by Energy News updated June 4, 2025 5:03 AM
CLEPA, the European association of auto suppliers, said that several European auto supplier factories and production lines were shut down because of a shortage in rare earths due to China's restrictions on exports.
CLEPA said that only one quarter of the hundreds requests for export licences submitted by auto suppliers between April 1 and now have been granted. Some requests were rejected due to "highly formal" reasons, according to the association.
The process seems to differ from province to province, and IP-sensitive data has been requested in some cases, it stated. It added that if this was not done soon, then more plants could be affected as inventories run out in the coming weeks.
China's decision to suspend the export of rare earths, magnets and other products in April has caused concern.
Supply chains are being upended
Prompting is a key concern for automakers, aerospace companies, semiconductor manufacturers and military contractors around the world.
Industry groups
In Germany, the U.S.A. and India are calling on politicians to lobby Beijing to find a quick resolution.
Critical minerals
It's not being publicly advertised, but access to rare earths is playing an outsized role in resurgent U.S.-China trade tensions. Following last month's détente in Geneva, it was apparently agreed that both sides would roll back retaliatory tariffs imposed since April 2, but there has been disagreement over export controls and sector-specific levies. China appears to be keeping in place a strict approvals process on rare earths that are used in everything from commercial vehicles to military equipment, while the U.S. has increased tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50%.
Quote: "I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!" President Trump wrote early this morning on Truth Social. It comes just days after another post that highlighted the escalating tensions. "China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!"
Carmakers have warned of dire consequences if things don't change quickly, with a trade group representing General Motors (GM), Toyota (TM) and other major producers recently sending a letter to the White House. "Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components," according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. On the military side, rare earth magnets are included in the production of fighter jets and aerospace components like missile guidance systems, impacting firms like Raytheon (RTX) and Lockheed Martin (LMT).
What are rare earths? Despite the name, there are deposits of them all over the world (some of them are even thousands of times more abundant than gold). The term refers to a group of 17 elements that are called "rare" since it is unusual to find them in pure form or in concentrated quantities. As a result, the minerals are difficult to mine and refine profitably, while byproducts like toxic wastewater and radioactive residues have to be addressed during extraction and processing.
Outlook: China undercut world prices for rare earths in the 1990s, resulting in heavy barriers to entry and putting pressure on upcoming challengers. Hopes of U.S. companies looking to break into the industry have also been dashed in the past due to strict environmental regulations, leading China to gain a 90% share of the world's refining capacity. It could take 5-10 years for any serious American production to get off the ground, and it's another reason why the Trump administration has made rare earths a prominent theme during negotiations with Ukraine and its play for Greenland.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4792255-rare-earths-and-the-trade-war?source=feed
The offering had aimed to raise about $230m to make an initial purchase of cobalt from mining giant Glencore Plc, and to pay for storage costs.
By Charles Capel and Mark Burton · 5 Jun 2025 09:27
Image: Bloomberg
Cobalt Holdings Plc has decided not to proceed with its planned initial public offering in London.
The company made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday, ahead of its planned debut on Thursday. The offering had aimed to raise about $230 million to make an initial purchase of cobalt from mining giant Glencore Plc, and to pay for storage costs.
Cobalt Holdings was set up by entrepreneur Jake Greenberg to give investors exposure to cobalt, a key ingredient in battery manufacturing. Greenberg previously founded Yellow Cake Plc, which floated in London in 2018 and offers investors exposure to uranium.
“The company intends to explore options, including possibly funding the business privately,” Cobalt Holdings said in a statement to Bloomberg. Glencore and the London Stock Exchange declined to comment.
The firm had struck a long-term deal to buy cobalt from Glencore, which is contingent on Cobalt Holdings successfully raising the funds, according to a prospectus for the offering.
The market for cobalt, however, is tiny compared to larger industrial metals like copper or aluminum, and is prone to frequent booms and busts. Prices have jumped this year after the Democratic Republic of Congo put a temporary ban on exports, but many analysts and traders are gloomy on the longer-term outlook for supply and demand.
