FAKE NEWS AGAIN..!
Another "Nigerian letter" Fraud.
But the Chinese too is involved this time.
Can you believe it?
(Apologies for this long post. But finding the hidden truth is not being short.
)
All fake news are coming in recent days.
They want us to believe that lithium is dead. LOL...
That's why I'm saying;
"It seems that the area where China can move freely in terms of critical minerals is gradually narrowing. In an industry that grows over 30% every year, it is impossible for China to keep up with this growth and keep its supply chain competitive. All of this shows that China is cornering itself more and more as it increases battery and EV production".
Ask yourself;
If China is not short in lithium, what do they do with poor Nigerian lithium resources?
Even the Bloomberg article (link given below) asks;
"They’ve (the Chinese) been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022".
Why then?
LOL... That's what I am trying to tell.
Here is the fake news;
"Nigeria to open two Chinese-backed lithium processing plants this year"
Reuters, By Isaac AnyaoguMay 26, 2025
"
Nigeria is set to commission two major lithium processing plants this year, the country's mining minister announced on Sunday, marking a shift from raw mineral exports towards adding value domestically.
The facilities, largely funded by Chinese investors, could help transform Nigeria's vast mineral wealth into jobs, technology, and manufacturing growth within the country. Mining Minister Dele Alake said a $600 million lithium processing plant near the Kaduna-Niger border is slated for commissioning this quarter, while a $200 million lithium refinery on the outskirts of Abuja is nearing completion. Two additional processing plants are expected in Nasarawa state, which borders the capital Abuja, before the third quarter of 2025, the minister said. "We are now focused on turning our mineral wealth into domestic economic value - jobs, technology, and manufacturing," Alake said. Over 80% of the funding for the four facilities has been provided by Chinese firms, including Jiuling Lithium Mining Company and Canmax Technologies, opens new tab, according to separate announcements by governors of the states where the plants are located".
Why is it fake news?
- There has been no proof of any mine and processing facility images posted on anywhere including by Nigerian gov officials or the Chinese yet!
- It's well know that the Nigerian government is seeking to attract foreign investment as it promotes what ranks as "new oil" in what is sub-Saharan Africa's leading oil producer. Nigeria wants to require foreign investors to set up processing plants on its soil.
- It's clearly told by the AP journalist (at the link below) the Nigerian gov. had done many illegal mining arrests and prosecutions involving Chinese nationals in recent months. That must being done for pushing the Chinese to build some plants.
- Chinese has done something in Nigeria (where its was buying lithium ore from artisanal miners for long time) because they are pushed to do so by the Nigerian government. However there is no evidence of what has been done. (There was a construction started some time ago but it was primitive). We can't see what has been done now. It's hidden. Just the dollar numbers are flying around.
- It's also said on the Reuters article; "The Chinese firms did not immediately provide comment". They don't want to show anything about their plant.
- There are two Chinese companies involved in business there; Jiuling Lithium Mining Company and Canmax Technologies. See below for more info; "Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in CATL. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture. Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL."
- These two companies send the lithium ore to CATL. I found it out because of their close relations to CATL in China.
- The Bloomberg reporter (in below article) says "Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment."
- It's highly probable that the Chinese has built a small plant and make a little bit of beneficiation for sending a better ore to China. They wouldn't built a plant for making serious concentrate. So they don't want to publish any image of the plants there.
- The Chinese never wanted to do a serious lithium investment in Nigeria, not even an exploration work. Even Uba Saidu Malami, president of the Geological Society of Nigeria, said recently;"the Chinese will sometimes seek to move in before sufficient exploration work has been done regarding site viability".
- He added; "There is need for detailed exploration work to ascertain the reserves of lithium in those areas".
- He also added; "The Chinese "are cowboys when it comes to mining,... They move the excavator and just expand that physical extraction, which is not smart mining in these days of sustainable practice and environmental sensitivity."
- That's why because the Chinese should be knowing that the resources there are not economically viable for the long term investment.
- Also the Chinese knows that Nigeria is not a low risk country for making big investment.
- Nigeria has some lithium bearing resources and it's well know for 10 years.
- The Chinese has been there also for 10 years and buying raw hard rock from the local artisanal miners, especially heavily in last 4 years.
- The mining is being done by the artisanal miners, children involved, hand mined, hand picked, hand sorted by the children, hand transported.
- Artisanal mining is illegal in Nigeria however it doesn't matter for the Chinese.
- The ore mined by the locals including children, is the amblygonite ore.
- Amblygonite ore (LiAl(F,OH)PO4) contains high grade (8% to 10%) lithium but also the phosphorous and fluoride.
- Amblygonite ore is poisonous because of its phosphorous and fluoride content.That is quite dangerous for the miners and the children involved.
