Electrofuel developed from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide tested in practice for first time in Finland

by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The E-fuel project of VTT and partners has developed a concept for producing electrofuel from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide using a combination of different methods. On Nov. 21, this paraffinic E-fuel was tested for the first time in Finland on a diesel-powered tractor at AGCO Power's Linnavuori factory in Nokia. The new electrofuel is also suitable for vehicles that are difficult to electrify, and is therefore an important step in the development of sustainable fuel solutions.

Global climate goals require drastic changes in all aspects of life. Carbon capture and utilization are key to moving towards sustainable fuel solutions for transport. The E-fuel project, coordinated by VTT, has combined high-temperature electrolysis, carbon capture and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis to develop electrofuel production for commercial and industrial scale. New methods have made the production of green hydrogen much more efficient than before.

"Using Finnish technology, we have succeeded in producing E-diesel, or electrofuel, from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide on a pre-commercial scale. The fuel can be used to replace fossil diesel in sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as heavy road transport and shipping. It can also be used in machinery. Our next step is to obtain information on the usability of the fuel in a field test," says VTT Research Professor Juha Lehtonen.

Electrofuel being tested at the AGCO Power factory in Nokia

The project has produced hundreds of kilograms of synthetic hydrocarbons for sustainable transport fuel. The hydrocarbons have then been refined at Neste into a drop-in paraffinic diesel, which was now being tested at AGCO Power's Linnavuori plant in Nokia.

"The Valtra T235D tractor, powered by AGCO Power's 74 LFTN diesel engine, was fueled with the new E-diesel and, during the test drive, which lasted several hours, fuel consumption and the carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fine particles and other substances in the exhaust emissions were measured. The E-diesel produced in the project is expected to be of high quality and meet current road diesel fuel standards," says AGCO Power's director of engineering, Kari Aaltonen.

New electrofuel can be used in existing diesel engines

There is no single solution to future emission reductions. AGCO Power's engine plant is also investing in research and development and exploring a wide range of options for reducing emissions from agriculture.

"We are developing solutions for different types of machinery to meet the needs of farmers, for example with electric batteries, hydrogen, methane and methanol," says Aaltonen.

It is important that emissions and fossil fuel use can be significantly reduced by means other than the direct electrification of transport.

"Sustainable fuels suitable for the current diesel engine fleet, such as drop-in E-diesel, can be blended with fossil diesel completely freely and still meet the quality requirements of paraffinic diesel according to the EN 15940 standard," Aaltonen continues.

According to Päivi Aakko-Saksa, principal research scientist at VTT, based on previous experience with paraffinic fuels, the E-diesel being tested is also expected to be an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil diesel in terms of local emissions.

"By analyzing the results of the Nokia test run, we will see whether E-diesel is also an environmentally friendly alternative with regard to harmful exhaust emissions," she says.

Provided by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 

Investigating whether biodiesel is truly a viable alternative

Mining industry competing with salmon for rivers created by disappearing glaciers: SFU study finds

November 23, 2023

Jonathan Moore (Simon Fraser University) studying sockeye salmon in a formerly glaciated river. Location is in the Tulsequah subwatershed within the Taku watershed, BC, Canada. Credit: Mark Connor

A study led by Simon Fraser University researchers finds that mining companies are staking claims on future salmon habitats as glaciers retreat.

In the ice-covered transboundary region shared by northern B.C. and Alaska, glacier retreat is creating thousands of kilometers of new rivers that salmon are finding. These emerging rivers represent future habitats for salmon but mining companies are also looking to these areas for the next gold mine. A new study, published in Science maps out these emerging land use conflicts and identifies policy blind spots as well as key opportunities for the stewardship of these nascent habitats.

The paper discovered that of the 114 subwatersheds in the transboundary region with future salmon habitat, 25 had more than 50 per cent of future salmon habitat near a mining claim. In addition, more than half of future salmon habitat in Canada has either medium or high mineral potential, an indicator of future potential mining pressure.