IPOs in London have been sparse in recent years, with about $1 billion raised from inaugural share sales in all of 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cobalt’s IPO would have been London’s largest in about two years and could have benefited from new index rules aimed at opening up UK benchmark to stocks quoted in other currencies.
Adding to the woes, fast-fashion giant Shein Group recently began to consider turning its IPO attention to Hong Kong, instead of London, Bloomberg News has reported.
https://www.moneyweb.co.za/mineweb/glencore-backed-cobalt-holdings-axes-230m-london-ipo/
By RFE/RL staff - Jun 04, 2025, 11:00 AM CDT
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned about the ongoing risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine, saying the "dangers to nuclear safety continue to be very real and ever-present."
The presence of IAEA officials at nuclear facilities in Ukraine remains essential to help prevent a nuclear incident, Raphael Grossi said on June 3 after his 12th visit to Kyiv since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The IAEA has played a role in safeguarding the condition of Ukraine's nuclear power plants since then.
It regularly sends expert teams to the operating reactor sites in Rivne and Khmelnytskiy and has a permanent presence at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has been shut down for safety reasons.
The IAEA experts at Rivne and Khmelnytskiy had to take shelter up to three times during Grossi's visit because of an unusually high number of air raid warnings.
"My teams report that this was the most intense day of air raid alarms they had experienced since late last year," Grossi said in a news release.
Grossi said he met with Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and other senior officials in the basement of the Energy Ministry because of an active air alarm in Kyiv.
He also met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and discussed the IAEA's plans to support the country in restoring and expanding its nuclear power infrastructure.
Grossi also commented on a report that Russia is taking steps to connect the power plant to its electricity grid, telling Reuters in an interview that the Russians had never hidden the fact they want to restart the plant but added they would not be able to do so soon.
He said the plant is not in a condition to be restarted at present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply. Water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the plant to restart, Grossi said.
Greenpeace issued a report last week saying Russia was building a 90-kilometer high-voltage power line to connect the power plant to Russia's grid.
Grossi said the IAEA did not agree with that report's conclusions.
"There are some areas where there has been some work, but we do not have any concrete evidence that this is part of a concerted, orchestrated plan to connect the power plant in one sense or the other," he said.
"We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done."
Zelenskyy said on X that any Russian efforts to restart the Zaporizhzhya power plant without Ukraine's involvement would be "absurd and dangerous," adding that is the reason IAEA officials "must be at the plant without artificial obstacles to their work or staff rotation." The experts at the plant "are showing the real situation to the world," he said.
The facility is Europe's largest nuclear power plant. Before the war it generated a fifth of Ukraine's electricity. The last of its six reactors stopped generating electricity in September 2022. It has been occupied by Russia since shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Areas near the plant regularly come under artillery and drone bombardment, which has damaged the two remaining power lines supplying the electricity needed for the plant to cool itself.
Both sides accuse each other of being responsible for the attacks.
(Corrects paragraph 5 to say "implementation" instead of "mention")
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has introduced a tracking system for its rare earth magnet sector, three sources said, as its export restrictions on them begin to cut off customers around the world.
The national tracking system, which went into effect last week, requires producers to submit extra information online including trading volumes and client names, said two sources familiar with the matter and another briefed by those involved.
The world’s largest rare earth magnet supplier and exporter, China in early April imposed export restrictions on seven medium to heavy rare earth elements and several magnets, requiring exporters to obtain licences.
Delays getting approvals have upended supply chains for automakers, semiconductor companies and others, with global automakers already beginning to stop some production lines as reserves run out.
Beijing unveiled high-level plans to establish an information tracing system for rare earth products last June, but there had been no implementation until last week, according to the source briefed on the matter.
The added level of scrutiny suggests that China’s export controls on rare earths and the associated magnets - where it has a near-monopoly on production - could become a permanent feature for the products.
