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Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles

Amid plans to mine lithium in rural Nevada, Indigenous, rural communities at center of the energy transition – by Daniel Rothberg (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – June 22, 2021)

https://www.nnbw.com/

Maxine Redstar’s office on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation sits in a valley surrounded by mineral-rich mountain ranges that stretch past the Oregon border, only a few miles to the north.

It’s May, and after a short spurt of precipitation in an otherwise record dry year for Nevada, the valley has turned pastel-green with sagebrush dotting the land. Near the administration building and Redstar’s office, a sign is planted in the ground. It reads: “Keep Your Aboriginal Rights!!”

Redstar, as chairwoman of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, is at the center of a fight over a planned lithium mine in Thacker Pass, “Peehee mu’huh” in Paiute. Part-administrator and part-spokesperson, her phone rings often, and documents are scattered across her desk.

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Electric Vehicles Will Rule the World By 2040. The Winners and Losers. – by Al Root (Barron’s – June 22, 2021)

https://www.barrons.com/

A lot of electric vehicles are going to be sold in the coming generation. That’s good news for Tesla. It’s also good news for a host of other auto makers, including some start-ups. It’s bad news, surprisingly, for NIO and its Chinese EV peers.

Tuesday, Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter published a very detailed forecast for EV sales stretching all the way out to 2040. He forecasts sales and market share for essentially every major auto maker globally.

“We have spent the past few months assembling a brand-by-brand, region-by-region forecast for battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales,” writes the analyst. Looking ahead, he forecasts EV penetration at 45% of new car sales by 2030 and 94% by 2040.

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Crowdfunding helps Cornish to establish a battery metals hub for the UK – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – June 21, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Cornish Lithium, the innovative mineral exploration and development company based in Cornwall, UK, today announced that it has successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube raising £6 million (~$8.4 million) to progress its geothermal and hard rock projects in Cornwall and to create additional value for shareholders.

The company said it opened up the opportunity to pre-registered investors today at 9:00am and had raised it’s £6 million target within 20 minutes.

CEO & Founder Jeremy Wrathall said, “We are delighted with the support we have received to date for our latest crowdfunding round. The additional funding will be used to continue the progress towards our goal of creating a battery metals hub for the UK.

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Europe taking steps to cut reliance on China for raw materials – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – June 20, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Speaking at the European Raw Materials Alliance Summit, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, rang the alarm bell regarding the EU’s dependence on third countries for 99 products – mostly raw materials – needed for the energy-intensive industries ecosystem.

Breton made a case point regarding rare earths supply, 98% of which are delivered to Europe from China, either raw or refined.

“It is not an enviable position to be in, but we are not alone: the US, Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, India and others are rushing to address this vulnerability as well,” the commissioner said.

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Biggest shakeup in auto industry’s history chance for Canada to climb on top – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 19, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

‘I believe the automotive industry is thrown open to disruption like it’s never been thrown open before’

When U.S. President Joe Biden hopped behind the wheel of a new Ford Electric F-150 last month, he called it the future of the U.S. economy: “A union-made product, right here in America.”

For some Canadians, his words rang out like a wake-up call because in recent years, engines for the F-150, and other Ford vehicles, have been assembled in Windsor, Ontario.

Of course, electric vehicles like the new F-150 don’t have engines — they have batteries and motors. That’s why Stephen MacKenzie, president of Invest Windsor Essex, the local economic development corporation, is scrambling to attract battery manufacturers to the region. “We have automotives in our DNA,” said MacKenzie, “but things are changing.”

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ENERGY TRANSITION: US battery strategy aims to eliminate nickel, cobalt – by Andrea Hotter (Metal Bulletin – June 17, 2021)

https://www.metalbulletin.com/

Full Report: https://bit.ly/3cPTRCP

The United States has published a strategy for lithium-ion battery manufacturing which calls for the elimination of cobalt and nickel from the cathode by the end of the current decade.

It intends to achieve this through research and development into new technologies, with the goal of establishing a domestic battery supply chain that meets the demands of the growing electric vehicle (EV) and electrical grid storage markets, the government said in the strategy document.

The blueprint has been developed by the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries, which is led by the government’s departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce and State, and includes many other organizations across the US government.

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The U.S. has grand ambitions to conquer the global EV market — it can’t win without Canada – – by Ryan Castilloux (Financial Post – June 16, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Ryan Castilloux is managing director of Adamas Intelligence, which provides research on strategic materials and minerals.

A US$174-billion U.S. plan to spur domestic production and sales of U.S.-made electric vehicles while bolstering domestic supply chains, from raw materials to parts, dovetails with allies Canada and Australia’s ambitions to become leading suppliers of raw materials to parts.

The plan is part of the massive US$2-trillion spending plan unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden in March, that aims at creating millions of “good jobs,” rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, and positioning the U.S. to “out-compete China.”

From a raw materials perspective, there are four main facets of interest for the Canadian auto sector in the U.S.’s grand ambition to win the EV market.

