#Edmond Kombat

[xtruss]

Zimbabwe’s ‘White Gold’! Critical Minerals Law Favors China

Harare has Africa’s largest lithium reserves and Beijing is poised to benefit, despite an export ban.

— By Nosmot Gbadamosi | Foreign Policy | August 16th, 2023

A foreman looks on as an earth mover works on the slippery road at Arcadia Mine on Jan. 11, 2022 in Goromonzi, Zimbabwe. ​Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images

The world’s clean-energy transition will be impossible without African minerals—and a degree of resource nationalism from African countries is benefiting China, which has for decades invested in the African Green-Energy Market and accounts for 59 percent of the world’s lithium refining. Chinese companies run the majority of Zimbabwe’s mines and are better positioned to expand domestic processing there.

Lithium, often referred to as “White Gold,” is essential to producing Solar Panels and the Rechargeable Batteries that power electric vehicles; and in 2022, demand pushed prices up by more than 100 percent. Africa could supply a fifth of the world’s lithium needs by 2030, but to best serve citizens, African leaders are demanding that miners go beyond extraction and add value by locally processing the raw mineral.

Last December, Zimbabwe 🇿🇼, which has Africa’s Largest Lithium Reserves, imposed a ban on raw lithium ore exports, requiring companies to set up plants in the country and process ore into concentrates before export in order to boost local jobs and revenue. Those seeking to export and not process domestically would need to provide proof of exceptional circumstances and receive written permission to export raw lithium ore.

Zimbabwe’s ban, called the Base Minerals Export Control Act, will stop the country losing billions in mineral proceeds to foreign companies, officials said. Namibia 🇳🇦 has followed suit; and in 2020 around 42 percent of African nations, excluding those in North Africa, had implemented restrictions on raw exports, including the Democratic Republic of Congo 🇨🇩, Ghana 🇬🇭, and Nigeria 🇳🇬.

Traditionally, “mining companies after extraction enjoy all the benefits [while] leaving communities in their catchment areas to bear the brunt of life-threatening dangers associated with their operations,” Edmond Kombat, research and finance director of Ghana’s 🇬🇭 Institute for Energy Security, told ESI Africa. “It is time to stop that practice.”

However, China, which controls the world’s critical minerals supply chain, is ideally placed to reap benefits in these situations, because several Chinese owned companies have recently completed processing plants in the country. Chinese-owned Companies have Spent more than $1 Billion acquiring and developing lithium projects in Zimbabwe, which in contrast has seen Very Little Western investment.

Last month, Chinese minerals giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt opened a $300 million lithium processing plant at its Arcadia Mine in Zimbabwe, which it bought last year from Australia-based Prospect Resources for $422 million. The plant currently has the capacity to process around 450,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate annually. Under Zimbabwean law the refined lithium can then be exported for further processing into battery-grade lithium outside Zimbabwe.

In May, another Chinese company, Chengxin Lithium Group, commissioned a lithium concentrator to produce 300,000 metric tons per year at the Sabi Star mine in eastern Zimbabwe. And China’s Sinomine Resource Group said last month it had completed a $300 million lithium plant, after it bought Bikita Minerals, one of Africa’s oldest lithium mines, for $180 million.

Zimbabwe hopes to satisfy 20 percent of the world’s total lithium demand when it fully exploits its known lithium resources. “If we continue exporting raw lithium we will go nowhere,” Deputy Mines Minister Polite Kambamura told Bloomberg last year. “We want to see lithium batteries being developed in the country.”

New rules stipulate that a 5 percent royalty rate will be payable on lithium exported, due half in cash and half in processed final products so that the country can build cash reserves it could use for government-backed borrowing.

U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe 🇿🇼, imposed since 2001, have impacted the country’s access to borrowing and investment, leaving few options but China. Last year, Zimbabwean Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube claimed the country has lost more than $42 billion in revenue as a result of Western sanctions. The Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency reportedly received 160 lithium investment applications from investors based in China in the first half of 2023 compared to just five from the United States.

