Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 125

[Lithium] This metal is powering today’s technology—at what price? – by Robert Draper (National Geographic – February 2019)

November 12, 2019

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

ONE EARLY SATURDAY morning in La Paz, Álvaro García Linera, the vice president of Bolivia, greets me in the spacious salon outside his office overlooking Plaza Murillo. The debonair, silver-haired 56-year-old politician is known in his country as a committed Marxist ideologue. But today he presents himself as a capitalist pitchman.

The pitch in question involves lithium. García Linera speaks of his country’s natural resource in a simultaneously factual and awestruck way. Lithium, essential to our battery-fueled world, is also the key to Bolivia’s future, the vice president assures me.

A mere four years hence, he predicts, it will be “the engine of our economy.” All Bolivians will benefit, he continues, “taking them out of poverty, guaranteeing their stability in the middle class, and training them in scientific and technological fields so that they become part of the intelligentsia in the global economy.”

Morales manoeuvred himself out of Bolivia’s presidency – by Gwynne Dyer (London Free Press – November 11, 2019)

November 12, 2019

https://lfpress.com/

“Democracy is in danger in Bolivia as the result of legitimate pressures from the poor. We cannot generate economic growth and well-being for a few and then expect that the large majorities that are excluded will watch silently and patiently.”

A recent president of Bolivia said that, but it wasn’t Evo Morales (who has just quit). It was Carlos Mesa, the man whom Morales tried to cheat out of the presidency in last month’s election. Mesa said it in 2005, the last time he was president, just before he quit and Morales won a landslide victory in the election triggered by his resignation.

Most outside commentators used to stick to a simple script when talking about Bolivia. Morales was the good guy because he was the country’s first Indigenous president (he grew up speaking Aymara, and learned Spanish only as a young adult) and because he looked like and seemed to care about the poor majority of Bolivians.

Bolivia: Where revolutionaries and lithium miners go to die – by Rick Mills (Mining.com – December 26, 2018)

November 12, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Other than being the country where Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara was killed, most North Americans know little about Bolivia.

The landlocked country is surrounded by Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. Today, it is South America’s poorest nation. But in the 1960s, Bolivia was going to be the launchpad of Che Guevara’s socialist revolution.

Born in Argentina, Ernesto “Che” Guevara became radicalized by the poverty, hunger and disease he saw while traveling South America as a young medical student. He got involved in social reforms enacted by Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, which were resisted by the United States.

Protests in Chile, Bolivia threaten India’s search for assets in ‘Lithium Triangle’ – by Ajoy K Das (MiningWeekly.com – November 11, 2019)

November 11, 2019

https://m.miningweekly.com/

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Civil unrest and violence in Chile and prospects of tougher security norms, together with unrelenting protests over a disputed electoral process in Bolivia, have thrown a spanner in the wheels of Indian mining companies getting a toe-hold in the so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’.

As protestors continue to hit the streets, with widespread reports of violence, snowballing into a deeper anti-government movement, India’s recent push for lithium assets in Latin America is being forced to the backburner, if not becoming unstuck completely.

The perception among Indian mining companies planning forays in search of lithium assets in Latin America is that though unrest and violence in Chile was triggered by a marginal hike in subway fares, opposition to the right-of-center neoliberal economic policy of the incumbent Chilean government is at the heart of civil movement.

Bolivia scraps joint lithium project with German company (Deutsche Welle – November 4, 2019)

November 4, 2019

https://www.dw.com/en/

The Bolivian government has cancelled a joint partnership with Germany’s privately owned ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) to develop a massive lithium project.

Residents in the city of Potosi, where the joint venture had planned to build a factory for electric vehicle batteries and a lithium hydroxide plant, have been protesting since early October against the project. Organized by the Potosi Civic Committee, protesters say the project would not benefit local communities.

Potosi Department Governor Carlos Cejas said Sunday he had received a decree from the government of President Evo Morales to overturn a previous decree permitting the project, Bolivian state news agency ABI reported.

Not The Best Deal: Albemarle Pays $1.3 Billion For A Lithium Asset— And Closes It – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – November 1, 2019)

November 1, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/

Too much lithium and not enough demand for the battery-making material have hit the Australian expansion plans of U.S.-based specialty chemical maker Albemarle Corporation which effectively acquired, and closed, a new mine on the same day.

The deal to buy a stake in the Wodgina lithium mine in Western Australia was first negotiated 12 months ago, a time when lithium prices were higher and demand for the electric vehicles which use it in their batteries was forecast to be stronger than it is.

Celebrations Turn Sour

Rather than celebrating the deal today turned into commiserations with the workforce sent home and the almost new mine put in mothballs.

Europe-led global certification scheme for raw materials expected in 2020 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 30, 2019)

October 30, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

A group of European bodies and companies have joined efforts to create the first global certification scheme ensuring consistent standards of environmental, social and economic impact throughout the entire raw materials value chain, to be launched next year.

