Could We Power Flights With Human Waste?💩

By Felicity Bradstock - Apr 21, 2024, 

• Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) derived from human waste is being explored as a promising alternative to fossil fuels for powering flights.
• 
  
• Governments worldwide are pushing for greener aviation practices, with targets set for SAF adoption and emissions reduction in the aviation sector.
• 
  
• Companies like Wizz Air and Firefly are investing in projects to convert sewage into SAF, aiming to capitalize on abundant feedstock and reduce carbon emissions in the aviation industry.

Aviation companies worldwide have increasingly been investing in research and development into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help decarbonise their flights. The aviation sector is considered a hard-to-abate industry, as there is no clear alternative to fossil fuels that can be used to power commercial flight. And yet, governments worldwide are putting increasing pressure on companies to make their operations greener. The most promising fossil fuel alternative to date is SAF, which many airlines are now mixing with conventional fuels to reduce emissions. Recently, Wizz Air and Firefly announced that they intend to use human waste to produce jet fuel for future flights through an innovative project in the U.K.

SAF is a biofuel that can be used to power aircraft. It has similar properties to conventional jet fuel but produces far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. A wide variety of feedstock can be used to produce SAF, from food waste to excess crops. Using agricultural waste can provide farmers with extra income while using leftover food can help reduce waste. In the U.S. alone, an estimated one billion dry tonnes of biomass can be collected sustainably each year, which is enough to produce between 50 and 60 billion gallons of SAF. According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, 120 airports around the globe are distributing SAF; 40 SAF policies have been adopted or are under development; and 42 feedstocks have been recognised for the production of SAF. 

Several countries are rapidly expanding their biofuel production to support the development of SAF, as well as other low-carbon products, such as fertiliser and biodiesel. The demand for these fuels has grown exponentially in recent years as governments put increasing pressure on companies to decarbonise their operations, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, such as industry and transport. The demand for biofuel rose to 4.3 exajoules (EJ) in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. To meet net-zero emissions aims by 2050, the global production of biofuel needs to increase to 10 EJ by 2030, requiring an average growth of around 11 percent per year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). 

In Europe, the EU has stated that by 2035 SAF must contribute at least 20 percent of the fuel used in aircraft. Meanwhile, the U.K. is expected to soon announce a 10 percent minimum SAF mix starting in 2030. The International Air Transport Association aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and it expects SAF to contribute to 65 percent of emissions reductions in the industry. This will be supported by new technology, such as electric and hydrogen, contributing 13 percent, improved infrastructure and operational efficiencies, (3 percent) and offsets and carbon capture (19 percent). 

Recently, the low-cost, Hungarian airline Wizz Air and the British sustainable aviation company Firefly announced they are planning to use human waste to produce SAF in the coming years. The two companies intend to build a commercial refinery in Essex to convert treated sewage into SAF. Wizz is investing in the project by placing an order for up to 525,000 tonnes of Firefly’s human waste-derived SAF over the next 15 years, which could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. 

The potential use of human waste is highly appealing to biofuel producers as it could provide abundant feedstock for low-carbon fuel production. There is a limited supply of food and agricultural waste, and acquiring these feedstocks can be costly. In contrast, converted sewage is expected to be cheaper and more abundant. Firefly’s COO, Paul Hilditch, believes it could provide up to five percent of the fuel demand of U.K. airlines. 

Firefly has already produced small test quantities of SAF that Hilditch said were “chemically indistinguishable” from jet fuel. However, the fuel is still undergoing regulatory testing and the firm needs significantly more funding to develop a full-scale factory for production. James Hygate, Firefly’s CEO, hopes the company will be able to deliver commercial supplies of SAF by 2028 or 2029, with the first facility in Harwich serving London airports. Hygate stated, “We’re turning sewage into jet fuel, and I can’t think of many things that are cooler than that.” 

At present, much of the biosolids in the U.K. are used for muck spreading on farmland, around 87 percent. Several companies in the biofuel industry are competing for agreements with utility companies to use their waste for fuel production, for a range of applications. While environmentalists believe that waste-to-jet fuel may not be the best use of sewage, those in the industry see it as a sustainable production option, as they will be using unavoidable waste to make something valuable. Further, residue from the sewage-to-fuel process could still be used to improve soil. While the U.K. uses its sewage to support other industries, many countries incinerate their human waste, which demonstrates the huge potential for converting waste into other products of value. 

