CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Vedanta ran “covert” lobbying campaign in India to weaken environment regulations: report

A report by the OCCRP reveals how the law in India was bypassed to loosen environmental regulations that benefit corporates.

By Ashima Sharma

Chairman of Vedanta Resources Anil Agarwal (right), along with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot (centre) and Adani group chairman Gautam Adani (left) at the Invest Rajasthan Summit in 2022. 

Credit: Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

London-based mining and oil giant Vedanta ran a “covert” lobbying campaign in India to weaken environmental regulations during the pandemic, according to a new report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

In 2021, Vedanta’s chairman, Anil Agarwal, wrote a letter to the then Environment Minister of India, Prakash Javedkar, saying the government could add “impetus” to India’s “rapid” economic recovery by allowing mining companies to boost production by up to 50% without having to secure new environmental clearances. According to the OCCRP report, Agarwal further recommended that the change could be made with “a simple notification”.

By early 2022, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change loosened the regulations to allow mining companies to increase production by up to 50% without holding public hearings for the same.

Such a move would mean the mining industry would not require new environmental approvals when increasing production. Further, doing away with public consultations also meant silencing the only recourse for local people to raise concerns about expansion and the consequent impact on their livelihoods.

The report also reveals minutes from an internal meeting in 2021 that show officials raising concerns that loosening the rules would break the law and give a free pass to unrestrained mining in ecologically sensitive areas. However, by April 2022, the Environment Ministry published a memo that scrapped all requirements for miners to hold public consultations when expanding production by up to 40%, requiring only written feedback up to 50%.
Benefits to Vedanta’s oil and gas subsidiary

The favours to Vedanta allegedly extended beyond the mining industry to benefit one of company’s subsidiaries, Cairn Oil and Gas. In 2021, Cairn lobbied to scrap public hearings for oil exploration projects.

As the government quietly followed the course of amending law without public consultation, Cairn received six oil projects in the northern deserts of Rajasthan to date. The OCCRP’s analysis of official data shows Vedanta was a key benefactor of the government’s push to boost domestic oil exploration, gaining rights to 62 of the total of 220 blocks put up for sale across the country between 2018 and 2022.

Vedanta told the OCCRP that as “one of the leading natural resources organisations in India”, the company operated “with an objective of import substitution by enhancing domestic production in a sustainable manner”.

Vedanta’s operations in India contributed more than $18bn (£14.26bn) in revenues in 2022. Despite the country’s climate and sustainability pledges to reach net zero and reduce carbon emissions, the report says that “experts who reviewed OCCRP’s findings say they show his [Narendra Modi] government has prioritised the interests of oil and mining companies over the fight against climate change”.

Vedanta was earlier also caught up in the Niyamgiri land conflict in India’s Odisha state, where thousands of indigenous people prevented the company from destroying their sacred land.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Diamond-mining magnate detained in Cyprus over Romanian land rights

Beny Steinmetz is being held on an international arrest warrant.

By Florence Jones

French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz. 

Credit: Fabrice Coffrini via Getty Images.

French-Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz has been detained in Cyprus on a Romanian-issued warrant. Steinmetz was detained on his arrival into Larnaca airport on 31 August.

The mining tycoon is being held for allegedly being involved with a group trying to illegally secure land rights in Romania. The case dates back several years and he has already faced arrest in some other European countries on the same warrant but was cleared.

Steinmetz is the owner of BSG Resources (BSGR). The company is under investigation in several countries, including the US, for alleged violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company denies these allegations.

Steinmetz is also involved in a separate legal battle in Switzerland where he has been found guilty of corruption. The case involves the exploitation of iron ore deposits in Guinea.

Romanian authorities convicted Steinmetz for real estate fraud in abstensia in 2020, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was then issued a European arrest warrant. In March 2022, Grecian officials rejected the Romanian arrest order. Italian leadership has also ruled against carrying it out.

“Beny Steinmetz welcomes the opportunity to be vindicated in one more European State, against Romania, a country infamous for its disrespect to human rights,” Steinmetz’s spokesperson told reporters in a statement.

International NGO Global Witness has previously accused BSGR of bribing the wife of a Guinean president to ensure parts of the Simandou iron ore deposit. The company has denied the allegations.

Steinmetz was sentenced to jail in Switzerland in January 2021 for having bribed his way to controlling the Simandou iron ore deposit. The Geneva Court of Appeal rejected his plea to have the conviction overturned earlier this year.

Cypriot police have made no comment, as is common practice for extradition requests.

