WAIT, WHAT?!

X-Batt and Consol Join Forces for Advancements in Coal-Based Battery Technology

 13-Oct-2023 

• Journalist: Motoki Sasaki

Battery material innovator X-Batt has entered into a partnership with Consol Innovations, a subsidiary of Consol Energy, to accelerate the development of coal-based anode technology.

The two companies recently unveiled their joint venture, known as C-Batt Innovations, which aims to advance the production of battery materials derived from coal.

Since its collaboration with the United States Department of Energy in 2020, X-Batt has successfully incorporated coal into its low-cost resin method, enabling the efficient domestic sourcing of anode materials. However, the financial terms and details of Consol's involvement in the joint venture were not disclosed. This partnership signifies the merging of innovation and sustainability, marking a notable shift in the energy storage and battery technology landscape.

X-Batt, founded in 2019, specializes in the development of high-capacity, cost-effective, and scalable lithium-ion battery components that contribute to the ongoing energy transition.In 2020, X-Batt secured a research contract worth $1 million from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, spanning three years. This funding was allocated to explore the utilization of coal as an anode material in lithium-ion batteries. Preliminary assessments showed that when coal is integrated with X-Batt's proprietary resin, it exhibits a higher anode capacity in comparison to graphite.

In June, X-Batt announced a collaboration with Semplastics, another innovative company, to investigate the technology's application in 18650 batteries, which are commonly used in commercial settings. The partners successfully tested coal-based technology in 18650 cells at the Battery Innovation Centre, proving its commercial viability with an 80% capacity retention after 1,000 full charge-discharge cycles.

While the partnership between X-Batt and Consol may offer hope to struggling coal operations, it is essential to note that the Global Energy Monitor recently reported that nearly one million coal jobs could disappear worldwide by 2050. This anticipated loss of jobs is expected to be significant in China and India due to an analysis of active and proposed coal mines. The report highlights that without plans for future operations or transitioning to a post-coal economy, the importance of government involvement and technological innovation in this transition cannot be overstated. This loss of jobs could equate to approximately 100 layoffs daily, reducing the global coal industry's workforce by 37% by 2050.

The partnership between X-Batt and Consol Innovations is geared towards advancing the development of coal-based anode technology for use in lithium-ion batteries. While this innovative approach holds promise for the energy storage and battery technology industry, it is juxtaposed with the broader challenges faced by the coal industry, where significant job losses are anticipated unless efforts are made to transition to a post-coal economy. This highlights the importance of government involvement and technological innovation in managing the challenges associated with the decline of coal.

IMPERIALI$M
China’s copper buyers flex muscles in Codelco contract negotiations
Reuters | October 11, 2023 | 

(Image courtesy of Codelco | Flickr.)

Russian copper exports to China and expectations of surpluses have emboldened Chinese buyers to try and dictate how much they will pay to Codelco for the industrial metal next year, industry sources say.


While European buyers have shunned Russian copper following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, traders and consumers in China, accounting for around half of global consumption of the metal used widely in the power and construction industries, continued to buy Russian metal.

The ample supplies give Chinese buyers an advantage in upcoming negotiations with Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, for the premiums they expect to pay above the London Metal Exchange benchmark price, the sources said.

“China isn’t looking great, there is no shortage of material. Codelco might be able to impose premiums in Europe, but not in China,” a copper industry source said.

According to sources with knowledge of the matter, China’s largest copper buyers expect to pay a premium of around $90 per metric ton next year for Codelco’s metal, 36% below what they are paying this year.

Meanwhile in Europe, Codelco has offered to sell copper at a premium of $234 a ton to clients next year, matching this year’s record after consumers in the region declined to renew Russian contracts and looked for alternative sources.

“Codelco isn’t in a good negotiating position with China,” another copper industry source said.

Codelco’s London office has not responded to requests for comment.

Industry sources say significantly lower shipping costs to China from Chile and rising output in China at 7.75 million metric tons in the first nine months, up 12.7% from the same period in 2022 were also important.

Last week, chairman Maximo Pacheco told Reuters that China remained an important market for the miner, accounting for 40%-45% of Codelco’s sales despite a recent restructuring of its sales strategy.

China’s September copper cathode output jumped to 911,800 tons, up 13% from a year earlier to a monthly record, research house Antaike said.

