Metals

Now, this is almost certainly an error of mine, not of theirs. But their Teleavour plan is from mica. OK, yes, sure there is much of that down there. Very similar to Zinnwald Lithium and European Metals – the processing system will be near exactly the same in fact.

Is this chemically possible? Sure. Business-possible? Well, they’ve done the numbers, not me.

But this, to me, is one of those blaring red-light neenaws.

High value by-products: kaolin, caesium and rubidium,
Potash, Amorphous Silica, Gypsum – Test work underway

Sure, kaolin, that’s China Clay. It’s an old China Clay pit so, well, obviously.

Again, this could just be me. But anyone claiming Rb as a valuable byproduct has some definite convincing to do to me.

High value co-products (caesium, rubidium & potash fertilizer)

Potash, sure. But rubidium?

The US uses a couple of tonnes (that’s two tonnes) a year. The prices given are catalogue prices. That is, this is the cost from a catalogue where copper will cost you $60 a gramme (as opposed to $7,000 a tonne in quantity). So, including the cost of the stock, the catalogue, the overnight delivery, the certainty of supply and so on and on.

A couple of tonnes a year, sure, there’s a business there. Hell, I ran one doing exactly that for a decade even if with a different material. But a high-value coproduct on a $250 million mine? Gerraway.

Please do note my point here. It’s not that Rb can’t be mined and sold in small quantity. It’s that anyone using Rb as an example of a moneymaker has achieved my scepticism.

Other parts of their story I think sound excellent – I know, independently, that the extraction from geothermal is viable in the chemistry set sense. Even, from the horse’s mouth, that it’s viable cashwise.

But I just can’t get over this prejudice that folk talking about Rb markets aren’t being serious.

The former son-in-law of Bernie Ecclestone has been cleared of forgery, but faces a re-trial for his alleged role in a £266m money laundering operation.

James Stunt, the 40-year-old ex-husband of heiress Petra Ecclestone, was one of eight defendants on trial in Leeds in relation to an alleged criminal network, which prosecutors said deposited cash in the bank account of Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield from 2014 to 2016.

Four of the defendants – Paul Miller, 45; Heidi Buckler, 45; Alexander Tulloch, 41 and Francesca Sota, 34 – were cleared of money laundering at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday. Ms Sota was also cleared of forgery.

But the jury of seven men and four women were unable to reach verdicts on the money laundering charge after deliberating for more than six days in the case of four other defendants – Mr Stunt; Greg Frankel, 44; Haroon Rashid, 51, and Daniel Rawson, 45.

Being found not guilty is the end of the matter, of course.

But this:

Prosecutors had said the eight defendants were part of a scheme to turn the proceeds of crime into untraceable gold.

Jurors heard that between 2014 and 2016 cash was brought from all over the country to Fowler Oldfield and Mr Stunt’s business premises in London.

It was alleged the defendants then hid its origin by washing it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold, which was shipped to Dubai.

Mr Stunt went into a business partnership with Fowler Oldfield’s directors Frankel and Rawson after being introduced to them at the Sheffield Assay Office, where he was building a refinery as part of his business plan to manufacture branded gold bars.

Prosecutors claimed this was when Mr Stunt got involved in the money laundering scheme, and cash started being counted at his London offices as well as Fowler Oldfield’s West Yorkshire premises.

I’ve long been of the – repeatedly expressed – opinion that gold bullion is a poor man’s belief about a rich man’s business. It’s a highly competitive business, margins are very tight. Sure, there’s large value moving through such a system, there’s a clip on every unit moving through it but it’s one that – without some edge to it – is dependent upon manufacturing efficiency rather than anything else.

Lee Stunt was chief operating officer of Stunt & Co, one of his younger brother’s companies, which sells gold bullion to investors.

Despite turning over more than £43 million, the company made a loss of £840,000 between November 2014 and March last year, according to the latest available accounts.

No comments, for obvious reasons.

France has been accused of helping to fund Vladimir Putin’s war effort by continuing to import nuclear fuel from Russia.

Greenpeace on Friday called it “scandalous” that uranium was still being bought by European companies to be used in nuclear power stations across the continent.