UN warns against the environmental impact of sand dredging

Around six billion tonnes of sand are dredged from the world’s oceans every year.

By Florence Jones

According to the UNEP, sand dredging could increase flooding in coastal communities. Credit: orestegaspari via Getty Images.

Around six billion tonnes of sand are dredged from the world’s ocean floor every year, according to new data from the UN.

According to the data published by the Centre for Analytics within the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), sand is the most exploited natural resource globally after water. Sand is used to produce concrete, glass and technology such as solar panels.

The Marine Sand Watch data shows that the rate of dredging is growing and approaching the natural replenishment rate of 10–16 billion tonnes.

The group estimates that around 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are used across the world annually, with six billion tonnes coming from the world’s oceans and seas.

Sand dredging can have significant impacts on biodiversity and coastal communities. In the face of rising sea levels and extreme weather such as storms, coastal communities will rely on sand to build coastal defences.

Sufficient sand levels also support the offshore energy industry, including the construction of wind and wave turbines, according to the UNEP.

“The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming, including biodiversity, water turbidity and noise impacts on marine mammals,” said Pascal Peduzzi, director of GRID-Geneva, a partnership between the UNEP, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and the University of Geneva.

“This data signals the urgent need for better management of marine sand resources and to reduce the impacts of shallow sea mining,” he added.

The UNEP has called on the sand mining industry to consider sand a “strategic material” and to “engage in talks on how to improve dredging standards around the world”. It also recommended that sand dredging be banned in certain areas of protected coastline.

Researchers found that in certain areas, sand dredging vessels act as a kind of vacuum cleaner, dredging sand along with numerous microorganisms that fish feed on. They also concluded that the South China Sea, the North Sea and the US East Coast are among the areas where the most dredging has occurred.

Report: South Korea and Australia remain world’s top producers of emissions from coal

Per capita, both Australia and South Korea produce more than triple the world’s average coal power emissions.

By Annabel Cossins-Smith

A cooling tower at EnergyAustralia Holdings’ Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. Credit: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Australia and South Korea are on average the top two coal power polluters out of all G20 member states, a position both countries have held since 2020, according to analysis from the climate think tank Ember published on Tuesday.

Per capita, both nations produce more than triple the world’s average coal power emissions. While pollution from coal power has been declining in both countries, they still remain far ahead the rest of the G20, Ember’s report finds, although it excludes the EU as a region from its analysis. The report comes as G20 leaders prepare to meet for their annual summit in New Delhi, India, on 9–10 September.

Australia ranks top for per capita emissions from production and consumption of coal power in the G20, despite a recent uptick in installed renewables capacity, with 47%, or 130.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), of its electricity still coming from coal. Last year, the country’s coal power emissions fell by approximately 5% as coal generation dropped by 8TWh.


Second on the list, 34% of South Korea’s electricity mix is coal, with solar and wind capacity at 5%, falling well below the global average, which stands at 12%.

The report also found that 12 of the G20 economies have seen per capita coal emissions fall as a result of renewables ramp up, with the UK leading the way with a 93% drop in coal power emissions since 2015. However, emissions from some emerging economies, such as Indonesia and Turkey, are still increasing. Between 2015 and 2022, per capita coal power emissions surged in Indonesia by 56%, with emissions in Turkey increasing by 41%. Russia, China and India have also seen large increases in coal power emissions over the past seven years.

G20 nations account for approximately 85% of global gross domestic product and contribute 80% of the world’s total power sector emissions.

According to Ember, the report shows that uptake of clean energy technologies remains too slow to meaningfully drive down fossil fuel use and keep the world within reach of the 1.5°C average global temperature rise limit set out in the Paris Agreement. As climate change intensifies, G20 countries must be “united in their efforts to triple renewables and plan for rapid and deep cuts in coal power generation”, the authors write.

Non-profit Global Energy Monitor published a report earlier this year suggesting that coal plants must be retired at four-and-a-half times the current rate if the world is to maintain its 1.5°C target. It also noted that China’s planned coal capacity increase far offsets phase-outs in other parts of the world.

Dave Jones, global insights lead at Ember, said in a press statement: “China and India are often blamed as the world’s big coal power polluters. But when you take population into account, South Korea and Australia were the worst polluters still in 2022. As mature economies, they should be scaling up renewable electricity ambitiously and confidently enough to enable coal to be phased out by 2030.”

Australia’s grid operator, AEMO, has warned that without innovation and proper investment, the country is at high risk of power shortages if it retires 62% of its coal power fleet over the next decade as planned. The New South Wales Government has now entered into talks with Origin Energy to discuss extending the life of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station.

