Russia’s War Has Sparked A Coal Renaissance

By Felicity Bradstock - Apr 23, 2022, 

• It appears that the decline of coal, the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels, has been somewhat exaggerated in recent years, with the current energy shortage causing demand to soar.
• Despite being significantly dirtier than both oil and natural gas, there is a huge demand for coal as a reliable and relatively cheap source of energy in an incredibly expensive market.
• Sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine have only added to the supply shortage, although some countries like India are taking advantage of discounts to buy up Russian coal.

Despite lots of talk about renewable energy acceleration, coal continues to dominate some markets. China is steadily increasing its coal output, while Indonesia looks to export to new European buyers. And while lots of countries are imposing sanctions on Russian coal, India is now backing up its cheap Russian oil imports with low-cost coal. 

China’s daily output of coal continues to rise, seeing a 15 percent increase in production in March from the same period last year. This equated to approximately 395.79 million tonnes, or 12.77 million tonnes every day. This goes beyond China’s target of 12.6 million tonnes a day throughout 2022. China is eager to keep production levels high due to the uncertainties created in the supply chain in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

This rise comes despite several new lockdowns implemented across China in the wake of another Covid outbreak. The use of coal across utilities has dropped due to new Covid restrictions, allowing China to stockpile some of this increased coal output. Coal inventories rose from around 22 million tonnes at several major utilities in April 2021 to 28 million tonnes this year.

And as China ramps up production to ensure its energy security, Indonesia is looking to fill the gap left by sanctions on Russia by exporting its coal to Europe. The country’s second-largest coal miner PT Adaro Energy Indonesia has exported around 300,000 tonnes of coal to European buyers in response to sanctions on Russian coal. While Adaro says it will maintain its current coal trade links, European buyers could well be looking to Indonesia to fill the gap. 

Chief finance officer at Adaro, Lie Luckman, stated: “Indeed there has been some demand from Europe, but our market is mainly Asia. We will focus on fulfilling our commitments to our customers who already have long-term contracts with us.”. The list of customers includes Japan, China, South Korea, and India.

As part of its sanctions on Russian energy, the EU is banning coal imports from Russia starting in mid-August. Governments across the region are now racing to secure their energy sources by looking for more import options as well as ramping up national production of both fossil fuels and renewables. Indonesia’s coal exports reached record highs in March, a trend that is likely to continue because of the sanctions. 

The EU delayed its sanctions on Russian coal by around two months due to pressure from Germany, a major importer of Russian energy, to extend the period. In 2020, Germany imported around 21.5 percent of its coal from Russia, as well as 35.2 percent of its oil and 58.9 percent of its natural gas, showing its heavy reliance on the energy producer. While the EU is eager to impose sanctions in response to the conflict, this has not been an easy task and it acknowledges the importance of ensuring the region’s energy security before cutting Russia off completely. 

However, other countries are less steadfast in their condemnation of Russia and are using the situation as an opportunity to purchase low-cost energy. Having acquired cheap Russian oil, India is now eyeing affordable coal, as other countries turn their backs on Russia. 

India’s coal imports from Russia increased to a two-year high this March. And analysts believe that both India and China may continue to increase their coal imports from Russia as it offers lower prices in response to the loss of other export partners. Russia is selling its coal at around a $60-$65 per metric tonne discount, compared to Newcastle 5,500 kcal/kg NAR coal, making it increasingly attractive at a time when energy prices are continuing to rise to record levels. 

Head of trade at government relations consulting firm Vogel Group Samir N. Kapadia explained, “Despite warnings from the West, India continues to lean into their supply chain relationship with Russia for natural resources like oil and coal.” He believes a rupee-rouble currency swap could help India bypass the sanctions imposed on Russia, allowing them to continue importing low-cost coal. The White House is putting significant pressure on India to curb its imports, warning of potential consequences if it continues to support Russia. 

