UK

Andy Burnham pleads with mental health workers 'not to follow through with industrial action'
Charlotte Hall
Thu 10 October 2024 at 4:02 pm GMT-6·3-min read


-Credit: (Image: MEN MEDIA)

As mental health workers prepare to go on strike over ‘dangerous’ conditions for patients, Andy Burnham has pleaded with them ‘not to follow through with industrial action’. The Greater Manchester mayor offered to work with mental health teams to ‘discuss issues’.

Union members in Manchester’s Early Intervention in Psychosis teams are reportedly set to strike on 16 October, due to staffing levels at ‘lower than acceptable standards’, leaving patients at risk.

The team is part of the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, which has struggled to make improvements since shocking failures were uncovered at a number of hospitals in 2022.

Low staffing levels and missed opportunities have been slammed. The trust has been deemed as ‘inadequate’ by government health watchdog the Care Quality Commission two years in a row.

Speaking in the Mayoral hot seat on Radio Manchester, he said it was the ‘first’ he’d heard of the strike suggestions. He responded: “This is not being done out of self interest. They are clearly doing this to raise awareness of the risk to patients.

“They’re trying to get the attention of people like me and those who run the health service as to the severity of the situation. I will meet the team and discuss issues with them.

Understaffing and spiralling demand have put mental health services under pressure. -Credit:MEN

“But I would ask them not to follow through with the industrial action, because it won’t necessarily make things better.”

Mr Burnham also warned against ‘demonising’ people working in public services who want to go on strike.

“It’s a really bad place that some want to take us to, to demonise people working in our mental health services or in the hospital, or even driving trains,” he said. “These are frontline people providing really important services to us. They’re not our enemies.”

Addressing mental health workers, he added that his ‘door is open’ and that he would ‘respond immediately’ in his role as co-chair of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership - a committee that brings together the region’s health and local authority bosses.

But the issue goes beyond Greater Manchester. Mental health services across the country are at breaking point while investment into the service fails to keep pace with the spiralling number of people in need of support since the pandemic.

Greater Manchester’s NHS was slammed last month for sending people as far afield as Taunton for out-of-area treatment because hospitals in the region ran out of beds and staff to care for patients. The desperate measures only pile on more pressure long-term, having been quoted as a reason for the region’s NHS being in hundreds of millions of pounds in deficit.

The government has said it wants to ‘fix the broken system’ with a recruitment drive for 8,500 more mental health workers and by reforming the Mental Health Act.


Firefighters 'should respond to medical emergencies' to help overstretched paramedics

Charlotte Hall
Thu 10 October 2024 

-Credit: (Image: GMFRS)

Andy Burnham has called for firefighters to respond to medical emergencies to help overstretched paramedics.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service vehicles carrying defibrillators could see patients attended to ‘more quickly’ than North West Ambulance Service personnel when they're under severe pressure and ‘help save lives’, the mayor argued.

In a letter penned to the chief fire officer this morning (October 10), Mr Burnham asked the service to help ‘take the pressure off the shoulders of the NHS’. Due to growing queues at A&E, ambulance wait times have soared over the last few years, putting patients at risk.

The letter reads: "I am writing to request that, in negotiation with the Fire Brigades Union, you recommence discussions on how Greater Manchester Fire Rescue Service can best support the North West Ambulance Service to provide emergency medical response."

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, Mr Burnham added: “This is for when a 999 call can’t immediately get an ambulance there. It’s about keeping the people of Greater Manchester safer, because quite often firefighters can get to a heart attack incident more quickly than an ambulance.

“This is about Greater Manchester using the power of devolution to change the way public services work and integrate them more to help save more lives.”

Heart attack and stroke patients across the UK were left waiting an average of 40 minutes for ambulance call outs earlier this year. But for cardiac arrests, survival rates drop by ten percent for every minute beyond the first ten minutes, making a quick first response crucial.

By bringing services together, Burnham said he could help 'reduce pressure' on the NHS. -Credit:Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News

Mr Burnham, who is also the co-chair for the integrated care partnership, noted the average response time for fire engines was around seven and a half minutes - ‘much faster than the ambulance service’.

“If you look at fire stations across Greater Manchester, they tend to be more embedded in communities and are often very much more present in localities than the ambulance service,” he told Mike Sweeney on BBC. “Ambulances can end up queuing at hospitals because of the pressures we see in A and E so it can take them a while to hand over patients.”

The suggestion follows a pilot scheme carried out in 2015 and 2016, which saved 63 lives and stopped 77 people from suffering ‘life altering neurological damage’, according to the mayor’s letter.

Mr Burnham claimed that the fire chief had ‘indicated agreement’ with his plan, but discussions will still need to take place with fire service unions regarding extra support and pay and with the health secretary. He also acknowledged that funding would need to be secured for the program.

“I don’t know at this moment in time what the cost will be,” he said. “If it means an extra pound from residents to support the fire service, I’ll have to see what the public feel about that.”

He added that the program would be part of a wider scheme to share pressures on the NHS across different public sectors, including more social intervention and community support.

