Inspenet, October 17, 2023.
Critical minerals from Africa: vital for the US
In recent workshops in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, American specialists gathered with the primary goal of creating local battery production facilities. This was stated by Kimberly Harrington, Deputy Undersecretary of the Office of Energy Resources, during a conference held last Thursday in Cape Town.
” Critical minerals are incredibly important for the technologies that will drive the global transition to clean energy ,” said Harrington.
The financing provided by the US International Development Finance Corp. It went to Twigg Exploration and Mining Lda , a company with operations in northeastern Mozambique, focused on the extraction and processing of material used in electric vehicle batteries and nuclear reactors. Twigg is a subsidiary of Melbourne, Australia-based Syrah Resources Ltd., which is the largest producer of graphite outside China.
This loan aims to increase production and expand the global supply chain of graphite, according to a statement issued on October 10 by the Association for Mineral Safety. The MSP is a State Department initiative designed to attract foreign investment and Western expertise into mining industries in developing nations that play a critical role in the supply of essential raw materials such as lithium, manganese and cobalt.
Another purpose of the MSP is to connect companies that share high standards of environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability and that promote similar labor rights. The goal is to establish processing and refining operations locally.
In December last year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a memorandum of understanding with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, to explore ways to support their joint plan to develop a supply chain of electric vehicles. These two central African countries are significant producers of copper and cobalt, minerals essential in the manufacture of electric vehicles and batteries.
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