EU seeks critical minerals deals with more African countries
Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

The Mutanda copper-cobalt mine, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Source: YouTube

The European Union is in negotiations with Democratic Republic of Congo, a leading source of battery minerals, and aims for talks with other African countries to shore up its supplies of critical raw materials, an EU official said on Wednesday.


As part of efforts to reduce dependency on China, which dominates supplies of minerals needed for a transition to a lower carbon economy, the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, which has yet to enter force, established targets to develop alternative sources.

So far the EU has signed partnerships with countries such as Canada, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Ukraine, and said deals with Argentina and Chile are imminent.

Elisabetta Sartorel, the EU’s policy officer on critical raw materials, said in a virtual presentation to the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines annual general meeting, a delegation from the bloc would be in the Democratic Republic of Congo for discussions in June.

“We expect, in the near future, to launch negotiations with other countries in the Great Lakes region, particularly Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and perhaps Tanzania as well,” she added.

The EU’s critical materials partnerships offer investment, collaboration on research and innovation, infrastructure development and skills development.

Sartorel said that once a critical materials agreement is signed, a roadmap of concrete action to be jointly implemented by the EU and the partner country is drawn up.

The EU however, faces an uphill struggle to catch up with China.

Its critical raw materials plan notes 63% of the world’s cobalt, used in batteries for electric vehicles, is extracted in Democratic Republic of Congo, and 60% is refined in China.

(By Nelson Banya; Editing by Barbara Lewis)

Portugal gives environmental green light for Savannah’s lithium mine

Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

The Mina do Barroso mine could become the first European supplier of spodumene, a lithium-bearing mineral. (Image courtesy of Savannah Resources.)

Mining company Savannah Resources said on Wednesday Portuguese authorities had approved its environmental impact assessment (EIA) for what could become Western Europe’s largest lithium mine, calling the step a “major milestone” for the project.


London-based Savannah received preliminary approval for the EIA for its Barroso open-pit mine from Portugal’s APA environment regulator in 2021, but had to make changes demanded by the authority and resubmitted it earlier this year.

APA had 50 business days to review it and issue a decision, known as a DIA.

In a statement, APA said it had given the company a “favourable” DIA but there were a wide range of measures Savannah had to comply with, such as limiting the removal of vegetation from the project area, not taking water from a nearby river and carrying out landscaping once extraction has ended.

APA said the project must also include a “socio-economic compensation package”, such as royalties to the municipality where the mine is set to be located.

“This represents a major milestone for the project,” Savannah said in a statement, adding it had agreed with the conditions associated with the DIA.

Portugal is Europe’s biggest lithium producer, but its miners sell almost exclusively to the ceramics industry and are only now preparing to produce the higher-grade lithium that is used in electric cars and to power electronic appliances.

Savannah has said its mine could be at the centre of Europe’s lithium value chain.

However, lithium projects in Portugal face strong opposition from environmentalists and local communities, who are demanding stronger regulation and more transparency.

Barroso, a world heritage site for agriculture, is one of many lithium-rich areas in northern Portugal and Savannah already mines feldspar, quartz and pegmatites in the mountainous region.

A positive DIA allows the company to progress to the next stages of the process, including the publication of a new scoping study and a social impact assessment, Savannah said.

The company expects the remaining steps of the environmental licensing process to take nine-12 months to complete. It hopes to receive its final environmental licence in 2024.

(By Catarina Demony; Editing by Helen Popper and Mark Potter)

US-China green energy rivalry ‘great for world,’ Forrest says
Bloomberg News | May 31, 2023 | 

Andrew Forrest, Australian billionaire and Chief Executive Officer of Fortescue. 

Credit: Fortescue Metals Group

US ambitions to break China’s dominance of green energy supply chains are “great for the world” as long as tensions don’t lead to war, said iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest.


The chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer, said it was healthy for competitors to challenge China’s dominance of sectors like renewable energy, electric vehicles and battery metal processing “provided it’s commercial and competitive.”

