Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 58

In remote Nevada valley, race for more lithium comes down to water – Daniel Rothberg (Nevada Independent – October 31, 2022)

October 31, 2022

There is an otherworldly feel to the crystalline-blue evaporation ponds that sit in Clayton Valley, an arid area in Nevada’s least populated county, Esmeralda. From above, the ponds look like a grid of pooled water arranged in a gradient that moves from a deep-sea blue to a light-sky tone. The man-made desert pools contain what is naturally underneath the ground: water.

Pumps, drilled deep into the Earth, pull brine from an underground aquifer, and pipes move the salty water into the expansive holding ponds. This is not just any water. It is rich in lithium, a mineral needed for electric cars and large-scale storage batteries, technologies in high demand as countries and industries seek to decarbonize national economies and electric grids.

AVZ vs Zijin: the fight for the world’s biggest lithium deposit – by Jevans Nyabiage (South China Morning Post – October 30, 2022)

October 31, 2022

https://www.scmp.com/

The discovery of a gigantic deposit of lithium had raised hopes for the sleepy town of Manono in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a tin boom went bust years earlier.

Australia-based AVZ Minerals announced in 2019 that the Manono lithium-tin project in the DRC probably had the world’s largest untapped lithium deposit, with estimates of 400 million tonnes of lithium ore. Lithium is essential in making rechargeable batteries for phones and electric vehicles, and is in high demand as countries around the world make the shift to green energy.

Manono Lithium-Tin Project (Mining Technology – March 9, 2021)

October 31, 2022

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The Manono Lithium-Tin Project is an open-pit mining development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in central Africa. It is estimated to be one of the largest lithium-rich LCT (lithium, caesium, tantalum) pegmatite deposits in the world.

AVZ Minerals currently holds a 65% interest in the property while the remaining stake is held by Dathcom Mining, a joint venture between AVZ Minerals and La Congolaise D’Exploitation Miniere of the DRC Government. AVZ Minerals reached an agreement to acquire an additional 10% equity in the project for $15.5m in September 2020.

It’s Better to Mine the World’s Rainforests Than Farm Them – by David Fickling (Washington Post/Bloomberg – October 31, 2022)

October 31, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

As if the world’s rainforests didn’t have enough problems to contend with, even the transition to zero-carbon power is threatening to level them. Industrial mining ate up 3,265 square kilometers (1,260 square miles) of tropical forest between 2002 and 2019, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Some 80% of that total happened in just four countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana and Suriname.

With the COP27 climate conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh next week expected to increase the focus on the climate needs of developing countries, that’s raised concerns that there isn’t enough land to manage a shift away from fossil fuels.

The Lithium Market Is Hotter Than Ever and Traders Are Moving In – by Mark Burton, Archie Hunter and Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – October 29, 2022)

October 31, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — When the oil market liberalized in the 1970s, a group of commodity trading buccaneers led by the infamous Marc Rich made fortunes by connecting buyers and sellers and surfing the price swings of this newly tradable commodity. Half a century later, some of Rich’s spiritual descendants are hoping to pull off a similar trick in lithium.

A vital component in most electric-vehicle batteries, lithium is becoming one of the world’s most important commodities. Prices have soared to unprecedented levels as demand forecasts keep growing, leaving automakers scrambling to secure future supplies.

Tesla held discussions over taking stake in Glencore – by Leslie Hook and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – October 31, 2022)

October 31, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

Talks over buying up to 20 per cent of miner reflect carmakers’ concerns over supplies of battery metals

Tesla held talks with Glencore about taking a stake in the Swiss commodities group, in a sign of how global carmakers are seeking to build ties with the mining industry to secure materials needed for the rollout of electric vehicles.

Preliminary discussions about Elon Musk’s electric car and battery maker buying 10-20 per cent of Glencore began last year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Mining the Northwest: Charged up lithium explorers move toward mine production – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 26, 2022)

October 27, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Green Tech Metals buys out partner, Rock Tech Lithium firms up European supply chain

A pair of lithium junior miners in northwestern Ontario are making moves to consolidate ground and firm up its supply chain to feed the downstream electric vehicle manufacturers.

Australia’s Green Technology Metals is dissolving a joint venture partnership with Ardiden to acquire the remaining 20 per cent stake in its Ontario lithium properties. The deal worth (Australian) $18.5 million gives Green Tech full control of three lithium holdings including Seymour, located just outside of Armstrong, that the company is touting as a mine development.

Battery-makers are powering a circular economy (The Economist – October 27, 2022)

October 27, 2022

https://www.economist.com/

“Gigafactories” are being designed to recycle raw materials

Manufacturing is a one-way business. Raw materials go into a factory and finished products come out. Once those goods are sold, producers (initial guarantees apart) usually wash their hands of them. Certainly they do not worry, unless compelled to by law, about how the products are disposed of.

