Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 67

Opinion: ‘Dr Copper’ has a worrying message about the energy transition – by Daniel Yergin (Financial Times – July 13, 2022)

July 14, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

The writer chaired the new S&P Global study ‘The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?’

As countries try to figure out how to meet their targets for net zero emissions, minerals have become a big target of concern. Several governments and international organisations have expressed alarm about whether there will be sufficient supply to meet the needs of, as the International Energy Agency puts it, moving “from a fuel-intensive to a mineral-intensive energy system”.

There has been much discussion of the lithium and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries. But less attention has been given to copper, though it is the foundation for the energy transition, indeed the “metal of electrification”. A new report focuses on this key role.

Belgian battery company announces $1.5-billion investment in Ontario – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 13, 2022)

July 14, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Battery supply chain plant near Kingston, Ont., getting significant government financial support

Belgium-based Umicore SA on Wednesday announced plans to build a $1.5-billion battery supply chain plant near Kingston, Ont., powered entirely by renewable energy, with significant financial support from the federal and provincial governments.

The plant would produce battery precursor active material and battery cathode active material, filling in missing pieces and adding a new eastern terminus to Ontario’s emerging battery supply chain, which already includes a battery cell manufacturing plant.

Australia joins global critical minerals partnership – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – July 13, 2022)

July 13, 2022

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australia has joined the Minerals Security Partnership in its quest to develop and secure global supply chains for critical minerals that are crucial to clean energy technology and the global transition to clean energy.

Australia joins the US, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the UK and the European Commission on this mission.

Umicore metals refiner to build $1.5-billion Ontario factory for EV battery components – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – July 13, 2022)

July 13, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Belgian metals refiner Umicore SA is building a $1.5-billion factory near Kingston, Ont. to produce components for electric vehicle batteries, the latest in a series of Canadian investments by automotive manufacturers.

Once operational, Umicore’s facility will see approximately 700 employees transform raw materials, including nickel, cobalt and lithium, into battery parts, creating what Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne described in an interview as a “supply chain ecosystem for electric vehicle manufacturing.”

Major project status: Ardea on the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – by Jason Mitchell (Mining Technology – July 13, 2022)

July 13, 2022

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

Boasting around 830 million tonnes of nickel, the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project is one of the most exciting in Australia.

In March, the Australian Government awarded the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP), located in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, ”major project status”, streamlining potential government approval for one of the country’s most exciting nickel projects.

The new status will make it easier for Ardea Resources, the Perth-based mining company behind the project, to get permits approved and to access additional sources of funding.

Nationalize LATAM’s Lithium to Become Global Power: Evo Morales – by Fernando Mares (Mexico Business – July 13, 2022)

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022

https://mexicobusiness.news/

Former President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, urged lithium-producing countries to take advantage of what he calls the decline of the US as a superpower to nationalize the lithium industry. By doing so, the Latin American region could play a major role in the world’s economics.

“The west does not want us to add value to our natural resources. If we industrialize the peoples’ lithium in the hand of the state, we could be global powers, at least in this environment,” Morales said at a conference at the El Rosario University in Argentina.

China’s Ganfeng Lithium buys lithium mines in Argentina – by Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – July 11, 2022)

July 12, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

Purchase of Lithea comes as global competition for metals needed to power electric vehicles hots up

Ganfeng Lithium has agreed to buy Argentina-focused mining group Lithea for up to $962mn, as China steps up its battle for the metals needed to power electric vehicles.

The deal will give Shenzhen-listed Ganfeng rights to Pozuelos and Paston Grandes, two salt lake brines in Argentina that can produce lithium carbonate, a key material for batteries used in electric vehicles.

Russia-Ukraine conflict creates uncertainty for high-grade nickel supply – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 11, 2022)

July 12, 2022

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has created uncertainty over global supply of mined nickel – particularly high-grade nickel, which is used as battery-grade nickel in the electric vehicle (EV) industry – market research firm Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (Fitch Solutions) said in its ‘Global Nickel Outlook’ report on July 8.

To illustrate the impact, last year, Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel alone provided about 17% of the global supply of class one nickel. In total, Russia accounts for about 21% of global class one nickel production, followed by Canada at 17%, Australia at 14% and China 10%.

