We would love to hear your thoughts about our site and services, please take our survey here.
https://www.voaafrique.com/a/du-mali-au-zimbabwe-le-lithium-africain-suscite-des-convoitises/6605128.html
The world is experiencing a new rush, not for gold, but for lithium, which for many represents the future of electric vehicle production and on which the fight against climate change depends. Africa is becoming more and more coveted for the rare precious metal it abounds with.
"Chinese conglomerate BYD, headquartered in Shenzhen, is in talks to buy six new lithium mines in unspecified African countries, Reuters reports, citing Beijing government-backed publication The Paper"
https://company.stcn.com/gsxw/202205/t20220525_4582491.html
Ganfeng Lithium spends 2 billion yuan to expand production again. The new phase of the incentive plan has a net profit target of 8 billion yuan in 2022
"At the end of March, the Dutch SPV company Mali Lithium BV (hereinafter referred to as "Mali Lithium"), in which Ganfeng International holds half of the shares, was officially established and completed the transfer of the Mali Goulamina spodumene mining license to the wholly-owned subsidiary of Mali Lithium. company. According to the feasibility study report, the capacity planning of the first phase of the Goulamina spodumene project has been updated to an annual output of 506,000 dry tons of 6% lithium concentrate. Increase the original production capacity to an annual output of 831,000 dry tons of 6% lithium concentrate"
Nice to see coverage from further afield.
https://www.agenceecofin.com/metaux/0605-97323-mali-kodal-minerals-leve-3-7-millions-de-dollars-pour-faire-avancer-le-projet-de-lithium-bougouni
Reading this, I think we are sitting pretty.
https://stockhead.com.au/resources/this-is-why-pilbara-minerals-boss-ken-brinsden-believes-miners-will-keep-winning-the-lithium-boom/
"Spodumene lithium concentrate prices that have increased 1150% in a little over 18 months from U$400/t to US$5000/t are the equivalent of a gold price at US$6000-7000/oz, three times their all time record from August 2020."
"Whether the headline chemicals price in China is US$75,000 a tonne or whether it’s $50,000 a tonne, does that really materially change the value in the spodumene we’re selling.
I don’t think so. Honestly, the raw material guys, at least in the foreseeable future are going to keep winning the margin because they are so far behind compared to where demand is today.”
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/PFC/petrofac-limited-update-on-uae-hxs0v2rl3kbc2pq.html
https://m.in-en.com/article/html/energy-2310350.shtml
China's first mega-city "power bank" with a storage capacity of 100,000 kWh will soon enter the network
The first phase of the National Demonstration Project of Dalian Flow Battery Energy Storage Peak-shaving Power Station is currently undergoing final equipment commissioning and is expected to be completed before the end of December. After the first phase is put into operation, it will be able to store 100,000 kWh of electricity. It is the country's first chemical energy storage national demonstration project approved by the National Energy Administration, with a total investment of 3.8 billion yuan and an area of ??50,000 square meters
https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/battery-metals-investing/vanadium-investing/vanadium-outlook/
After a year of uncertainty, experts were expecting demand for vanadium to improve in 2021 as economies recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most vanadium production is used in China for steel applications, particularly the high-strength, low-alloy steel used to make construction rebar.
As the year comes to an end, what can investors expect for vanadium in 2022? Read on to learn more about its performance in 2021, as well as what market watchers had to say about the vanadium outlook for next year...
“We currently have an effort underway to increase participation across all sectors, so that we get a statistically significant sampling of participants and have a better sense of what is really happening within each of those sectors,” continued Husson. “From a water sector perspective, it would benefit the U.S. greatly if we had more water sector entities sign up for those CISA services.”
Meanwhile, EPA has established both the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Water Security Initiative to provide security resources to water facilities. The EPA’s established Water Laboratory Alliance provides resources on contamination preparedness. EPA also offers a wealth of standalone resources including workshops, assessment tools and scenario exercises.
After the pandemic, many facilities may feel like new participants in the growing digital world. Thankfully, these resources and practices can help these facilities take a proactive approach to enhancing their post-pandemic security posture.
It may not feel likely that a small operator could build enough defenses against a sophisticated attack. Instead, a facility can focus on a post-breach mentality: reducing the impacts of, and recovering from, a successful attack. However, building a strong defense is now much easier than it may seem.
Improving Federal Standards
In the United States, both federal and state governments are still trying to catch up with the rapid growth of digitalization within critical infrastructure. While there’s not yet a robust standard for cybersecurity, significant strides have been made in the last year.
In May, the White House signed executive order 14028. The order modernizes cybersecurity within federal agencies, establishes a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board (based on the National Transportation Safety Board), requires IT service providers to share certain breach information and creates a standardized playbook for responding to cyber incidents.
That same month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a directive that requires pipeline operators to report cybersecurity incidents to CISA and to designate a Cybersecurity Coordinator. An upcoming draft bill plans to establish this reporting requirement for all critical infrastructure sectors.