India has had low stockpiles of coal since last year, with several states across the country likely to experience power shortages. Although the government announced an aim to all stop coal imports by 2030, by boosting production from state-owned coal plants, it still relies heavily on foreign coal at present. It currently buys much of its coal from Australia, as its seventh-largest trading partner. But if Russia continues to offer cheaper energy alternatives, it may be hard to say no. 

Despite bold pledges to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives, new sanctions on Russia are exposing the world’s persistent reliance on coal. As European buyers look to Asian producers to meet their coal demands, others quickly turn to Russia – putting low-cost energy above geopolitics.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Diamonds and caviar targeted in new UK sanctions on Russia

Bloomberg News | April 22, 2022 |

Rough diamonds on a grader’s table. (Image courtesy of Alrosa.)

Russia’s luxury goods industry is the latest to be targeted under new UK sanctions announced on Thursday, with the government slapping import bans on caviar and other high-end wares.


Silver and wood products from Russia will also be prohibited and tariffs will be increased by 35 percentage points on 130 million pounds ($170 million) worth of diamonds and other products, including some from Belarus, according to a government statement. That takes the total value of Russian goods affected to more than one billion pounds.

The UK’s measures are intended “to inflict maximum damage” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, “reducing the resources and funds he needs to carry out this illegal war,” International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said.

Britain has already imposed its broadest set of sanctions ever on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is working with other Group of Seven nations and the European Union to coordinate regular sets of new sanctions and trade restrictions, while enforcing measures implemented so far.

(By Charles Capel)

The diamond world is scrambling to keep buying Russian gems

Bloomberg News | April 22, 2022 

Image source: ALROSA- PEAR DIAMOND

US sanctions on Russia’s giant diamond miner are causing chaos through the industry, leaving traders and manufacturers hunting for workarounds to keep tapping one of the world’s main sources of precious gems.


Buyers across the big trading centers in Antwerp and Dubai and manufacturing hubs in India have spent the past two weeks consulting lawyers to determine what the US sanctions on Alrosa PJSC mean and how they can continue to buy, according to people familiar with the matter. In the meanwhile, diamonds have stopped flowing from Russian mines to Surat — the world’s diamond-cutting epicenter — because Indian banks are unable or unwilling to process payments.

A delegation from Alrosa visited India earlier this week and held meetings with customers and trade groups to discuss how to facilitate sales, people familiar with the matter said. The disruption is already being felt in diamond prices, as the cost of the smaller stones that Alrosa specializes in has started to rise in the past week.

Alrosa is effectively state controlled: the federal government owns 33% and another 25% is held by local authorities. Losing its supply over a longer period would be seismic for the diamond world — the company accounts for about a third of global supply of rough stones, about the same level as De Beers, which had a monopoly until the start of this century.

Alrosa was scheduled to hold its next sale this coming week — one of the 10 it holds each year — but it’s unlikely it’ll be able to sell any stones because banks are unable to process payments, according to the people.

Yet as western governments levy sanctions on Russia and companies pull away from the country, many in India’s diamond industry still want to keep buying, according to people familiar with the matter. And while big-name US jewelers Tiffany & Co. and Signet Jewelers Ltd. have said they will stop buying new diamonds mined in Russia, retailers in places like China, India and the Middle East have not followed suit.

Alrosa’s meetings in India this week included discussions on how to allow Indian manufacturers and traders to pay for Alrosa’s diamonds, the people said. While the discussions included paying in rubles or rupees, no firm arrangements were made. Any deal will need the support of the Indian government, which was not involved in the discussions.

Alrosa declined to comment.

For Alrosa, one option could be to sell its gems to the Russian government, as it did during the 2008 financial crisis. The Russian Finance Ministry declined to comment.

The disruptions around Russian diamonds are being felt through the global industry, which was already facing a shortage of rough stones even before the war in Ukraine. Rough diamond prices have surged in the past year as US consumers, by far the most important market, bought a record amount of jewelery. That created a boom for the companies that trade, cut and manufacture diamonds.

Rough-diamond prices began to weaken last month as inflation concerns started to hit consumer confidence. However, the prices for smaller stones are rising again now as the trade looks to secure supplies.