VOLT RUSH THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THE RACE TO GO GREEN, REVIEWED – by Simon Cocking (Irish Tech News – July 8, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://irishtechnews.ie/

EVs has been touted as the technological solution that will help to save our planet, and, potentially to save us from ourselves. The switch to electric vehicles would reduce CO2 emissions, pollution, keeping (potentially) fossil fuels in the ground. Henry Sanderson however takes us on a carefully considered and well explained journey to show that it may not be as simple a transition as we hoped for.

Sanderson has chapters specifically analysing the key elements, often rare earth minerals, that are vital to the creation of the necessary batteries to drive these vehicles. Lithium, cobalt and nickel among others are all forensically considered, with often concerning impacts on people and planet.

Tycoon whose bet broke the nickel market walks away a billionaire – by Alfred Cang, Jack Farchy and Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – July 6, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — By 2:08 p.m. Shanghai time on March 8, it was clear that Xiang Guangda’s giant bet on a fall in nickel prices was going spectacularly wrong. Futures had just skyrocketed above $100,000 a ton and his trade was more than $10 billion underwater.

It was threatening not only to bankrupt Xiang’s company, but to trigger a Lehman Brothers-like shock through the entire metals industry and possibly topple the London Metal Exchange itself.

Sibanye-Stillwater to raise stake in Finland’s Keliber (Reuters – June 30, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

June 30 (Reuters) – Sibanye-Stillwater (SSWJ.J) plans to increase its shareholding in Finnish lithium firm Keliber to 50% plus one share, the South Africa-listed miner said on Thursday, and is offering to buy minority shareholders out to boost its stake to over 80%.

Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to take a 30.29% stake in Keliber in February as part of its strategy of diversifying away from South African platinum and gold production into battery metals, which have benefited from surging prices.

The World Can’t Wean Itself Off Chinese Lithium – by (Wired Magazine – June 30, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.wired.com/

China dominates the global supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. Now rival countries are scrambling for more control over “white oil.”

THE INDUSTRIAL PORT of Kwinana on Australia’s western coast is a microcosm of the global energy industry. From 1955, it was home to one of the largest oil refineries in the region, owned by British Petroleum when it was still the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

It once provided 70 percent of Western Australia’s fuel supplies, and the metal husks of old tanks still dominate the shoreline, slowly turning to rust in the salt air.

Biden Has to Choose: Climate Change or Human Rights in China – by William Schneider Jr. (Wall Street Journal – July 4, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/

President Biden’s ambition to phase out fossil fuels is at odds with his human-rights objectives in China. Last month the U.S. started enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, “ensuring goods made with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China do not enter the United States market.” Mr. Biden advocated intensely for this legislation and signed it in December.

But the administration is no less committed to using solar energy, batteries and electric vehicles to meet its commitments under the Glasgow Climate Pact. The technologies that underpin these climate-change commitments depend on Chinese forced and child labor.

Automakers ramping up investments into upstream nickel, cobalt – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 6, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Market research firm Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (Fitch Solutions) says automakers are increasing their upstream investments and supply contracts to secure enough battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt and battery-grade nickel, to drive forward their respective electric vehicle (EV) policies and to meet the decarbonisation targets set by governments globally.

Since the start of 2021, 21 such investments have been made – 16 of which were investments into lithium. These investments were made by automakers BMW, General Motors (GM), Tesla, Stellantis, Renault, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, BYD and Ford.

Canada Nickel doubles resource at Crawford project in Ontario – by Naimul Karim (Northern Miner – July 6, 2022)

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022

https://www.northernminer.com/

Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) believes that its Crawford project in northern Ontario contains the fifth largest nickel sulphide resource globally, after a new estimate released by the company on July 6 more than doubled the project’s measured and indicated resource estimate.

Its latest measured and indicated resources now total 1.4 billion tonnes grading 0.24% nickel and 6.59% iron for 3.48 million tonnes of contained nickel and 93.9 million tonnes of iron. Inferred resources add 670.1 million tonnes grading 0.23% nickel and 6.85% iron for 1.55 million tonnes of nickel and 45.9 million tonnes of iron.