The battle for the richest man: the trillion dollar game behind African lithium mines!

The battle for the richest man: the trillion dollar game behind African lithium mines!

Why do the world's richest people grab their heads? Unveiling the "White Oil" War Buried Underground in Africa! At 3am in the town of Manono, AVZMinerals' chief geologist Mark Thompson was awakened by a hurried knocking on the door. When he followed the local guide to the rock formation shimmering with strange light, the spectral analyzer in his hand emitted an unprecedented sharp sound - a seemingly accidental discovery in 2016 that was about to ignite a global "white oil" war. One The mining history of the century old "Tin City" and the fate changing lithium pyroxene town of Munono, which is almost impossible to find on maps, is a miniature colonial economic history. When Belgian colonizers discovered the abundant tin resources here in 1912, they probably didn't expect that a hundred years later, another white mineral would drive global capital crazy. In the 1960s, this place was known as the 'Cavendish of Congo'. Joseph, a 78 year old miner, rubbed the yellowed photo with calloused fingers, creating a sharp contrast between the brightly lit beneficiation plant and the now abandoned facilities. After the sharp drop in tin prices, everyone thought Manono would forever sleep. The turning point occurred during the dry season of 2016. The AVZ team originally only conducted routine tin ore resource assessments, but discovered abnormal geophysical signals 5 kilometers away from the old mining area. When drilling to a depth of 87 meters, the extracted core showed a unique gray green color under sunlight - a typical feature of spodumene bearing pegmatite. We realized at that time that we might have hit a jackpot, "recalled Li Wenbo, a Chinese geological engineer who participated in the exploration." But we didn't expect it to be so big. "Subsequent exploration showed that the lithium deposit named RocheDure (French for" hard rock ") had a strike length of over 13 kilometers, equivalent to the distance from Xidan to Dongdan in Beijing; The average thickness is 200 meters, higher than most skyscrapers. 2、 The digital code behind 400 million tons: why drive the richest people crazy? According to the exploration report released by AVZ, RocheDure has a proven resource of 401 million tons and an average grade of 1.65% lithium oxide. What does this number mean? 1 ton iPhone: Producing 1 ton of lithium battery requires about 8 tons of lithium concentrate (6% grade), and RocheDure's reserves can meet the battery demand of about 5 billion iPhones! 20-year supply: Calculated based on global lithium demand in 2023, sufficient to supply the world for more than 20 years! Cost advantage: Under open-pit mining conditions, the estimated cash cost is only $350/ton, making it one of the lowest cost lithium resources in the world! More importantly, its deposit type. Megalite type lithium deposits are usually associated with strategic metals such as tantalum, niobium, and tin. RocheDure's tantalum grade reaches 156ppm, which is three times that of ordinary deposits. This is equivalent to buying lithium ore and receiving a rare metal gift package, "said Professor Li Ming from the School of Materials Science and Technology at Tsinghua University. III On February 14, 2023, the Western Valentine's Day, AVZ received a "breakup letter" from the Ministry of Mining of the Democratic Republic of Congo - the mining license was suddenly revoked. The document numbered MINING-2022-017 provides the reason for the "delayed development progress", but industry insiders are aware that the real reason is the strong intervention of Chinese enterprises. After gaining control of the northern part of the mining area, Zijin Mining demonstrated astonishing "Chinese speed": completing camp construction within 90 days; Open transportation channels within 180 days; Plan to achieve production within 24 months! Compared to AVZ's progress of only completing exploration in the previous 6 years, the decision of the Congolese government seems to have a reasonable explanation. But the evidence presented by AVZCEO Nigel Ferguson at the ICSID hearing shows that the agreement signing date of Zijin Mining was 11 days earlier than the revocation of AVZ mining rights. 4 When the outside world thought that the competition for AI mining unicorns would end with a complete victory for Chinese companies, the entry of KoBoldMetals changed the rules of the game. This startup, jointly invested by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Bezos Earth Fund, has brought disruptive exploration technologies. In the southern mining area, KoBold has deployed an "intelligent exploration system" including a quantum gravimeter that can detect depths up to 2000 meters underground! AI core analysis: Processing 3000 meters of drilling samples per day! Machine Learning Model: Integrating 50 Years of Global Lithium Mining Data! We are not here to mine, we are here to redefine mining, "KoBoldCEO Kurt House said at a press conference. The company claims that its AI technology can increase the exploration success rate from the industry average of 1% to 20%. Five The RocheDure mining area has become a microcosm of the resource game between China and the United States: geologists point out that although the southern ore body has a higher grade, it faces huge challenges: the terrain height difference is up to 800 meters; There is a large underground water system; The structure of Weijing rock mass is complex! It's like mining in Swiss cheese, "said Professor Mwamba, head of the geology department at the National University of Congo. VI The truth behind the energy revolution behind the lithium mining war is that in the era of new energy, the strategic value of lithium is comparable to that of oil in the 20th century. The International Energy Agency predicts that global lithium demand will increase 42 times by 2040. The competition for RocheDure is essentially a contest for future energy discourse power. Whoever controls lithium resources holds the throat of the electric age, "energy analyst Zhang Weiwei pointed out." But the Congolese government is playing a dangerous balancing game. "The latest news shows that the Congolese Ministry of Mines is brewing a new amendment to the mining law, which may require all lithium mining projects to be equipped with local processing facilities. As night falls in Manono, the lighting of Zijin Mining and the laser scanner of KoBold interweave over the mining area. In the small town tavern, Old Joseph looked at the newly hung "World Lithium Capital" sign on the wall and muttered to himself, "Last time they were so excited was for tin mines..." History is always surprisingly similar, but this time, the stakes are higher than ever before.