Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 107

‘Dangerous’: Scientists Say Gates and Bezos-Backed Mining Venture Could Threaten Arctic Ecosystem – by Noah Kirsch (The Daily Beast – August 10, 2021)

August 11, 2021

https://www.thedailybeast.com/

A phalanx of billionaires are backing a new mining initiative in Greenland, in what they hope will boost access to minerals used to manufacture electric cars. It’s significant news in a country that has not always celebrated natural resource exploration. And it has some environmental scientists concerned.

The source of the billionaire money is an initiative founded by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, whose investors include Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Ma, Ray Dalio, and Michael Bloomberg.

Gates founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 as a vehicle for combating climate change, and it has raised $2 billion to date, including a $1 billion funding round completed earlier this year. The organization has invested in dozens of startups in the sustainable energy space.

Will the lithium shortage put the brakes on electric-car plans? – by Neil Briscoe (The Irish Times – August 11, 2021)

August 11, 2021

https://www.irishtimes.com/

A global shortage of lithium – the metal mineral crucial for modern rechargeable battery design – may put the brakes on the development of new electric cars.

Market analysts Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) is predicting an “acute” shortage of lithium from 2022 onwards, according to Reuters. That shortage of supply could derail the stated plans of a majority of Europe’s carmakers as they seek to create all-electric line-ups by the end of the decade.

“Unless we see significant and imminent investment into large, commercially viable lithium deposits, these shortages will extend out to the end of the decade,” said George Miller of BMI. Part of the problem is that although the value of lithium has gone up in recent years, that rise hasn’t yet been enough to trigger major investments in new mining operations.

Noront Resources’ board likes what BHP has to offer – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 10, 2021)

August 11, 2021

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Environmental groups claim Ring of Fire mine developer is hiding something, wants OSC to investigate

Ring of Fire mine developer Noront Resources is urging its shareholders to accept BHP Group’s offer to buy its nickel, copper and chromite properties in Ontario’s Far North.

BHP, one of the world’s largest mining companies, entered the picture in late July with a cash offer of $325 million, or $0.55 cents a share, to best a hostile insider takeover offer made by its Australian rival Wyloo, Noront’s biggest shareholder at 25 per cent. Wyloo is owned by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

In a mere formality, Noront said it has filed a directors’ circular recommending its shareholders accept the BHP offer. Noront’s board of directors said it represents a 129 per cent higher premium than where Noront’s shares were trading before Wyloo made its unsolicited bid at the end of May, and is 75 per cent higher than $0.315 share offer proposed by Wyloo.

NEWS RELEASE: The Minister of Environment and Climate Change approves the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Mining Project (August 10, 2021)

August 11, 2021

OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 10, 2021 /CNW/ – The Government of Canada conducts rigorous impact assessments based on science and Indigenous knowledge.

Following a thorough environmental assessment conducted by the Joint Assessment Committee, comprised of representatives from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (the Agency) and the Cree Nation Government, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, has agreed with the conclusions of the Committee’s Environmental Assessment Report and has decided that the proposed Rose Lithium-Tantalum Mining Project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects when mitigation measures are taken into account. Therefore, the project is allowed to proceed.

Today, Minister Wilkinson issued a Decision Statement to this effect under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012). The Minister’s Decision Statement establishes 221 legally binding conditions with which the proponent must comply throughout the life of the project. These conditions include measures to protect fish and fish habitat, migratory birds and birds at risk, wetlands, woodland caribou, bats at risk and the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes by the Crees.

Gates-backed firm ties up with Bluejay on battery metals quest – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 9, 2021)

August 10, 2021

https://www.mining.com/

KoBold Metals, a start-up backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has partnered with Britain’s Bluejay Mining (LON: JAY) to explore for critical materials used in electric vehicles (EVs) in Greenland.

KoBold, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help find key minerals for green technologies, will pay $15 million in exploration funding for the Disko-Nuussuaq project on Greenland’s west coast in exchange for a 51% stake in the project, Bluejay said in the statement.

Shares in Bluejay Mining skyrocketed on the news, trading up 25% in London at 11.64p by mid-day local time. This is the highest the stock has traded since Feb. 19, when it hit 11.9p. It leaves the exploration company with projects in Greenland and Finland with a market capitalization of 113.23 million pounds (about $157m).

These Canadian stocks benefit from U.S. electric vehicle pledge – by Scott Barlow (Globe and Mail – August 10, 2021)

August 10, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

U.S. President Joe Biden and the major U.S. automakers have pledged to set a target for electric vehicle sales of 50 per cent of total purchases by 2030, highlighting the steady (and heavily subsidized) trend toward decarbonized and electrified developed world economies.

The global research team at Bank of America Securities is attempting to identify the biggest corporate beneficiaries of the electrification movement, recommending stocks across industry sectors and including a significant number of Canadian companies.

BofA strategist Thomas Thornton, in a recent research note, raised his 2025 EV sales forecasts from 4.5 per cent to 7 per cent of total sales; by 2030, he now expects EVs to account for 20 per cent of total sales, up from 12.5 per cent.

Top Lithium Miner Sees Inflation as Speed Bump in Supply Growth – by Yvonne Yue Li (Financial Post/Bloomberg – August 6, 2021)

August 6, 2021

https://financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — Higher labor and supply costs will slow but not stop expansion in lithium mining, according to the chief of the world’s largest producer of the key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.

Labor tightness in Western Australia has caused a three-month delay at Albemarle Corp.’s Kemerton II expansion.

The miner has to pay rates that more than double the level before the pandemic to retain workers there, while dealing with higher electricity prices in North America and Europe. Freight rates have also increased 30% to 40% globally.

