Biden admin forges first mineral deals at climate talks14 Dec 2023 10:30
The Biden administration has begun forging mining deals at the U.N. climate talks aimed at securing access to materials needed for electric vehicles and other energy technologies.
The International Development Finance Corp., a federal agency, formally approved $50 million in financing Sunday for TechMet, a private investment company that’s partnering in a South African rare earths project.
The Phalaborwa Rare Earths project will use U.S. extraction technology to reprocess historic phosphate mining waste to produce rare earth metals.
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Brian Menell, chair and CEO of TechMet, said during an interview on the sidelines of the climate talks that the metals and mining sector needs to undergo a massive shift to respond to the climate crisis because demand is poised to outpace global supplies.
The federal government took an equity stake in TechMet in 2020, a move that was seen as an attempt to lessen U.S. dependence on China for metals needed for EV batteries and military applications. Menell said there’s now an almost unavoidable “structural cliff of undersupply” within the next three to four years for lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals.
“The world needed 20 of us yesterday,” Menel said. “We’re at the forefront of the war against climate change.”
https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-admin-forges-first-mineral-deals-at-climate-talks/