China, Russia Present Master Plan For New World Order At SCO Summit

By Alex Kimani - Sep 04, 2025

• China and Russia used the Tianjin SCO summit to pitch a “Global South–first” economic and security order.
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• Beijing is pushing more local-currency settlement to cut dollar reliance.
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• China–Central Asia trade is up about 150% since 2020 and China–SCO trade reached roughly $512 billion in 2024.

China and Russia presented their masterplan for a new global order at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit currently underway in China’s port city of Tianjin, highlighting China's growing ties with Central Asia. China’s President Xi Jinping called for a new global economic and security order that prioritizes the "Global South" in what is considered a direct challenge to the West and the United States’ hegemony.

"We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism," Xi said, in a thinly veiled swipe at President Donald Trump's tariff policies."Global governance has reached a new crossroads," he added. The meeting was attended by more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries. Xi also called for the creation of an SCO development bank, and pledged to provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO members this year alone.

Widely regarded as an alternative power structure to U.S.-led international institutions, the 10-member SCO is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to promote cooperation and peace among member states, and foster “a new democratic, fair, and rational international political and economic order.’’ First seen as largely symbolic, China has increasingly been using the regional body to strengthen ties with Asia’s economic giants and bolster its regional influence, as Al Jazeera reports.

Related: Petronas-Operated Tartaruga Verde Draws Interest from Brazilian Offshore Players

China’s trade flows with Central Asia have grown nearly 150% since 2020 to $94.8 billion in 2024, while China-SCO trade hit a record $512.4 billion in the same year. China exports automobiles, machinery, chemicals, and garments to its SCO partners, showcasing its manufacturing prowess. In return, China imports energy commodities including oil, gas, and coal, minerals, and agricultural goods from resource-rich countries like Russia, Iran, and Kazakhstan. China is also investing in SCO countries, with the country’s FDI into SCO countries surpassing $40 billion by mid-2025. These investments mostly span traditional sectors like energy and mining, but are increasingly venturing into renewable energy, digital infrastructure and smart cities.

Source: Reuters

Chinese firms like the state-owned Southern Power Grid and polysilicon giant GCL have been ramping up projects in Central Asia, betting on a "green energy corridor" wherein cheap electricity produced in places like Tibet and Uzbekistan will be sold to power-hungry regions such as Europe and Southeast Asia. Two years ago, Chinese firm Universal Energy announced plans to invest in two 250 MW wind farms, totaling a 500 MW capacity, in Uzbekistan's Samarkand and Jizzakh regions. Investment agreements for these projects, which include power transmission lines and a total investment of $500 million, were signed in January 2024. The electricity generated will be sold to the National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan under a 25-year purchase obligation.

Experts are predicting that yuan-based settlements are likely to become more common in China-SCO trade as electric vehicles and AI drive up power demand in the region. More usage of the Chinese currency would drive the region’s de-dollarization efforts and would arguably be Xi's biggest win against the United States and the West. China has been actively pushing the SCO to de-dollarize by encouraging member states to use local currencies in trade and finance, with the goal of reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar, mitigating risks from sanctions, and fostering regional economic integration. This initiative aligns with China's broader strategy to create a more multipolar global order. This is likely to draw Trump’s ire: Last December, Trump threatened BRICS nations with 100% tariffs if they decided to challenge the U.S. dollar’s dominance in the global economy. BRICS is an acronym denoting the emerging national economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

“The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER.,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty U.S. dollar, or they will face 100 per cent tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. economy. They can go find another ‘sucker!’ There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. dollar in international trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” the president-elect said. 

While SCO is not as widely known as BRICS, the region’s rapidly growing trade ties between member nations, as well as the security implications of growing cooperation between the West’s biggest rivals, will no doubt have the United States and its allies concerned. On Tuesday, Trump accused Xi Jinping of conspiring against the U.S. with Russia and North Korea, "Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America," Trump wrote on Truth Social. However, Trump has downplayed SCO’s significance, replying, "No. Not at all. China needs us," after the BBC asked if he believed that China and its allies were forming an international coalition to oppose the U.S.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

 

Peabody sees booming coal demand in Trump era

Bloomberg News | September 4, 2025 | 

Credit: Peabody

Swelling US demand for electricity has the potential to boost coal consumption as much as 57%, according to mining giant Peabody Energy Corp., in what would be a major shift for an industry that’s been waning for years.

With the US seeking to meet skyrocketing demand and the Trump administration pushing to prop up the coal industry, Peabody expects utilities to ramp up output from coal plants that are running well below full speed, the company said in an investor presentation on Wednesday. Boosting usage to “historic capacity factors” could lead to more than 250 million tons of additional annual demand in the coming years, it said.

Still, analysts see this forecast as a mathematical maximum that’s unlikely to be achieved in the real world.