CERA (Certification of Raw Materials), conceived in 2015 by German engineering and consulting firm DMT Group, counts with the support of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), EIT RawMaterials, Volkswagen, Fairphone and research institutions from across Europe.

Companies are under pressure from consumers and investors to prove that minerals are sourced without human rights abuses but tracking raw materials throughout their journey is challenging.

Cobalt market to avoid shortage despite Congo mine closure: Nornickel – by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Polina Devitt (Reuters U.S. – October 29, 2019)

October 29, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Cobalt supply will remain robust despite a price slide that has already led to the closure of a major mine, Russia’s Norilsk Nickel said, as most is produced as a byproduct of more buoyant metals like nickel and copper.

Prices of the battery metal surged in 2017 and 2018 on expectations for an electric vehicle revolution, but have fallen this year due to excessive supply and the impact of the U.S.-China trade war.

They are now down 60% from their spring 2018 peak. In August global mining and trade giant Glencore said it would shutter its Mutanda mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo from year-end for two years due to low cobalt prices.

Chile protesters block access to lithium operations: local leader – by Dave Sherwood (Reuters U.S. – October 25, 2019)

October 28, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Protesters from indigenous communities around Chile’s Atacama salt flats, among the world’s richest reserves of lithium, have blocked access to lithium operations amid nationwide rallies over inequality, a local leader said on Friday.

The South American nation possesses the world’s largest reserves of the lightweight metal crucial to manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles, laptops and cellphones.

The desert salt basin is home to the world’s top two lithium producers: Chile’s SQM SQMa.SN and U.S.-based Albemarle (ALB.N). Sergio Cubillos, president of the Atacama Indigenous Council, told Reuters a road blockade had shut down SQM’s operations since Wednesday morning.

Health and safety bigger risks to artisanal miners that conflict minerals — report – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 22, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Risks related to occupational health and safety are more prevalent than human rights abuses and conflict financing among global artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM), a new study by German supply chain auditor RCS Global Group has found.

The group’s Better Mining platform, piloted as ‘Better Cobalt’ on a cobalt supply chain from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed that 26% of all registered incidents in the past year were related to health and safety issues, while only 13% had to do rights abuses and minerals financing conflict.

The Berlin-based organization used mobile technology to gather data from from five separate ASM sites in DRC and Rwanda, focusing on informal and small miners digging for cobalt, copper and the so-called 3TG (gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten).

Rio Tinto has ‘eureka moment’ with California lithium discovery – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://www.ft.com/

Rio Tinto said it had found a potentially large source of lithium for electric car batteries while looking for gold in piles of waste rock in California, describing it as a “eureka moment” for the company.

The London-based miner said it could become the largest producer of lithium for batteries in the US if it can successfully process the rock on a larger scale.

The discovery may pave the way for Rio’s entry into the lithium market, which is set to see dramatic growth over the next decade due to the rise of electric vehicles, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Nickel Relives The Failed Attempt By The Hunt Brothers To Corner Silver – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – October 20, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/

Attempts to “corner” a metal market invariably end in tears, if not jail time, which is what happened with silver in 1980 and copper in 1995, so when the market in nickel “inverted” last week warnings were issued that an old game was being played in one of the new generation of battery metals.

The term inverted essentially means that the short-term price of a product, whether a metal or a government bond, rises above the long-term price, which is unnatural and a sign of trouble ahead. An inverted bond yield can be interpreted as a recession pointer.

Three Brothers And A Silver Plan

Silver had its crisis when three brothers who were heirs to the Hunt Oil fortune acquired, or attempted to acquire, one-third of the global supply of the metal.

Chile’s Codelco ditches ‘green copper’ push, eyes wider mine clean-up in two years – by Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.S. – October 17, 2019)

October 17, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – In 2017, the world’s largest copper producer – Chile’s Codelco – announced a plan to sell “green copper” at a premium price to customers using more sustainable practices like renewable energy and recycled water to cut its carbon footprint.

The project has run aground however, Codelco insiders and an executive said, as the miner realised it would struggle to guarantee its copper’s sustainability once it left the mine to be melted down and taken to market. Without that, traders said, higher prices were unjustifiable.

Now, the world’s largest miner of the prized red metal told Reuters it would drop the “green copper” plan piloted in one of its smaller mines in favour of a broader initiative to make its product more sustainable.

Russia’s Rosatom may buy controlling stake in Chile lithium project – by Polina Devitt and Dave Sherwood (Reuters U.S. – October 15, 2019)

October 16, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW/SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Uranium One Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, may buy a controlling stake in a lithium project in Chile’s Atacama salt flat from Wealth Minerals Ltd (WML.V), the Canada-listed company said on Tuesday.

Under a deal struck with Wealth, the Russian nuclear firm has the option to purchase up to a 51% stake in Wealth’s Atacama project in northern Chile, the statement said.

Chile’s Atacama salt flat, home to leading lithium producers SQM (SQMa.SN) and Albemarle (ALB.N), accounts for around one-third the world’s supply of lithium, a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles, tablets and cell phones.