A lot of these companies, their founders came out of the state sector, like the state lithium sector in Xinjiang or central China, which had gone bankrupt in the late 1990s. And then they founded these very entrepreneurial companies, that are incredibly fast-moving and have summoned lots of capital to invest in this supply chain, which has really made China a leader in electric vehicles and the supply chain. It’s the sheer amount of capital they can raise and invest that has made them leaders…We’re moving from a point of time where we took supply chains for granted, everything would be offshore to China and no one really thought about it, to now when we’re becoming much more aware of supply chains. We want both the products that we use to be clean and low carbon, but the supply chain too. And also, along with the carbon emissions of the supply chain, the geopolitics of supply chains are much more in the forefront…The West has realized that China controls a lot of supply chains. In clean energy, also a lot of them are inefficient, with materials traveling from multiple countries…And who would know where the lithium in your battery comes from, or the cobalt, or the nickel? And each of the production and refining of these minerals is mostly done by Chinese companies. Huayou Cobalt is another example, it went to the Congo, produces a lot of cobalt from there, and is now producing nickel from Indonesia…Yes, both the finished products as well as the whole supply chain — and then at the end the capacity to recycle batteries. China’s aim is to dominate the whole supply chain up to the electric vehicle, the highest value product, and sell those vehicles to Western markets. And we’re seeing that happen with a couple of companies like NIO going into Norway. Actually, MG, which was a British car company that was acquired by SAIC, Shanghai Automotive, sells electric vehicles here where I am in London — with a CATL battery. But while that’s the dream – creating a desirable Chinese brand abroad is going to be much harder than building a battery factory…But China dominates a lot of the refining and processing. So even if a Western miner discovers and builds a mine in Africa they might have to send the lithium rock to China to be processed. I think the problem the West has is that we don’t have any of the sort of midstream refining processing capacity, which needs to be built. It’s often a dirty, sort of energy intense business. So, we need to build that. And in a green way. That’s going to take capital and investment…But in certain sectors, the West has missed a real trick. Take the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s biggest producer. China’s bought up almost all the mining assets in Congo, and cobalt. The West has the biggest most professional mining companies in the world, but they all became so risk averse that they avoided the Congo…I think you’re right. Elon Musk and Tesla know that China’s a big part of the issue but I think most people have no idea of what’s going on behind the scenes, and the speed at which these Chinese companies are moving, and the sheer amount of capital that we’re seeing on a weekly basis, billions of dollars being invested in this sector by Chinese companies…The potential of electrification is limitless – we’re seeing electric bikes, electric boats, electric forklift trucks, electric pickup trucks. There’s more of a question around longer distance trucking, whether batteries can power such big trucks. And in short-haul aviation batteries could be a real possibility. New battery chemistries could also increase energy density and open up new avenues. 

But this was no ordinary worker orientation. It was the kind of program that human rights groups and U.S. officials consider a red flag for forced labor in China’s western Xinjiang region, where the Communist authorities have detained or imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other largely Muslim minorities…China produces three-quarters of the world’s lithium ion batteries, and almost all the metals needed to make them are processed there. Much of the material, though, is actually mined elsewhere, in places like Argentina, Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uncomfortable with relying on other countries, the Chinese government has increasingly turned to western China’s mineral wealth as a way to shore up scarce supplies…That means companies like the Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry Group are assuming a larger role in the supply chain behind the batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy — even as China’s draconian crackdown on minorities in Xinjiang fuels outrage around the world…Xinjiang Nonferrous and its subsidiaries have partnered with the Chinese authorities to take in hundreds of such workers in recent years, according to articles displayed proudly in Chinese on the company’s social media account…It is difficult to trace precisely where the metals produced by Xinjiang Nonferrous go. But some have been exported to the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and India, according to company statements and customs records. And some have gone to large Chinese battery makers, who in turn, directly or indirectly, supply major American entities, including automakers, energy companies and the U.S. military, according to Chinese news reports…But this previously unreported connection between critical minerals and the kind of work transfer programs in Xinjiang that the U.S. government and others have called a form of forced labor could portend trouble for industries that depend on these materials, including the global auto sector…A new law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, goes into effect in the United States on Tuesday and will bar products that were made in Xinjiang or have ties to the work programs there from entering the country…The global battery industry could face its own disruptions given Xinjiang’s deep ties to the raw materials needed for next-generation technology…Trade experts have estimated that thousands of global companies may actually have some link to Xinjiang in their supply chains. If the United States fully enforces the new law, it could result in many products being blocked at the border, including those needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy projects…To understand how reliant the battery industry is on China, consider the country’s role in producing the materials that are critical to the technology. While many of the metals used in batteries today are mined elsewhere, almost all of the processing required to turn those materials into batteries takes place in China. The country processes 50 to 100 percent of the world’s lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite, and makes 80 percent of the cells that power lithium ion batteries, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a research firm …“China is so central to so many supply chains,” said Evan Smith, the chief executive of the supply chain research company Altana AI. “Forced labor goods are making their way into a really broad swath of our global economy.”