According to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG), the global refined copper market will see a surplus of 467,000 tons next year from a small deficit this year.

Russia in 2021 supplied the European Union with nearly 292,000 tonnes of copper, according to data from Trade Data Monitor, which showed EU copper imports totalling more than 801,000 tonnes last year.

(By Pratima Desai; Editing by Veronica Brown and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

 

Mining News

Pan American Silver plans to restart its La Colorada mine in the coming days

Vladimir Basov    

Thursday October 12, 2023 13:53

Kitco News

(Kitco News) - Pan American Silver (NYSE: PAAS) (TSX: PAAS) yesterday announced that it will commence restarting operations at its La Colorada mine in Mexico on October 16, 2023, following a shift change and the transition from care and maintenance activities.

On October 5, 2023, Pan American announced the temporary suspension of operating activities due to security concerns at the mine site and the surrounding area following an armed robbery of two trailers of concentrate from the operation.

According to PAAS, there were no physical injuries to the company’s personnel in connection with that incident.

Pan American said it “acknowledges and appreciates” the rapid response and efforts of the Zacatecas state government and federal authorities in Mexico to improve security in the vicinity of the La Colorada mine and to provide an environment that allows for mine operations to resume.

Importantly, the company noted it does not expect the temporary suspension of La Colorada to have a material impact to its annual consolidated production and cost guidance for 2023.

La Colorada is Pan American’s largest silver producing mine. La Colorada produces silver gold doré bars from a conventional cyanide leach plant for the oxide ore, and silver rich lead and zinc concentrates from a flotation plant treating sulphide ore.

Pan American Silver is a leading producer of precious metals in the Americas, operating silver and gold mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

MONITORING AFRICAN COPPER AND COBALT MINING EMISSIONS FROM SPACE

NCAR researchers explore a new way to track the impact 

of increased mining activities on the air quality in the 

Copperbelt

OCT 10, 2023 - BY LAURA SNIDER

Emissions associated with mining operations in Africa’s Copperbelt can be quantified from space, according to new research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Mining for copper and cobalt in Africa has rapidly increased, the latter in response to growing global demand for electric vehicles, laptops, smartphones, and other devices that rely on lithium-ion batteries, the vast majority of which contain cobalt. 

The new study is published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, and shows for the first time that satellite monitoring can provide valuable information on the impact of the mining boom on air quality in nearby towns and villages. The research also opens the door to the possibility of remotely monitoring increases and decreases in mining activities in a region of the world where surface monitoring is scarce and reporting by mine operators can be inconsistent or altogether absent. 

“Mining operations can have a significant impact on quality of life for the people living nearby,” said Pieternel Levelt, director of NCAR’s Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling Lab and senior author of the paper. “This research can help us better understand how severe and widespread those impacts may be in mining areas like the Copperbelt while also giving us a tool for estimating the growth of mining activities in remote regions that are driving those impacts.”

The work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor, as well as by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). The list of co-authors includes researchers from KNMI and the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, the Royal Belgium Institute for Space Astronomy, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as well as the National Centre for Scientific Research (CRNS) and the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, both in France.  

AN IMMENSE INCREASE IN PRODUCTION

Africa’s Copperbelt straddles Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produced 73% of the world’s supply of cobalt in 2022, according to the Cobalt Institute. Cobalt production in the Copperbelt increased about 600% between 1990 and 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The vast majority of cobalt is produced as a byproduct of copper mining, though some copper mines do not produce any cobalt. 

Most of the energy consumed in copper and cobalt mining — including the operation of large machinery and electricity production — is generated by burning diesel fuel, which in turn produces nitrogen oxides, a key ingredient in smog.

To quantify the emissions, the research team turned to data from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite (S-5P). TROPOMI can monitor a number of trace gases important for air quality, including nitrogen dioxide.

While biomass burning, urban activity, and other industrial operations beyond mining also produce nitrogen dioxide — as do some natural processes —  the researchers found that they could distinguish the emissions from copper and cobalt mines in the data. They also found that the annual emissions from each mine strongly correlated with their annual metal production. 

