Chuyên mục: Critical minerals and materials

Despite reforms, mining for EV metals in Congo exacts steep cost on workers

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

washingtonpost.com
After revelations of child labor and treacherous conditions in many cobalt mines, automakers and mineral companies said they would adhere to international safety standards

The Shabara artisanal mine, where cobalt and copper are dug out by hand, near the Congolese boomtown of Kolwezi.

By Katharine Houreld and  Arlette Bashizi

Aug. 4 at 5:00 p.m.

Correspondent Katharine Houreld and photographer Arlette Bashizi traveled together across southeastern Congo, visiting industrial and artisanal mines in the country’s three largest cobalt mining towns. Houreld is The Washington Post’s East Africa bureau chief, based in Nairobi, with responsibilities stretching from the Horn of Africa to the continent’s southern tip. Bashizi is a Congolese photographer, based in Goma, focusing on issues related to health, environment and culture.

FUNGURUME, Democratic Republic of Congo — Alain Kasongo, burly and goateed, worked for four years driving the heavy trucks that hauled away tons of cobalt ore from a gaping hole at one of the biggest mines in Congo. The vibrations from the equipment and the jolts of driving over rough ground during his 12-hour shifts could be bone-rattling, he said. Finally, the pain in his spine grew so unbearable that he needed surgery.

His older brother, Patchou Kasongo Mutuka, worked the same job at the same mine. He suffered the same injury and required the same surgery — as did 13 other drivers of excavators and trucks at the mine who were interviewed. They lifted their shirts to reveal surgical scars and spread out carefully folded medical records confirming their accounts. They in turn named seven more colleagues who had suffered the same fate, all within a two-year period.

“It hurt so badly when I went home, I would lie awake at night,” said Alain Kasongo, 43, displaying bumps and ridges on his body from what he said were three operations.

Tiếp tục đọc “Despite reforms, mining for EV metals in Congo exacts steep cost on workers” →

Scoping study on critical minerals supply chains in ASEAN

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Download report here

The ongoing energy transition and digital transformation present significant opportunities for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States. These countries produce and refine large amounts of many critical metals and minerals and are important manufacturing hubs with high potential to further integrate into advanced global supply chains.The parallel trends present ASEAN countries with a significant two-fold opportunity to expand mining production and integrate and upgrade their critical mineral manufacturing value chains.

This scoping study explores the implications of the twin energy and digital transitions, focusing on minerals and metals that are critical for the transition. Among the key issues explored, the study presents an overview of how critical or strategic minerals can be defined and classified within the context of ASEAN, the wider critical mineral value chains, and policy options to consider.

Critical Minerals in World War 2

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Arizona.edu

How Minerals Made Civilization, the UA Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources’ YouTube video series on the role of mineral resources in history, is launching a trilogy about how mineral resources influenced the war.  Part 1, posted today, covers mineral resources during the interwar buildup: how mineral resources figured in national (and transnational) politics in the 1930s, how resource-poor nations sought to build up their supplies, and how the struggle for resources eventually culminated in the outbreak of the war. From the video, here are a few fun facts you may not have known:

  •  Coins for combat: During the early to mid-1930s, both Germany and Japan reissued old silver coinages in nickel so they would have a nickel supply for gun steels when the war broke out.
  •  Coal, meet hydrogen: Coal-to-oil conversion was invented too late to change the outcome of World War 1, but it was about to play a major role in supplying Germany in the next war.
  •  Why we use molybdenum in steels: The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 redirected Soviet manganese exports from the USA to Germany, so American metallurgists developed improved molybdenum-alloy steels as a substitute using molybdenum from Arizona and Colorado.

Tiếp tục đọc “Critical Minerals in World War 2” →

CFR – Critical Minerals and China

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
The Water’s Edge April 28, 2023
The President’s Inbox Recap: Critical Minerals and China

by Michelle Kurilla, Guest Contributor



The digging of raw nickel ore near Sorowako, Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, on January 8, 2014.
REUTERS/Yusuf Ahmad

The latest episode of The President’s Inbox is live, and we’ve revived the practice of posting a weekly episode recap on The Water’s Edge.  This week, Jim sat down with Morgan Bazilian, the Director of the Payne Institute and a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. They discussed the role of critical minerals in geopolitical competition with China.

Here are four takeaways from the conversation:

1. Critical minerals are essential for the green energy transition. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and other minerals are critical to building the batteries, electrical grids, and solar facilities needed to move away from fossil fuels. Demand for lithium alone is predicted to increase thirteen-fold by 2040 and could become a sticking point in the green energy transition. Nor is demand for critical minerals limited to the energy sector; they’re widely used to manufacture everything from smartphones to advanced weaponry.