- Processing amblygonite ore is expensive due to its phosphate and fluoride components complicate processing (compared to spodumene, which is a simpler silicate mineral).
- Artisanal miners say "most of the buyers are Chinese. Either they come to our warehouse to buy" (They are all Chines actually)
- Charles Asiegbu, an analyst said; "Quite apart from associated environmental risks, artisanal lithium mining can stoke local conflict,..It can happen between communities where there's a disagreement on where the resource is actually located.. It could also happen between communities and exploration companies... organised armed groups also take advantage of a lack of government presence in some areas "to illegally extract these resources."
"
Nigeria's lithium mining Eldorado sparks concerns"
Nasarawa (Nigeria) (AFP),
Feb.2, 2025.
"In Nigeria’s lithium boom, many mines are illegal and children do much of the work"
Taiwo Adebbayo (Nigeria) AP,
Dec. 12, 2024
This is also a recent article. See what a true journalist says (not like the fake one here
).
And watch the video to see how the children work.
Pay attention type of the ore in the hands of children. It's not spodumene even not lepidolite. I sent this video to an mineral process expert. He said it's amblygonite ore. It contains high grade (8% to 10%) lithium but also the phosphorous and fluoride but poisonous.
The journalist says the Chinese doesn't care about anything..!
Yes, it doesn't matter for the Chinese as we know. They process every kind of lithium because they are short in lithium.
"
The Associated Press recently traveled to the deep bush of Pasali, near the federal capital of Abuja in Nasarawa state, to follow and interview miners operating illegal mines, including the one where Juliet works. AP also witnessed negotiations and an agreement to purchase lithium by a Chinese company with no questions about the source of the lithium or how it was obtained".
Aliyu Ibrahim, a lithium merchant in Nasarawa, owns unlicensed mines and also buys lithium ore from other illegal sites. At his warehouse,
he told AP that
his business flourishes by paying officials to look the other way. Ibrahim said
he then sells his lithium in bulk to Chinese companies.Ibrahim said he knows that children are working at his mines and others he buys from, but he said many of
the children are orphans or poor.“
It is dangerous, but the work helps them survive, while the government has abandoned poor people,” he said.
"C
hina’s citizens and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining in several countries. Nigeria has seen multiple cases of illegal mining arrests and prosecutions involving Chinese nationals in recent months. Experts say the materials are exported in a variety of ways, including shipping with false documentation or concealment within legitimate shipments".
Also there are others buy the lithium ore from the local artisanal miners, it's not only Chinese as well.
See this one;
Continental Lithium.
A Westerner guy, buys the lithium in bags and tries to sell to Chinese probably.
He pretends as if he has a lithium project there. But this is his warehouse Full of ore bag.
CATL related two companies now doing business in Nigeria;
Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd.
It's all started in Nigeria by a Chinese guy who owned a company called "
Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd.". It was a Nigerian registered company but having the same name with the well known Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. The just recently Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. bought this company.
See this recent article from Mining.com;
"
Chinese lithium firms take over copycat Nigeria refinery project"
Bloomberg News, February 12, 2025
"
Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.
A joint venture between Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. last year took a controlling interest in Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a firm developing a lithium plant in the north of the West African nation, according to company documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Nigeria-registered Ganfeng was founded by Chinese businessmen in 2022, and created confusion a year later when it hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the processing plant, which local authorities said will cost $250 million.
Shortly after the event, the company issued a statement to local media saying it had “no formal affiliation whatsoever” with Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. A company representative offered no explanation as to why it was trading under a similar name.
Canmax and Jiuling’s takeover of the company — which corporate records show occurred in mid-2024 — brings financial clout and operating nous to the development of Nigeria’s nascent lithium industry, which has typically shipped raw ore to China for further treatment.
The investments signal that Chinese lithium companies are doubling down on efforts to lock down feedstock in anticipation of soaring future demand for the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries.
They’ve been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022.
Separately, Canmax also announced this month that it will invest over $200 million to develop two lithium mining deposits elsewhere in northern Nigeria, working with local company Three Crown Mines Ltd.
Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., the world’s top EV battery maker. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture.
Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL."
The Nigerian Ganfeng signed an agreement in September allowing the company to mine lithium for 10 years under permits held by a firm owned by the government of Nasarawa state – the location of the plant under construction.
The first phase of the facility is due for completion by the middle of this year and the second phase four months later, said Ibrahim Abdullahi, the chief executive officer of the state’s development and investment agency. “Nasarawa state is pleased with this investment and welcomes more of it,” he said.
Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment.
Nigeria’s federal mines ministry didn’t respond to questions about the acquisition or how much lithium concentrate it will produce.
(20min delay)