MINEX Forum

Website: Europe.com

  • Fresh calls to scrap Cumbrian coalmine amid steel industry’s green push

    Fresh calls to scrap Cumbrian coalmine amid steel industry’s green push

    On Monday, British Steel announced that it plans to replace its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, while Tata Steel is considering closing its two at Port Talbot, in a dramatic reshaping of the UK steel industry. Both companies will instead rely on much cleaner electric arc furnaces, which use 87 times less coal.

    West Cumbria Mining plans to produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year at Woodhouse colliery in Whitehaven for use by “steelmakers in the UK and EU”. However, the blast furnace closures would mean a dramatic reduction in coal use by the UK industry, and would probably mean that the vast majority of the Cumbrian coal would have to be exported.

    Tim Farron, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria and former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the announcement from British Steel “means that any economic case for a new coalmine in Cumbria is now completely dead in the water”.

    He said: “We need to see the government wake up to the fact that the steel industry is now going full steam ahead to decarbonise steel and start to invest in long-term renewable jobs for the future.”

    Michael Gove, the government minister in charge of planning, approved the UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years last December, despite criticism from former Conservative ministers including Alok Sharma and Lord Deben.

    Electric arc furnaces require only 9kg of coking coal a tonne of steel against 780kg for a tonne of blast furnace steel, according to the lobby group UK Steel.

    British blast furnaces produced 4.8m tonnes of steel in 2022, suggesting they may have used 3.7m tonnes of coking coal. Based on UK Steel’s figures, producing the same amount of steel in electric arc furnaces would require only 43,000 tonnes of coal, or about 1.7% of the Cumbrian mine’s output.

    The UK government’s decision notice last December approving the coalmine made reference to electric arc furnaces and other low-coal technologies, but said that there was “no certainty that electric arc furnaces will make a significant contribution to UK steel production”.

    Tony Bosworth, coal campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Michael Gove’s justification for approving the mine last December was largely that the steel industry would need coking coal for decades to come.

    “But it now seems the UK market will soon disappear. This follows similar signals from EU steelmakers who have already announced they’re moving to greener production methods.

    “This is all before construction on the mine has even begun, with the promised local jobs looking increasingly shaky in the medium term.”

    However, the mine still has the support of some Conservative MPs who argue the UK would benefit from 500 local jobs and would not have to import coal.

    Mark Jenkinson, the Conservative MP for Workington in west Cumbria and a former apprentice with British Steel, said he still 100% supported the new mine because of the continued need for coking coal in electric arc furnaces, and the desire to avoid emissions associated with transporting it into the UK.

    “They do use a lot less [coal], as they’re not using it for its thermal properties,” he said. “That would not be a good excuse to ship it from halfway across the world with the incumbent emissions.”

    West Cumbria Mining did not respond to a request for comment.

     

  • Amaroq secures two mineral exploration licences in Greenland

    Amaroq secures two mineral exploration licences in Greenland

    Amaroq Minerals has been awarded two new mineral exploration licences, covering a total area of 1,916.81km², by the Government of Greenland.

    The licences increase the company’s total land package in Greenland to 9,785.56km², making Amaroq the largest mineral exploration licence holder in the country.

    The two licences consist of Nunarsuit and Paatusoq West.

    The Nunarsuit licence connects the copper prospectivity seen at the Sava licence to the historical Josva copper mine in the Kobbermineburgt licence.

    It also comprises the Nunarsuit intrusion, an unexplored rare earth elements (REE) district within the Gardar province.

    The Paatusoq West licence covers the western extension of the Paatusaq Gardar intrusion.

  • UK announces support for moratorium on deep sea mining

    UK announces support for moratorium on deep sea mining

    The UK Government announced its support on Monday for a moratorium on the granting of exploitation licences for deep sea mining projects in an effort to aid the conservation of marine biodiversity.

    The move comes just ahead of UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) negotiations, also held on Monday in Jamaica, and one month ahead of the international climate summit COP28.

    The moratorium seeks to suspend exploration rights for the mining of critical minerals and precious metals from below the seabed by the ISA. The government will not support the issuing of any licences until “sufficient scientific evidence” is made available to assess the potential impact of deep sea mining activities on marine ecosystems, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement. It added that the suspension will stand until strong, enforceable environmental regulations, standards and guidelines have been developed and adopted by the ISA.