2. China dominates the critical mineral supply chain. A few countries sit atop vast mineral reserves. Seventy-five percent of the world’s known lithium reserves are found in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The Democratic Republic of the Congo possess more than half the world’s cobalt reserves. Indonesia has more than 20 percent of the world’s nickel reserves. Regardless of where mines might be located, China owns or finances many of them. As recently as 2020, China owned and financed fifteen of the nineteen cobalt mines in the DROC. China also dominates the refining process. It controls 65 percent of cobalt refining, nearly 60 percent of the lithium refining, and as much as 95 percent of manganese refining. This dominance gives China leverage over customers, something it has used in the past. In 2010, China stopped exporting rare earth elements (a subset of critical minerals essential to electronics manufacturing) to Japan amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

3. The United States can lessen its dependence but doing so will take time. The United States is working with its allies and partners to lessen potential vulnerabilities to disruptions in critical mineral supply. The recently signed Mineral Security Partnership with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and others would allow investments in mining infrastructure abroad by the United States through the Export-Import Bank. The United States is currently negotiating a deal with the EU that would harmonize rules governing critical minerals used in electric batteries. The United States struck a similar deal with Japan last month. President Biden could also invoke the Defense Production Act to rapidly increase domestic investment in critical minerals. But all of these steps will take time to produce results. It can take more than sixteen years to make a new mine operational. There’s been pushback to investments in mining and processing due to their harmful environmental impacts, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have voiced concern about a need for congressional oversight in the trade agreements.

4. Technological advancements could lessen supply chain vulnerabilities. Technology has a long history of solving scarcity problems. Critical minerals could provide yet another example. For example, progress is being made on developing sodium batteries. They don’t require either cobalt or nickel as lithium batteries do. Even better for the United States, Wyoming sits on top of more than 90 percent of the world’s main industrial source of sodium. But it would take time to scale up sodium battery production and ease doubts about their durability, let alone ramp up construction of sodium battery factories to compete with China and get the rest of the world onboard.

Shortly after Jim and Morgan talked, Chile nationalized its lithium reserves, citing economic and environmental concerns. Chile isn’t the first country to make this move. Mexico did the same last year.

If you’re looking to read more of Morgan’s work, check out the piece he co-wrote earlier this year for Foreign Affairs arguing that the United States needs to rework its supply chains at home and abroad to “win the energy battle of the twenty-first century.” In another article for Foreign Policy, he and his co-authors warned America’s dependency on the critical minerals that China dominates poses a national security risk. He also co-wrote a piece for the Wilson Center’s New Security Beat blog that argued the United States needs to diversify its supply chains globally and domestically so that its climate mitigation strategies and military readiness are not in competition with one another.Read Original Post

Europe’s pursuit of securing critical raw materials for the green transition

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Chathamhouse.org

The UK and EU are beginning to secure supply of critical raw materials necessary for the twin transitions to a digital and net-zero economy.

EXPERT COMMENT

4 APRIL 2023 5 MINUTE READ

It was possibly a coincidence when both the UK and the EU published their updated strategy documents on critical raw materials in the same week. The UK government published the Critical Minerals Refresh on 13 March 2023 which reinforces the government’s commitment to the Critical Minerals Strategy. Three days later, the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act and the EU Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) were released alongside each other on 16 March 2023.

10 per cent of domestic demand for mining and extraction and at least 40 per cent for processing and refining is outlined in the EU CRM Act. 

These different policies aim to ensure the sustainable supply of critical raw materials which are vital to the digital economy and net-zero transition. The key issues addressed in the strategies include the dependency on imports of critical materials – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth metals – and key technologies – such as batteries and solar photovoltaics – as well as increased vulnerability to price volatility and potential supply disruptions.  

Tiếp tục đọc “Europe’s pursuit of securing critical raw materials for the green transition” →

Greenland: Đảo băng nóng bỏng

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

CHIÊU VĂN 26/3/2021 8:00 GMT+7

TTCT – Hồi năm 2019, khi tổng thống Mỹ lúc đó là Donald Trump hỏi mua hòn đảo khổng lồ ở Bắc Cực Greenland từ Đan Mạch, ông đã bị chê là vô duyên và lố bịch. Nhưng giờ, khi cuộc bầu cử sớm sắp diễn ra ở đấy – chính quyền Greenland sụp đổ vì tranh cãi liên quan tới tài nguyên đất hiếm – xem chừng ông Trump đã nhìn xa trông rộng.

Cuộc bầu cử ở Greenland, với tổng dân số chỉ hơn 56.000 người, dự kiến diễn ra vào ngày 6-4, và chỉ hơn một tháng sau sẽ là cột mốc trọng đại khác – 300 năm ngày vùng đất này trở thành lãnh thổ của Đan Mạch. Đầu cua tai nheo cũng là từ đó: ở đây có một phe đang đòi độc lập.