(By Thomas Biesheuvel)

World’s top diamond miner Alrosa hit by US sanctions

Cecilia Jamasmie | April 8, 2022

The US has increased sanctions on Alrosa.

(Image courtesy of Alrosa’s cutting and polishing division).

Alrosa (MCX: ALRS), the world’s top diamond producer by output, has been hit by fresh sanctions imposed by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).


The OFAC announced late on Thursday it had placed Alrosa on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, which effectively kicks a sanctioned company out of the US banking system and bans its trade with Americans.

The measure against the Russian state-owned diamond miner seeks to cut off additional sources of revenue for Moscow, the government agency said.

It also affects any entities in which Alrosa has a 50% interest or more, either directly or indirectly.

The company’s customers well as other counterparties must stop all dealings with the state-controlled Russian miner by May 7, Treasury said.

Shares in the company collapsed on the news, closing nearly 13% lower on Friday trading in Moscow.

Alrosa and its chief executive Sergei S. Ivanov were included in the first wave of restrictions announced by Washington, which restricted the company’s ability to raise new debt and equity in the US.

“These actions, taken with the Department of State and in coordination with our allies and partners, reflect our continued effort to restrict the Kremlin’s access to assets, resources, and sectors of the economy that are essential to supplying and financing Putin’s brutality,” Treasury said in the statement.

The European Union and the UK have also imposed sanctions on the miner following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Diamonds are one of Russia’s top ten non-energy exports by value, with exports in 2021 totalling over $4.5 billion, it noted.

Alrosa is responsible for 90% of Russia’s diamond output and 28% of global supply, with 32.4 million carats produced in 2021 and sales topping $4 billion thanks mainly to consumer demand from the US.
Loopholes

Experts have noted the sanctions against the miner carry a significant loophole. Russia’s rough diamonds are sent to another country — usually India — where they are polished and cut, which makes them the product of that nation in the global market.

Another issue is that diamonds of various origins are often mixed once polished, which can make it more difficult for companies that independently vow to stop buying Russian goods.

The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), the leading standards organization of the global jewellery and watch industry, took steps into that direction in early April and suspended Alrosa’s membership.

“Fundamentally, we remain focused on RJC’s purpose, which is to ensure all jewellery is responsibly sourced,” the group’s char David Bouffard said in the statement.

The main markets for Alrosa, which employs about 32,000 people, are the US and Asia (Photo: Dmitry Amelkin, Transformation Director of Alrosa’s Polishing Division. Courtesy of Alrosa | Twitter. )

US-based jewellers Tiffany & Co. and Signet Jewelers said in March they would no longer buy new diamonds mined in Russia.

Alrosa withdrew in March from the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), a market alliance of the world’s leading producers of precious stones. By doing so, the company not only stepped down from the board, but it also cut all financial contributions.

The Mirny, Sakha-based miner also has a 41% stake in Angolan diamond production firm Catoca, which is not affected by the latest US sanctions given the OFAC.

While the full effects of the sanctions on the already undersupplied global rough diamonds market are not yet clear, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) has said there was a chance the restrictions could prove counterproductive.

“It is a blow that should hurt Russia but there is a chance that we do more damage to ourselves,” spokesman Tom Neys told Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen. “The Russians can easily trade their diamonds with non-EU countries and outside the US.”

The diamond jewelry industry is going into the year with diamond supply at historically low levels, estimated by Bain & Company at 29 million carats in 2021. “Upstream inventories declined ~40%, driven by high demand and slow production recovery, and are near the minimal technical level,” the report stated.

Investor group to flag concern over Glencore’s climate efforts

Reuters | April 22, 2022 

Mt Owen coal mine, Australia – Image courtesy of Glencore

The world’s biggest climate action investor group will back a shareholder challenge to Glencore’s slow progress in scaling back coal production at the miner and trader’s annual general meeting on April 28, two sources familiar with the matter said.


Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) will flag to members – who manage $68 trillion in assets and can put pressure on the company to change its strategy – its concern that Glencore’s emissions targets and coal production are not consistent with the world’s climate goal, the sources said.

While there is no obligation on shareholders to vote in a certain way based on the CA100+ view, the public move by the group is an important one as it reverses previous support for Glencore’s strategy.

Glencore last year said it planned to run down its thermal coal mines by the mid-2040s and hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as part of efforts to help the world reach its 2015 Paris Agreement goal of capping global warming at 1.5-degrees Celsius.

The company’s first climate action plan, published in December 2020, had received 94% of votes in Glencore’s favour from shareholders at its 2021 annual general meeting. The non-binding management vote at its upcoming AGM seeks support for its efforts so far.

Thermal coal is the most polluting fossil fuel and Glencore has taken a diverging path from its competitors, which have sold or spun off their assets, vowing to remain the responsible owner of the mines until depletion.

A member alert from the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), part of CA100+, seen by Reuters, said that “Glencore needs to cut coal production much faster over the next decade to be consistent with a 1.5-degree scenario.”

While the company’s long-term plan was aligned with the climate target, its short- and medium-term plans were not, the report said.

The lack of clarity over a coal-related increase in capital expenditure in 2021 and the timeline to close down specific mines and for Glencore to exit the coal business led the group to reverse their initial support, one of the sources said.

The report said talks with the company had been constructive and Glencore was investing strongly in metals needed in the transition to a low-carbon economy, but it flagged concern about the company’s membership of trade groups lobbying against some climate action.

Activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners last year urged the miner to separate its thermal coal business, but Chief Executive Gary Nagle said the company would only review its coal strategy if major shareholders became less supportive.

Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, which provide voting recommendations for shareholders, recommended shareholders reject the progress report next week, on concerns around thermal coal, which accounts for the majority of its emissions.

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) in its recommendation last week cited several reasons why the progress report should be rejected, including that Glencore is expanding coal activities in Australia, which “is directly at odds with its stated policy to ‘run-down’ coal mines and coal production over time”.

(By Clara Denina and Simon Jessop; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Glencore cobalt mine scrutinized as Congo revisits foreign deals

Bloomberg News | April 22, 2022 |

Mutanda copper mine. (Image: Fleurette Group)

Democratic Republic of Congo added Glencore Plc’s giant Mutanda copper and cobalt operation to a list of projects that could face renegotiation, just as the key battery metals mine is in the process of restarting.


The move to probe Mutanda comes as Congo President Felix Tshisekedi increases his scrutiny of extractive deals made under his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. Congo is examining copper and cobalt projects controlled by China Molybdenum Co. and China Railway Group, while the president’s advisers are also renegotiating the rights to multiple raw material permits and royalty streams controlled by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler.

“When you see what happened in this sector during the previous regime, it was scandalous in terms of concessions given to foreign companies,” Andre Wameso, the president’s deputy chief of staff for economic issues, said in an interview on Thursday in the capital Kinshasa.

Some of Mutanda’s permits expire next month, and Tshisekedi has used the renewal process to create an ad-hoc commission that will assess the project’s benefits for Congo, Wameso, said.

Mutanda has not been formally notified in respect of any commission, a Glencore spokesman said by email Friday.

Glencore confirmed in December that it planned to reopen Mutanda, which was put on care and maintenance in 2019 after cobalt prices slumped. The operation will produce about 11,000 tons of cobalt a year between 2022 and 2025, with output over the full 20-year mine life expected to average about 76,000 tons copper and 21,000 tons cobalt, the commodity giant said.

A reopening of Mutanda comes amid renewed demand for battery metals from automakers as economies shift toward cleaner technologies that use electricity for energy. Cobalt and copper are key metals in that green transition.

Three of Mutanda’s four permits are set to expire in May, according to Congo’s mining cadastre.

“This is an opportunity for us to see very calmly how things have been done and if there are improvements in terms of rebalancing the partnership with Glencore,” he said. “We have nothing against Glencore,” Wameso said, adding that any rebalancing would be to ensure that the state’s “interests are preserved.”

