It's not a good look shopping around for new investors while a company that has spent $100m is in suspension for 5 months waiting around for a mining licence that has already been decreed by the mining minister after a year long approval process. They can improve their comments sections by expediting our application as promised.
Time for niceties are over. Ce n'est pas le monde des Bisounours.
*Fyi, To add to the "Blah-Blah-Blah" on the DRC Battery Plant, Plus some other food for thought, I see where,
ECA welcomes the progress made in the implementation of the first electric battery manufacturing plant in Africa
The DRC and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) are keen to speed up the operationalization of the cross-border Special Economic Zone where the first manufacturing plant for electric battery precursors will be installed.
The issue was at the centre of a high-level meeting on Wednesday (October 5th) at ECA headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
On this occasion, it was a question of evaluating the process of creating a regional value chain with the installation of the first manufacturing plant for electric battery precursors in the province of Haut-Katanga.
“We have assessed the implementation tools of this vast project so that we also report to ECA on the progress we have made so far.
The first advance is that the DRC created the African centre of excellence to have to train Congolese and Africans locally on this issue of electric batteries.
The second thing is that the DRC, through the governor of Haut Katanga, who is here, has just made available 2,000 hectares divided into 4 blocks of 500 hectares to house the first special economic zones within which the first industrial units of electric batteries, the third advance what the DRC has just solemnly adopted the creation of this public establishment which in addition to the main question, says Julien Paluku, the DRC has discovered other opportunities offered by the ECA with its various divisions.
“After this assessment, we actually discovered other opportunities through the divisions within the ECA which will have to support the DRC in several other themes, in particular the climate theme which is the one piloted by my colleague VPM, Minister of environment and sustainable development Ève Bazaiba with the opportunities offered by our forests that capture carbon and for which we must garner sufficient resources that would allow us to move on to other projects.
We are happy to find ourselves here therefore with the head of the province of Haut-Katanga for a total and global appropriation of the project because it is at his place that the pilot project will have to develop.
Antonio Pedro, Acting Executive Secretary of the ECA, welcomed the progress made by the DRC.
He considers that the DRC is a priority country for his organization.
“We are incredibly happy with the progress the country has made. In a few months, we will be able to start with the rate of predictability.
Now we are in the process of choosing the company that will do the study and then on this occasion, we also discussed the cooperation framework between the ECA and the DRC.
For us, the DRC is a priority country because as the Minister once again said the DRC is a solution country now, we are starting in a few weeks the COP 27 the DRC will be at the centre of the discussions on the transition energy, including our battery production project.
The DRC plays a key role, so we have once again confirmed the steps in the process.
Present at this meeting, the governor of Haut Katanga Jacques Kyabula Katwe discusses the particularities of the site offered in his province for the materialization of this vast project led by the central government.
“The special economic zone will host several industries, including the one that is moreover the most anticipated, it is the industry carrying the manufacture of electric batteries which are expected, sought after all over the world and therefore it will be an economic boom because quite simply that we have a battery production plant, that will create jobs, and that will also boost other sectors than the infrastructure sector to develop. We believe that there will be an added value on the social of the population.
Our presence here would simply mean that the province of Haut Katanga wants to take ownership of this project and the project was initiated by the President of the Republic”, underlined the number one of Haut Katanga.
Recall, the main objective of RDC-Afrique Business Forum 2021 held in Kinshasa on “Developing a regional value chain around the electric battery industry, and a market for electric vehicles and clean energies” was to bring together stakeholders from level to dialogue, identify opportunities and facilitate investments to increase Africa’s share in the battery, electric vehicle, and renewable energy value chain.
The global transition to green energy and rapid decarbonization offers significant opportunities for Africa.
It has spurred demand for electric vehicles and investment in battery-powered storage systems, which is driving the deployment of solar and wind power in particular.
Thanks to its endowment in natural resources, and in particular in strategic minerals that go into the composition of lithium-ion batteries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo can play a key role in the global energy transition in terms of energy storage and mobile electric.
copperbeltkatangamining
*In other News, I see where,
As EV sales accelerate, one of nickel’s leading men is swerving into lithium
- Incoming Cygnus Gold managing director David Southam says strong demand for battery metals from the EV sector could run for decades
- Southam stepped down from his post as boss of nickel miner Mincor Resources a couple months ago
When David Southam stepped down as the boss of re-emerging nickel miner
Mincor Resources one month after the $900 million company produced first concentrate from its reborn Kambalda nickel operations, it came as a shock to many.
His re-emergence may have caught many off guard as well.
With EV sales skyrocketing, it’s a hot commodity right now.
Spot prices of the lithium feedstock, according to Fastmarkets, hit US$7350/t this week, up from under US$500/t just two years ago.
We caught up with Southam to talk Cygnus, his belief in the electrification thematic and why he is more plugged in to the lithium market than you may think.
It’s a shift for you in terms of the commodity that you’re focused on.
You’ve been in nickel for so long, what attracted you to lithium?
