Ann: OFFTAKE MOU WITH LEADING CHINESE VANADIUM NITROGEN PRODUCER, page-31

Surely the US is the answer to all our questions????

We have two non-binding deals with (yes relatively high quality) Chinese offtake partners. But who of us would rather hear that we have deals into the US (with project finance attached)?

I've lifted the following article (below the list) from the HXG thread as well as the latest list of critical minerals (obviously Vanadium is one). Under the Executive Order (Trump), these commodities qualify as “critical minerals” because each has been identified as a non-fuel mineral or mineral material that is essential to the economic and national security of the United States, that has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption, and that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economy or national security.the list below of the critical minerals that the US feel they need to ward off the threat that China could choke off supply to the US as part of the escalating 'trade war' that we are all being caught up in.

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The full list of critical minerals includes the following—click a mineral’s name to find relevant statistics and publications:

Aluminum (bauxite), used in almost all sectors of the economy
Antimony, used in batteries and flame retardants
Arsenic, used in lumber preservatives, pesticides, and semi-conductors
Barite, used in cement and petroleum industries
Beryllium, used as an alloying agent in aerospace and defense industries
Bismuth, used in medical and atomic research
Cesium, used in research and development
Chromium, used primarily in stainless steel and other alloys
Cobalt, used in rechargeable batteries and superalloys
Fluorspar, used in the manufacture of aluminum, gasoline, and uranium fuel
Gallium, used for integrated circuits and optical devices like LEDs
Germanium, used for fiber optics and night vision applications
Graphite (natural), used for lubricants, batteries, and fuel cells
Hafnium, used for nuclear control rods, alloys, and high-temperature ceramics
Helium, used for MRIs, lifting agent, and research
Indium, mostly used in LCD screens
Lithium, used primarily for batteries
Magnesium, used in furnace linings for manufacturing steel and ceramics
Manganese, used in steelmaking
Niobium, used mostly in steel alloys
Platinum group metals, used for catalytic agents
Potash, primarily used as a fertilizer
Rare earth elements group, primarily used in batteries and electronics
Rhenium, used for lead-free gasoline and superalloys
Rubidium, used for research and development in electronics
Scandium, used for alloys and fuel cells
Strontium, used for pyrotechnics and ceramic magnets
Tantalum, used in electronic components, mostly capacitors
Tellurium, used in steelmaking and solar cells
Tin, used as protective coatings and alloys for steel
Titanium, overwhelmingly used as a white pigment or metal alloys
Tungsten, primarily used to make wear-resistant metals
Uranium, mostly used for nuclear fuel
Vanadium, primarily used for titanium alloys
Zirconium, used in the high-temperature ceramics industries

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US, Australia pursue rare earths foil to China

"Given the intensity of the US-China trade war, the Trump administration has resolved that it is a national security priority to eliminate the dependence of the US military on Chinese supplies of critical minerals, particularly rare earths and derivative products," notes the report's author, David Uren.
A Trump administration official said during Mr Morrison's visit: "We [are] looking at different ways in which we can pool our expertise and our resources to make sure that there's a stable and secure global market that's not easily disrupted by shocks and outside influences."Critical minerals, including rare earths, lithium, copper and cobalt, are a vital part of the defence supply chain, being used in everything from weapons guidance systems to improving the durability of electronics used in the field. They are also vital for wind turbines and electric vehicles.
ASX-listed Lynas is the biggest supplier of rare earths outside China, and is edging closer to making an official call on building a first-stage processing plant next door to BHP’s Nickel West operations outside Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia.Mr Ross is expected to meet Mr Morrison, Trade and Investment Minister Simon Birmingham and business leaders during the visit.The US-China trade war and broader US-Australia trade and investment relations are also expected to be discussed during Mr Ross' visit.He will be the keynote speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia lunch on Thursday in Sydney, in an address promoting Mr Ross as the "principal voice of business in the Trump administration".
The US Studies Centre report probes whether the government should use taxpayer money to develop rare earths."Australia has at least half a dozen rare earth projects ready for development but needing commitments from potential customers and financiers," Mr Uren noted."Neither banks nor equity markets will finance them."The Australian government could, at a stretch, use the 'national interest account' at Export Finance Australia to assist."However, it would have to go into any such commitment with its eyes open to the possibility of losses to the taxpayer – rare earths have often been in oversupply with poor prices."The Morrison government has put a heavy focus on downstream investment in rare earthsand other so-called critical minerals processing since their supply emerged as a flashpoint in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
Lynas is the only non-Chinese supplier of any scale for rare earth materials such as neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) used in permanent magnets. In partnership with Blue Line Corporation, the company is working on plans to develop a heavy rare earth separation capacity at a plant in Texas.

