Chinese battery minerals producer Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt said it had started trial production of lithium concentrates at its Arcadia mine in Zimbabwe.

Huayou, one of the biggest cobalt producers in the world, acquired Arcadia from Australia-listed Prospect Resources and its Zimbabwean partners in a US$422 million deal completed in 2022. After the transaction, Huayou said it would spend US$300 million to build a plant to process 4.5 million tonnes of lithium ore at Arcadia.

“All production lines of the Arcadia lithium mine project, have completed equipment installation and commissioning, put materials into trial production and successfully produced the first batch of products,” Huayou said in a statement.

The Arcadia mine is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent lithium concentrate, Huayou said.

The company said Arcadia, its biggest investment in Africa to date, was a key step towards its strategy to secure and build a chain of lithium assets.

On Wednesday, Huayou also announced a A$2.5 million (US$1.67 million) investment in Australia-listed Askari Metals to advance the exploration of its Uis lithium project in Namibia.

Huayou also has two copper and cobalt projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with an annual production of 100,000 tonnes of cathode copper and 10,000 tonnes of cobalt.

The company also has three nickel and cobalt projects in Indonesia, with an expected annual production of 225,000 tonnes of nickel and 23,000 tonnes of cobalt products by 2024.

A Chinese miner is set to overtake Glencore Plc as the world’s top cobalt producer this year, as the rush for critical green-energy metals intensifies.

The challenger to Glencore’s dominant position is CMOC Group, which first became a major player in the cobalt market when it acquired the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. The company aims to double production this year, as it brings another massive Congolese mine online in the second quarter. That will propel it past Glencore, company filings show.

CMOC has had a turbulent year in Congo, with a dispute over royalty payments halting exports from the Tenke mine since July. It’s kept the operation running, stockpiling copper and cobalt, and CMOC executives told investors on Monday that they’re confident of resolving the issue by the end of March, according to an emailed account of the call from Citigroup Inc.

Congo’s Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi also said he’s hopeful a deal will be agreed “very soon,” in comments made at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Switzerland. A resolution could remove a key source of uncertainty in the cobalt market, where the fate of the stockpiled metal is weighing on the outlook.

After spiking last year on the back of booming electric-vehicle sales, cobalt prices have crashed in recent months on a combination of slowing demand from the consumer electronics sector, rising output in Indonesia and worries over a surge in exports from Congo.

Throughout the dispute, CMOC has made rapid progress in developing its Kisanfu copper and cobalt mine, bucking the mining industry’s broader challenges with cost blowouts and delays. The US$1.8 billion project began in March 2021, and will be put into operation in the second quarter, the company said in its annual report.

It will produce as much as 30,000 tons this year, putting it on course to overtake Tenke and Glencore’s Katanga as the world’s largest cobalt mine. Tenke produced 20,286 tons in 2022, while Katanga’s output was 25,500 tons.

While prices have plunged, the race to secure critical green-energy raw materials has put cobalt in the political spotlight. In December, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a memorandum of understanding with the Congo and Zambia to explore ways to support their joint plan to develop an electric-vehicle value chain.

IMPACT is launching a new project tackling corruption in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) artisanal cobalt sector with an effort to map all the taxes and fees supply chain actors are legally required to pay.

The Mapping Payments project, which is implemented in collaboration with the Congolese non-profit Action pour la Défense des droits humains (ADDH), kicked off today with a workshop in Kolwezi, Lualaba Province, the town at the heart of DRC’s artisanal cobalt mining sector. The workshop is the first in a series that brings together policymakers, mining and financial management experts, artisanal miners, traders, processors, exporters, and civil society to examine the various taxes, fees, and administrative steps currently in place for the artisanal cobalt sector and to document what is required by law.

“High taxes and the complexity of each administrative step in the supply chain is a major barrier to responsible sourcing. We’ve seen significant corruption and extortion by supply chain actors in the artisanal gold sector. Through this project, IMPACT can compare the experiences of the artisanal gold sector with the reality of the cobalt supply chain. By mapping and publishing all the steps and required payments using a multistakeholder consultative process, we hope to remove ambiguity around the taxation for artisanal cobalt and provide artisanal miners and traders with a reference guide they can turn to, to ensure they aren’t being extorted,” said Joanne Lebert, IMPACT’s Executive Director.

The project will allow for stakeholders to understand the artisanal cobalt sector and how it compares to DRC’s artisanal gold supply chain, building off IMPACT’s work in Ituri Province. Four technical notes were developed in 2022 which outlined taxes, fees, and steps to transfer artisanal gold between provinces, export artisanal gold, purchase and sell artisanal gold in Ituri Province, and extract artisanal gold in Ituri Province.