Congo’s mining code stipulates that miners submit permit renewal applications solely through the cadastre and the mines ministry. Neither responded to requests for comment. The code also requires companies to cede 5% of their shares to the state at the time of renewal.

According to the code, the cadastre gives the permit-renewal dossier to the mines minister, who has 30 days to accept or reject it. If the minister says nothing, the permit then is considered accepted, presuming the cadastre has advised that it be accepted.

After that the renewal must be registered by the cadastre.

Mutanda is following the process set out in Congo’s mining code in respect of its renewal, which it expects to be registered in the coming weeks, the Glencore spokesman said.

Mutanda produced a fifth of the world’s cobalt and nearly 200,000 tons of copper in 2018, its last year of full production. The company restarted processing stockpiles of oxide ore late last year while it explores the future mining of Mutanda’s sulphide resources, according to Glencore’s 2021 annual report.

Negotiations with China Moly over its Tenke mine are gridlocked over a dispute relating to different definitions for estimating the mineral reserves in the project, according to Wameso.

Congo believes the Chinese company has underreported its reserves, starving its minority partner, state-owned miner Gecamines, of contractual payments. Last month, the government said it was trying to resolve the dispute amicably and that Gecamines was suspending a court case against China Moly’s Tenke Fungurume Mining SA.

Wameso declined to comment on legal proceedings.

The two sides are engaging a third-party to conduct an assessment, said Vincent Zhou, a spokesman for China Moly, who added that Tenke Fungurume posted better-than-planned production results in the first quarter of 2022.

(By Michael J. Kavanagh, with assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel)

Liberia to review ArcelorMittal concession agreement

Reuters | April 21, 2022 

A freight train from ArcelorMittal carrying iron ore from the Nimba deposit to the port of Buchanan, Liberia. Image courtesy of Alamy.

Liberia will review its iron ore concession agreement with steel and mining company ArcelorMittal as well as other concessions signed by the West African country’s current and previous governments, Parliament speaker Bhofal Chambers said on Thursday.


The announcement risks disrupting ArcelorMittal’s plans to triple its iron ore production in Liberia and stay in the country for at least 25 more years, which the government had agreed to in September.

Chambers said parliament had asked ArcelorMittal to review the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) the company is trying to get ratified.

“We did not outright reject it. We said it should be renegotiated,” he said.

ArcelorMittal did not immediately reply to a request for comment. It had said on March 31 that it was “concerned” about the ratification process for the MDA, which would be its third in Liberia since the first one it signed in 2005.

Parliament will also review palm oil and rubber concessions.

“We will not be deterred,” Chambers said, without providing a timeline for the review.

Liberia, which has significant mining and agricultural potential, has attracted billions of dollars in resource investment since the end of a 1989-2003 civil war, mainly for iron ore and gold.

But infrastructure remains underdeveloped and most of its 5 million people live in poverty.

(By Alphonso Toweh, Helen Reid and Sofia Christensen; Editing by Sandra Maler and Grant McCool)

CHILE
Los Pelambres expansion to cost Antofagasta $900m more than planned

Cecilia Jamasmie | April 21, 2022 

Antofagasta’s Los Pelambres has been hit by the lack of rainfall. 

(Image courtesy of Antofagasta Minerals | Flickr.)

Chilean miner Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) said on Thursday the ongoing expansion of its flagship Los Pelambres operation in the home country would cost $2.2 billion, up from the previous estimate of $1.7 billion.


The revised figure represents a 30% increase from the costs estimated in 2021 and a 70% jump from the original estimate of $1.3 billion.

The company said the main reasons behind the fresh surge were the impact that recent waves of covid-19 had in costs and the construction schedule, as well as general inflation, including higher input prices, wages, labour incentives and logistics costs.

Antofagasta noted the completion schedule for the project remained unchanged, with the desalination plant expected to be finalized in the second half of this year and the expanded concentrator plant in early 2023.