“Where it’ll come unglued is if there’s geopolitical, geomilitary incursions,” Forrest said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from Shanghai on Wednesday. “That would be shortsighted to the extreme. There’s no other word but stupid which could be applied to that.”

Forrest, who is Australia’s richest person and an aspiring producer of green hydrogen, downplayed gloomy economic data on China’s real estate sector. “In the cities I go to in China, the skyline is still peppered by cranes,” he said. His bullishness echoed comments made last week by Vandita Pant, chief commercial officer at fellow Australian iron ore miner BHP Group Ltd.

Iron ore has fallen below $100 a ton in recent weeks, a level last seen before China, the world’s top buyer of iron ore, ended its Covid Zero policy in December. Since then, the nation’s economic recovery has disappointed expectations.

(By James Fernyhough and Yvonne Man, with assistance from Adrian Wong)

Zambia orders halt to work on copper mine in Lower Zambezi park
Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

View of Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia. Stock image.

Zambia’s government on Wednesday ordered mining company Mwembeshi Resources Ltd to immediately halt all activities on the $494 million copper project it is developing in the Lower Zambezi National Park.


Collins Nzovu, the minister of green economy and environment, said the company had violated a number of environmental conditions pertaining to the Kangaluwi copper mine.

The Zambia Environmental Management Agency on Wednesday served the company with a compliance order to stop mining-related activities and the construction of roads and buildings at the project, Nzovu said.

He did not specify how long the ban would remain in place.

Mwembeshi Resources spokesperson Oliver Shalala said the company would meet with the environmental agency to discuss the compliance requirements.

“We anticipate resumption of operations as soon as possible,” Shalala told Reuters. “We are a company that respects the law and the government, and we should be able to meet the benchmarks which the government and ZEMA want.”

The company’s plans for the project have been heavily criticized by conservationists who say mining is a threat to wildlife in the park, including elephants, and will hurt a flourishing tourism industry.

They also say toxic chemicals from a planned tailings facility could end up contaminating water in the Zambezi basin, posing a danger to livelihoods.

Conservation Advocates Zambia, which is among organizations lobbying against the mine, said they would press the government to cancel Mwembeshi’s mining licence.

“While we commend ZEMA and the government for this progressive step, we will continue engaging them until the mining licence is canceled,” Mehluli Malisa, a director for CAZ, told Reuters.

(By Chris Mfula and Felix Njini; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jan Harvey)

ECOCIDE

World’s top copper producer closes smelter in ‘Chile’s Chernobyl’

By AFP
Published May 31, 2023

More than 100 people, mostly school children, suffered sulfur dioxide poisoning in an area near the Codelco smelter in 2022 - Copyright AFP Pablo VERA

Chile’s state-owned Codelco copper company, the world’s top producer of the metal, closed its Ventanas smelter Wednesday in an area dubbed “Chile’s Chernobyl” for the grim environmental impact of heavy industry.

The smelter’s operational boss Pablo Bohler symbolically gave the order for the shutdown after six decades of operation in an area that also hosts plants and factories of more than a dozen other companies.

Codelco’s nearby copper refinery will remain operational.

Codelco announced it would close the Ventanas smelter after an incident in June last year when more than 100 people, mostly schoolchildren, suffered sulfur dioxide poisoning in the area around Quintero and Puchuncavi — two coastal towns that are home to some 50,000 people.

It had been the second such incident in three days.

Quintero and Puchuncavi have been deemed “sacrifice zones” since 1958, when the Chilean government converted what had been a fishing and farming community into an industrial hub.

The area now hosts four coal-fired power stations as well as oil and copper refineries.

Greenpeace described the area around the Ventanas plant as “Chile’s Chernobyl” following a serious incident in 2018 when around 600 people were treated for symptoms such as vomiting blood, headaches, dizziness and paralysis of the extremities.

“Today the furnaces of the smelter are extinguished, but not the conviction of building a fairer Chile in which all inhabitants have the right to live their lives” in safety, President Gabriel Boric said Wednesday.

Some of the smelter’s 766 workers will be moved to other jobs, while the rest will leave Codelco under a severance deal with the company that supplies eight percent of the world’s copper.

