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Higher fossil fuel prices are pushing governments to revisit hydrogen as an energy security tool, Haley Zaremba has reported on oilprice.com, pointing out that hydrogen investment in China and Europe is accelerating.

China's fifteenth five-year plan is showing hydrogen to be a "now" industry, with the South China Morning Post reporting a shift towards rapid practical development.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has highlighted hydrogen progress as "real", an observation applauded by the global Hydrogen Council, on which Sasol CEO Simon Baloyi and Valterra Platinum CEO Craig Miller serve. Sasol has been producing grey hydrogen in South Africa since 1950.

Emerging from IEA discussions is that hydrogen is following a trajectory similar to early solar PV deployment, which spread fast throughout the world once China cut its cost.

Exemplifying the extent to which hydrogen enables long-term energy storage is a 200 MW hydrogen plant with larger storage capacity than all the batteries currently linked to the electricity grid in the US, including the batteries from Tesla, Nel ASA president and CEO Håkon Volldal has pointed out. The creation of a large-scale storage facility is already under way in China.

Gaining attention on the equipment front is the new Bosch proton exchange membrane (PEM) Hybrion electrolysis stack that is signalling hydrogen's move from niche to scale. PEM makes use of platinum group metals (PGMs), which are hosted overwhelmingly by South Africa, and World Platinum Investment Council Asia Pacific regional head Weibin Deng has stated on LinkedIn that PGMs have entered into a supercycle, with a contributing factor being growing new energy demand.

Meanwhile, capturing broad-based peripheral attention is the swing to hydrogen by TV show provider Netflix amid the Apex motion picture featuring South African actress Charlize Theron being hydrogen powered.

In Germany, liquid organic hydrogen carrier company Hydrogenious has hailed new hydrogen clarity that brings long-term planning certainty. "We welcome this step and remain committed to supporting Europe's hydrogen ramp-up with technology that makes large-scale hydrogen logistics practical and future-proof," was the comment from Hydrogenious, which is part funded by South Africa's PGM mining companies.

Germany's Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia stand to benefit from the planned Hybor hydrogen pipeline for which scoping studies have begun.

Also in Germany, BMW is adopting a new hydrogen tank technology for its iX5 hydrogen car to provide 750 km range and Bremen and Bremerhaven are home to Germany's first hydrogen valley.

In Spain, €12.75-million has been extended for a project that involves the deployment of 30 hydrogen refuelling stations. Last year, Spain's entire national grid went 100% renewable energy for a full weekday, led by wind power, which accounted for nearly 46% of the output, followed by solar and hydroelectric sources.

In France, Uber is teaming up with French hydrogen company HysetCo to provide hydrogen fuel cell electric taxis across Paris and its suburbs.

In Japan, the Tokyo metropolitan government has completed a hydrogen fuel cell vessel port operations and river construction supervision. Japan continues to promote a hydrogen, with ambitious import targets and ongoing infrastructure build-up, and Toyota is to begin mass production of 5 MW PEM electrolysers in its 2029 fiscal year.

In South Korea, cumulative domestic sales of 3 062 hydrogen fuel cell buses. Has been confirmed by Hyundai, which itself operates 74 hydrogen commuter fuel cell electric vehicle buses across its own facilities and is adding 55 more this year.

In the US, hydrogen solutions provider Plug Power has been selected to supply 275 MW PEM elect...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

TSX-V-listed Pacific Booker Minerals' board has recommended that shareholders reject the hostile all-share takeover bid having been made by American Eagle Gold Corporation earlier this month.

The board made the decision following careful consideration and receipt of the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of its independent directors and after consultation with its financial and legal advisers.

The board, the special committee and the company's advisers are of the view that the takeover offer fails to recognise the strategic value of the Morrison project; is lower in value than comparable transactions having been made in the copper sector; and deprives shareholders of significant upside potential in the standalone case.

Pacific Booker elaborates that the Morrison project is a large-scale copper/gold/molybdenum deposit in a Tier 1 jurisdiction (British Columbia) with mineral resources of more than two-billion pounds of copper and more than two-million ounces of gold supported by a completed technical report.

American Eagle's bid values the Morrison project at about US$0.0/lb of copper in resources, which is at the low-end of the range of peer group precedent transactions of $0.02/lb and US$0.05/lb of contained copper in resources – or as much as an 80% discount – as well as comparable precedent transactions between $0.04/lb and US$0.09/lb of copper in resources.

Pacific Booker believes American Eagle is attempting to acquire this asset at distressed pricing before the company has had the opportunity to re-engage with First Nations stakeholders, reset the permitting pathway, or conduct a competitive strategic process.

The view of the board and management is that tendering common shares at the low price offered by American Eagle would deprive Shareholders of significant upside potential in their investment.

Pacific Booker also believes there to be risk in that the takeover bid is comprised entirely of American Eagle shares – a pre-revenue exploration-stage company. With American Eagle having no mineral resource or reserve estimates yet at its flagship NAK project or elsewhere, and no history of mineral production, there is "significant risk to shareholders in accepting American Eagle shares".

In turn, American Eagle said earlier this month that the Morrison project has been on hold for 13 years and that Lake Babine Nation has already expressed support for American Eagle's proposed acquisition of Pacific Booker and the Morrison project.

American Eagle CEO Anthony Moreau said the potential transaction provides Pacific Booker shareholders with the opportunity to participate in a well-capitalised company with momentum, strong backing, meaningful stakeholder relationships and a modern strategy to unlock value in the Babine district.

Moreau added that the historical development strategy of Morrison no longer reflects current realities, including changes in capital costs, permitting expectations, Indigenous engagement, project design and regional development strategy.

American Eagle believed the value of the project could be significantly enhanced if it were repositioned as part of an integrated Babine district strategy rather than being advanced as a stranded standalone asset.

