The United States has “no better partner than Canada” as it seeks to build out a global critical minerals supply chain, says undersecretary of economic growth Jose Fernandez…“Our partnership with Canada in this space is frankly second to none,” he said after speaking at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto on March 4…In June 2022 at the PDAC convention, Fernandez said the U.S. would lead a coalition of countries including Canada in a Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) to provide “targeted financial and diplomatic support for strategic (critical minerals) projects.”…The MSP’s goal is to reduce countries’ dependence on China by supporting mining, processing and recycling projects in other countries, Fernandez said…“Our vulnerabilities are obvious,” he said, adding that China has already placed export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite…So far, the MSP has not announced support for any Canadian projects, but Fernandez said the partnership is less than two years old…“In the mining world, it’s a blip,” he said…Many Canadian junior mining companies developing nickel, lithium and other critical mineral projects are struggling to raise capital on public markets. This has been particularly true as the price of those commodities and others have had double-digit declines in the past year…“That’s a challenge that exists as a result of the system we pursue,” Fernandez said. “Capitalism means no one is going to guarantee anything. We don’t have a state-backed company that will finance us come hell or high water.”…Jeff Killeen, director of policy and programs for PDAC, said there is still optimism in the Canadian mining sector about the opportunity to receive support from the U.S. government…“There hasn’t been real fanfare … from public investments coming from the U.S. government into Canadian projects, (but) that prospect is still there,” he said…Fernandez estimated that he and his staff have received requests for support from hundreds of projects and had identified two-dozen projects, of which slightly less than a third are processing projects, that the MSP may be able to support.

Governments must help cut permitting and production timelines if Canada is to produce enough minerals to reach net zero goals by 2050, says the CEO of Ring of Fire project developer Wyloo Metals Canada…“It’s not just on government, it’s also on us in industry. We want to work with First Nations and NGOs and get groups to the table and ensure conservation and Indigenous rights all come together,” said Straub, who is also a member of the Henvey Inlet First Nation in northeastern Ontario…Rinaldo Jeanty, assistant deputy minister with Natural Resources Canada, agreed that more government support is needed to speed up project pipelines…But he also said critical mineral development needs a lot more cash…His own government’s $1.5-billion Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF), announced last November, won’t be enough to meet the challenge, he said…“If you look at Canada, we have three electric vehicle battery factories. We need about 15 new mines coming into production by 2035 to meet supply and demand for those three factories,” he said. “Since 2005, we’ve only been able to open four critical mineral mines. So we have to do this five times faster than we did before. That’s $25 billion that’s needed to achieve those goals.”…Moderator Alistair Corbett, who is also a senior partner with consultancy Bain & Company, noted that since the United States passed its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, much of the investment in the critical mineral supply chain has been into battery production and processing, and not mining.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the country was raising ties with Vietnam to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership, with an annual dialogue on minerals amid a push to diversify supply chains away from China…"Elevating our ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership today places Australia and Vietnam among each other's significant partners," Albanese told a news conference in Canberra…The partnership will support expanded cooperation on a range of issues, including climate, environment and energy, defence and security, and economic engagement and education, a joint statement by the two countries said…Australia is a major producer of critical minerals that are used in everything from smartphones to automobiles, while Vietnam has some of the largest untapped deposits in the world…"An annual ministerial dialogue on energy and minerals will drive cooperation in our energy and resources sectors, including critical minerals supply chains," the statement said.

Australian miner Jervois Global Ltd. is cutting costs and jobs in response to a plunge in cobalt prices that it’s blaming on Chinese oversupply…The cobalt and nickel producer has axed or made part-time 30% of its senior corporate management roles, while fees for non-executive directors have been cut by the same amount, it said in a exchange filing. Some 5% of staff at its project in Finland have been let go, Jervois said…Cobalt prices have plummeted by almost two-thirds over the past two years on rising supply — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia have been mining more of the metal — and a slowdown in demand growth. Chinese plants processed 80% of global cobalt supply last year, according to specialist trading house Darton Commodities…Jervois mothballed a project in Idaho, which would have been the first new US cobalt mine in decades, about a year ago, highlighting the challenge facing the Biden administration as it attempts to chip away at China’s dominance in the supply chains of metals vital to the energy transition…The recent cost-cutting is due to “adverse cobalt market conditions caused by Chinese overproduction and its impact on pricing,” Jervois said, adding that it remained “determined to deliver a responsibly sourced, Western supply chain of critical minerals.”

A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to hold five major technology companies liable over their alleged support for the use of child labor in cobalt mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo…In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of Google parent Alphabet, Apple, Dell Technologies , Microsoft and Tesla, rejecting an appeal by former child miners and their representatives…The plaintiffs accused the five companies of joining suppliers in a "forced labor" venture by purchasing cobalt, which is used to make lithium-ion batteries that are widely used in electronics. Nearly two-thirds of the world's cobalt comes from the DRC…According to the complaint, the companies "deliberately obscured" their dependence on child labor, including many children pressured into work by hunger and extreme poverty, to ensure their growing need for the metal would be met…But the appeals court said buying cobalt in the global supply chain did not amount to "participation in a venture" under a federal law protecting children and other victims of human trafficking and forced labor…The cobalt suppliers included Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, Umicore and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt , court papers show. None was named as a defendant.