November Newsletter – 21.11.2022
- Rio to pursue Turquoise bid after ending talks with minority shareholders
- India’s power units binge on coal, outpace Asia
- US Turns To Canadian Miners As It Moves Away From China
- Blockades affecting Colombia coal miner Cerrejon enter second week
- Does China really need that much more coal-fired electricity?
- Unearthing the legacy of West Virginia: Company plans to make billions off of coal waste
- Bengal govt to allow private landowners to get licence for mining minerals
- US, Philippines to negotiate nuclear power tech-sharing pact
Rio to pursue Turquoise bid after ending talks with minority shareholders
Rio Tinto Ltd said on Friday it would plough ahead with a $3.3 billion bid to buy the 49% of Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources that it does not already own, after it ended separate talks with dissenting minority shareholders.
Oyu Tolgoi. Image from Turquoise Hill.
The Anglo-Australian miner is seeking to simplify its management of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia that it operates, but shares ownership through Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government.
Rio needs two-thirds of voting Turquoise Hill shareholders to back its bid, including its own 51% stake, and a simple majority of the rest of the voting shareholders.
It has raised its offer for Turquoise Hill twice to C$43, but that has failed to satisfy Pentwater Capital and SailingStone Capital, two of its biggest minority shareholders, which own stakes of 15.2% and 2.2%, respectively.
Rio had reached an agreement with both that they would abstain from a shareholder vote on the proposal on Nov. 15. Turquoise Hill, investors and the Canadian regulator raised concerns that minority shareholders could be treated differently under the agreement’s conditions.
India’s power units binge on coal, outpace Asia
The increase in India’s coal-fired power output has outstripped its regional peers, data from the government and analysts showed
India’s coal-fired power output has increased much faster than any other country in the Asia Pacific since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, underscoring the challenges the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter faces in weaning its economy off of carbon.
Coal fuels nearly three-quarters of the power output of India, which presented its decarbonisation strategy at the United Nation’s COP27 climate summit this week – the last of the world’s five largest economies to do so.
Use of coal globally, including in power generation, has grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February sent prices of other fossil fuels surging, derailing efforts to transition to cleaner fuels.
But the increase in India’s coal-fired power output has outstripped its regional peers, data from the government and analysts showed.
India’s power ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. When asked about high coal use, the government has previously cited lower per capita emissions compared with richer nations and surging renewable energy output.
India’s coal-fired power output increased more than 10% year-on-year from March to October to 757.82 terawatt hours, an analysis of government data shows, as electricity demand increased off the back of a heatwave and pickup in economic activity. The government expects this output to grow at the fastest pace in at least a decade in the current fiscal year ending March 2023.
US Turns To Canadian Miners As It Moves Away From China
Geopolitical tensions between the United States and China has the former reconsidering its trade relations with the latter, most especially with the security of its mining resources supply chain. The American government is instead reportedly looking at its northern neighbor to lessen its dependence from Beijing.
The US military has covertly solicited bids from Canadian mining ventures seeking American public support as part of a significant national security endeavor, supposedly as part of Washington DC’s priority to find other critical minerals resources besides Beijing.
The move to electric vehicles is said to be a significant driver of this high demand on minerals which China currently dominates–it controls two-thirds of the world’s lithium processing capacity, for instance.
But the tenuous US-China relations is strained further by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, causing commotion along the Taiwan Strait.
It also didn’t help that the administration of US President Joe Biden has been increasingly hawkish on Chinese firms, adding companies to the Pentagon’s blacklist. The blacklist includes chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and NYSE-listed oil producer CNOOC.
For its part, Beijing has already demonstrated its willingness to cut rivals off from mineral exports, as it did a few years ago during a fishing dispute with Japan.
https://thedeepdive.ca/us-turns-to-canadian-miners-as-it-moves-away-from-china/
Blockades affecting Colombia coal miner Cerrejon enter second week
BOGOTA, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Blockades affecting a rail line used by Colombia’s largest coal-miner Cerrejon to take coal to a key export facility on the Caribbean coast, and preventing mining supplies from reaching its operations, have stretched into a second week, the company said on Wednesday.
The road blocks by former workers who left Cerrejon almost two years ago began on Nov. 8, the company, owned by Anglo-Swiss commodities giant Glencore (GLEN.L), said in a statement.
The blockade is resulting in a daily loss of more than 22 billion pesos ($4.58 million) in potential income tax, the company said, and putting at risk the jobs of more than 11,000 workers and contractors.
The rail line is used to transport coal to a key export facility, Puerto Bolivar.
