Carlos Danger
Top 20
Maybe it was a pangolin
AVZ Discussion 2022
- Thread starter GazDix
- Start date
RHyNO
Regular
S01e02 we open on a spike in the hand of a chef, he stabs the head of the lobster, in a series quick cuts we reveal a full restaurant, the lobster is being taken to a table, the camera follows the lobster, cut to an obese African seated with 6 escorts, his buttery fingers grab desperately at the lobster as he speaks with his mouth spluttering lobster meat and spit. A thick French accent “you can have whatever you want, they are the lower cast, we enslaved them and sold them, sold the best of them, my grandfather, he sold so many of them he lost count,
You can take all the minerals you want, they are so stupid they don’t know what is under their feet” a sweaty eager Chinese man in a terrible suit responds “but Mr Takeshi what do YOU WANT”. “Ha ha ha ha…Yun I want all that you have and not a penny more”
Lucas Don Velor
Regular
Lucas Don Velor
Regular
I’m sorry Spike, are you saying Pam or Pan?!
Frank
Top 20
Frank
Top 20
China keeps unprecedented hold on metals with mining push abroad
China last year committed more resources than ever to mining abroad as part of Xi Jinping’s global infrastructure program, a new study found, underscoring its growing grip on the metals supply chain just as fears of over-reliance on Beijing grow around the world.
China’s involvement in the metals and mining sector — in the form of equity investments and construction contracts — reached over $21 billion under Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to a report from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance & Development Center, founded at Shanghai-based Fudan University.
The tally marks the highest since the Chinese president’s signature effort started in 2013.
China’s engagement has been very strategic and growing over the past years, thanks to advantages including its know-how and ability to fund large-scale projects, said Christoph Nedopil, a professor at Griffith University and one of the report’s authors.
“It is likely that Chinese policymakers are also welcoming strategic control by Chinese – often private – companies in critical minerals,” he said.
The country’s global footprint is a reflection of its dominance over production and refining of many minerals that gives it huge influence over commodity markets.
Beijing earlier this month flexed its muscles by imposing export restrictions on tungsten and other critical metals used in electronic, aviation and defense industries, in response to the initial tariffs from the Trump administration.
The European Union, Japan and the US have been highlighting concerns over China’s hold on the metals value chain.
Tokyo is considering anti-dumping duties on graphite electrodes produced in China, due to damage caused to the domestic industry, according to a joint statement Friday from the trade and finance ministries.
The world’s No. 2 economy accounts for more than half of the global production of battery metals including lithium, cobalt, and manganese. In 2023, it also made up 69% of global rare earth output, according to the US government.
Lithium, used in electric-vehicle batteries, is a case in point.
While the US is building out supply networks with free-trade partners such as Canada and Australia, China is consolidating its relationships with African nations that are expected to be among the world’s biggest producers of the metal by the end of the decade.
China has also sought to forestall the west’s efforts to develop new mining and processing capacity by restricting exports of key technology and equipment.
mining.com
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Bin59
Regular
Putin’s Trolling: A Strategic Minerals Offer For Trump
At face value, this could be seen as a step towards renormalizing U.S.-Russia trade relations.
www.forbes.com
Putin’s Trolling: A Strategic Minerals Offer For Trump
Ariel Cohen
Vladimir Putin's mineral offer to the United [+]
Just as President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to arrive in Washington D.C. on Friday, February 28th to sign an unprecedented US-Ukraine agreement on strategic minerals, Vladimir Putin came up with a proposal of his own, involving joint development with the U.S. of rare earth metals, aluminum, and hydro power in Russia. It’s trolling of 99th level.
At face value, this could be seen as a step towards renormalizing U.S.-Russia trade relations. President Trump is entertaining the notion of economic rapprochementbut isn’t ready to commit yet. Economic cooperation comes after the cease-fire or peace accord in Ukraine, not before. On February 27th, only a couple of days after Putin’s proposal, Trump extended wide-ranging sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, US Russia watchers are telling this author that Putin’s offer is nothing more than a troll to counter the Trump-Zelensky mineral deal.
Putin’s Insincere Strategic Mineral Offer
During an interview on state television with journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin surprised the audience by talking up potential joint energy and metallurgical megaprojects with the U.S, highlighting an estimated $15 billion hydropower and aluminum production project in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, touting Russia’s ability to resume supplying the U.S. with aluminum – a market where it once had a 15% share of imports.Despite claiming that a potential U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal is “of no concern” to Russia, Putin’s offer to work with Americans to access mineral reserves in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories was meant to muddle the discussions leading up to the deal. His comment that Russia has “an order of magnitude more resources of this kind than in Ukraine” is simply an attempt to one-up Zelensky’s mineral deal amidst already tense U.S.-Ukraine negotiations.