Last year, Chile’s environmental superintendent ordered six companies operating in the area to “limit their productive activity, without harming the primary supply” and instructed that measures be taken to reduce pollution from Codelco operations.

Codelco shuts Ventanas smelter in move towards sustainable mining

Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

The Ventanas smelter and refinery. (Image courtesy of Codelco).

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, on Wednesday closed its Ventanas metal smelter in the country’s central coast, following environmental incidents in the region that tainted its operations.


The mining company decided last year to shut down the facility in the town of Quintero, located some 108 kilometers (67 miles) northwest of the capital, after authorities declared an environmental emergency due to pollution that left dozens suffering from symptoms of sulfur dioxide emission poisoning.

“The transformation of the Ventanas division is clear evidence that this corporation is moving decisively towards more sustainable mining,” said Maximo Pacheco, chairman of the board, during the event for the unit’s closing.

Codelco has stated that its shifting to produce more sustainable copper to meet growing environmental demands from both buyers and the Chilean government.

Authorities did not directly attribute the incident to Codelco’s smelter. More than a dozen large businesses, including fossil fuel, cement and electricity companies, operate in the area.

Environmentalists have called Quintero and its surroundings a “sacrifice zone” for repeated pollution incidents that have caused public health emergencies.

Codelco halted work in the smelter last year while it completed the legal process to close it, which required applying some operational adjustments indicated by the environmental regulator.

Union workers initially opposed the closure but later reached an agreement with the firm. More than half of the workforce accepted a voluntary retirement plan.

(By Fabian Andres Cambero; Editing by John Stonestreet and Marguerita Choy)

Toyota pledges $2.1bn more for EV battery plant in North Carolina

Reuters | May 31, 2023 |

Credit: Toyota Motor Corp.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it will invest $2.1 billion more in its new US battery plant in North Carolina, as the Japanese automaker deepens efforts to tap rising demand for electric vehicles.


The automaker also said its first US-made battery electric sports utility vehicles (SUVs) will be assembled at the company’s Kentucky plant from 2025.

The new SUVs, with three rows of seats, will be powered by batteries from the North Carolina plant once it begins production in 2025.

Toyota’s latest investment in the battery plant brings the total to $5.9 billion.

The facility, its planned hub for developing and producing lithium-ion batteries, will have six battery production lines – four for hybrid electric vehicles and two for battery electric vehicles.

Seeking to solidify its foothold in the EV sector, Toyota has said it will introduce 10 new battery-powered vehicles, targeting sales of 1.5 million EVs a year by 2026.

(By Aishwarya Nair; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

Zijin urges Colombia to protect gold mine after attack
Bloomberg News | May 31, 2023 

Buritica is located in the middle Cauca belt, in Colombia’s northwest. (Image courtesy of Zijin Continental Gold.)

China’s Zijin Mining Group is asking the Colombian government to retake control of the territory surrounding its Buritica gold mine after the operation suffered a new attack.


One worker was shot Monday, and on Tuesday vehicles were incinerated, prompting an evacuation of the gold mine in Antioquia province, the company said. That comes after two contract workers were killed and 14 other people were injured, including 4 members of the police, on May 17.

“Intervention in the Buritica mine is urgent,” Colombian unit Zijin-Continental Gold said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Illegal mining activities haven’t stopped and, on the contrary, have become more aggressive with the use of explosions, detonations and weapons.”

Miners aren’t the only ones suffering attacks. Earlier this year, an oil field-services trade group warned crude output will decline this year partly because of pipeline bombings and civil disorder.

Environmental platform urges more than 1,600 high-emitting firms to disclose data

Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

Stock image.

More than 1,600 companies identified by non-profit platform CDP as having the biggest impact on the environment are not disclosing environmental data, it said as it launched its latest campaign to get firms to provide the information.


CDP, which has standardised data to allow investors and others to compare corporate performance in areas like climate change, water and deforestation, said 288 financial institutions with around $29 trillion in assets will write to the companies to urge them to disclose the data.