Biden calls for half of new cars to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030 – by Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis (Washington Post – August 5, 2021)

August 5, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

President Biden on Thursday unveiled a far-reaching, multipronged plan to make U.S. cars and light trucks more fuel-efficient and to begin a shift to electric vehicles over the coming decade.

The move marks one of the administration’s most consequential pushes so far to combat climate change and tackle the nation’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The suite of new goals and mandates, forged after months of talks with car manufacturers, autoworkers and environmental groups, is meant to transform the kind of vehicles Americans drive and to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Documentary shines a light on lithium mining and conflicts in Argentina – by Fermin Koop (Dialogochino.net – August 3, 2021)

August 5, 2021

Years in the making, the film tells the story of the communities of Salinas Grandes, Jujuy province, who resist the arrival of mining companies for lithium extraction in Argentina

Clemente Flores lives in the El Moreno community in Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina, where indigenous communities are trying to prevent mining companies from extracting lithium. The amount of water needed to obtain the mineral, used to power electric car and phone batteries, would radically alter their way of life, Clemente argues.

In the name of lithium, a new documentary directed by Cristian Cartier and Martín Longo, tells the story of a conflict generated by lithium extraction. The film, which took more than five years to make, is available online for free until 9 August and is then scheduled for release in cinemas across Argentina.

Lithium boom could be coming to Salton Sea area, and residents need to be included – by Mariela Loera (Desert Sun – August 4, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://www.desertsun.com/

Mariela Loera is a policy advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

Will the dream of renewable energy in the “Lithium Valley” around the Salton Sea be a nightmare for surrounding communities?

The area contains huge amounts of lithium, and demand for electric cars — which use lithium-ion batteries — is booming. So we are at a vital moment to meaningfully engage residents and ensure that future decisions and actions not only prevent harm but also benefit local communities.

Early community involvement before the work to extract the lithium begins in earnest will enable preventative action that considers the existing circumstances of surrounding communities and ensures no further harm, which is essential for equitable progress and true climate resilience.

Rosatom subsidiary plans for lithium mining on the Kola Peninsula – by Thomas Nilsen (Barents Observer – July 29, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

The world’s hunger for lithium-ion batteries is sky-rocketing as the car industry rapidly changes from combustion engines to electric powertrains. A carbon-free future will additionally require huge amounts of batteries to store wind and solar power on the grid.

Data collected by Bloomberg shows how demand for lithium-ion batteries will surge from roughly 526 gigawatt hours in 2020 a predicted 9,300 gigawatt hours by 2030. To meet the demand, annual production of lithium carbonate should be boosted from today’s 520,000 metric tons existing mining capacity up to 2,8 million metric tons by 2028, a study by Rystad Energy suggests.

The study warns of the risk of a significant supply deficit from 2026-2027 unless new minings are started.

Hyundai, LG To Build $1.1 Billion Electric Vehicle Battery Plant In Indonesia To Tap Nickel Supply – by Ralph Jennings (Forbes Magazine – August 2, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://www.forbes.com/

South Korean conglomerates Hyundai and LG will jointly build a $1.1 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Indonesia to take advantage of the Southeast Asian country’s potentially vast consumer market and rich natural supply of nickel.

The 50-50 joint venture, slated to operate in the Karawang regency, Indonesia’s West Java province, will break ground this year and start production in 2024 with annual capacity for 10 gigawatt hours of battery cells, Hyundai said in a statement on Thursday.

Hyundai and LG can churn out 150,000 battery-run electric vehicles at that capacity, the statement says. The factory built on 330,000 square meters of land will help Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia “secure a stable supply of EV batteries at a competitive price” for future electric vehicles, it adds.

Why the ‘brains behind Tesla’ is betting his fortune on urban mining – by Patrick McGee and Henry Sanderson (Australian Financial Review – August 4, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://www.afr.com/

Few people have had the sort of front row seat to the rise of electric vehicles as JB Straubel. The soft-spoken engineer is often considered the brains behind Tesla: it was Straubel who convinced Elon Musk, over lunch in 2003, that electric vehicles had a future.

He then served as chief technology officer for 15 years, designing Tesla’s first batteries, managing construction of its network of charging stations and leading development of the Gigafactory in Nevada. When he departed in 2019, Musk’s biographer Ashlee Vance said Tesla had not only lost a founder, but “a piece of its soul”.

Straubel could have gone on to do anything in Silicon Valley. Instead, he stayed at his ranch in Carson City, Nevada, a town once described by former resident Mark Twain as “a desert, walled in by barren, snow-clad mountains” without a tree in sight.

BHP to expand nickel operations to meet soaring demand – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 3, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) will make a final investment decision on a major expansion of the processing plant at its Mt. Keith nickel mine in Western Australia as it invests further in battery metals to meet expected soaring demand.

Nickel is a key component for EVs cathodes, and the world’s no. 1 miner sees nickel demand growing faster than anticipated due to a spike in the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), as governments commit to decarbonizing their economies and set end dates for combustion engine sales.

“We believe that over 2020 to 2030, overall nickel demand will grow at 5% compound annual growth rate, and that nickel-in-battery demand will grow at a rate of 21% CAGR,” BHP Nickel West president Eddy Haegel told the annual Diggers and Dealers conference on Tuesday.

Vancouver-based miner’s deep sea mining request may force moratorium from international authority – by Gwynne Dyer (London Free Press – August 1, 2021)

August 4, 2021

https://lfpress.com/

A month ago, it seemed to be just another tale of ruthless miners and desperate poor people conspiring to wreck the environment while distant regulators failed to get a grip. But it turns out to be more complicated than that, and rather more hopeful.

The mining company is DeepGreen, and the poor people are the 11,500 inhabitants of Nauru, a tiny independent island in the Western Pacific.

The regulators are the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN agency that governs the seabed in areas beyond the reach of national laws (i.e. most of the planet).