| Click on blue article title to read full article. | | | | Cobalt | | | | Bloomberg - March 26, 2018 China’s Huayou is among companies working to track mine output Child labor was found in some mines in Congo, biggest producer from artisanal sites, where miners dig by hand in often risky conditions. The program follows efforts to track supply of conflictminerals China’s Huayou Cobalt Co. is among refiners, miners, gadget firms and global carmakers collaborating in the Better Cobalt trial project that seeks to track supply from Congo mines to the batteries used in phones and vehicles, said Nicholas Garrett, a director at the Better Sourcing Program running the pilot. He declined to name other members while contracts are being completed…"It is literally impossible at the moment for any company to say that their cobalt supply chain is highly ethical," Garrett said. | | BloombergQuint - March 26, 2018 (Bloomberg) -- A little-known cobalt miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo plans to ramp up output so fast it will soon be out-produced only by industry leader Glencore Plc. Chemaf Sarl, a closely held Lubumbashi-based company, and several other firms are capitalizing on a boom in demand that’ …This surplus will become a deficit when an expected surge in electric-vehicle sales kicks in after 2020 because no new “meaningful” cobalt assets are expected to enter production in that period, according to Darton…Congo dominates output of the metal. Last year, the central African nation produced two-thirds of global supply, or 81,000 tons, according to Darton. Half of that amount came from the country’s two largest copper mines: China Molybdenum Co.-controlled Tenke Fungurume Mining and Glencore-owned Mutanda Mining…The predicted rise in electric-vehicle production will require annual cobalt production of 314,000 tons by 2030, Glencore Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg said in December. | | | | | EVs & Energy Storage | | | | CNBC - March 27, 2018 NAMIE, Japan, March 27 (Reuters) - At a small plant intended to help revitalise a town ravaged by the 2011 earthquake, Nissan Motor Co is... Bracing for a sharp increase in the price of key EV battery materials, including cobalt, nickel, and lithium, more automakers are focussing At a small plant intended to help revitalise a town ravaged by the 2011 earthquake, Nissan Motor Co is giving its costly electric vehicle (EV) batteries new life after they pass their peak performance…They will be sold in Japan for 300,000 yen ($2,855.51), roughly half the price of brand-new replacement batteries for the world's first and best selling mass-marketed all-battery EV…"By reusing spent EV batteries, we wanted to raise the (residual) value of EVs and make them more accessible,"…Modules with capacities above 80 percent are assigned for use in replacement Leaf batteries; lesser modules are reassembled and sold as batteries for fork lifts, golf carts, and lower-energy applications such as streetlamps. | | Reuters US News - March 27, 2018 China said it will work to improve levels of standardization in its electric vehicle industry - a sector it is aggressively promoting to help combat smog and to position the country as a leading car-making giant in the future. This year its standardization efforts will focus on recharging, battery design and fuel consumption, the industry ministry said in a statement…China will also work to promote its own standards and benchmarks for electric and plug-in electric vehicles overseas, taking advantage of economies of scale to become a global leader in standardization, it said…Some 777,000 NEVs were sold in China in 2017, a jump of 53 percent on the year and the most sold in any one country. Beijing aims to bring annual sales to 2 million units by 2020. | | Reuters US News - March 26, 2018 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s environment ministry has urged 28 northern cities to shut factories to tackle a bout of heavy smog in the... ) - China’s environment ministry has urged 28 northern cities to shut factories to tackle a bout of heavy smog in the region, the Shanghai The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) said on Sunday that it had told cities to take emergency action to tackle this week’s smog and to strengthen supervision…China’s winter campaign to force 28 northern cities to shut plants and restrict traffic came to an end earlier this month, but the major steel-producing city of Tangshan has already announced plans to extend the curbs until November. | | | | | Congo | | | | Reuters US News - March 26, 2018 KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said on Monday it would refuse international financing for a long-delayed presidential... to finance the polls. Congo is the world’s biggest source of cobalt and Africa’s top copper producer. Mining sector revenue rose nearly 36 The United States and European countries have expressed concern about the electoral commission’s plans to use 100,000 new electronic voting machines, saying the system is untested and could allow fraud…The presidential election - now scheduled for December 23 - has been repeatedly delayed since Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate in 2016, with the government citing financial constraints as a main reason…The United Nations has asked international donors to contribute $123 million to support presidential, legislative and local elections over the next two years, whose total cost is expected to run to more than $1 billion…Mende said the government’s decision to reject such aid was prompted in part by an upturn in government revenues from its mining sector, which has left more money to finance the polls. | | Yahoo! New Zealand - News - March 26, 2018 Tshikapa (DR Congo) (AFP) - Of the many headaches facing the UN mission in DR Congo as its mandate comes up for renewal, few are greater... -- compounded by dangerous uncertainty over the country's political future -- lies at the heart of many problems in the DRC. Presidential Reports of killings, arbitrary arrests and kidnapping with ransom demands are common, with the finger of blame pointing at government troops and militias that often are organised along ethnic lines…One militia is the Bana Mura, formed by members of the Tshokwe ethnic group. Another is the Ecurie Mbembe (Mbembe Stable) militia, created by the Pende community…International rights activists last year said the Bana Mura was being supported by the government, and local campaigners say the authorities are also supporting the Ecurie Mbeme…Analysts, though, say that the weakness of the state -- compounded by dangerous uncertainty over the country's political future -- lies at the heart of many problems in the DRC. | | | | |