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Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles

Quebec lithium mine’s bankruptcy flags Canadian market obstacles, analysts say – by Kip Keen (S & P Global – May 8, 2020)

https://www.spglobal.com/

In Nemaska Lithium Inc.’s failure to launch a lithium mine in Quebec, analysts see some of Canada’s disadvantages in the global lithium market coming to bear. The company headed into creditor protection in late 2019 after spending about C$411.4 million on the C$1.27 billion Whabouchi lithium project as of Dec. 31, 2019.

Remote project locations lacking infrastructure and proximity to end markets, in particular China, along with weak lithium prices remain obstacles for the budding sector in Quebec and other parts of North America, according to analysts.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence lithium analyst Andrew Miller said many factors have played a role in holding back some of Quebec’s potential lithium supply to the global market.

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Demand for battery metals to jump 500% by 2050 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 11, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Production of battery metals such as graphite, lithium and cobalt will have to increase by nearly 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies, the World Bank reported Monday.

According to the global lender, over 3 billion tonnes of minerals and metals will be needed to deploy wind, solar and geothermal power, as well as the energy storage required to transition to a low-carbon economy.

Many of the critical minerals used to make batteries for electric vehicles are found in developing nations. The World Bank’s goal is to help those nations to mine those commodities in a sustainable manner to avert major ecological damage.

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Carmakers Urged to Invest in Mines to Avoid Battery Metal Pinch – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – May 10, 2020)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Mine developers scrambling to fund projects to meet forecast demand for battery metals see the threat of looming supply crunches as a trigger for electric-vehicle makers to step in with investments.

An already tough environment to raise project finance for the mines is being made worse by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and plunging global auto sales. It’s a scenario that’s threatening to slow a pipeline of operations planned to supply lithium, nickel and cobalt materials.

With “mind-blowing” projections from the auto industry on its future raw material needs, the best solution could be for vehicle producers to invest directly in mining operations, according to Sam Riggall, chief executive officer of developer Clean TeQ Holdings Ltd.

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BUSINESS“The Battery of Choice” – Does the Future of Energy lie in Lithium Tech? – by Meghanne Uptigrove (Red Deer Todayville.com – May 6, 2020)

News

At the crossroads of technological development and clean energy innovation, interest in the lithium battery continues to gain traction across the global market.

Using the lightest metal on the periodic table, lithium batteries have massive potential in the fields of green technology and power generation and storage. With a large charging capacity and extended lifetime, lithium batteries have been increasingly regarded as a game-changing technology for a number of industries.

The University of Washington Clean Energy Institute identified Li-ion batteries as the “market leader in portable electronic devices”. The CEI also highlighted the importance of Li-ion tech in the clean energy conversation, as “much of the promise of Li-ion technology comes from their potential applications in battery-powered cars.”

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As EV battery metal makers crash and burn, First Cobalt aims to open new refinery – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 5, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

The project would open a new chapter in the quest to build out an electric vehicle supply chain in North America

On Monday, Trent Mell, chief executive of First Cobalt Corp., travelled to his office in downtown Toronto for the first time in weeks to tell the world he hopes to open North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery — a key metal used in the batteries that power electric vehicles — by the end of the year.

The opening, years in the making, arrives at an awkward moment as social distancing policies keep people out of their cars, and the economic fallout from COVID-19 creates great uncertainty about the demand for electric vehicles, or EVs.

“There’s obviously the immediate pause” on EV adoption, Mell told the Financial Post on Monday.

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Nickel prices on a roller-coaster ride – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – April 25, 2020)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

With so many factors at play around the world, the price of nickel is heading back up after looking to drop below the US $5 a pound mark just a few weeks ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, has shuttered economies and cut into global demand for nickel. At the same time, Indonesia has banned the export of nickel ore, which will tighten supplies and affect large nickel purchaser China.

On Friday, nickel closed at $5.50 a pound, close to the average world price of nickel in March, which was $5.40 a pound. About three months ago, however, nickel was selling for almost $6.50 a pound.

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Is a Proposed Lithium Mine in Nevada the Future of Renewable Energy? – by Chase Cain (NECN.com – April 22, 2020)

https://www.necn.com/

Do you think driving a Tesla or plugging-in to solar power are environmentally-conscious choices? Then you should know it’s almost certain the batteries in those systems traveled around the world two or three times before they were ever installed. That’s not very “green,” is it?

Lithium-ion batteries, found in laptops, mobile phones and many other things we use every day, often have a rather costly carbon footprint. But a tiny town in the American West called Orovada could play a big role in making green energy more green.

Northern Nevada could soon explode into America’s “Lithium Valley,” playing an even more critical role in our country’s future than Silicon Valley did with technology.

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Congo artisanal cobalt programme expands with industry backing – by Helen Reid (Reuters U.S. – April 21, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A programme to monitor and improve artisanal cobalt mines in Democratic Republic of Congo will double the number of mining sites it covers this year through a partnership between RCS Global and the Responsible Minerals Initiative.

