Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 40

Column: Copper’s anticipated supply surplus is proving elusive – by Andy Home (Reuters – May 10, 2023)

May 12, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) – The global copper market is facing another year of supply deficit, according to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG). The Group’s April forecast is for a supply shortfall of 114,000 tonnes this year after a 431,000-tonne deficit in 2022.

When the ICSG statistical committee last met in October, it expected a shift to surplus this year to the tune of 155,000 tonnes. That market turnaround is now only seen materialising next year. The calculated difference between small deficit and small surplus is a marginal one in the context of a 26-million-tonne global market but the change of view captures two key strands in the current copper narrative.

To Meet EV Demand, Industry Turns to Technology Long Deemed Hazardous (Japan News/Washington Post – May 12, 2023)

May 12, 2023

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/

OBIRA ISLAND, Indonesia – On a remote island close to where the Pacific meets the Indian Ocean sits one of the first refineries built specifically to support the world’s transition away from fossil fuels. Rocks unearthed here contain traces of nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. Extracting it, refining it and readying it for export is a gargantuan task.

More than $1 billion has been sunk into the processing facility, the first in Indonesia to use an acid-leaching technology to convert low-grade laterite nickel ore – which the country has in abundance – into a higher-grade material suitable for batteries. Foreign investors and lenders cite the project as evidence of their commitment to fighting climate change.

Next step in Ontario EV auto strategy is a lithium hydroxide plant: minister – by Allison Jones (Canadian Press/Global News – May 11, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://globalnews.ca/

TORONTO — Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli calls it the “sleeper story” of the province’s massive auto industry transition. Now that his quest to establish end-to-end electric vehicle production in the province has landed two battery plants, he’s setting his sights on lithium hydroxide, a critical component of those batteries.

There are two or three “very good prospects” for bringing a lithium hydroxide facility to the province, with a particular eye on northern Ontario, Fedeli said in an interview.

Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada faces court in June – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – May 9, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

The top lawyer for Lithium Americas’ (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC) Thacker Pass project, which is developing the largest lithium deposit in the United States in northwest Nevada, says it could be free of legal challenges by late summer or early fall.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is to hear arguments against the project on Jun. 26 and a ruling could be handed down within a few months, according to Laura Granier, a lawyer with Holland & Hart, which represents Lithium Americas.

Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott break ground on Tesla lithium refinery – by Lora Kolodny (CNBC.com – May 8, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/

Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break ground at the site of the electric vehicle maker’s new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday. Tesla plans to invest $375 million to build the facility on the Gulf coast that will help it secure a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide, a key ingredient used to make batteries for its electric vehicles, and its home- and utility-scale batteries.

Musk said that Tesla is aiming to produce enough battery-grade lithium at the refinery to manufacture one million vehicles per year, and to produce more lithium than the rest of North America’s refining capacity combined there.

India’s industry minister invites Canadian miners to ‘join us’ in search for critical minerals – by Naimul Karim and Stephanie Hughes (Financial Post – May 11, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Piyush Goyal says India open to Canadian miners exploiting its lithium deposits

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the south Asian nation is open to Canadian miners exploiting the country’s lithium deposits, an indication that critical minerals could form the basis of a renewed commercial relationship between Canada and one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

“I would very much like Canadian mining companies to join us,” Goyal said at a press conference in Toronto while wrapping up a three-day visit to Canada on May 10. “Mining companies from Canada must visit India. We will make sure to send them into meetings both at the government level and also with mining companies in India … and see how we can expand our own mining system.”

Column: World needs battery metals, but miners foiled by prices, activists – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – May 11, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE, May 11 (Reuters) – If the global energy transition is to be delivered in the coming decades, the mining industry believes there is one certainty. They will need to massively boost output of metals.

But they are also convinced that the current model for doing this is largely broken, and miners will, even with the best of intentions, struggle to produce enough copper and lithium and other metals essential to ending the dominance of fossil fuels.

Pro Take: Can Nickel, Cobalt and Other Battery Metals Be Sourced Sustainably? – by Yusuf Khan (Wall Street Journal – May 11, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/

Environmental worries over Indonesian nickel are being used to build a case for deep sea mining

As companies and countries withdraw their support for seabed mining, the about-face is raising broader questions about how metals used in battery production are sourced and the scale of the associated environmental costs. The sourcing of nickel particularly has been in the spotlight.

Last week, A.P. Moller-Maersk became the latest company to drop its investment in The Metals Company, a prospective seabed miner based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Lockheed Martin and Norway’s Storebrand also have recently sold their interests in deep-sea mining companies.

