Australia-based NewPeak Metals has announced the sale of its Finland and New Zealand gold permits as part of the company’s strategic rejuvenation plan to focus on battery and critical metals.
The ASX-listed company on Monday announced a binding term sheet to sell 100% of its interest in its Finnish subsidiary companies to Canco – a Canadian unlisted private company, run by resource entrepreneur Emma Fairhurst.
Europe aspires to become a global leader in battery innovation. To this end, BATT4EU has published a new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda recommending the battery research and innovation priorities for which public funding should be allocated effectively and efficiently.
Competing in the global battery arena requires constant innovation
The global demand for batteries has increased significantly in recent years, due to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems, and portable electronics. Given the expected growth in demand and the associated business opportunities, competition in the battery space is surging worldwide with China dominating. When it comes to battery manufacturing, China holds close to 70% of the current and forecast battery cell production capacity, with 101 battery plants planned till 2029. In the meantime, in Europe, the construction of 30 gigafactories has been planned to exceed 1 Terawatt-Hour capacity by 2030.
To reduce reliance on China for the EV transition, ensure open strategic autonomy and get close to climate neutrality, significant initiatives are now being developed in Europe and North America. Europe wants to compete with current manufacturing bases and increase its share of production to 25% within this decade.
Taking on the challenge of becoming a global leader in sustainable batteries will require constant and ambitious innovation efforts all along the battery value chain, from raw materials, to advanced materials, to battery manufacturing, application development and of course battery recycling.
Innovation is however costly
Estimates by the European Battery Alliance suggest that the European battery market could be worth €250 billion a year as of 2025. To ensure that Europe develops fast and well its own competitive battery value chain able to meet the growing demand for more sustainable batteries, funding of innovation efforts by public authorities is of vital importance for the sector to reduce technology risks. Between 2014 and 2020, the battery industry received at least €1.7 billion in EU grants and loan guarantees, on top of state aid of up to €6 billion authorised between 2019 and 2021. With BATT4EU, the batteries European partnership, the current EU funding for battery research and innovation planned until 2027 should reach up to €925 million under Horizon Europe Programme. Innovation is however costly and despite the generous funding made available to Europe’s industry and research organizations, it is essential that limited available financial resources are allocated in the best way to maximise the impact of research and innovation efforts.
Research and innovation priorities are aligned through a European strategic research and innovation agenda
To avoid gaps in funding and duplication of research and innovation efforts, the BATT4EU Partnership has developed a new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). The document represents the culmination of extensive consultations with over 200 members of the Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA). In addition, it incorporates collaborative inputs from other significant European battery initiatives, including Batteries Europe and Battery 2030+, ensuring a comprehensive and unified approach to advancing battery technology across Europe.
The new SRIA outlines time-based research and innovation priorities for every part of the battery value chain and points to 6 imperatives that need tackling in order to increase the competitiveness of the European battery value chain.
The 6 imperatives of the SRIA are:
Ensure research and innovation match industry needs to translate into gigafactories and markets
Increase the strategic autonomy of Europe by reducing the reliance on imported critical raw materials
Improve battery affordability to accelerate the green transition and keep the European industry competitive
Improve the flexibility of battery manufacturing and recycling systems
Implement a safe and sustainable by design framework for batteries
Support the continuity of excellent European battery research and academic-industrial
The SRIA aims to guide funding in Europe and maximize impact
In conclusion, as Europe aims to establish itself as a global leader in battery research and innovation, the SRIA will serve as a reference to highlight key technological challenges, promote research and innovation, and guide funding priorities across Europe (at European level in Horizon Europe, at the level of Member States and Regions). This should maximize impact to help put Europe at the forefront of research and innovation, for the benefit of competitiveness across the European battery value chain.
In Munich, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Australian businessman and philanthropist Andrew Forrest, founder of one of the world’s largest mining companies, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG).
The Head of State thanked him for his active public support of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Andrew Forrest’s assistance in implementing humanitarian projects in our country, in particular, the construction of housing for internally displaced Ukrainian families who lost their homes due to the war.
During the meeting, special attention was paid to the issues of rebuilding Ukraine, involving large global financial and industrial companies in projects to restore our country from the consequences of Russian aggression.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet adopted the final version of the National Energy Climate Plan, although the deadline was set by the end of last year. In practice, this means that energy transition measures are implemented unsystematically and without clear deadlines, especially when it comes to phasing out coal, one of the biggest polluters. BHRT has checked the experiences and challenges in countries that have advanced in the planned transition to renewable energy sources in one of the EU members, Slovenia.
