Rio Tinto hit with fresh tax bill in Australia

Cecilia Jamasmie | September 16, 2021 | 

Jakob Stausholm, Rio Tinto’s CEO since January 2021. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) has been hit with a A$379 million ($277.7m) bill as part of an ongoing dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) dating back to 2015.


The penalty relates to the denial of interest deductions on an isolated borrowing used to pay an intragroup dividend six years ago. This borrowing was repaid in 2018.

Rio received in March an amended assessment of A$$406.5 million. The sum consisted of A$359.4 million ($298m) in primary tax and A$47.1 million ($435m) in interest over money paid by its Australian unit to its United Kingdom entity.


THE LATEST ASSESSMENT ASKS THE MINING GIANT TO PAY A$352M ($257.9M) IN PRIMARY TAX AND REDUCES THE INTEREST TO A$27 MILLION ($19.8M) FROM A$47M

The latest assessment asks the mining giant to pay A$352m ($257.9m) in primary tax and reduces the interest to A$27 million ($19.8m) from A$47m ($34m).

Rio Tinto, which rewarded investors in February with the biggest dividend in its 148-year history, said the penalties are on top of more than A$8.4 billion ($6.4m) of Australian income tax paid during the relevant period. It added that borrowing to fund the payment of a dividend was a normal commercial practice.

This is the second curveball thrown by the ATO to Rio’s new chief executive, Jakob Stausholm, since he assumed the top post in January.

The company and the ATO are already at loggerheads over two other matters that are now the subject of talks between Australian and Singapore tax authorities.

The tax authority believes Rio’s Australian subsidiaries did not charge an appropriate price for the aluminum they sold to Rio’s controversial Singapore marketing hub between 2010 and 2016.

GOOD NEWS
Democrats’ energy plan will kill US coal by 2030, miners say
Bloomberg News | September 14, 2021 

Massive coal conveyor at Seward, Alaska – Image from Adobe Stock Photos

A plan to push utilities to use more clean energy could eliminate coal from the US power grid by the end of the decade, according to a trade group that represents coal miners.


The Clean Electricity Performance Program proposed by House Democrats authorizes $150 billion in incentives for utilities that deliver at least 4% more clean energy to customers. Those that don’t will have to pay a penalty to the US Energy Department.

The program is a key part of President Joe Biden’s signature climate goal of decarbonizing the electric grid by 2035. For the coal industry, the carrot-and-stick approach is a serious threat, according to America’s Power, which represents miners including Peabody Energy Corp. and Consol Energy Inc.

“The CEPP would eliminate coal-fired electricity by 2030, if not sooner,” Michelle Bloodworth, the group’s chief executive officer, wrote in a letter Monday to leaders of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. It would also “eliminate or at least drastically curtail the use of natural gas to generate electricity.”

The trade group said that U.S. utilities are already shifting away from fossil fuels, but pushing for such a rapid transition requires rapid adoption of more wind and solar energy, potentially threatening the stability of the power grid.

(By Will Wade and Ari Natter)

WANT CHEESE WITH THAT WHINE

US miners decry mineral royalty plan floated in Congress

Reuters | September 16, 2021 | 

US Congress. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

U.S. mining companies are blasting proposals in Congress that would set royalties for copper, lithium and other minerals extracted from federal land, with executives saying the measures would hurt domestic production of the building blocks for solar panels, electric vehicles and other green technologies.


The House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee added language to the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending measure last week that would set an 8% gross royalty on existing mines and 4% on new ones. There would also be a 7 cent fee for every ton of rock moved.

That would mark one of the most-substantial changes to the law that has governed U.S. mining since 1872 and could raise about $2 billion over 10 years for federal coffers.

The full House could reverse the committee’s move and the legislation faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. Senate.

“The race for electric vehicles and electrification of the economy requires metals and mining, and that needs to be incentivized, not stalled,” said Rich Nolan, head of the National Mining Association, an industry trade group.