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

The Global Economic System is Reaching Its Limits

By Gail Tverberg - Apr 20, 2024

• China's long-held belief of storing savings in condos is unwinding, affecting their economy.
• 
  
• Electric vehicle sales growth is slowing due to high prices and infrastructure issues.
• 
  
• Wind and solar energy, despite being intermittent, enjoy subsidies in the US and EU, driving out other suppliers like nuclear and affecting overall electricity generation

There are many myths about energy and the economy. In this post I explore the situation surrounding some of these myths. My analysis strongly suggests that the transition to a new Green Economy is not progressing as well as hoped. Green energy planners have missed the point that our physics-based economy favors low-cost producers. In fact, the US and EU may not be far from an economic downturn because subsidized green approaches are not truly low-cost.

[1] The Chinese people have long believed that the safest place to store savings is in empty condominium apartments, but this approach is no longer working.

The focus on ownership of condominium homes is beginning to unwind, with huge repercussions for the Chinese economy. In March, new home prices in China declined by 2.2%, compared to a year earlier. Property sales fell by 20.5% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago, and new construction starts measured by floor area fell by 27.8%. Overall property investment in China fell by 9.5% in the first quarter of 2024. No one is expecting a fast rebound. The Chinese seem to be shifting their workforce from construction to manufacturing, but this creates different issues for the world economy, which I describe in Section [6].

[2] We have been told that Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the way of the future, but the rate of growth is slowing.

In the US, the rate of growth was only 3.3% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to 47% one year ago. Tesla has made headlines, saying that it is laying off 10% of its staff. It also recently reported that it is delaying deliveries of its cybertruck. A big issue is the high prices of EVs; another is the lack of charging infrastructure. If EV sales are to truly expand, they will need both lower prices and much better charging infrastructure.

[3] Many people have assumed that home solar panel sales would rise forever, but now US home solar panel sales are shrinking.

A forecast made by the trade group Solar Energy Industries Association and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie indicates that US solar panel installations by homeowners are expected to fall by 13% in 2024. There are many issues involved: higher interest rates, less generous subsidies to homeowners, not enough grid capacity for new generation, and too much overproduction of electricity by solar panels in the spring and fall, when heating and air conditioning demand is low. The overproduction issue is particularly acute in California.

For each individual 24-hour day, the timing of solar energy production does not match up well with when it is needed. With sufficient batteries, solar electricity produced in the morning can help run air conditioners in the evening. But storage from summer to winter is still not feasible, and batteries for short-term storage are expensive.

[4] It is a myth that wind and solar truly add to electricity supplies for the US and the countries in the EU. Instead, their pricing seems to lead to tighter electricity supplies.

Strangely enough, in the US and the EU, when wind and solar are added to the electric grid, electricity supplies seem to get tighter. For example, one article says, Most of US electric grid faces risk of resource shortfall through 2027, NERC [regulatory group] says.

Charts of electricity supply per capita show an unusual trend when wind and solar are added. Figure 1 shows that, in the US, once wind and solar are added, total electricity generation per capita falls, rather than rises!

Figure 1. US per capita electricity generation based on data of the US Energy Information Administration. (Data is through 2023, even though this is not easy to see from the labels.)

The EU, using a somewhat shorter history period, shows a similar pattern of declining total electricity generation per capita, even when wind and solar are added (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Electricity generation per capita for the European Union based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy, prepared by the Energy Institute. Amounts are through 2022.

I believe that the strange pricing systems used for wind and solar in the US and EU are driving out other electricity suppliers, especially nuclear. With this system, intermittent electricity enjoys the subsidy of going first at the regular wholesale market rate. Other providers find themselves with very low or negative wholesale rates in the spring and fall of the year and on weekends and holidays. As a result, their overall return falls too low. Nuclear is particularly affected because it requires a huge, fixed investment, and it cannot be ramped up and down easily.

Besides the foregoing issues affecting the supply of electricity generated, there are also factors affecting the demand for electricity. Electricity generation using wind and solar tends to be high priced when all costs are included. The US and EU are already high-cost areas for businesses to operate. High electricity rates further add to the impetus to move manufacturing and other industry to lower-cost countries if businesses desire to be competitive in the world market.