UK

‘I will regret it for the rest of my life’: How women feel forced to shorten maternity leave over low pay

Maya Oppenheim
Thu 10 October 2024 

A woman forced to go back to work six weeks after giving birth due to not being able to live on statutory maternity pay has said she will regret the decision for the rest of her life.

Laura Mazzeo, from north London, told The Independent she went back to her job in construction after taking six weeks of government maternity pay despite being very physically weak at the time due to having recently undergone surgery.

It comes as new research from campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, which polled almost 6,000 women, has found four in 10 mothers took just 12 weeks or less of maternity leave after the birth of their most recent child due to the low levels of maternity pay in the UK.

“I will regret it for the rest of my life,” Ms Mazzeo said. “Not being able to take time to recover and adjust to that new state of life really puts pressure on your relationship with the baby and then you resent the baby. It means you can’t take into account the change and adapt – as you are forced to go back to how you were but you can’t.”

The 40-year-old said she experienced complications following her pregnancy so had placentas removed via surgery six weeks after giving birth.

She added: “They put you under local anaesthetic and if they don’t do this you can die of sepsis. I was very weak after the surgery. I could walk very little and very slowly, you have no physical strength.”

The mother of one said she was self-employed at the time so would have had no income coming in if she did not work.

“In hindsight, it was a terrible mistake,” Ms Mazzeo said of her decision to return to work. “At the time because my son was not sleeping at all and couldn’t take formula very well, and so on, and I thought this was the best way to get back at things.”



I will regret it for the rest of my life. Not being able to take time to recover and adjust to that new state of life really puts pressure on your relationship with the baby and then you resent the baby

Laura Mazzeo

She said she was fortunately able to work from home but explained she did not have family around to help with childcare and hired a maternity nurse to support them.

Ms Mazzeo added: “It exerted a lot of pressure on my mental health. You are constantly being torn between wanting to book in time with your newborn and worrying you are not earning enough for this new life to be catered for.

“I came back into the workforce feeling I was not good at anything: not good at being a mum, not good at being a professional. You feel worthless. Without the resources I had put aside, it could have gone really, really wrong.”

Research by Pregnant then Screwed found three-quarters of mothers have been pushed into debt or into taking money out of their savings due to low statutory maternity pay.

Statutory maternity pay for much of the leave is only 43 per cent of the national living wage, researchers point out, saying this means many families face financial struggles.

Campaigners have urged the government to increase statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance so it tallies with the national living wage. They say maternity leave which surpasses 12 weeks carries massive benefits for both mother and child.



I came back into the workforce feeling I was not good at anything: not good at being a mum, not good at being a professional. You feel worthless. Without the resources I had put aside, it could have gone really really wrong

Laura Mazzeo

In the UK, statutory maternity leave is paid for up to 39 weeks – with mothers getting 90 per cent of average weekly earnings before tax for the first six weeks. After that, mothers get £184.03 or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings, whichever sum is lower, for the next 33 weeks.

Joeli Brearley, founder and chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “Maternity pay is an abomination. How is anyone meant to survive on £184 a week, which is less than half the minimum wage – the lowest amount someone can live on.

“The perinatal period is critically important to the health and wellbeing of a mother and her child, and I think we should all be deeply concerned that, due to severe hardship, we are now seeing a degeneration and a degradation of this vital period. Ultimately, it is a false economy to not pay parental leave at a rate on which families can survive and thrive.”


'For women, the Employment Rights Bill is a start – but a way off perfect'

Rebecca Reid
Thu 10 October 2024 

'New Employment Rights Bill is no silver bullet

'
Some years back, a few days after learning I was pregnant, I rang a woman who had recently offered me a job. She was about to go on maternity leave herself, and given it was a female-focussed company – staffed entirely by women – I assumed that there wouldn’t be any issue. Legally, there was no need for me to tell her I’d be going on maternity leave eight months after joining the business either, but it felt like a polite thing to do… until the phone line fell silent. I panicked, stomach knotted with guilt. “Right,” she said. “I'll call you back.”

When she did (eventually) phone back, she rather guiltily spelled out what benefits I would – or rather wouldn’t – be entitled to as a result of starting a new job while pregnant. And what I heard was both depressing and shocking in equal measure.

Under the current system, when it comes to maternity leave you’re entitled to (at least) 90% of your full pay for the first six weeks. That is, if you’ve been employed for at least a year when you fall pregnant. So, for the average woman in the UK who is employed full time, earning around £29,000 per year, that figure would be closer to the £500 per week mark. However if you’ve not been employed for a year, you’re only entitled to statutory maternity pay for those six weeks, which equates to just £183.03 per week. Spot the difference much?

But things are – hopefully – about to change. The government has today announced new plans for the Employments Rights Bill as part of its Make Work Pay campaign.

It has promised to introduce ‘Day One’ rights for workers, meaning that you’ll no longer have to be an employee for a specific length of time before you can benefit from the protections afforded to employees who’ve been at the company for a year or more. Something that’s especially relevant if you are, or at some point might become, a working parent.

KoldoyChris - Getty Images

The reform will also deliver stronger protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work, including protection from dismissal whilst expecting, while on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.

