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Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles

Blood nickel: What electric-vehicle hunger has wrought, and how Canada can help – by Mark Selby (Globe and Mail – July 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.

Blood diamonds, blood cobalt, and now blood nickel. Governments leading the global shift toward electric vehicles promise cleaner cities and a new era of sustainable energy and improved resource usage.

But just as governments promote EVs on environmental grounds, manufacturers are forced to source nickel from a region enabling the wanton destruction of ecologically sensitive lands, reckless treatment of workers, and the fundamental deterioration of living conditions. There is only one solution to this problem: the world needs more Canadian nickel.

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Vale Picks Mining Veteran Usmar to Lead Base Metals Turnaround – by Mariana Durao, Thomas Biesheuvel and Dinesh Nair (Bloomberg News – July 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Vale SA has selected veteran mining executive Shaun Usmar to take the helm of its base metals division as the Brazilian metals producer seeks to boost copper and nickel production, according to people familiar with the matter.

The board of the Rio de Janeiro-based company chose Usmar to head Vale Base Metals, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The appointment has yet to be confirmed and it’s possible things could change, one of the people said.

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Opinion: It’s time to abandon reckless EV mandates – by Dan McTeague (Financial Post – July 3, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Markets, i.e., Canadians, should determine the pace at which a new technology is adopted economywide, not government planners

Canada is not nearly ready for the wholesale adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). That was the message of the letter I sent to every member of Parliament recently, urging them to drop the “Electric Vehicle Availability Standard” introduced by the Trudeau government late last year.

That’s the policy that mandates that all new vehicles sold in Canada must be electric by 2035. There is no way, considering the economic, technological and infrastructural realities of our country — and our world — where this is possible.

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Community support is vital, Frontier Lithium official says – by Mike Stimpson (Northern Ontario Business – June 28, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Company reps engaging communities on details of lithium project north of Red Lake

Community consultation is a key part of Frontier Lithium’s big project in northwestern Ontario, a spokesperson for the Sudbury-headquartered mining company said June 27.

“We actually have been really out there in communities, ramping up our engagement and consultation and information sharing about the project over the last six months,” Clara Lauziere, Frontier’s sustainability director, told Dougall Media.

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Argentina Is About to Unleash a Wave of Lithium in a Global Glut – by Jonathan Gilbert and James Attwood (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — For all the money that’s poured into Argentina’s giant lithium deposits, the country has seen just one new mine come on stream in almost a decade. That’s about to change.

Four new projects will finally begin to churn out lithium in the weeks and months ahead, according to a yet-to-be released federal government time-line seen by Bloomberg News. That will almost double production capacity in Argentina, whose growth potential has long lured the attention of battery makers around the world.

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Washington Wants a White Gold Rush – by Christina Lu (Foreign Policy – June 26, 2024)

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The Biden administration looks to domestic lithium mining to boost U.S. energy security and counter China.

Thousands of miles west of Washington, D.C., in the sprawling, lithium-rich expanses of Nevada, the Biden administration is pushing for a mining boom that it hopes will boost the country’s energy security.

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Northwest lithium project has opposition – by Mike Stimpson NWO News Watch – June 26, 2024)

https://www.nwonewswatch.com/

An online petition started by a Sandy Lake First Nation member has collected more than 12,000 signatures as of June 26.

SANDY LAKE – An online petition against Frontier Lithium’s PAK Project is nearing its goal of 15,000 signatures, but Gary Mamagesic likely won’t be adding his name to the list.

Not that the Sandy Lake First Nation member thinks open-pit lithium extraction south of his community is a good idea. Mamagesic said he grew up in Red Lake, where his father worked at an open-pit mine, so he has seen the ugliness of open-pit mining. Then there are his concerns about environmental impacts.

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Afghanistan’s Lithium Treasure: China’s Key To EV Dominance – OpEd – by Altaf Moti (Eurasia Review – June 25, 2024)

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The global electrification drive, spearheaded by the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) industry, has intensified the race to secure lithium, a vital component in EV batteries. This has thrust Afghanistan, boasting some of the world’s largest untapped lithium reserves, onto the center stage.

Often referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium,” Afghanistan’s estimated lithium reserves are pegged at around 2.3 million tons, making it a highly coveted prospect for countries vying for dominance in the clean energy sector.

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Blaze at South Korea lithium battery plant kills 22 workers – by Daewoung Kim, Hongji Kim and Hyunsu Yim (Reuters – June 24, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

HWASEONG, South Korea, June 24 (Reuters) – A lithium battery factory in South Korea was set on fire after multiple batteries exploded on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, fire officials said.

