https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
The upcoming construction picture for a Temiskaming-area cobalt refinery is beginning to take shape with the awarding of a major metals processing contract.
First Cobalt selected Metso Outotec for the design and manufacturing of the equipment for a new solvent extraction plant and its process controls. Metso Outotec is a leading global company in the field of sustainable mineral processing and metal refining equipment.
Associated Press – General Motors plans to cash in as the world switches from combustion engines to battery power, promising to double its annual revenue by 2030 with an array of new electric vehicles, profitable gas-powered cars and trucks, and services such as an electronic driving system that can handle most tasks on the road.
In announcements Wednesday ahead of a two-day investor event in suburban Detroit, the company also pledged to unseat Tesla and become the electric vehicle market share leader in U.S., although no time frame was given.
Ford emphasized that mining in Northern Ontario will be continue to be,
and perhaps even more so, absolutely crucial to the province’s economy
in the coming years. “We will be the No. 1 manufacturer of battery operated
cars and electric vehicles in all of North America,” he said. “We have the cobalt, have the lithium, we have the nickel, all up in the North.”
On Monday morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was at Queen’s Park in Toronto for the reading of his throne speech which laid out the provincial government’s objectives moving forward as an election looms in eight months, while his afternoon was spent in the city of Timmins.
Ford, along with a slew of his cabinet ministers, toured the city to get back in touch with the people of the north, and to take questions from reporters in a late afternoon press conference held at Timmins and District Hospital.
(Bloomberg) — Lithium prices extended their yearlong rally as surging demand spurs a shortfall of the key battery material.
Prices have more than doubled in the past year, according to a Benchmark Mineral Intelligence index of lithium carbonate and hydroxide. Demand for the materials used in electric cars and renewable-energy storage has soared and, while miners are seeking to boost supply, there’s not enough to meet consumption.
This summer the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD shipped its red Tang sport utility vehicles to Norway, the country which has seen the quickest uptake of battery-powered cars.
Named after the Chinese dynasty, the cars are powered by BYD’s homemade lithium batteries, a technology it hopes will become a key platform for the global car industry.
Nickel is the mined commodity most exposed to biodiversity risks, a recent report by Verisk Maplecroft shows.
According to the consultancy firm, the battery metal’s exposure to such risks is mainly due to the fact that some of the largest nickel operations on the planet are located in biodiverse areas such as Indonesia, New Caledonia and the Philippines.
BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) said on Friday it had produced the first nickel sulphate crystals from its plant in Kwinana, outside Perth, a part of the miner’s strategy to grow its battery metals footprint to meet expected soaring demand.
Nickel is a key component for electric vehicle (EV) cathodes, and the world’s no. 1 mining company expects demand for the metal from the batteries sector alone to increase by 500% over the next decade.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
David Jacobson was the U.S. ambassador to Canada from 2009-2013 and is vice chair, BMO Financial Group.
Nineteenth-century British statesman Lord Palmerston once said, “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.” It therefore follows that there is a natural rhythm to how and when nations choose to compete and when they choose to co-operate for the common good – even among long-time friends such as Canada and the United States.
With a new government elected in Canada, there is an opportunity to co-operate for the common good with the Biden administration on a number of key diplomatic and strategic initiatives with serious and long-term implications for both countries.
Dialogo Chino
The landscape of global energy finance – and Latin American lithium mining – changed last week when China’s President Xi announced that his country would “step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy”, while also committing to end support for coal-fired power plants abroad.
The demand for renewable energy already exists: developing countries around the world have proposed 494 gigawatts in renewable energy projects through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, energy sector analysts foresee a boom in renewable energy, with installed capacity expected to more than double in the next few years.
Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia.
There it is again: Another automaker makes a big announcement about its electrification plans with a battery manufacturer. Going by previous proclamations, that’s not just ambitious but far-fetched.
Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation Company announced that they are partnering to spend $11.4 billion on three electric-car battery plants across the United States, making it the most sizable investment in the automaker’s 118-year-history.
A market deficit for cobalt is narrowing as the world’s leading producers of the prized metal expand production to meet the spike in demand for batteries used in electric vehicles.
Amid the surge in EV sales this year, hunger for cobalt drove major producers to announce plans to increase output at multiple mine sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo and balance the market.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A top security expert predicts that a planned Chinese takeover of a Canadian critical minerals development company will trigger a full security review under the Investment Canada Act as tensions between the two countries remain elevated following China’s release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor this past weekend.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. wants to acquire junior Canadian battery metals exploration company Millennial Lithium Corp. for $376-million. But before the deal can close, it must pass a security screening by Ottawa.
Nickel is having a bad week as China’s power crisis spreads from factories to households and its clampdown on steelmakers crimps the stainless market, still responsible for the bulk of demand.
Despite automakers’ clamour, less than 10% of nickel ends up in the battery supply chain, and market action is concentrated in Asia, specifically the Indonesia-China stainless steel industries. Nickel market watchers are not unaccustomed to ups and downs and Old Nick’s copper is having quite the year.
(CNN)Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based energy company SK Innovations are investing $11.4 billion to build two new enormous manufacturing campuses for electric vehicles, creating more than 10,000 new jobs and representing Ford’s largest-ever single manufacturing investment in the company’s 118-year history.
Ford’s share of the investment will be $7 billion, Ford executives said. Ford previously announced it will spend $30 billion by 2025 on its shift to building more electric vehicles and that it expects 40% of its sales, worldwide, to be fully electric vehicles by 2030.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Pierre Gratton is president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada.
WHAT do the green technologies essential to getting us to net-zero, such as solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear energy and electric car batteries, all have in common? A dependence on metals, like nickel, iron, cobalt, uranium, zinc and copper, to function.
The question is not whether we require minerals and metals to reach our climate goals, but rather if Canada will become the supplier the world needs.