Average nitrogen dioxide detected by the TROPOMI instrument onboard the S-5P satellite over the Democratic Republic of Congo. The image shows the significant increase in nitrogen dioxide over a copper/cobalt mine (circled in yellow) compared to the city of Kolwezi (circled in yellow). Image courtesy: Pepijn Veefkind, KNMI

“We thought that these copper and cobalt mining operations could affect local air quality; we just didn’t know how much given the lack of ground monitoring in the region,” said NCAR scientist Sara Martínez-Alonso, who is the study’s lead author. “Understanding this is particularly important when mining-related activities proliferate in close proximity to  — or even inside of — population centers, as is the case in the Copperbelt. With satellite observations we were able to quantify emissions from individual mines and put those emissions into perspective.”

The S-5P satellite that carries TROPOMI is polar-orbiting and passes over any given location on the Earth’s surface once a day, limiting the number of observations over the Copperbelt. A geostationary satellite over the continent could provide a much more in-depth picture of emissions in the region, providing hourly instead of daily observations, according to Levelt. Currently, there are no geostationary satellites over Africa or anywhere in the global South.

“A geostationary satellite over Africa could provide the data needed to create accurate air quality forecasts for populations that are at increased risk,” Levelt said. “Hourly observations over urban areas could show the daily evolution of pollution levels and sources, and the information could inform local regulatory agencies.”

ABOUT THE ARTICLE

Title: S-5P/TROPOMI-derived NOx emissions from copper/cobalt mining and other industrial activities in the Copperbelt (Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia)
Authors: S. Martínez-Alonso, J.P. Veefkind, B. Dix, B. Gaubert, N. Theys, C. Granier, A. Soulié, S. Darras, H. Eskes, W. Tang, H. Worden, J. De Gouw, and P.F. Levelt
Journal: Geophysical Research Letters

CHILE

BHP averts strike at Escondida mine with preliminary union deal

Reuters | October 12, 2023 | 

Escondida workers on strike in 2017. (Screenshot from CNN Chile Video)

Global miner BHP reached a preliminary deal with the supervisors’ union at its Escondida mine in Chile, avoiding a strike at the world’s largest copper deposit, the company announced late on Wednesday.


In late September, the union’s members rejected a proposal from the company, prompting government mediation to avoid a work stoppage.

“It was agreed to extend the mediation for an additional day in order to finalise and sign a new collective bargaining agreement once it has been ratified by its members,” BHP said in a statement on Wednesday night.

“The company continues to operate normally,” it added.

In 2022, Escondida produced 1.05 million metric tons of copper.

(By Fabián Andrés Cambero and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Ex-Glencore CEO contender sets out to build a Chinese trading giant

Bloomberg News | October 12, 2023 |
Kenny Ives (left), standing alongside Paul Akroyd, the former CEO of IXM. Credit: IXM

When Kenny Ives took over as boss of the trading arm of one of China’s top miners, his model was clear: “23 years at Glencore, and I loved it. So why would I do it differently?”


After just missing out on succeeding Ivan Glasenberg as head of commodities giant Glencore Plc, 46-year-old Ives is now running IXM – which as the trading arm of CMOC Group is a key link between China’s battery industry and the world. There, he’s spent the past year seeking to instill the hard-charging, hyper-competitive Glencore culture that his mentor was famous for.

Nine-to-five would no longer cut it – Ives started turning up at the once sleepy IXM offices in Geneva at 5:30 a.m. and the tall, intense Brit was often still at his desk at midnight. Lunch was out, replaced by brisk runs. Vacations no longer meant unplugging from work calls and messages. “When people take holidays at IXM (there are exceptions), people tend to switch off more or less entirely,” he wrote in an email to IXM managers, seen by Bloomberg. “Unfortunately, this business is one where you can’t switch off entirely if we want to win.”

Winning, in IXM’s world, means challenging the two giants of metals trading: Trafigura Group and Glencore itself.

“IXM were proud to be number three,” Ives said in an interview this week, speaking publicly for the first time since he was hired as CEO. “But CMOC and myself and the senior management team, we have aspirations to be more.”

The upheaval at IXM has been one of the major topics of discussion among the thousands of metals traders in London for LME Week. In a year, more than a fifth of the company’s staff – about 120 people – have left, some made redundant, some leaving of their own accord. At the same time, Ives has capitalized on the struggles of some of his rivals to go on a hiring spree, adding about 40 new employees, many of them alumni of Trafigura and Glencore.