The Los Pelambres expansion, 73% complete as of the end of March, will add 60,000 tonnes of copper a year over the first 15 years to the company’s overall production. Throughput at the plant will be increased from 175,000 tonnes of ore a day to an average of 190,000 tonnes a day.

The project includes the construction of a desalination plant and water pipeline, which will also benefit the existing operation in cases of prolonged or severe drought, such as the one currently hitting miners and wine makers alike. The facility could also be used for a potential further expansion, which may follow if Antofagasta can secure the required environmental and regulatory approvals.

The Chilean government recently named the miner in a lawsuit over alleged environmental damage caused in the northern Salar de Atacama salt flats, the world’s driest place on earth.

The State Defense Council’s (CDE) legal action singled out BHP’s Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, Antofagasta and Barrick’s 50-50 Zaldívar operation and Albemarle’s lithium assets.
Drought impact

Antofagasta’s copper production in the first quarter of 2021 was down 24% from the same period last year, and 22% from the previous quarter, at 138,800 tonnes.

The expected output drop reflected the effects of a severe drought affecting Chile’s northern and central zone, where Los Pelambres is located. Lower grades mined at Centinela also weighed on production results, Antofagasta said.

The company, majority-owned by Chile’s Luksic family, one of the country’s wealthiest, kept its full year 2022 guidance of 660,000-690,000 tonnes. This range assumes there is no precipitation until the rainy season and the desalination plant at Los Pelambres starts operating in the second half of the year, Antofagasta said.

Copper companies across Chile have been forced in recent years to find alternative means to feed water to their mines as drought and receding aquifers have hampered operations. Many have sharply reduced use of continental freshwater or turned to desalination plants.

The country’s copper agency Cochilco estimates that mining’s use of seawater — either used directly or desalinated — will increase 167% by 2032, while freshwater use will decline 45%. By the end of that period, 68% of water used by the industry will come from the ocean, the agency has said.

Chile constitution drafters reject mining-adverse proposal

Cecilia Jamasmie | April 22, 2022

Chile’s constitutional drafters have sent back to the drawing board dozens of articles regarding mining, water and environmental rights. (Image courtesy of Chile’s constitutional convention.)

Chile’s constitutional assembly has rejected a proposal from the environmental committee seeking to tighten up rules related to the protection of the country’s natural resources, which would have hit the mining sector if they became law.


Among the changes suggested, there was one granting nature the status of a legal subject with rights, keeping environmental crimes free of any statutes of limitations and extend protections of water sources, glaciers, wetlands and native forest.

The articles had already been toned down amid criticism from miners and analysts concerned about radical proposals such as nationalizing key assets.

Constituents rejected the 52 articles presented by five votes, preventing voting on individual items and returned the entire proposal to the environmental committee for further revision. To make it into the new constitution, each article needs to receive at least 103 out of the 154 possible votes.


This is the second time the committee’s report has been sent back to the drawing board, as the first presentation saw only six of 40 articles approved

Among the approved items there was one that makes it compulsory for the state to deal with a the current climate and ecological crisis and one that grants nature the status of a legal subject with rights, including acknowledging the rights of all animals to be protected from abuses.

“We interpret the vote as a signal in the sense that, in addition to raising environmental standards, it is necessary that there are regulations that provide certainty and stability for the development of mining activity,” Chile’s mining council executive president Joaquín Villarino said in a statement.

Mining has historically been one of the country’s most important economic sectors, with copper representing the lion’s share of the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product. The country also hosts the world’s largest known lithium reserves.

Any major changes affecting the sector could dramatically impact the supply of minerals that are critical for the world’s industrialization and energy transition, the mining sector has warned.

The assembly has until mid-May to approve articles for the draft constitution and until July to have the draft fully completed. Chileans will vote to approve or reject the new constitution on Sept. 4.

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY
Turmeric extract combined with gold helps create greener, more efficient fuel cells

Staff Writer | April 22, 2022 

Turmeric powder. (Image by formulatehealth, Wikimedia Commons).