    The government also announced the deployment of a UK-based environmental science expert network on deep sea mining to further assess available data on the impacts of the industry.

    Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: “We will use our scientific expertise to fully understand the impact of deep sea mining on precious ecosystems; and in the meantime, we will not support or sponsor any exploitation licences.” She added that the moratorium will run parallel to the government’s wider efforts to conserve and enhance marine habitats around the world.

    The UK’s Environmental Audit Committee said in a statement that it welcomes the government’s decision. Committee chair, MP Philip Dunne, said: “As far back as 2019 our committee has warned that deep sea mining would have catastrophic impacts on habitats and species. As we approach net zero and the need to transition to a clean economy, the demand on precious resources that can be extracted by deep sea mining will inevitably increase.

  • Kazakhstan may receive uranium enrichment technology from French Orano

    Kazakhstan may receive uranium enrichment technology from French Orano

    “Currently, in accordance with the instructions of the head of state, the possibilities of Kazatomprom’s participation in uranium conversion and enrichment technologies are being considered. The Orano company is one of the world leaders, possessing all the technologies, and the agreement, which was signed at the Kazatomprom level, also involves studying the possibility of Kazatomprom entering and obtaining these technologies,” Mr. Satkaliev said at the briefing.

    The Minister of Energy emphasized that Kazakhstan needs to expand its presence in the full cycle of uranium processing.

    “We have unique competencies in mining and primary processing; we are number one in the world in uranium supply and uranium export. We have operating research reactors. That is, the missing link in this cycle is the conversion and enrichment of uranium, and now the Kazatomprom company, in accordance with the instructions of the head of state, is studying the possibility of covering this cycle,” added the head of the Ministry of Energy.

    He did not specify where the final products will be sent, noting that “it depends on world market conditions.”

    Earlier it was reported that the management of the Samruk-Kazyna state fund discussed with the chief operating officer of the Orano group, Nicolas Maes, the expansion of cooperation on the Kazakh-French uranium enterprise Katko LLP. The French side voiced a proposal to expand areas of cooperation, including the implementation of joint strategic projects outside of Kazakhstan.

    Kazakh-French joint venture Katko LLP was founded in 1996, its participants are Kazatomprom and Orano Mining – the Kazakh division of the French Orano Mining, which, in turn, is part of Orano SA. Katko mines uranium using the in-situ leaching method in the northern part of the N1 (South) section and in the N2 (Tortkuduk) section of the Moyynkum deposit in the Turkestan region of Kazakhstan.

    In December 2022, Kazatomprom and Orano Mining signed a memorandum of cooperation in the nuclear industry, in particular, on the further development of the Katko joint venture as part of the official visit of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to France.

    Kazatomprom, controlled by the state, is engaged in the mining of uranium, processing of rare metals, production and marketing of beryllium and tantalum products. Kazatomprom estimates its share in the global natural uranium mining market at 22% by the end of 2022. Kazakhstan annually supplies more than 45% of the world nuclear energy needs for uranium products.

  • Uzbekistan and France intend to expand cooperation on uranium mining

    Uzbekistan and France intend to expand cooperation on uranium mining

    President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Uzbek-French business forum held in Samarkand, held a meeting with the chairman of the French company Orano, Claude Imoven, the press service of the Uzbek leader reports.

    “At the meeting, initiatives to expand cooperation in the field of geological exploration and uranium mining were supported,” the statement said.

    The meeting took place as part of the official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Uzbekistan.

    Since December 2019, a joint venture for the exploration and production of uranium in the Navoi region, Nurlikum Mining, created by Orano (51%) and the State Committee for Geology (49%) has been operating in Uzbekistan. The resource base of the enterprise includes three promising areas of “sandstone” type uranium – Northern and Southern Dzhengeldy and Yangikuduk.

    In November 2022, as part of Mirziyoyev’s visit to Paris, the State Committee for Geology of Uzbekistan, the state-owned enterprise Navoiyuran and Orano Mining signed a trilateral agreement to expand cooperation in the mining and processing of uranium. The new agreement laid the foundation for the development of new uranium mines in Uzbekistan.

