US invests in British miner to fight Chinese control of rare metals

Washington has deployed a $60bn agency created by President Trump, to counter China's rising influence in Africa and Latin America

The US government has sunk $25m in to a London-based mining group that specialises in producing rare earth metals, as it attempts to loosen China's stranglehold on the global flow of minerals like cobalt and lithium.

The investment in TechMet will go towards developing a mine in Brazil that produces nickel and cobalt – both essential ingredients for mobile phones, electric vehicles, and batteries.

Some in Washington fear that China's dominance of the production of rare earths could be used as a tactic against US companies that depend on the metals.

China produces roughly two thirds of the world's lithium-ion batteries and has taken steps to secure critical metals for them in Africa and Latin America.

The US is trying to fight back, with the Pentagon promising to fund domestic mining of the essential materials, while also investing in projects abroad.

Now, Washington has deployed the $60bn United States International Development Finance Corporation, created under President Donald Trump to counter growing Chinese geopolitical influence around the world, to back TechMet, its first metals and mining investment.

TechMet was founded in 2017 by mining veteran Brian Menell, a former executive at South African conglomerate Anglovaal and De Beers.

Following the investment, Mr Menell said: “A country’s national and industrial competitiveness will be dependent on preferential access to these raw materials.”

The company has a tin and tungsten mine in Rwanda, a rare earths mine in Burundi, and a lithium ion battery project in Canada. The company also produces vanadium, a crucial metal for manufacturing nuclear reactors and military aircraft. 

Mr Menell added: “It’s lovely having Tesla and Panasonic but China can close them down in five minutes as they have to go to China for raw materials.”

The US money will help fund further development at TechMet's Brazilian Nickel project in the north-eastern state of Piaui. TechMet has said that the mine contains as much as 72 million tonnes of nickel and cobalt.

Fellow British mining company Anglo Pacific invested £2m in the promising project in 2017, according to public documents reviewed by The Telegraph, and retains the right to invest a further £70m should the mine hit a number of milestones.

Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation, said: “This important financing will support economic growth in one of Brazil’s most underdeveloped areas.”

“Investments in critical materials for advanced technology support development and advance US foreign policy,” he said.

Last year, US senators were told that a “global battery arms race” was under way, in which the US is just a “bystander”.

Chinese companies dominate the mining industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where more than 60pc of the world’s cobalt lies.

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