The paper was a collaboration among researchers from SFU, Gitanyow First Nation Hereditary Chiefs, the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station, and Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

“Climate change and other human activities are harming salmon populations in much of their range. Yet in some locations of northern B.C. and Alaska, glacier retreat is creating hotspots of opportunity for salmon, but also of mining pressure. This is an emerging environmental issue,” says SFU professor Jonathan Moore, the study’s lead author and head of the Salmon Watersheds Lab.

This study builds on previous work by Moore and Kara Pitman, a research scientist at SFU. “Previously, we mapped where and when future salmon habitat would be created with glacier retreat. This builds on that work, and is the first time that we have assessed where mining claims or mineral potential overlap with future salmon habitats,” says Pitman.

An abandoned mine on the banks of the Tulsequah River, BC, Canada. 

Credit: Chris Miller


B.C. mining policy in reform

The Mineral Tenure Act is the B.C. policy that allows mining companies to stake claims on lands with minimal government oversight and without consultation with First Nations. The B.C. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Mineral Tenure Act violated the duty to consult with First Nations rightsholders, and ordered the Province to modernize the Act in the next year and a half.

“These changes can’t come soon enough,” says Tara Marsden, with Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, a study co-author. “The Mineral Tenure Act not only violates Indigenous rights but also undermines stewardship of ecosystems for future generations.”

An adult sockeye salmon, fresh from the ocean. Credit: Jonathan Moore

Environmental policies for climate resilience

The paper also illuminates a broad global challenge—as climate change is rapidly transforming the world, environmental policies may struggle to keep pace. For example, risk assessments and habitat protections by current environmental laws generally focus on the current values of ecosystems, but not their future values.

“Climate change is transforming ecosystems around the world,” says Moore. “Even as there is urgent need to take global action on climate change, this paper also reveals the need to look carefully at environmental laws and make sure that they not only protect habitats of today, but also the habitats of tomorrow.”

Researchers Jonathan Moore (Simon Fraser University) and Mark Connor (Taku River Tlingit First Nation Fisheries) on the banks of the Tulsequah River, a location of emerging salmon habitat and mining claims, BC, Canada. 

Credit: Chris Sergeant

Indigenous-led stewardship of changing watersheds

The region is also at the forefront for Indigenous rights and reconciliation. Different First Nations are advancing Indigenous Protected Areas and land-use plans that are forward-looking, incorporating climate change and holistic perspectives into environmental stewardship.

Marsden noted, “Our Ayookxw, our Gitanyow laws, speak to our obligations to future generations. We are seeing changes in our Lax’yip, our territories, and we are taking action to protect our ecosystems even as they change. Our policies consider climate change, and our new Indigenous Protected Area is in response to salmon finding new habitats as glaciers retreat.”

The paper speaks to the broad opportunity for proactive conservation that advances Indigenous rights.

"With our land-use plans and protections, we are not saying no to industry everywhere, we are saying let’s do this is a good way,” says Marsden. “This is a globally relevant opportunity to get a lot right—Indigenous rights, meaningful protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, and climate resilience.”

Chile to invest $7 million in lithium and salt flats research

 MINING.com
 November 24, 2023


Applications for the so-called “Lithium and Salt Flat Research Rings” program have opened, and the funding will be awarded in mid-2024. Examples of potential research topics are new methods of brine extractions, reusing materials in the lithium value chain, the biodiversity of the salt flats, and the impact of lithium exploitation on the salt flats, the government said,

Chile announced in April a new national lithium strategy, which calls for public-private partnerships for future lithium projects.

Under the new business model, the state will take a controlling stake in operations considered strategically significant, while private firms will be able to retain control of projects in non-strategic areas.

The nation’s left-leaning government has vowed to be flexible when defining those categories, as it acknowledges that some salt flats are too small for the state to have a major role.