Tensions are rising in the United States over how best to procure minerals needed to green the economy. President Joe Biden has yet to take a public stance on the issue, though privately he has signaled plans to rely on allies for EV metals, Reuters reported earlier this year.


THE PROPOSED NEW ROYALTY RATES WOULD AFFECT SO-CALLED HARD ROCK MINING, BUT ARE PART OF A SERIES OF OTHER PROPOSED FEE HIKES ON OIL, COAL AND NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION

The 1872 law did not set royalties in order to encourage development of more than 350 million acres in the western United States. Miners say it should remain as-is, or be tweaked only slightly. Environmentalists have long said the law should be updated to require the industry to pay to extract minerals on taxpayer-owned land.

Executives say Biden’s goal to have 35% of U.S. electricity generated by solar panels – up from 3% today – would be all but impossible without new mines. Silver is used to make photovoltaic cells.

“This royalty proposal is really inconsistent with being able to grow production and meeting the demands for silver to green the economy,” said Phil Baker, chief executive of Hecla Mining Co, the largest U.S. silver producer. Baker said he will close mines if the proposal is approved.

Miners say they already pay high income, sales and other taxes. They warned that the proposed royalty on gross profit would discourage investment when commodity prices rise and shorten a mine’s life when prices fall.

The NMA declined to say what percentage royalty its members would find palatable. It said it would prefer a royalty on net, rather than gross, profit.

“New taxes on the front end of the supply chain undermine the EV battery goals that have been set by the president and Congress and make U.S. policy look schizophrenic,” said Todd Malan of Talon Metals Corp, which is developing the Tamareck nickel deposit in Minnesota. Nickel is used to make EV battery cathodes.

The proposed new royalty rates would affect so-called hard rock mining, but are part of a series of other proposed fee hikes on oil, coal and natural gas extraction. The committee also approved language that would block Rio Tinto Ltd from building its Resolution copper mine in Arizona.

The NMA said it does support the committee’s proposal to create a $3 billion reclamation fund for older abandoned mines.

Lithium Americas Corp, which is developing the Thacker Pass lithium mine on federal land in Nevada, said it stands ready to work with Congress to develop a “reasonable royalty for operating on public lands.” Lithium is a key component of EV batteries.

“The current proposal will impair U.S. competitiveness when demand for lithium is soaring and the domestic production is just starting to respond,” said Tim Crowley of Lithium Americas.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)

Teck Resources weighs sale, spinoff of $8 billion coal unit

Bloomberg News | September 14, 2021 | 

Teck’s Greenhills steelmaking coal operation in Elk Valley, British Columbia.

 (Image courtesy of Teck Resources.)

Teck Resources Ltd. is exploring options for its metallurgical coal business, including a sale or spinoff that could value the unit at as much as $8 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.


The Canadian miner is working with an adviser as it studies strategic alternatives for the business, which is one of the world’s largest exporters of the steelmaking ingredient, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Shares of Teck were up 4.7% at 1:04 p.m. in Toronto, giving the company a market value of about C$17.4 billion ($13.7 billion).

Large commodity producers are under increasing pressure to cut back on fossil fuels in response to investor concerns over climate change. BHP Group last month agreed to sell its oil and gas assets to Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and is seeking to exit some of its coal operations. Anglo American Plc spun off its South African coal unit for a separate listing in June.

LARGE COMMODITY PRODUCERS ARE UNDER INCREASING PRESSURE TO CUT BACK ON FOSSIL FUELS IN RESPONSE TO INVESTOR CONCERNS OVER CLIMATE CHANGE

Exiting coal could free up resources for Teck to accelerate its plans in commodities like copper, as demand shifts to the building blocks of an electrified global economy. Deliberations are at an early stage, and Teck could still decide to keep the business, the people said.

A Teck representative declined to comment.

