Maybe read this.....
(And stop writing in capital letters, it shows a lack of maturity)
Mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the CongoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The
mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo plays a significant role in the world's supply of cobalt,
[1] copper, diamond, tantalum, tin, gold and produces over 70% of globally produced cobalt. It is the
Democratic Republic of the Congo's largest source of
export income.
Cobalt electrolytic and 1cm3 cube
Diamonds- Zaire, (DR Congo)
The
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is widely known to be the wealthiest country in the world, in untapped resource wealth and has an estimated US$24 trillion in untapped mineral deposits,
[2] including the world's largest reserves of
coltan (where elements
niobium and
tantalum are extracted) and significant quantities of the world's
cobalt[3][4] and
lithium.
[5] The DRC has limitless water, from the world's second largest river, the Congo, a mild climate, rich soil makes it fertile and beneath the soil an abundance.
[6] These mineral reserves are of global importance.
The country holds vast quantities of the minerals that will be critical drivers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). In 2018 studies reported a significant high-grade lithium deposit, estimated to have the potential of 1.5 billion tons of lithium
spodumene hard rock situated in Manono, central DRC. Mining lithium in the DRC is expected to have global significance with the upsurge of the electric vehicle (EV) battery industry, allowing the DRC to further tap its vast mineral wealth.
The country has vast potential in hydroelectricity, the second stage of the hydroelectric dam was completed in 1982 on the lower Congo River at Inga Falls, with a large portion of power supplying hydroelectricity to the mining industry and Kinshasa. Further plans are to build the proposed 11,050 MW Inga III hydropower project with the construction of two dams. There will be approximately 2,000 km and 3,000 km of transmissions lines within the DRC and across its borders respectively. The Inga III hydropower project is expected to electrify Kinshasa, lead to the development of the DRC’s mining sector, and the hydroelectricity sold on as exported electricity to neighbouring countries and beyond.
AVZ Minerals,
[7] an Australian company, is developing the Manono Lithium and Tin project and is owned by AVZ (75%) in a joint venture with the
Congolaise d'Exploitation Minière (25%) (Cominiere, a State-owned enterprise), the project is known to be the largest lithium spodumene hard rock deposit in the world, larger than the famous Greenbushes spodumene hard rock deposit in Western Australia.
Both the drive to decarbonize and the 4IR (also known as Industry 4.0), depend on critical minerals like tin, lithium, cobalt, niobium,
tungsten and tantalum.
The growing adoption of electric Lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles is driving the increasing demand for lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel, significant amounts of lithium supply will need to be brought online to meet demand growth from the global lithium market. Globally, lithium supply is expected to fall short of the demand for this metal by 2023.
There is a push globally by the
EU and major car manufacturers (
OEM) for global production of cobalt, tin, tantalum, tungsten and lithium to be sourced and produced sustainably, the materials needed for the new technologies that are being deployed as the globe transforms into new energy systems. Companies are adopting and practising
ESG initiatives in line with
OECD Guidance and putting in place evidence of zero to low carbon footprint activities in the supply chain production of lithium-ion batteries. A 2010 US law required American companies to disclose the source for conflict minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. Amnesty International are now advocating for cobalt to be added to this list, to ensure transparency amongst tech giants and traceability of the supply chain. These initiatives are already taking place with major mining companies, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining companies (ASM). Car manufacturers and battery manufacturer supply chains
Tesla,
VW,
BMW,
BASF,
Glencore are participating in several initiatives, such as the Responsible Cobalt Initiative and Cobalt for Development study. In 2018 BMW Group in partnership with BASF, Samsung SDI and Samsung Electronics have launched a pilot project in the DRC over one pilot mine, to improve conditions and address challenges for artisanal miners and the surrounding communities. BMW’s involvement in these projects suggests they may need to source additional supply of cobalt from DRC mines in future, having a long-term strategic approach to sustainability in this region.
EVs only recently overtook mobile phones and super-alloys for the aviation industry as the main source of demand for cobalt.
Tesla, alongside Google, Apple and others, were sued by a human rights group in December 2019 for artisanal cobalt mined under unsafe and unethical conditions, including the use of child labour in the sourcing of cobalt in their supply chains.
At the beginning of 2020, the DRC government announced the Enterprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), the state-owned miner Gecamines becomes the state-controlled buyer of cobalt, to purchase and market all cobalt from small-scale artisanal miners (accounting for 15 to 30% of cobalt production), that is not mined industrially. This in effect will centralise the trade, help better regulate the industry in the DRC by fighting mining fraud and maximise state revenues. A complex but necessary step forward for the globally lucrative cobalt mining industry dominant Democratic Republic of Congo.
[8]Cobalt remains the most expensive component of EV batteries.