Chile is the world’s top copper producer and the second-largest producer of lithium. Both metals are considered vital commodities for the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies.

Total reserves and resources of lithium in Chile are estimated at 14.3 million tonnes, with the Salar de Atacama being the largest lithium-producing salt flat in the county, followed by Maricunga.

Before the new lithium strategy, only SQM (NYSE: SQM) and Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) were licensed to produce lithium in Chile, and limited to only the Atacama salt flat.
Addressing concerns

The fact that most reserves are concentrated in the dry Atacama area has prompted concerns from indigenous communities and environmental organizations about the possible effects of lithium extraction on water resources and local biodiversity.

“We have little knowledge and, therefore, a great space to contribute to our understanding of these ecosystems that are so fragile and so valuable,” environment minister Maisa Rojas said.

President Gabriel Boric’s administration wants to expand production beyond Atacama, as there are other 18 salt flats that could potentially be open to lithium mining. His government is also looking to encourage downstream investments.

Global demand for lithium, according to the Chile’s own projections, will quadruple by 2030, reaching 1.8 million tonnes. Available supply by then is expected to sit at 1.5 million tonnes.

Chile exported $6.9 million of lithium carbonate las year, representing a 777% increase when compared to 2021, data from the country’s Central Bank shows.

Anglo consults South Africa on potential platinum, iron job cuts

Bloomberg News | November 24, 2023 |

Bathopele mine in South Africa. (Image: Anglo American Platinum)

Anglo American Plc is considering cutting jobs at two units in South Africa because of declining platinum-group metal prices and bottlenecks curbing iron ore exports, four people familiar with the situation said.


The company has held talks with the government over the potential reduction in its workforce, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter hasn’t been made public. Senior government officials asked the company to consider delaying the cuts until after elections likely to take place around May, three of the people said


The Congress of South African Trade Unions said that Anglo has also spoken to one of its members, the National Union of Mineworkers, about the matter.

The job cuts would be another blow to the electoral prospects of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress. Anglo is already in the midst of plans to slash corporate and head office jobs globally, with many of those positions in South Africa. The company joined other mining behemoths in posting a steep drop in first-half profit as China’s economic slowdown damped earnings.

Anglo American Platinum Ltd. — about 79% owned by London-based Anglo — is contending with a 14% fall in the price of platinum this year and a 41% plunge in palladium, a valuable byproduct. Rival Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. said in October that it may fire more than 4,000 platinum workers.

Kumba Iron Ore Ltd., owner of South Africa’s biggest iron ore mine and a 70% subsidiary of Anglo, said third-quarter iron ore sales fell 12% from the year earlier, largely because of the poor performance of state ports and freight rail company, Transnet SOC Ltd. The company is almost out of storage space for the ore it has mined and can’t rail it, one of the people said.

“It is no secret that the current operating environment is very tough for both macro and South Africa-specific reasons and we are playing a major role in working across business and with government to help resolve some of those South Africa constraints,” Anglo said in a response to queries. “Beyond that, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on the details of our discussions.”

While a final decision on whether to fire workers and how many positions may be affected has not been taken, the job cuts may impact Anglo American Platinum first, the people familiar said. Those at Kumba may be deferred until later, they added.

The minerals department didn’t respond to a request for comment, while Gwede Mantashe, minerals and energy minister and chairman of the ANC, didn’t answer a call to his phone or respond to a text message.

PGM prices are falling because of global economic conditions, especially the weaker-than-expected recovery in China.

Kumba’s woes are directly related to the sub-standard performance of Transnet, whose inability to rail commodities to ports has also led to coal companies Seriti Resources Holdings Ltd. and Glencore Plc to start talks over job cuts. The plunge in rail performance has seen the amount of iron ore transported to ports fall to the lowest in a decade, while coal shipments by rail are at a 30-year low, according to a report prepared for Ramaphosa’s office.