US coal usage has been steadily declining as utilities shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel. But President Donald Trump’s pro-coal and anti-renewable approach has included blocking plans to shut down this from a Michigan power plant that burns fuel from Peabody. Total consumption is expected to be 439 million tons this year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s up 6.7% from last year, but well down from its 2007 peak of 1.13 billion tons.

“Peabody sees great untapped potential for existing US coal plants,” Mark Spurbeck, chief financial officer for the St. Louis-based company, said by email.

Electricity demand in the US is set to climb 25% through 2030, driven by factories, increasingly electrified homes and especially from the booming buildout of data centers used for artificial intelligence. At the same time, supply-chain constraints have hindered utilities’ efforts to add more natural gas plants.

That’s spurring increased reliance on underused coal plants, which have significant potential to deliver more power.

The US fleet was operating at just 42% last year, according to Peabody, compared to 72% in 2008.

Still, anticipating demand to climb by 250 million tons assumes that coal plants are all ramped up close to the historic levels that preceded the global financial crisis of 2008, which is unlikely, said Andy Blumenfeld, director of data analytics at McCloskey by Opis.

“That’s a really big number,” he said. “It’s a theoretical maximum, if everything works perfectly. And they don’t.”

(By Will Wade)

 

JS Link America to invest $223M in rare earth magnet manufacturing plant in Georgia  

Staff Writer | September 4, 2025 | 

Industrial facility for processing rare earth elements. Stock image.

Magnet manufacturer JS Link America announced Thursday it is investing about $223 million to establish a new rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing facility in Columbus, Georgia.   

JS Link’s new manufacturing facility will be located at the Muscogee Technology Park in Columbus. The 130,000-square-foot facility is predicted to have an annual production capacity of 3,000 tons, and the company said it will create approximately 520 new jobs in Muscogee County.   

JS Link America is a subsidiary of Seoul, Korea based biotechnology company JS Link that specializes in research and development. JS Link is nearing completion on a similar permanent magnet facility in Yesan, Korea, with an anticipated a pilot production run in September and annual capacity of 1,000 tons. 

Rare earth metals are essential in heavy magnets that power electric vehicles, consumer electronics and military applications, and MP Materials is the only US producer, out of its Mountain Pass mine in California. 

China dominates the global rare earth industry, controlling the vast majority of the world’s rare earth processing and refining capacity. 

“JS Link America strengthens Georgia’s role in securing the U.S. supply chain in industries such as aerospace, mobility, and energy,” Governor Brian Kemp said in a statement. 

“From day one, Georgia’s economic development team, local community leadership in Columbus, and Georgia Power all welcomed JS Link with a pro-business approach. Georgia’s universities with their engineering programs also provide ready-made labor force for JS Link America,” JS Link America CEO Jun Y. Lee added. 

 “JS Link plans to be a part of a value chain focused entirely on Western nations to meet the growing demand for permanent magnets sourced from strategic allies such as Korea. This new chain will cover the entire process, from the procurement of essential rare-earth materials to the final manufacturing of the magnets.”  

The 130,000-square-foot facility is predicted to have an annual production capacity of 3,000 tons. Operations are expected to begin in late 2027.  

Operations are expected to begin in late 2027, the company said. 

 

Smackover Lithium’s DFS reports ‘robust economics’ for Arkansas project

Staff Writer | September 4, 2025 | 

LSS Koch technology in action. Image from Smackover Lithium.

Smackover Lithium, a joint venture between Standard Lithium (TSX-V, NYSE-A: SLI) and Norway’s state-owned petroleum company Equinor (NYSE: EQNR), has announced results of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its South West Arkansas (SWA) project.

Smackover Lithium is developing a greenfield lithium extraction and chemicals production facility in the southwestern region of Arkansas. In January, the JV received a $225 million grant from the US Department of Energy to support the construction of Phase 1 of the project.

The DFS projected an initial production capacity of 22,500 tonnes per annum (tpa) of battery-quality lithium carbonate (Li2CO3). This would make SWA the first commercial lithium production in the Smackover Formation, an underground geological formation stretching from Florida to Texas filled with lithium-rich brine.

Analysts estimate that the Smackover Formation could host more than 4 million tonnes of lithium, enough to power millions of electric vehicles and other electronic devices.

DFS results

The DFS detailed a production plan with average lithium concentration of 481 mg/L, underpinning a minimum 20-year operating life with ample opportunity for significant further expansion.

The study envisions a pre-tax net present value of $1.7 billion and an internal rate of return of 20.2%, assuming a discount rate of 8% and a lithium carbonate price of $22,400/t, the average of Fastmarket’s 20-year forward pricing curve for battery-quality lithium carbonate.

The all-in capex estimate of $1.45 billion was based on an 18-month detailed front-end engineering design (FEED) process, which yielded capital definition well beyond typical DFS studies, the company said, adding that conservative adoption of pilot plant learnings used in the FEED could lead to improved capital intensity in future expansion phases.