On a world basis, in 2022, wind and solar added about 13% to total world electricity generation (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Electricity generation per capita for the World based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy, prepared by the Energy Institute. Amounts are through 2022.

Based on Figure 3, with the addition of wind and solar, the upward slope of the world per capita electricity generation has been able to remain pretty much constant from 1985 to 2022, at about 1.6% per year. But the US and the EU, as high-cost producers of goods and services, haven’t been able to participate in this per capita growth of electricity.

Instead, China has been a major beneficiary of the shift of manufacturing overseas from the US and EU. It has been able to rapidly increase its electricity supply per capita, even with wind and solar. It has also been adding both nuclear and coal-fired electricity generation capacity.

Figure 4. Electricity generation per capita for China based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy, prepared by the Energy Institute. Amounts are through 2022.

Thus, this analysis produces the result a person would expect if the physics of the world economy favors efficient (low-cost) producers.

[5] It is a myth that the US and EU can greatly ramp up the use of EVs or greatly increase the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) without relying on fossil fuels.

Both EV production and AI are heavy users of electricity supply. We have seen that the US and the EU no longer have growing per-capita electricity supplies. Ramping up electricity generation would require a long lead time (10 years or more), a major increase in fossil fuel consumption, and an increase in electricity transmission lines.

The State of Georgia, in the United States, is already running into this issue, with planned data centers (related to AI) and EV manufacturing plants. The state plans to add new gas-fired electricity generation. It will also import more electricity from Mississippi Power, where the retirement of a coal-fired plant is being delayed to provide the necessary additional electricity. Eventually, more solar panels are planned, as well.

[6] It is a myth that the world economy can continue as usual, whatever happens to energy supply and growing debt. China’s homebuilding problems could, in theory, lead to debt bubbles crashing around the world.

The world economy depends upon a growing bubble of debt. It also depends on an ever-increasing supply of goods and services. In fact, the two are closely interrelated. As long as a growing supply of low-priced energy of the types used by built infrastructure is available, the economy tends to sail along.

China, with problems in its property business, is an example of what can go wrong when energy supplies (coal in China) become expensive, as supply becomes increasingly constrained. Figure 5 shows that China’s per-capita coal supply became constrained in about 2013. China’s per capita coal extraction had been rising, but then it dipped. This made it more difficult for builders to construct the homes planned for would-be homeowners. This is part of what got home builders in China into financial difficulty.

Figure 5. Per capita coal supply in China based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy, prepared by the Energy Institute. Amounts are through 2022.

Finally, in 2022, China was able to get coal production up. But the way this was done was through very high coal prices (Figure 6). (The prices shown are for Australian coal, but Chinese coal prices seem to be similar.)

Figure 6. Newcastle Coal (Australia) prices in chart prepared by Trading Economics.

Building concrete homes at such high coal prices would have resulted in new homes that were far too expensive for most Chinese citizens to afford. If builders were not already in difficulty from low supply, adding high coal prices, as well, would be a second blow. Furthermore, all the workers formerly engaged in home building needed new places to earn a living; the current approach seems to be to move many of these workers to manufacturing, so that the popping of the home building bubble will have less of an impact on the overall economy of China.

There is now concern that China is ramping up its manufacturing, particularly for exports, at a time when China’s jobs in the property sector are disappearing. The problem, however, is that ramping up exports of manufactured goods creates a new bubble. This huge added supply of manufactured goods can only be sold at low prices. This new low-priced competition seems likely to lead to manufacturers, around the world, obtaining too-low prices for their manufactured products.

If other economies around the world are forced to compete with even lower-cost goods from China, it could have an adverse impact on manufacturing around the world. With low prices, manufacturers are likely to lay off workers, or give them excessively low wages. If wages and prices are inadequate, debt bubbles in other parts of the world are likely to collapse. This will happen because many borrowers will become unable to repay their debt. This is the reason that we have been hearing a great deal recently about raising tariffs on Chinese exports.

[7] The world’s biggest myth is that the world economy can continue to grow forever.

I have pointed out previously that based on physics considerations, economies cannot be expected to be permanent structures. Economies and humans are both self-organizing systems that grow. Humans get their energy from food. Economies are powered by the types of energy products that our built infrastructure uses. Neither can grow forever. Neither can get along without energy products of the right types, in the right quantities.