There are also other, equally important and non-financial Day One rights set to kick in, which I’m hopeful will benefit women in particular and help us to close the gender pay gap (women still earn 91p for each £1 a man does). As per the government's plans, employers will now have to offer “flexible working as the default” unless they can prove it’s incompatible with the role (a win whether you’re a parent or not: we all benefit from having more control over our work-life balance, which in turn has been proven to help boost happiness, health and productivity).


The ew press release also says there’ll be reviews into the parental and carers leave systems (at the moment workers are entitled to one unpaid week of leave per year to care for a loved one and on the parenting front, once you've been employed for a year you can take up to 4 weeks per year per child of unpaid leave) to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones. Plus, the Labour government has pledged to tackle the complexities of zero hours contracts and establish a right to bereavement leave.

It all sounds promising, sure. I want to feel reassured. But we all know that when it comes to policy, you can’t get too excited until you’ve read the small print (see: ‘free’ childcare hours for frustrating details!) and we’ve seen the plans in action, says Joeli Brearley, the CEO and Founder of Pregnant Then Screwed.

“There are some clear wins in this bill – moving to a Day One right to parental leave makes absolute sense, though we do need clarity as to whether that includes statutory pay. We’re pleased to see large employers will be required to create action plans for reducing their gender pay gap too, though we do need clarity on how this will be enforced,” Brearley tells Cosmopolitan UK. “We are thrilled the government has moved forward with this bill, [but] the next step is to ensure it isn’t all fur coat and no knickers… A review of parental leave feels like [it’s just] kicking the can down the road. Ultimately, [we already know] it needs to be better paid and paternity leave should be longer. We need action, not more research.”

Other experts are a bit more enthused about the changes. Jemima Olchawski, CEO of Fawcett Society, said as part of the government’s announcement: “Today’s draft employment bill is a win for women. Fawcett and our members have campaigned long and hard to see the government chart a new course for inclusive economic growth and to improve women’s working lives. We share this government’s ambition to ensure all women can thrive at work and fully contribute to the economy.”

In short it’s a positive step, but it’s not the silver bullet that maternity support in this country so badly needs. We’re still playing catch up with other European countries, like Finland, where both parents get 164 days off work each at 70% of their full pay.

Social pressures on women not to have babies ‘too soon’ after starting a role aren’t going to vanish overnight either – and this legislation is only going to ease one small burden on women.

andreswd - Getty Images

Time and time again I hear from my career driven friends, who are wrestling with the balance of progression and fertility, that they have to ‘time having their babies around their jobs’. There’s a feeling that it’s ‘unfair’ to get pregnant too quickly because it ‘disrupts’ their workplace, and consensus seems to be that it’s ‘right’ to wait two years after starting a new role before having a baby. In fact, a 2022 study by Fertility Family found that one in five women had delayed having a baby in order to protect her career.


The stress doesn’t miraculously ease if and when you do fall pregnant either. There’s still no end in sight to women selling their clothes or secretly working to make extra money while on maternity leave just to make ends meet, and let’s not forget that one in five women have used a food bank while on maternity leave either.

We have to remain vocal and continue to put the pressure on those in charge to really commit to improving quality of life (and career stability) for women, no matter their family situation. And on our side, perhaps – easier said than done I know – we have to stop allowing ourselves to feel guilty if we do become pregnant while in a new job.

Because when you think about it, is it not utterly bonkers to plot your fertility and family planning around your boss's preferences rather than your own?

From 26 October 2024, the base offer from your employer will be the same whether you’ve been in the job for eighteen months or eighteen minutes. So, if you’re agonising over when to try for a baby, yes it’s probably wise to think about finances, how strong your relationship is and how you deal with sleep deprivation. But for goodness sake, please don’t think about how it’s going to go down with your manager – and don’t forget to nudge your child-free work wife into submitting her flexible working request while you’re at it.

UK

Unite union says Labour’s workers’ bill has ‘more holes than Swiss cheese’ over zero-hour contracts

Millie Cooke
Thu 10 October 2024 

Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham and Keir Starmer, who has been urged to push the reforms further (PA)

Labour’s new workers’ rights legislation is under fire, with one union boss claiming the proposal has “more holes than Swiss cheese”.

While others have hailed the Employment Rights Bill as bringing a “seismic shift” for workers, Sir Keir Starmer has still been urged to go further in his bid to shift the balance of power between employers and employees.

The legislation has been described by Labour as the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation and was published on Thursday. It will include plans to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts and “unscrupulous” fire and rehire practices which it said will benefit millions of workers.

Fire Brigade Union general secretary Matt Wrack welcomes the planned employment Bill (PA)


Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said: “This is a pro-worker, pro-business plan. The government will tackle head-on the issues within the UK labour market that are holding Britain back.

Unite has responded most critically to the legislation, accusing the government of tying itself “up in knots trying to avoid what was promised”.

General secretary Sharon Graham said: “This Bill is without doubt a significant step forward for workers but stops short of making work pay.

“The end to draconian laws like Minimum Service Levels and the introduction of new individual rights, for example on bereavement leave, will be beneficial. But the Bill still ties itself up in knots trying to avoid what was promised.

“Failure to end fire and rehire and zero-hours contracts once and for all will leave more holes than Swiss cheese that hostile employers will use.”