A European fund to invest in critical minerals needed for a transition to zero carbon emissions is seeking billions of euros of public and private money for a launch early next year, an official working with an EU initiative on the project said…Europe and the United States have been scrambling in recent years to restart domestic production of rare earths, lithium and other raw materials used in electric vehicles (EVs) and to wean themselves from dependence on China…The European Raw Materials Fund is due to start with around 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion), but eventually the region will need more than 100 billion euros in investment to produce enough critical minerals, Bernd Schaefer, chief executive of EU-funded EIT Raw Materials, told Reuters this week.

A shareholder dispute over one of the world’s biggest copper and cobalt mines is heating up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after state miner Gecamines threatened to block exports or even take the mine away from its partner, China Molybdenum Co…Congo’s Gecamines, which owns 20% of the Tenke Fungurume mine’s holding company, has accused CMOC of manipulating the project’s finances and says it owes millions of dollars in royalty payments…The disagreement has extended to who is actually running the mine: a Congolese court appointed a temporary administrator to manage the holding company while the shareholders sort out their differences, but CMOC insisted nothing has changed…Gecamines Chief Executive Officer Bester-Hilaire Ntambwe Ngoy Kabongo and his deputy, Leon Mwine Kabiena, said they are prepared to take more drastic action, including effectively revoking CMOC’s ownership of the project by dissolving the partnership… “What CMOC is doing now is stealing, it’s cheating, it’s covering-up,” Mwine said, adding that they were “liars,” “pillagers,” “bandits,” and “criminals.”…CMOC did not immediately answer questions on the meeting or Gecamines’ statements. The company previously said the mine is operating as usual without any change in management, and production is beating targets…Any disruption to operations or exports from Tenke Fungurume could send ripples through global metals markets. Congo is one of the world’s top producers of copper and by far the largest supplier of the key battery mineral cobalt. Tenke alone accounts for about 14% of world cobalt production, according to calculations by Bloomberg using figures from Darton Commodities Ltd., and the ore body is expected to last for decades. CMOC bought control of the project from Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Inc. about five years ago in a deal that ultimately cost the company more than $3 billion. The mine produced 209,120 tons of copper and 18,501 tons of cobalt in 2021, according to CMOC.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused his Congolese counterpart of ignoring the “real issues” threatening relations between the neighboring countries including the failure to quash internal rebellion, as fears mount of a new war in the Great Lakes region…Kagame and the Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi have over the past weeks blamed each other for stirring conflict. Tshisekedi said Kagame is backing rebels against his government. Rwanda denies the allegation and has warned Congo against firing into its territory under the guise of going after insurgents…Kagame was referring to an inability to deal with militant groups in eastern Congo, a threat successive Congolese administrations and the United Nations have failed to tackle for two decades. One is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which Rwanda has linked to the 1994 genocide and Kagame wants to destroy. Another is known as M23, which says it aims to protect people of Rwandan heritage from mistreatment in Congo, but stands accused by Tshisekedi of opposing his government with Kagame’s backing…M23 now plans to capture the trading hub of Goma on the Congo-Rwanda border, according to a report by the UN independent group of experts. On June 10, Rwanda said the Congolese army fired two rockets into its territory…Congo is the world’s largest supplier of the key battery mineral, cobalt, and one of the biggest copper producers…Congo may be forced to negotiate with M23 if Goma falls, and the rebels may submit demands for amnesty, the restoration of their assets and the integration of its fighters into the army, according to the UN experts’ report released June 17. The M23 is largely made up of Congolese Tutsi, the same ethnic group that bore the brunt of the 1994 genocide. The perpetrators were mostly Hutus, some of whom fled to Congo and formed the FDLR.