The fire and a series of explosions ripped through the factory run by primary battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul. The victims likely succumbed to extremely toxic gas within seconds of the blaze getting out of control, the officials said. It was unclear what caused the explosions and the fire was largely extinguished in about six hours.

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Cheap Chinese EVs come at a high cost – by Flavio Volpe (Financial Post – June 21, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Opinion: Ottawa has yet to respond to the threat posed by Beijing and the clock is ticking

Ask yourself this: “Why are they so cheap? Does it make sense?” That is what I have said to everyone who has asked me about Chinese electric cars lately and the questions usually stump my audience. A lot of ink has been spilled over the promise of good quality, cheap Chinese cars, with most of the opinions being of the “bring ’em on” variety.

At a time when the cost of money is still high and inflationary pressures are just coming off a generational peak, every penny counts. The idea that you could get a car like the electric BYD Seagull for less than the cost of a Honda Civic seems compelling on the surface.

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The Dirty, Deadly Price We Pay for Clean Cars – by Janet Paskin, Yang Yang, Naomi Ng and Jessica Beck (Bloomberg News – June 17, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Never miss an episode. Follow The Big Take Asia podcast today.

Indonesia’s nickel business is booming. The metal is a key component in electric car batteries, but its success has a dark side. The country’s nickel mines and processing plants have a history of fatal accidents, with workers being run over by forklifts and burnt to death in smelter fires.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host Janet Paskin speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Matt Campbell about his investigation into the mines. He found that nickel sourced from these plants are present in the supply chain that feeds virtually every major seller of EVs, and is an indispensable part of the car industry’s green revolution.

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China’s EV drive accelerates in Latin America – by Margaret Myers (East Asia Forum – June 2024)

https://eastasiaforum.org/

Margaret Myers is director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.

As the United States slaps tariffs on Chinese electronic vehicles (EV) and the EU increases its own protective measures, the Latin American market remains relatively open to imports of Chinese cars and investment in local EV production and critical minerals. Efforts in Washington and Brussels to level the EV playing field will likely result in trade diversion to Latin America and other regions, encouraging a process already well underway.

China has been active in expanding its capacity in overseas EV sales and manufacturing, with a growing focus on developing markets. Even amid protectionist measures in the Global North, China’s total exports of low-cost EVs jumped 102 per cent year-on-year from 2021 to 2022, with Chinese companies exporting nearly 630,000 fully electric vehicles in 2022.

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US lithium clay projects secure backing despite extraction hurdles – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – June 20, 2024)

Global mining news

The United States’ great hope for domestic lithium supply could lie in the massive-scale, long-life sediment-hosted deposits in its southwestern region. And even with tricky metallurgy to overcome and higher price tags than brine or hard rock deposits, experts say that with federal backing, these operations could become the continent’s energy transition backbone.

Most of the country’s sediment-hosted lithium projects are in Nevada. Projects like Lithium Americas’ (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC) Thacker Pass, Ioneer’s (NASDAQ: IONR; ASX: INR) Rhyolite Ridge, and Century Lithium’s (TSXV: LCE) Clayton Valley have big potential that’s drawing strategic investment.

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Indigenous company lands Sudbury mine project contract – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 17, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin LP awarded advanced exploration contract for Magna Mining’s Crean Hill Project

Sudbury’s Magna Mining decided to buy local in picking an Indigenous contractor to extract a bulk sample from its emerging Crean Hill nickel and copper mine project.

Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin Limited Partnership (ADLP) has been awarded an advanced exploration contract that involves pulling a 20,000-tonne surface bulk sample that’s part of Magna’s early test mining scheduled for later this year. The sample will be trucked to Glencore’s Strathcona mill in Sudbury for processing.

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Serbia set to give green light to Rio Tinto lithium mine – by Marton Dunai, Alec Russell, Harry Dempsey and Alice Hancock (Financial Times – June 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Exploitation of one of the world’s largest deposits of the metal would boost Europe’s electric vehicle industry

Serbia is preparing to give Rio Tinto the green light to develop Europe’s largest lithium mine two years after Belgrade called off the project, paving the way for a significant boost for the continent’s electric vehicle industry.

President Aleksandar Vučić said that “new guarantees” from the Anglo-Australian miner and EU looked set to address Serbia’s concerns over whether necessary environmental standards would be met at the Jadar site in the west of the country.

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