There have been hopes in the U.S. and elsewhere that this would be removed as part of a trade truce agreed in Geneva last month.
In previous cases where China has imposed export curbs on metals, exports have tended to slowly rebound after the imposition of restrictions as exporters apply and receive licences.
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"Our current hypothesis is that China would continue its export control mechanism on rare earths, as its an ace card for China to hold," said Tim Zhang, founder of Singapore-based Edge Research.
Beijing’s long-term target is to track the whole rare earth production chain, not just magnets, strengthen its control over the sector, and crackdown on smuggling, illegal mining and tax evasion, according to a fourth source who was also briefed on the matter
04 June, 2025
Source: iranoilgas.com
Iran’s Crude oil exports to China, shrank in May on tighter U.S. sanctions and refinery maintenance, Bloomberg has reported, citing data from Vortexa.
According to the report, Iran shipped a little over 1.1 Mln bpd of crude to China, which was 20% lower than export flows in May 2024. Compared to April, the May figure is around 400,000 bpd lower. The data is not entirely certain, however, as tankers carrying Iranian crude abroad use a variety of moves to mask their origin and route.
Kpler recently reported that a growing number of tankers carrying Iranian oil to China were now switching off their tracking devices that conceal their location. “Ship-to-ship transfers have been used to mask the origin of those cargoes,” a Kpler analyst told Bloomberg last week. “Now they’re switching signals off for longer, so that it’s now even harder to trace those flows back to the source, which is Iran,” Muyu Xu also said.
Going forward, oil flows from Iran to China are likely to remain weaker than usual due to refinery maintenance, according to one Vortexa analyst, who said that “delayed seasonal refinery maintenance, […] is now expected to extend through July.” Chinese refiners also stocked up on cheap Iranian crude earlier in the year before Washington tightened the sanction noose, so their inventory levels should be quite comfortable for the time being.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, cut its July prices for Asian crude buyers to close to the lowest level in four years on Wednesday, in what the market sees as the country's attempt to regain market share.
Saudi Arabia has pushed OPEC+ this year to raise its output targets ahead of schedule.
OPEC+ has cited healthy demand and low stocks as the reasons behind increasing production. Those reasons would normally prompt producers to raise selling prices.
Saudi Arabia's state firm Aramco 2223 cut the official selling price for the flagship Arab light crude it sells to Asia for July to $1.20 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average. The OSP premium for June was $1.40 a barrel and in May it was $1.20.
A Reuters survey had expected the price cut for Arab light in July to be 40 to 50 cents.
Saudi crude OSPs are usually released around the fifth day of each month, and set the price trend for other grades exported by Iran, Kuwait and Iraq, affecting about 9 million barrels per day of crude bound for Asia.
Eight OPEC+ countries met on Saturday and agreed to another big increase of 411,000 bpd for July, having increased by the same amount for May and June.
Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom has quietly dropped plans to develop a new gas hub in Turkey, effectively closing off a route that had been floated as a way to restore some of its lost access to the European gas market following the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the project was deemed unviable due to a range of technical, political and commercial challenges, including limited pipeline capacity from Turkey into Europe, disagreements over marketing rights and the European Union’s ongoing efforts to phase out Russian gas by 2027.
The plan was first publicly floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in October 2022, shortly after the Nord Stream pipelines were damaged in underwater explosions. The proposed Turkish hub was intended to replace those lost connections and serve as a key distribution point for up to 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually.
Although initially welcomed by some Turkish officials, Gazprom gradually pulled back after it became clear that Ankara wanted to control gas sales through the hub, limiting Moscow’s influence. Turkey also lacks the necessary infrastructure to export large volumes of gas into the EU, particularly through Greece and Bulgaria.
While the Kremlin promoted the hub as part of its broader geopolitical energy strategy, the idea reportedly did not originate from Gazprom and was met with skepticism inside the company from the outset. Gazprom executives have now largely ceased internal discussions of the project.