“It’s actually not as big a shift as you might think. I was a non-executive director of Kidman Resources, which was one of the first major lithium discoveries in Western Australia and so I was there for the growth of the Mt Holland deposit with SQM, as a director.
“Obviously, a number of years ago, Wesfarmers took out and acquired Kidman Resources.
“So it’s actually a little bit familiar even though definitely the last 11 years has been nickel dominant from an executive perspective.
“It just backs in my view on the electrification of the world, and I think also North America, they are playing a little bit of catch up in terms of these critical minerals.
“There’s a lot of encouragement for North American supply so the Pontax lithium project is in a very good mining jurisdiction, it’s close to infrastructure, and it’s not on a lake.”
Over the last couple of years, since you were involved in selling that Mount Holland project with Kidman, the lithium industry has just boomed.
“It’s completely changed, but it was interesting when we sold Mt Holland, for two years, lithium was in the doldrums.
“It was absolutely in the doldrums. We always thought that Wesfarmers would be a logical buyer, because if there was a dip in the market, they had the balance sheet strength to be able to withstand it, because it’s just a small piece within a very large conglomerate.
“Whereas Kidman would maybe have struggled, and that sort of played out.
“A year and a half ago, you think where Pilbara Minerals was, it was a few hundred million dollar market cap, now it’s $15 billion.
“So it’s changed really quickly. You see these waves in commodities sometimes, but I think now, with lithium especially, it’s virtually in every battery style.
“You need economic supply from first world countries that have strong ESG credentials and those other things that investors and manufacturers are looking for. It has all those elements, Cygnus, although it’s very early stage.”
You mentioned North America and how it’s playing a bit of catch up. Why do you think North American might be a better destination for a lithium junior than WA at the moment?
“I don’t necessarily think it’s a better jurisdiction because you’re really only just talking your book.
“I just think from an exploration perspective, when you compare it to the Pilbara where Pilbara Minerals are and other regions where there are lithium deposits, it’s just way underexplored.
“You’ve got other examples like Patriot (Battery) Metals in Quebec, which has quickly grown with some unbelievable lithium intersections and it just shows with some sustained money put into high quality exploration you can still discover deposits.
“So I think it’s similar to Western Australia, just as prospective but underexplored versus Western Australia.
What was it about Pontax or Cygnus specifically that drew you in?
“There’s no one specific thing, you always look for a number of things and for me, I start off with people.
“The people, the major shareholders that are in there, from individuals to companies, have a history of generating shareholder value, that’s one.
“Two is the early stage nature and the ability to get involved early. To me it’s always an exciting time.
“The ground and being in Quebec, which is really encouraging exploration and production of lithium to be a lithium powerhouse in Canada, is another reason.
“It’s got lithium spodumene intersections of high grade already in the area and for me, having been around resources for 30 years, it’s got those critical elements where there’s a fairly simple strategy that you can put together to build this company up in a relatively quick time.
‘There could even be a time I foresee where car manufacturers may actually own mines themselves to secure supply’
“That’s reliant on the drill bit, because Cygnus will be drilling next month. I actually just went into the office this morning just to meet the people and sit down for half an hour with one of our new recruits who was running exploration for SQM here in Western Australia, and he has taken me through the targeting. It doesn’t take long to get excited.”
Speaking of the people one of the big shareholders, there is Steve Parsons, and the original people who put Bellevue into Draig, they’re all there.
“And Mike Bohm, who I’ve worked with before at Mincor and at Ramelius.
“So there’s some familiarity there and Mike Naylor and Steve Parsons … they’ve got history in other companies where they’ve also built and created shareholder wealth. So it’s like a racehorse, you always back a horse with good form.”
Going back to the longer term outlook with lithium, you say you’re a big believer in the electrification thematic. How long can that sustain strong markets for battery metals?
“I think I read an article the other day, and Australia is such a tiny market and so you can’t really judge Australia for what’s happening around the globe, but I think one of the Tesla models was the third highest selling car in Australia.
“Isn’t that a quantum shift? Because before that it was just SUVs, Hiluxes and Land Cruisers and now you’ve got a Tesla popping in there.
“And with some of the models that Hyundai and others are coming out with, the electrification is on and it’s on big time in the US and Canada, so I see this market going for decades.
“There will always be news flow of a new type of battery, et cetera. But I know through history when vehicle manufacturers invest billions of dollars in infrastructure for a certain type of engine, and this is an electric engine, it’s very difficult to turn around that ship, once you’ve sunk that capital, and they’re obviously sinking a lot of capital.
“There could even be a time I foresee where car manufacturers may actually own mines themselves to secure supply.
“They’ve come so far upstream now already, who’s to say that they’re not now going to take equity in mines?
Liontown did an amazing job of securing not just offtake with Ford, but debt finance on amazing terms.
So you’ve now got a car manufacturer lending a mining company its project finance funds.”
You wouldn’t have seen that before.
“If you’d have said that five years ago, you’d have been told you were crazy.
“But that just shows you that the vehicle manufacturers were probably slow off the blocks; I saw that when I was at Kidman, but geez now they are running at full pace.”