The campaigning charity this week filmed the arrival of dozens of drums of uranium, both raw and enriched, from Russia at the northern French port of Dunkirk.

Imports of nuclear fuel from Russia remain legal in Europe as Brussels has not been able to ban them in eight rounds of sanctions packages.

While Europe has been weaning itself off Russian fossil fuels since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, its nuclear sector is still heavily dependent on Russia and imports more than €200 million worth of uranium every year.

The idea that any revenue going into Atomenergoexport (if it’s still called that) will reach the Russian state is not just cute it’s laughable.

Plans to build the biggest lithium hydroxide refinery in Europe in Teesside have been given the go-ahead, paving the way for the creation of 1,000 jobs and a local supply of a key battery material.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council approved the plan for the plant, which is expected to produce the metal in refined form from 2025.

Since when is a hydroxide a metal?

Sigh.

No, they’ve not really quite grasped this.

The plant will receive material that is already quite high in lithium content after an initial refining process is carried out near to the mines in Australia which will supply it.

The refinery will then use green electricity from vast North Sea offshore wind farms to separate the material into lithium hydroxide and sulphuric acid as a byproduct, which can be sold to chemical firms locally.

Separate? Err, no.

Currently, it is estimated that more than 90pc of rare earth minerals are processed in China, even though the unrefined materials can be found in countries including Australia, the US, Chile and Argentina. Refined lithium is then used to make batteries for electric cars and a plethora of gadgets.

Lithium a rare earth? Err, no.

The other issue is that by definition such a plant processes spodumene concentrate. Which, given the rise of brines, geothermal and clay deposits might end up being the marginal production, the most expensive and the first to close as those other supplies rise. It’s a big bet that is, not a certain investment.

Not that there are all that many end of life solar cells currently, but there will be soon enough:

New research has proposed a cost-effective way to recycle solar panels to help handle an increasing volume of retired photovoltaic (PV) cells expected by the end of the decade.

In a paper published by a team from the University of New South Wales last week, researchers outlined a process to collect and extract valuable materials from solar arrays to see if it was technically, economically and environmentally feasible.

The process involves collecting solar arrays, stripping them of their aluminium frame, shredding the cells and using an electrostatic separation to collect valuable materials including silver and copper, reducing the panels to 2%-3% of their original weight.

The reclaimed material would then be shipped directly to a refinery for purification and processing.

Well, no, they’re not reducing the panels to 2 to 3% of their original weight. They’re stripping out the 2 to 3% that’s worth recycling, the rest goes to landfill (glass, plastic etc).

The process consists of module deframing, laminate shredding and material concentration using electrostatic separation. The latter outputs two fractions: a valuable mixture of silver, copper, aluminum and silicon, and a mixture of mostly glass, silicon and polymers. The valuable mixture accounts for only 2-3 wt% of the total module, which can be forwarded to the downstream industry for further refinement.

Now, of course, it’s a bit premature yet. But assume the paper actually stands up. The metals industry would happily take the Al/Cu/Ag/Si mix. Probably dump the Si along the way but still. Cu/Ag is old hat, a way to sift out the Al probably exists.

To be honest, if I knew of a 1 or 2 k tonnes a year stream of solar panels that could be had I’d probably try to set one of these little plants up. Because it would be a little plant. 5 tonnes a day of processing sort of size. Perhaps ship in a container sort of size.

She’s an economist. And has collected/been interested in minerals in the past.

Janet Yellen Likes Rocks. Foreign Diplomats Keep Giving Her Stamps.

So, combine the two. Some cassiterite from Cornwall. The very start of the Bronze Age…..we have direct evidence, from Phoenecian wrecks, of trade in Cornish tin back to 800 BC and possibly earlier.

For real fun add in some wolframite and tell the story of how it was exported to build the Kaiser’s Fleet.

Blue light from artificial sources is on the rise, which may have negative consequences for human health and the wider environment, according to a study.

Academics at the University of Exeter have identified a shift in the kind of lighting technologies European countries are using at night to brighten streets and buildings. Using images produced by the International Space Station (ISS), they have found that the orange-coloured emissions from older sodium lights are rapidly being replaced by white-coloured emissions produced by LEDs.