The White House has also continuously met with leaders in several critical infrastructure sectors to discuss safeguarding the nation from cyber threats.
Resources Available
Utilities are not alone in their work toward achieving digital resilience. Federal agencies now provide countless cybersecurity resources and services that can be completely free.
“It’s not always about how much money you spend. It’s how well you spend it,” said Grove. “Putting money in the right places and having the right mentality and the right culture can go a long way.”
Many of the water sector’s cybersecurity resources come from CISA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). CISA directs its activity toward helping U.S. organizations prevent, detect, respond to and recover from attacks; EPA, as the explicit authority for community water systems’ security, operates a wealth of initiatives and services for cyber resilience.
“CISA offers a range of cybersecurity assessments that evaluate operational resilience, cybersecurity practices, organizational management or external dependencies, or other key stakeholder elements of a robust cybersecurity framework,” said Husson. “A lot of these services are free to the entities and they are offered solely on a voluntary basis, available upon request.”
Some of CISA’s services include cyber-hygiene vulnerability scanning services (which includes phishing campaign assessments and remote penetration testing), risk and vulnerability assessments, simulated cyberattacks, digital architecture reviews, and evaluations for out-of-the-box products/solutions. CISA also provides an interactive services catalog to help facilities choose the best-fitting services.
At the same time, a ransomware attack on a wastewater treatment plant in Mount Desert, Me., placed all of the facility’s computers out of operation for three days, though the operation of the plant itself was reportedly not affected.
The nearby town of Limestone, Me., was also the victim of a ransomware attack in early July, most likely the result of running an outdated computer operating program. The Limestone facility recovered with no serious consequences.
Risk for Small Operators
“From our perspective, the water/wastewater sector utilities are likely to be targeted regardless of size,” said Fabion Husson, insights branch chief at CISA.
Large utilities, such as those serving cities with more than 50,000 customers, may be more prone to sophisticated attacks, continued Husson. Small to medium-sized utilities, meanwhile, have a higher likelihood of both sophisticated and unsophisticated attacks because they provide a less risky testing environment for attackers.
But with cybersecurity efforts being funded primarily by the utility service providers, the smallest water utilities may be the least prepared for attacks. Without dedicating sufficient resources toward security posture, even very basic attacks can have major consequences for these organizations.
In August, the cybersecurity firm ThreatLocker found that 38 percent of water companies spent less than one percent of their budget on IT security and that 44.8 percent spent less than one percent on OT security. Many facilities also continue to use software and operating systems beyond their end-of-life status. These outdated systems mean additional vulnerabilities for attackers.
“The small to medium utilities in the water/wastewater sector are fighting more of an uphill battle than a medium or large one,” said Chris Grove, technology evangelist for cybersecurity firm Nozomi Networks, “typically because they have a lot fewer resources to work with than a big city water facility that has millions of dollars.”
“When you’re talking about some of these really small operators, sometimes the IT department is one-tenth of one person’s job while 90 percent of that person’s job is real physical engineering work,” continued Grove, “Tasking someone responsible for keeping our water pure [along] with [the added job of] cybersecurity is almost like an unfair ask.”
He recommends that smaller utilities focus on tasks that simplify operations and allow them to do more with less. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), for example, provides operators with pre-established security technology so that resources won’t need to be dedicated toward establishing separate protocols.
“They should also focus on having a good backup strategy,” continued Grove. “If you can’t build a good defense, and you know you’re not going to be able to defeat the attackers when they get there, then accept that.”
Long article;
https://www.securityinfowatch.com/critical-infrastructure/article/21250355/improving-security-posture-postpandemic-in-the-water-utility-sector
While technological growth offers plenty of benefits, it also comes with great risks.
According to a study by Chain Analysis, ransomware victims paid at least $350 million in 2020 — three times as much as they did in 2019. Developed nations like Russia and China are putting significant resources toward cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure; with occasional success.
The National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have released multiple alerts in each passing year, urging infrastructure providers to strengthen their cybersecurity.
ISA recently published a cybersecurity advisory urging critical infrastructure facilities to take immediate action to secure their operations from attacks. In mid-October, the nation’s top federal security agencies published a joint statement to highlight the prominence and danger of cyberattacks for the nation’s water and wastewater facilities.
“As we’ve said many times,” Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA said, “our adversaries are capable, imaginative and aim to disrupt essential services, so it is important that we make sure we are staying ahead of them.”
According to Black & Veatch, more than two-thirds of utilities credited COVID-19 for their organization’s increased consideration of digital technology, pointing to the pandemic-forced remote working practices of their employees. With such a quick, unexpected and recent growth in digital technology for the industry, utilities’ risk of cyberattacks has also increased.
Even smaller utilities can establish significant cybersecurity without significant spending, thanks to simple best practices and free agency services.
In January, a hacker tried to poison a water treatment plant in the San Francisco Bay area. The hacker had stolen a former employee’s credentials and deleted several water treatment programs from the plant’s computers. These actions weren’t discovered until the following day — when the plant immediately changed all its passwords and reinstalled any deleted programs.