As a result, the DFS forecasts average cash operating costs of $4,516/t over the operating life and average all-in costs of $5,924/t.

Since completion of the prefeasibility study (PFS), the JV has re-entered wells and drilled a new in-fill well to support upgrading the resource and modeling proven and probable reserves.

The total measured and indicated resource is 1,177,000 tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) at an average concentration of 442 mg/L for 0.5 km3 of brine volume. The proven reserves are 447,000 tonnes LCE at an average concentration of 481 mg/L for 0.2 km3 of brine volume.

First commercial DLE site in US

Smackover Lithium is licensing Koch Technology Solutions’ lithium selective sorption process for the initial phase of the project, which includes performance guarantees.

Opportunity exists for further operational and cost improvement on future expansion phases with regional exclusivity for the technology in the Smackover under a joint development agreement, Standard Lithium said.

“The robust economics from our SWA project DFS confirm what we’ve known for a long time – that this is a world-class asset and opportunity,” Standard Lithium’s president and COO Andy Robinson said in a news release.  

“Through years of extensive testing and development we have substantially de-risked the process technology and increased our confidence in project execution,” Robinson added. “We are well-positioned to move the project towards a final investment decision and are excited by the prospect of being a domestic champion for securing critical minerals production in the United States.”

The company is targeting first production in 2028.

Ivanhoe flags ‘significant’ copper discovery in Kazakhstan

Staff Writer | September 4, 2025 

Assy Plateau, Kazakhstan. Stock image.

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) announced on Thursday that it has made a copper discovery at its exploration joint venture in Kazakhstan’s Chu-Sarysu Basin, warranting further follow-up.

The Canadian miner, alongside UK-based partner Pallas Resources, is exploring a prospective land package of over 16,000 km², covering licences spread across seven projects. The landholding, according to Ivanhoe, represents one of the largest in Kazakhstan and is estimated to be seven times bigger than its Western Forelands project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The new copper discovery resulted from the joint venture’s fieldwork on the Merke licence, which is located in the southern part of the Chu-Sarysu Basin and includes a 36-kilometre-long stratigraphic trend, with multiple samples returning between 1% and 5% copper.

While clearly not an economic occurrence in isolation, Ivanhoe’s team considers the copper mineralization — an outcrop on surface with an approximate 20-metre thick zone — to be “significant” as it supports the thesis that mineralization is structurally controlled, with faults and fractures acting as conduits for copper-bearing fluids into a package of folded sedimentary carbonate rocks.

The joint venture will now follow up on this discovery by mapping these structures in detail, supported by high-resolution magnetic surveys to trace them at depth, and by evaluating basement contacts and fault systems as potential fluid pathways.

Shares of Ivanhoe declined 3.5% to C$12.02 by noon ET on the news, giving the Vancouver-based copper miner a market capitalization of C$16.22 billion ($11.72bn).

Third-largest basin

The entire Chu-Sarysu Basin, according to Ivanhoe, is ranked as the world’s third-largest sediment-hosted copper basin, after the Central African Copperbelt and European Kupferschiefer, hosting 27 million tonnes of known copper. The area hosts the world-class Dzhezkazgan deposit, which has been continuously mined for over a century.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that there remains approximately 25 million tonnes of undiscovered copper in the Basin. Despite its significant prospectivity, greenfield exploration has largely been neglected across the entire region for over 40 years.

Kazakhstan as a whole has also been largely underexplored, even with its geological potential and status as a world-leading producer of uranium. S&P Global estimates that over the past 15 years, only $100 million has been spent annually on exploration in the country, far less than other major mining jurisdictions. 

With that in mind, Ivanhoe and privately held Pallas teamed up in late 2024 to explore the 16,000 km² land package in Chu-Sarysu, leveraging the former’s exploration success in Congo and the latter’s experience in Kazakhstan.

Ivanhoe is expected to sole-fund up to $18.7 million over the first two years, and can elect to earn into all seven projects under the JV, up to 80%, for a maximum consideration of $115 million over four years.

Drilling underway

Ivanhoe also said a 15,000-metre drill campaign has commenced in the western section of the joint venture’s land package on the Glubokoe licence, located several hundred kilometres north of the Merke licence.

The first drill hole is expected to test the potential extensions of mineralization first noted in a Soviet-era stratigraphic hole drilled in the 1980s, which intersected three separate copper-bearing intervals over 26 metres, the company said.

The initial drill holes in the 2025 campaign are expected to be between 800 and 1,000 metres deep, and will assist with calibrating the results with historic and newly acquired geophysical datasets. This in turn will inform the stratigraphic and facies models, as well as help identify drill targets for the remainder of drill program, Ivanhoe added.