But the whirlwind of changes Ives has wrought at IXM has implications far beyond the metals trading industry: its Chinese parent, CMOC, is overtaking Glencore as the world’s largest cobalt miner, which in turn makes IXM the world’s largest cobalt trader. It’s also a significant producer of copper, with plans to expand in nickel and lithium, and – crucially – has a strategic partnership with 25% shareholder Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s largest battery maker.

While China is the largest consumer by far of metals, the global trading industry has so far remained largely the preserve of companies like Glencore and Trafigura, based in international hubs like Geneva, London and Singapore. At a time when China’s grip on the supply chain for battery metals is causing consternation in western capitals, Ives’s success or failure in transforming IXM into a leading player in the global metals markets has wider geopolitical significance.

“The Chinese are very aware of the strategic dimension of sourcing commodities,” says Jean-Francois Lambert, a consultant and former trade finance banker. “The polarization in global politics makes it even more strategic for them to be there rather than relying on third parties.”
Trading veteran

IXM, originally the metals business of agricultural trader Louis Dreyfus Company, started out as a trader of concentrates, or semi-processed ores bought from mining companies.

By the time LDC sold it in 2018, it was largely focused on generating profit from proprietary trading – betting on geographical and time spreads – while the business of buying, selling and transporting physical raw materials took a back seat, Ives says.

“When I arrived we had too many gaps,” he says. “We were very active in some metals and less active in others.”

While Ives is a seasoned veteran in commodity trading, this is his first job outside of Glencore. He grew up in Brighton, on the south coast of England, and once told an alumni website that he used to pay his school fees in cash from an old carrier bag. He joined Glencore straight out of university, working as a copper trader and briefly a grain trader before he moved to nickel and he became the division head in 2012. He left in 2021, during a broad changing of the guard after Glasenberg chose Gary Nagle as his successor.

He arrived at IXM at a low point for the company, with profit last year falling to the lowest in years as higher interest rates hit metals traders across the industry. Still, the company’s profit before tax is back on track this year to reach the $200 million that has been a high watermark until now. As the business grows, Ives says, he plans to “blow through those figures.”

For now, the company is still much smaller than Trafigura and Glencore, which dominate the world of metal trading. It traded 6.3 million tons of non-ferrous metals and concentrates last year, compared to 23.3 million at Trafigura and about 17 million at Glencore.

Yet CMOC and Ives have high aspirations. He wants IXM to expand in Europe and the US – and is adamant the business is far more than simply a sourcing operation for Chinese businesses. By combining CMOC’s mining operations with a trading business – just as Glasenberg did as he built the modern-day Glencore – the company can squeeze more profit out of each ton of metal, as well as identifying the right moments and opportunities to “deploy aggressively” and take large bets, Ives says.

“You can’t switch off entirely if we want to win”

While he says he isn’t trying to create “Glencore 2.0,” he argues that IXM can use the flow of commodities from CMOC’s mining business to build a larger trading operation, which can in turn help CMOC run its mining business more profitably. He plans to boost IXM’s physical trading volumes in concentrates, and also has an eye on his old stalking ground, the nickel market. “We’re able to leverage the marketing flow to build out a trading business,” he says.

There are already some signs that IXM is getting bolder, people inside and outside the company say. Early this year, it was proactive selling cobalt in China, pre-empting a market slump that has hurt rivals including Glencore. In May, it made waves on the London Metal Exchange with a large aluminum trade.

Still, some are sceptical that it will be possible to build a world-beating trading house under Chinese ownership.

Chinese trading companies’ overarching objective is to procure commodities more efficiently for China Inc., says Lambert, the former trade finance banker, and that takes away the flexibility and nimbleness a trader needs to make money.

But Ives argues that being owned by CMOC is in fact an advantage, pointing to the company’s rapid expansion in Democratic Republic of Congo, where many western mining companies refuse to invest. It also has investments in Bolivian lithium and Indonesian nickel.