Even among Zimbabwe’s regional peers, U.S. companies have been left on the backfoot. Nigeria Rejected Elon Musk’s Tesla in favor of Beijing-based Ming Xin Mineral Separation to build Nigeria’s first lithium processing plant in Kaduna State, in the country’s northwest region. Nigerian officials reportedly rejected Tesla’s proposal because it did not align with the country’s new policies. “Our new mining policy demands that you add some value to raw mineral ores, including lithium, before you export,” Ayodeji Adeyemi, special assistant to Nigeria’s mines and steel development minister, told Rest of World.

For decades, African economists complained that foreign companies extracted minerals without benefit to citizens. In 2015, Zimbabwean researchers estimated the country had lost $12 billion due to illegal trade involving multinational companies in China 🇨🇳, Canada 🇨🇦, the United States 🇺🇸, and the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 —enough money to pay off Zimbabwe’s foreign debt.

Africa holds more than 40 Percent of Global Reserves of Key Minerals for batteries and hydrogen technologies. Yet it’s predicted that, by 2030, more than 80 percent of the world’s poor will live in Africa, and about 75 percent of them in resource-rich countries.

It makes sense for African Nations to step up efforts to increase quality jobs. “The United States and Europe must ensure that the partnerships they are building in Africa are mutually beneficial and non-extractive,” Theophile Pouget-Abadie and Rachel Rizzo recently wrote in Foreign Policy. “Otherwise, they will run headlong into the walls erected by an increasingly dominant Beijing.”

Washington in January signed a memorandum of understanding to help the Democratic Republic of Congo 🇨🇩 and Zambia 🇿🇲 develop an electric battery supply chain. But China is going beyond this in terms of thinking about what African nations need. Beijing, for example, with support from the United Nations 🇺🇳 Development Program, is facilitating a joint research center in Ethiopia 🇪🇹 to fast-track access to renewable energy in the country.

Experts warn that more African countries banning critical raw minerals exports will impede global decarbonization. Zimbabwe’s ban is perceived as unrealistic because the country lacks skilled workers. Some countries (Kenya 🇰🇪, Tanzania 🇹🇿, and Zambia 🇿🇲) have implemented policies requiring mining companies to train locals, according to a recent World Bank report. The report suggests national export bans alone can make countries worse off because investors simply move their business elsewhere, but that training requirements could ensure retention of investment and the creation of a skilled workforce.

[tmma1869]

[gaymer-hag-stan]

[dark-hybrid-ninja]

Rei was holding a present for Gen. Inside was a music box that would play relaxing music for the monkey man. Yakumo and Eiden held up a basket of sweets for Shin. Quincy and Olivine had made a special wreath that could stay up all year for Hakutomi. Reign held up a bouquet of his sweethearts favorite flowers. Shiro had made a fur trimmed scarf for Raidou. Damien had a flaming heart in a jar that would keep his Phoenix warm all year. For Kats wolf boy was a bottle of oil for his tail and ears. Blade made a sculpture that looked like his new love and Edmond had tried to make sweets for his love as well.

*happy holidays from the monster nest!*

*the Bishōnen ninja squad were all surprised as they had an assortment of gifts ranging from Decadent sweets from the Yagyu twins to a special ice colored necklace from Raidou, Kai having a a special inferno ring and Hiruko having lace wear for kats, hakutomi had special Embroidered designer robes for both his big bear Quincy and Olivine, Shin had Earrings for Yakumo and a choker for Eiden, Gen had lovely bracelets that changed colors for Rei and Kagefumi bringing Reign a special Asian Straw hat he made himself that looked similar to raiden from mortal kombat*

(Thank you so much

[cavenewstimes]

Mortal Kombat 1 Narrates Its Gruesome Fatalities To You With New Accessibility Option

The Mortal Kombat 1 preorder beta ran this past weekend, and one player has discovered that the game has an accessibility option that narrates fatalities to you, and it’s both helpful and hilarious. The news comes from X user (Twitter) Edmond Tran. In the post, it reads: Want us to remember this setting for all your devices? Sign up or Sign in now! Please use a html5 video capable browser to…

[hhdoesstuff]

Gore para todos os púbicos! Mortal Kombat 1 terá recurso de audiodescrição de fatalities

