Opinion: Global demand for copper, lithium and other metals is soaring while supply chains remain vulnerable and China dominates refining; by leveraging its strengths in chemistry, AI and recycling, Israel can help reinvent processing and secure its future. The world is entering an era of electric acceleration. From electric vehicles and renewable energy installations to massive data centers and smart home devices, every sector consumes unprecedented amounts of metals: copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, silver and gold. As demand soars, supply is struggling to keep up. Ore quality is declining, mining projects are becoming more challenging and prices are increasingly volatile.…
Author: TJ Markle
Swinburne and CSIRO researchers have successfully produced iron in Mars-like conditions, opening the door to metal production beyond Earth. The vision of establishing settlements on Mars has captured the imagination of billionaires, government space programs, and space exploration advocates. However, building such colonies requires vast amounts of material, and transporting it all from Earth is not practical. To put it in perspective, sending NASA’s one-ton Perseverance Rover to Mars cost around US$243 million. Clearly, unless we plan to build a settlement fit only for ants, far more resources will be necessary. The challenge then becomes: how do we obtain them?…
The Chinese market for 98% smelting acid has experienced a significant price increase this year, providing copper smelters with some relief amid continuously declining spot treatment charges for copper concentrate. Reflecting on this year’s smelting acid market, supply-side constraints have been a major factor. Many smelters reported insufficient acid storage capacity. In addition to recovering demand, another reason is the reduction in copper concentrate input by Chinese smelters. Without desulfurization and capture of sulfur elements from copper concentrate for flue gas acid production, the accumulation of smelting acid inventory has been limited. On the demand side, the National Development and…
Argentina’s President Javier Milei is scrambling to unlock the South American country’s copper potential, seeking to capitalize on surging global demand amid a push toward electrification and renewable energy. Milei, a self-described anarcho capitalist who won a shock election in 2023, has unveiled a series of tough reformist measures in an effort to stabilize the traditionally volatile economy and “Make Argentina Great Again.” As part of this push, Milei’s administration hopes the mining sector can play a key role, particularly in regard to copper and lithium. One of the libertarian president’s flagship policies has been to introduce the Large Investment…
How Are Silver Tariffs Reshaping Global Markets? Silver has experienced a remarkable price surge, crossing the $40 threshold in late August for the first time since 2011. This dramatic rally stems from a complex interplay of supply chain constraints and emerging trade policies that have fundamentally altered market dynamics. The implementation of tariffs on metals has created unprecedented market conditions characterized by supply limitations and surging demand. The precious metal’s impressive performance—gaining over 37% year-to-date—has significantly outpaced both gold (33%) and the S&P 500 (9%), capturing investor attention worldwide. This outperformance comes against a backdrop of five consecutive years of…
President Donald Trump stunned the logistics industry Aug. 15 by widening his steel and aluminum tariffs to include more than 400 consumer items that contain the metals, such as motorcycles and tableware. Customs brokers and importers in the U.S. were given little notice to account for the change, which went into effect Aug. 18 and did not exclude goods in transit. The new tariff inclusion list was posted by the Customs and Border Protection agency just as many were leaving for the weekend and appeared in the Federal Register on Aug. 19, creating fresh headaches for trade professionals. Official guidance…
Heavy industry meets battery recycling as Redwood Materials strikes a deal with Caterpillar to recycle the lithium-ion batteries powering CAT’s electric mining equipment. Caterpillar’s R1700 XE is a zero-emission underground loader that’s powered by electricity rather than diesel fuel. Its 213-kWh battery pack, roughly equivalent to 3 to 4 Tesla battery packs, stores enough energy to run the loader in demanding conditions while eliminating on-site exhaust emissions. For miners, this means improved air quality underground and reduced ventilation costs. What makes the partnership with Redwood noteworthy is the cyclical nature of this new value chain: the very metals Caterpillar’s equipment…
The small country faces stiff competition from its neighbor’s, but also benefits from growing regional integration. Bahrain may be the smallest country in the Middle East, yet the glittering towers that populate the Manama skyline — several of which are designed to resemble the famous dhows that once sailed the Gulf — are testament to its outsized ambitions. The country was the first Gulf state to seriously push diversifying its economy away from oil and gas. It began building an aluminium industry in the late 1960s and developed as a major regional finance centre in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the…
Interlink Metals and Chemicals AG, a Swiss-headquartered global metals trading and processing company, has broken ground on a first-of-its-kind titanium production facility in Bahrain, signalling a major step toward reshaping global titanium supply chains amid shifting geopolitical dynamics. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Bahrain Titanium (BTI), Interlink is developing a two-stage, vertically integrated titanium plant that aims to position the Gulf region as a key player in the global market for both industrial and aerospace-grade titanium products. Since 2022 EU aerospace and defence companies having been trying to diversify Titanium supply away from Russia, this investment is a major step in achieving that…
A new study from the Colorado School of Mines has found that the United States could meet much of its demand for critical minerals by recovering materials currently discarded in mining waste. Published this week in Science, the analysis shows that nearly all critical minerals used in clean energy technologies, electronics, and defense applications are already present in ore processed at US mines. However, the majority of these materials end up in tailings and other waste streams rather than being refined for use. The analysis highlights cobalt and germanium as prime examples. Recovering less than 10% of the cobalt already…