Teck produced more than 21 million metric tonnes of steelmaking coal last year from four locations in western Canada. The business accounted for 35% of the company’s gross profit before depreciation and amortization in 2020, according to its website.

Metallurgical coal is a key raw materials used in steelmaking, which remains one of the most polluting industries on the planet and faces significant pressure from policymakers to clean up its act. China, the world’s largest metal producer, has indicated it will curb steelmaking in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

Prices of metallurgical coal prices have continued to rise this year as bets on a global economic recovery fuel frenzied demand for steel. This helped Teck swing to a second-quarter net income of C$260 million, compared with a C$149 million net loss the same period last year. (Updates with share move in third paragraph)

(By Dinesh Nair and Ed Hammond, with assistance from Kiel Porter, Yvonne Yue Li, James Attwood, Joe Ryan and Joe Deaux)

Chile indigenous group asks regulators to suspend SQM’s permits

Reuters | September 13, 2021 |

(Image courtesy of SQM.)

Indigenous communities living around Chile’s Atacama salt flat have asked authorities to suspend lithium miner SQM’s operating permits or sharply reduce its operations until it submits an environmental compliance plan acceptable to regulators, according to a filing viewed by Reuters.


Chile’s SMA environmental regulator in 2016 charged SQM with overdrawing lithium-rich brine from the Salar de Atacama salt flat, prompting the company to develop a $25 million plan to bring its operations back into compliance. Authorities approved that plan in 2019 but reversed their decision in 2020, leaving the company to start again from scratch on a potentially tougher plan.

That ongoing process has left the fragile environment of the desert salt flat in limbo and unprotected as SQM continues to operate, according to a letter from the Atacama Indigenous Council (CPA) submitted to regulators last week.

In the filing, the indigenous council said the ecosystem was in “constant danger” and called for the “temporary suspension” of SQM’s environmental approvals or, where appropriate, “to reduce the extraction of brine and freshwater from the Salar de Atacama.”

“Our request is urgent and…based on the state of environmental vulnerability of the Salar de Atacama,” council president Manuel Salvatierra said in the letter.

SQM, the world’s No. 2 lithium producer, told Reuters in a statement that it was moving forward with a new compliance plan and incorporating changes requested by the regulator to a draft document it submitted in October 2020.

“This is a normal part of the process, so we are working on the observations, which we hope to present this month,” the company said.

The Atacama region, home to SQM and top competitor Albemarle, supplies nearly one-quarter of the globe’s lithium, a key ingredient in the batteries that power cellphones and electric vehicles.

Automakers, indigenous communities and activists, however, have increasingly raised concerns in recent years about the environmental impact of lithium production in Chile.

SQM, which is ramping up production in Chile to meet fast-rising demand, last year announced a plan to slash its use of water and brine at its Atacama operations.

(By Dave Sherwood; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

In Arctic push, US extends new economic aid package to Greenland

Reuters | September 15, 2021 

Image: Wikipedia

Greenland said on Wednesday it had agreed a new economic aid package with the United States which seeks to boost ties the world’s biggest island and strengthen US military presence in the Arctic.


Washington has a military base on Greenland but paid little attention to the Arctic for two decades until 2019, when it began turning to the island to try to counter a Russian and Chinese commercial and military buildup in the region.

The aid package from USAid worth $10 million announced on Wednesday is primarily aimed at development of Greenland’s mining sector, tourism and education.

GREENLAND ELECTED A NEW GOVERNMENT IN APRIL THAT HAS PLEDGED TO HALT A LARGE CHINESE-BACKED RARE EARTH MINING PROJECT BECAUSE IT CONTAINS RADIOACTIVE URANIUM

“This is not a big amount, but symbolically it’s very important,” the country’s minister for industry and foreign affairs, Pele Broberg, told Reuters in an interview in the capital Nuuk.

The package comes on top of a $12.1 million package announced by Washington last year, which drew some criticism from Copenhagen for creating division between Greenland and Denmark.