Mortal Kombat 1, novo jogo de uma das mais populares franquias dos jogos de luta no mundo, trará um recurso de acessibilidade inédito na série. Agora, jogadores com cegueira total ou parcial poderão aproveitar todo o gore e sanguinolência dos famosos fatalities graças ao recurso de audiodescrição. A informação foi revelada na rede social X (antigo Twitter) pelo jornalista Edmond Tran, fundador do…

[roksig]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Edmond Dantès/Albert de Morcerf, Eugénie Danglars/Albert de Morcerf Characters: Edmond Dantès, Eugénie Danglars, Peppo (Gankutsuou), Albert de Morcerf Additional Tags: POV First Person, Romance, Porn With Plot, Alternate Universe, First Time Bottoming, Peeping, Single work, Fandom Kombat 2020, Don't copy to another site Summary:

Всё, что можно купить за деньги — уже дёшево, думал мой друг. Месть бесценна. Он ошибался. Я думал иначе.

[chainsaw-pope]

25-30?

25. This one is a little tricky. I’ve always had role model like figures in my life, my father, grandfather, etc. but having one was always a concept so alien to me. I thought of it as having a template of someone and trying your best to grow into it but I never liked the idea. I always wanted to be my own character in a sense, just my own person without needing to base who I am off of someone else. So no role model.26. Idols is sort of strong, just say characters, fiction and non-fiction, that I have a liking to, I consider none of these as role models, as I said in the previous answer, I chose to have none: Clint Eastwood, Liam Neeson, Harrison Ford, Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen, Muhammad Ali, Godzilla, Optimus Prime, Black Panther, Captain America, Hulk, Ghost Rider, All star Superman, Batman a little bit, Hellboy, Invincible, Spawn, Joseph Joestar, Super Boy from the Young Justice cartoon, Mortal Kombat Skorpion, my grandfather, my brothers, my friend Tara, my girlfriend Alicia, RoboCop, Judge Dredd, Predator, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, my uncle Edmond, my cousins, my parents, my grandmother, J Cole, Michael Jackson, and that’s all I got off of the top of my head.27. Kluh from Marvel Comics, my roommate, people that say I’m not Puerto Rican because I don’t meet a really negative stereotype, bigots, people with an ego, people who are generally just mean, how Godzilla looks like in the Marvel Comic books right now cause holy fuck, letting people down.28. Extra Large coke and cherry slurpee, blankets, action movies and video games. Or just chill 👌✌️29. The Incredible Hulk, the Godzilla movies (except for the one that Tri Film made, well it’s honestly fine if they didn’t call their monster Godzilla), The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ip Man, The Book Of Life, RoboCop and RoboCop 2, Judge Dredd (newer one), Predator, Aliens, Interstellar, Old Boy, Friday the 13th, Terminator 2, Donnie Darko, Pulp Fiction, All Star Superman, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Captain America Civil War, Captain America Winter soldier, Doctor Strange, Akira, a lot of Ghibli films, Big Hero 6, Pacific Rim, Watch Men, and that’s it for the most part. Scary and Actiony movies with cool visual effects and colors, with a good enough story.30. Megas XLR, Samurai Jack, Ben 10, Invader Zim, Transformers, Steven Universe, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Symbionic Titan, Big O, Fosters home for Imaginary Friends, Gravity Falls, Rugrats, Spongebob in the earlier days, Justice League, and that’s mostly it, probably missing a few but that’s mostly what I got.

[roksig]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Count of Monte Cristo - All Media Types, Le comte de Monte-Cristo | The Count of Monte Cristo (1954), Orphée | Orpheus (1950), La Chartreuse de Parme | The Charterhouse of Parma (1948) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Edmond Dantès/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Edmond Dantès, The Princess - Death, Gina de San Severina, Orphée Additional Tags: Romance, Near Death, Drama, Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Chases, Love, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Single work, Fandom Kombat 2020, Don't copy to another site, Vidfic, Video, Embedded Video, Fanvids Series: Part 7 of Визуал G - T Dumas Filmz 2020 Summary:

Короткая лирическая зарисовка, Монте-Кристо (Орфей)/Сансеверина (Смерть). Может сон, а может Смерть. Мы не уверены, есть ли смысл в снах, зато здесь есть Жан Маре и Мария Казарес ♥♥♥