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Mid-Nickel",103.5,99.73,3.78,13.78,6.78,[518,519,520,522,524,526,528,530,532,534,536,538],{"date":213,"value":512},{"date":216,"value":513},{"date":219,"value":521},99.19,{"date":222,"value":523},96.02,{"date":225,"value":525},98.23,{"date":467,"value":527},99.24,{"date":329,"value":529},101.29,{"date":339,"value":531},87.61,{"date":341,"value":533},92.44,{"date":344,"value":535},90.96,{"date":347,"value":537},92.24,{"date":350,"value":539},95.09,{"id":541,"uuid":542,"name":543,"slug":544,"full_slug":545,"content":546,"relatedArticles":774,"relatedVideos":775},112470909659320,"8b267d28-1ed0-4b57-be91-4fbd1e12fe4a","“This is a lull before a 10 year bull market.” Q&A with TechMet’s CEO Brian Menell","this-is-a-lull-before-a-10-year-bull-market-qa-with-techmets-ceo-brian-menell","article/this-is-a-lull-before-a-10-year-bull-market-qa-with-techmets-ceo-brian-menell",{"_uid":547,"date":548,"tags":549,"editor":559,"content":569,"excerpt":746,"featured":51,"reporter":747,"_editable":751,"component":752,"seo_title":543,"categories":753,"visibility":766,"author_company":49,"featured_image":767,"seo_description":746,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":772,"formattedArticleDate":773},"77fdb492-6b85-48ce-843f-0faf43b67fc1","2023-08-16 00:00",[550,553,556],{"slug":551,"name":552},"china","China",{"slug":554,"name":555},"qa","Q&A",{"slug":557,"name":558},"usa","USA",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562,"content":563},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":564,"image":565,"bio":567,"linkedin":568},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":566},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":570,"content":571},"doc",[572,579,594,599,604,609,616,621,626,639,651,656,661,666,671,676,688,693,698,711,716,721,726,731,736,741],{"type":573,"attrs":574,"content":575},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[576],{"text":577,"type":578},"This week TechMet, an investment company backed by the US government, announced it had raised $200 million in new funding to further develop its critical mineral operations. ","text",{"type":573,"attrs":580,"content":581},{"textAlign":49},[582,584,592],{"text":583,"type":578},"TechMet was founded in 2017 by Brian Menell, a British and South African businessman, to invest in “",{"text":585,"type":578,"marks":586},"environmentally responsible",[587],{"type":588,"attrs":589},"link",{"href":590,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":591},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/esg/","url",{"text":593,"type":578}," supply chains for the metals needed for the clean energy transition.”",{"type":573,"attrs":595,"content":596},{"textAlign":49},[597],{"text":598,"type":578},"The company has invested over $180 million in critical mineral projects over the last year. It holds stakes in companies focused on rare earth separation, lithium extraction, battery manufacturing, recycling, and nickel and cobalt mining. ",{"type":573,"attrs":600,"content":601},{"textAlign":49},[602],{"text":603,"type":578},"Following the funding round, the business is set to have a valuation of over $1 billion. ",{"type":573,"attrs":605,"content":606},{"textAlign":49},[607],{"text":608,"type":578},"Benchmark Source sat down with the company’s founder and CEO to learn more. ",{"type":610,"attrs":611,"content":613},"heading",{"level":612,"textAlign":49},4,[614],{"text":615,"type":578},"Where will TechMet invest the new money?",{"type":573,"attrs":617,"content":618},{"textAlign":49},[619],{"text":620,"type":578},"All of the use of proceeds will be for further expansion of our existing producing assets or late stage development projects. So we haven’t been raising a discretionary fund to invest in new stuff. We have been using the money in this round to further develop Brazilian Nickel, to further develop Energy Source Minerals in the US on the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) side, to further upgrade the vanadium electrolytes and specialty chemical plants in Arkansas, to further expand our tin and tungsten mines in Rwanda – so really across all of our assets, you know, for the acceleration of development.",{"type":610,"attrs":622,"content":623},{"level":612,"textAlign":49},[624],{"text":625,"type":578},"It’s the one year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – how much do you worry about the impact of all this capital being invested in projects? ",{"type":573,"attrs":627,"content":628},{"textAlign":49},[629,631,637],{"text":630,"type":578},"I think the level of expertise in some of the key US government agencies that are deploying capital has evolved radically. The ",{"text":632,"type":578,"marks":633},"DOE loan