Serbian underground mine of calcium carbonate and graphite, confirmed highest quality and reserves

Belkalhan calcite and graphite Serbian based mine location with secured all permits for exploitation and processing, secured expansion of prospect mining rights surface area, invites JV partners for investment development for exploitation of raw materials.

The Company owns the land where the reserves were confirmed, and has obtained the necessary licences to begin mining operations. The quality and availability of the material make this a unique production site in Europe.

• 1.3 million tons of calcite confirmed more including the limestone reserves. High end quality of graphite reserves also confirmed by verified independent laboratories.
• 25 years exploitation rights by 2040 with possibility of extension.
• High quality Calcite rock with 99.6% purity of calcium carbonate.
• 98% whiteness suitable for many industrial uses, including battery production.
• 65,000 tons annual exploitation rights of calcite rock.
• 6.63 ha exploitation field
• 8km distance of the mine from the processing plant.
• The underground mining project is located in southern Serbia, 260 km from Belgrade, and in proximity of main highways and railway.

The Company has prepared the technological process needed to process the calcium carbonate and graphite found in the underground mine, which will have as an end product, a powdered packaged substance, ready to use by industrial buyers.

More informations on this highly attractive opportunity at belkalhan.eu

Talga Group secures environmental permit hearing for Vittangi

Talga Group (TLG) has secured an environmental permit hearing date for its Vittangi graphite project in Sweden.

The company has been working to establish a supply of green graphite anode products for lithium-ion batteries and build Europe’s first large-scale anode production facility, fully integrated with its graphite mining operations.

The initial operation, fed from the Nunasvaara South mine, is planned to produce 19,500 tonnes per annum of Talga’s flagship battery anode product, Talnode-C, over 24 years.

Talga’s environmental permit hearing has been scheduled by the Swedish Land and Environment Court to take place in Luleå, commencing in the week of January 30, 2023.

The hearing is then expected to conclude in the week of February 20.

Talga initially submitted the environmental permit and exploitation concession application for a graphite mine and concentrator at the Nunasvaara South deposit of Talga’s Vittangi graphite project in 2020.

After the two-year wait, a decision regarding the environmental permit will soon be made and published after the hearing, along with the exploitation concession decision by the state mining inspectorate.

Talga Group is up 6.12 per cent and trading at $1.30 at 1:11 pm AEDT, Market Herald reports.

World Bank indicated that graphite, lithium, and cobalt production must increase by more than 450% by 2050

Last year, the World Bank indicated that graphite, lithium, and cobalt production must increase by more than 450% by 2050 to meet the demand for energy storage technologies. Is the energy transition in danger? Do we have to exploit resources massively in Europe to avoid becoming dependent on imports? Green MEPs have an alternative plan.

The following opinion piece is co-signed by three Green MEPs: Sara Matthieu (Belgium), Manuela Ripa (Germany), and Henrike Hahn (Germany).

Every so often, gloomy headlines warn us about looming shortages of critical metals required for the successful implementation of the Green Deal and reaching at least the Paris Climate goals. We witnessed this once again earlier this month, when the IMF alerted us to the possibility of soaring metal prices for cobalt and lithium, among others, due to exceptionally high demand expectations.

We need to take this challenge seriously. If substantially higher prices for metals such as lithium and cobalt persist through the end of this decade, as the IMF researchers imply, this bottleneck could effectively put the energy transition at risk.

Renewed mining frenzy

It comes as no surprise that the action plan on critical raw materials published by the Commission in September 2020 earned far more attention than its predecessors, as it tries to address supply risks for raw materials of high economic importance. In light of the Green Deal, it is clear why lithium, cobalt and a wide range of rare earth elements are included in the list of 30 critical raw materials.

It is also clear that this action plan acts as a catalyst to resuscitate mining projects for these critical raw materials inside and outside EU borders. While we should not dismiss these out of hand, we urgently need to draw a line when it comes to protected areas. In Portugal, for instance, 28% of the areas allocated for lithium exploration are inside nationally protected areas, such as the Serra da Argamela, part of a Natura 2000 area.

