China’s system of bankrolling its state companies may be entrenching great inefficiency in its economy but has delivered it unchallenged dominance in the critical minerals required for advanced technologies…Separate investigations by the New York Times and Bloomberg released in recent weeks have shown how Chinese mining companies, backed by state-owned banks, seized control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s most prized cobalt deposits. In 2016, China Molybdenum bought out the holdings of US mining group Freeport-McMoran using very similar means to those used by the Nixon administration to gain control of the DRC’s mineral resources in the 1960s…Despite an avowed concern to end the US dependence on China for supplies of critical minerals, both the Obama and Trump administrations stood aside, allowing Freeport to hand control of the world’s largest cobalt mine to China Molybdenum with the sale of its nickel and cobalt operations in the DRC. The Chinese were assisted in their purchase by President Joe Biden’s son Hunter…Cobalt is a very hard metal with a high melting point and magnetic properties. Its uses include jet turbines, rocket engines and permanent magnets, but its biggest application is in the cathodes for lithium batteries…But in 2012, Freeport made a US$20 billion investment in the oil industry, which left it in financial trouble when the oil price collapsed in 2015. Its DRC assets were on the market, and China Molybdenum happily paid US$2.65 billion for them in 2016…A Freeport legal executive alerted an Obama administration national security adviser, General James Jones, about the imminent sale but was told, ‘There’s no one that’s going to be interested in that.’ The deal was facilitated by a US private equity firm in which Hunter Biden was a director…When Freeport last year pinned a ‘for sale’ sign on its last remaining asset in the DRC, believed to be the world’s richest undeveloped cobalt deposit, China Molybdenum was again ready with US$550 million. The New York Times reports there was again no discussion of the sale within the Trump administration…Former Chinese president Hu Jintao paved the way for Chinese mineral interests in the DRC in 2005 by hosting a reception for its new 33-year-old president, Joseph Kabila, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This was followed by a US$6 billion agreement under which China would fund hospitals, railways, roads, schools and electricity networks…The leak of a trove of more than 3 million documents from a Gabon-based bank, BGFI, which was run by Kabila’s brother, shows how Chinese interests ensured that US$55 million was channelled to the personal interests of Kabila and his family as part of a massive bribery scheme…Chinese interests now own 15 of the 17 cobalt operations in the DRC. The five biggest Chinese mining companies with cobalt and copper interests in the country can draw on lines of credit with Chinese state banks totalling an extraordinary US$124 billion…As New York Times reporter Mike Forsythe commented on Twitter, ‘Chinese mining companies in the DRC operated in an entirely different financial reality … When it comes to the new energy revolution, China is in the pole position and this state-backed financing plays a role.’…Austrade’s pitch highlights the top six cobalt prospects in Australia, with the leading contenders requiring around $1 billion to develop their prospects. Most are valued at less than $100 million, reflecting their speculative status…The government has made clear that Chinese investment in Australia’s critical minerals isn’t welcome, but the chance of significant funding coming from elsewhere is slight, no matter how responsible our mining operations may be, given the market dominance that China has now achieved…China is meanwhile continuing to build its profile in Africa. Direct Chinese investment in Africa has surpassed that of the US every year since 2014, while Beijing backs its economic interests with its own brand of soft diplomacy…Chinese President Xi Jinping was beamed by video link into the triennial Forum on China–Africa Cooperation held in Senegal last week. As well as offering 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine, he declared an ‘everlasting spirit of China–Africa friendship and cooperation … which features sincere friendship and equality, win–win for mutual benefit and common development, fairness and justice, and progress with the times and openness and inclusiveness’.