program",[634],{"type":588,"attrs":635},{"href":636,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":591},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/to-me-what-matters-is-american-dominance-in-these-sectors-of-the-future-qa-with-the-does-jigar-shah",{"text":638,"type":578}," and other elements of the Washington DC ecosystem have become pretty well educated and quite well positioned to avoid failures, which they’ve suffered from in some instances in the past with significant political consequences. ",{"type":573,"attrs":640,"content":641},{"textAlign":49},[642,644,649],{"text":643,"type":578},"Obviously they’re investing in a very diverse and rapidly evolving industry and environment and they are under a lot of pressure to deploy capital. And it’s not only ",{"text":645,"type":578,"marks":646},"DOE",[647],{"type":588,"attrs":648},{"href":636,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":591},{"text":650,"type":578},", it’s DOD [Department of Defense], it’s Exim Bank and the DFC [US International Development Finance Corporation], our shareholders. So clearly there will be some winners and some losers and they’ll be support from US government agencies for companies that don’t succeed as they promised and that will have consequences – but that’s just part of the game and it’s unavoidable. I think the parties deploying capital are generally positioned to do a pretty good job of avoiding that most of the time.",{"type":610,"attrs":652,"content":653},{"level":612,"textAlign":49},[654],{"text":655,"type":578},"How much are you concerned about the macro environment with China’s economy slowing down? ",{"type":573,"attrs":657,"content":658},{"textAlign":49},[659],{"text":660,"type":578},"This is a lull before a 10 year bull market. I mean the energy transition is not stopping the acceleration of demand driven by EV adoption and renewable energy systems is not stopping, maybe it will slow down a bit. But it’s so compelling and so inescapable and a structural short supply of all of our critical minerals – two years, three years, five years out – even within a very depressed economic environment is so severe that the macro tailwind is totally intact. ",{"type":610,"attrs":662,"content":663},{"level":612,"textAlign":49},[664],{"text":665,"type":578},"How severe is the crisis the West faces in terms of a critical mineral shortage?",{"type":573,"attrs":667,"content":668},{"textAlign":49},[669],{"text":670,"type":578},"I think the crisis for the world is very very severe in terms of the structural shortage of supply for critical minerals for the energy transition. And I think it’s a bit less severe for China, who obviously had a 15 year head start to build a dominant position in the global critical minerals supply chains. And therefore they are somewhat better set to supply themselves adequately than the rest of the world. ",{"type":573,"attrs":672,"content":673},{"textAlign":49},[674],{"text":675,"type":578},"However, I think even China is going to really struggle to adequately supply their ecosystem and renewable energy systems with lithium and cobalt and nickel and rare earth metals in the next five to 10 years, let alone continue to supply and support the rest of the world. ",{"type":573,"attrs":677,"content":678},{"textAlign":49},[679,681,686],{"text":680,"type":578},"So the first massive challenge is for the world rather than for the West vis-à-vis China and the new Cold War. The second challenge is scaling supply in a way that’s ",{"text":682,"type":578,"marks":683},"ESG compliant",[684],{"type":588,"attrs":685},{"href":590,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":591},{"text":687,"type":578}," and independent of China to responsibly feed European and US industry, as well as Japan and Korea and India. And that’s a massive challenge that is becoming more severe every day rather than less severe, despite the very considerable contribution of the IRA and other efforts. ",{"type":573,"attrs":689,"content":690},{"textAlign":49},[691],{"text":692,"type":578},"That’s why we as an industry needed to deploy $100 billion four years ago to avoid what is now in my view an inescapable and unavoidable cliff of undersupply in three, four or five years time. And that’s quite apart from the China geopolitical angle. ",{"type":610,"attrs":694,"content":695},{"level":612,"textAlign":49},[696],{"text":697,"type":578},"But can we reduce China’s dominance – how successful can we be?",{"type":573,"attrs":699,"content":700},{"textAlign":49},[701,703,709],{"text":702,"type":578},"I think there’s a lot of opportunities to balance China’s dominant position, and reduce China’s dominant position, every month, every year, over the coming years. But to substantially dislodge ",{"text":704,"type":578,"marks":705},"China’s