Avenging the Avro Arrow: the audacious play to build an all-Canadian electric car – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – October 14, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A new all-Canadian electric vehicle has the potential to help transform the country’s automotive sector, even if it never actually makes it to the road.

On Tuesday, the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, which represents Canadian companies that ordinarily supply parts to international automakers, announced the design for what it has branded Project Arrow – an effort to prove that a zero-emissions vehicle can be completely designed, engineered and built here.

It’s now to proceed to the engineering stage, with the rollout of a full concept car targeted for 2022.

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Will it be Northern Ontario minerals going into Oakville-produced electric cars or Congolese? – by Maija Hoggett (Sudbury.com – October 12, 2020)

https://www.sudbury.com/

The North needs to ‘seize this moment,’ Timmins-James Bay MP Charllie Angus says

With the government investing in electric vehicles, Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus said the region should “seize this moment.”

At the Timmins Chamber’s town State of COVID-19 townhall Oct. 7, Angus talked about the exciting potential for the area.

The federal and provincial governments announced a combined $590-million investment on Oct. 8 for Ford Motor Company’s $1.8-million retooling of its Oakville assembly plant to start rolling electric vehicles off the line by 2025.

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Energy Renaissance lithium-ion gigafactory breaks ground in Tomago, NSW – by Natalie Filatoff (PV Magazine Australia- October 13, 2020)

Senec launches in Australia, aims to build an energy community

In less than a year from today, Australia will be producing its own renewable-energy-storing lithium-ion batteries in the Hunter Region.

Tomago, on the outskirts of burgeoning Newcastle and its world-class port, with its access to the skilled labour of the coal fields, the doctorates of Newcastle University, CSIRO’s Energy Centre research hub and supply chains of mineral wealth throughout Australia, has won the distinction and job opportunities inherent in becoming home to Energy Renaissance, Australia’s first advanced-manufacturing, lithium-ion battery facility.

Dubbed Renaissance One, the facility will be the flagship of ER, which intends to ramp up production to 5.3 GWh per annum of safe, affordable, hot-climate-optimised batteries for Australia and South East Asian markets in coming years.

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Ford goes electric, Ontario poised to win – by Brian Lilley (Toronto Sun – October 7, 2020)

https://torontosun.com/

It’s being billed as the best news for Ontario’s automotive sector in 15 years and while it’s not a new plant, it is a new lease on life for one of the anchors of the industry.

On Thursday morning, Premier Doug Ford will stand with Ford Canada CEO Dean Stoneley and Unifor president Jerry Dias to announce a major investment in the plant.

Ford Canada will announce a $1.2 billion investment in their Oakville plant while Ford, the premier, will announce $295 million from the province. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, expected to join via video link, will announce the federal government will also put $295 million into the plant.

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OPINION: The Green Revolution is coming but is overly hyped – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 3, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

When Goldman Sachs published a landmark study this summer on clean energy, the greenies cheered. The Wall Street giant didn’t really say anything new, but its conclusions reinforced the notion that the oil era is winding down and that renewable energy would soak up the bulk of the entire energy industry’s investment dollars.

Specifically, the report, “Carbonomics: The green engine of economic recovery,” said that renewable power will emerge as the No. 1 area of energy spending in 2021, usurping oil and gas spending for the first time, and that the green transition will drive US$1-trillion to US$2-trillion per year – per year! – in infrastructure investments, while generating as many as 20 million new jobs worldwide.

All encouraging news, if true, and even better news for the planet. The United Nations has predicted all sorts of life-threatening calamities if carbon emissions push average global temperatures beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

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OPINION: Ottawa’s quixotic jolt to our electric-battery industry is riskier than it’s letting on – by Andrew Coyne (Globe and Mail – October 7, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Perhaps the giddiest part of a Throne Speech that seemed at several points to be high on intoxicants was that bit about how Canada was poised to become a world leader in the production of electric batteries, on the unassailable grounds that “Canada has the resources” from which electric batteries are made.

It’s a theme the government, and particularly Industry Minister Navdeep Bains, has been pushing with some regularity. Canada is “rich in key ingredients like lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and aluminum,” he told the Toronto Star’s Tonda MacCharles in a prespeech interview.

All these resources lying about, just waiting to be converted into world-leading electric batteries – it’s a wonder no one’s thought of this before.

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Tesla is in talks with top miner BHP over nickel-supply pact – by Yvonne Yue Li and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – October 6, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Tesla Inc. is in talks with BHP Group on a nickel deal as the electric-car maker targets higher production and seeks to avoid a supply crunch, according to people familiar with the matter.

Talks are held up on pricing, and no final agreement has been reached so far between the automaker and BHP, the world’s largest miner, said one of the people, requesting anonymity because the talks are private.

The discussions come as Tesla works to raise the amount of the metal used in vehicle batteries to improve performance, and as it makes a push into in-house cell production.

