2025-08-10 09:22
Aug 10 (Reuters) - Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) (300750.SZ) , opens new tab has suspended production at its lithium mine Jianxiawo, in China's Jiangxi province for at least three months, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Chinese battery manufacturer announced internally that the Jianxiawo mine would be halting operations temporarily, the report said, adding that affiliated refineries in nearby Yichun had been informed. Sign up here. CATL did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment on Sunday and Reuters was unable to obtain immediate verification of the report. Reuters reported in February that CATL resumed operations at its lithium lepidolite mine in China's Jiangxi province. CATL's mine in the southern Chinese province of Jiangxi has been a major contributor to rapidly growing supplies of lithium in China, the world's top processor of the battery material. Reports of its closure in September caused lithium stocks to rally sharply. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/catl-suspends-production-china-lithium-mine-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-08-10/
2025-08-10 08:59
KUWAIT, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) signed contracts on Sunday with Saudi's ACWA Power and the Gulf Investment Corporation for phases two and three of the Al-Zour North power plant. The value of these phases of the power plant exceeds 1 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($3.27 billion), the Kuwaiti authority's director general told Reuters. Asmaa Al-Mousa said that the investors, not the government, will bear the cost. Sign up here. The signing ceremony on Sunday sets in motion one of the country's biggest electricity projects as it seeks to address severe electricity shortages. Once completed, the Al-Zour North project will produce 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of power and 120 million gallons of water daily using combined-cycle technology, with construction set to take three years. Kuwait expects a significant improvement in electricity services once several major projects come online, including a large-scale venture with China, Adel Al-Zamel, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said during the signing event. Since last year, the government has resorted to planned power cuts in some areas to reduce the load. "If (the projects) go according to plan, by 2028 our situation will be much better," Al-Zamel told reporters. Kuwait hopes to sign an implementation agreement with China in the first quarter of 2026 for phases three and four of the Shagaya renewable energy project, with a combined capacity of 3.2 gigawatts (GW), Al-Zamel said. ($1 = 0.3054 Kuwaiti dinars) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/kuwait-signs-contracts-327-billion-power-plant-project-2025-08-10/
2025-08-10 01:08
SANTIAGO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Copper miner Codelco received authorization from Chile's labor inspector office to begin resuming certain operations at its flagship El Teniente copper mine, it said on Saturday, after more than a week of suspended operations following a deadly collapse that killed six workers. In a statement, Codelco said operations can resume in areas not affected by the July 31 collapse, including Pilar Norte, Panel Esmeralda, Pacifico Superior, Diablo Regimiento, and others, while sections such as Recursos Norte and Andesita remain suspended, pending further inspections. Sign up here. The decision allows Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, to partially restart activities at one of its key divisions, potentially easing operational disruptions. Chile's mining regulator had given the green light for a partial restart on Friday evening, but the company needed the labor inspection office to sign off on the plan before resuming mining activity at a time when the miner grapples with production challenges. The El Teniente division is expected to announce its detailed plan for restarting operations along with safety measures to ensure compliance with labor authority requirements. Inspections in suspended areas will continue before a full restart can be authorized. El Teniente, which is more than a century old, spans more than 4,500 km (2,800 miles) of tunnels and underground galleries deep within the Andes mountains. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chiles-codelco-gets-approval-labor-inspector-restart-el-teniente-operations-2025-08-10/
2025-08-09 23:56
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Bo Hines, who headed Republican President Donald Trump's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, said on Saturday he was leaving his current role and returning to the private sector. Late last month, a cryptocurrency working group led by Hines and including several administration officials outlined the Trump administration's stance on market-defining crypto legislation and called on the U.S. securities regulator to create new rules specific to digital assets. Sign up here. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump had ordered the creation of the crypto working group and tasked it with proposing new regulations, making good on his campaign promise to overhaul U.S. crypto policy. "Serving in President Trump's administration and working alongside our brilliant AI & Crypto Czar @DavidSacks as Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council has been the honor of a lifetime," Hines said in a post on X on Saturday. Sacks, the White House AI czar, praised Hines in response to the post announcing his departure. Hines has twice unsuccessfully run for Congress in North Carolina. Trump last month signed a law to create a regulatory regime for dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins, a milestone that could pave the way for the digital assets to become an everyday way to make payments and move money. Hines was a backer of that legislation, dubbed the GENIUS Act. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-crypto-adviser-bo-hines-announces-departure-2025-08-09/
2025-08-09 16:51
