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Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles

GM and Ford Join Tesla in Race to Secure EV Battery Material Supplies – by Al Root (Barrons – April 13, 2022)

https://www.barrons.com/

Auto makers are trying to secure supplies of critical materials for meeting their electric-vehicle goals, particularly as prices rise . Ford Motor, General Motors, and Tesla have all made some recent strategic moves to shore up materials to produce EV batteries. On Tuesday, General Motors (ticker: GM) signed a cobalt supply deal with global mining giant Glencore (GLEN.London).

Cobalt is used along with metals such as lithium, nickel, and iron in rechargeable EV batteries. Cobalt gets more attention than other EV materials because most of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has a reputation for poor mining practices and a weak human rights record. The cobalt GM is buying from Glencore , however, will be sourced from Australia.

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Mexican president to fast-track nationalization of lithium if power reform thwarted – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 13, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is ready to send a bill to Congress next week declaring lithium a “strategic mineral” and reserving future exploration and mining for the government if lawmakers fail to pass his constitutional reform tightening state control of the electricity market.

The country’s lower house is set to vote on Sunday on a constitutional energy overhaul that includes nationalizing lithium and guaranteeing state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, 54% of the market.

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Canada’s decarbonization plan mum on metals and mining – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – April 13, 2022)

https://www.northernminer.com/

It is said that to produce any good, what cannot be grown must be mined. By this token, governments and the general public tend to conveniently forget that the energy revolution and, by extension, the global effort to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions depend squarely on the abundant and reliable supply of critical metals mined from the ground.

With the recent release of the Canadian federal government’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, there was a distinct lack of language and focus on addressing key issues affecting the development of new mines that will be needed to meet demand stemming from the energy revolution.

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We Don’t Need Nickel From Russia – by Johnna Crider (Clean Technica – April 15, 2022)

https://cleantechnica.com/

We don’t need nickel from Russia. There is a critical need for nickel and other EV battery metals worldwide, but we don’t need to get it from Russia. In March 2022, Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas shared worries about Russia’s outsized role in the nickel supply chain for EVs.

CNBC’s Phil LeBeau then discussed the note from Jonas. Jonas noted that Ford announced a target of 2 million EV unit sales by 2026, and that this will require a lot of EV battery metals. The question he posed was where Ford would source all of these raw materials. LeBeau pointed out that everyone in the auto industry has been talking about this issue for quite a while.

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Column: U.S. uses Cold War powers to secure battery metals supply – by Andy Home (Reuters – April 7, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, April 7 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to accelerate the build-out of a domestic battery materials supply chain.

A measure first used by President Truman to boost U.S. steel production in the Korean War will now be tailored to future energy transition metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

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As EV market grows, mining exec says he wants keep Northern Ontario control over lithium project – by Len Gilles (Sudbury.com – April 9, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Lithium is one of the key minerals used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles

A Sudbury mining executive told the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce Wednesday that he is working hard to keep managerial control of his company and its assets in Northern Ontario.

Trevor Walker, President and CEO of Frontier Lithium, was speaking at the chamber’s president’s series luncheon held in Copper Cliff. Walker said Frontier has spent more than 10 years developing an incredibly rich and significantly large lithium mineral deposit in Northwestern Ontario. Lithium is one of the key minerals used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).

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A South American Lithium Cartel Faces Long Odds – by Thomas Graham (World Politics Review – April 11, 2022)

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/

LA PAZ, Bolivia—With the swearing-in of Chilean President Gabriel Boric last month, the three countries of Latin America’s so-called lithium triangle—Chile, Bolivia and Argentina—all have leftist leaders who want their governments and citizens to benefit more from the extraction of their countries’ natural resources.

At first glance, this could present an opportunity for the three countries to push for the creation of an OPEC-style price-setting cartel for lithium. They are all rich in the coveted resource, and there has been speculation about them banding together to form such an organization for years.

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All eyes on Sudbury’s ‘Frontier’ with new lithium project – by Ian Campbell (CTV News Northern Ontario – April 7, 2022)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

It was a packed house at Bryston’s in Copper Cliff on Wednesday as members of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce came out to hear the latest on lithium. Specifically, they were there to hear from Frontier Lithium president Trevor Walker, who touched on the company’s plans to develop the Pak deposit in northwestern Ontario.