US races to build critical minerals alliances

Gardar "has great potential for new discoveries of a range of mineral commodities, including rare earth elements", according to the US Department of State.And that's really the point. Greenland has flashed onto the presidential radar because the United States is rushing to build out new critical minerals supply chains to break its dependency on China.Dependency on ChinaThe Pentagon has been worrying for years about the United States' growing dependence on China and what it terms other "unreliable" countries for a broad spectrum of minerals.
Such concerns were thrown into sharp relief in May, when Chinese president Xi Jinping used a visit to a rare earths magnet plant to send a thinly veiled warning about the potential costs to the United States of escalating trade tensions.Those costs are potentially very high indeed since the United States and the rest of the world are almost 100 per cent reliant on China's rare earths production and exports.Even the only operating US rare earths mine, Mountain Pass in California, has to ship its product to China for processing.So far at least, China hasn't used its "rare earths gun".
The country's exports are running steady albeit marginally off last year's pace, while shipments of rare earth magnets to the United States hit a three-year high in August.But China's sabre-rattling has spurred a scramble by the United States to seek out potential new suppliers for both rare earths and the other 34 minerals identified as "critical" by the Department of the Interior.All are "critical" both in terms of their military applications and in terms of US import dependency, particularly when that dependency is on countries classified as potentially hostile.The United States is now on an accelerated path towards building out more reliable and sustainable supply chains.A key part of that process, as laid out by the Commerce Department's critical minerals strategy, published in June this year, is forming alliances with "friendly" suppliers.Canada and Australia Top of the list are Canada and Australia. High-level discussions have already taken place with both countries.President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed "ways to improve mineral security and (...) work more closely to ensure secure and reliable supply chains" at a meeting in June.The official Canadian press statement also noted that Trudeau "highlighted the importance of Canadian uranium to North American energy security", a pointed reference to an ongoing US investigation into uranium import dependency.The two countries also clashed over US import duties on Canadian aluminium until it was exempted from the tariff hit-list in May.Such diplomatic jostling aside, however, Canada has a lot to offer the United States when it comes to supply critical minerals.Canada is a already a leading producer of nickel and cobalt and has another 70 advanced projects for both metals, according to a July presentation by Hilary Morgan, director international affairs at Natural Resources Canada.Also ticking the US metallic wish list are Canada's 16 advanced rare earths projects and its 17 advanced and near-stage lithium projects.Australia, meanwhile, is already a growing lithium production powerhouse and in the form of Lynas Corp boasts the only vertically integrated rare earths producer outside of China."The US increasingly requires critical minerals to serve its growing high-tech industries and Australia possesses the raw materials to meet this need," boasts an Australian government report.
Diversified supplies keyBut as Trump's interest in Greenland shows, the United States is looking anywhere and everywhere to diversify its critical minerals imports.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met late September at the United Nations Assembly with representatives of nine other countries under the banner of the newly-established Energy Resource Governance Initiative (ERGI).As the name implies, the specific focus is on new-energy minerals such as lithium, cobalt and copper. The aim is to share "best practices on minerals management and governance" to promote "integrated and resilient supply chains" as the electric vehicle revolution builds momentum.The list of participating countries includes major existing producer countries such as Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia but also potential future suppliers such as Botswana, Namibia and the Philippines.Central to US minerals strategic thinking is the need to move beyond relying on any one country, even if it is a "friendly" one."We are looking for any source of supply outside China. We want diversity. We don't want a single-source producer," Jason Nie, a material engineer with the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), told Reuters on the sidelines of the Argus US Specialty Metals conference in Chicago.The DLA is charged not only with managing the Pentagon's materials stockpile but also with trying to facilitate financing and offtake arrangements for potential new projects.It is another part of a multi-pronged US minerals strategy which will redraw the global map.Greenland may not be for sale, as President Trump has found out. But its minerals are.And it won't be the last resource-rich country to get a US tap on its shoulder in the weeks and months ahead.