We become so accustomed to the narratives we hear that we tend to assume that what we are told must be right. These narratives could be based on wishful thinking, or on inadequate models, or on a sour grapes view that says, “We don’t want fossil fuels anyhow.” We know that humans need food, and that economies will continue to require fossil fuels. We can’t make wind turbines or solar panels without fossil fuels. What do we plan to do for energy without fossil fuels?

In a finite world, economies cannot continue forever. We don’t know precisely what will go wrong or when it will go wrong, but we can get a hint from the recent failures of myths that our economy may change dramatically in the not-too-distant future.

By Gail Tverberg

New-World Climate Regulation Clashes with Old-World Capitalism

By ZeroHedge - Apr 01, 2024

• UBS banker Judson Berkey expresses frustration over unrealistic climate goals for banks during a conference call with regulators.
• 
  
• Banks reassess net zero commitments due to practical challenges such as limitations in operating in coal-reliant regions and complex client relationships.
• 
  
• The financial industry's initial enthusiasm for net zero pledges has encountered reality, with banks reevaluating their strategies and facing the need for a transition phase.
• 
  

“Facts that don’t align with ill-informed prejudice are often infuriating. That doesn’t make them wrong. Someone needs to tell the truth about what it’s going to take to get to a net-zero future,” Emily Mir, a spokeswoman for Exxon, said earlier this month.

And that's exactly what Judson Berkey at UBS has done, the focus of a new Bloomberg report. Berkey let loose on a recent conference call with regulators about how unrealistic climate goals were for banks trying to integrate them into their respective economies.

The report covering Berkey's outburst simply concluded that the "world’s biggest banks can’t live up to the green regulatory ideal unless they start dumping huge numbers of clients worldwide at a reckless pace and also roil economies in large swathes of the globe that primarily rely on dirty fuels."ip Ad

Berkey was on a “check-in” call where regulators query market participants about regulations, the report says, when he expressed his frustration, interjecting: “Banks are living and lending on planet earth, not planet NGFS [Network for Greening the Financial System]”.

The outburst is a microcosm of "cracks" emerging in the banking sector after being draped with regulations about sustainability, the report says. Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio famously said last year about ESG: “You have to make it profitable.”

Its indicative of new-world climate regulation going head to head with old world capitalism, the report says. 

Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission in Britain said: Climate change is “an economic externality, and you can’t expect a free market to deal with it voluntarily.”

Banks reevaluating their net zero commitments are facing challenges as they confront the practical implications of these pledges, which include limitations on operating in coal-reliant regions like South Africa, Poland, and Indonesia. These commitments also complicate relationships with clients across various sectors, from commodities firms to companies with less obvious carbon impacts. 

Jonathan Hackett, head of sustainable finance at Bank of Montreal, added: “Our net zero commitments are about being our clients’ lead partner and are consciously taken around the idea that we need to be there with our clients and our clients need to succeed, not that we need to hyper select clients in order to get to net zero somehow faster or better.”

A recent sustainability report from UBS highlighted a "notable shift in emphasis" in climate change discussions, moving from net zero pledges to recognizing the need for a transition phase. The Swiss bank noted that high inflation and input costs will be crucial factors for clients as they develop decarbonization strategies.

James Vaccaro, Chief Catalyst at Climate Safe Lending Network, added: “For banks with substantial capital markets businesses, like those competing with the JPMorgans of the world, it’s fee income that’s on the line here. Ditching clients off track from 1.5C means losing major lines of revenue.”

In sum, the financial industry's initial rush to commit to net zero carbon footprints at the 2021 COP26 summit in Glasgow has hit a reality check. Banks that pledged to reduce financed emissions and invest billions in green and sustainable deals are reevaluating these commitments after facing the complex realities of implementing such drastic changes.

It should be no surprise to our readers: we have been pointed out the collapse of ESG for more than a year now. Earlier in March we wrote how Exxon's CEO had all but declared victory over the "woke" ESG lobby. 

In February, we noted that CEOs were ditching ESG lingo on conference calls. For some context, peak ESG and related synonyms, such as "climate change" and "clean energy" and green energy" and net zero," among other terms, peaked at 28,000 mentions in the first quarter of 2022. Ever since, the number of mentions has rapidly plunged. Halfway through the first quarter earnings season, mentions are around 4,800. 

