Minas plays focal role in effort to ease Brazil’s fertiliser problem

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Brazilian niobium carves out an energy niche

Among Brazil’s abundant mineral riches — from iron ore and gold to precious stones and copper — is one niche metal that almost no other country can claim to produce at scale: niobium.

The dominant producer, Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM), is exploring new applications and believes the chemical element has a key role to play in electric batteries, for such vehicles as buses and trucks.

CBMM reckons its mining and manufacturing complex at Araxá, in Minas Gerais state, is responsible for three-quarters of global niobium supply.

For decades, the metal’s main use has been in alloys to strengthen steel. Very small amounts confer greater toughness, corrosion resistance and higher melting points.

Found in everything from automobile bodies to gas pipelines and atomic reactors, niobium is also used in high-tech devices such as jet engines and hospital MRI scanners.

Amid an international rush to secure raw commodities deemed vital for modern technologies, there is growing scrutiny of the strategic and geopolitical facets to niobium — not least since production is concentrated in just a few places.

The shiny grey metal is ranked the second-most “critical mineral” by the US Geological Survey, which estimates that 90 per cent of total output is from Brazil.

“Our country can be positioned as a very important supplier of materials for the energy transition,” says CBMM chief executive Ricardo Lima. “The most important property we can bring is fast charging,” he explains. “In the battery industry, we really have a great opportunity to be very successful.”

Founded in the 1950s and controlled by the Moreira Salles business dynasty, CBMM’s other shareholders are a Japanese-Korean grouping and a consortium of Chinese steelmakers.

Brazil’s other dedicated niobium mine was purchased by China’s CMOC in 2016. China is the main destination for Brazilian exports of the metal.

A report by the Washington DC-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) this year highlights this level of Chinese involvement, and the substance’s potential in military equipment, as reasons for US policymakers to be on alert. “In the grand chessboard of defence geopolitics, niobium has emerged as a piece of paramount importance,” write the researchers. 

With its usage long established in aerospace and astronautics — from the Nasa Apollo programme to SpaceX rockets — they described the metal as “indispensable” for critical components in hypersonic missiles. Capable of travelling five times the speed of sound, the weaponry is being developed by a number of nations, including the US

Brazil’s lithium makes its presence known with silvery-white promise

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Brazil’s Brumadinho dam disaster reverberates for mining industry

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Calpers to direct $25bn to green private market investments

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Isda pushes to ‘decouple’ Simm calibration from model changes

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association is planning to ‘decouple’ the recalibration of its standard initial margin model (Simm) from more substantial model updates, which require regulatory approval.

The proposal, which Isda presented to global regulators last week, aims to address a quirk in new European Union rules that threatened to derail a wider effort to improve Simm’s responsiveness to market events.

“We started to think about how we could futureproof a process that would work

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Brazil’s Lula government ousts Petrobras chief after dispute over dividends

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China’s economy reveals pockets of softness. Here’s what to watch ahead of Friday’s data

As China’s economy moves into the second quarter of the year, a few indicators are pointing to sluggish growth ahead if things don’t turn around, raising expectations for monetary policy easing. The People’s Bank of China over the weekend released new loan data for April that pointed to a sharp slump in demand, with several metrics at their lowest in at least two decades. On Friday, China plans to issue its first ultra-long bond — 30 years in term — as Beijing kicks off a previously announced program for a total of 1 trillion yuan ($138.25 billion) in funds for major strategic projects. People purchasing fruit at an agricultural trade market on May 11, 2024 in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — As China’s economy moves into the second quarter of the year, a few indicators are pointing to sluggish growth ahead if things don’t turn around, raising expectations for monetary policy easing.

The National Bureau of Statistics is due to release data on retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment for April on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters as of Tuesday expect a slight increase compared to March.

The same day, China plans to issue its first ultra-long bond — 30 years in term — as Beijing kicks off a previously announced program for a total of 1 trillion yuan ($138.25 billion) in funds for major strategic projects. The Ministry of Finance has not specified what the first tranche will be used for.

Some of the weakness speaks to genuine sluggish demand in China at present. Goldman Sachs

“With issuances running all the way until November, it is likely some of the proceeds spending (and therefore benefit to the economy) will only feature in H1 next year,” Louise Loo, lead economist at Oxford Economics, said in a note Tuesday.

The firm expects this week’s economic data releases to show a “softening in economic momentum,” affirming its forecasts for the central bank to cut rates by the end of June.

The central government bond program comes as the drag from real estate persists, while businesses and consumers largely remain conservative about spending.

The People’s Bank of China over the weekend released new loan data for

CNBC

Vanguard chooses former BlackRock executive Salim Ramji as CEO

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What Japan’s most profitable policy experiment can teach us

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