Despite abandoning the hub initiative, Gazprom’s existing energy trade with Turkey remains unaffected. Turkey continues to be one of the company’s largest customers.
The Turkish Energy Ministry and pipeline operator BOTAŞ declined to comment on the project’s fate. However, a Turkish official told Bloomberg that Ankara remains open to cooperation if the plan is revived, though progress has been stalled for some time.
Investing.com -- Tesla appears to be the only U.S. automaker seriously pursuing battery independence from China, according to Piper Sandler.
“Thanks to vertical integration, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is the only car company that is trying to source batteries, at scale, without relying on China,” the firm said in a note following a call with battery expert Jordan Giesige.
For its in-house 4680 batteries, “China reliance is already approaching 0%,” Piper Sandler noted.
While full independence remains years away, the firm emphasized that “at least Tesla has a plan.”
The company is reportedly working to refine its own lithium, produce cathode active materials (CAM), coat its own electrodes, and assemble batteries entirely in-house.
“No other U.S. entity can make similar claims,” argues Piper Sandler.
One major focus is Tesla’s dry battery electrode (DBE) process, which Piper Sandler said “is 5x–6x faster than coating anodes or cathodes with a wet process.”
If scalable, they believe it could deliver “material” capital and operating cost savings. The process may start scaling by year-end, though Piper said Giesige highlighted that this remains uncertain.
Tesla is also making progress on domestic iron-based (LFP) battery production. Piper Sandler said Giesige pointed out that the company is likely trying to commission “~10GWh of domestic LFP capacity,” which could eventually cover 25% of the 40GWh required for Megapack production in the U.S.
Ultimately, even if Tesla’s novel refining methods fail, the firm argues that the company wouldn’t be disadvantaged relative to competitors, because no one else is trying.
“Success isn’t assured, and in the next 2+ years, there’s no way to insulate the U.S. supply chain from China... but at least Tesla has a plan,” concluded Piper Sandler.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/piper-sandler-tesla-only-u-115716185.html
Patriot Resources Limited (“Patriot”) is pleased to announce the discovery of a new copper drill target at its 100% optioned Sugarloaf Licence in the Mumbwa District of Zambia.
The discovery is located approximately 850 meters from the historical Sugarloaf Pit, reinforcing the area’s geological prospectivity and expanding Patriot’s pipeline of priority drill targets.
Key Highlights
The copper-bearing lithology is a feldspar porphyry syenite unit intercalated with ferruginous chert, mapped over an 800 m strike with mineralized zones observed at surface as malachite staining. Portable XRF (pXRF) assays on grab samples returned values ranging from 0.05% to 3.13% Cu, with 13 out of 14 samples returning copper above 0.2% Cu.
While pXRF readings are indicative only, they provide strong confirmation of widespread surface mineralization. Historical reports referenced diamond drilling within the area, with copper intersections recorded to depths of ~100 m.
Next Steps
On June 3 (Tuesday), the Peruvian government acknowledged for the first time the existence of large-scale informal copper mining, and warned that high prices could lead to an increase in such activities in the near future.
Jorge Montero, the Minister of Energy and Mines, told foreign media in Lima on Tuesday that the Peruvian government remained vigilant about large-scale informal copper mining, particularly in the area where mining rights belong to the Las Bambas copper mine operated by China's MMG Ltd.
"This is the largest informal copper mining operation we have discovered so far," Montero said. "It is alarming that we already have large-scale copper mining operations in that area."
The informal mine, named Apu Chunta, is operated by the indigenous community of the Pamputa tribe. Its annual production is estimated at 30,000 mt, worth approximately $300 million at current prices. Although Pamputa owns the land, Las Bambas holds the rights to mine copper. The mining company also plans to build an open-pit mine in the area in the 2030s, for which it must purchase land from the community.