In an Oct. 24 production report, Kumba said “ongoing rail and port challenges have increased our focus on cost optimization and initiatives to match production and optimize logistics capacity.” It said it had 9 million tons of iron ore in stock at the end of September, almost double the amount it had on site a year earlier.

(By Antony Sguazzin, Loni Prinsloo and William Clowes)

EU and US delay key trade meeting amid deadlock in negotiations

Bloomberg News | November 23, 2023 |

Image courtesy of Volkswagen AG.

A trade meeting between the US and European Union due to take place next month is expected to slip to early next year as the two allies remain deadlocked in talks about steel and critical minerals.


The Trade and Technology Council was meant to take place last month in parallel to the US-EU summit but was postponed to mid-December. The TTC meeting is now likely to happen in early 2024, according to people familiar with the matter.

The delay comes as negotiations to agree on global steel accords and a critical minerals deal have both stalled. Bloomberg previously reported that the US wants to maintain the status quo on steel and aluminum trade for two more years, while the EU is looking for changes to the arrangement as it says it’s unfair and cumbersome.

The TTC has aimed to improve the transatlantic dialogue but fallen short of concrete deliverables on relevant issues, such as answering the question of how to engage with China and how to approach technology issues. Some officials have questioned the relevance of the forum.

The pursuit of a metals accord is aimed at settling a Trump-era dispute sparked by tariffs on European imports on the grounds they posed risks to American national security. Brussels scoffed at that justification and responded with retaliatory measures. The dispute resulted in tariffs on as much as $10 billion in transatlantic trade.

The two sides reached a temporary truce in 2021, which expires at year-end, to provide time to negotiate a lasting agreement.

As part of the temporary arrangements, the US partly removed the Trump measure and introduced a set of tariff-rate quotas above which duties on the metals are applied, while the EU froze all of its restrictive measures. That has created an unbalanced situation that has seen EU exporters pay over $350 million a year in duties, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, talks to agree on a critical minerals agreement needed to allow European companies to access some of the benefits of the green subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act remain stalled over labor rights, said the people.

(By Alberto Nardelli)

Deep sea mining could cause undue harm to local jellyfish populations, study suggests

By Joshua Hawkins
Published Nov 25th, 2023 

Image: donfiore / Adobe

Deep sea mining could pose a danger to local jellyfish populations, a new study suggests. The first-of-its-kind study was conducted by researchers and marine ecologists and aims to see just how much deep sea mining affects the wildlife that calls the sea floor home.

There are, of course, several benefits to mining the ocean floor, including access to rare minerals and elements that we can’t find in high concentrations above the ocean surface. However, mining under the sea could actually cause harm to deep sea jellyfish, as sediment stirred up from the mining sites could activate potentially damaging stress responses in the creatures, the researchers say.

When stressed, deep-sea jellyfish and other cnidarians like them excrete mucus. The study’s co-lead, Vannessa Stenvers, says that when sediment concentrations within the water are above 17 mg/l (milligrams per liter), any exposed jellyfish produce excessive amounts of mucus, covering their bodies in the gunk.

Image source: nikkytok / Adobe

This, the researchers say, is a sign of acute stress within the jellyfish, and that producing so much mucus can actually expend a ton of energy from the deep-sea jellyfish, making long-term excretion of high levels of mucus extremely damaging to their health, especially if they are exposed to high sediment levels for longer periods of time.

One of the biggest reasons the researchers are concerned about the effects of deep sea mining on these jellyfish populations is because food in the deep sea is extremely scarce. That means that any extra energy that is burned is undoubtedly harder to regain. And if there is no extra energy coming in, the jellyfish could potentially starve to death.


It’s a terrible revelation and one that will probably go unheeded by many companies too focused on the riches that deep sea mining could bring to the table. Still, it’s good to see researchers discovering the dangers deep sea mining could pose to these jellyfish. Hopefully, companies keep that in mind as they scour the bottom of our oceans for rare minerals and materials.