How Chile is shaping the global market for lithium, a vital component of EV batteries – by Katie Brigham (CNBC.com – May 6, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/

The global boom in electric vehicle production has sent demand for lithium-ion batteries soaring. That’s turned Chile’s vast, lithium-containing salt flats into a vital national resource. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, near the border with Argentina and Bolivia, close to one-third of the world’s lithium is produced from brines.

But South America’s fifth most-populous country is losing market share on the world stage to Australia, which in 2017 leapfrogged Chile to become the largest producer of lithium. Argentina is also gaining momentum thanks to increased international investment.

Head of New Lithium Giant to Focus on Supply Chain for Americas – by James Fernyhough (Bloomberg News – May 10, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The soon-to-be chief executive of what will become the world’s third-biggest lithium producer says the new company will focus on building a supply chain in the Americas, as US automakers look for non-Chinese sources of the battery metal.

“America-centric is a big differentiator for us with customers, with investors,” Paul Graves said in an interview Thursday, a day after it was announced Livent Corp. will combine with Allkem Ltd. to create a $10.6 billion company. China, where US-based Livent has refineries, “will not be a focus of growth for us in the future,” he said.

Indonesia emerges as a cobalt powerhouse amid surge in demand – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – May 10, 2023)

May 11, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

Demand for cobalt is set to more than double by 2030 to 388,000 tonnes as the electric vehicle (EV) sector shifts into overdrive, says a new Benchmark Mineral Intelligence report. The outlook entails compound yearly cobalt demand growth of 10% over the weak 2022 figures, according to the Benchmark agency’s May 10 report commissioned by the Istanbul, Turkey-based Cobalt Institute.

“The industry is optimistic the cobalt market will continue to grow in the coming years, driven by the success of cobalt’s use in superalloys and hard metals, and particularly in EVs,” the Cobalt Institute’s interim director general, Caroline Braibant, said in an email to The Northern Miner.

Lithium markets at a ‘turning point’: Morgan Stanley – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – May 8, 2023)

May 8, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Morgan Stanley believes lithium markets have hit a turning point following a brutal sell-off in the battery metal, as sentiment improves due to falling inventories and softer-than-expected supply growth. While lithium spot prices in China have plunged 70 per cent over the past five months, the broker noted that prices have rebounded.

Carbonate spot prices have bounced 30 per cent from their lows and hydroxide has recovered by 20 per cent. While lithium chemicals are gaining, the spodumene concentrate price has continued its downward trajectory, and now sits at $US4050 a tonne.

The Nickel Pickle: Everyone wants Indonesia’s nickel. But Xiang Guangda was there first. – by Eliot Chen (The Wire China – May 7, 2023)

May 8, 2023

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The floodlights at Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park stay on throughout the night. Around the clock, more than 40,000 workers operate the 8,000 acre site, which just ten years ago was nothing but dense rainforest on Sulawesi, Indonesia’s fourth largest island. Today, the sprawling park, which many refer to simply as “IMIP,” is home to a port, an airport, dormitories for Chinese workers, a four-star hotel and three mosques.

At its core, however, IMIP exists to smelt and refine at enormous scale a single mineral: nickel. Long a key ingredient in stainless steel, nickel is increasingly wanted for the production of lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. By 2040, the International Energy Agency estimates that clean energy technologies will account for as much as 70 percent of total nickel demand.

The Green Revolution Is Here. Which Big Miners Are Prepared? – by Megha Mandavia (Wall Street Journal – May 5, 2023)

May 8, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/

New U.S. legislation points to the world being short of copper in a few years. A few big mining firms could be huge beneficiaries.

A decade of underinvestment and a dense thicket of permits are challenges that the world’s top miners need to tackle head on. That is, if they want to ride a probable surge in copper prices as the world finally gets its act together to tackle climate change—a task which will require vast quantities of the red metal.

Over the last six months mining firms have begun jostling to acquire copper assets. One major reason: The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, essentially a massive green industry policy bill, which passed last August. Copper supply now looks likely to fall far short of demand over the next decade—unless big new greenfield projects are brought online.

Rio Tinto Cautions Against Takeover Fever After Lithium’s Dramatic Price Slump – by Annie Lee and James Fernyhough (Bloomberg News – May 5, 2023)

May 6, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium’s dramatic price slump has mining heavyweights chasing takeovers of companies with early stage or pre-production projects. But one giant is warning that offering high premiums for smaller miners comes with risks.

Rio Tinto Group Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm said he’s “cautious” about acquisitions at current valuations, despite the world’s second-biggest miner wanting to grow its nascent lithium business.