While the Bill will give workers the right to a contract reflecting the number of hours they regularly work, it leaves room for employees who want zero-hours contracts to opt in.

Promising to push for improvements to the legislation as the bill goes through parliament, she added: “The Bill also fails to give workers the sort of meaningful rights to access a union for pay bargaining that would put more money in their pockets and, in turn, would aid growth.”

But Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said the legislation will “improve working lives for many” if delivered in full.

“After 14 years of stagnating living standards, working people desperately need secure jobs they can build a decent life on”, Mr Nowak said.

“Driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. It will give workers more predictability and control and it will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad.

“While there is still detail to be worked through, this Bill signals a seismic shift away from the Tories’ low pay, low rights, low productivity economy.”

Business groups welcomed the Bill, with the CBI praising the government for engaging with business and unions. The Federation of Small Businesses was the only main business group critical of the Bill, saying: “This legislation is a rushed job, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned – dropping 28 new measures onto small business employers all at once leaves them scrambling to make sense of it all.”

Ministers described the Employment Rights Bill as the biggest boost to pay and productivity in the workplace in a generation.

Under the new legislation, the existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal will be removed and workers will have the right from the first day in a job.

Former TUC president Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told The Independent that the workers’ rights reforms will “shift the balance of power in Britain back towards workers”, saying lives will be “immeasurably improved” by the legislation.

Mr Wrack urged the government to implement the “hugely welcome” legislation without delay.

He said: “This very significant extension of workers’ rights is a huge victory for the FBU and other unions that have been at the forefront of campaigning to ensure that Labour’s New Deal for Working People is fully delivered.

“The banning of zero-hour contracts, the outlawing of fire and rehire, and other despicable working practices promoted by the Tories, are long overdue.”

However, many of the reforms will not take effect until autumn 2026, with ministers scheduling a series of consultations on the details of the plan over the course of 2025.

Some measures, such as the right to “switch off” at the end of a working day, are not in the Bill but will be included in a so-called next steps document for further consideration and consultation.

The government said the legislation is being unveiled against a backdrop of it inheriting a “battered” economy from the Conservatives.

More than twice as many days were lost to industrial action than France under Rishi Sunak’s premiership, said Labour, following more than two years of strikes by hundreds of thousands of workers including nurses, teachers, junior doctors, train drivers and barristers.

Labour said new analysis showed that the Tories’ “scorched-earth” approach to strikes over the last two years cost the economy £3.3bn in lost productivity, including £1.7bn from NHS industrial action alone.

New UK government closes in on major employment reform

Clément ZAMPA
Thu 10 October 2024 

The UK government says its new workers' rights bill will offer more protection for employees (HENRY NICHOLLS) (HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP/AFP)


Britain's new Labour government on Thursday took a key step towards delivering major reforms to workers' rights with the presentation of its employment bill to parliament, pitting unions against businesses.

The bill contains key pre-election pledges, including a ban on zero-hours contracts, improvements to sick and maternity pay, and measures aimed at making it harder for employers to sack staff.

Other proposals are for increased flexibility around working hours and greater protection against sexual harassment in the workplace.

The proposed shakeup to employment legislation comes almost 100 days after Keir Starmer became prime minister following his Labour party's landslide general election win.

- 'generational upgrade' -

"This is a comprehensive bill which, once implemented, will represent the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation," Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in a statement Thursday.

"It will raise the minimum floor of employment rights, raise living standards across the country and provide better support for those businesses who are engaged in good practices."

Since winning power in early July, Labour has acted swiftly to end drawn-out strikes by public- and private-sector workers over pay -- notably among doctors in Britain's free National Health Service.

"The Employment Rights Bill will ensure work pays, it'll forge a new partnership with business, and reset the dreadful industrial relations that have cost our economy and our NHS so much in recent years," Starmer told parliament Wednesday.

Paul Nowak, leader of British umbrella organisation the Trades Union Congress, said a fully delivered bill "will make work better for millions of working people".

"Increasing job security is good for workers and business. Treating staff well boosts productivity and living standards," he said on the eve of the paper's unveiling.

But the main opposition Conservatives have warned the proposals amount to business-constricting "French-style union laws".

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, warned that "adding to the risks and costs associated with employing people would make small employers think twice about whether and who to hire".

"Done wrongly, this bill could damage growth, wages and jobs," added McKenzie, whose organisation represents millions of UK businesses.

However business lobby group CBI said the "government deserves credit for its willingness to engage with businesses and unions".

"With a number of critical details still subject to consultation, it’s important the government builds on the good engagement to date to ensure we get the detail right on this decisive piece of legislation," added its chief executive Rain Newton-Smith.

The bill's publication comes ahead of Labour's maiden budget on October 30, when finance minister Rachel Reeves is widely expected to announce tax rises.

Labour says tough measures are needed and claims that the Conservatives left it with a financial hole totalling £22 billion ($29 billion) after the election defeat ended their party's 14 years in power.


Starmer bids to end Tory ‘scorched earth’ industrial relations policy with workers’ rights reset

David Maddox
Wed 9 October 2024 

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan, centre, has described the government’s pay offer as good and fair (PA)


Union chiefs have hailed workers’ rights reforms unveiled by Keir Starmer’s government today for “changing the balance of power” in favour of employees and away from employers.