The study is published in Nature Communications.

Mucus-Covered Jellyfish Hint at Dangers of Deep-Sea Mining

Shipboard experiments suggested that sediment from the exploitation of metals in the ocean could be harmful to marine life.

Researchers approximated the effects of mining by pumping sediment into the tanks of helmet jellyfish to ask how the animals would cope with muddy water.

Credit...Helena Hauss


By Kate Golembiewski
Nov. 28, 2023

A treasure trove of metal is hiding at the bottom of the ocean. Potato-size nodules of iron and manganese litter the seafloor, and metal-rich crusts cover underwater mountains and chimneys along hydrothermal vents. Deep-sea mining companies have set their sights on these minerals, aiming to use them in batteries and electronics. Environmentalists warn that the mining process and the plumes of sediment it would dump back into the sea could affect marine life.

A series of shipboard experiments on jellyfish in the Norwegian fjords, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, offer insights into those warnings. The scientists approximated the effects of mining by pumping sediment into the jellies’ tanks, essentially asking how the animals would cope with the muddy water. The answer? Not well.

The researchers selected helmet jellyfish as their research subjects because of the ubiquity and hardiness of the dinner-plate-size creatures. The idea was to choose an organism that the team could easily get hold of “and then expose it to conditions that we expect in the mid-water in the open ocean,” said Helena Hauss, a marine ecologist at the Norwegian Research Center who conducted the study while working at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany.

The jellies, which are found around the world in waters 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep, serve as representatives of the countless soft-bodied animals living in the open ocean that could be affected by mining.

The scientists caught the jellyfish, which are abundant in Norway’s fjords, with fine mesh nets and brought them below deck of their research vessel for study in dim rooms illuminated with red light.

“They really are adapted to live in eternal darkness,” said Vanessa Stenvers, an author of the paper and a doctoral candidate at GEOMAR. “And that’s why we had to be very careful when we observed and we always had to use red light to not disturb them.”

Helmet jellyfish were chosen for the study because they are hardier than many of their relatives. “You can catch this thing in a net and it doesn’t turn into goo,” said one researcher.

Credit...Vanessa Stenvers

The scientists exposed the jellies to plumes of sediment comparable to what they might experience around deep-sea mining sites. One response from the jellyfish was visible to the naked eye. They tried to rid themselves of the sediment by producing excess mucus, in white ropes that Ms. Stenvers likened to frosting.

Other stress responses occurred at the molecular level, with several genes associated with tissue repair and the immune system becoming active.

“One thing that worries me is that everything that these animals do to rid themselves of sediment or combat pathogens, it takes energy,” Dr. Hauss said. In the deep ocean where the jellyfish live, food is scarce, and dealing with the effects of muddy water might require more energy than the jellies can obtain from their diet. “It could lead to starvation, it could lead to lower reproduction rates,” Dr. Hauss said.

Jeffrey Drazen, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was not involved with the research, said that “this is a really welcome study” in light of the likelihood that deep-sea mining will release large amounts of sediment. “This is really the first study that has looked at a water column animal’s response to mud,” he said.

Dr. Drazen noted that the species the researchers chose for the study was hardier than many of its relatives. “This is a really robust jellyfish. You can catch this thing in a net and it doesn’t turn into goo,” he said, and its stress response to the sediment indicates that other soft-bodied sea creatures exposed to sediment for longer periods of time might fare even worse.

According to the researchers, their findings suggest that deep-sea mining could negatively affect not only marine life, but human life as well. Midocean animals like helmet jellyfish contribute to a biological cycle that keeps stores of carbon in the deep and not in the atmosphere. And fish that humans rely on for food, like tuna, feed on these midocean communities.

“It’s very important to us, even on land, even though we don’t deal with it on an everyday basis,” Ms. Stenvers said. The good that the open ocean does for our planet “could be lost if we don’t protect it.”