Hình ảnh này không có thuộc tính văn bản thay thế; tên tập tin là 2a5f6f07.jpg

Dân Greenland biểu tình phản đối một dự án khai khoáng. Ảnh: ejatlas.org

Tiếp tục đọc “Greenland: Đảo băng nóng bỏng” →

Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Pristine parts of northern Kachin State are under threat as demand grows for high-tech devices that rely on rare earth.

mekongeye.com

Kachin State’s Chipwi Township in northernmost Myanmar is known for its pristine forests and crystal-clear water.

But 10 years ago, local residents started noticing the patches of land that had been cleared on the lush mountains surrounding their town, which borders China’s Yunnan province. It started with one patch of land, where all the trees were cut down. Then others followed.

Soon locals saw heavy machinery being moved through their town, heading to those barren plots of land. Then workers started flooding in. They excavated the ground and left open pits, many filled with chemically-laced water, in areas once rich in woodland. The water near those sites was no longer clean.

It became obvious at that stage that the newcomers were looking for something underneath the ground – rare earth, which contains elements widely used in high-tech products like smartphones, computer components, electric vehicles and solar cells.  

Tiếp tục đọc “Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom” →

The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Supply Chains

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Download full report

As clean energy technology becomes the latest frontier for geoeconomic rivalry, the security of supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals—essential materials for clean energy—has become a global strategic issue.

The fragility of global supply chains revealed by Covid-19 and rising competition from China have only heightened the importance of supply chain security for critical minerals.

This report compares strategies and actions taken by the United States, European Union, and Japan, illuminating key economic, security, and geopolitical factors behind these evolving approaches to enhance the security of critical minerals supply chains.

This report was made possible by the generous support of the Japan External Trade Organization.

China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

pv-magazine.com
The Chinese government will extend duties on U.S. and South Korean polysilicon for another five years from today despite committing to buy $200 billion more American goods and services in the trade deal signed on Wednesday. Poly manufacturer REC Silicon says it expects polysilicon to form part of that trade agreement.

 

China’s latest trade tariff announcement appears to be at odds with the deal just signed with the U.S.

Image: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/Flickr

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has announced the anti-dumping duties applied to U.S. and South Korean-made polysilicon will remain in place for another five years from today.

Norwegian poly producer REC Silicon, which manufactures almost all of its current output of the solar module raw material in the U.S., said this morning the extension of duties announced yesterday was expected as part of a pre-planned tariff review independent of the trade deal thrashed out by President Trump and China on Wednesday. Tiếp tục đọc “China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry” →

Mine declines: Good news for sustainability in Vietnam

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Statistics from the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam (GSO) showed that the mining industry has posted a record slump since 2011, with the growth rate dropping by 7.1 per cent in 2017 and 4 per cent in 2016. — VNA/VNS Photo

Viet Nam Newsby Võ Trí Thành*

Statistics from the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam (GSO) showed that the mining industry has posted a record slump since 2011, with the growth rate dropping by 7.1 per cent in 2017 and 4 per cent in 2016.

This could be a small disappointment amid lots of bright spots in the country’s wider socio-economic picture last year. But this could also lead to an alarming conclusion – the mining industry will be unable to return to growth, and so the growth pattern must be transformed.

The GSO attributed the slump to the plummet in crude oil and coal exploitation. This consequence is directly related to Việt Nam’s past development strategy, when the mining industry still occupied an important position. Tiếp tục đọc “Mine declines: Good news for sustainability in Vietnam” →

Liệu khai khoáng có thể bền vững được không?

~ Bùi Thị Ánh Quyên ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

English: Can mining be sustainable

>> Bài liên quan: Khoáng sản và phát triển bền vững

Tác giả Saleem Ali và Jamie Kneen, đối mặt với một câu hỏi thường trực, phải chăng khai thác khoáng sản vốn là không thể bền vững?

Ngày nay, rõ ràng “bền vững” là điểm cần chú ý của mọi doanh nghiệp, từ cửa hàng nhỏ cho đến các công ty đầu tư đa quốc gia. Khái niệm thực tế về bền vững có thể thay đổi, tuy nhiên các khái niệm bền vững đều đề cập về vấn đề việc đáp ứng các nhu cầu (mong muốn) hiện tại mà không gây ảnh hưởng xấu đến thế hệ tương lai. Khai thác khoáng sản mà bản chất là việc sử dụng nguồn nguyên liệu không thể tái chế đang là vấn đề thu hút nhiều cuộc tranh luận về khả năng bền vững. Khai thác khoáng sản có thể thực hiện một cách bền vững? Saleem H. Ali, Giám đốc Trung tâm Trách nhiệm xã hội trong khai thác mỏ  Đại học Queensland, Úc và Jamie Kneen, điều phối viên truyền thông và điều phối viên cho cơ quan giám sát khai khoáng MiningWatch Canada, đưa ra hai quan điểm về câu hỏi hóc búa này. Tiếp tục đọc “Liệu khai khoáng có thể bền vững được không?” →

Khoáng sản và phát triển bền vững

~ Bùi Thị Ánh Quyên ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WWF global

>> Bài liên quan: Liệu khai khoáng có thể bền vững được không? 

