Far from dying, the coal industry is actually booming. Just look at these signs
What’s good for coal companies is terrible news for the planet. The commodity is the world’s most carbon-intensive fuel, and every energy scenario compatible with net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 features a rapid decline in its use.
In late 2021, diplomats spent hours arguing over whether to "phase-out" or "phase-down" coal in the final communique of the COP26 climate change summit. Under pressure from China and India, the watered-down second choice prevailed. Still, it was good enough for the United Nations to proclaim that the dirtiest fuel was being "consigned to history."
Rare earths reveal new info in volcanoes’ CO2 emissions
Mount Etna.
Researchers at Germany’s University of Cologne, the Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria of the Italian National Research Council and the University of Florence used two rare elements, niobium (Nb) and tantalum (Ta), as tracers to analyze magmas from four volcanoes and investigate their carbon dioxide emissions.
In detail, the researchers looked at the Etna, Vulture, Stromboli, and Pantelleria volcanoes and determined that the transport of carbon dioxide stored in the Earth’s lithospheric mantle beneath the Hyblean Plateau in southern Italy at a depth of approximately 50 to 150 kilometers is responsible for the exceptionally large CO2 emission of Mount Etna.
In a paper published in the journal Geology, the scientists explain that over geological times, variations in atmospheric CO2 depended mainly on volcanic emissions, which are difficult to estimate because they are not directly related to the volume of the magmas that erupted. Indeed, some volcanoes show exceptionally large emissions of CO2 when compared to the amount that can be dissolved in their magmas. Etna is perhaps the most striking example, contributing to 10% (9000 tons/day) of the present global volcanic CO2 emission. That is three times more CO2 than a volcano like Kilauea in Hawaii emits, which erupts four times more magma.
But ratios of Nb/Ta are very constant in many rocks and are only modified by few geological processes—like the infiltration of carbonate-rich melts in earth’s mantle.
China has cleared most of the Australian coal that had been held at Chinese ports due to a coal import ban, according to Fengkuang Coal Logistics.
The data released by the General Administration of Customs of China on January 21 shows that 5.6 million tonnes of Australian coking coal that was detained in Hong Kong – including 706,000 tonnes in October, 2.67 million tonnes in November, and 2.42 million tonnes in December – has been released.
China has historically been reliant on Australian high-grade coking coal, however, in the wake of the import ban, China has turned its sights to North America.
Throughout 2021, China imported 9.29 million tonnes of US coking coal, a 977.4 per cent increase on the previous year, taking its coking coal imports to 18.7 per cent of China’s imports, according to Fengkuang Coal Logistics.
In December, the import volume of Canadian coking coal increased by 23 per cent from the previous month to 1.11 million tonnes.
2022 – a year of rebalancing for metals and mining
Singapore, 24 January 2021 – If 2021 was the year of rebound for metals and mining (M&M) commodities, then 2022 is shaping as the year of rebalance, says Wood Mackenzie, a Verisk business (Nasdaq:VRSK).
Wood Mackenzie vice chair Julian Kettle said: “The most likely outcome is an environment where commodity prices can settle from the extraordinary highs of 2021. But there are plenty of risks to this outlook. The pandemic’s tendrils continue to ensnare markets for all mined commodities.”
Much of the evidence points to a year of lower demand growth. Government stimulus could wane, while fiscal and monetary policy will tighten. 2022 should be a year when supply chains refill and start to better meet the needs of consumers.
But there is plenty of uncertainty. With lockdowns out of favour in most places, the demand risks from new variants may be usurped by supply and logistics impacts, as workers isolate or refuse to vaccinate. Stimulus could be prolonged too, as governments, and central banks, fret more about the impact on growth than the looming inflation risk. China’s economy-versus-emissions dilemma will be critical to M&M markets.
Rio Tinto and Mongolia settle feud over Oyu Tolgoi copper mine
Deal marks a positive development for Anglo-Australian mining giant
The Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia's South Gobi region. Mongolia owns 34% of what is one of the world's largest-known copper and gold deposits, with Rio controlling the rest.
Rio Tinto Plc and the Mongolian government said on Tuesday they have reached an agreement to end a long-running dispute over the $6.93 billion expansion project for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project.
The deal marks a positive development for the Anglo-Australian mining giant, which is reeling from Serbia's rejection last week of its proposed lithium mine as well as local opposition to projects in Guinea, the United States and elsewhere.
"It's a major relief. It's a huge step forward for us," Rio Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm told Reuters via phone from Ulaanbaatar ahead of a flight to the mine site for a ribbon-cutting ceremony later on Tuesday with Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai.
"We are very comfortable with this outcome and, more than anything, achieving a full reset of the relationship," said Stausholm, who became CEO last year.
Stausholm visited Mongolia multiple times in recent months in an attempt to salvage the project amid mounting concerns that the economic benefits of the project for Mongolians were being eroded.
Acquisitions increased significantly in the mining industry in H2 2021
In the second half of 2021, acquisitions increased significantly by 106.2% from the same period in 2020.
This marks an acceleration in growth from the 78.6% increase in deals seen from the first six months of 2020 to the same period in 2021.
During this time, the region that saw the biggest increase in the number of deals was the Asia-Pacific region, with deals rising by 200% in the region.
From the second half of 2020 to the second half of 2021, the largest regional increase in deals was also seen in the Asia-Pacific region, with a 900% increase.
Buying Canadian lithium firm part of China's aim to dominate high-tech manufacturing, MPs told
'How can Canada build a lithium supply chain or any other critical mineral for that matter, when it allows the assets of Canadian companies to be acquired'
China buying a Canadian lithium mining company is part of a wider strategy by the Chinese to become “dominant in global high-tech manufacturing,” an analyst told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.
“Securing access to lithium and other critical mineral reserves is essential to the achievement” of that industrial policy, said Jeff Kucharski, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and adjunct professor at Royal Roads University.
The U.S. Department of the Interior canceled two mineral leases for Antofagasta Plc’s proposed Twin Metals copper and nickel mine in Minnesota on Wednesday, effectively killing the project and handing a major win to environmentalists.
The decision shows President Joe Biden’s administration is increasingly comfortable prioritizing domestic conservation efforts even as demand for minerals used to build electric vehicles rises amid efforts to combat climate change.
The leases for the proposed mine in northern Minnesota had first been pulled by then-President Barack Obama’s administration in 2016. But President Donald Trump’s administration reversed that decision.
Biden officials on Wednesday said Trump erred in giving the leases back.
“We found the leases were improperly renewed in violation of applicable statutes and regulations, and we are taking action to cancel them,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, adding that her department has a responsibility to “ensure that no lessee receives special treatment,” though she did not elaborate.
Twin Metals, which is controlled by Chile’s Antofagasta, said it feels the decision was based on politics and not science.