A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 28, 2023, Section D, Page 2 of the New York edition 

Millennial leader takes over broke and crime-wracked Ecuador
Bloomberg News | November 23, 2023 | 

Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa.

 (Image courtesy of Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador | Flickr.)

Distressed debt, political assassinations, anti-mining unrest and soaring crime: Ecuador’s problems would be daunting for an experienced statesman. Instead, it is a 35 year-old president, Daniel Noboa, and one of the world’s youngest cabinets who face the colossal task of rescuing a nation at risk of becoming a failed state.


After he is sworn in at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, Noboa’s 26 year-old party boss in congress, Valentina Centeno, must work with an unstable legislature that has made it difficult to pass laws or raise taxes. As the administration tries to rein in the fiscal deficit, it’ll need to tread carefully to avoid the kind of mass unrest that has followed recent attempts to cut subsidies.

Noboa has pledged to swear in the full cabinet by Sunday.

The new government has just 17 months until Noboa completes the term of outgoing leader Guillermo Lasso.

“This cabinet is going to face a very steep learning curve, which could be a problem in a government of transition that’s going to last a year and a half, and which needs to pass reforms on various fronts,” said Sebastian Hurtado, president of political risk consultancy Profitas in Quito.

Investors are skeptical that they’ll succeed in halting the nation’s downward spiral. Before the October election, many analysts predicted that a Noboa win over his socialist rival would spark a bond rally, but so far it has failed to materialize.

Latin American voters yearning for change have recently elected leaders who are either very young, or far outside the mainstream. Chilean leader Gabriel Boric, who took office aged 36 last year, has seen his popularity plunge early on in his mandate, and has had to appoint more experienced politicians to his cabinet to replace some of the student leaders who helped him to office.

Costa Rica and El Salvador have also elected presidents in their thirties in recent years, while Argentine voters this month backed 53 year-old libertarian economist Javier Milei, who doesn’t have any experience of holding executive office, on a pledge to scrap the nation’s entire economic model.

Source: Bloomberg News.

Noboa’s most urgent task, and the top issue for voters, is curbing the cocaine trafficking and extortion gangs that have overrun the country, causing an increase of more than 300% in homicides over the last five years. He’s said he’ll move the most dangerous offenders to barges in the Pacific Ocean, and get a grip on the prison system after a series of riots and massacres.

“This is an area in which the president must show results relatively quickly,” Hurtado said.

As of Wednesday evening, Noboa still hadn’t named his top security officials, including the defense and interior ministers.

Centeno said Wednesday that Noboa will declare a state of emergency to allow the government to pass a tax bill and an energy bill, and to take quick action on crime.
Cash-Strapped

The government’s other urgent task is a stabilization of the nation’s deteriorating fiscal accounts, Hurtado said.

The US-educated Noboa has said he wants to cut taxes to boost job creation and attract investment to energy and tourism. But he’ll take over a cash-strapped treasury that is effectively cut off from global credit markets.

Ecuador-focused Adventus and Luminex to mergeEcuador voters recently backed a referendum to restrict gold and copper mining.

Noboa asked a more senior economist, Cornell-educated Juan Carlos Vega, 51, to be his finance minister, Vega told Bloomberg early Thursday in response to written questions. The president-elect had originally appointed economist Sariha Moya, 35, for the role, then moved her to the planning department the day before his inauguration.

The fiscal situation calls for unpopular austerity measures, which run counter to Noboa’s desire to be reelected in 2025, said José Hidalgo, head of Quito-based economics think-tank CORDES.

To add to the administration’s financial difficulties, the government is about to lose a chunk of oil revenue after voters in a referendum ordered the closing of one of national oil company Petroecuador’s main fields.

“The incoming government faces a more difficult, complicated cash and financial situation than it realizes,” said Simon Cueva, finance minister in 2021 and 2022. “This implies measures that are unpopular in the short term but which are necessary for a serious government.”