Curcumin — the substance in turmeric — and gold nanoparticles have been combined to create an electrode that requires 100 times less energy than hydrogen to efficiently convert ethanol into electricity.


According to researchers at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute and the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, of all the catalysts for alcohol oxidation in alkaline medium that exist, the one they prepared is the best so far. Thus, their finding paves the way for replacing hydrogen as fuel cell feedstock.

Fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction instead of combustion.

Hydrogen fuel cells are highly efficient and do not produce greenhouse gases. While hydrogen is the most common chemical element in the universe, it must normally be derived from fossil fuels because it occurs naturally on earth only in compound form with other elements in liquids, gases or solids.

The necessary extraction adds to hydrogen fuel cells’ cost and environmental impact.

In addition, hydrogen used in fuel cells is a compressed gas, which creates challenges for storage and transportation. Ethanol, an alcohol made from corn or other agricultural-based feeds, is safer and easier to transport than hydrogen because it is a liquid.

“To make it a commercial product where we can fill our tanks with ethanol, the electrodes have to be highly efficient,” Lakshman Ventrapragada, one of the researchers involved in the study, said in a media statement. “At the same time, we don’t want very expensive electrodes or synthetic polymeric substrates that are not eco-friendly because that defeats the whole purpose. We wanted to look at something green for the fuel cell generation process and making the fuel cell itself.”
Mixing a spice with gold

In that search, Ventrapragada and his colleagues focused on the fuel cell’s anode, where the ethanol – or other feed sources – is oxidized.

Fuel cells widely use platinum as a catalyst. But in addition to being costly, platinum suffers from poisoning because of reaction intermediates such as carbon monoxide.

The researchers, thus, used gold as a catalyst and instead of using conducting polymers, metal-organic frameworks, or other complex materials to deposit the gold on the surface of the electrode, they employed curcumin.

Curcumin was used to decorate the gold nanoparticles to stabilize them, forming a porous network around the nanoparticles. The scientists, then, deposited the curcumin gold nanoparticle on the surface of the electrode at a 100 times lower electric current than in previous studies.

Without the curcumin coating, the gold nanoparticles agglomerate, cutting down on the surface area exposed to the chemical reaction.

“We need this coating to stabilize and create a porous environment around the nanoparticles, and then they do a super job with alcohol oxidation,” researcher Apparao Rao said in a media statement.

“There’s a big push in the industry for alcohol oxidation. This discovery is an excellent enabler for that. The next step is to scale the process up and work with an industrial collaborator who can actually make the fuel cells and build stacks of fuel cells for the real application.”

BHP cuts copper output outlook over Chile protests, environmental concerns

Reuters | April 21, 2022 | 

BHP has long pumped water from Atacama’s aquifers to feed operations at its sprawling Escondida mine in Chile. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)

BHP Group Ltd cut its annual copper production outlook on Thursday as operations at its Escondida project in Chile were impacted by labour shortages due to rising covid-19 cases, while road blockades associated with social unrest in the country blocked access to the mine.


Chile, the world’s top copper producer, earlier this month sued BHP, among other miners, over alleged environmental damages caused by its operations in the Atacama salt flats.


The road blockades, threats of work stoppage over alleged worker contract breaches, and surging covid-19 infections at Escondida affected production at the project, which houses the world’s largest copper deposit.

“Our Chilean assets experienced a challenging operating environment in the March 2022 quarter due to a reduction in our operational workforce as a result of a significant increase in covid-19 cases in Chile,” the miner said in its third-quarter production report.

Copper production from Escondida is now expected between 1,000 thousand tonnes (kt) and 1,030 kt for 2022, down from its previous range of 1,020 kt to 1,080 kt, resulting in a slight downgrade to total copper output forecast to between 1,570 kt and 1,620 kt.

The miner has logged 1,112 kt of copper output so far this financial year, down 10% from last year. Its third-quarter iron ore output from Western Australia came in flat from a year ago, and missed consensus estimates.