The long-awaited package to unpick Tory anti-union legislation has been unveiled less than 24 hours after the Renters’ Rights Bill passed its second reading in the Commons.

Experts also hailed that legislation as handing power to tenants and away from landlords as Labour pushed through a revolution to protect the rights of millions of people in the UK.

The dual reforms, which aim to end exploitation in the UK, come in a week when Sir Keir has sought to put behind him the rows about freebies and his former chief of staff Sue Gray by taking a grip on the political agenda with a new top team around him led by Morgan McSweeney.

The workers’ rights reforms will see an end to exploitative contracts and fire-and-rehire practices while also including the repeal of anti-strike laws put in place by successive Tory governments.

Meanwhile, the renters’ reforms end the practice of no-fault evictions and protect the rights of people to stay in their homes.

Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (PA Wire)

Former TUC president Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told The Independent that the workers’ rights reforms “shift the balance of power in Britain back towards workers”.

He said: “This very significant extension of workers’ rights is a huge victory for the FBU and other unions that have been at the forefront of campaigning to ensure that Labour’s New Deal for Working People is fully delivered.

“The banning of zero-hour contracts, the outlawing of fire and rehire, and other despicable working practices promoted by the Tories, are long overdue.

“The lives of firefighters and other public sector workers will be immeasurably improved by the new rights to bereavement leave and parental leave from day one of employment. The leadership of the FBU has long fought for an irreversible shift towards extending the rights of working people.

“There must be no delay in the full implementation of this hugely welcome package. That must also be reflected in pay offers to firefighters and other public sector workers in the Budget later this month.”

The government said its Employment Rights Bill is being unveiled against a backdrop of it inheriting a ‘battered’ economy (Lucy North/PA Wire)

The plan is aimed at kickstarting workplace productivity ahead of the International Investment Summit.

Labour will say the Tories’ “strike Britain” failure meant the UK lost twice as many working days as France due to industrial action.

The government will also link the plan to its economic growth agenda.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner MP, who has pushed hard for the Starmer government to keep its promise to trade unions, said: “This Labour government’s plan to make work pay is central to achieving our growth mission, boosting productivity. After years of stagnation under the Tories, we’re replacing a race to the bottom with a race to the top, so employers compete on innovation and quality.

“It’s by making work more secure and modernising workplaces that we will drive up productivity, improve living standards, generate jobs and investment, and pave the way for sustained economic growth that benefits working people.

“We’re calling time on the Tories’ scorched earth approach to industrial relations. A new partnership of cooperation between trade unions, employers and government will put us in line with high-growth economies that benefit from more cooperation and less disruption.”

Commenting on the renters’ reform legislation, Lawhive’s head of legal operations, Daniel McAfee, said: “The ban on ‘no-fault’ evictions, which would abolish Section 21 evictions, fundamentally alters the balance of power between landlords and tenants.”

Conservative shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: “Despite a chorus of opposition and the fastest decline in confidence from business owners large and small on record, Labour are rushing this legislation through parliament to appease their trade union paymasters, ignoring the inevitable negative economic impact on jobs and wages.

“This is a thinly veiled reward for the trade unions after they donated £28 million to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

“We will look closely at the detail of what the Labour Party have set out. But businesses and the economy needs certainty not the threat of being sent back to the 1970s, unleashing waves of low threshold, zero warning strikes, driving down growth and slowing productivity.”

Congo wants to pivot away from China’s dominance over its mining

Bloomberg News | October 9, 2024 |

Chinese President Xi Jinping with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi. (Image CCTV)

Democratic Republic of Congo’s top mining official said the country is courting new investors for its world-class deposits of key metals as it looks to diversify ownership in its industry, which is currently dominated by China.


The plan includes streamlining processes to pay customs and taxes, along with a partnership with the United Arab Emirates, Mines Minister Kizito Pakabomba said in an interview. The nation is also planning to revamp a railway that can be used to transport minerals so cargoes can be more easily exported from a port along the Atlantic Ocean, positioned closer to US and European markets, he said.

Congo wants to “attract better investors, more investors and diversified investors,” Pakabomba said.

The ambitions come as the country continues to play a key role in international metals markets, while also finding itself at the center of a contest between China, the US and other countries vying for access to critical minerals. Congo recently overtook Peru to become the second-largest producer of copper and is by far the world’s biggest source of cobalt. Both commodities are key to the global energy transition.

The government is looking to make “strategic choices” about who runs Congo’s mines, the minister said, citing this year’s example of the state’s decision to oppose a proposed sale of Trafigura Group-backed copper and cobalt miner Chemaf Resources Ltd. to China’s Norin Mining Ltd.

“We’ve stopped this transaction,” Pakabomba said. If Chemaf remains set upon an ownership change, “we’ll consider with them the different options that could be taken,” he said.

Congo’s government has grown increasingly frustrated by its lack of influence over its mining industry, particularly in cobalt, a key ingredient in many electric-vehicle batteries. The country accounted for about three-quarters of global output of the metal last year, but a spike in production by miners in the nation — particularly China’s CMOC Ltd. — has pushed prices to eight-year lows.