Informal mining activities and conflicts between mineral resource owners and concession holders have become a critical issue in Peru's mining industry, and the government is striving to find a balanced solution.
Peru's rich mineral deposits have attracted thousands of small-scale miners, who mainly operate on land without mining rights.
Informal operators have encroached on exploration projects operated by Southern Copper Corp. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. The minister also mentioned that Teck Resources Ltd.'s Zafranal project had been affected. To be sure, informal copper production remains negligible compared to formal production.
(Wenhua Comprehensive)
Investing.com -- Vedanta (NYSE:VEDL), an Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate, expressed concern on Wednesday about the potential damage to the Indian aluminium industry posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to double aluminium tariffs to 50%. The company, which is the largest aluminium producer in India, stated that this increase in tariffs threatens an industry already grappling with a rise in imports.
According to a spokesperson from Vedanta, the 50% tariff announced by Trump could exacerbate the difficulties faced by the Indian aluminium industry. The industry is already dealing with an increase in imports that is creating a surplus and posing a risk to domestic market access.
In response to this situation, Vedanta has called on the Indian government to implement protective tariffs against imports. The spokesperson highlighted the need for duty guard-rails for the aluminium industry, which has invested more than $20 billion to establish the current domestic primary aluminium capacity.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-aluminium-tariff-rise-threatens-155609731.html
Molybdenum market update on June 4, 2025
The domestic molybdenum market is exhibiting a high-level sideways trend, with intense price negotiations between buyers and sellers due to interwoven bullish and bearish factors, leading to narrow price oscillations and limited transaction volumes.
In the molybdenum concentrate market, there is a strong sentiment of reluctance to sell with expectations of rising prices, driven by tight spot supply, potential capacity reductions at some molybdenum mines in the short term, and steady downstream demand. In the ferromolybdenum market, pressure persists despite recent higher bidding activity and decent offers from steel companies, which fail to offset the impact of rising molybdenum concentrate prices, compressing manufacturers' profit margins. According to CTIA GROUP LTD, since late April, molybdenum concentrate and ferromolybdenum prices have increased by approximately 16.92% and 19.23%, respectively. In the molybdenum chemical and product markets, trading sentiment remains subdued, with merchants largely maintaining rigid transactions; today, the prices of sodium molybdate, ammonium heptamolybdate, and molybdenum powder are approximately 170,000 yuan/ton, 238,000 yuan/ton, and 440 yuan/kg, respectively.
News Update: Northeast Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. has decided that, effective from May 29, 2025, all sales contract orders received will be adjusted based on the base price of May 28, 2025, with an increase of 200 yuan/ton for every 1% Mo content in molybdenum-containing varieties.
Price of molybdenum products on June 4, 2025
On June 3 (Tuesday), Peruvian mining officials stated on Tuesday that the country's copper production is expected to increase slightly to 2.8 million mt this year, with mining investment projected to reach at least US$4.8 billion.
Peru, the world's third-largest copper producer, produced approximately 2.7 million mt of copper in 2024 and attracted US$4.96 billion in investment in the crucial mining sector.
Jorge Montero, Peru's Minister of Mines and Energy, stated at a press conference that officials are increasingly concerned about illegal gold mining.
Peru's gold exports reached US$15.5 billion in 2024, up from US$11 billion the previous year. According to industry data and estimates from Peru's financial regulator, approximately 40% of Peru's gold exports are from illegal sources.
Montero noted that informal and illegal copper mining has also increased in the Apurimac and Arequipa regions of southern Peru, though he stated that it still accounts for a small proportion of the country's total production.
Montero said that in Q1 2025, copper production from formal miners reached 660,000 mt, an increase of nearly 4% compared to the same period last year.
From January to March this year, over US$1 billion has been invested in the mining sector, with more investments expected to fund mine expansions, exploration, and equipment.