DRC’s fiscal regime for the artisanal mining sector is burdensome, complex, and ambiguous. High taxes and complex administrative burdens are driving smuggling of its natural resources. According to an OECD report, up to 20% of the total value of production is being extorted from artisanal cobalt miners through unofficial payments by cooperatives or state agents.

The technical notes for artisanal gold have proven to be helpful reference guides for stakeholders, as they’ve demonstrated the legal steps in the supply chain. IMPACT had previously documented 26 steps to export artisanal gold in Ituri Province, costing the exporter 12% of the value of the gold. Now the steps at export have been reduced to nine and overall costs have similarly decreased.

Since their distribution, supply chain actors in Ituri Province are using them to successfully deter demands for illegal payments.

Workshops will also address possible tax reforms needed to improve fiscal governance of the artisanal cobalt sector at the national and provincial levels. Stakeholders will work to create proposals that encourage transparency and efficiency in DRC’s artisanal cobalt supply chain.

Since 2011, IMPACT has supported the Ministry of Mines in the implementation of the six tools required by the ICGLR Regional Initiative against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources, which includes the harmonization of legislation in all Member States. IMPACT has also supported human rights within DRC’s mining communities as well as supply chain due diligence through its Just Gold project bringing the first conflict-free, traceable, and legal gold from DRC to the international market.

In the artisanal cobalt mining sector, IMPACT is also implementing the Her Security project which investigates how to decrease child labour by increasing women’s livelihoods in artisanal cobalt mining communities. IMPACT has also supported efforts to develop the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Cobalt ESG Management Framework, now known as the ASM Cobalt Criteria, a progressive set of expectations for the responsible sourcing of artisanal cobalt in DRC. IMPACT carried out national consultations and has facilitated restitution workshops on the updated criteria.

The Mapping Payments project is undertaken with funding provided by the European Union. Funding for complimentary activities is provided by Microsoft.

Deep-South Resources Inc. announced that it had completed the soil sampling program on the Luanshya West project and on the Chililabombwe project. The program on the Mpongwe project has been postponed to 2023 due to difficult weather.

The program completed:

• Luanshya West Project (licence 23246)

1980 soil samples have been delivered to the laboratory for assays. The samples were collected on a regional grid of 500 x 100 and an infill grid of 100 x 100 metres. The program covered 3 targets where 5 large anomalies have been identified from soil sampling and geophysical survey results compiled by Teal in 2009. Assay results are expected during the month of January 2023 and will be disclosed to our shareholders in due course.

The licence is situated in the center of the Zambian Copper belt and covers 5,423.26 hectares (54.24 Sq. Km). The project area is close to established copper / cobalt mines with Chibuluma South mine some 10 kms north-east of the project area; Chambishi mine 41Km north-northeast, N’changa mine 53Km north-northwest and Luanshya mine some 40Km east-southeast from the centre of the project area.

A National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“43-101”) compliant technical qualifying report is available on SEDAR under Deep-South’s profile or on the Company’s web site.

• Chililabombwe Project (licence 23247)

124 soil samples have been delivered to the laboratory for assays. The samples were collected on a regional grid of 500 x 100 metres. Assay results are expected during the month of January 2023 and will be disclosed to our shareholders in due course.

In this particular area, due to their abundance, termite mounds will be sampled rather than digging sample holes. This is because termites bring material to the surface from considerable depth and therefore sample at a greater depth than a regular soil sample.

The licence is situated in the north of the Zambia Copper belt near the DRC border. The Large Exploration Licence covers 2,200 hectares (22.5 Sq, Km). The project is situated within 10 km of the Konkola Copper mine, one of the largest integrated copper mines in Zambia.

Mpongwe Project (licence 23248). The program on this licence has been postponed to 2023 due to difficult weather. The program will resume when weather allows and when the area is dry enough to enable sample collection. This licence is situated on the southern side of the Zambian Copper belt. The Large Exploration Licence covers 67,500 hectares (675 Sq. Km).

No Mineral Resources have been estimated on these projects as they have not demonstrated economic viability at this stage. The historical geophysical survey and sampling results demonstrate potential to classify the Luanshya West project as one of merit but are considered too speculative geologically to complete a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimation at this time and it is uncertain that those historic results will be converted into minerals resources.

Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) and its joint-venture partner, La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines), celebrated the kick-off of the restart of operations at Boss Mining with a ceremony held at its concession on 23 November 2022.

Boss Mining, located in the Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has a long history of copper and cobalt production from significant open-pit resources. Boss Mining was placed into care and maintenance early 2019 to allow for ERG and Gécamines to assess different investments paths and conduct further studies to improve Operations’ economics and sustainability.