“Chinese mining companies, they love a challenge and they clearly look at the world through a different lens,” he says. “I suspect that you’re going to see CMOC as an organization grow, which means our marketing business naturally grows.”
Trader hires

The changes he has made in the past year have been about preparing for that growth. Among the people he’s hired are former Glencore traders Douglas Booth, Kapil Reddy Kunta, Han Cho and YB Nam; former Trafigura traders Gary Le-Men, Branko Buhavac, Saurabh Phadke, Julio Arce and James Scott; ex-Mitsubishi trader Kentaro Kimura and analyst Ryan Cochrane.

And, while there has been much reshuffling, many of the people he’s promoted are IXM veterans.

He has reorganized the trading teams to separate concentrates and refined metals, with the latter run by longtime IXM traders Tom Mackay and Adhitya Sethaputra as co-heads. Le-Men will run copper concentrates trading, while Xavier-Alexandre Ortiz oversees lead and zinc concentrates.

Ives has also brought a renewed focus on “traffic” – the less-glamorous teams of operators that handle the logistics of shipping goods around the world, but which are essential to ensuring that trades go smoothly.

It’s another element of the philosophy he has imported from Glencore, which ever since it was founded by Marc Rich in 1974 placed a high emphasis on the traffic department as the nerve center of the company, and for years insisted all junior employees work there for a spell before becoming traders. “I’m a great believer in hiring operators,” Ives says, “having come through the Glencore school in the 1990s.”

It’s not the only time he cites his Glencore experience – or his former boss, Glasenberg.

“While Ivan is no longer as outspoken, his infamous May 2013 quote lives on in pockets of Glencore – the winning pockets,” he wrote in his email exhorting employees not to switch off on holiday, before reproducing it: “I tell investors, come and meet my employees and tell me who you think is going to lie on the beach.”

(By Jack Farchy, Archie Hunter and Alfred Cang)

Rio Tinto Kennecott completes construction of solar power plant

---

10 October 2023

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Rio Tinto has completed construction on a new 5-megawatt solar power plant at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah. 

The 12,800 solar panel power plant will be commissioned in coming weeks, enabling Kennecott to reduce its operational emissions by 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

The plant will serve as a pilot project with the goal of expanding Kennecott’s solar energy supply in the future.

Shifting to sustainable energy solutions is a priority for Kennecott. The mine closed down its coal-fired power plant in 2019, moving to electricity paired with renewable energy certificates. This resulted in a 65 percent reduction in its carbon footprint and the elimination of over 1 million tons of carbon dioxide output per year.  

Rio Tinto Kennecott Managing Director Nate Foster said: “Rio Tinto Kennecott has a key role to play in supporting the energy transition. We supply U.S. companies with the copper and tellurium they need to produce solar panels, wind turbines, and conductors. We also continue to take steps to further decarbonize our business, from our battery electric vehicle trial to our renewable diesel trial and now to our very own solar plant.” 

The location of the 30-acre solar array was carefully selected to minimize visual and environmental impacts. It is adjacent to other existing industrial operations, away from residential and commercial zones, with earthen berms from the railway providing a visual barrier to most of the installation.

Notes to editors 
Last year, Rio Tinto started producing tellurium as a byproduct of mining and refining copper at Kennecott, becoming one of only two U.S. producers of this critical mineral. Both copper and tellurium are vital components of photovoltaic solar panels. The tellurium from Kennecott is refined by 5N Plus, a producer of specialty semiconductors and performance materials, before being supplied primarily to First Solar for use in its solar panels. 

Rio Tinto aims to reduce its global Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

 

New research finds that ancient carbon in rocks releases as much carbon dioxide as the world's volcanoes

by University of Oxford

Sedimentary rocks on the banks of the Mackenzie River, Canada, a major river basin 

where rock weathering is a CO2 source. Credit: Robert Hilton.

A new study led by the University of Oxford has overturned the view that natural rock weathering acts as a CO2 sink, indicating instead that this can also act as a large CO2 source, rivaling that of volcanoes. The results, published today in the journal Nature, have important implications for modeling climate change scenarios.

Rocks contain an enormous store of carbon in the ancient remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. This means that the "geological carbon cycle" acts as a thermostat that helps to regulate the Earth's temperature.

For instance, during chemical weathering rocks can suck up CO2 when certain minerals are attacked by the weak acid found in rainwater. This process helps to counteract the continuous CO2 released by volcanoes around the world, and forms part of Earth's natural carbon cycle that has helped keep the surface habitable to life for a billion years or more.