Andy Wiechmann, the Chief Financial Officer of MSCI, mentioned during his earnings call that "Clients are taking a more measured approach to how they integrate ESG."

On a Jan. 12 earnings call, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink explained how his firm plans to purchase private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners without mentioning ESG. This makes sense since BlackRock dropped the ESG term after blowback last summer. 

Recall, we also wrote last year about the dying off of ESG and "green" investment products. At the end of 2023, Goldman Sachs shuttered its ActiveBeta Paris-Aligned Climate U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF. 

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pointed out in late 2023 that "there was just way too much supply for the demand" with the ETF and that "it's going to get worse too". Balchunas says the ETF only took in $7 million over the course of 2 years. 

We also wrote about Jeff Ubben late last year, who shuttered his sustainability fund - calling traditional climate summitry an “echo chamber” of diplomats. Less than a week before that we noted that $30 billion had been shaved off the value of clean energy stocks over the preceding 6 months. 

Finally, we pointed out last year how the ESG grift was reaching endgame after Markus Müller, chief investment officer ESG at Deutsche Bank's Private Bank stated that sustainability funds should include traditional energy stocks, arguing that not doing so deprives investors of a prime opportunity to invest in the transition to renewable energy.

By Zerohedge.com

Global Climate Goals Still Unreachable Despite Record Renewable Growth

By Haley Zaremba - Apr 21, 2024

• Renewable energy installations reached record highs in 2023, growing 50% from the previous year.
• 
  
• Global climate goals remain out of reach due to insufficient policy measures and funding for clean energy in developing countries.
• 
  
• Solar energy dominated clean energy growth in 2023, accounting for 73% of the total increase.

Renewable energy installations reached record highs in 2023, growing at their fastest pace in decades. 510 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy were added worldwide, representing a 50% increase from 2022, according to figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s annual flagship report on the global status of renewable energy. Projections show that the sector’s expansion will continue to accelerate, with an anticipated 2.5-fold increase by 2030. While this is a promising trend in the right direction, however, experts say that it’s not enough to reach global climate goals. 

At last year’s COP28 climate conference, held by the United Nations in Expo City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, attending governments agreed to fully triple global renewable energy production capacity by 2030. This will require a serious acceleration of current trends and expanded policy measures to support that acceleration. According to IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, the main hurdle between the current state of the sector and the pathway to 3x growth  by 2030 is the necessary increase of funds for clean energy in developing countries. “Success in meeting the tripling goal will hinge on this,” he said. 

“Under current policies and market conditions, global renewables capacity is forecast to grow to a total of 7,300 GW by 2028,” Reuters recently reported. “To reach the 2030 goal agreed last year, it will require reaching at least 11,000 GW.” But thanks to the recent surges in renewables, meeting those goals is still feasible, as long as annual growth in renewables reaches at least 320 gigawatts by 2030. And that goal is within reach with proper coordination from the public and private sectors. 

In fact, seven nations around the world now generate 100% (>99.7%) of their energy from renewable resources. According to figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have each generated more than 99.7% of their consumed electricity from geothermal, hydro, solar, or wind power sources. Norway fell just short of this cutoff, clocking in at 98.38% renewable energy. What’s more, an additional 40 countries generated half or more of their consumed electricity from renewable energies in 2021 and 2022. Still other countries (such as Germany and Portugal) are able to sustain themselves on 100% renewables in short bursts. 

The majority of this growth came from photovoltaic solar power. This sector alone accounted for 73% of all renewable energy growth in 2023. By the end of the year, solar energy represented 37% of the world’s total renewable energy capacity. 

Wind energy has also been a big driver of the global uptick in renewable energy production and consumption in recent years. 2023 was the best year on record for wind energy deployment at a global level. Worldwide, 116 gigawatts of new wind power capacity were added over the last year, representing a 50% increase year-on-year. Most of this boost comes from China, which single-handedly installed somewhere between 180 and 230 gigawatts. By comparison, the entirety of Europe added 58 gigawatts in the same time period.

Despite these historic wins for the global wind sector, the industry faces some major barriers to growth going forward. At a global level (and particularly outside of China) the wind sector is facing major supply chain snags, rising costs, and red tape prohibiting speedy and efficient expansion and installation. “You see the terms and conditions of the projects being too difficult for investors and project developers to take. So we are in a standstill," wind industry insider and Dutch APG Asset Management’s Danny van Doesburg, was recently quoted by Reuters. "The market is not functioning anymore," he added.” 

