Column: China, decarbonization present Australia’s iron ore miners with costly choices
Australia's iron ore sector grapples with challenges in adjusting to decarbonization and peak steel in China.
Australia’s Energy Transition Minerals said on Thursday a Copenhagen arbitration tribunal ordered its unit to give payment security for the Greenland and Denmark governments’ legal costs against the rare-earth miner’s claims over the Kvanefjeld project.
The Tribunal in an interim decision has ordered the company’s unit Greenland Minerals A/S (GMAS) to clarify within a month if Energy Transition will provide an indefinite demand guarantee of 25 million Danish krone ($3.65 million).
The tribunal’s order pertains to an application filed by the governments of Greenland and Denmark in March last year, seeking payment security for their legal costs from Energy Transition should the Tribunal rule in their favour.
The Tribunal, however, has also stated that it was “not certain that the claimant will be ordered to pay legal costs, let alone full costs, even if the defendants win the case”, Energy Transition said.
“The company has in excess of A$17 million ($11.15 million) in cash reserves and has the capacity to meet the order for security from existing funds, if necessary,” Energy Transition’s managing director Daniel Mamadou said.
Energy Transition, formerly Greenland Minerals, has been fighting for the Kvanefjeld rare earths project licence since late 2021. More than 1 billion metric tons of mineral resources have been identified in the Kvanefjeld project area, with ore estimates of 108 million tonnes.
($1 = 6.8427 Danish crowns)
($1 = 1.5251 Australian dollars)
(By Shivangi Lahiri; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
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