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Democratic Republic of Congo could see about 10 new mines for metals key to powering the green-energy transition within four years, according to the director of the country’s mining registry.
Congo sees surge in mining of metals for green energy transition
About 500 of the nation’s mining permits are in advanced development and will soon lead to new projects for lithium and cobalt.www.mining.com
Congo sees surge in mining of metals for green energy transition
Bloomberg News | June 3, 2022 | 6:23 am Battery Metals Africa Cobalt Lithium
Democratic Republic of Congo could see about 10 new mines for metals key to powering the green-energy transition within four years, according to the director of the country’s mining registry.
About 500 of the nation’s mining permits are in advanced development and will soon lead to new projects for lithium and cobalt — battery metals driving the electric vehicle revolution — while mines for copper, tin, tantalum and tungsten will also be built, Jean Felix Mupande told a conference in the southeast city of Lubumbashi. Congo is already the world’s No. 1 cobalt producer and Africa’s biggest copper miner.
“The essential exploration has been done and either the pre-feasibility study has already been prepared or is finished in the form of a definitive feasibility study,” Mupande said on Thursday.
While Congo’s mining industry has come under scrutiny for human-rights abuses and a related trade in illicit minerals, high-grade ore bodies and the recent surge in commodity prices have revived interest in one of the world’s poorest countries. One measure of lithium prices has spiked more than fivefold over the past year, while cobalt has also climbed.
Mupande said a number of lithium deposits were being explored in Congo’s southeast. That’s where Australia’s AVZ Minerals Ltd. is awaiting a final permit for its Manono project, considered the world’s largest untapped hard rock lithium find.
There will also be new mines for tin ore, tantalum and tungsten around Toronto- and Johannesburg-listed Alphamin Resources Corp.’s massive tin ore project in eastern Congo, he said.
“It’s a region that is very, very, very prospective and where there will soon be a proliferation of other mines,” Mupande said.
Mupande said lack of financing was the “Achilles heel” of the local industry. He called on junior miners to team up with Congolese “who also aspire to be major mine operators, who hold a permit, with whom they can partner on certain prospects that are more promising, to develop new assets.”
Mupande said a new venture with Canada’s AJN Resources Inc. — which will explore for gold near Barrick Gold Corp.’s Kibali mine and lithium near AVZ’s operation — could provide a model. That deal with a new state-controlled company called Congo Ressources SAU has been criticized by civil society groups for lacking transparency.
“The essential exploration has been done and either the pre-feasibility study has already been prepared or is finished in the form of a definitive feasibility study,” Mupande said on Thursday.
Mupande said a number of lithium deposits were being explored in Congo’s southeast.
That’s where Australia’s AVZ Minerals Ltd. is awaiting a final permit for its Manono project, considered the world’s largest untapped hard rock lithium find.
*That sounds very Positive, with all Roads leading to AVZ / ML / BFS / FID etc in the not too distant future
Where GM Is Creating Its EV Future: Factory Zero
From the outside, Factory Zero looks like a 1980s plant.Inside it’s 2022.
Zero is General Motors first dedicated electric-vehicle factory.
The name is EV aspirational: zero emissions, zero accidents, zero congestion. U.S. flags wave throughout the plant, which opened in 1985 and closed in 2020.
Zero is now making GMC Hummer Supertrucks, 9,000-pound, 1,000-horsepower behemoths with $110,000 price tags.
Plant manager Jim Quick, who started on a GM assembly line, is leading a rebirth at Zero and the cities, Detroit and Hamtramck, that surround it.
Zero’s body shop has 1,500 robots. Fanning out from the paint stage are module, or mod, lines for final assembly.
Multiple lines provide flexibility; they can accommodate different models more quickly, with less capital.
Instead of pneumatic tools, nearly everything is electric.
Tools are wirelessly tethered to stations to avoid using the wrong tool in the wrong spot.
Beyond its station, a tool won’t work.
There are some 40 stations in all.
Before the 3,000-pound battery packs are bolted into place, the Hummers travel on autonomous trolleys, which drive themselves back to the start like orange Star Wars droids.
At the battery station, the car is suspended for tires and drive units—axles, suspensions, electric motors.
Factory Zero now operates one shift with about 700 workers.
Only the Hummer line is making EVs for customers.
A second is producing Hummer sport-utility vehicles in test quantities.
Soon, all-electric Chevy Silverados will start down the line.
The new models are key to GM’s plan: selling 400,000 EVs in North America in 2022 and 2023, a million a year by 2025.
That’s a lot of zeros.
www.marketwatch.com
*That's a Lot of Lithium
*To remind,
Goldman Sachs’s UK-based analysts warned the battery metals bull market was “over for now”, while Credit Suisse’s Australian team told clients lithium prices may peak in the “next few months” as markets price in a balancing of supply and demand in coming years.
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, the little hiccup will be squashed by next week I heard then it’s on with business as usual…