Greenland, home to only 57,000 people but rich in natural resources, is a former colony and now an autonomous Danish territory.

It gained international attention in 2019 when former President Donald Trump tried to buy the island. Last year, the United States opened a consulate in Greenland, where it for decades has had a military base that is vital to its ballistic missile early warning system.

Greenland elected a new government in April that has pledged to halt a large Chinese-backed rare earth mining project because it contains radioactive uranium. The project was seen as a potential game-changer for the country’s tiny economy.

“It has some ripple effects to say no to uranium mining, but we think there are other areas that can be developed, and that is what we will look into with the Americans,” said Broberg of a small pro-independence party.

With an economy heavily dependant on fishing, the island relies on annual grants of around $600 million from Denmark. However, some see the relationship with Denmark as an obstacle to economic development.

“We don’t get the support from Denmark we need to be able to thrive. So now we try to go our own ways, without Denmark, and we’re starting small,” Broberg said.

(By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Albemarle, union in Chile reach agreement, ending strike
Reuters | September 15, 2021 

Brine pools from a Albemarle’s lithium mine. 

Albemarle Corp, the world’s top lithium producer, said on Wednesday it had reached a labor contract deal with a union at its Atacama salt flat plant, ending a month-long strike that had inflamed tensions between workers and the company.


The 135-member “Albemarle Salar” union, which comprises about half the workers at its key Salar production plant, went on strike in August after failing to reach a deal with the US-based lithium miner.

The company said in a statement that it had inked a new 36-month contract with the union and that workers would return immediately to the job.

“The operations at the Salar plant today return to normality, with special emphasis on safety of workers while production returns to levels before the strike,” the company said.

Throughout the strike, Albemarle maintained the extended walk-off had not hit its output of lithium from Chile.

The company clarified on Wednesday that the strike had led to a reduction in the pumping of lithium-rich brine at its Salar Plant, where the walk-off took place, but that the labor action had not impacted overall output from its La Negra chemical plant, where brines are processed into battery grade lithium carbonate.

Union representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the agreement.

Albemarle’s Atacama operations in Chile are a vital source of the ultralight white metal used in batteries that power electric vehicles. Competitor SQM operates nearby.

Albemarle, which struck labor deals with its three remaining Chilean guilds earlier this year, said the deal with its Salar union of workers brings closure to this year’s negotiations.

(By Dave Sherwood; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Codelco reaches labor agreement with union at Salvador division
Reuters | September 15, 2021 | 2:32 pm Latin America Copper

Workers starting a shift at Codelco’s Andina mines. Image from Codelco.

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said on Wednesday it had reached agreement on a labor contract with a union representing workers at its small Salvador division in northern Chile.


The miner and the Benito Tapia Tapia union No. 6 signed a 36-month deal that includes a $5,200 signing bonus as well as production-linked benefits, the company said in a statement.

The company’s final contract offer was approved by 61% of the union workers who voted, Codelco said.

Soaring copper prices this year have handed unions in Chile more leverage than in the recent past, ratcheting up tensions in some labor negotiations, including a prolonged strike at Codelco’s Andina mine near Santiago.

Salvador, an aging deposit that has experienced declining ore grades and low productivity, has embarked on a $1.4 billion upgrade to extend its life.

The division produced 56,300 tonnes of copper in 2020.

(By Dave Sherwood; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Union at Albemarle Atacama plant rejects new contract offer, strike continues
Reuters | September 13, 2021 | 

Image from Albemarle Corp.

A Chilean union at Albemarle Corp, the world’s top lithium producer, said on Monday it had rejected the company’s latest labor contract offer, leaving workers to continue a walk off that has extended for more than a month.


The 135-member “Albemarle Salar” union, which comprises about half the workers at its key Salar production plant, went on strike in August after failing to reach a deal with the U.S.-based lithium miner. The company maintains the extended walk-off has yet to hit its output of lithium.

