Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 110

African battery metals are central to global ESG agenda, says Indaba panel – by Marleny Arnoldi (MiningWeekly.com – February 4, 2021)

February 4, 2021

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The world is increasingly electrifying, while also focusing on environmental protection using green technology to do so, and Africa needs to capture as much of the investment value that goes along with those trends, Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo has said.

Speaking during a panel discussion on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects and “green metals” on the second day of the virtually-hosted Investing in African Mining Indaba, he mentioned that the mining industry was embracing the mantra of going beyond compliance, moving away from ESG considerations being on the periphery and including those considerations in their core strategies.

“Regulation, as a tool to drive ESG, is insufficient; it is only a starting point. Certainly, investors are looking more at ESG commitments and they are defining due diligence capabilities around ESG outcomes.

OPINION: GM’s switch to electric vehicles is part hype, part hope – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – February 3, 2021)

February 3, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It has been a long time since anyone took it on faith that what is good for General Motors is good for America. The question raised by GM’s plans to stop making gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035 is whether the automaker has instead tied its fortunes to China.

The Detroit-based automaker’s announcement last week that it aims to sell only zero-emissions vehicles by the middle of the next decade seemed to signal that its legacy car business is headed for the scrap heap much sooner than most industry watchers had imagined.

Such a development would have vast – and mostly negative – implications for North American supply chains, which remain overwhelmingly tied to the manufacturing of gasoline-powered vehicles.

US government gives high priority status to Graphite One’s Alaskan project – Daniel Sekulich (Northern Miner – February 3, 2021)

February 3, 2021

https://www.northernminer.com/

In mid-January Graphite One’s (TSX: GPH; US-OTC: GPHOF) Graphite Creek project in Alaska was designated as a High-Priority Infrastructure Project (HPIP) by the U.S. government’s Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Committee (FPISC). The approval comes after the project was originally nominated for HPIP designation by Alaskan governor Mike Dunleavy in October, 2019.

In his 2019 nomination letter to the FPISC, Governor Dunleavy wrote that designating Graphite Creek as a High-Priority Infrastructure Project “will send a strong signal that the U.S. intends to end the days of our 100% import-dependency for this increasingly critical mineral.”

The Vancouver-based company says that Graphite Creek, which is located in Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, about 55 km north of the city of Nome, is the highest grade and largest known large flake graphite deposit in the U.S. The site is adjacent to the Imuruk Basin, which opens into the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Siberian Russia.

General Motors sets goal to be carbon neutral in products and operations – by Jeffrey Jones and Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – January 29, 2021)

January 29, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

General Motors Co. plans to build only zero-emission cars and trucks by 2035 as the centrepiece of an ambitious corporate target of being carbon-neutral five years after that.

In the latest push by a major company to move away from fossil fuels in the fight against climate change, the auto giant said on Thursday it will offer emission-free light-duty vehicles across its price ranges.

It will spend US$27-billion to accelerate the transition over the next five years – an increase of US$7-billion from its prepandemic budget.

All the mines Tesla needs to build 20 million cars a year – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 27, 2021)

January 27, 2021

https://www.mining.com/

Elon Musk and his merry band of executive vice presidents had plenty of advice for the mining and metals industry at the company’s Battery Day event in September, where the road map to a $25,000 Tesla was laid out.

How easy it is to mine lithium (just add salt), just how much of it there is in Nevada (enough for 300 million EVs), how to be environmentally friendly (“put the chunk of dirt back where it was”) and, given these facts, why miners haven’t been trying harder.

Since lithium is “just like widely available” and Tesla’s scientists have eliminated other hard to come by metals like graphite (replace it with sand, obvs) and cobalt from batteries (at least in theory), Musk’s prime raw material worry is nickel.

[Kabanga Nickel/Tanzania] Green technology boost for African mining – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – January 26, 2021)

January 27, 2021

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The key to unlocking value of Kabanga Nickel and enabling the full beneficiation of new era metals in Tanzania is an environment-friendly hydrometallurgy process that eliminates smelting and thus slashes the need for electricity.

The Kabanga Nickel Hydromet process – which takes ore to refined metals at lower capital and operating costs cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by 80% and eliminating sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission altogether – is seen as a game changer for Tanzania, by providing the maximum in-country value-add to the East African nation.

Once developed, Kabanga will produce class 1 nickel and cobalt products – two of the key elements used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries – and London Metal Exchange grade A copper cathode.

Lithium miner back in the driving seat on electric vehicle rebound – by Nick Toscano (Sydney Morning Post – January 25, 2021)

January 25, 2021

https://www.smh.com.au/

For Australia’s miners of lithium, one of the critical metals to make electric batteries, last year started out like the one before it: with the same weakness in demand and pricing that has been forcing operators into survival mode.

The markets for battery ingredients lithium and cobalt, which soared from 2016-18, went from boom to bust after a rush of new projects tipped the industry into oversupply, and reductions in Chinese subsidy programs put a pause on the electric vehicle revolution.

The price of hard-rock lithium concentrate known as spodumene had crashed by nearly half already and the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to drive car sales even lower.

UK produces first-ever battery grade lithium carbonate in Cornwall – by Cristina Belda (Metal Bulletin – January 20, 2021)

January 22, 2021

https://www.metalbulletin.com/

Lithium carbonate has been produced for the first time in Cornwall in southwest England, the Li4UK consortium said this week.