A new image of the former mining region of Zasavja, east of Ljubljana – Solar power plants have become an almost indispensable decoration of business buildings and households. Entrepreneur Sergej Smrkolj says that he made the right decision five years ago. Today, it independently produces half of the electricity needed in production. The energy crisis only reinforced the effect of self-sustainability.
“We did not invest anything in the project. GENi invested in the project. We pay off the project with the consumption of electricity. After ten years, it becomes our property,” emphasizes Sergej Smrkolj, director of “Skitti”, Izlake.
The process of energy transition in Slovenia was initiated by the decision not to build a new unit of the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant, which was adopted more than two decades ago. Ten years ago, the existing block was shut down, and the last mines were closed. With a lot of challenges.
“It was really painful for some workers who were left without everything, stayed overnight without everything and had no more work,” says Ervin Renko, HSE Energetska družba, Trbovlje.
Official data show that in the long process of closing the mine, the Zasavja region lost 23 percent of its jobs, and 11 percent of its population decreased. The country is gradually remediating the negative consequences with significant help from the European Fund for Just Transition. 258 million euros are earmarked for two mining regions in Slovenia.
“The largest part of the EU funds will be for the economy for companies and for municipalities. In the first phase, this is already happening, the first tender was published, municipalities will create economic business zones and prepare the ground for companies to do their business here,” says Jani Medvešek, director of the Zasavje Regional Development Agency.
With the strategy of getting out of coal, Slovenia also planned to shut down the Šoštanj TPP in 2033. The Slovenian Ministry of Energy says that coal production has become unprofitable, which could speed up the process.
“That should stop and it will stop. Due to the energy crisis, that year was not extended, because the economic price of electricity from TE Šoštanj is very high, because it includes the price of CO2 coupons, so maybe due to economic reasons, electricity production will stop even before” 33rd year”, emphasizes Hinko Šolinc from the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy of Slovenia.
One of the key tools of the energy transition in Slovenia is “Eco Sklad”. This public fund annually places around 50 million euros in loans and up to 80 million euros in grants for energy efficiency and renewable resources, water protection, and waste management. Grants cover between 20 and 50 percent of investments. The money was provided from a special tax for energy efficiency, and from the sale of carbon coupons.
“Recently, we started introducing measures to combat energy poverty. These measures provide grants for households with low incomes and these are 100 percent grants, because they cover the entire investment,” says Mojca Vendramin, director of “Eko Sklada”.
Slovenia follows the EU’s goals that by 2030, renewable energy sources make up 45 percent of the energy mix, and that harmful emissions are reduced by 55 percent compared to the reference year. The expansion of the photovoltaic screen built on the former slag dump from the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant is in accordance with these plans, BHRT writes.
The Commercial Court of Donetsk region on February 6 declared one of the largest enterprises of the temporarily occupied Bakhmut – Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Works – bankrupt and launched liquidation procedures there.
The works was founded in 1954 as the state enterprise and was subordinate to the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR. It specialized in the manufacture of non-ferrous products – round (pipes, rods and wire) and flat (sheets, strips and belt) rolled metal of copper and other non-ferrous metals. In 1994 it was privatized.
In December 2022, during the battle for Bakhmut, it was this works that the president Wolodymyr Zelenskiy visited to decorate the defenders of the town. Since March 2023, the works has been on the temporarily occupied territory.
The European Parliament and the Council of EU member states agreed on Wednesday evening (7 February) to grant a two-year delay for sector-specific standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), offering a break to mining and fossil fuel firms targeted by the upcoming transparency rules.
The deal reached on Wednesday will give companies more time to prepare for the sectorial reporting rules, the Council said in a statement.
Those will be adopted in June 2026, two years later than originally planned, it added.
Belgium, the current holder of the rotating EU Council presidency, welcomed the agreement, saying it fits with its agenda of “boosting European competitiveness” and “reducing the administrative burden on companies”.
“Today’s agreement limits reporting requirements to the minimum and gives companies time to implement the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and prepare for the sectorial European Sustainability Reporting Standards,” said Vincent Van Peteghem, Belgian deputy prime minister and minister of finance.
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), in force since January last year, requires listed companies to disclose information about the social and environmental risks associated with their activities.
Since January this year, the first set of general reporting standards – the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) – became applicable to large companies across all economic sectors.
Those were expected to be followed by specific reporting standards for sectors like oil and gas, mining, road transport, textiles, as well as agriculture and fishing.
The sector-specific standards had already been drafted by a technical body advising the European Commission, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and were almost ready for publication, Euractiv understands.