RCS Global, a company in Berlin that audits supply chains, started the Better Mining programme in 2018, collecting data on cobalt mine sites in Congo and giving mine operators “corrective action” plans when mining practices were found to be unsafe.

Teaming up with the Washington, D.C.-based RMI, a part of the Responsible Business Alliance, will allow the programme to grow from three sites to six this year, and to 12 or more sites by 2023, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Extracting battery metals from seafloor may beat traditional mining — study – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 22, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Mining battery metals from the ocean floor could potentially eliminate or dramatically reduce most of the environmental and social impacts associated with the extraction of riches from the Earth’s surface, a new study claims.

According to a research published this week and funded by Canada’s DeepGreen Metals, a start-up planning to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seabed, undersea mining generates up to 70% less direct CO2 emissions, 94% less stored carbon risk, as well as 90% less sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions — air pollution from maritime transportation.

Mining the ocean floor would also eliminate the issue of solid waste, while using 94% less land and 92% less forest, the report reads.

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Award-winning find for Sudbury lithium explorer – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 21, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A Sudbury lithium exploration company has been recognized by its peers as having an exceptional discovery in northwestern Ontario. Frontier Lithium received the Bernie Schnieders Award for Discovery of the Year for its Spark Pegmatite deposit, north of Red Lake. The Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association made the announcement on April 20.

The deposit is within the company’s Pakeagama Lake Pegamatite (PAK) project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake, and covers a claims belt over 26,774 hectares near the Manitoba border.

After making the initial discovery in January 2019, two drill programs were completed last year before the company released the first resource estimate in early February of this year.

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Argentina’s fledgling lithium sector clipped by coronavirus – by Marina Lammertyn (Reuters U.S. – April 16, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s fledgling lithium sector has been torpedoed by the global spread of coronavirus, with operations stalled by a nationwide crackdown and some projects being abandoned as the pandemic has sharpened economic concerns in the country.

Argentina is part of South America’s so-called “lithium triangle,” a major sources of the light metal that is key to the development of electrified vehicles. It has been pushing new projects to catch up with neighboring lithium powerhouse Chile.

Those now are hanging in limbo, threatening what the country had hoped would one day be a $2.1 billion lithium export market, according to a government presentation, up from $190 million last year when it shipped 50,000 tonnes of the white metal.

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DeepGreen to make run for battery metals from seafloor – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 7, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

DeepGreen Metals, a Canadian start-up planning to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seafloor, has added a new area to its seabed portfolio, which it believes could potentially help it solve the bottleneck supply of critical battery metals needed for the world’s green energy transition.

The strategic acquisition of Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML), announced Tuesday, gives the Vancouver-based company exploration rights to a third area inside the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean.

The 4,000-kilometre swath of ocean, stretching from Hawaii to Mexico, is known for containing enough nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese to build over 250 million electric vehicle batteries.

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UPDATE 1-Eramet halts Argentina lithium project on coronavirus crisis (Reuters U.S. – April 8, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) – French mining and metals group Eramet has decided to stop work on a lithium production project in Argentina, aimed at shifting the group’s focus towards electric vehicle minerals, due to economic uncertainty created by a coronavirus epidemic.

Eramet had already put the project on hold in February, citing economic and regulatory instability in the debt-stricken South American country, and it said on Wednesday the COVID-19 crisis had now led it to take a longer term decision to halt the planned construction of a lithium production plant.

The move will result in a cost of some 150 million euros ($163 million), including an asset impairment charge, and cash outflows of approximately 90 million euros in 2020, it said in a statement.

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Coronavirus highlights new logistics risk in battery supply chains – by Jacob Holzman (SPG Global Market Intelligence – April 2, 2020)

https://www.spglobal.com/

The coronavirus pandemic is uncovering new risk in the global supply chain for lithium-ion batteries as countries that are pivotal in producing lithium and other metals needed for battery manufacturing roll out restrictions in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an information provider specializing in the lithium-ion battery sector, wrote in a recent report that the coronavirus outbreak has led to a logistical slowdown throughout the supply chain, stretching around the world.

In Australia, a major producer of lithium, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies warned members of stringent interstate travel restrictions. In South America, Chile has implemented a national curfew, and parts of Santiago are in quarantine, while Argentina has a countrywide quarantine.

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Building blocks to a better battery for mining vehicles: Stacktronic to test new battery system in Sudbury – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 1, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A Kitchener-based startup has developed a new battery system for electrifying underground mining vehicles, and Sudbury is poised to play a key role in moving the technology toward commercialization.

Stacktronic has created a modular battery system that can be pieced together like Lego blocks to produce a battery of any size, any shape and any capacity, depending on the needs of the vehicle.

It’s a solution that could potentially save time and money for mining operations. It began as a capstone project for a group of mechanical engineering students in their final year studying at the University of Waterloo, noted Keith Teeple, one of the founders.

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