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Sunday Times – Who owns the Earth? The scramble for minerals turns critical
China controls the metals that are vital to the modern economy. Is the West’s fightback too late?
by Jon Yeomans and Fred Harter
Passengers passing through the new, £300 million terminal of Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia are greeted by an array of signs in Chinese, directing them to their connecting flights across the continent.
Groups of transiting Chinese workers and engineers traipse through the arrivals and departures areas, often wearing matching hazmat suits and plastic goggles to guard against Covid-19.
They, and the Chinese-built airport, are a fitting symbol of the billions of dollars that China has ploughed into Ethiopia — and Africa — over two decades to fund giant infrastructure projects.
Addis is just one hub in a global web of Chinese influence, control and money that has arisen as the world’s second largest economy races to secure the minerals needed for the future generations ofelectric cars, wind turbines and batteries to drive the green revolution.
To a great extent, it is a race Beijing has already won….
…theoretically at least, in the most important minerals for the future green economy — nickel, cobalt, graphite, lithium and so-called rare earth metals — China could effectively turn on, and turn off, the world’s supply at will…
Ben Stoikovich, chairman of Aim-listed graphite miner Sovereign Metals #SVML, noted the contradiction in using China to process metals intended to drive the net-zero agenda. “We don’t know how it’s produced, we 
don’t know what chemicals they use, we don’t know just how polluting it is. So the upshot is our very clean ambitions are driven by quite dirty production methods,” he told a parliamentary meeting earlier this year.
Fight back
Belatedly, the response from the West has been to go shopping for assets — or to throw money at smaller miners. In 2019 the US merged its international development arms into the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), charged with investing in projects across the globe and furthering US foreign policy, with the power to lend $100 billion.
Link here for the full Sunday Times article
Sunday Times – Coronavirus vaccine race: volunteers to be infected in the UK
Human guinea pigs in a London lab are to be given a form of the killer virus as the search for a lucrative jab hots up
It sounds tempting: a payment of £3,500 to spend two weeks relaxing in front of the television, playing video games or catching up on some reading. There is a catch, however — you will be infected with a coronavirus and banned from physical contact with the outside world.
As part of a global experiment, up to 24 people at a time will be paid to be infected with a coronavirus in a $2bn (£1.53bn) race to find a vaccine for Covid-19.
hVIVO, the company that runs a quarantine unit in East London, is one of 20 sector companies and public organisations taking part in a global effort to develop a vaccine to the virus, which has already killed 3500 people…
Link here to read the full article.
Sunday Times – Irish firm Open Orphan #ORPH lined up for role in coronavirus fight
by Brian Carey
An Irish company is on call to play a part in the fight against the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. Open Orphan, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London, has just completed the purchase of hVivo, a British company which owns the largest commercial quarantine clinic in northern Europe.
The 24-bed clinic, attached to St Mary’s Hospital in London, is the only purpose-built commercial quarantine facility of its kind in Britain, and is normally used in vaccine trials. It is believed to be one of the few facilities in the UK where chronically ill coronavirus patients could be treated. There is a similar facility in Belgium, with seven beds.
Two Chinese nationals from the same family have been confirmed as Britain’s first
Read the full article here