G20 countries are divided on proposals to aim to triple installed renewable capacity by 2030, and double this again by 2040, with no consensus either on the specifics of a fossil fuel phase-out. Seven G20 nations – Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and the US – have not yet unveiled coal phase-out strategies.

Aditya Lolla, Asia programme lead at Ember, said: “India, as the host of the G20 summit [on 9–10 September], has the opportunity to assume climate leadership in the G20 and hold the bloc accountable. India’s plans to ramp up renewable energy seem to align well with the COP28 president’s call for tripling renewables by 2030. India’s early backing to this call can not only influence the G20 into action but also ensure that the developed countries bring their per capita emissions down.”

NEVADA

American Lithium trades higher as it continues to refine PEA flowsheet

Staff Writer | September 7, 2023 | 

The TLC project, located near the regional hub and county seat in the town of Tonopah, Nevada. Image courtesy of American Lithium

American Lithium’s (TSXV: LI; NASDAQ: AMLI) shares closed 10.9% higher on Wednesday with a C$412 million ($301m) market capitalization following results of optimization work to improve the chemical process used to produce lithium carbonate at its TLC project in Nevada.


The ongoing work is focused on leaching conditions and lithium recovery from the TLC claystones, minimizing lithium losses during neutralization and magnesium sulphate crystallization, and on increasing the product’s purity in the precipitation stage.

According to American Lithium, its test work has been ongoing on the TLC flowsheet since the project’s preliminary economic assessment was published earlier this year. The testing is being done at TECMMINE facilities in Lima, Peru, with technical input on test conditions from DRA Pacific.

The leach conditions have been optimized using sulfuric acid leaching at 50°C achieving 95% lithium extraction in a 2-hour leach cycle with 495 kg/t acid consumption. This, the company said, lowers the leaching temperature conditions from 90°C used in the PEA, with comparable extraction.

These leach parameters resulted in lower acid consumption, which translates into lower limestone consumption during the pre-neutralization phase and a reduction in lime requirements during the neutralization stage, it added.

Magnesium sulfate crystallization was improved resulting in 68% total magnesium recovery and minimizing lithium losses to 1.1% during this impurity removal phase.

The final lithium recovery through the entire hydrometallurgical process achieved in this single test is 84.8% with the highest lithium carbonate purity achieved to date from TLC claystone processing test work.

A final calculated LC purity of 99.59% lithium carbonate equivalent was attained through the new optimized leach process.

“The flowsheet continues to be refined with improvements and results that should improve on the already robust $3.28 billion NPV for the project highlighted in the company’s maiden PEA,” Simon Clarke, CEO of American Lithium, commented.

“We are able to make strong, rapid progress utilizing the expertise of TECMMINE in Peru, ANSTO in Australia and DRA Global, our lead engineers to drive TLC through the prefeasibility process.”

As outlined in the February 2023 PEA, the TLC project is envisioned to be a truck and shovel open-pit operation that would initially produce 24,000 tonnes of LCE annually before doubling to 48,000 tonnes in year seven. After 20 years the mine would process a stockpile of ore with more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm) lithium for another two decades.

US, EU plan new steel tariffs aimed at China, others

Reuters | September 7, 2023

Steel production. (Stock Image)

The United States and the European Union are working on an agreement for new tariffs aimed at excess steel production from China and other countries, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.


The measures would primarily target imports from China that benefit from non-market practices, it said, citing people familiar with the matter.


The scope of the measures, covering other countries that could be targeted and the level of the tariffs, are still being discussed, the report said.

The agreement would be part of the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum that the EU and the Biden administration have been negotiating since 2021, the report said.

“The EU and the US are fully committed to achieving an ambitious outcome for the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GSA) negotiations by October 2023,” a Commission spokesperson said, adding that any agreement would be in compliance with international obligations, such as WTO rules.

The office of the United States Trade Representative declined to comment on the report.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump imposed duties of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on aluminum imports, so as to shield US producers, sparking a major trade dispute with the EU.

In 2021, the two agreed to end the dispute and co-operate on the global arrangement instead.

The deal sought to let “limited volumes” of EU-produced metals enter the United States free of duty, while keeping the disputed tariffs.

(By Kanjyik Ghosh, Baranjot Kaur and Jyoti Narayan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Column: China’s zinc import surge a sign of renewed optimism

Reuters | September 7, 2023 |

Credit: Zinc China.

China has rediscovered its appetite for imports of refined zinc after a prolonged absence from the international market.