It’s likely that solar power will continue to dominate clean energy growth as costs continue to drop and photovoltaic and related technologies improve. However, continued growth in all forms of renewable energy will be necessary to speed up deployment fast enough to meet global climate goals. Moreover, a diverse energy mix is a secure energy mix – in terms of technologies as well as supply chains. China’s continued bullish expansion of renewables is critical to combating catastrophic climate change, but tying up global energy supply chains in just one (potentially volatile) country has some major drawbacks. More renewable expansion efforts from more nations, and more funding to support the decarbonized energy industries of developing nations, are key to a stable and successful transition to 100% clean energy for all.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com 

BHP says first stage of Jansen mine almost halfway complete

Global miner BHP revealed on Thursday that the first phase of its massive potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada,

By Jackson Chen

April 18, 2024 

BHP’s first production at Jansen is expected in 2026. (Image courtesy of BHP.)

Global miner BHP (ASX: BHP) (NYSE: BHP) revealed on Thursday that the first phase of its massive potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada, is ahead of schedule and near the halfway point of completion at 44%.

Located 140 km east of Saskatoon, the Jansen project is set to become one of the world's largest producers of potash, a commodity considered to be a pillar of future growth for the company. It also represents the single largest private economic investment in the province's history.

Since giving the project its go-ahead in 2021, BHP has been injecting capital to speed up its development even when potash prices were falling. Even before its approval, the group had spent US$4.5 billion on the project.

The proposed potash mine is being built in four stages, with US$5.7 billion already spent on the first stage alone. The aim, according to BHP, is to start Phase 1 production in late 2026, with expected potash production of 4.2 million tonnes a year.

In its quarterly update Thursday, the Australian mining group also said that the second stage, which was approved last year and is expected to cost another US$4.9 billion, will start in 2029. This will add another 4.4 million tonnes of annual production.

The entire four-phased development could have annual production of between 16-17 million tonnes, BHP previously stated.

African critical minerals output could reach $2 trillion by 2050

Bloomberg News | April 19, 2024 | 

Cobalt found alongside copper and malachite. (Image by Fairphone, Flickr).

Sub-Saharan Africa could produce almost $2 trillion of metals required for the energy transition by 2050, according to the International Monetary Fund.


Global revenue from mining copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel could reach $16 trillion in current dollar terms over the next quarter century under a demand scenario estimated by the International Energy Agency, the IMF said in a paper on Friday. Output from sub-Saharan Africa will account for about 12% of that total, according to the report.

As demand for the minerals used in electric vehicles and renewable energy equipment is expected to soar, the Democratic Republic of Congo already produces more than 75% of the world’s cobalt and is the second-largest source of copper. Countries including Zimbabwe, Ghana and Mali plan to become significant producers of lithium.

The “boom bodes well for sub-Saharan Africa,” the IMF said, noting that the region will benefit more by investing in domestic processing capacity. However, the report also warned that fast-paced technological changes, especially in EV batteries, “could render certain minerals obsolete.”

Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of revenue from fossil fuel sales will be $625 billion over the same period, according to the IMF.

(By William Clowes)

Vale Indonesia shareholders 

approve rights issue plan

Reuters | April 20, 2024 |

Credit: Vale Indonesia

Shareholders of nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia approved a rights issue that will facilitate the acquisition of a stake by Indonesia state mining holding company MIND ID, the company said in a statement late on Friday.


Vale Canada and Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining had agreed to sell 14% of the Indonesian unit to MIND ID to fulfil a divestment requirement to secure new mining permit.

The statement said Vale Indonesia will issue 603 million new shares under a rights issuance. Vale Canada, Sumitomo and Vale Japan will relinquish their entitlement of the rights issue to MIND ID.

On top of that, Vale Canada, Sumitomo and Vale Japan Ltd will also sell part of their shares to MIND ID.

After the transactions, MIND ID will become the largest shareholders with a 34% stake in the nickel company, from 20% now, which MIND ID and Vale Canada will become “joint controller” of Vale Indonesia.

The divestment is required by Indonesia to issue a new mining permit for Vale Indonesia. Its current contract will expire in 2025.

(By Bernadette Christina and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)