Mining of critical minerals plays a crucial role in the global green transition, but the broader industry’s bad reputation and other challenges present investment barriers, industry experts warn…Critical minerals include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, and are important components in emerging green technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles…Speaking on a panel at Singapore’s annual Ecosperity Week, which ended Wednesday, mining industry experts and investors said the growing demand from green tech makes it necessary to increase government support and capital flows into the critical mining sector…However, the panel said the critical mineral sector has struggled to persuade investors of this vision and the industry faces the threat of falling short of billions of dollars in investments needed to meet future demands…Even though many stakeholders agree on the need for more critical mineral mining, “no one wants a mine done in their backyard,” said Barton, who is also chairman of LeapFrog Investments…In an example of questionable practices, nickel miners tied to Chinese EV battery manufacturers were accused by an environmental group on Tuesday of damaging protected forests in Indonesia’s Sulawesi region and endangering the lives and livelihoods of the indigenous Bajau people…Minimizing the environmental impact of the industry, such as the tens of thousands of dams holding mining waste around the world, should be a top priority going forward, the industry observers said…One area that has seen recent strides and investments has been in the recycling of critical minerals, which cuts down the need of extraction…The mining industry will also need to make better appeals to global governments to attract public funding and support and make the industry more investable, said Scott Clements, partner at Tribeca Capital…While global governments like the U.S. have provided increased funding to downstream projects like the production of lithium batteries, support for activities such as mining minerals like lithium has been lacking, he said…Additionally, long processes to obtain permits for mining have scared off investors looking for faster returns, the experts pointed out, saying that mines take an average of about 16 years to begin production after discovery. 

The growing demand for clean energy technologies is anticipated to drive an increase in production of minerals, such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, with a portion of this demand being able to be met through the remining of tailings dumps, reports mine modelling solutions company IMDEX…International financial institution the World Bank estimates that more than three-billion tonnes of minerals and metals will be needed for the wind, solar, geothermal power and energy storage requirements of projects to be built to be built to meet carbon reduction targets…With existing resources either depleted or declining in quality, and new resources proving hard to find and mine, tailings serve as an attractive minerals source…The value of precious, critical and strategic metals contained in tailings globally is estimated to exceed $3.4-trillion, according to the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia…Reprocessing offers value by recovering valuable material in tailings left behind by past and inefficient mining practices, with modern processing methods being used to find new uses for the tailings, and by creating value from an asset that would otherwise be carried as a liability by mining companies, Lawie explains.

The United States and European Union are likely to soon conclude a deal on critical minerals, EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Thursday…A deal would help European firms benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act, US President Joe Biden's landmark climate action plan that Europe has expressed concerns over…Under the IRA, companies must source a certain percentage of critical minerals for electric car batteries from the United States or its free trade partners to be eligible for incentives…For now, talks are complex as they also seek to push for the decarbonization of the steel and aluminum industries and combat non-market practices from parties like China.

The cobalt metal market is expected to be oversupplied through the second quarter and beyond in 2024 because of rising Chinese supply and subdued demand, potentially weighing on prices…But cautious optimism surrounds prices of cobalt sulfate -- which is mostly made from cobalt hydroxide, a copper byproduct, and widely used in the production of nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries in electric vehicles. The optimism stems from anticipated higher production of cobalt containing batteries and forecast growth in plug-in electric vehicle, or PEV, sales…Global PEV sales in 2024 are expected to grow 30% from an estimated 13 million units in 2023, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights…Shipping delays and higher freight rates in the wake of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East alongside tighter alloy-grade metal availability could provide some support to cobalt metal prices, Yu said…Market participants expect new projects in China to bring an additional 9,000 mt of cobalt metal capacity into the global market in the second half of 2024…Cobalt chemical demand from PEV batteries is expected to grow to 111,499 mt in 2024, representing 56.4% of the total forecast cobalt chemical demand this year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence…The market share for nickel, cobalt and manganese in China's battery market was 32% in March at 24.2GWh, according to data from China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance…Chinese production and exports of mobile phones, which mostly use lithium-cobalt-oxide batteries containing about 55% cobalt, increased 11.8% year on year in January and February, data from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed…Platts assessed battery-grade 20.5% Co cobalt sulfate at Yuan 31,000/mt DDP China on April 16, down 14.2% year on year…Platts' European 99.8% cobalt metal assessment was in the $12.4-$17.0/lb IW Rotterdam range, with a midpoint of $15.075/lb on April 15, rising slightly from a midpoint of $14.60/lb on Dec. 29. This reflected both the chemical and alloy-grade markets…Platts assessed cobalt cathode DDP US at $17.5-18.0/lb on April 15, rising from a low of $17.25/lb on Jan. 8. 

Over the next 25 years, as the world shifts away from fossil fuels, the oil and gas wells that have sustained the fossil fuel age will have to be plugged…Cement has become the industry standard, in part because the substance itself is relatively cheap, and its properties are well known. But over time, the problems with a cement plug – which under Norwegian regulations, needs to be between 50-100 metres long – have come clear, Hmadeh said…“They are highly vulnerable to corrosion,” and to CO2, or hydrogen sulphide, both of which are found in subsea well environments, he said. The plugs also have to withstand huge differences in pressure above the plug and below…They can crack or lose their seal in the high pressure, high temperature environments that are typical of wells. And perhaps most importantly, cement also shrinks as it cures, which causes the formation of little pores…“These can be paths for hydrocarbons to migrate to the surface,” Hmadeh said…Bismuth alloys are impermeable, which means there is no chance for there to be leaks through the plug, Hmadeh says…And unlike cement, which shrinks as it solidifies, bismuth alloys expand as they solidify…“They also maintain their integrity over the long term, because they are not affected by corrosion, or by CO2 or hydrogen sulphide. And they also have a reduced installation time due to the rapid hardening of the alloy,” Hmadeh said…This last can be an important factor on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where sea conditions can be challenging, and the less time needed to install the plug, the better, he said…"Reduced installation time reduces the rig time, which in turn reduces costs," Hmadeh said. "One other aspect of bismuth alloy plugs is that they have the potential to be deployed riglessly, meaning that without the neccessity of having a rig in place. This will in turn cut on costs drastically, as most of the costs offshore come from the 'rig-rental' costs."