But in October last year, the Commission proposed to postpone them for two years, based on a recommendation from EFRAG.
The move caused concern among a group of 21 academics, who wrote a letter to the European Commission before Wednesday’s meeting to express their concerns.
“As the academic community, we are worried by the current proposal to postpone the sector standards by two years,” reads the letter, penned by Prof. Dr. Frank Schiemann and Dr. Blerita Korca from the University of Bamberg in Germany, as well as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Florian Habermann from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
“This suggestion jeopardises not only the immediate benefits of sector standards for sustainable development and the financial sector but also deprives companies of guidance for their reporting obligation under the CSRD,” they warned.
The letter was signed by 21 academics from across Europe, including professors from the University of Groningen, the University of Trento, the Krakow University of Economics, and the EM Strasbourg Business School.
In the letter, the academics underlined the immediate benefits brought by greater transparency in corporate reporting, pointing out that “mine accidents have decreased after a disclosure mandate” that was issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Companies have to start reporting now and sector standards can be crucial to support their materiality assessment,” they argued, urging the Commission to adopt the standards that had already been largely drafted by EFRAG.
“The prompt release of standards for sectors with significant impact is crucial. By 2026, all high-impact sectors identified by EFRAG should be comprehensively addressed,” the academics wrote, suggesting to use the two-year delay as an opportunity to implement pilot projects and “address sector-specific issues such as materiality analyses or transition pathways and plans”.
In the European Parliament, meanwhile, some rejoiced at the two-year postponement of rules.
“Everyone has finally understood that companies cannot be overloaded with new standards every year,” said Axel Voss, a German lawmaker from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).
“They have been putting up with too much bureaucracy in years of crisis, from COVID to inflation. There is also a lack of quality if you don’t take the time to develop such standards in a practical way,” he said.
Others, however, pointed to wording added to Wednesday’s agreement, which says the two-year delay “does not prevent the Commission from publishing the sector specific sustainability reporting standards” before 2026.
“The Commission shall endeavour to adopt eight of the sustainability reporting standards … as soon as each is ready,” says the revised Article 29b(1) of the directive, according to the compromise text adopted on Wednesday.
“We had to fight hard against EPP to make sure that we don’t lose time on sectors for which the standards are almost ready,” said Pierre Karleskind, a centrist MEP from the Renew Europe political group in Parliament.
“Oil, gas and mining are high-risk sectors, and with this deal, they will have to start reporting earlier than other sectors,” he told Euractiv in emailed comments.
Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), companies with over 250 staff and a turnover of €40 million have to disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks, as well as the impact of their activities on the environment and people.
Smaller listed companies are subject to a lighter set of reporting standards, from which they can opt out until 2028.
Rare earths, lithium and other raw materials are of enormous importance for future technologies. The demand for such “critical raw materials” will continue to increase in the future. However, the European Union has so far almost only been able to import them and is dependent on individual countries such as China. A regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act (“CRMA”), is intended to increase and diversify the supply of critical and strategic raw materials, strengthen recycling and reduce dependence on individual supplier countries.
The main requirements of the CRMA are aimed at the member states, but companies are also subject to certain requirements. The European Parliament formally adopted the proposed regulation on December 12 last year and the European Council is expected to approve it in March this year, meaning that the regulation could come into force as early as April.
Critical raw materials are very important for the manufacture of various products, such as electric vehicles or solar panels. Demand will increase significantly in the coming years due to the global transition to renewable energies and digitalization. The European Union is exclusively dependent on imports for many critical raw materials. The COVID-19 crisis and the energy crisis triggered by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine illustrate the European Union’s structural dependence on imports. The suppliers of these imports are generally a small number of third countries, both for the extraction and processing of raw materials.
To improve this situation, on March 16, 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The aim is to use the CRMA to free themselves from this dependency for the future or to significantly reduce it so that these countries cannot exploit their strong position as suppliers, for example through export restrictions. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union were able to agree on a final text for the proposed regulation on November 13, 2023. The proposal was formally adopted by the European Parliament on December 12, 2023.
Central to the Proposal is the aspiration that by 2030, EU capacity in respect of each strategic raw material should approach or reach the following benchmarks:
At least 10% of the European Union’s annual consumption should come from EU extraction
At least 40% of the European Union’s annual consumption should come from EU processing
At least 25% of the European Union’s annual consumption should come from domestic recycling
No more than 65% of the European Union’s annual consumption of each strategically important raw material at each relevant stage of processing may originate from a single third country
These are not enforceable target percentages vis-à-vis individual Member States or companies. The targets are to be addressed by the European Union by strengthening strategic projects to increase EU capacities.