    The document also provided for the implementation of a number of joint initiatives, including the launch of new joint geological exploration projects, as well as support for Navoiyuran in the process of its modernization and transformation.

    It was previously reported that Uzbekistan wants to double uranium production to 7.1 thousand tons by 2030.

    According to the State Committee for Geology, the country’s uranium mineral resource base is made up of 27 deposits in the Kyzylkum region, the forecast reserves are estimated at approximately 55 thousand tons.

    Uzbekistan ranks seventh in the world in terms of uranium reserves and fifth in terms of its production volumes.

  • Why France’s Emmanuel Macron is courting Central Asia

    Why France’s Emmanuel Macron is courting Central Asia

    The trip is partly an attempt to drum up business and foster links with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but the key to understanding the presidential visit dates back to last July.

    A military coup in the West African country of Niger raised the prospect that supplies to France’s vital nuclear industry might be in jeopardy.

    In reality, the fears were overblown. Last year, Niger was only the second supplier of uranium to France. The first was the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan.

    President Macron spent Wednesday in Kazakhstan, the world’s largest producer of uranium. On Thursday, he is in Uzbekistan, like its neighbour a key producer of the fuel. Both are led by authoritarian governments.

    During a press conference in Wednesday Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev praised France as a “key and reliable partner”. Mr Macron returned the compliment, thanking Mr Tokayev for abiding by Western sanctions on Russia.

    With Russian oil exports to the EU having dropped precipitously since the invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan is now the EU’s third-largest petroleum supplier, after Norway and the US.

    But it is Central Asian uranium that is of particular interest to France, which relies on nuclear energy to generate more than 60% of its electricity, the highest share of any country. In return, Kazakhstan is seeking French knowhow as it seeks to develop its own engineers and domestic nuclear power industry.

    “The Kazakhs are very interested in our nuclear expertise,” said a member of the French delegation in Kazakhstan.

    France’s state-owned EDF is in the running to build Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant, while the government in Paris wants French universities to establish branches in Kazakhstan, the delegate said.

    France has traditionally imported a large share – though not most – of its uranium from mines operated by French companies in Niger. The future of that supply has been in doubt since a military coup brought an anti-French junta to power in July.

    At the time, Paris said the coup posed no immediate threat to its energy supply, claiming that it had enough uranium stocks to last around two years.

    But Mr Macron’s visit underlines the jitteriness felt in Paris about knock-in effects of political instability in such a vital supplier.

    The visit comes as Central Asia undergoes a profound shift in its relations with Russia, which dominated the region for over a century, says Dosym Satpayev, a political analyst based in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

    In the wake of the war in Ukraine, he said Russian influence there was diminishing.

    “There is less military co-operation, the perception of Russia since the war has worsened,” says Mr Satpayev. “Central Asian governments are not talking openly about it – but it is happening.”

    Accordingly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week denounced attempts to pull “neighbours, friends and allies” away from Moscow.

    But there are tensions in the budding relationship too.

    The EU and US have warned that Russia is bypassing sanctions by importing goods from the West via Central Asian countries. According to an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), these include DJI drones and Western-built microchips, imported via Russian-owned subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.

    The goods and components are used to fuel Russia’s war effort, the OCCRP says.

    As Russia beds in for a long war and Ukraine frets about Western support eroding its ability to hold off Moscow’s forces, the issue of parallel imports could prove a stumbling block in the budding Central Asia-EU warming of relations.

    Just as significant a theme is countering China’s influence.

    While Beijing still has a relatively light military presence in the region, its economic footprint in Central Asia has increased significantly in recent years. The “Belt” section of China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) refers to overland routes from China to Europe via Central Asia.

    More than 100 BRI projects have been funded in Central Asia, so that new projects are colloquially described as “Chinese”, reports say.

    France and the EU can never hope to match that degree of financial clout in a region that directly borders China.

    But with his visit, Mr Macron hopes to exploit the strategic opportunity presented by the war in Ukraine to tempt some of Russia’s traditional partners to look West.

  • HSBC takes stab at using blockchain to modernize London’s antiquated gold market

    HSBC takes stab at using blockchain to modernize London’s antiquated gold market

    One of the world’s top bullion banks is bringing blockchain to the antiquated London gold market.