CORDES estimates a fiscal deficit of about 4% of gross domestic product this year, rising to 4.5% to 5% in 2024. The nation’s dollar bonds due 2035 are trading at 37 cents on the dollar, as investors bet that the government is likely to default as soon as 2026 when large payments come due.

Noboa’s press office didn’t return phone calls or reply to written requests for comment.
Green Hydrogen

Andrea Arrobo, 33, an expert on green hydrogen, takes over the Ministry of Energy and Mining. She also faces a tough challenge as oil and mining, the nation’s biggest and fourth-biggest export industries, face hostility from Indigenous and environmentalist pressure groups, making development of the sector fraught with political risk.

Sade Fritschi, 26, becomes environment minister, a key role in a country where voters recently backed a referendum to restrict gold and copper mining. She’ll also need to protect her native Galapagos archipelago and its unique wildlife against a giant, mostly Chinese, fishing fleet that has operated nearby in recent years.

Noboa’s chief of staff and the ministers of trade, public works and education are all in their thirties, while his health minister is 49 and his appointment for head of foreign relations, Gabriela Sommerfeld is 52.

(By Stephan Kueffner)

China shifts approach to fatal coal mining accidents to ensure supply security

Bloomberg News | November 22, 2023 | 

Stock image.

The latest fatal accident linked to coal production in China, this time caused by a fire in a miner’s building in Shanxi province, has prompted another government campaign to protect lives in hazardous industries.


The Shanxi blaze, which killed 26 people and injured another 38, isn’t the worst coal accident in China this year. In February, a landslide at an open-pit mine in Inner Mongolia left 53 dead, the nation’s deadliest industrial disaster since 2019. Coal mine explosions also killed seven in Liaoning in June and 11 in Shaanxi in August.

In mid-September, China’s National Mine Safety Administration said it would amend laws and step up enforcement to eradicate illegal and excessive mining activities that it blamed for the fatal accidents. Six days later, a fire broke out in a Guizhou mine, killing 16.

But unlike previous years, the efforts to rectify unsafe work practices are hardly registering on the nation’s production of its mainstay fuel. The authorities are adopting a lighter touch to ensure energy security isn’t compromised, and that blackouts, which have crippled the economy in the past, are avoided.

In recent times, the prospect of a round of safety inspections in a mining hub like Shanxi, which produced 1.3 billion tons of coal last year, would have fueled concerns over disruptions to output and a rally in prices. This year, it’s been met with a shrug. Thermal coal prices have fallen 2.2% this week and are about a third lower than they were a year ago.

The bleak truth is that, even with broad improvements in worker safety, lots of people still die every year mining coal in China. Total deaths in 2022 were 245, according to the mine safety administration.

The firms at fault are usually smaller, private outfits, which cut corners to boost production to meet government targets or to profit from periods of higher prices. The bigger state-owned firms have much better records. The largest, China Shenhua Energy Co., had a total recordable incident rate of nearly zero in 2021 and 2022, better than its global rivals, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Four of its workers died in accidents last year, versus a peer average of three.

In past years, officials have fanned out across the country after particularly bad accidents, halting production at nearby mines to make sure proper safety standards were in place. The disruptions would limit supply and lead prices to spike.
Periodic shortages

But the periodic lack of coal has also contributed to nationwide power shortages. The government’s broad response has been to keep lifting production to all-time highs. That drive for energy security has also shifted the way China deals with mine accidents, according to Shenhua.

In September, executives told investors that the government has adopted a new system this year where it rated mines on safety standards, and would allow operations with high grades to keep operating after accidents that might have led to suspensions in the past, according to a note from Morgan Stanley at the time.

Neither Shenhua nor the mine safety administration responded to requests for comment.