The companies targeted in the 2023 campaign include repeat non-disclosers such as Exxon Mobil, Glencore and Caterpillar, CDP said in a statement.

Exxon said it had a plan “to reduce emissions to support a net-zero future while growing value for our shareholders and stakeholders.”

In an emailed statement, the oil giant said between 2016 and end-2021 it had cut the emissions from its own operations and reduced methane emissions intensity from operated assets, and it had hiked the amount it plans to invest on lower-emission initiatives.

Glencore declined to comment.

Caterpillar did not respond to a request for comment.

Collectively, the non-disclosers emit an estimated +4,200 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually – which CDP said was almost equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada combined.

CDP works to help small groups of lead shareholders target companies and ratchet up pressure on boards to listen, said Claire Elsdon, CDP’s joint global director of capital markets.

Financial institutions need the data “to support risk management practices, tracking portfolio alignment to net zero goals and unlocking sustainability-linked opportunities,” she said. “These uses can serve to not only safeguard but also boost long-term profitability,” Elsdon said.

Since it launched in 2017, CDP has expanded the universe of companies it targets for data disclosure. That has meant the number of non-disclosing companies targeted this year is higher than in its 2022 campaign.

Despite the progress, disclosure remains a problem in high-emitting sectors and getting laggards to submit data will prove tricky, she acknowledged.

Overall, about 50% of companies across sectors disclose environmental data, Elsdon told Reuters.

The 2022 campaign delivered responses from 388 high-impact companies out of nearly 1,500 targeted, and CDP said firms were 2.3 times more likely to disclose if they were directly engaged by financial institutions.

Investors targeting non-dislosing companies this year include Sumitomo Life Insurance, AQR and Legal & General Investment Management.

(By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Sharon Singleton and David Gregorio)

Tsingshan, Eramet confirm $1.7 billion Argentina plan
Reuters | June 1, 2023 |

Image: Tsingshan Holding Group.

China’s top nickel producer Tsingshan and French mining group Eramet confirmed a planned investment of more than $1.7 billion in Argentina, the company said in a statement on Thursday.


John Li, president director of Tsingshan South America Lithium Resources Development Co Ltd, said he hoped the Argentinian government would introduce more policies and measures related to investment, it said.

Li made the comment when Argentina’s Minister of Economy Sergio T. Massa and Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja visited Tsingshan Industry on May 31.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; editing by Jason Neely)

Governments must speed up mine permits to meet transition needs – Teck CEO

Reuters | June 1, 2023 |

Teck CEO Jonathan Price. (Credit: BHP)

Governments need to speed up permitting of new mines to boost their chances to meet a surge in demand for minerals vital to feed the clean energy transition, Teck Resources chief executive Jonathan Price said on Thursday.


“Across government and industry, there is growing awareness that supporting the low-carbon transition and our growing population means meeting new demand for critical minerals,” Price said, speaking at the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce in London, where Teck opened an office last year.

“And that means working together to get new mines online faster.”

Price’s remarks come as Teck tries to fend off an unsolicited and unwanted takeover bid from Glencore, while reworking a plan to separate its copper and zinc business from the steelmaking coal unit that failed to secure enough shareholder support in April.

As pressure rises on mining companies to procure minerals needed to build electric vehicles and infrastructure, approvals for new mines can take from 2-3 years to more than a decade. The yawning divide between Western countries’ and China’s approaches to funding supply chains is becoming a top concern for policymakers.

Canada, where Teck has its primary listing, last year pledged to review the permitting process with an eye on cutting the time required to bring mines online by avoiding duplication and ensuring early Indigenous consultation and engagement.

Mining companies are hyper alert to concerns opposing projects that might destroy sacred land or gobble up water and other resources essential to the livelihood of local communities.

“Miners need to do a better job not just meeting, but exceeding ESG expectations to justify getting new production online faster,” Price said.

“If you (a mining company) don’t have a strong ESG track record, you simply won’t get the necessary support of governments, communities, and Indigenous Peoples needed to operate and grow,” he added.

(Reporting by Clara Denina; Editing by Kim Coghill)