However, for the first time this new study measured an additional natural process of CO2 release from rocks to the atmosphere, finding that it is as significant as the CO2 released from volcanoes around the world. Currently, this process is not included in most models of the natural carbon cycle.

The process occurs when rocks that formed on ancient seafloors (where plants and animals were buried in sediments) are pushed back up to Earth's surface, for example when mountains like the Himalayas or Andes form. This exposes the organic carbon in the rocks to oxygen in the air and water, which can react and release CO2. This means that weathering rocks could be a source of CO2, rather than the commonly assumed sink.

Shale rocks high up in the remote Mackenzie mountains Canada, which contain lots of 

rock organic carbon and are hotspots of CO2 release. Credit: Robert Hilton.

Up to now, measuring the release of this CO2 from weathering organic carbon in rocks has proved difficult. In the new study, the researchers used a tracer element (rhenium) which is released into water when rock organic carbon reacts with oxygen. Sampling river water to measure rhenium levels makes it possible to quantify CO2 release. However, sampling all river water in the world to get a global estimate would be a significant challenge.

To upscale over Earth's surface, the researchers did two things. First, they worked out how much organic carbon is present in rocks near the surface. Second, they worked out where these were being exposed most rapidly, by erosion in steep, mountain locations.

Dr. Jesse Zondervan, the researcher who led the study at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, said, "The challenge was then how to combine these global maps with the river data, while considering uncertainties. We fed all of our data into a supercomputer at Oxford, simulating the complex interplay of physical, chemical, and hydrological processes. By piecing together this vast planetary jigsaw, we could finally estimate the total carbon dioxide emitted as these rocks weather and exhale their ancient carbon into the air."

This could then be compared to how much CO2 could be drawn down by natural rock weathering of silicate minerals. The results identified many large areas where weathering was a CO2 source, challenging the current view about how weathering impacts the carbon cycle.

Landslides in the high Andes of Peru, exposing rocks full of organic matter to weathering 

which can release CO2. Credit: Robert Hilton.

Hotspots of CO2 release were concentrated in mountain ranges with high uplift rates that cause sedimentary rocks to be exposed, such as the eastern Himalayas, the Rocky Mountains, and the Andes. The global CO2 release from rock organic carbon weathering was found to be 68 megatons of carbon per year.

Professor Robert Hilton (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford), who leads the ROC-CO2 research project that supported the study, said, "This is about 100 times less than present day human CO2 emissions by burning fossil fuels, but it is similar to how much CO2 is released by volcanoes around the world, meaning it is a key player in Earth's natural carbon cycle."

These fluxes could have changed during Earth's past. For instance, during periods of mountain building that bring up many rocks containing organic matter, the CO2 release may have been higher, influencing global climate in the past.

High erosion in southern France exposes these sedimentary rocks to weathering,

 releasing CO2 as the ancient organic carbon breaks down. Credit: Robert Hilton

Ongoing and future work is looking into how changes in erosion due to human activities, alongside the increased warming of rocks due to anthropogenic climate changes, could increase this natural carbon leak. A question the team are now asking is if this natural CO2 release will increase over the coming century. "Currently we don't know—our methods allow us to provide a robust global estimate, but not yet assess how it could change," says Hilton.

"While the carbon dioxide release from rock weathering is small compared to present-day human emissions, the improved understanding of these natural fluxes will help us better predict our carbon budget," concluded Dr. Zondervan.

More information: Jesse Zondervan, Rock organic carbon oxidation CO2 release offsets silicate weathering sink, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06581-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06581-9

Journal information: Nature 

Provided by University of Oxford Assessing weathering conditions around the globe to understand rate-limiting factors for major rock types

Mexico govt blames Grupo Mexico for 2014 toxic spill, wants new cleanup plan

Reuters | October 13, 2023 | 

Image: Grupo Mexico

A 2014 toxic spill in a Mexican river blamed on Grupo Mexico was not an accident but a result of negligence, the country’s environment minister said on Thursday, while urging the mining conglomerate to create a new plan to remediate the damage.


“It was not an accident, it was negligence,” Environment Minister Maria Luisa Albores said, adding that the government filed a complaint in August against the company, one of the world’s largest copper producers.