    HSBC Holdings Plc has launched a platform that uses distributed ledger technology to tokenize ownership of physical gold held in its London vault, Mark Williamson, global head of FX and commodities partnerships and propositions, said in an interview. The new system creates digital tokens that represent gold bars, which can then be traded through the bank’s single-dealer platform.

    HSBC isn’t the first to attempt using blockchain to simplify gold investing. Crypto startup Paxos in 2016 teamed up with Euroclear to build a blockchain-based settlement service for trades on the London bullion market. But the firms dissolved the partnership the following year. Paxos still offers a digital token backed by phyisical gold, called Pax Gold, which has a total market value of $479 million, according to CoinGecko.

    What sets HSBC apart is its clout in the bullion market. It is one of the world’s largest custodians of precious metals and one of four clearers on the London gold market, where over $30 billion of the metal changes hands every day.

    Around 698,000 gold bars are stored in vaults in the Greater London area, valued at around $525 billion, according to the London Bullion Market Association. Despite its vast size, London’s gold market still relies heavily on manual record keeping and trades entirely over-the-counter.

    Using blockchain technology makes the process “quicker and less cumbersome” as clients can more easily track the gold they own through the platform, down to the serial number of each bar, Williamson said. HSBC plans to eventually expand its system to include other precious metals, he added.

    One token on HSBC’s new system is equivalent to 0.001 troy ounce, compared with 400 troy ounces for a London gold bar, the bank said in a statement. The system could in the future be used to allow direct investment in physical gold by retail investors, if local regulations where they are based permit, it said. The initial focus will be on institutional investors, Williamson said.

    HSBC’s gold system is part of a wider drive by the bank to use blockchain technology, which includes an existing platform for issuing and storing assets like digital bonds called HSBC Orion.

    Over the past year, other several large financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Euroclear and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have commercialized blockchain-based applications, marking an acceleration of sorts for deployment of distributed ledgers in mainstream finance. It remains to be seen whether these new platforms and applications will be adopted at scale by market participants, as well as whether they deliver the benefits proponents have long touted.

  • France is determined to gain access to Central Asia’s uranium – Azerbaijan’s key role in transit

    France is determined to gain access to Central Asia’s uranium – Azerbaijan’s key role in transit

    It is planned that the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Central Asia will bring concrete results in the mutual relations of this region with Europe. Macron has already arrived in Kazakhstan today. He is expected to leave for Uzbekistan tomorrow. In both cases, the main topic of discussion will be energy, especially nuclear energy, which is directly related to uranium mining, which is one of the main industries of these two Central Asian countries.

    The Elysee Palace has identified two main goals of the French leader’s visit to these countries. These goals include increasing the diversification of strategic and economic relations and strengthening the participation of these countries by signing agreements in areas such as energy, supply of mineral resources, transport and aviation. As reported, President Macron will be accompanied by ministers of industry and foreign trade, as well as about 15 heads of large corporations on his visit to Kazakhstan.

    France is particularly interested in participating in the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan (the question of the construction of the plant will be put to a referendum by the end of the year).

  • Agnico operating permit restored for Kittila mine in Finland

    Agnico operating permit restored for Kittila mine in Finland

    Canadian gold miner Agnico Eagle confirmed on Friday that its operating permit for the Kittila mine in Finland remains valid despite appeals for reconsideration, and, as a result, the company now expects to reach the upper end of its annual guidance.

    According to a ruling passed down by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland (SAC), Agnico’s operating permit has been restored to 2 million tonnes per annum, which the company has been operating at for the first nine months of 2023.

    Maintaining at this annualized mining rate would result in 30,000 oz. of additional production from the Kittila mine in the fourth quarter of 2023, Agnico said.

  • Finland Finds Key Rare Earth Minerals For The First Time

    Finland Finds Key Rare Earth Minerals For The First Time

    Two rare earth minerals have been found in Finland for the first time in what could be a boost to Europe’s supply of critical minerals necessary for the energy transition.

    Finnish Minerals Group said on Monday that Sokli and the Geological Survey of Finland had identified two new minerals, kukharenkoite and cordylite, through mineralogical characterization—the first such deposits identified in the country.

    The recently completed mineralogical analysis was aimed at charting the occurrence of rare earth elements (REE) in minerals.