Those sodium bulbs – often – used scandium. To the point that when I was handling scandium going into the light bulb business – for a couple of years it was 100% of global usage in that industry, for near a decade around 80% or so – then pretty much anyone walking under a rich world streetlight was, in a tiny and infinitessimal way, trading with me.

But that market has distinctly shrunk. Down from perhaps 130 to 150 kg a year globally to 30kg last time I looked at it. Technological obsolescence is a bitch…..

Benedikt Sobotka, co-chairman of the Global Battery Alliance, said so-called ESG rules, which encourage investors to put money into green and socially responsible projects, are starving new mining projects of funds because they are perceived as dirty under current rules.

There’s no shortage of the metals themselves of course – but it’s entirely possible to have a surfeit of stupid rules.

Whether it’s a scam or not is another matter.

The base idea – that the wastes of the last generation (or, in Romania, three generations ago perhaps) of metal extraction technology are worth going over with this generation’s – yes, that works. Whether anything else in the story does, well, mebbe.

But what’s horribly obvious is that the reporter doesn’t understand the basics here.

Two industry sources explained to me that while most industrial waste possesses about 4% metal, the percentage in metal concentrate is at least 30. If the mining residue at Cuprom was typical industrial waste, then in order to become true metal concentrate it would have been necessary to undertake a lengthy process of refining and crushing, then mixing this material within considerable quantities of pure gold or copper. Only then could the magic 30% threshold be crossed. Otherwise, Roy Pitchford, a Zimbabwean mining executive, told me, Boldor was “just sending waste”.

No, copper concentrate might well be 30% Cu as the definition of what is usually traded. But there’s no strict dividing line between waste and concentrate.

Now the shipment sat on a quay in Hong Kong. It was colossal – more than 2,700 tonnes packed into 123 shipping containers – and, in addition to allegedly being worthless, Chinese authorities claimed that it contained toxic quantities of arsenic and cadmium, two chemicals often found in mining waste.

They’re not chemicals, they’re elements.

No, I know, trivia. But indicative of the way the reporter just doesn’t understand the basics of the business nor economics behind it.

As to whether it’s a scam? Sure…..

Copper Thieves Are Cutting Electric Car Charging Cables and Stealing Them

How much copper is in one?

$7 a kg is a reasonable guess. So, how many kgs? And the faster the charging ability I assume the thicker the cable, the more copper.

So, 10 kg a unit? Making this something adventurous teens to for a weekend’s booze and weed? Or 50kg, with there being several at a location, this is real business?

As well as have having mines in Russia’s far east, one of the company’s prized assets is its ownership of one of only two factories in the country that extract gold and metals from ore, a difficult process.

That’s normally called a refinery but no matter. What does is that bars from that refinery are no, or no longer, good delivery into the London and Chicago bullion markets. That rather crimps refinery margins. It’s entirely possible to sell the stuff but at a discount. Either in other markets, or to another refiner who then recasts it.

Something of a detail of course……

Mr. Orlowski interviewed me (“had a Skype chat with me”) for a column of his. Amazingly, it wasn’t the column about rare earths, Which is something of a pity really.

But it’s a dirty business – processing one ton of rare earths may generate around 2,000 tons of toxic byproducts.

No, really, no.

Whatever toxicity there is will already have been there in the host rock – the thorium say. So the worst that happens is that the stuff that was already here gets moved around a bit. And 2,000 to 1 ratios? That means that your original concentration of RE to rock must be 0.05%. Which isn’t something you would mine for REs.

Japan found this out the hard way in 2010, when the PRC suspended supplies to Japan over a diplomatic dispute. It cut exports by 40 per cent, and the global price quadrupled.

And what happened then? That’s right. Mountain Pass reopened, Lynas built their refinery, RE prices collapsed.

Even after the US military became so dependent on Beijing that its USAF fighters couldn’t take off without Chinese magnets,

As DoD has repeatedly said (that idea that the F35 requires 700 lbs, or 900 lbs, is absolute nonsense btw) they use so few rare earths that they don’t need a domestic supplier, they don’t need a stockpile. It’s Congress – being able to dole out the subsidies is such fun! – which has repeatedly insisted that they have both. DoD keeps saying “No, ta”.