Iran threatens Caucasus corridor announced on Friday Analysts say unclear how Tehran could block it Diplomat says final peace deal faces just one obstacle Armenia must amend its constitution, he says Armenia PM has called for vote on the change DUBAI/MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Saturday to block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a regional deal sponsored by U.S. President Donald Trump, Iranian media reported, raising a new question mark over a peace plan hailed as a strategically important shift. A top Azerbaijani diplomat said earlier that the plan, announced by Trump on Friday, was just one step from a final peace deal between his country and Armenia, which reiterated its support for the plan. Sign up here. The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) would run across southern Armenia, giving Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchivan and in turn to Turkey. The U.S. would have exclusive development rights to the corridor, which the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. It was not immediately clear how Iran, which borders the area, would block it but the statement from Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, raised questions over its security. He said military exercises carried out in northwest Iran demonstrated the Islamic Republic's readiness and determination to prevent any geopolitical changes. "This corridor will not become a passage owned by Trump, but rather a graveyard for Trump's mercenaries," Velayati said. Iran's foreign ministry earlier welcomed the agreement "as an important step toward lasting regional peace", but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could "undermine the region's security and lasting stability". Analysts and insiders say that Iran, under mounting US pressure over its disputed nuclear programme and the aftermath of a 12-day war with Israel in June, lacks the military power to block the corridor. MOSCOW SAYS WEST SHOULD STEER CLEAR Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict. Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the strategically important South Caucasus region which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included, despite its border guards being stationed on the border between Armenia and Iran. While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed "implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region themselves with the support of their immediate neighbours – Russia, Iran and Turkey" to avoid what it called the "sad experience" of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East. Azerbaijan's close ally, NATO member Turkey, welcomed the accord. Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. "The chapter of enmity is closed and now we're moving towards lasting peace," said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region's prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the better. "This is a paradigm shift," said Suleymanov, who as a former envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev's office, is one of his country's most senior diplomats. Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted it to happen soon. There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh. "Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim against Azerbaijan in its constitution," he said. MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote. The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit had paved the way to end the decades of conflict and open transport connections that would unlock strategic economic opportunities. Asked when the transit rail route would start running, Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the U.S. and Armenia whom he said were already in talks. Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at International Crisis Group, said Trump may not have got the easy win he had hoped for as the agreements left many questions unanswered. The issue of Armenia's constitution continued to threaten to derail the process, and it was not clear how the new transport corridor would work in practice. "Key details are missing, including about how customs checks and security will work and the nature of Armenia's reciprocal access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious stumbling blocks," said Kucera. Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was being disadvantaged. "Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose to," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-threatens-planned-trump-corridor-envisaged-by-azerbaijan-armenia-peace-deal-2025-08-09/
2025-08-09 14:43
ANKARA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Turkey on Saturday welcomed a peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia and said it hoped a planned strategic transit corridor, which could boost exports of energy and other resources through the South Caucasus, would open soon. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a U.S.-brokered peace accord on Friday during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that also included exclusive U.S. development rights to a transport corridor through Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku's ally Turkey. Sign up here. The transit corridor that would pass close to the border with Iran would be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. It would be known by the acronym TRIPP, and operated under Armenian law. NATO member Turkey has strongly backed Azerbaijan in its conflicts with Armenia but has pledged to restore ties with Yerevan after it signs a final peace deal with Baku. Speaking in Egypt, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the corridor could "link Europe with the depths of Asia via Turkey," and it would be "a very beneficial development." Later on Saturday, Turkey's presidency said President Tayyip Erdogan had discussed the peace agreement with Ilham Aliyev, his counterpart from Azerbaijan. Erdogan welcomed the agreement and offered Ankara's support in achieving lasting peace in the region, it said. The agreement could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighbouring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran that is criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines but riven by closed borders - including between Turkey and Armenia - and longstanding ethnic conflicts. Iran welcomed the agreement "as an important step toward lasting regional peace", but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could "undermine the region’s security and lasting stability". https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-welcomes-strategic-transit-corridor-after-azerbaijan-armenia-peace-deal-2025-08-09/