The government is considering multiple options to have more control over cobalt exports, Pakabomba said.

Pakabomba also said that the country’s railway project is a big part of its strategy for the industry.

The government is evaluating how to improve a railway from the mining hub of Kolwezi to Congo’s border with Angola, which would then connect to a line terminating at the port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean, Pakabomba said.

The US has already committed $553 million to refurbish the Angolan section of the railway.

Congo’s foreign minister, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, told Bloomberg that the country was considering a tender process to rebuild the Congolese side of the railway.

“I think that there are a lot of companies that are already lining up” with the project in mind, she said.

The rail-improvement project would cost $245 million over the first two years of construction, Pakabomba said.

“It will allow us to diversify the different export routes so that we are not only toward the East,” he said.

(By Michael J. Kavanagh and William Clowes)

Ghana unions cancel strike over illegal gold mining after talks

Bloomberg News | October 9, 2024 | 

Small-scale mining. Credit: Knut-Erik Helle via Flickr

Ghanaian unions have called off a strike after the government promised to take measures to clean up Africa’s biggest gold producer’s small-scale mining sector.


The Trades Union Congress’ planned strike represented the biggest escalation of a movement to clamp down on illegal gold mining that’s caused severe environmental damage in the West African country, polluting rivers and soils, and poisoning people.

The umbrella body of unions said Wednesday that it called off the strike, meant to start Thursday, because Ghana’s outgoing president, Nana Akufo-Addo, pledged to revoke a law that allows some mines to operate in forest reserves, its secretary-general, Joshua Ansah, said in a conference broadcast by Accra-based Joy TV.

Akufo-Addo also promised to deploy soldiers to fight illegal miners operating in forest reserves and near water bodies following talks with union leaders, Ansah said.

These are concessions that organized labor has “forced government to make toward combating illegal mining in Ghana,” he said.

The presidency confirmed the measures in a statement Wednesday.

Gold is a mainstay of the Ghanaian economy, accounting for nearly half of exports in 2023, according to central bank data. Large-scale miners such as Newmont Corp. and Gold Fields Ltd. have to adhere to strict environmental rules, but a thriving artisanal and small-scale mining industry is less regulated, or not at all, in some cases.

Known as “galamsey,” a colloquialism originating from the phrase “gather them and sell,” illegal mining has been spreading with impunity, according to protesters who had been ramping up pressure for authorities to act ahead of Dec. 7 presidential elections.

“Government will hear from us if it fails to do the needful,” Ansah said.

(By Yinka Ibukun)

Canada’s green taxonomy unlikely to include new natural gas projects

Bloomberg News | October 9, 2024 | 

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, along with Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Canada has provided more clarity on what it considers to be “green” investments — with new natural gas projects unlikely to make the cut.


Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced guiding principles for a Canadian taxonomy on Wednesday that would define and categorize investments meant to advance the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

The guideline will include both low-emitting “green” activities and “transition” activities that enable decarbonization. Banks, insurers, pension plans and asset managers have asked for those definitions, the Finance Department said in a background document.

“The government does not anticipate new natural gas production to be eligible” for either category, the document stated. But activities associated with a “limited buildout” of existing gas projects — or that significantly reduce emissions at them — may qualify. Nuclear activities weren’t mentioned.

Many financial institutions have targets for green financing and green investments. Without a taxonomy, each institution is left to define for itself what fits, raising the risk of greenwashing.

The exercise is complicated by the fact that there’s no universal set of rules: as of June, some 21 green taxonomies have been published worldwide, with another 21 under development or announced by regulators, according to BloombergNEF.

“Canada has some catching up to do in the global race for climate capital,” Ryan Riordan, director of research with the Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University, said in an email.

Examples of green activities provided in the background document include hydrogen, solar and wind energy generation, as well as electrical transmission lines.

Installing a lower-emitting electric furnace to produce steel, meanwhile, was given as an example of a transition activity. Mining of so-called critical minerals, such as copper and lithium, might also be considered a transition activity.

The Canadian taxonomy will be developed and governed by a third-party organization, which will have the final say on eligible activities.

The government also announced it will require large, federally incorporated private companies to disclose climate-related financial risks — with details to come later.

Heather Exner-Pirot, special adviser to the Business Council of Canada, said the business community doesn’t need more regulation, especially as it reels from the anti-greenwashing provisions enacted via Bill C-59 in June.

“Adding more mandatory net zero regulations, and not saying what they are, is not compatible with a world of investor certainty,” she said in an interview.

The government plans to release more information on how it will harmonize its requirements with those of provincial securities regulators.
Incremental progress

The government launched a council of banks, insurers, pensions and asset managers in May 2021 to give advice on the development of the taxonomy. The group came up with a draft framework in 2023, and environmentalists have criticized the government for taking so long to finalize one.

The council “gave us some good advice; we’re building on it now,” Freeland said at the Principles for Responsible Investment conference in Toronto on Wednesday. “These are made-in-Canada guidelines for sustainable investing.”

The developments were welcomed by the PRI, which called the announcements “significant steps forward for investors.”