BRAZIL

Vale reopens Capanema mine, unveils $12.2B investment plan in Minas Gerais

the deadly collapses of two tailings dams in Minas Gerais in 2015 and 2019, disasters that killed hundreds of people and caused widespread environmental devastation

Bruno Venditti | September 4, 2025 |

Capanema mine (Image: Vale)

Vale (NYSE: VALE) has officially reopened the Capanema iron ore mine in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, after a 22-year halt, as part of the Brazilian miner’s R$67 billion ($12.2 billion) investment strategy through 2030.

The reactivated Capanema unit, which received about R$5.2 billion ($950 million) in investments, will operate without using water in processing, generating no tailings and removing the need for dams.

The shift toward dry processing has been a central goal for Vale following the deadly collapses of two tailings dams in Minas Gerais in 2015 and 2019, disasters that killed hundreds of people and caused widespread environmental devastation.

The majority of Vale’s upcoming investments in Minas Gerais will be directed toward expanding dry tailings stacking and filtration solutions. The goal is to reduce the reliance on dams in the state from 30% today to 20%.

The site will also feature five autonomous haul trucks and incorporate circularity solutions by reprocessing iron ore from an old waste pile.

Vale shares were up 0.5% on Thursday morning in New York, giving the company a market capitalization of $43.6 billion.

Boost to production

The mine is expected to add around 15 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) to Vale’s iron ore output, supporting the company’s production guidance of 340–360 Mtpa by 2026.

“Capanema reinforces our commitment to a more responsible mining process — minimally invasive and driven by technology and innovation for optimal resource use and decarbonization,” Vale CEO Gustavo Pimenta said in a news release.

Vale employs around 63,000 people, including contractors, and its operations account for roughly 3.5% of Minas Gerais’ GDP. Over the past two years, the state has been responsible for nearly 45% of Vale’s total iron ore production.

Gold price could see $5,000 if Trump keeps attacking Fed: Goldman Sachs

Staff Writer | September 4, 2025 | 

US President Trump pointing to Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the price of the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion renovation. Image source: screenshot taken from CNN | Youtube, July 25, 2025.

US President Donald Trump’s war against the Federal Reserve may send gold prices to as high as $5,000 an ounce by driving down investor confidence in the dollar, says Goldman Sachs Group.

In a note published Thursday, the bank’s analysts warned that Trump’s attempt to interfere with the US central bank could further erode trust in dollar-denominated assets, thereby adding to gold’s safe-haven appeal.

The note, first seen by Financial Times, comes just a day after gold rallied to a new all-time high above $3,560 an ounce. Bullion has now risen by 35% so far this year, as investors and central banks piled into the metal as a hedge against political uncertainty and US debt worries.

Click on chart for live prices.

The latest rise was fueled by widening expectations that the US will begin to cut interest rates, a scenario that benefits non-yielding assets such as gold. The monetary easing could become even more aggressive should the Trump administration succeed in politicizing the Fed, which sparked concerns amongst some investors.

“A scenario where Fed independence is damaged would likely lead to higher inflation, lower stock and long-dated bond prices and an erosion of the dollar’s reserve currency status,” wrote Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs.

On the other hand, “gold is a store of value that doesn’t rely on institutional trust”, Struyven added.

Bullish forecasts

The bank’s base case is that gold could continue its recent rise and achieve an average price of $3,700 by year-end, then $4,000 by mid-2026, assuming that central bank buying remains robust. However, this scenario does not factor in the potential “big move” out of dollar assets, such as bonds, by private investors, which Goldman says could push gold even higher.

“If 1% of the privately-owned US Treasury market were to flow to gold, the gold price would rise to nearly $5,000 per troy ounce,” Struyven wrote.

“We are double overweight gold,” Arun Sai, multi-asset portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, told the Financial Times, predicting that there could be another “leg up in gold” given the recent Fed drama, in reference to Trump’s unprecedented move to fire Governor Lisa Cook.

Goldman’s call on gold echoes the thesis built by JPMorgan, which said earlier this year that under the current macroeconomic climate, the yellow metal could realistically reach $6,000 an ounce even with a small allocation away from US assets.

 

Infographic: Who controls uranium?

By Anthony Vaccaro, with files from Ali Ravaghi | 

Uranium is a crucial source of clean, reliable baseload power as nuclear energy, powered by uranium, generates electricity without emitting greenhouse gases during operation. When we look at resources through the lens of geopolitical Spheres of Control, the story is telling.

Thanks to Australia and Canada, the Coalition of the Willing commands a dominant 44% share of the world’s uranium resources.

This strong position means the West is well endowed with the mineralization it needs to fuel nuclear power for decades to come—if it can move past public resistance that is often a result of legacy impacts from unregulated past practices than in rational assessment of nuclear energy’s current strong safety record.

(By Anthony Vaccaro; Files from: Ali Ravaghi; Creative: James Alafriz)