Cobalt prices February and March 2021 (USD$ per ton)
Cobalt prices 2016 to 2021 5 years (USD$ per ton)
After hitting near-decade highs in cobalt prices in early 2018 reaching US$100,000 per tonne, prices for cobalt used in the global electric battery supply chain slipped down by 45% over the following 2 years. With the upsurge in electric vehicle demand over 2020 and into 2021, cobalt prices have surged again in January 2021. March 2021 cobalt price index shows prices gaining month on month to US$54,000 per tonne on 19 March 2021. Making gains of 35% over 2 months from January 2021.
Glencore’s decision to mothball its Mutanda mine in August 2019 in the Congo citing cobalt and copper operation is uneconomic due to falling commodities prices and an increase in a government royalty tax during the years of Kabila influence. Mutanda — the world’s largest cobalt mine — was pegged to transition to care and maintenance (temporary closure) by year-end 2019, the world’s largest and responsible for 20% global output. Glencore company are an Anglo-Swiss miner and commodities trader. Glencore said it planned to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 aiming at a 40% reduction in carbon footprint by 2035 compared to its 2019 levels, making them on track with the Paris agreement on climate change.
The
Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been defined as technological developments in cyber-physical systems such as high capacity connectivity; new human-machine interaction modes such as touch interfaces and virtual reality systems; and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world including robotics and
3D printing (additive manufacturing); the
Internet of Things (IoT); “big data” and cloud computing; artificial intelligence-based systems; improvements to and uptake of Off-Grid / Stand-Alone Renewable Energy Systems: solar, wind, wave, hydroelectric and the electric batteries (lithium-ion renewable
energy storage systems (ESS) and EV).
The minerals ranked as most critical by the United States, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the European Union including the United Kingdom, are as follows (ranked by Geoscience Australia based on synthesis of individual country rankings):
[9] Rare-earth elements (REE), gallium (Ga), indium (In), tungsten (W), platinum-group elements (PGE) including platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd), cobalt (Co), niobium (Nb), magnesium (Mg), molybdenum (Mo), antimony (Sb), lithium (Li), vanadium (V), nickel (Ni), tantalum (Ta), tellurium (Te), chromium (Cr) and manganese (Mn).
Coltan is used primarily for the production of
tantalum capacitors, used in many electronic devices. Coltan is important in the production of
mobile phones; and tantalum capacitors that are used in almost every kind of electronic device. Niobium and tantalum have a wide range of uses, including refractive lenses for glasses, cameras, phones and printers. They are also used in semiconductor circuits, and
capacitors for small electronic devices such as hearing aids,
pacemakers, and MP3 players, as well as in computer hard drives, automobile electronics, and
surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters for mobile phones.
Belt and Road Initiative participant map
China and the DRC signed an MOU on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation during a tour of China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, making the DRC, China’s 45th Belt and Road Initiative partner in Africa.
Also known as the “New Silk Road,” the initiative consists of a network of railways, pipelines, highways and ports linking these networks of infrastructure to other Belt and Road Initiative partner countries in Russia, Europe, India, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. A positive move for the DRC and China relations when China decided to write off debts from the DRC and the new partnering for the Belt and Road Initiative, this will encourage further cooperation between the two countries and encourage investment from more Chinese miners, like China Molybdenum, to enter investments into the Congolese copper and cobalt industry.
During the
Second Congo War mass-scale looting of mineral assets by all combatant forces—Congolese,
Rwandan,
Ugandan and foreign civilians—took place. The small
artisanal mining operations the fighters were robbing sometimes shut down afterwards and larger foreign businesses reduced operations as well. Following the peace accord in 2003, the focus returned to mining. Rebel groups supplied international corporations through unregulated mining by soldiers, locals organized by military commanders and by foreign nationals. The political framework was unstable. In 2009 the DRC signed a
loan contract with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $12 billion of
debt relief in 2010. The loan included trade conditions, such as liberalization of the diamond trade.
[10] At the end of 2012 the IMF suspended the last payments, because of a lack of transparency in the DRC's process for awarding mining contracts. The mining sector has since expanded, but
commodity prices have declined and this has hampered the DRC's progress.
Much mining has been done in small artisanal mining operations, sometimes known as Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM).
[11] These small-scale mines were unregulated,
[12] with high levels of
child labor and workplace injury. Today, larger mining companies and non-for-profit organisations are addressing these complex issues and are continuously adopting international guidance and initiatives that helps set up regulations on a community to community basis with government support and involvement. A number of initiatives are the ESG ( Environmental, Social and Governance) and IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance). One such globally recognised certification is the
3T iTSCi, the only widely implemented and accepted mineral traceability and due diligence system in the region for the 3T minerals – Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten, an internationally recognised certification for responsible mining and traceability under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Today four central African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provides legitimate and ethical 3T minerals.
ITSCI is the only industry initiative with standards 100% aligned with the OECD Guidance Much has been done in the last 15 years, providing artisanal and small-scale miners a support network through iTSCi, to build the foundations and regulate the industry, it also offers safety to the community participants and miners, education and training, safe practices, human rights, protection to the environment for sustainable practices and manage the social aspect.
So please stop yelling your nonsense.