Barbara Zvan, chairwoman of the taxonomy council and president and CEO of University Pension Plan Ontario, also welcomed the new rules, which “will help companies and investors develop credible transition plans for their operations and portfolios, respectively.”

Julie Segal, senior program manager of climate finance with Environmental Defence Canada, said the taxonomy’s definitions must be rigorous and science-based to be effective.

A consortium of environmental groups that includes Environmental Defence, Ecojustice and Stand.earth criticized the government’s suggestion that existing natural gas projects may have a place in the framework.

“The government’s acknowledgment that new oil or gas projects are inconsistent with a safe climate is a positive step, but investments in any type of gas projects still risk locking Canada into an anachronistic economy,” Segal said in an email.

Exner-Pirot, however, said she’s “very annoyed” that new natural gas could be excluded from the taxonomy, in part because doing so would put Canada’s definitions among the strictest worldwide.

The European Union, Russia, Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China classify natural gas for electricity, heating and cooling as green, according to BloombergNEF.

(By Melissa Shin)

CanAlaska Uranium shores up Pike zone with more high-grade hits in Athabasca

Colin McClelland - The Northern Miner | October 10, 2024 | 

Drilling at the West McArthur project is focused on expanding the footprint of the ‘42 zone’ mineralization. Credit: CanAlaska Uranium

CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV: CVV) posted new “ultra high-grade” drill results from its Athabasca basin joint venture with Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) that strengthen its Pike discovery, made in 2022. Company shares gained 7.6%.


Highlights at the Pike zone of the West McArthur project in northern Saskatchewan show drill hole WMA082-11 on target L85E cut 25.8 metres grading 6.47% uranium oxide (U3O8) including 4 metres at 22.78% U3O8, CanAlaska said on Thursday.

Drill hole WMA082-8 returned 16.2 metres grading 7.63% U3O8, including 6.1 metres at 17.31% U3O8. On target L70E, drill hole WMA082-7 cut 11.4 metres at 6.22% U3O8, including 5.6 metres grading 11.4% U3O8.

The results from the drilling this summer follow 9.3% U3O8 over 16.2 metres from 797 metres depth in hole WMA082-12 reported last month. And there was the discovery in July showing 9.3 metres grading 11.62% radiometric equivalent U3O8 in hole WMA082-8. Cormark Securities has compared CanAlaska’s results to potential for “pearls on a string.”

The company found uranium mineralization in 11 of 12 unconformity tests at Pike this summer. The results indicate a strike length of about 200 metres including a high-grade area of 100 metres that remain open in all directions, it said. CanAlaska, which holds 83% of the project, is paying for this year’s exploration to increase its stake.

“Pike zone is starting to position itself into a possible world-class uranium discovery located just 12 km from the giant McArthur River uranium mine,” CanAlaska CEO Cory Belyk in a release. “Pike zone is growing rapidly in its footprint.”
More drilling

CanAlaska plans more exploration to start in January as companies scramble to take advantage of nuclear power’s renewed momentum to help replace fossil fuels and a uranium spot price that hit a 17-year record high early this year.

The West is keen to develop its own resources and shun production from pariah Russia. The Athabasca basin is one of the planet’s richest uranium hotspots, where companies such as Cameco, French state-owned giant Orano, and Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN) are working to extract the energy metal.

Shares in CanAlaska Uranium traded for C$0.71 apiece Thursday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$115.8 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of C$0.34 to C$0.79.

Cormark Securities mining analyst Nicolas Dion said in a Sept. 27 note that the summer drilling program bodes well for the project. The company reported that day two holes with less mineralization: 13.2 metres at 3.88% U3O8 in hole MA094-2 and 9.9 metres at 3.41% U3O8 in hole WMA094-1.

“While not as thick as the intercepts in the original sections/discovery area, these results confirm the potential for additional pods of high-grade mineralization along strike at the Pike zone,” Dion said. “This opens up the blue-sky potential as we think about the common ‘pearls on a string’ analogy for other high-grade unconformity-hosted deposits in the basin.”

Teck CEO says Canada must spend more to erode China’s critical minerals dominance

Bloomberg News | October 10, 2024 | 

Teck CEO Jonathan Price. (Credit: BHP)

Teck Resources Ltd.’s chief executive officer warned the Canadian government that it isn’t doing enough to foster development in the critical minerals sector.


Speaking Thursday at an event in Ottawa, Jonathan Price said that while both the US and Canada have focused on developing the electric-vehicle and battery manufacturing sectors on the continent, support for mines and mineral processing continues to lag.

That stands in contrast with countries like Saudi Arabia and China, whose governments are spending billions to entrench their positions in global supply chains, he said.

Price flagged the massive public subsidies that Canada’s federal government has pledged to international companies including Volkswagen AG, Northvolt AB and Stellantis NV, and urged further investments to support resource autonomy in the country.

“Support for car and battery plants, absent support for the mines needed to support them, is like starting a farm-to-table restaurant — without bothering to plant the farm.”


Price also referred to Canada’s “cumbersome regulatory processes,” including lengthy permitting times, saying they make the sector less competitive and are a deterrent to investment. North American governments need “ambitious, targeted government incentives and investment” to grow critical minerals capacity, he said.