The former workers are demanding that their jobs be reinstated, with back pay for lost salary and a return of their benefits or compensation above what is legally required, the company said.
“Illegal blockades prevent normal operations and have serious effects on the company, the workers, the communities, the region, and the country,” Luis Eduardo Marulanda, Cerrejon’s vice president of public affairs and communications said in the statement, calling on authorities to take action.
Blockades on roads and rail lines around the open pit mine – one of the largest in Colombia, which produced 23.4 million tons of coal last year – in the country’s La Guajira province are not uncommon.
Cerrejon has held talks with the protesters but these have so far been unsuccessful, it added.
Does China really need that much more coal-fired electricity?
Southern China’s Guangdong province approved construction of six coal-fired power plants in less than a month with generating capacity of 9.7 million kilowatts, more than the total of capacity installed from 2016 to 2020.
The projects were previously considered impossible under the 14th Five-Year Plan through 2025 as China aims to reduce carbon emissions by increasing the use of nonfossil fuels, a person familiar with Guangdong’s coal-fired power projects told Caixin. As part of the fight against climate change, the central government charted a course to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by substituting renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower for coal.
“The policy is sharply reversing now,” the person said.
Guangdong is the epitome of China’s about-face on coal power. Stung by electricity shortages over the past two years, China cranked up production of coal to record levels and tweaked its energy strategy by reemphasizing coal as the country’s dominant energy resource.
Since mid-July, provinces and regions including Anhui, Xinjiang, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Guangxi put new coal projects under environmental impact review and social risk analysis, according to statistics compiled by Caixin from government websites. The total planned capacity adds up to nearly 17 million kilowatts. Many more coal projects across the country are in the early stages and have yet to be disclosed, people familiar with the matter told Caixin.
Unearthing the legacy of West Virginia: Company plans to make billions off of coal waste
WYOMING COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) – Out of the 46 rare earth materials needed to make an iPhone, only six are found in the United States. The other 40 are found in China.
Simon Hodges, President of Omnis Sublimation Recovery Technologies (OSRT), says his company has spent years doing research, and, recently, they discovered something exciting.
Hodges joined Gov. Jim Justice and others at the Mullens Council on Aging Thursday to share the news:
“Where are these fabulous, special materials that we can’t find anywhere?” They’re here in the State of West Virginia.”
More specifically, they’re in coal waste. Omnis discovered that coal impoundments house all 46 of these desired metals.
“We have uncovered the legacy and the rich treasure that your grandparents and your great-grandparents laid aside for you,” Hodges said. “They took out the coal, and they’ve deposited these treasures that are worth hundreds of times more, not just in monetary value but also in social value…”
Hodges explained that where one ton of coal sells for only a few hundred dollars, one ton of these rare earth materials can sell for millions. Omnis shared on Thursday that it plans to invest $60 million in Wyoming County. The company is working to construct a processing plant where they will extract these materials using Ultra-High Heat without acids or harmful chemicals. This makes them the first to create a zero-waste method for extraction.
During the announcement, Gov. Justice expressed his support.
Bengal govt to allow private landowners to get licence for mining minerals
According to the official, black stone, limestone, China clay and quartz are excavated in hundreds of mines, especially located in the western districts of Birbhum, West Burdwan, Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura.
The West Bengal government is set to introduce a new mining policy under which private landowners will get a licence to mine minerals like black stone, limestone and others in an effort to expand revenue generation scope for the state.
A senior official with the Industry Department said, “The state cabinet has already taken a policy decision enabling mining in private plots. We are now formulating a policy. Very soon, it will be introduced.”
“If the new policy is implemented properly, the state’s revenue generation will increase significantly by the next year,” said the official.
The Industry Department will elaborate on the new policy to district land department officials on November 21.
According to the official, black stone, limestone, China clay and quartz are excavated in hundreds of mines, especially located in the western districts of Birbhum, West Burdwan, Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura.
However, except for a few mines, the government doesn’t have a database of most of the mines as “most of them are illegal”, he said. The new policy aims to overcome land acquisition hurdles for mining ‘minor minerals’ and curbing illegal excavation in the state.
The official said, “If minerals are found in private lands, the government cannot auction those lands, so illegal mining thrives there. Now, after introducing the policy, the government will have revenue by auctioning those lands.”
US, Philippines to negotiate nuclear power tech-sharing pact
The US and the Philippines will open talks on a deal for the Asian nation to build nuclear power plants with American technology, Vice President Kamala Harris announced.
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