The Sudbury-based company could soon become one of the biggest lithium suppliers in North America given the value of the deposit at Pakeagama Lake. “We’re blessed to also have former Chief Bart Meekis of Sandy Lake First Nations on the board of directors,” said Walker.

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Lithium exports to surge on ‘perpetual’ supply deficit – by Peter Ker and Richard Henderson (Australian Financial Review – April 5, 2022)

https://www.afr.com/

One of Australia’s biggest lithium mines will resume exports four months sooner than expected as bumper prices for the battery mineral incentivised miners to raise output and extend the life of their mines.

Mineral Resources said “unprecedented global customer demand for lithium product” had convinced it to resume exports from Western Australia’s Wodgina mine in May, rather than the September schedule it had previously given to investors.

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How Trudeau proposes to make Canada a key supplier of critical minerals – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 8, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Billions earmarked in the federal budget to develop an industry crucial to the world’s energy transition

Few issues are as hotly debated as the costs of climate change, and the new federal budget is unlikely to cool the tenor of that discussion.

Chrystia Freeland’s second budget as finance minister proposes billions of dollars in new spending to incentivize more mining of critical minerals through investments in infrastructure, tax credits for exploration, and funding to help attract the downstream industries that turn those minerals into products such as electric vehicles and battery cells.

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New lithium technology can help the world go green — if it works – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – April 7, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

April 7 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto, General Motors and even the U.S. Energy Department are investing heavily in a crop of newer technologies that could revolutionize the way lithium is produced for electric vehicle batteries. Now those technologies just have to prove they work on a commercial scale.

If they do, miners will be able to boost global lithium production with a footprint far smaller than open-pit mines and evaporation ponds, which often are the size of multiple football fields and unpopular with local communities.

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Lithium-ion roadblocks drive development of US-based alternatives for grid battery storage – by Elizabeth McCarthy (Utility Dive – April 5, 2022)

https://www.utilitydive.com/

Lithium-ion batteries are the dominant technology used for energy storage today but since the start of the war in Ukraine, the price of imported lithium has gone up twofold, said MIT professor Yang Shao-Horn. It is “now the most expensive component” in lithium-ion batteries, she told conference participants. The price of other key metals has also soared.

“This sharp increase in the cost of lithium potentially can drive other [storage] technologies and move them faster,” she said, pointing to sodium-ion battery chemistries as one example. This technology is “moving rapidly,” nearly matching lithium-ion’s battery performance, with costs expected to be “substantially lower,” Shao-Horn noted.

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Bigger investment in mining needed to meet climate goals, says LGIM – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – April 5, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Fund manager points out that energy transition depends on surge in supply of key metals

The decarbonisation of the global economy is at risk unless greater amounts of capital are directed towards the mining industry, the UK’s biggest fund manager has warned.

At current levels of investment Legal & General Investment Management reckons the world will not be able to achieve the “huge increase” in supply of industrial metals needed to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

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EV policy is the Green New Steal – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – April 6, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Remember the joke about GM becoming Government Motors? Guess what!

A few years ago, a blog for the socialist left in Canada known as The Bullet published a commentary by U.S. activist Chris Kutalik under the headline “Make GM Government Motors Again.” The mention of “again” was a reference to the 2009 Obama administration’s US$80-billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry.

Ottawa and the province of Ontario chipped in with a $13.5-billion purchase of shares in the bankrupt Canadian branches of GM and Chrysler, eventually selling back to the companies in 2015 at a loss of about $3 billion.

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Governments ignore mining in electrification push – by Rick Mills (Ahead of the Herd/Mining.com – April 4, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

The supply chain for batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, electric motors, transmission lines, 5G — everything regarding electrification and decarbonization that is needed for a green economy — starts with metals and mining.

A green infrastructure and transportation spending push will mean a lot more metals will need to be mined, including lithium, nickel, and graphite for EV batteries; copper for electric vehicle wiring, charging stations and renewable energy projects; silver for solar panels; rare earths for permanent magnets that go into EV motors and wind turbines; and silver/ tin for the hundreds of millions of solder points necessary in making the new electrified economy a reality.

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