dominance",[706],{"type":588,"attrs":707},{"href":708,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":591},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/infographic-chinas-lithium-ion-battery-supply-chain-dominance",{"text":710,"type":578}," across these global supply chains is a multi-decade challenge. So the reality is that if we’re going to, as the West, (and by that I mean the US and its economic allies), successfully mitigate climate change and successfully pursue the energy transition, we have to do it in partnership with China. ",{"type":573,"attrs":712,"content":713},{"textAlign":49},[714],{"text":715,"type":578},"We have to rely on China, continue to rely on China to an extent, hopefully to a diminishing extent, for a lot of the inputs and a lot of the components. Because it’s a reality, to turn the tide with respect to that landscape is a very expensive and lengthy process given the rest of the world has been sleeping for 15 years while China saw what was coming before everybody else. ",{"type":610,"attrs":717,"content":718},{"level":612,"textAlign":49},[719],{"text":720,"type":578},"Where does the capital need to come from to invest in critical minerals for the energy transition? ",{"type":573,"attrs":722,"content":723},{"textAlign":49},[724],{"text":725,"type":578},"Very good question because the big global mining companies are continuing to fail the world because it’s really difficult to wean yourself off making massive profits shipping iron ore out of the Pilbara to China and paying massive dividends. And therefore they are way behind and they’re slow and conservative and unimaginative. Even though they should be making a difference in our critical minerals, generally they’re not. So that’s not the answer. ",{"type":573,"attrs":727,"content":728},{"textAlign":49},[729],{"text":730,"type":578},"The big oil companies are looking at lithium and will become big in lithium. It’s a natural fit because they have a lot of money and they know how to manage subsurface fluids and pump fluids and process fluids. So they will be, in my view, big players. And that’ll be really important as they have lots of money and they know how to do big projects. So they’ll make a difference over time, but not quickly. ",{"type":573,"attrs":732,"content":733},{"textAlign":49},[734],{"text":735,"type":578},"Obviously the government support such as the DOE Loan Program and other elements of the Washington ecosystem are all material and pretty sizable, and it will be followed by some efforts, albeit smaller, in Europe and Japan and elsewhere.",{"type":573,"attrs":737,"content":738},{"textAlign":49},[739],{"text":740,"type":578},"Where we continue to radically underperform as a world, in terms of what’s necessary for metals and mining, is the attention and support of big institutional funders. Who are still wary of the ESG and PR liabilities in metals and mining, even though they are theoretically committed to net zero and energy transition. ",{"type":573,"attrs":742,"content":743},{"textAlign":49},[744],{"text":745,"type":578},"They’re not putting their money where their mouth is in respect to critical mineral supply chains, without which you don’t have climate change mitigation and an energy transition. The big global institutions are nowhere and they need to deploy tens and tens of billions of dollars if we are going to move the needle and do what we need to do as an industry. At the moment that’s not happening and it really needs to happen. Governments need to incentivise that to happen and they’re not.","This week TechMet, an investment company backed by the US government, announced it had raised $200 million in new funding to further develop its critical mineral operations. TechMet was founded in 2017 by Brian Menell, a British and South African businessman, to invest in “environmentally responsible supply chains for the metals needed for the clean […]",[748],{"slug":561,"name":562,"content":749},{"job_title":564,"image":750,"bio":567,"linkedin":568},{"filename":566},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"77fdb492-6b85-48ce-843f-0faf43b67fc1\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[754,757,760,763],{"slug":755,"name":756},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":758,"name":759},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":761,"name":762},"geopolitics","Geopolitics",{"slug":764,"name":765},"new-energy","New Energy","private",{"id":49,"alt":768,"name":768,"focus":768,"title":768,"source":768,"filename":769,"copyright":768,"fieldtype":770,"meta_data":771,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/67e85cb4e3/bm-brian-menell.jpg","asset",{"alt":768,"title":768,"source":768,"copyright":768},"Aug 16, 2023","16th August 2023",[],[],1780670072660]