes as India starts to move away from climate-heating coal toward clean energy this decade.

Japan Times

India's shrinking coal jobs fuel 'distress' migration to cities

Jerusalem has warned the United States and several European countries that Iranian enrichment of uranium beyond 60 percent could trigger an Israeli military strike.

Jewish News Syndicate

Israel threatens military strike if Iran enriches uranium above 60 percent

Britain's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Wednesday there was no nuclear escalation in the Ukraine war after Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised Britain for supplying depleted uranium tank munitions to Ukrainian forces.



UK says no nuclear escalation in Ukraine after row over depleted uranium munitions

China's plans for some 100 new coal-fired power plants to back up wind and solar capacity have sparked warnings that the world's second-biggest economy is likely to end up lumbered with even more loss-making power assets.



Analysis: China's new coal plants set to become a costly second fiddle to renewables

The Australian Greens party has focused on a ban on new thermal coal developments or a climate trigger in planning approvals, as key to its support for the ruling Labor Party's climate legislation.

Argus Media

Australian Greens eye banning new thermal coal projects

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow would be “forced to react” if the United Kingdom provides Ukraine with armour-piercing tank ammunition that contains depleted uranium.

Putin warns UK over depleted uranium tank shells for Ukraine

Australia has 116 new coal, oil and gas projects in the pipeline. If they all proceed as planned, an extra 1.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases would be released into the atmosphere annually by 2030.

The Conversation

Australia’s 116 new coal, oil and gas projects equate to 215 new coal power stations

China's average daily coal imports from Russia rose in the first two months of 2023 compared with December, boosted by strong restocking demand as Beijing lifted its zero-COVID regime, but logistics bottlenecks still capped shipments.

China's Jan-Feb coal imports from Russia rise, Australia supply resumes

Ten miners reported missing after an explosion caused by accumulated gas in coal mines in central Colombia have been found dead, raising the death toll to 21, authorities said on Thursday.

Death toll from Colombia coal mine explosion climbs to 21

 Efforts are underway to find more than 2 tons of natural uranium reported missing from supplies held in Libya, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Wednesday

More than 2 tons of natural uranium is missing in Libya, UN nuclear watchdog says

Campaigners trying to stop 40 million tonnes being extracted from a mine need "a reality check", a court has heard.

Climate change: Coal mine protesters told they need reality check

Armed forces in eastern Libya say they have found about two and a half tonnes of uranium ore that were reported missing by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Libya uranium: Missing barrels recovered, say eastern forces

The German government is in talks with the country’s second-biggest coal miner to end production by 2030, eight years earlier than the company planned, according to people familiar with the matter.

Germany in talks with coal giant to end mining eight years early

A coal-fired power plant "will close as planned" this month, despite its recent use as an emergency backup. Energy company EDF confirmed West Burton A in Nottinghamshire will cease to operate from March 31st.

Coal power plant 'to close as planned' despite winter standby request

The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said approximately 2.3 tonnes of natural uranium have gone missing from a site in Libya not under government control, news agencies have reported.

UN says tonnes of uranium missing from Libyan site: Reports

Energy security fears prompted Beijing to rapidly accelerate coal power plans last year, raising concerns about the country’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions

Climate Home News

Chinese coal boom a ‘direct threat’ to 1.5C goal, analysts warn

A scoping study into the Blackbush deposit at the Samphire uranium project, in South Australia, has confirmed that the project could produce one-million pounds a year of uranium oxide (U3O8) over a mine life of eight years.

Mining Weekly

Alligator hopeful of uranium future in S Australia

In what sounds like it could be the beginning of a sci-fi story, uranium caught fire at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge

Knoxville News Sentinel

How could uranium have caught fire at Y-12?

Communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal have been at loggerheads with Tendele Coal Mine over land destruction, water pollution and the killing of activists.

Lifegate

Giant coal mine in South Africa leaves trail of evictions and death

China’s massive clean energy boom has unfolded in tandem with a major uptick in coal-fired power, proving onceagain that the country’s leading role in clean energy spending is all about energy security rather than a commitment to cleaning up its carbon footprint. 



The High Price Of Energy Security: China’s Love-Hate Relationship With Coalpo

The Garzweiler coal mine has been a flashpoint for climate action in Germany after activists occupied the deserted village of Lützerath to block an expansion of the mine.



RWE suspects sabotage of Garzweiler coal mine power pylon

The ministry of transport has proposed using the ports of Krasnoyarsk and Lesosibirsk for pilot shipments of coal along inland rivers starting this summer.

Splash

Russia looks at exporting Siberian coal to Asia via the Yenisei river 

Ukraine, whose 15 Soviet-era reactors provided half the country's electricity, signed a deal with Westinghouse to expand its fuel contract.

Why Russia Has Such a Strong Grip on Europe's Nuclear Power

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today ruled that the Bulgarian government violated the law when it gave the biggest coal plant in the Balkans permission to pollute beyond EU legal limits.

Client Earth 

EU Court ruling “watershed moment” for coal-heavy regions

The bigger take bankrolls infrastructure and social services, but mining companies say the squeeze could dent investment and jobs

With Coal in Demand, Governments Raise Taxes and Royalties on Miners

The U.S. and Europe's top powers on Wednesday expressed alarm at Iran having produced a tiny amount of uranium enriched to 84% purity, very close to weapons grade, and said Iran must explain how it happened.

US, European powers express alarm at Iran enriching uranium to 84%

China is recognized as the undisputable global leader in renewable energy expansion, adding new projects to the grid almost as fast as the rest of the world combined last year.

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