Benedikt Sobotka, Chief Executive Officer at ERG, said: “We are not only celebrating the return to production at this time, but also our long-standing partnership with Gécamines and its professional team, without whom this restart would not have been possible. ERG believes that collaboration is the key to building a better future.”

Recognising that mining plays a vital role in the social and economic upliftment of its host communities, ERG aims to develop and scale operations at Boss Mining in a sustainable way to allow for positive, longer-term social, environmental and economic outcomes.

“We are proud that this phase of the restart will create around 750 jobs for DRC citizens, primarily recruited from the surrounding communities, ensuring that direct members of our communities are the primary beneficiaries of Boss Mining’s activities,” added Sobotka.

Provincial Minister of Interior and Security of the Lualaba Province, Mr. Kapenda Wa Kapenda Déodat, commented: “As a government, we can only rejoice once again because the restarting of an operation means not only the creation of jobs for our population, but also that the tax revenue of the province will increase. And every time there is production, we know that there is a small amount that goes into the government’s tax coffer that helps us develop other sectors of our society.”

The phased restart will concentrate on processing historically mined fines over the next 16 months to produce copper cathodes and cobalt hydroxide. The operation will ramp up over the coming months to its full capacity producing, on average, 1,800t of copper cathode and 300t of cobalt hydroxide a month, by March 2023.

“The current restart is only the beginning of our journey, and will provide financing for further potential development, exploration and other mining-related activities at Boss Mining. I am convinced that the revival of Boss Mining’s activities will allow for the creation of important number of new jobs in the future and the union of countless families from the surrounding communities and the four corners of the country,” said Chief Executive Officer of Gécamines, Mr. Ntambwe Ngoy Kabongo.

Boss Mining is also currently renewing its five-year ESIA commitments and formalising its Cahier de Charges. Restarting the production will allow Boss Mining to update its commitments and social contribution, in turn supporting the action programme of the DRC President, His Excellency Mr. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, which aims to improve social conditions through housing, health, education and employment.

“It is important for us to transmit to you the message of encouragement of his Excellency the Governor of Haut Katanga, Mr. Jacques Kyabula Katwe, who sees this restarting of Boss Mining as a vital sign of life returning to the territory of Lubudi and the economic life of our province, Haut Katanga. ERG and Gécamines have our full support for the relaunch of this giant amongst the mines,” assured Provincial Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Mr. Georges Mawine Kaindu.

Eurasian Resources Group, a leading diversified natural resources group headquartered in Luxembourg, announces that the Responsible Minerals Initiative (“RMI”) has confirmed that the cobalt and copper produced by ERG’s Metalkol RTR is compliant with the RMI’s Responsible Sourcing requirements. This follows an independent assessment as part of RMI’s flagship programme, the Responsible Mineral Assurance Process (“RMAP”).

In August 2022, the RMI confirmed that Metalkol RTR was conformant with the Assessment Standard for Cobalt Due Diligence Standard (2018) and Joint Due Diligence Standard for Copper, Lead, Nickel and Zinc (2021). The comprehensive assessment consisted of a number of elements including the collection and review of objective evidence such as interviews with employees and the senior management, documentation, a facility walk-through, and other observations. All of this demonstrated that Metalkol RTR’s due diligence management system conforms in all aspects to the requirements of the RMI’s standards.

Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of ERG, said, “Metalkol RTR and ERG as a whole not only support the transition to a greener economy through our supply of key metals, such as copper and cobalt, but also set an example to the industry through our commitment to responsible sourcing. Confirmation of this by the RMI is just another reason that the companies buying our cobalt and copper, and consumers who purchase products that contain them, can be confident that they have been produced in line with global responsible sourcing standards. I would like to congratulate the Metalkol RTR team for this latest achievement, and thank them for their hard work in the lead up to it.”

Gillian Davidson, Sustainability Advisor to ERG’s CEO, said, “Metalkol RTR has established itself as a world-leading supplier of responsibly sourced cobalt and copper, thanks to the rigorous management systems and procedures the Group has in place to ensure it operates in accordance with international standards and conducts its business in a responsible manner. The announcement that the cobalt and copper produced at Metalkol RTR are compliant with the RMI’s Responsible Sourcing requirements is testament to this, and Metalkol RTR is well-placed to continue supplying responsibly produced materials to meet the demands of the clean energy transition.”

The RMI is one of the most utilised and respected sources for companies from a range of industries addressing responsible sourcing issues in their supply chains. The aim of the RMAP is to help companies make informed choices about responsibly sourced minerals in their supply chain, and show that their standards have been developed to meet the requirements of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, the Regulation (EU) 2017/821 of the European Parliament and the US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.