Following an 18-month project, Li4UK confirmed that the purity of the lithium carbonate produced at Cornish Lithium’s Trelavour project Cornwall is “near battery grade,” the consortium said on Monday January 18.

“Li4UK (Securing a Domestic Lithium Supply Chain for the UK), is a consortium that comprises exploration firm Cornish Lithium, mining consultancy Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) and the UK’s Natural History Museum.

Old EV Batteries Look Like a Gold Mine for Dogged Entrepreneurs – by Kyle Stock (Bloomberg News – January 21, 2021)

January 22, 2021

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Electric vehicles have been coming for more than a decade; now they are starting to go as well.

Like wind turbines and nuclear fuel rods, car batteries don’t last forever. Today, 13 years after the 2008 Tesla Roadster made its debut, a first generation of EVs is nearing retirement. The cars, and their 1,000-pound battery packs, are creating a mountain of electronic scrap.

Several entrepreneurs have begun pulling those batteries out of the pile, cracking them open, and cooking them down to recover cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other raw ingredients that can be recycled almost endlessly.

Gowganda silver, cobalt explorer starting pilot plant to make electric vehicle battery material – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 19, 2021)

January 19, 2021

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A junior mining company with ambitious plans to be a Northern Ontario supplier of material for electric vehicle manufacturers said it’s a step closer to realizing those plans.

Toronto’s Canada Silver Cobalt Works announced last week that a first-stage pilot plant of its cobalt extraction technology will be built by SGS Canada at its metallurgical and analytical labs at Lakefield in southern Ontario.

The cobalt sulphate and refined material produced from their proprietary and environmentally friendly Re-20X process is used in the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles.

China’s Rare Earths ‘Slump’ A Sign Of Domestic ‘Hoarding’ For EV Batteries, And More – by Kenneth Rapoza (Forbes Magazine – January 17, 2021)

January 19, 2021

https://www.forbes.com/

China loves to be in everybody’s strategic supply chains. Rare earths is one of them. These are the minerals, often dug out of mines in Africa, that China controls. They go into your iPhone. They go into the Panasonic battery that powers your Tesla.

China’s rare earth exports fell to 35,448 tons last year from 46,330 tonnes in 2019, customs data showed on Thursday. China blamed the pandemic for weak demand. The 2020 exports were the lowest since 2015, according to Reuters.

But there may be more to it than the pandemic. For those China watchers, and competitors, looking for tears in the fabric, the slump has a little less to do with the pandemic than Beijing may be letting on.

Lithium CEO sees ‘evolution’ in mining toward green, clean energy future – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 15, 2021)

January 18, 2021

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The spread of the global pandemic and other geopolitical events have underscored the importance of international supply chains.

A new industry group engaged in the critical minerals side of the Canadian mining industry wants to promote value-added manufacturing opportunities by building a resilient national supply chain that feeds materials to the clean energy, electric vehicle, communications, medical and aerospace sectors.

The Canadian Critical Minerals and Materials Alliance (C2M2A), launched Jan. 14, contends Canada has enough mineral wealth in rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, and graphite, combined with the intellectual know-how, to promote this country as a global clean technology manufacturing hub.

Metals Behind EV Revolution to Resume Volatile Rally – Again – by Annie Lee and Eddie Spence (Bloomberg News – January 14, 2021)

January 15, 2021

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Battery metals are set to rebound this year as an electric-vehicle boom is bolstered by post-pandemic push for a green economic recovery.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has indicated the sector could get a boost, while China wants new energy vehicles to account for about 20% of total new car sales by 2025. Germany has extended subsidies on EVs for an extra four years, and the U.K. will ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

The markets for metals such as lithium and cobalt, which soared in 2018 before slumping on concerns about oversupply, will be underpinned by a step change in battery demand. Global EV sales are projected to surge 60% this year, according to BloombergNEF.

Nickel Soars And Could Keep Flying As Demand Rises And Supply Falls – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – January 14, 2021)

January 15, 2021

https://www.forbes.com/

Demand up. Supply down. Price heading for a 10-year high. It doesn’t get much better for nickel—except for the potential to get a lot better for a metal which has a well-earned reputation for extreme highs (and lows).

Since suffering a Covid-19 collapse last March when the price fell to $10,800 a ton, nickel has been on a largely uninterrupted rise to last sales at $18,244/t, up almost 70% in 10 months.

Next target for nickel, which is a critical ingredient in high quality stainless steel and the batteries used in most electric vehicles (EVs) is $20,000/t, a level reached in the early 2012.

Indonesia’s EV battery aspirations unearth mining waste problems – by Ursula Florene (Kr-asia.com – January 14, 2021)

January 15, 2021

https://kr-asia.com/

By catering to the global hunger for EVs and its domestic economic growth, Indonesia risks destroying its own environment.

Indonesia is one of the world’s top producers of battery minerals and the first global producer of nickel, an essential component to produce lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. That places the country at the core of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution.

Home to 25% of the world’s nickel resources, Indonesia also has rich resources of cobalt and copper, other essential minerals for battery production. Based on its assets, the country is developing its own EV industry and has plans to become a global EV battery production hub.

Under President Joko Widodo’s administration, Indonesia is set to begin EV domestic production by 2021 or 2022 with the goal of exporting 200,000 EVs by 2025, or about 20% of the estimated total of exported cars.