ALBEMARLE SAID IT REGRETTED THE UNION’S DECISION BUT REJECTED ITS CLAIMS OF UNFAIRNESS

The union said in a statement issued Monday that the latest deal offered nothing beyond two prior proposals that were also rejected. The union called the contract offer “discriminatory” and said it would only foster salary inequality among its workers.

Albemarle told Reuters it regretted the union’s decision but rejected its claims of unfairness.

“The Salar aspires to a bonus for the termination of the conflict that is much higher than that of the other three unions with which we successfully concluded collective bargaining,” the company said in a statement.

Albemarle’s Atacama operations in Chile are a vital source of the ultralight white metal used in batteries that power electric vehicles. Competitor SQM operates nearby.

The company, which struck labor deals with its three remaining Chilean guilds earlier this year, said again on Monday it had a “solid” contingency plan that assured it could continue to meet its customers needs during the walk-off.

The union has alleged the miner had been flying workers in by helicopter to replace those on strike, a practice it said violated union rights.

Albemarle extracts lithium-rich brine from beneath the salt flat at its Salar plant, then processes the distilled brines into battery grade lithium carbonate at its La Negra chemical plant near the city of Antofagasta in northern Chile.

(By Dave Sherwood; Editing by Chris Reese)

Copper price down as labour conflicts in Chile resolved, supply concerns fade

MINING.COM Staff Writer | September 13, 2021 |

Glencore Altonore copper casting wheel, Chile (Credit: Glencore)

The copper price fell again on Monday on signs that strike risks are all but over in Chile, the world’s biggest producer.


In quick succession, mining companies in Chile have resolved a series of labor conflicts.

On Friday, plant workers at Codelco’s Andina mine agreed to end a more than three-week stoppage. The next day, workers at BHP Group’s Cerro Colorado mine accepted an offer hammered out by the two negotiating teams in mediated talks, avoiding a strike.

The recent breakthroughs follow strike-ending agreements earlier this month with the two main unions at Andina and at a mine owned by JX Nippon Mining & Metals. The industry also managed to avoid stoppages at top-tier mines such as Escondida and El Teniente.

Copper for delivery in December fell 1.8% from Friday’s settlement price, touching $4.374 per pound ($9,622 per tonne) midday Monday on the Comex market in New York.

Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices

Massive global stimulus measures are keeping metals demand strong. Yet the economic bellwether has also been overshadowed lately as China’s move to curb metals production to reduce pollution and a coup in key bauxite supplier Guinea sent aluminum to a 13-year high of $3,000 a tonne.

China’s state reserves administration also released 150,000 tonnes of copper, aluminum, and zinc in the market that led to some cooling in copper prices.

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)

'MAYBE' TECH

Alrosa tests CO2 capture potential by its ore
Reuters | September 16, 2021 | 

Kimberlite is an igneous rock which fills up volcanic pipes. Credit: Alrosa

State-controlled diamond producer Alrosa has teamed up with Russian scientists to test the ability of its processed ore to absorb carbon dioxide, the company said on Thursday, adding that initial results of the study have been promising.


Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer, mines the precious stones from kimberlite ore in the remote Yakutia region in Russia’s far east. It plans to adopt a climate change strategy in the first quarter of 2022.


It currently generates 90% of its power from renewable sources and keeps on replacing fuel for its transport with natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but admits that absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere or offset measures will be needed for its goal to become carbon-neutral in the future.

If diamond-containing kimberlite rock is able to absorb emissions of the main greenhouse gas, it would help diamond companies fully join global efforts to slow down global warming.

Alrosa’s main peer – De Beers – started piloting a project to capture carbon in kimberlite rock to offset emissions in 2017.

“If future research confirms the preliminary data, it would mean that we have established significant potential for compensating greenhouse gas emissions in diamond mining through the ore’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” Mikhail Dubovichev, head of innovation and technology at Alrosa, said in a statement.