Putin's offer comes shortly before Ukrainian [+]
Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
This is not the first time that Putin has trolled Trump by making business proposals. After Houthi/Iranian strikes on Saudi oil facilities in 2019, Putin joked that Riyadh should consider purchasing Russian S-300 or S-400 air defense systems instead of depending on American technology for defense. When Europe faced an energy crisis in 2022 after Russia cut its gas flow, he commented that if Europe wanted more gas, it should just lift sanctions and activate Nord Stream 2. The Russian president has a track record of stirring the pot by identifying real needs or issues and offering seemingly plausible but politically unrealistic solutions.
Russia’s Business Environment is Unsuitable for Strategic Mineral Development
Russia’s current business climate starkly contrasts with how it was before the second invasion of Ukraine. Western companies have abandoned Russia after more than 30 years of successful development. Russian banks face severe financial sanctions, and currency transactions are significantly limited. Moreover, launching new investment projects is impossible without the systematic lifting of sanctions. It may take years to alter this new reality, and Putin is aware of it.The war in Ukraine has amplified the imbalance of Russia’s economy, as high inflation has driven interest rates to a record 21%, and Russia’s workforce has been severely affected by war losses, with many working-age men still on the frontlines, working in military factories, or wounded and dead.
Economic factors aside, the political risks for American businesses in Russia are greater than they were after the fall of the Soviet Union. The dangers of corruption, criminal conviction and imprisonment of business leaders, as happened with Michael Calvey and Eugene Spector, and seizures of Western companies such as French yogurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg by state-owned businesses have continued. Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine has turned the clock back 40 years to the pre-Gorbachev era of the Cold War. The Kremlin has taken greater control of the Russian economy, carving up assets across industries, and redistributing them to regime loyalists.
Obstacles in the Russian Mineral Market
The privatization of Russia’s only major rare earth producer, Solikamsk Magnesium Plant, previously owned by billionaire Pyotr Kondrashov, was declared illegal, and all assets were transferred to Russia’s state nuclear monopoly, Rosatom. The nuclear behemoth is closely associated with Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the famed Kurchatov Institute for nuclear physics, a Putin crony and supporter of the Ukraine war. Kovalchuk is also head of the Scientific Council of the Russian Maritime Board, a hardline group of former security leaders who supported the Ukraine invasion, including Putin’s former National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev.Any business or investor seeking to reenter the Russian market will have to ask themselves whether they want their operations to be at the mercy of the Russian siloviki security bosses and the Kremlin-controlled judicial system.
Several factors, such as corruption and state [+]
UC Rusal Photo Gallery, Wikimedia Commons
Returning to Russia will also create major compliance issues for American companies, even if Trump opted to lift the sanctions. Washington’s engagement with Moscow has widened the growing rift between the U.S. and its allies. If the U.S. were to unilaterally lift sanctions, it is likely that there would be a major push in some European countries to reinforce their own, while others would also accommodate Moscow to get a leg up for cheap natural resources.
One of the concerns regarding the viability of the Ukraine-US mineral deal is whether American companies are willing to make capital-intensive, long-term investments in a high-risk environment. The Russian offer, even if serious, can pose even greater risks. Russia’s uncertain business environment and the potential for a future US shift in strategy back to confrontation with the Kremlin call into question the viability of any significant investment in Russia at this stage. But Putin is aware of this. Trump’s strategic mineral agreement with Zelensky highlights the president’s intent to claim a win for the U.S. as part of any peace settlement, while Putin’s energy and metals offer is an opportunistic gambit to exploit this desire and deepen divisions in the West.
BRICK
Where’s Zeebot 😶🌫️
yeah what a throw down.Well, I guess the US is going to have to get their critical minerals from somewhere else, because it looks like it won't be coming from Ukraine
The whole unedited video was enthralling to watch.
Who else was wondering if he could taken them in a fist fight?
I reckong by his stance, he has been getting military self defence training.
Rediah
Regular
This first question is regarding funding and security for Ukraine, but Trump got his focus set on minerals.
Trump goes "Raw Earth" seven times in a minute— clearly shows where USA's priorities are ...
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Penskefile
Regular
There. Fixed.Well, I guess Ukraine is going to have to get their money from somewhere else, because it won't be coming from the US
cruiser51
Top 20
This is what the locals think of their special leader and he is surprised of the M23 movement.....
BRICK
Where’s Zeebot 😶🌫️
Put that in your pipe and smoke it FT
Could also be a sign things are not going well . Where's Cath?
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