Khoáng sản là chất vô cơ tự nhiên xảy ra với thành phần hóa học và cấu trúc tinh thể xác định. Một số khoáng sản phổ biến là thạch anh, fenspat và mica. Con người sử dụng khoáng sản không chỉ để làm các vật dụng gia đình như dụng cụ đun nấu không gỉ, kính mắt, thậm chí cả đồ trang sức quý giá, mà còn là vật liệu để xây dựng nhà và tàu vũ trụ.

Với sự phát triển của ngành khai thác mỏ và các kỹ thuật chiết xuất tiên tiến, ngày càng có nhiều khu vực được phát hiện và lựa chọn để khai thác khoáng sản. Điều này dẫn đến mối quan ngại về tác động của việc khai thác mỏ đối với sức khoẻ của môi trường sinh thái và của người dân sống trong khu vực khai thác.

Khoáng sản là gì? Tiếp tục đọc “Khoáng sản và phát triển bền vững” →

Where is gallium in our bauxite? Gali – kim loại trọng yếu – đang nằm ở đâu trong quặng Boxit của Việt Nam?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 1 bình luận

Bài tiếng Việt theo sau bài tiếng Anh

Where is gallium in our bauxite?

Given the strategic role of gallium in the world’s economy and security, and the availability of gallium in bauxite, why there has been absolutely neither discussion on nor mentioning of gallium through all these years of heated discussions about bauxite in Việt Nam?

Gallium is listed as a critical mineral by many advanced economies and may very well exist in Vietnam’s bauxite mines.

Minerals that have important uses and no viable substitutes, yet face potential disruption in supply, are defined as critical to a nation’s economic and national security.”[1]  Oftentimes, the terms “critical mineral” and “strategic mineral” are used interchangeably – if a mineral is deemed critical, it is usually essential for a national strategy, be it an economic or a defense strategy.


Gallium, appearance: silvery blue
Tiếp tục đọc “Where is gallium in our bauxite? Gali – kim loại trọng yếu – đang nằm ở đâu trong quặng Boxit của Việt Nam?” →

Khủng hoảng kim loại đất hiếm: ngành năng lượng sạch đừng lo lắng

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Rare-earth stock prices from 2007 to 2017

“Nguyên tố Đất hiếm” là 17 nguyên tố hóa học với tên gọi lạ lùng và đặc điểm không bình thường. Số nguyên tử của chúng là từ 57-71, 21 và 39. Hai phân nhóm nhỏ hơn, một nhóm là hiếm hơn và vì thế có giá trị hơn nhóm còn lại, có đặc điểm hóa học tương tự, vì vậy chúng thường được tìm thấy và khai thác cùng nhau.

Mặc dù tên gọi là hiếm, đất hiếm không phải là chất hiếm về mặt địa lý nhưng được phân tán rộng khắp lớp vỏ trái đất. Tuy nhiên, đất hiếm được khai thác ở một vài nơi và bởi một vài công ty bởi vì chúng thường không xuất hiện tập trung một chỗ với lượng lớn. Hơn nữa khai thác mỏ ngày càng nhiều chi phí và rủi ro, thị trường đất hiếm trên thế giới không lớn (vài tỷ đô la một năm), dễ bay hơi, phức tạp và bị chi phối bởi Trung Quốc, nơi mà không phải tất cả các mỏ và xuất khẩu khoáng sản đều hợp pháp và minh bạch. Một chuyên gia kết luận rằng khoảng một nửa số đất hiếm được sản xuất trên toàn cầu năm 2015 không nằm trong thống kê chính thức.
Tiếp tục đọc “Khủng hoảng kim loại đất hiếm: ngành năng lượng sạch đừng lo lắng” →

Clean energy and rare earths: Why not to worry

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Amory Lovins
thebulletin

“Rare earths” are 17 chemical elements with awkward names and unusual properties. Their atomic numbers are 57–71, 21, and 39. Their two subfamilies, one scarcer and hence more valuable than the other, have similar chemistries, so they’re generally found and mined together.

Despite their name, rare earths are not geologically rare but are widely dispersed throughout the Earth’s crust. They are mined in few places and by few firms, though, because they tend not to occur in highly concentrated form. Further raising miners’ costs and risks, the world market for rare earths is modest (several billion dollars a year), volatile, complex, and dominated by China, where not all mines and exports are legal and transparent. One expert concluded that about half of 2015 global production was off the books. Tiếp tục đọc “Clean energy and rare earths: Why not to worry” →