Grupo Mexico failed to remediate the river’s water and soil and did not provide the funds to carry out proper works for the environmental recovery of the area, according to Albores.

The company needed to provide an initial 2 billion pesos ($111.86 million), of which it only provided half, she said.

The spill was first detected on the morning of Aug. 6, 2014 and pumped 40,000 cubic meters (over 10 million gallons) of toxic mining acid into the Bacanuchi river in Mexico’s northern Sonora state, the federal attorney general’s office for environmental protection (Profepa) said at the time.

The possible fine for the spill was set at up to 40 million pesos, worth about $3 million then.

The government is now asking for a new remediation plan that not only targets soil contamination, but other components such as water and air. Albores did not say how much this could cost the company.

Grupo Mexico did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the causes of the spill and the government complaint.

The miner said in an Oct. 4 statement that remediation work in the river was successful and backed by scientific studies.

Shares in Grupo Mexico were down 2.3% after Albores’ comments on Thursday.

($1 = 17.8868 Mexican pesos)

(By Ana Isabel Martinez and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Marguerita Choy)

Barrick to restart gold mining in Papua New Guinea

Operations have undergone a three-year hiatus following the government’s refusal to extend Barrick’s special mining lease.

Alfie Shaw

October 16, 2023

Pieces of gold. Credit: Anukul/shutterstock.com.

Canadian mining company Barrick Gold has been permitted by the Government of Papua New Guinea to restart operations at the Porgera gold mine, which has been out of action for three years.

In April 2020, the Papua New Guinea Government took control of the mine after refusing to extend Barrick’s special mining lease at the facility. Prime Minister James Marape cited environmental concerns with the project that were behind the government’s decision.

On Friday, Barrick announced that New Porgera Ltd was granted a special mining lease by Bob Dadae, the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea. The operation is set to produce 700,000oz per year of gold. Before production was halted, the mine produced 600,000oz of gold in 2019.


Mark Bristow, Barrick’s chief executive and president, said: “It has been a long road, but the end is now in sight. Negotiations between Barrick, the government and the other stakeholders required patience and persistence, but the spirit of partnership they conducted eventually led to an outcome acceptable to all. Barrick’s commitment to partnership with its host countries is also reflected in New Porgera Ltd’s ownership structure, which ensures the equitable sharing of the value created by Porgera with all stakeholders.”

Barrick owns a 49% stake in the venture and is the mine’s operator, while Papua New Guinea stakeholders own the remaining 51%.

Following the announcement on Friday morning, Barrick’s stock price increased by 4% on the Toronto Stock Exchange by midday.

According to research by GlobalData, Mining Technology’s parent company, Papua New Guinea was the 18th-largest gold producer in the world in 2022. The compound annual growth rate of the sector is expected to rise by 11% between 2022 and 2026.

Special Mining Lease Signals Porgera Restart

Barrick Gold Corporation
Fri, October 13, 2023 

Barrick Gold Corporation

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea, Oct. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) (TSX:ABX) – Governor General Sir Bob Dabae today granted a special mining lease to New Porgera Limited (NPL), clearing the way for Barrick Gold Corporation to restart production at the gold mine, which has been on care and maintenance for three years.1

This follows the signing of a mining development contract and the conclusion of a fiscal stability agreement for New Porgera between the government and NPL. NPL will meet the mine property’s landowners in the coming week to settle compensation agreements.

Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow said subject to agreement on compensation, the mine was positioned to restart before the end of this year. Recruitment was being accelerated to employ the full workforce that will be required when the mine starts ramping up operations as soon as the compensation agreements are in place.

“It’s been a long road, but the end is now in sight. Negotiations between Barrick, the government and the other stakeholders required patience and persistence but the spirit of partnership in which they were conducted eventually led to an outcome acceptable to all. Barrick’s commitment to partnership with its host countries is also reflected in NPL’s ownership structure, which ensures the equitable sharing of the value created by Porgera with all stakeholders,” he said.

Enquiries:
Website: www.barrick.com

Endnote
Porgera was placed on temporary care and maintenance on April 25, 2020 and remains excluded from our 2023 guidance. We expect to update our guidance to include Porgera following both the execution of definitive agreements to implement the Commencement Agreement and the finalization of a timeline for the resumption of full mine operations.