Fast permit granting process for strategic projects
To ensure that the development of these strategic projects can be driven forward, the CRMA includes fast and simplified permit granting process for them. The member states should ensure that the specified deadlines are not exceeded. To this end, a single national contact point should be created, which does not necessarily have to be an authority but should be adequately staffed and resourced. The duration of the permit for strategic projects should not exceed 27 months for strategic projects in the extraction sector and 15 months for strategic projects relating exclusively to processing or recycling.
Significance for companies
The main requirements of the CRMA are directed at the member states. Nevertheless, companies also have to comply with certain requirements. To name just a few important examples:
Large companies that use strategic raw materials to manufacture batteries for energy storage and electromobility, equipment related to hydrogen production and utilisation, equipment related to renewable energy generation, aircrafts, traction motors, heat pumps, data transmission and storage, mobile electronic devices, equipment related to additive manufacturing, robotics, rocket launchers, satellites or advanced chips must carry out a risk assessment of the supply chain for strategic raw materials every three years. The risk assessment must include a mapping of where the strategic raw materials used by the company are extracted, processed or recycled, an analysis of the factors that may impact their supply of strategic raw materials and an assessment of their vulnerabilities to supply disruptions.
If a company is considered as a “key market operator” along the supply chain for critical raw materials, which is particularly the case if their reliable functioning is essential for the supply of critical raw materials, the company may have to participate in regular and appropriate surveys of Member States. However, key market participants may refuse to provide the data requested in these surveys if the disclosure of such data would lead to the disclosure of business and trade secrets.
Next steps
The approval of the European Council is still pending and is expected in March of this year.
The Sprott Junior Uranium Miners UCITS ETF is due to be listed in the coming weeks on London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse Xetra, and Borsa Italiana. The fund will come with an expense ratio of 0.85%.
The introduction of URNJ expands Sprott’s European ETF lineup to four, with its existing suite also dedicated to niche segments or thematic investment strategies within the global mining sector. Each of these ETFs has been launched in collaboration with HANetf, a leading European white-label ETF platform.
Among Sprott’s current European offerings is the $340 million Sprott Uranium Miners UCITS ETF (URNM LN), targeting exposure to larger-cap uranium mining companies.
According to Sprott, uranium mining stocks stand to gain as the world turns to nuclear power for dependable and low-carbon energy. This shift was highlighted at COP28 in December 2023, when 22 nations, including major powers such as the United States, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom, committed to the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy by 2050.
This ambitious target underscores the expected surge in nuclear energy capacity, which in turn suggests an increasing uranium demand to outpace the current supply. This scenario is expected as countries plan for nuclear reactor restarts, new construction projects, and reconsiderations of decommissioning existing reactors.
Hector McNeil, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HANetf, commented: “Uranium prices have surged over the past year, entering a new bull market as the indispensable role of nuclear power in the energy transition becomes apparent. Investor interest has steadily risen, as shown by the extraordinary growth of URNM. But missing from Europe until now has been a small and mid-cap uranium miners-focused ETF. We have seen a flood of inquiries from investors asking if we are bringing a Junior Uranium Mining ETF to the European market. We are very proud to be launching Europe’s first Junior Uranium Mining UCITS ETF and even more proud to be doing so in partnership with Sprott Asset Management, who are real leaders in the uranium investment space.”
The Western Balkans Investment Summit 2024 will be streamed LIVE on LinkedIn on Monday 26 February.
The event will be attended by all six heads of government from the region, who have confirmed their participation.
The aim of the Summit is to highlight potential investment and business opportunities in the Western Balkans region and to promote regional and cross-border projects. This is the sixth EBRD summit of its kind; the inaugural Western Balkans Summit took place at the EBRD ten years ago, in February 2014 and, for the first time, brought together all the region’s prime ministers.
The Western Balkans is a priority region for the EBRD. Today, the EBRD remains one of the largest institutional investors in countries of the region, with more than €18 billion invested to date.
The traditional highlight of the Summit – interactive “Prime Ministers Session” – will see the regional Leaders and the President of the EBRD address the audience with their overall vision for the region, key regional projects, and opportunities for investment at both regional level and in each of the countries of the region, which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The session will feature extended Q&A with foreign investors.