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Nickel supply to drop by 2025 – Macquarie – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – October 6, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Global financial services provider Macquarie Group has called for investment into the nickel sector, despite an anticipated oversupply in the near-term.

Speaking at the Paydirt Nickel conference, in Perth, Macquarie consultant Jim Lennon said that immediate investment in the nickel sector would be required to meet the potential “explosive” demand post 2025.

“Covid-19 has obviously had a negative impact on the supply/demand fundamentals for nickel, with the market shifting from a deficit to a surplus, and these conditions could last for a few years,” Lennon said.

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Sherritt CEO pins future on demand for nickel for electric-car batteries – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – October 6, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk pulled his latest stunt at an annual event called Battery Day in late September. He staged the gathering in a California parking lot and invited 200 Tesla shareholders to watch from their electric cars and honk if they liked what they heard.

There was a lot of honking. The sound was music to the ears of Sherritt International chief executive David Pathe, whose Toronto-based company mines the nickel and cobalt that make electric car batteries possible.

“Battery Day was a big event for us,” said Mr. Pathe, who spent the past eight years running a debt-heavy miner that had few big events to celebrate. “We expect to see significant growth as all the automakers roll out their electric strategies.”

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Electric vehicles are a great story, but oil and gas may be the better investment – by Martin Pelletier (Financial Post – October 5, 2020)

https://financialpost.com/

Everybody loves a good story especially when it comes to buying and selling certain themes in the market. This phenomenon is more apparent now than ever as investors herd into those segments telling the best story while selling those that tell a bad one.

This type of dualistic thinking is only widening the gap between the have and the have nots, when in reality the truth isn’t black and white but often some shade of grey.

A great example of this is what is happening with the electric vehicle and oil and gas industries. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that companies such as Tesla are setting new highs pushing the boundaries of euphoric valuations as investors are eager to drink the peak oil demand Kool-Aid that is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Vale in talks with Tesla, EV sector for Canada nickel – executive (MiningWeekly.com – October 5, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

TORONTO – Brazilian miner Vale is in talks with Tesla and others in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain about securing nickel from its Canadian operations, the head of the miner’s base metals unit said on Friday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk in July urged miners to produce more nickel, a key ingredient in the batteries that power the company’s electric cars. Musk offered a “giant contract” if supplies could be produced in an environmentally sensitive way.

While EVs are expected to help reduce global carbon emission, environmentalists are concerned that production of EV parts and increased mining may damage the environment.

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US grabs stake in battery metals miner to fight Chinese control – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 5, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

The US government is taking a $25 million equity stake in Dublin-based battery metals miner TechMet, as part of a push by President Donald Trump to reduce the country’s reliance on supply chains dominated by China.

The backing from the $60 billion US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will help TechMet develop a nickel and cobalt mine in Brazil. Both metals are key in the production of the batteries that power electric cars and cell phones.

TechMet’s Brazilian Nickel project, in the north-eastern state of Piauí, is estimated to hold as much as 72 million tonnes of nickel and cobalt.

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Tesla to meet with Indigenous activists as it plots future supply chain – by Jacob Holzman (SP Global – September 30, 2020)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Tesla Inc. will meet with a network of Russian Indigenous activists campaigning for the electric vehicle company to boycott nickel supplied by PJSC Norilsk Nickel Co., the world’s largest producer of high-grade nickel, according to one of the activists involved with the campaign.

Pavel Sulyandziga, president of Indigenous rights group Batani Foundation, told S&P Global Market Intelligence through an interpreter that advocates with the boycott campaign are scheduled to speak with Tesla representatives involved with corporate social responsibility on Oct. 7.

Sulyandziga said the group plans to reiterate a request made in an open letter released in early August that Tesla not engage with Norilsk Nickel, also known as NorNickel, which is facing billions in damages over major oil spills in the Arctic.

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China EV ambitions threat to entire US auto industry – report (Mining.com – September 29, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

A bipartisan, federal response is required for the United States to compete with China’s ownership of the next generation of transportation, according to a new report from Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE).

By 2040, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) foresees the global stock reaching 500 million EVs. Even the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) foresees roughly 320 million EVs on the road
by 2040.

Across the industry, automakers will invest $300 billion over the next five to 10 years on EV development and production. Nearly half of this investment spending will occur in China, SAFE reports.

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Tesla As A Mining Company. Lithium Today, Nickel Tomorrow? – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – September 29, 2020)

https://www.forbes.com/

Lithium mining today, so why not nickel mining tomorrow? That’s a question which investors in Tesla and other electric car (EV) makers ought to consider as a raw material rush heats up.

Right now, there’s not a shortage of most metals used in EV batteries, with the possible exception of cobalt, which makes Tesla’s decision to stake a claim to its own 10,000 acre patch of lithium-rich clay in Nevada quite interesting.

A second U.S.-focused lithium deal added to the intrigue with Tesla signing a five-year contract with a small company which has plans to produce lithium in North Carolina.

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