Chinese lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) precursor and NCM material manufacturer Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology has begun building a lithium-ion battery cathode active material (CAM) industrial park in Yichang in central China's Hubei province…The project has been designed to meet the rapid development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry and power battery capacity expansions by its parent company Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the country's largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer…The 32bn yuan ($4.9bn) project will comprise production facilities of 360,000 t/yr for iron phosphate, 220,000 t/yr for lithium iron phosphate (LFP), 180,000 t/yr for NCM precursor and NCM, 40,000 t/yr for lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), 40,000 t/yr for recycled graphite and 300,000 t/yr for battery recycling. The first phase is expected to start production in 2023 and the whole project will be completed in 2025, with its CAM output sufficient to equip more than 4mn NEVs. …Guangdong Brunp currently has an output capacity of 100,000 t/yr for NCM precursor and 20,000 t/yr for NCM material. It has invested in a high-pressure acid leaching project in Indonesia to produce mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide precipitate, in partnership with Chinese cobalt refinery and battery material producer Green Eco-Manufacture (GEM) and domestic steel producer Tsingshan. The project is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year with 50,000 t/yr capacity of nickel metal equivalent and 5,000 t/yr of cobalt metal equivalent. Brunp also recycles cobalt/nickel/lithium scrap into raw materials…CATL owns a 53pc stake in Brunp, with Brunp's president Li Changdong and other shareholders holding the remaining shares…CATL is also partnering with diversified metals mining producer China Molybdenum (CMOC) to develop the Kisanfu copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has an indirect stake in Manono lithium ore project in the DRC. 

Car prices will likely rise sharply next year alongside the industry shift from combustion engine models to electric vehicles as automakers prepare to pass on the rapid rise in raw material costs to the buyers of their upcoming models…EV PRICES SEEN TO STAY FIRM…The story is the same for the burgeoning EV market. The prices of lithium, nickel and cobalt, core minerals used for rechargeable battery cathode materials, are on a rapid rise. Batteries make up 30-40% of EV manufacturing costs…The price of lithium-ion battery packs is projected to rise 2.3% to $135 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) next year, compared with $132 in 2021, according to BloombergNEF. It will be the first time for the battery pack price to turn higher since the research service firm started compiling the data in 2012…For EVs to secure price competitiveness over combustion engine vehicles, the battery pack price needs to decline to at least $100 kWh…But the global supply chain squeeze for battery materials is showing no signs of easing. …Indonesia, home to 20% of the world's nickel reserves, has banned nickel exports since last year, a move seen aimed at giving priority to battery plants located in its country…For cobalt, China controls about 70% of the cobalt mines in Congo, which produces more than 70% of the cobalt in the world…Tesla Inc, the world's largest EV maker, has bumped up its vehicle prices seven times so far this year, followed by global carmakers such as Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota.

Finding a way to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions is top of the agenda for most countries and many governments see electric cars as part of the solution…The UK is the first country to introduce a law where new homes and buildings in England will be required to have electric vehicle charging points. Starting next year, it also includes new-build supermarkets, workplaces and buildings undergoing major renovations…The move follows last year’s announcement that the UK aims to switch to electric cars, with the sale of new petrol and diesel cars banned from 2030. This is part of the UK’s Road to Zero strategy, which has set the goal of every car and van being zero-emission by 2050…As the UK moves ahead with its electric vehicle transition plans, several other countries are following suit. Global electric car sales surged by 140% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). China led the way, followed closely by Europe, while sales doubled in the US… “Consumers will not be able to make the switch to zero-emission vehicles if there are not enough charging and refuelling stations along the roads where they drive,” said ACEA Director General, Eric-Mark Huitema, in a statement about the data…Progress on the electrification of the transportation sector needs to speed up, according to the World Economic Forum, which created the Global Battery Alliance to overcome some of the challenges holding the sector back, including making the charging infrastructure better…To transition to electric vehicles, an estimated 290 million charging points will be required globally by 2040, according to the Alliance, and that would require a global investment of $500 billion…Several of the biggest car manufacturers have already pledged to go all-electric from 2025 and 2030, including Jaguar and Bentley. Ford says all its vehicles sold in Europe will be electric by 2030. Even so, some of the world’s largest car manufacturers say progress will be stunted in many markets since many countries still plan to rely on fossil fuels to produce electricity.

How can the German automotive industry spearhead the electric revolution?...“Climate change is caused by the fossil fuels we’re extracting from the ground. That has to stop. We need a fossil-free society.”…“E-cars are by far the most efficient technology in propelling us toward an electricity-based society.”…“Plug-in hybrid technology bridges the gap, smoothing the transition to all-electric driving. As such, it still has a place for the next few years. That said, the goal to reach must be 100 percent e-cars. Only that means we’re carbon neutral.”…“Audi is investing in electric vehicles, and that means we are also investing in charging infrastructure. Wherever there are cars, there has to be the charging infrastructure. We really can’t overdo it when it comes to creating this charging infrastructure. Maybe it’ll be even more convenient than today’s gas stations. I’m convinced that governments and companies together can get us there.”