(By Sameer Manekar; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Peru says 50-day protest lifted at Cuajone mine

Reuters | April 22, 2022 | 

The vast Cuajone mine complex begins with a water supply at Lake Suche at 14,500 feet in the Andes and ends with a smelter on the South Pacific coast. (Image courtesy of Fluor.)

Peru said on Friday a group of indigenous communities had lifted a protest against Southern Copper Corp’s Cuajone mine that had forced a suspension of production for more than 50 days.


The world’s No. 2 producer of copper, Peru had sent its army to restore mine operations, dismissing as “irrational” the financial demands of nearby residents.

Southern Copper has yet to say if it will restart production after the protest suspension.

Unrest spread later to MMG’s giant Las Bambas mine, Peru’s fourth-largest copper mine and the world’s ninth-largest, which has been shut and reopened at least twice this year. The latest suspension was announced this week after residents of the nearby Fuerabamba community entered the mine and set up camp inside of it.

Glencore’s Antapaccay, Peru’s sixth largest copper mine, has also been the target of demonstrators this week, according to local media.

Peru, the world’s second largest producer after Chile, is also a significant silver and zinc supplier.

The mines affected by this week’s protest produced almost 500,000 of copper combined in 2021, with Las Bambas churning out 300,000 tonnes of copper Cuajone another 170,000 tonnes.

(By Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Fifth of Peru copper mining goes offline with more shutdowns likely

Bloomberg News | April 20, 2022 |

Pedro Castillo. (Image from Castillo’s Twitter profile)

Sky-high metal prices and accelerating general inflation are fueling another up-tick in resource nationalism and social unrest in Peru, among the top suppliers of copper, zinc and silver.


As of Wednesday, about a fifth of the country’s copper output will be off-line as MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas mine joins Southern Copper Corp.’s Cuajone in succumbing to community protests. At the same time, unions in the mineral-rich Cusco region are staging strikes against rising prices, while residents near a Glencore Plc copper mine are preparing to resume protests.

To be sure, community conflicts are nothing new in Peru and some of the current unrest is more about protecting water supplies than grabbing a bigger share of the mineral spoils.

But having more than one major copper mine down at any one time is unusual, and this time round the mining protests are embedded in more generalized unrest over living costs that has inflamed an already tense political climate under President Pedro Castillo. Since the former rural activist from a Marxist party took office, the number of social conflicts is up about 7%.

With lawmakers discussing measures to appease the population’s pain from the fastest inflation in 24 years, politicians are looking to the mining industry to help foot the bill.

On Tuesday, Pedro Francke, a former Castillo finance minister and moderate left-winger, said more than a $1 billion could be added to state coffers with a modest hike to mining taxes. Others have tapped into the tensions to rekindle calls for more drastic measures. “The nationalization of strategic resources is the cornerstone of a country’s development,” Vladimir Cerron, founder of Castillo’s own party, wrote in a Twitter post.

The president, who has dodged two impeachment attempts since taking office in July, is being criticized by both the mining industry and some community groups.

Southern Peru Chief Financial Officer Raul Jacob said this week that dialog at Cuajone hadn’t advanced much amid “certain passivity” by the government to resolve conflicts.

The industry puts some of the blame for an up-tick in unrest on the administration’s prioritizing the right to protest over other concerns such as free transit. In isolated areas with poor services and infrastructure, mines can become de facto local governments and therefore an easy target for grievances.

But Castillo is having to walk a tight-rope. After softening his tone on resource nationalism to appease more moderate factions, he’s grappled to maintain support of his party’s more hardline factions and the rural voters who put him in power.

Carlos Hanco, youth secretary of the National Coordinator of Gas Users in Cusco, is among leaders pushing for a review of contracts covering natural gas, minerals and water. His grievances are directed both at the government and legislators.

“It is a demand for the Castillo government to fulfill the campaign promises,” Hanco said. “We also demand Congress stop being a coup plotter and work for the needs of the people.”

(By María Cervantes and James Attwood)