In turn, Pacific Booker said on April 30 that the strength of the company's standalone plan is positioned to deliver long-term value for shareholders and that the company is open to resetting engagement with the First Nation in a constructive and respectful way.

Pacific Booker says it is not opposed to a takeover should a superior proposal or alternative transactions arise; the board is fully prepared to evaluate these options and present them transparently to shareholders.

Pacific Booker intends to prepare a new prel...

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Australia-listed Vanadium Resources (VR8) has announced two new developments towards the company's VR8 Steelpoortdrift vanadium project in South Africa becoming a long-term vanadium supplier.

Firstly, VR8 has entered into a nonbinding offtake term sheet with US Vanadium Holding Company (USV), a majority-owned portfolio company of TechMet.

This agreement covers 100% of the vanadium-bearing slag production from VR8's proposed critical minerals smelter, the V-Iron Plant. US Vanadium is a producer of high-purity vanadium specialty chemicals, and recent metallurgical testing has confirmed that the slag from VR8's Bushveld Complex ore is ideally suited for its production facility.

This partnership positions VR8 to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals.

Additionally, VR8 has appointed Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) as its exclusive financial advisor and capital sourcing agent.

RMB will help secure funding for the construction of the project's processing facilities, including both concentrator and pyrometallurgical beneficiation units.

With RMB's expertise, VR8 is well-placed to advance the development of its deposit and establish itself as a cornerstone asset, VR8 executive chairperson Jurie Wessels stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Vanadium is used extensively in defence and aerospace applications. The Steelpoortdrift project contains 4.74-million tons of V2O5 and the V-Iron Plant will be designed to optimally process Steelpoortdrift's high-grade VTM ore and co-produce vanadium-rich slag and pig-iron, drawing on established metallurgical practices used at Highveld Steel and Vanadium (South Africa), Chengde and Panzhihua (China) and Kachkanar (Russia).

The production pathway, which will be investigated through an upcoming feasibility study, mitigates against vanadium price volatility and captures maximum value from the suite of minerals within Steelpoortdrift's ore.

VR8 is in active discussions to acquire brownfield sites that host, or have previously hosted, large-scale pyrometallurgical operations with existing utility infrastructure and environmental footprints to potentially materially reduce project readiness timelines and capital requirements of the envisaged V-Iron Plant.

"The shifting pricing landscape for vanadium reinforces the need to move away from single-product models and to avoid feeding into markets that destabilise supply and pricing. By adopting a processing route already proven in South Africa, the full suite of metals contained in our orebody can be extracted. This approach stands to strengthen VR8's economics, diversify our revenue base," Wessels explained.

The availability of nearby brownfield pyrometallurgical infrastructure, combined with emerging renewable-power capacity, makes the development of a V-Iron Plant both practical and compelling. Through the production of vanadium rich slag, which is historically the preferred feedstock for US vanadium operations, and the supply of pig iron to new steel producers in South Africa, which are replacing legacy producers, VR8 sees the foundations of an integrated mine-to-metal value chain.

VR8 CEO Nick Diack described the USV term sheet as representing a significant step forward in the commercialisation of Steelpoortdrift as a leading vanadium deposit and reflecting the depth of technical and strategic work completed by the company to date.

"The co-production approach to ore processing has proven both historically and currently to be the most successful and sustainable manner in which to produce significant quantities of vanadium.

"We strongly believe that this approach, coupled with partnering the leading US vanadium processing and distribution company has the potential to cement VR8 as the west's leading miner and suppli...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation

Fossil fuels staged a comeback in China's power sector last quarter, as weather variations and grid constraints slowed the growth of clean energy.

Thermal power output rose 3.7% over the first three months of 2026 after a 1% decline last year, the first yearly drop in a decade. Electricity generation is by far the country's largest source of greenhouse gases, and the rebound undermines the progress made in reining in emissions ahead of the government's own targets.

The math behind China's fossil fuel use is fairly simple. If generation from clean sources grows enough to meet increases in demand, then the country can burn less gas and coal.

However, that did not happen in the first quarter, in part because of the weather. In March, the average wind speed across the country dropped 13%, according to a report from Huafeng Innovation Research Institute. Even though China added a record number of new turbines last year, wind generation over the period fell 2.9%, according to industrial output data. Nuclear also fell 3.8%.

"Limited wind resources in many key regions, and the shutdown of many nuclear plants for maintenance, most likely contributed to the increase in thermal power," said Trivium China energy analyst Cosimo Ries.

Power demand grew by 5.2% during the quarter, driven by heavy industry and the rapid expansion of electric vehicle charging stations and data centers, according to clean energy think tank Ember analyst Matt Ewen.

CURTAILMENTS WORSEN

The conditions for clean energy generation also worsened because of rising curtailments. The years-long boom in installations has left parts of the grid unable to deal with a surplus of power when the sun shines and the wind blows. China wasted 9.4% of its solar power and 8.6% of its wind power in January and February, up from 6.1% and 6.2% in the same period in 2025.

Much of the increase in thermal generation during the first quarter would have been unnecessary if that curtailed electricity had been available.

China's grid operators are racing to develop the capacity to absorb more renewables, rapidly building out the energy storage systems and power lines that will allow them to balance supply with demand at any time and in any location.

However, China's market rules have been designed for a grid dominated by coal-fired power. Regulatory challenges are slowing down the optimal use of the new infrastructure, said Ember analyst Muyi Yang.

"The exponential wind and solar growth of the past few years has started to normalize somewhat this year. Growth is now increasingly shaped by integration constraints."

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks green hydrogen’s revival in the global energy crisis; Sibanye-Stillwater’s far-reaching suite of reports on its 2025 activities; and government’s silence on its exploration systems.