The first and initial phase of Alrosa’s study, which will last until 2023, showed that kimberlite ore in its tailings could potentially absorb more CO2 than the entire company generates, it said in the statement. In 2020, Alrosa’s direct emissions totalled 997,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Tested samples of stored kimberlite ore, mined from its Udachnaya pipe, could absorb as much as 80 kg of CO2 per tonne of processed ore, Alrosa said.

The estimate was based on ore samples that spent between one month and ten years in its tailings storage, and comparison with samples of ore just removed from the pipe, it added.

(By Polina Devitt; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

JAR JAR BOLSOARNO ALLOWS RAPE OF THE AMAZON
Vale and Asian miner seek Brazil nod to fast-track mine projects

Bloomberg News | September 16, 2021 

Railroad transporting iron ore from Vale’s Carajás complex. Image: Vale

Mining giant Vale SA and an Asian-owned metals producer are among the first to tap a Brazilian program that aims to cut red tape and speed up mining projects in the South American nation.


Vale and Sul Americana de Metais S.A. have qualified for a new policy adopted by Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro administration that aims to streamline the licensing process for mining projects considered strategic to the country’s economic development. The Pro-Strategic Minerals policy was created in March to boost resources and production of minerals used in high-tech products and deemed vital for trade surplus.

Vale, the world’s second-largest iron ore producer, qualified for a mine and projects at its Serra Norte complex as well as Alemao copper project in northern Brazil. Another project in Carajas is under analysis. The Rio de Janeiro-based company declined to comment. Vale had cited delays in securing permits to these operations last week as a reason to justify lowering its annual target for iron ore production by 7.5% from a previous forecast.

Sul Americana de Metais, a unit of Hong Kong-based Honbridge Holdings Ltd., has been seeking to develop a $2.1 billion iron ore complex in Minas Gerais state, though it has struggled to get licenses.

“We hope this will help speed up the licensing process and take the project off the ground,” Chief Executive Officer Jin Yongshi said in a message.

His company’s Bloco 8 project aims to produce 27.5 million tons a year and includes a slurry pipeline and dam capable of storing 70 times more tailings than the Vale dam that collapsed in that southeast Brazilian state in January 2019 in the country’s deadliest mining disasters.

Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry, which coordinates the program, said qualification doesn’t guarantee projects will get permits. The government measures will help facilitate relations with environmental authorities, which are still in charge of licensing.

(By Mariana Durao)

New photo battery harvests the sun, stores energy in a single device

MINING.COM Staff Writer | September 17, 2021 | 

The research team developing an inexpensive, lightweight, and 

lead-free photo battery.

 (Image courtesy of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology).

A team of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed an inexpensive, lightweight, and lead-free photo battery that has dual functions in harvesting solar energy and storing energy in a single device.


In theory, photo batteries should permit increased energy storage efficiency and energy density, while decreasing ohmic losses, relaxing packaging requirements and thus reducing the weight, the bulk, and the cost of the system. In reality, however, the poor interface between materials tends to create problems with charge transport, greatly reducing the efficiency in comparison to the simple system of a solar cell wired to an external battery.

To address these challenges, the HKUST team led by Jonathan Eugene Halpert decided to expand the utility of perovskite, which has had applications in solar cells and most recently in batteries.

In detail, the team developed a perovskite halide that acts as a photo-electrode that can harvest energy under illumination without the assistance of an external load in a lithium-ion battery. This is in stark contrast with its existing counterpart for it does not contain lead, hence it has higher stability in air and is free from the concerns of metal poisoning.

For their research, the team has replaced lead with bismuth, a non-toxic element, thus forming a strongly light-absorbing crystalline material.