The chairman of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company was ousted on Friday after longtime allegations that billions of dollars in revenue had gone missing, a move officials said was intended to fight corruption as the country becomes increasingly important in the global clean energy revolution…Albert Yuma Mulimbi, the chairman of the company since 2010, was replaced by President Felix Tshisekedi of Congo just days after The New York Times published an article revealing new allegations against Mr. Yuma…The government agency, known as Gécamines, controls production of metals such as cobalt and copper, crucial resources in the push to expand electric vehicles and other renewables. Without his chairmanship, Mr. Yuma will no longer have a significant role in partnering with international companies over major mining deals…“It is hard to underestimate the importance of this development — it is a significant step in the fight against corruption in Congo,” said J. Peter Pham, who until January served as a senior Central Africa official with the U.S. State Department. “Albert Yuma and the mining sector stand at the nexus of natural resources, political and economic power in the country.”…At least for now, Mr. Yuma will retain his role supervising the reform of small-scale and informal mining in Congo, one industry executive said. His plans include buying cobalt from the informal miners, also known as artisanal miners, and regulating pricing. Cobalt produced by artisanal mining, as opposed to industrial operations, makes up about 30 percent of the nation’s output…The country is responsible for more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt and is also a major copper producer. Though prices have skyrocketed in recent years, Gécamines was criticized during Mr. Yuma’s tenure for signing deals with foreign mining companies, including entities backed by the Chinese government. The arrangements effectively turned over the country’s extraordinary mineral wealth for foreigners to profit…Top State Department officials had urged the Biden administration to impose sanctions on Mr. Yuma, who told The Times that he had by his own count been accused of diverting as much as $8.8 billion in mining revenues over the years…Mr. Yuma was placed in his post as chairman by the country’s former president, Joseph Kabila, who American officials believe worked closely with Mr. Yuma to divert agency funds toward political ends, and also possibly to enrich Mr. Kabila’s family…Mr. Yuma will now be replaced by Kaputo Kalubi Alphonse, whom Mr. Tshisekedi had named to Gécamines’ administrative council three years ago. As a sign of the key role that Gécamines plays in Congo, a press officer for Mr. Tshisekedi announced the new appointment on national television on Friday.

Oil producers in the Permian Basin must do more to disclose and stop the leak of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, a House committee wrote in a letter to 10 major oil companies. The letter from the House Science Committee was sent to some of the largest fossil fuel producers in the Permian Basin, a major source of oil and natural gas that includes vast portions of Texas and New Mexico. Among them were Exxon Mobil Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp., and Pioneer Natural Resources Co…The committee said it is investigating whether existing leak detection and repair programs “possess the capabilities to achieve wide-ranging, quantifiable emission reductions from oil and gas sector methane leaks” and if additional policies are needed for a stronger federal role. The committee said it was requesting private sector leak detection and repair program information to inform its efforts…“I am concerned that oil and gas sector Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) programs may not be designed and equipped to comprehensively monitor and detect methane leaks, particularly the intermittent, ‘super-emitting’ leaks that are responsible for much of the sector’s leak emissions,” Johnson wrote…The communication comes as stopping the emission of methane, which is blamed for a quarter of global warming, is getting renewed attention. More than 100 nations signed onto a pledge announced at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, last month to commit to reducing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas 30% by 2030. “The United States cannot achieve its targeted reduction in methane emissions under the Global Methane Pledge without a swift and large-scale decline in oil and gas sector methane leaks,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “The existence of these leaks, as well as continued uncertainty regarding their size, duration, and frequency, threatens America’s ability to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”…Methane, the chief component of natural gas, traps more than 80 times the heat that the same amount of carbon dioxide does in its first two decades in the atmosphere. But it degrades rapidly, meaning that action taken now can have an almost immediate cooling effect on the Earth’s temperature.

Bismuth alloys are used as an oil well plugging medium.