(Wenhua Comprehensive)
TORONTO — Canada's steel industry needs the federal government to take swift action as it faces an existential threat from the steeply increased tariffs imposed Wednesday by the U.S., said Catherine Cobden, head of the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
"We're going to be a deeply weakened sector in a very short period of time," she said in an interview.
The U.S. doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 per cent not only makes Canadian exports to the country not work, but will also mean Canada's domestic market could be flooded by imports from other countries also shut out of the U.S., said Cobden.
"We're going to be inundated with steel that was destined for the United States diverting into Canada. We already have an unfair trade problem here, so it's going to get much worse very, very quickly."
The industry association is calling on the federal government to expand an existing 25 per cent tariff on metal products finished in China to also include products from other countries made from steel that was melted and poured in China. The industry has long alleged that the Chinese government unfairly supports its industry to create artificially low prices.
By reducing imports into Canada, producers here can recapture some of the domestic market, said Cobden.
"There'll still be shrinkage in the industry, we'll be weaker, but we won't be, you know, collapsed, which is where I'm afraid we're heading."
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday on his way into the weekly Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa that Canada is deep in talks with the U.S. on trade, and is still considering its response to Trump's latest escalation.
"We will take some time — not much, some time — because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on our trading relationship."
Industry players had hoped to get a last-minute reprieve on the U.S. metals tariffs, but when that didn't happen it sent companies scrambling, she said.
“Steel was already ready and loaded, locked and loaded, and some of it even in transport, so, completely chaotic.”
The aluminum industry is also being disrupted by the increased tariffs, though the higher price per kilogram of the metal makes it more economic to ship abroad.
The Aluminum Association of Canada said it strongly opposed the move, which effectively makes Canadian exports to the U.S. economically unviable, and that industry players may be forced to diversify trade toward the European Union.
The heightened tariffs will mean less demand across North America and threatens the security of the integrated supply chain, said Jean Simard, president and CEO of the association.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/steel-group-calls-government-step-141131530.html
New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) The production of key minerals in India has continued to witness strong growth during FY 2025-26, after reaching record production levels in FY 2024-25.
The production of iron ore, which accounts for 70 per cent of the total mineral output by value, went up to 289 million metric tonne (MMT) in FY 2024-25, breaking the earlier production record of 277 MMT achieved in FY 2023-24, with a 4.3 per cent growth.
As per provisional estimates for the first month (April) of FY 2025-26, there is a steady increase in the production of these minerals as compared to the production in the corresponding month last year.
Production of bauxite has increased by a robust 13.9 per cent from 1.87 million metric tonnes (MMT) during April 2024 to 2.13 MMT during April 2025,
Production of limestone has risen by 1.2 per cent from 39.58 MMT during April 2024 to 40.5 MMT during April 2025. The production of lead & zinc ore has increased from 1.24 MMT during April 2024 to 1.27 MMT during April 2025, with a 2.4 per cent growth. The production of zinc concentrate has increased by 7.7 per cent from 0.13 MMT during April 2024 to 0.14 MMT during April 2025.
In the non-ferrous metal sector, primary aluminium production in FY 2025-26 posted a growth of 1.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year, increasing to 3.47 lakh ton (LT) in FY 2025-26 (April) from 3.42 LT in FY 2024-25 (April). During the same comparative period, refined copper production has grown by 15.6 per cent from 0.45 LT to 0.52 LT.
India is the second largest aluminium producer, and a top-10 producer in refined copper. Continued growth in aluminium and copper points toward continued strong economic activity in user sectors such as energy, infrastructure, construction, automotive and machinery, the official statement said.
Minerals like iron ore, manganese ore, and zinc concentrate saw a notable increase in production during March 2025 compared to March 2024. Production of iron ore rose by 5.7 per cent to 25.9 million metric tonnes (MMT) during the said period. Manganese ore production grew by 9.7 per cent to 0.39 MMT, and production of zinc concentrate rose by 5.5 per cent to 0.19 MMT in March 2025 over March 2024.
--IANS