That’s not to say there’s been zero impact. The China Coal Transport and Distribution Association’s latest forecast is for national output this year to rise modestly to a record 4.66 billion tons, according to a briefing on Wednesday. But that represents slower growth than previous estimates. Having all but assured its annual target, the government is discouraging miners from pushing too hard at the end of the year amid the heightened scrutiny on safety, it said.

BNP Paribas cracks down on mining clients exposed to coal
Bloomberg News | November 23, 2023 |

Stock Image

BNP Paribas SA is imposing new financing restrictions as part of an updated policy around how to treat clients in the mining industry.


The European Union’s biggest bank will no longer provide financing to projects dedicated to the extraction of metallurgical coal, according to an emailed statement late on Wednesday


“This new commitment is part of BNP Paribas’ efforts to align its credit portfolio in the steel sector with its net zero commitment,” the bank said in the email. The decision follows on from targets announced by the bank that are intended to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions financed across oil and gas, electricity generation, automotive, steel, aluminum and cement, it said.

BNP has made access to financing increasingly difficult for clients with large carbon footprints, as it faces an ever tougher regulatory and activist environment. The lender remains the subject of a landmark lawsuit by nonprofits, who allege it isn’t living up to its environmental obligations under French law.

“BNP Paribas recalls that since 2020 it has been committed to a path towards a complete exit from the financing of the entire value chain of companies linked to thermal coal by 2030 in Europe and in the OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world,” the bank said.

At the same time, BNP has overtaken its peers to become the biggest provider of bonds for green projects, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The developments have coincided with new requirements in Europe. The European Central Bank has warned about 20 lenders that it will impose fines unless they address shortcomings in their management of climate risk, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. And last month, the European Banking Authority said it was revising the framework that sets industrywide capital requirements to better incorporate ESG, and warned lenders they’ll need to adjust the risk assessments they conduct of their clients.

BNP’s announcement comes as climate activists increasingly name and shame financial firms that support expansion in the fossil fuel industry. A report published on Thursday by French nonprofit Reclaim Finance said that since 2016, after the Paris climate agreement was signed, the world’s biggest banks have provided $557 billion in finance to the 50 biggest developers in the metallurgical coal sector.

Though the solutions to decarbonize steel exist, “financial players continue to add fuel to the climate fire, by financially supporting the development of new mines,” said Cynthia Rocamora, an industry campaigner at Reclaim Finance. “This is a threat to the economy as these new mines risk becoming stranded assets, and it is a disaster for the climate. Financial players must urgently adopt policies to stop the expansion of metallurgical coal.”

(By Greg Ritchie)

Union withdraws industrial action at BHP’s Pilbara iron ore operations
Reuters | November 23, 2023 | 

BHP iron ore operations. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A union representing train drivers at BHP’s Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia has withdrawn industrial action ahead of an updated employment offer from the mining giant, a union representative told Reuters on Friday.


Around 400 train drivers for the iron ore division had planned the action this week after rejecting an offer that they said fell short on consistency of working schedules, camp standards and arbitration.

“In good faith we have decided that we would withdraw the action at this stage,” Mining and Energy Union WA secretary Greg Busson told Reuters about the action slated for Friday.

The union is expecting a revised offer from BHP on Monday at the latest, which it is set to put to a vote the following week, Busson said.

Drivers were set stop using a BHP app for roster changes, meaning each worker would have had to be contacted individually if the world’s biggest miner wished to change their working hours. The action was not expected to disrupt production.

“We have…been given a commitment that no further protected industrial action will take place before the agreement is sent to employees for a workplace ballot,” a BHP spokeswoman said.

“After two years of bargaining, we are keen to finalize this agreement and take it to our Rail Operations and Rail Academy teams for a vote in December,” she said in a statement to Reuters.

BHP’s iron ore operations include four processing hubs and five mines that are linked by more than 1,000 km (621 miles) of rail and port facilities. The division accounted for $16.6 billion, or 60% of BHP’s earnings before taxes last year.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Josie Kao and Stephen Coates)