THE PHOTO BATTERY HAS A MECHANISM SIMILAR TO AN ORDINARY BATTERY EXCEPT THAT IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE SUPPLIED CURRENT TO BE CHARGED ELECTRICALLY BUT CAN BE CHARGED PHOTOELECTRICALLY UNDER THE SUNLIGHT

In a paper published in the journal Nano Letters, the group explains that the lithium-ion battery works by allowing electrons to move from a high-energy state to a lower one while doing work in an external circuit. The photo battery, on the other hand, has a mechanism similar to an ordinary battery except that it need not be supplied current or plugged into the wall to be charged electrically, but can be charged photoelectrically under the sunlight.

The active material is the perovskite which, when put under light, absorbs a photon and generates a pair of charges, known as an electron and a hole.

To back their proposal, the team conducted chrono-amperometry experiments under light and in the dark to analyze the increase in charging current caused by the light; they recorded a photo-conversion efficiency rate of 0.428% on photo-charging the battery after the first discharge.

“At present, we plug all our appliances into the wall to charge them. With further development in this field of photo-batteries, we might not have to plug them in at all in the future,” Halpert said in a media statement.

“We might be able to harvest solar energy and use it to fulfill the power requirements of any devices with modest power needs. Our work is one of the initial steps taken in this field, and, of course, a lot of improvements will be needed to achieve better performance, but we are confident that we can improve its stability and average efficiency with further refinement.”

According to Halpert, the lab’s photo battery can serve as the built-in battery for devices such as smartphones or tablets, and even remote energy storage applications.

The next steps are, thus, to experiment with different materials for better performance and efficiency, so that the photo battery can be commercialized in the market.

Greenland prepares legislation to halt large rare earth mine

Reuters | September 17, 2021

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Greenland’s new government is preparing legislation that will ban uranium mining and cease development of the Kvanefjeld mine, one of the biggest rare earth deposits in the world, the country’s mineral resources minister said.


Kvanefjeld, owned by Australian mining firm Greenland Minerals and located near the southern town of Narsaq, contains a large deposit of rare earth metals but also radioactive uranium which locals fear could harm the country’s fragile environment if extracted.

Greenland’s left-leaning government, which came to power in April after campaigning against the development of Kvanefjeld, says it will ban the exploration of deposits with a uranium concentration higher than 100 parts per minute (ppm), which is considered very low-grade by the World Nuclear Association.

LOCALS WORRY THAT A POTENTIAL LAWSUIT AGAINST GREENLAND WILL HURT ITS ABILITY TO ATTRACT INVESTMENTS

“What we know is that the background radiation in and around Narsaq is quite high, which means that the project will collide with the upcoming zero tolerance policy on uranium mining,” minister for mineral resources Naaja Nathanielsen told Reuters in an interview in the capital Nuuk.

Kvanefjeld was granted preliminary approval last year and was on track to gain final approval under the previous government.

Mining companies have been pushing for rights to exploit rare earth deposits in Greenland, which the U.S. Geological Survey says has the world’s biggest undeveloped deposits of the metals used in everything from electric vehicle batteries to missiles.

A public hearing on the project ended this week. Greenland Minerals, in which Chinese partner Shenghe Resources has about a 10% stake, participated in community meetings in February, but did not attend meetings in August and September citing the political nature of the meetings.

Chief executive John Mair, whose company has spent more than $100 million preparing the project, told Reuters on Friday he believes his company still holds the “valid right to pursue an exploitation licence for the project in compliance with Greenland laws.”

Locals worry that a potential lawsuit against Greenland will hurt its ability to attract investments in a nascent mining sector which they think is key to growing their economy.

Mair said it was too early to look at legal action, “but as a public company, we must protect shareholder interests in the event a practical solution is not found.”

Nathanielsen said the government in 2013 put a clause in its contract with the company that states it “has no claim to an exploration license and that a refusal can be given for political reasons.”

“We cannot issue guarantees against a lawsuit, but we believe that we stand quite well in a potential court case,” she said.

The new bill, which will also include the option of banning the exploration of other radioactive minerals such as thorium, will be passed in the autumn with backing of the Naleraq party, a coalition partner, Nathanielsen said.

(By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)