Most are burnt or rot in landfill, which pollutes the planet. In only 50 years the world’s consumption of raw materials has nearly quadrupled, to more than 100bn tonnes, according to the latest Circularity Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. Less than 9% of this is reused, resulting in a big waste of materials.

Proposed nickel mine in northern Minnesota continues to make national headlines – by Joe Friedrichs (WTIP North Shore Community Radio – October 27, 2022)

October 27, 2022

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Developers of a proposed nickel mine in northern Minnesota plan to move construction of its processing plant to North Dakota because of environmental concerns.

Talon Metals has been under pressure from environmental groups and the tribal bands of the Lake Superior Chippewa about a plan to build the processing plant in Tamarack, about 50 miles west of Duluth.

Why Freeland’s “friend-shoring” is such a bad idea – by Richard Mills (A Head Of The Herd – October 24, 2022)

October 26, 2022

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Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Previously she was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Many people see her as taking over from Prime Minister Trudeau, whose popularity has waned amid a series of scandals, and the arrogance that comes with winning government for two straight terms.

Last week Freeland was in Washington, D.C. giving a speech to the Brookings Institution about Canada’s role in world affairs. Usually these talks are nothing but hot air so I tune out, but in this case, Freeland had some important things to say, on a subject we have previously written about: friend-shoring.

Ontario juggling “more than half a dozen battery makers” as latest provincial trade mission returns from Austria, Germany – by Emma Jarratt (Electric Autonomy Canada – October 24, 2022)

October 26, 2022

https://electricautonomy.ca/

Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade, Vic Fedeli, took a simple message abroad: get into Ontario while there is still time

Ontario is in active talks with at least six battery makers and continues to court considerable global interest in the EV battery supply chain, according to provincial minister Vic Fedeli.

The head of economic development, job creation and trade for Ontario made the remark to Electric Autonomy Canada after returning from a recent trade trip to Germany and Austria.

Exclusive: Automakers to double spending on EVs, batteries to $1.2 trillion by 2030 – by Paul Lienert (Reuters – October 25, 2022)

October 26, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

Oct 21 (Reuters) – The world’s top automakers are planning to spend nearly $1.2 trillion through 2030 to develop and produce millions of electric vehicles, along with the batteries and raw materials to support that production, according to a Reuters analysis of public data and projections released by those companies.

The EV investment figure, which has not previously been published, dwarfs previous investment estimates by Reuters and is more than twice the most recent calculation published just a year ago.

Idaho cobalt mine is a harbinger of what’s to come – by Kylie Mohr (High Country News – October 21, 2022)

October 24, 2022

https://www.hcn.org/

A new venture near Salmon signals an uptick in hardrock mining across the West.

Idaho’s Cobalt Belt is a 34-mile-long desirable stretch of ore tucked under the Salmon River Mountains that’s considered “globally significant” by mining companies. And miners are interested in that cobalt: a hard, brittle metal used in electric vehicle batteries. On Oct. 7, Australia-based Jervois Global opened the only cobalt mine in the U.S. there to much fanfare.

The new mine, which will be at full operating capacity in 2023, is part of a burgeoning Western mineral rush. These modern prospectors are focused on so-called green metals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements that are used in clean energy applications.

‘The part of Cornwall nobody ever sees’: the hi-tech future for lithium and tin mining – by Jasper Jolly (The Guardian – October 20, 2022)

October 24, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/

A foggy, overgrown quarry in a quiet part of Cornwall is a good place to contemplate Britain’s industrial past. It is here that miners used steam power, explosives and their own hands to dig out china clay for ceramics. The industry helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution and briefly made Redruth one of the richest places in the UK.

The quarry is also a pretty good place to contemplate Britain’s industrial future. Cornish Lithium, a UK startup, is one of a clutch of businesses hoping to revive British mining amid a global scramble for the battery minerals that are crucial for the transition away from fossil fuels.

LME Week: cocktails, canapés and crises – by Andy Home (Reuters – October 21, 2022)

October 24, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

It’s not the first time the 145-year-old London Metal Exchange (LME) has found itself in crisis. There was the Tin Crisis of 1986, the Nickel Crisis of 1988, and what at the time was dubbed “The Sumitomo Scandal” but could now better be described as The 1996 Copper Crisis.

This year, however, is still something of a stand-out with not one but two tsunamis rocking the grand old dame of industrial metals trading. March brought Nickel Crisis II, a much scarier update of the original, and now we have the unfolding Russian Metal Crisis.