| Click on blue article title to read full story. | | | | Cobalt | | | | Reuters US News - March 20, 2018 LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - The automotive industry is waking up too late to the fact that China will hold most of the world’s supply...... supply of cobalt, a key metal for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said on Tuesday. “If cobalt The automotive industry is waking up too late to the fact that China will hold most of the world’s supply of cobalt, a key metal for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said on Tuesday…More than 60 percent of global cobalt production comes from the DRC. Glencore, the world’s biggest producer, agreed last week to sell a third of its output to China’s GEM…A byproduct of copper and nickel smelting, cobalt extends the life of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which automakers typically guarantee for eight to 10 years…Reuters reported last year that Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) had agreed a deal late in 2016 to buy large amounts of cobalt from Glencore. | | FT - March 21, 2018 CEO Western carmakers have yet to wake up to the limited supply of cobalt and risk being left behind by their Chinese rivals, according to the chief executive of the world’s biggest producer of the battery metal “The motor car industry hasn’t woken up to the fact, I don’t think, how important cobalt is and how ‘tight’ cobalt is,” Mr Glasenberg told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne…“The Chinese will have most of the offtake of cobalt. They’re not going to sell batteries to the world, more than likely they’ll produce batteries in China and sell electric vehicles to the world,” Mr Glasenberg told the conference…Glencore is facing a fivefold rise in the royalty it has to pay to the DRC government on cobalt under a mining code signed this month by president Joseph Kabila. | | | | | EVs | | | | Unknown - March 21, 2018 Munich (Reuters) - German carmaker BMW will increase research and development (R&D) spending to an all-time high of up to 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) this year as part of efforts to bring 25 electrified models to market by 2025. Spending on developing electric and autonomous cars pushed R&D costs a billion euros higher last year, reaching 6.1 billion euros…“Investment will rise by a further high three-digit million euro amount year-on-year, primarily from the ongoing new model initiative as well as continued work on e-mobility and autonomous driving,” BMW said in a statement on Wednesday…Separately, BMW said the prospect of diesel bans had hit the second-hand values of some cars, leading to a rise in the credit loss ratio to 0.34 percent, from 0.32 percent a year earlier, reflecting “the situation in the used car markets in North America and Europe.” | | Yonhap News Agency - March 20, 2018 By Kim Kwang-tae SEOUL, March 21 (Yonhap) -- LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's top chemicals company, said Wednesday that it has been selected... , said Wednesday that it has been selected as a supplier of electric vehicle batteries to German carmaker Volkswagen. "We have received a Currently, the South Korean company is a key supplier of batteries to U.S. auto giant General Motors, Volvo, Renault, as well as South Korea's largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Co., and its smaller affiliate, Kia Motors Corp…LG Chem operates electric vehicle battery plants in South Korea, China, the United States and Poland. | | | | | Congo | | | | Reuters US News - March 20, 2018 KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said on Tuesday it would open negotiations with mining companies on Wednesday about... new law. However, officials in Congo, which is Africa’s top copper producer and mines more than half the world’s cobalt, have said that no Miners enjoyed a 10-year protection under the former code’s stability clause against changes to the fiscal and customs regime but those were annulled by the new law, which says that its provisions enter into effect immediately…The companies still hope the government will honor the 10-year exemptions but Congolese officials have said no compromises reached in the talks can contradict provisions in the code…The work plan refers only to “the guarantee of stability of the revised mining code (five years for new mining rights)” and not to protection for mining titles that existed under the previous code…It also calls for discussions about royalty increases, which would raise payments up to five-fold on metals designated “strategic substances” by the government. | | Bloomberg - March 20, 2018 The shares fell as much as 13% after article raises tax fears Miner refutes assessment, saying it will work with authorities Zambia handed First Quantum Minerals Ltd. a $7.9 billion tax bill and said it’s planning an audit of other mining companies going back six years. The Canadian miner’s shares fell the most in almost two years…First Quantum isn’t the first miner to be hit with a massive tax bill for operations in Africa. Last summer, Tanzania sent Acacia Mining Plc a demand for payment equal to almost two centuries’ worth of the gold miner’s revenue. And the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving ahead with a new mining code that would dramatically raise taxes and royalty payments. | | CAJ News Africa - March 21, 2018 From JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – GOVERNMENT forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have killed at least...... in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have killed at least 47 people, including women and children, during protests against President GOVERNMENT forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have killed at least 47 people, including women and children, during protests against President Joseph Kabila this year. There are indications security services attempted to cover up the violations by removing bodies of victims and obstructing the work of national and international observers…Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC, Leila Zerrougui, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, jointly stated, “We are seeing the quashing of dissent at all costs even at the cost of human life.”…The Central African country of some 80 million people is beset by tensions since Kabila stayed in power despite the lapse of his term in 2016. | | | | | | |