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Exploration roundup: The search for battery metals charges up these Temiskaming junior miners – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 15, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Untapped resources of silver and cobalt bring out the drill rigs to historic northeastern Ontario mine properties

A surge of exploration activity is taking place in the historic mining camps of the Temiskaming area as junior miners poke holes and survey ground in looking for new veins of silver and bypassed stockpiles of cobalt, needed for the electric vehicle market and to feed the critical minerals supply chain.

A steady diet of high-grade silver results have been emanating from a former Temiskaming silver mine where Vancouver junior miner Brixton Metals has been exploring an unmined portion of its 3,200-hectare property.

The company released the last batch of drill results from an 18,000-metre fall and winter drilling program at its Langis Project, situated just north of Lake Temiskaming and very close to the Québec border.

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BASF, Canada in early talks on EV battery production – source – by Steve Scherer and Christoph Steitz (Financial Post/Reuters – May 20, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

OTTAWA — Several companies, including Germany’s BASF SE, are in preliminary talks about tapping a federal clean tech fund to set up production for electric vehicle batteries in Canada, a government official with knowledge of the discussions said.

The talks are centered on understanding whether the goals of BASF and others fit with the aim of the C$8 billion ($6.6 billion) “Net Zero Accelerator” (NZA) fund, the source said. Canada has set a goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

BASF is a key supplier of cathode active materials (CAM) needed for the production of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles (EV), and is the world’s largest chemicals and plastics producer by sales.

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Cobalt ‘Bubble’ Will Burst, Ivanhoe Executive in Congo Says – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – June 14, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The demand for cobalt is a bubble that will burst as new battery technology reduces the need for the metal, according to the head of the chamber of mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congo holds more than half the world’s cobalt reserves, but the market’s negative perception of the central African nation’s business climate means companies will soon find alternative ways to create the power needed for the green energy revolution, Louis Watum of the Federation des Entreprises du Congo told a virtual conference on Monday.

“I’m not a fan of cobalt,” said Watum, who is also an executive at Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and previously ran their Congo operations. “Cobalt is a bubble that is going to burst.”

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Ganfeng Lithium to buy 50% of Mali mine for $130 million – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 14, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

China’s Ganfeng Lithium, one of the world’s top producers of the commodity used in electric vehicle batteries, is acquiring a 50% stake in a special purpose vehicle that owns the Goulamina hard-rock mine in Mali for $130 million.

Ganfeng, which counts automakers Tesla and BMW among its customers, said the move will grant it at least half of Goulamina’s first-phase annual output, estimated in 455,000 tonnes of spodumene.

Mali’s government can take 10% of the equity free of charge and pay in cash for up to 10% more, the company said.

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Voisey’s Bay underground expansion delivers first ore – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – June 14, 2021)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

June 11 marked the milestone first production of ore from the underground expansion project at the Voisey’s Bay nickel-cobalt mine owned by Vale SA (NYSE: VALE). The mine is located on the north cost of Labrador, about 35 km south of Nain, Nfld.

Underground production is expected to extend the life of the mine until at least 2032. Two separate deposits – Reid Brook and Eastern Deeps – have been developed. At peak production, they will produce 40,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate yearly, or a processing rate of 2.6 million t/y.

The expansion also increases economic participation by the local Innu and Nunatsiavut Inuit communities. Indigenous employment has more than doubled to about 500 people. Sixty-five per cent of all procurement contract were awarded to indigenous-owned businesses.

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Canada, EU form raw materials pact to cut reliance on China – by John Follain (Financial Post/Bloomberg – June 15, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Canada and the European Union launched a new partnership to secure supply chains for critical minerals and reduce dependence on China in a push for jobs and to counter climate change.

“With EU partners, we talked about what we can do to build a cleaner economy for years to come,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with EU chiefs in Brussels.

“To begin with, in order to continue creating good, green jobs for the middle class, we must secure supply chains for critical minerals and metals that are essential for things like electric car batteries.”

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Column: A nickel refinery tops U.S. battery metals wish list – by Andy Home (Fiancial Post/Reuters – June 14, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States government should invest in nickel refining capacity in coordination with its allies, according to the Biden Administration’s 100-day review of critical supply chains.

“If there are opportunities for the U.S. to target one part of the battery supply chain, this would likely be the most critical to provide short- and medium-term supply chain stability,” the report said.

It’s an unexpected priority. Nickel isn’t on the U.S. list of critical minerals. Although the country depends on imports, 68% of supplies come from what the report calls “allied nations” such as Canada, Australia, Norway and Finland.

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With Wyloo on their heels, Noront CEO focuses on a ‘green’ metal future with Ring of Fire deposits – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 11, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Alan Coutts floats concept of downstream nickel processing plant for the electric vehicle battery market

Even the spectre of Wyloo Metals’ takeover bid hanging over his head didn’t deter Noront Resources CEO Alan Coutts from talking like the future mining kingpin of the Ring of Fire.

In his June 9 webcall to investors for Noront’s annual regional meeting, Coutts addressed the Australian elephant in the room by methodically walking shareholders through the process of digesting Wyloo’s unsolicited $133-million bid to acquire the Toronto junior miner before delving into his company’s ambitious plans for 2021 and beyond.

Wyloo came aboard last December as Noront’s biggest shareholder at 23 per cent before announcing its intention to make an all-out bid to pick up all the common shares of Noront it does not currently own.

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