The country took in 76,800 metric tons of metal in July, the highest monthly tally since April 2019.

China has stepped up domestic output of refined zinc this year, but the Shanghai market continues to be plagued by low inventory and tight time-spreads.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) zinc price is outperforming the London Metal Exchange (LME) price , opening an arbitrage import window through which increasing amounts of metal are now flowing.

This is part and parcel of a broader trend in the base metals sector. Sentiment is improving in China as local traders bet on more policy support for the property sector, while Western spirits remain damped by weak manufacturing activity.

China’s imports, exports and net trade in refined zinc

Return to the import market

China was a consistent net importer of refined zinc over the last decade, but that changed in 2022.

Imports crashed from 434,000 tons in 2021 to just 79,000 last year. Exports, by contrast, mushroomed from 5,000 to 81,000 tons, meaning the country was a net exporter for the first time since 2007.

The tectonic shift in trade patterns was due to a combination of weak domestic demand and high physical premiums in Western markets hit by Covid-19 disruption and smelter closures in Europe.

China last year shipped zinc as far as Turkey and the US. Shipments of 3,300 tons to the US market were modest, but they were the first exports to the country since 2006.

Exports have all but evaporated so far this year, totalling just 5,000 tons in the first seven months.

Physical premiums in the West have significantly softened this year thanks to a partial recovery in European smelter output and weak demand.

Fastmarkets’ assessment of the premium for duty-paid metal in Antwerp has slid from a 2022 high of $525 per ton over LME cash to a current $300.

Now it is China that appears to be short of zinc.

Shanghai zinc stocks seasonal patterns over 2020-2023

Low inventory

ShFE registered stocks stand at a modest 43,181 tons. There was the usual seasonal rebuild around the lunar new year holiday period, but the March peak at just under 124,000 tons was well shy of last year’s April high of 179,000.

Low inventory has generated persistent tightness along the front part of the Shanghai forward curve. Cash has commanded a premium over forward months for most of the last year.

Off-market stocks, or “social inventory” as the Chinese call them, amounted to 81,500 tons across seven cities as of Aug. 25, according to local data provider Shanghai Metal Market (SMM).

That was down by 17,800 tons on the previous week, SMM attributing the drop to dip-buyers snapping up available metal.

Total visible and semi-visible zinc inventory in China is currently less than the amount sitting in the London Metal Exchange warehouse system, which currently holds 145,175 tons.

Mind you, the surge of metal into LME warehouses over early August looks set to go into reverse, with 64,000 tons of zinc cancelled in preparation for physical load-out over the last two weeks.

With LME stocks almost exclusively located in Singapore, Malaysia’s Port Klang and the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung, it is quite possible this metal is destined for shipment to China to capitalize on the open arbitrage.
Chinese optimism

China’s physical need for more zinc is surprising, given the country’s smelters have boosted output this year after power-rationing and curtailments in 2022.

Cumulative national output was 3.78 million tons in the first seven months of this year, representing a year-on-year growth rate of almost 10%, according to SMM.

However, high premiums in the north of the country have sucked zinc out of Shanghai and the province of Guangdong, it said.

The entire mainland zinc supply chain is also restocking in anticipation of what is deemed to be a seasonal peak for construction activity.

Sentiment, however, holds the real key to the Shanghai premium.

The ShFE outright zinc price has been rallying since the middle of August, hitting its highest level since April on Thursday.

It’s not the only metal enjoying a tailwind from China’s accumulating policy measures to stimulate a struggling economy, particularly the troubled property sector.

The entire ShFE base metals complex has been outperforming the LME complex, according to analysts at Citi. (“Metal Matters”, Sept. 5, 2023)

Most Shanghai metals, like zinc, are in backwardation, creating a Chinese cash premium. A profitable physical import arbitrage is open across almost all the base metals, the bank notes.

Citi expects imports to have increased in August with the potential for more strength in the closing months of the year.

That will depend on forward premium structures in both Shanghai and London, which in turn hang on whether all the optimism about a recovery in China’s troubled property sector is justified.

The country’s trade in refined zinc may prove a useful mirror on that question over the next few months.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Jan Harvey)

Ecuador’s suspension of environmental consultations hits $2bn of investment – business leaders

Reuters | September 6, 2023 |

Ecuadorian Andes. Stock image.

Ecuador’s suspension of a decree enabling environmental consultations prior to the licensing of industrial and mining projects has paralyzed investments worth $2 billion, business associations said on Wednesday.


The Andean nation’s top court last month suspended the decree from outgoing conservative President Guillermo Lasso after Indigenous group CONAIE argued the processes favored development of mining projects over local communities.