Only one month later, an individual was able to gain access to a water treatment plant located in Oldsmar, Fla. Working remotely, the hacker was able to increase the facility’s sodium hydroxide dosing to dangerous levels before a supervisor noticed. Notably, the treatment levels were brought back to normal by employees via remote access.
Sadly, these are not the only examples of utilities that found out their systems needed better security this year. In April, the Pennsylvania Water Action Response Network, a group of municipal water agencies in the state, announced in an email that two of its systems were “victims of recent cyber intrusions” and that the FBI was investigating the matter.
“Violations of federal standards can result in daily and monthly fines that climb into the tens of thousands of dollars. In addition to the fines, traditional monitoring methods that take several days to deliver results increase the risk of significant environmental harm and inflict reputational damages to companies,” Banzen explained.
Water Quality now provides the steel mill instantaneous performance monitoring updates by combining information from the plant’s custom sensors, controller data, field data and laboratory results. The steel mill views these results through an ECOLAB3D digital dashboard that analyzes the data in various ways, giving the plant several ways to visualize its operations and generate actionable insights. This enables the plant to respond with predictive or corrective steps to bring operations under control, such as implementing chemistry changes or making other adjustments.
With Water Quality in place, the steel mill has been able to remain under the daily ammonia outfall limit of 1,000 lbs / 454 kg and the monthly average of 425 lbs / 193 kg discharged for the last 2.5 years. Early in the process, Nalco Water’s chemical and mechanical solutions, such as running the system at a higher pH and incorporating fountains and spargers to help liberate additional ammonia out of the water, helped the plant avoid violations. Over time, the incorporation of ammonia analyzers and automated controls enabled the steel mill to react in real time to control blowdown and chemistry, further increasing the plant’s success.
As environmental, social and corporate governance factors continue to drive influence across all industries, Banzen said Ecolab’s solution helps facilities reduce their water footprint.
“Giving a steel mill the ability to understand how its processes are affecting ammonia discharge levels in real time is a true game changer, especially for long-term sustainability impact.”
https://www.watertechonline.com/wastewater/article/14214659/midwestern-steel-mill-improves-regulatory-compliance-with-a-digital-ecosystem-that-employs-iot-and-realtime-analytics
One of the oldest and largest steel production facilities in the U.S. has implemented an automated solution to monitor ammonia levels in its wastewater, finally enabling the plant to meet limits set by environmental regulatory agencies. Monitoring and mitigating ammonia levels in wastewater is key to the plant’s steel production, with as much as 75,000 gallons / 283,906 liters of water used per ton of steel produced. Until recently, the facility found it challenging to reach acceptable ammonia levels in its discharge water and was failing to meet regulatory standards.
A new strategy at the plant to use cutting-edge digital tools reflects the plant’s efforts to use its water more efficiently and discharge it more responsibly. The plant partnered with Nalco Water, Ecolab’s water management company, to implement Water Quality, a digital service powered by ECOLAB3D, to bring increased visibility, performance and profitability to its water recycling loop. The steel mill’s compliance with environmental regulations hinges on its ability to collect insights into key operational processes and their impacts on water quality within the system.
“We wanted to move this mill from a reactive state to a proactive, automated state, with an end goal of real-time monitoring through Ecolab’s Water Quality, powered by ECOLAB3D,” said Tom Banzen, account manager at Ecolab. “The challenge was capturing critical information that is uniquely relevant to this particular facility, which required building a customized digital solution.”
To give the steel mill real-time monitoring of its wastewater ammonia levels, Nalco Water deployed sensors within the system at both pre- and post-treatment stages to provide data to the ECOLAB3D intelligence platform. This data is then amassed and analyzed in a customized way that is specific to the plant, which provides distinct insights for its unique operations.
“Parameters vary widely from mill to mill, so it’s essential to think outside of the box to tailor our digital solutions for the steel industry,” said Richard LeNeave, a district manager with Ecolab. “It’s exciting to lead the way in accommodating specific industry needs within Water Quality to make it even more valuable to our steel industry partners.”
Real-time results
Water used in steel production facilities circulates in a recycle loop. Over time, it becomes laden with corrosive and scaling elements that ultimately render it unfit for continued cycling, and some of the water (blowdown) is treated and discharged. At the steel mill’s wastewater treatment plant, ammonia and other chemicals in the unusable water are removed through treatment to meet regulatory outfall limits before the water is returned to the receiving waters.
All the best, Pdub.
It is understood that this signing agreement stipulates that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Leshan Shengjia Electric Co., Ltd. of Weld Group plans to invest no less than 50 billion yuan to build a new tens of billion-level energy storage industrial park and GW-level in Shandan. The intelligent production base of all-vanadium liquid flow energy storage equipment, new-type energy storage power stations of more than 2GW, and 7GW photovoltaic power generation projects will create a source of energy storage technology in Gansu.