9.00-9.30 Opening of the Summit. Welcome address
Odile Renaud-Basso, President, EBRD
High-level representative of the EU (TBC)
9.30 -11.00 *Interactive session with the participation of the six Western Balkans Prime Ministers, including extended Q&A with foreign investors
*Held under Gymnich formula
Continuing to make strong progress with its stated ambition to deliver a secure domestic supply of lithium from the Northeast of England, using sustainable extraction and production techniques, Northern Lithium Ltd (Northern Lithium) is pleased to announce that it has signed a new exclusive Mineral Rights Agreement with the Church Commissioners for England (Church Commissioners). The new mineral rights secured, to develop the extraction of lithium and other minerals from saline brines within the Northern Pennine Orefield, County Durham, are for a much longer term and cover a far wider geographical area than the initial rights granted to Northern Lithium in 2021.
The new Agreement covers mineral rights owned by the Church Commissioners circa. 240 sq km (60,000 acres), providing up to 45 years for exploration, appraisal and production. This reflects the real success the company has had to date in developing the lithium opportunity in the region. Establishing a domestic supply of lithium both quickly and at scale is seen as vital for the UK energy transition, achieving net zero by 2050 and is central to the UK’s recently published first Battery Strategy.
This agreement establishes a long-term partnership between Northern Lithium and the Church Commissioners and follows the achievement of key development milestones which include:
Confirmation of the presence of potentially commercially viable concentrations of lithium in saline brines following an initial exploration drilling programme in 2022 at Ludwell Farm, Eastgate, County Durham;
Receiving full planning approval in June 2023 for additional in-field testing and drilling of up to six boreholes in total at the Ludwell Farm site;
The successful production in August 2023, of >99.5% purity battery grade lithium carbonate achieved at an industrial scale for the first time at Evove Ltd’s UK Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Test Centre in Widnes, using Northern Lithium’s Northern Pennine Orefield brines; and
The recently announced strategic partnership between three North of England companies – Northern Lithium, Evove and Sheers aimed at delivering the UK’s first commercial-scale DLE plant using UK-developed advanced DLE technology, UK-sourced lithium-bearing brines and UK process engineering expertise.
The securing of these new mineral rights with the Church Commissioners will now allow Northern Lithium to expand its exploration and development activities over a much larger area and ultimately help facilitate the delivery of its goal to reach commercial production of 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium per year from several production areas across the Northern Pennine Orefield. This would establish the area and wider North East as a key domestic source and supply of lithium to the UK battery and EV manufacturing sectors, providing a direct economic benefit to and the basis for continued investment in a local area long associated with the minerals industry. Northern Lithium is targeting initial commercial production of lithium from its first planned production site at Ludwell Farm in 2027.
This announcement also comes at a time when the UK government has committed, through its recently published first UK Battery Strategy, to improving the security and resilience of the country’s sourcing of critical minerals for the energy transition. The new mineral rights will play an important role in realising this ambition, as well as supporting the North East as a future centre of UK EV manufacturing, building on Nissan’s recent commitment to deliver three EV models, three gigafactories and up to £3bn investment to its industrial hub in Sunderland.
Richard Morecombe, Founder and Chairman of Northern Lithium commented: “We have come a long way and successfully delivered a number of key development milestones since first discussions with the Church Commissioners for England towards the end of 2017, and the initial granting of mineral rights in 2021. We have presented a clear opportunity to the Church Commissioners asset management team and demonstrated our ability to deliver on milestones which we will build upon under these new arrangements as we look to deliver the next development phases of our project across the wider Northern Pennine Orefield.”
Nick Pople, Managing Director of Northern Lithium added: “We are delighted to have reached this new Agreement with the Church Commissioners for England who share our ambition to build a secure, sustainable domestic supply of lithium at scale within the North East in a low impact way. If successful with our development plans, these new arrangements will deliver long-term economic benefits to the local area, North East and the UK. This has the potential to put the North East firmly on the map in terms of lithium extraction and supply and allows us to deliver a wide-spread exploration and long-term development programme at a significant scale across a large area of County Durham.”
Ciara Williams, Principal Asset Manager Farmland & Minerals at the Church Commissioners for England commented: “As a significant mineral owner, the Church Commissioners for England is delighted to have entered into an agreement with Northern Lithium in seeking to develop a sustainable domestic source of lithium in the Northeast of England. This is an exciting and progressive project, advancing the UK’s critical mineral supply and will enable further enhancement to the green economy.”
Minister for Industry and Economic Security Nusrat Ghani said: “This is great news for Northern Lithium, and another positive step in boosting the resilience of the UK’s critical minerals supply chains for the long term as we continue to grow the green industries of the future. The Northeast of England offers significant opportunities to help secure our supply of lithium responsibly and sustainably, and today’s news builds on the landmark Battery Strategy I announced last November as we ramp up our electric vehicle production and drive forward the net zero transition.”