US MINES act seeks to curb Russia, China grip on critical minerals
Republican congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) this week introduced the Monitoring and Investigating Nations Exploiting States (MINES) Act to “hold China and Russia accountable for their efforts to monopolize critical mineral resources around the world, particularly in developing nations.”
According to the press release is an original cosponsor of the MINES Act which provides the US with “additional tools to assess the growing exploitation of critical minerals in small states by China and Russia.”
“Reliable access to critical minerals is essential to America’s economic and national security,” said Calvert:
“America must be clear-eyed about the Chinese and Russian aggression when it comes to consolidating critical mineral resources.”
“It’s hard to overstate just how tight of a stranglehold Russia and China are developing on resources supply chains worldwide,” said House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (AR-4), a co-sponsor:
“While the Biden administration locks up sustainable mining here in the U.S., our adversaries are wasting no time stepping into that void and controlling critical minerals around the globe.”
Joe Biden’s climate bill has the US battery industry revved up
While Joe Biden was busy throttling the latest Corvette with car executives at the Detroit auto show last week, much of the rest of the industry filed into a jam-packed convention center about 30 miles west for a forum the president also managed to rev up.
The Battery Show saw its biggest attendance yet: 15,000 people, up 64% from last year and almost 50% from pre-pandemic levels, according to organizers.
One big factor behind all the interest was the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed into law last month.
Battery upstarts are salivating over the goodies in the bill, particularly the tax credits for manufacturing components here in the US.
Jim Greenberger, the head of a trade association for battery tech in North America, said when he went to the welcome reception, he thought he might be in the wrong room because he didn’t recognize anyone.
“These are all people that suddenly are seeing an opportunity in an industry that’s growing, where there’s substantial government support and everybody’s trying to figure out how they play in it,” Greenberger said.
China’s dominance of the space was never far from peoples’ minds at the Battery Show.
For all the gold-rush mentality and rhetoric about the power of American innovation, companies are anxious that if the US goes too far in its bid to cut out China, their products could be vulnerable to retaliation.
One panel debated whether the US should create a “white list” similar to what China adopted from 2015 through 2019.
The government drafted a list of domestic battery manufacturers whose products were eligible for subsidies.
This was key to the rise of Chinese champions like CATL and and a blow to LG Chem and Samsung SDI, which had to repurpose newly built factories in China after being excluded.
The idea was roundly criticized by the panel as un-American.
Another option being kicked around is a “battery passport” system similar to what’s been proposed in Europe.
This would involve setting up digital traceability for all the raw materials in a battery to ensure compliance with environmental and labor standards.
It wouldn’t explicitly ban Chinese suppliers, but if you exclude nickel from Indonesia or cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it could have that effect.
Automakers in the US don’t like the passport idea because they see the data as proprietary and are wary of the added cost of a digital tracking system, Greenberger said.
They’re also concerned about alienating China not just as a supplier, but as a customer — it’s the world’s biggest auto market.
The US is still dependent on China for minerals to feed its nascent battery manufacturing efforts, and an independent supply chain is still years away, said Ben Wrightsman, CEO of the Indiana-based Battery Innovation Center, which helps commercialize battery tech.
“The message has been heard that the US needs to have its place,” Wrightsman said.
“Now we need to clarify what we’re doing and don’t shoot anybody in the head over it.”
Kelty, who’s been working in the battery industry since the 1990s, sees real potential for the US to commercialize its technology after losing out to Japan and China for decades.
He thinks Chinese battery companies should be welcome in the US and also likes the idea of a battery passport.
“It’s what China’s been doing all these years — it’s not like we’re playing by some new rules that are unfair,” he said.
“For us to pick winners and losers? No. We’re terrible at that, but establish some rules that are transparent about local content, and call it quits.”
mining.com
China may find it hard to cool lithium’s price rally this time around
Scorching gains for lithium, a raw material vital for powering electric vehicles, threaten to push costs even higher for Chinese battery makers, and the government is finding itself powerless to do anything about it.
Even after a meeting last week where Chinese authorities pleaded with major producers to stabilize prices, lithium carbonate surged to a fresh record, rising to 500,500 yuan ($70,716) a ton.
In yuan terms, that exceeds the level prevailing when Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk called prices “insane” earlier this year.
“In the short term, I don’t think the meeting will help China cool the rally,” said Peng Xu, analyst at BloombergNEF.
Prices for seaborne spodumene — a partly processed form of lithium — are increasing amid a supply-demand mismatch and that’s squeezing the margins of Chinese lithium refiners, Xu said, adding there’s still room for further gains from current price levels.
It was easier for China back in March, at the time of the previous peak.
Then, officials hauled in representatives of the supply chain and told them they wanted “rational” prices.
That did at least stall the rally.
But it came at a time when virus lockdowns were curbing demand, and downstream users were also struggling to cope with high costs for other battery materials like nickel and cobalt.
Now, things are different.
China’s manufacturing is picking up, with output of electric vehicles more than doubling from a year ago in August.
The China Passenger Car Association expects EV sales to hit a record 6 million this year, double the number in 2021.
Lithium supply still trails demand, and there are concerns about the availability of power in key production hubs this winter.
In a sign of market tightness, an auction of Australian spodumene just attracted the highest-ever winning bid.
A slumping Chinese currency is also playing a role in the surge in domestic prices.
The yuan has tumbled more than 10% this year, and is heading for the worst annual performance since 1994.
The Federal Reserve’s 75-basis-point hike on Wednesday only made things worse.
China typically buys raw materials in dollars, so the weakening yuan increases costs for the nation’s importers.
In China’s meeting with the lithium industry last week, authorities asked major firms to ensure prices don’t hugely deviate from production costs and urged consumers to strike long-term agreements.
The nation also said it will help boost exploration, stabilize imports and promote recycling of raw materials.
mining.com
More Food for thought on the Road to Mining Manono
Cheers
Frank