The decree issued in May allowed the consultations for communities in areas close to the industrial and extractive projects to be used to obtain environmental licenses, seeking to speed up permitting.

“Today in Ecuador all industrial activities are shut down,” said María Eulalia Silva, president of the Ecuadorean Chamber of Mining. “This means freezing $2 billion in investments for a series of projects.”

“As productive sectors we are asking the court to allow us to work,” added Silva, who was accompanied by protesting miners and communities affected by the decision.

The Constitutional Court did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At least 176 environmental consultation processes are currently suspended, including for projects such as mining, waste treatment plants and dams, among others, according to the environment ministry, which called the court’s decision “unacceptable.”

Environmental consultations, backed by the government, have seen strong resistance in Ecuador’s Andean region, where mining companies look to develop a variety of projects.

The Chamber of Industries and Production (CIP) said the lack of environmental consultations prevents new investments.

“This has made the country unattractive to foreign investors,” Maria Paz Jervis, president of the CIP, said in a press release sent to Reuters. “Without a doubt one of the economic and productive consequences (…) is the paralysis of employment in formal companies.”

(By Alexandra Valencia and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

ESG
BlackRock voted against Glencore’s climate progress report

Reuters | September 6, 2023 | 

Credit: Glencore

Major Glencore shareholder BlackRock Inc was among investors to reject the mining giant’s climate progress report at its annual meeting in May, citing inconsistencies, a voting disclosure page on the asset manager’s website shows.


BlackRock’s entities, which collectively own more than 6% of Glencore’s stock, according to LSEG data, boosted dissident shareholders and helped the total votes in opposition to the company’s climate plan pass 30% for the first time.

Noting that while Glencore has improved climate-related risks and opportunities disclosures, “BIS is concerned that aspects of the report and recent developments have pointed to inconsistencies in the company’s stated strategy,” it said in a report published to clients on Aug. 23.

BlackRock allows many clients to cast their own votes at companies’ annual general meetings. It declined to comment further on the disclosure.

The page also showed BlackRock did not back a shareholder resolution seeking more disclosure on progress in scaling back thermal coal production, which got 29% support, without saying why.

Glencore mines and trades thermal coal, used to generate electricity, and has said it plans to run down its mines by the mid-2040s, closing at least 12 by 2035.

Many of the world’s biggest listed companies published their first climate action plans in 2020 to cut emissions in a bid to help with reaching the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of capping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But BlackRock in August reported a further decline in its support for shareholder resolutions on environmental and social themes, citing corporate progress on the areas and poorly crafted measures.

With $9.4 trillion under management, BlackRock’s votes have become key to many contests at companies around the globe and in turn drawn much scrutiny of its practices.

(By Clara Denina and Simon Jessop; Editing by Josie Kao)

EU lawmakers see recycling as key in search for critical minerals

Reuters | September 6, 2023 

Entrance of the Louise Weiss building, inaugurated in 1999, the official seat of the European Parliament which houses the hemicycle for plenary sessions. Stock image.

European Union lawmakers will push for far greater recycling of waste in a new EU law to ensure the bloc has raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt required for its green transition.


The industry committee of the European Parliament will vote on its position on Thursday on the Critical Raw Materials Act, a centrepiece of EU strategy to allow it to compete with the United States and China in making clean tech products.

The strategy would seek to reduce reliance on China, which dominates global processing of key minerals.

The committee has reached a broad consensus on a text that stresses the potential of processing waste and reducing demand for critical materials, such as by using alternatives and increasing efficiency.

The parliament text proposes the EU should raise recycling capacity by 10% for each of 16 “strategic raw materials” by 2030 and collect, sort and process 45% of each material contained in EU waste, subject to technical and economic feasibility.

The European Commission proposed in March that EU extraction of strategic raw materials, including copper and rare earths, should rise to 10% of EU annual consumption by 2030, recycling to 15% and processing to 40%.

The parliament text stresses that its recycling target would apply to each material.

The final law will follow negotiations between the parliament and EU countries, who agreed in June to raise the recycling and processing targets to 20% and 50% respectively and add aluminium to the list of essential minerals.

Negotiations should conclude by the end of the year.

The parliament also backed a 50% processing target, but did not propose upgrading aluminium. Bauxite, the principle aluminium ore, is on the Commission’s broader list of 34 “critical raw materials”.

For these, the EU foresees simpler permitting procedures, increased recycling and diversification of imports, but without specific targets.

(By Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Christina Fincher)