The comments come as North American governments push to re-shore productive capacity and reassert control over resource supply chains amid mounting criticisms of China flooding markets with cheaper products. Both the US and Canada have started to levy tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, as well as steel and aluminum products.

In a discussion after the speech, US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen said that both countries’ governments need to prioritize and encourage investment into the mining sector. While figuring out how to sustainably open the sector will “ultimately will be solved by the private sector,” Cohen noted North American policy should continue to offer “grants, incentives and credits to try and offset the impact and influence of China’s dominance.”

Cohen pointed to the Defense Production Act Investments program in the US, which has already provided funding to Canadian mining companies like Fortune Minerals Limited and Lomiko.

In his speech, Price noted that Canada’s government has has committed C$4 billion ($2.9 billion) in spending on critical minerals over eight years, while China has spent C$20 billion in 2023 alone, evidence that China will be aggressive in trying to consolidate its dominance in critical minerals.

“It’s about economic security, it’s about energy security, and it is about national security,” Price said.

At a news conference in Toronto, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said her government has put forward the first Canadian critical minerals strategy and it also has a suite of investment tax credits for green projects worth more than C$90 billion.

She said Canada is working closely with the US to coordinate supply chains, resulting in the American investments in Canadian miners. But western allies are seeing “very targeted, very intentional” Chinese action to “wipe out” nascent miners and processors, she said.

“We at the G-7, working with partners, working with all political allies in this space, really need to find collective ways to support our miners, our processors,” she said.

“I think we’ve all recognized that we need more supply chain security and I think it will take collective action to make that happen.”

(By Erik Hertzberg)

SYNGAS

China’s top miner to spend $24 billion on coal-to-oil project

Bloomberg News | October 10, 2024 | 

Credit: cbpix/Adobe Stock

China’s biggest coal miner announced the construction this week of another massive project to supply feedstock for petrochemicals makers and help clear a prospective surplus of the fossil fuel.


China Energy Investment Corp. said it will spend 170 billion yuan ($24 billion) to build an integrated plant in the northwestern region of Xinjiang that will turn coal into oil products. As is expected of all such projects, the facility will be powered by renewable energy — although its inputs and outputs will be anything but clean. The first phase is slated to come online in 2027.

The facility in Hami city is just the latest in a series of coal-to-oil developments greenlit in recent years in the mining hubs of Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Hami alone has indicated it will approve 300 billion yuan’s worth of such projects in its five-year plan through 2025, which could consume 152 million tons of coal by the end of the decade.

For all of its rapid deployment of clean energy, China remains by far the world’s largest coal producer and continues to push output to record levels, which hit 4.7 billion tons last year. But the fuel’s main usage in generating electricity has reached a turning point, after being surpassed for the first time by solar and wind installations. Moreover, President Xi Jinping has said consumption needs to start falling from 2026 to meet the nation’s climate goals, which has led coal miners to seek other avenues for their product.

One problem is that China’s petrochemicals industry is in a funk, the victim of its own breakneck expansion just as consumption has faltered due to a weak economy. Coal-to-oil profits slumped 53% last year, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industrial Federation.

Another is that healthy margins rely on a wide spread between the price of coal, which China has been successful in suppressing, and the price of oil, which has suffered as Chinese imports have slowed. Beijing’s wider efforts to decarbonize the economy continue to weigh heavily on oil processing generally, and Chinese consumption of products like diesel and gasoline may already have peaked.

The Hami facility, which will be capable of yielding 4 million tons of oil products a year for processing into materials like polyester, is more likely to prosper because CEIC’s scale allows it to mine coal particularly cheaply. It’s liquefaction technology has also been touted as state of the art.

But the timing nevertheless represents a risk. China’s coal-to-oil capacity rose 24% to 11 million tons in 2023 compared to 2019. That means the new plant will account for a significant chunk of Chinese output at a time when its customers aren’t in great shape and pressure is mounting on industry to reduce rather than add to national carbon emissions.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SYNGAS 

Mining stocks may drop 20% if US tariffs imposed – JPMorgan

Staff Writer | October 10, 2024 | 

Mining stocks could face a valuation drop of up to 20% if US tariffs are imposed after next November’s presidential election, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts.


“Metals markets aren’t pricing in significant risk premiums for trade-related outcomes, like higher tariffs, despite this being a concern raised by clients,” analysts Dominic O’Kane and his team wrote in a note.

JPMorgan’s analysis shows potential downside of 10% to 20% in the fair value of major mining stocks in a scenario where base metal and iron ore prices decline by more than 10%.

The bank cited tariffs as a key factor behind the sector’s more than 10% drop in 2017-2018 during the Trump administration.

JPMorgan downgraded Anglo American Plc from overweight to neutral and Sweden’s Boliden AB from neutral to underweight. Shares of both companies fell, with Anglo American down 2.1% and Boliden down 2.8%.

Regardless of the election outcome, tariffs will remain central to US minerals policy.

Gregory Wischer, a non-resident fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, stated that a future Harris administration would likely maintain the Biden administration’s tariffs on Chinese mineral imports, while a Trump administration could significantly increase tariffs, including a potential 60% levy on Chinese imports and a 10% baseline on all imports.

(With files from Bloomberg)