For example, a trinity of three known as the NdPr metals powers every magnet in every wind turbine.

That’s two metals. it’s actually FeNdB and you can add Pr if you like. Also Dy and Tb for high temps if you really want to.

Even China does more processing than mining now, so our foreign relations, and ensuring the stability of source countries such as the Congo, is critical.

Congo has bugger all to do with REs.

Even without net zero, our future will need rare earths more than ever. Both gas and nuclear power stations require turbines, and the minerals are also critical in drones, microchips and satellites.

Turbines? REs? Nickel cobalt, sure, but REs?

Sigh.

“If you want to have a levelling-up agenda, if you want to have sovereign capability and to reach net zero, you need a British steel industry,” said Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for the Port Talbot region. “The clock is ticking. The blast furnace technology that we currently have is not compatible with the transition to net zero.”

Yes, quite so, Matey. But electric arc furnaces don’t require subsidy. We’ve already got lots of them. Therefore, get rid of the blast furnaces, sure, but no subsidy for you.

This is true for a few reasons. For example, helium atoms don’t like to make bonds with other elements or even themselves. This results in them having a very low density — much lower than the density of the particles that make up air, Toledo said.

Gold also, quite famously, doesn’t bond with other elements. It is very dense all the same. The density coming from the make up of the atom, not the behaviour of the atoms once made up.

Good God that’s bad science.

Lithium often comes from spodumene. Spod is also often enough a source for tantalum. Spod gets processed in great factories in China. Not all spod mines bother to extract the tantalite. But those vast waste streams in China from the spod concentrate processors – how much Ta is in there? And Nb, Sc and a couple of others too – quite possibly Sn and REs and Cs.

Not something I’m going to do but just that pesky thought. How good would the waste streams from spodumene concentrate processors be as ores?

Uganda on Wednesday said recent exploration surveys have shown it has gold ore deposits of about 31 million tonnes and it wants to attract big investors to develop the sector hitherto dominated by small wildcat miners.

Over the last two years aerial exploration was done across the country followed by geophysical and geochemical surveys and analyses, Solomon Muyita, spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, told Reuters.

Muyita said an estimated 320,158 tonnes of refined gold could be extracted from the 31 million tonnes of ore.

Damn foolery.

Firstly, the level of exploration they’ve done doesn’t prove anything of the sort. Aerial exploration just doesn’t prove to that sort of level of detail.

Secondly:

About 244,000 metric tons of gold has been discovered to date (187,000 metric tons historically produced plus current underground reserves of 57,000 metric tons).

So, you know, no.

What they’ve done – after that exploration and proof error – is get the units wrong. If 31 million tonnes of ore produces 310k tonnes of gold (to keep the numbers simple) then that’s 10kg of gold per tonne ore. Good gold ore these days is under 10 grammes per tonne ore.

320k kg, maybe and perhaps, though that would be damn rich even then. 320 tonnes.

Politicians and numbers, eh?

Original spotter Jeff Katz.

The state’s sparsely-populated Pilbara region remains a major hub for iron ore extraction, with workers typically flown out for weeks at a time by the likes of British giants Rio Tinto and BHP, as well as US-based Chevron.

They live in camp-style accommodation and spend long hours in the company of colleagues. For women, this crowded, male-dominated environment can prove not only exhausting but potentially dangerous.

Many said they faced leering male colleagues on a daily basis, inappropriate comments about their bodies or sex lives, the theft of underwear from laundry machines, unwanted advances and repeated sexual assaults.

Would be interesting to know actually. When did these sites become non-single sex?

However, the European Commission is currently assessing a proposal by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to classify lithium carbonate, chloride and hydroxide as dangerous for human health.

That would result in a more restrictive regulatory framework for their use at a time when the EU is aiming to be self-sufficient in electric vehicle batteries by 2025.

The proposal doesn’t ban lithium imports, but if legislated will add to costs for processors from more stringent rules controlling processing, packaging and storage.

Sigh

Another episode in that idea that we’re running out of stuff and no one may have party balloons any more.