The status of Natura 2000 doesn’t provide any guarantees against mining operations, as evidenced by the attempts to extract rare earth elements at Norra Kärr in Sweden or the plans to mine copper and nickel deposits in the Viiankiaapa peatland in Finland. Other examples, such as San Finx in Galicia, point to the lack of specific environmental impact assessments on Natura 2000 areas. These examples show that public or economic interests put unique habitats in Europe at risk already today. This pressure will only increase as time goes on.

Three good reasons to preserve protected areas

Some policymakers argue that we need to “balance biodiversity and economic goals” to secure the metals required for the green transition. This is code language for opening up protected areas for large-scale mining. However, a more honest balancing act would require preserving the integrity of EU protected areas for three main reasons.

First of all, these protected areas are unique and cannot be replaced by definition, nor can they be restored afterwards. Keeping them intact is essential to avoid the further collapse of EU biodiversity. Secondly, we risk unleashing a massive popular backlash against the Green Deal and the ecological transition. Nature conservation is a priority for many EU citizens.

Third, endangering these crucial areas by starting new mining projects will not fundamentally reduce EU dependency on imported critical raw materials. In other words, the relatively small increase in capacity and economic gain simply doesn’t justify the destruction of unique culture and nature habitats in the EU.

Putting the challenge into perspective 

Relatively speaking, we will need certain metals in much larger quantities for the energy transition. However, in absolute terms, the increase in demand is relatively modest. Take global lithium production, estimated at 86,000 tons in 2019. A 45-fold increase translates to a total of 3.8 million tons. That sounds impressive, but it corresponds to only 0.0016 % of iron production in 2019, estimated at around 2.454 million tons.

Secondly, green technologies are the key driver for only 6 out of 30 critical raw materials. According to a report by the öko-institut, commissioned by Henrike Hahn of the Greens/EFA, these six materials are cobalt, lithium, niobium, tantalum, heavy and light rare earth elements. Demand for most other critical raw materials is primarily driven by other sectors such as digitalisation, defence, aeronautics and even agriculture. Contrary to popular framing, the green transition only partly increases demand for critical raw materials.

Furthermore, an updated European Industrial Strategy with the Green Deal at its core needs CRM demand projections based on a sound methodological basis. Thus, the Commission should carefully review the criticality assessment methodology as the current assumptions lead to an inflated projection of future CRM demand.

Think long-term

“The Middle-East has oil, China has rare earth metals,” quipped Deng Xiaopeng in 1980. It’s no surprise that China built a robust industrial ecosystem in green technologies in recent decades. We believe Europe needs similar long-term thinking, even when we are faced with short-term challenges.

Most of the attention in Europe these days goes to exploration, financing and development of new mining in Europe and abroad, driven by the fear of looming shortages. While this is necessary, it should not detract from the overarching goal to switch to a circular economy while Europe builds the material stocks in new infrastructure.

Not only that, but it’s also a unique opportunity for onshoring a circular industry and creating new jobs. In the next 15 years, we can generate more than 10,000 jobs in the traction battery recycling sector alone, öko-institute estimates. Economically, this creates a better long-term perspective than exploiting protected areas, risking a massive popular backlash against the Green Deal in the process.

The Green Deal provides an excellent framework for all of this, now is the time to set the wheels in motion.

Source: euractiv.com

Beowulf MoU with Epsilon Advanced on graphite processing in Finland

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between exploration and development company Beowulf Mining with Epsilon Advanced Materials Private, a subsidiary of Epsilon Carbon, to develop a concept for a strategic processing hub of natural flake and recycled graphite in Finland.

The MoU will enable Beowulf’s subsidiary, Fennoscandian Resources, to build its downstream capability, collaborating with a strong technology/processing partner.

“MoU is part of our acceleration plan for Fennoscandian, as the company fulfills its role as a potential future supplier of the raw materials, that Finland and Europe need for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries,” said CEO Kurt Budge.

Fennoscandian is pursuing a strategy to develop a production base of natural flake graphite that can provide ‘security of supply’ and enable Finland to achieve its ambition of self-sufficiency in battery manufacturing.

The company is a recipient of Business Finland funding, which is supporting Fennoscandian to move downstream, and develop its knowledge in processing and manufacturing value-added graphite products.

Fennoscandian is developing the Aitolampi graphite asset, which has a contained graphite resource of 1.28-million tonnes, possessing almost perfect crystallinity, an important prerequisite for high tech applications, such as lithium-ion batteries.

Source: miningweekly.com