With their high-potential NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project in the Northwest Territories, Fortune Minerals is catching the attention of both the US and Canadian governments, securing over CA$16 million in funding. In this interview, CEO Robin Goad shares the significance of the NICO Project and their collaboration with multinational mining giant Rio Tinto to process waste materials at the company’s Alberta refinery as part of their commitment to environmental sustainability. He outlines the exciting next steps for the company, including engineering studies, test work, and securing project financing.

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For the past few years, the West has been trying to break China’s grip on minerals that are critical for defense and green technologies. Despite their efforts, Chinese companies are becoming more dominant, not less…They are expanding operations, supercharging supply and causing prices to drop. Their challengers can’t compete…“China is not just standing still waiting for us to catch up,” said Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. “They are making investments on top of their already massive investments in all aspects of the critical-minerals supply chain.”…The only dedicated cobalt mine in the U.S. also suspended operations last year, five months after local dignitaries attended its opening ceremony. Its owners say they are struggling against a flood of Chinese-produced cobalt from Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo…Last year, non-Chinese production of refined cobalt declined to its lowest level in 15 years, according to Darton Commodities…The breakneck expansion has assailed Western producers, who say China’s domestic economy can’t always absorb the flood of minerals its firms bring to market. Slower-than-expected electric-car sales growth in China last year meant there were fewer takers for China’s mineral surge, contributing to the crash in global prices…Western officials, too, are sounding the alarm. In response to a question last month about China’s dominance in nickel, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the market had been flooded, making businesses in free-market democracies uneconomic. It is our belief that that behavior can be intentional, can be happening with the purpose of driving companies in our country, in those of our allies, out of business,” she said. Freeland didn’t provide further details or any evidence for the claim…China has many advantages in the race to lock up minerals. Its miners are deep-pocketed and aggressive, making bets in resource-rich countries that Western companies have long viewed as corrupt or unstable, such as Indonesia, Mali, Bolivia and Zimbabwe. State banks provide financing for power plants and industrial parks abroad, paving the way for further private Chinese investment…The mineral industry is a national priority for Beijing. Metals and mining investments under its Belt and Road Initiative hit record levels last year, according to a report by Australia’s Griffith Asia Institute. Chinese official lending for minerals projects in developing countries typically offers lower rates than commercial loans, according to AidData, a university research lab at William & Mary in Virginia…Meanwhile, Western companies struggle to get loans. Amos Hochstein, a top White House energy adviser, said this month that Western banks are reluctant to finance projects in risky mineral-rich countries and that China is often the only player.

CMOC reported a 392% year-on-year increase in cobalt output of 2024 at 25,202 tonnes for the first quarter. Copper output increased 123% to 147,494 tonnes over the same period…“If the first quarter figures continue at that rate, that’s 100,000 tonnes for 2024 which is unheard of, I don’t know where that extra volume will go and the price is going to be hit by that,” one trader said…With conference delegates believing that high supply levels will persist for the remainder of 2024, some felt any cobalt price increase had to find an incentive from the demand side…“The low cobalt price will help stimulate the consumption aspect of the market; it gives the market confidence to invest,” one presenter said…“Despite the price weakness, the demand level grew and hit over 200,000 tonnes for the first time,” Jose Fernandez, the US under-secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, said in his opening address to the conference…The Fastmarkets research team forecasts a cobalt demand figure of 231,000 tonnes for 2024, an increase of 21,000 tonnes from 2023…Demand from the consumer electronics market has recovered during the first four months of the year due to stronger personal computer (PC), tablet and smartphone sales. After two years of decline, the global PC market returned to growth in the first quarter of 2024, up 1.5% year on year. Smartphone sales began to recover in the fourth quarter of 2023, with 8.5% growth year on year, according to figures published by Fastmarkets…Delegates at the conference discussed the topic of government stockpiling, offering up a sense of surprise that China’s Strategic Reserves Bureau (SRB) had not purchased volumes at current levels…Historically, the SRB will look to buy sizeable volumes when prices are low, and had reportedly bought a total volume of around 8,000 tonnes of cobalt last year in two purchases. One planned purchase had been rumored earlier this year but no such deal occurred…Fastmarkets’ assessment for cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam was at $11.50-14.15 per lb on May 20, down from $11.50-14.20 per lb previously…With the conference taking place in New York, some delegates questioned whether the US would soon make a metal purchase for its strategic stockpiles…The US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) historically has stockpiled metals and alloys deemed critical to the US defense sector, buying and selling cobalt metal in large volumes at the turn of the millennium…The DLA held an estimated 302 tonnes of cobalt in its stockpile as of 2022, according to the US Geological Survey. In 1990, the stockpile had over 24,000 tonnes of cobalt, with the DLA opting to sell this material back into the market over the past 33 years…Late last year, a recommendation was proposed by a group in the US House of Representatives asking for a “Resilient Resource Reserve” to be created to sustain prices of cobalt and other minerals above certain levels to protect from price volatility…Some delegates mentioned that black mass is largely unavailable in the United States due to low rates of EV recycling, though supply is expected to increase in the next decade…Fastmarkets analyst Robert Searle reported that battery metals including lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from battery recycling accounted for 5% of total supply in 2023, and will increase to 13% in 2033. By 2034, roughly 122,000 tonnes of secondary cobalt will be produced from battery recycling, according to his 10-year forecast.

Canada is examining whether it needs to raise tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles after the White House announced major new levies on them, Trade Minister Mary Ng said. “We are looking at this very carefully and we have an open dialogue with our American partners,” Ng said in a phone interview from Peru, where she’s attending meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum…Ng stressed that Canada’s main focus is on producing electric vehicles domestically. She pointed to agreements that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has signed with automakers such as Honda Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG to make electric vehicles, batteries or components in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province…Chinese factories have a very small share of Canada’s auto market, but the country has recently witnessed a surge of imports of Chinese-made Tesla Inc. models manufactured in Shanghai…The number of cars arriving from China at the port of Vancouver rose more than fivefold last year, to about 44,400, after Elon Musk’s automaker started shipping Model Y vehicles from there.