Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 78

Pacific nations are extraordinarily rich in critical minerals. But mining them may take a terrible toll – by Nick Bainton and Emilka Skrzypek (The Conversation – August 3, 2022)

August 3, 2022

Plundering the Pacific for its rich natural resources has a long pedigree. Think of the European companies strip-mining Nauru for its phosphate and leaving behind a moonscape.

There are worrying signs history may be about to repeat, as global demand soars for minerals critical to the clean energy transition. This demand is creating pressure to extract more minerals from the sensitive lands and seabeds across the Pacific. Pacific leaders may be attracted by the prospect of royalties and economic development – but there will be a price to pay in environmental damage.

New Lithium Mining Technology Could Give Argentina a Sustainable Gold Rush – by Ciara Nugent (Time Magazine – July 26, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://time.com/

The Vasquez brothers aren’t used to visitors. Their farm lies in the Puna, a vast plateau region in the Andes Mountains, some 12,500 ft above sea level and a full day’s drive to the nearest city.

The terrain, in the Argentine province of Catamarca, is rough and largely empty; fluffy, big-eyed llamas wander a miles-wide plain between mountains. Only sparse shrubs pepper the ground, glowing yellow-green Technicolor under the close sun. But one day in 2016, a tall man in his 50s, speaking heavily Australian-accented Spanish, pulled up to the Vasquezes’ remote farmhouse.

Ford Counting On U.S.-Mined Lithium To Power Its EV Growth Plans – by David Blackmon (Forbes Magazine – July 25, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://www.forbes.com/

Management at Ford Motor Company continues to move aggressively to advance the company’s goals of converting its fleet to electric vehicles in the years to come. The Detroit Free Press reported last week that the company plans to lay off 8,000 of its 31,000 salaried workers as part of a plan to implement $3 billion in budget cuts to try to make its’ struggling EV business unit more financially viable.

The company has announced plans to produce 600,000 EVs by late 2023 and as many as 2 million globally by 2025. But the Ford’s EV sales for the first half of 2022 totaled to just around 23,000 units. While that is a significant rise from the same period during 2021, it is a long way from achieving such aggressive goals.

Threat to Canadian electric vehicle industry dissipates with U.S. Senate deal – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A deal struck among Democrats in the U.S. Senate appears to have eliminated a threat hanging over the nascent electric vehicle manufacturing industry in Canada. An agreement announced late Wednesday between Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia gives the Democrats the votes they need to pass a key plank of U.S. President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

The deal would amend Mr. Biden’s climate and health bill and change the terms of tax credits for electric vehicles that as previously written would have only applied to autos assembled in the United States.

Lithium – Portugal’s white gold – by Paul Luckman (The Portugal News – February 18, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://www.theportugalnews.com/

Mining Lithium in Portugal is a very controversial subject, but there are some simple facts that can’t be ignored.

Sales and manufacturing of electric cars are growing. Governments want to ban petrol and diesel cars. Electric cars need batteries. Batteries need lithium. There isn’t enough lithium available to meet demand. Portugal has lithium.

The price of lithium has quadrupled in the last year. While Chile, Australia, Argentina, and China are home to the world’s highest lithium reserves, other countries also hold significant amounts.

Race to Secure Battery Metals Heats Up as GM, Ford Ink Deals – by Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – July 26, 2022)

July 28, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Undeterred by the slowing global economy, buyers of key components in the powering of electric vehicles are stepping up efforts to lock in supplies, with two of the world’s biggest automakers signing direct deals with producers of so-called battery metals.

General Motors Co. announced three deals Tuesday for supplies of raw materials needed for its EV fleet. Less than a week ago, Ford Motor Co. revealed a list of suppliers of inputs ranging from Argentine lithium to Indonesian nickel — enough to build 600,000 EVs a year.

Ford adjusts its EV strategy as supply shortages jeopardize sales targets – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 21, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Ford said it will use lower performance batteries for select models in order to meet its electric-vehicle targets

Ford Motor Co. said it will use lower performance batteries for select models in order to meet its electric-vehicle targets, the latest example of how global ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions are colliding with the reality of supply chain constraints.

The Detroit-based automaker currently offers two versions of the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning — a standard version and a vehicle with extended range. The latter are powered by lithium-ion batteries that use the nickel, cobalt, and manganese (NCM) chemistry that has become an industry benchmark, and the standard versions use lower performance NCM batteries.

Ford Secures Batteries to Build 600,000 EVs a Year by 2023 – by Keith Naughton and Gabrielle Coppola (Bloomberg/Windsor Star – July 22, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://windsorstar.com/

(Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. says it has secured enough battery supply to build more than half a million electric vehicles annually by late next year, a quantum leap above the 27,140 battery-powered cars it sold in the US last year.

The automaker has signed contracts with suppliers representing 60 gigawatt hours of annual battery capacity, enough to build 600,000 EVs a year, it said in a statement Thursday. Those suppliers include China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, as Bloomberg previously reported.

New Indonesian nickel supply douses expectations for fresh price rally – by Pratima Desai (Financial Post/Reuters – July 21, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

LONDON — Substantial new nickel supplies from top producer Indonesia in years ahead will ensure prices don’t return to levels that sparked chaotic trading in March, despite robust demand growth from stainless steel and electric vehicle battery makers.

However, prices now around $21,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME), though down about 80% since hitting all-time highs in March, are still high enough to incentivise investment in new production capacity.

Lithium Refining Is a ‘License to Print Money,’ Musk Says – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – July 20, 2022)

July 21, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk has called for more investment in global lithium refining to ease shortages in battery materials — and promised those who seize the opportunity it’s as lucrative as “basically minting money.”

“I’d like to once again urge entrepreneurs to enter the lithium refining business. The mining is relatively easy, the refining is much harder,” Tesla Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Musk said on a Wednesday earnings call, adding there are software-like margins to be made in lithium processing. “You can’t lose, it’s a license to print money.”

Governments Turn Against Deep-Sea Mining as EV Boom Drives Demand for Metals – by Todd Woody (Bloomberg News – July18, 2022)

July 21, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — As battery makers scramble to procure cobalt, nickel and other metals to meet rising consumer demand for electric cars, governmental opposition to strip-mining the seabed for minerals is mounting.

The deep ocean contains the largest estimated deposits of minerals on the planet, potentially worth trillions of dollars. But in recent weeks, Chile, Fiji, Palau and other nations have called for a moratorium on ocean mining until there is a better understanding of the environmental consequences of destroying little-explored and unique deep-sea ecosystems that play an undetermined role in the global climate.

PolyMet and Teck form JV to develop Minnesota mining projects – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – July 20, 2022)

July 21, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

PolyMet Mining Corp (POM.TO) and Teck Resources Ltd (TECKb.TO) said on Wednesday they will form a joint venture to develop their Minnesota copper and nickel mining projects.

The new company, known as NewRange Copper Nickel LLC, will share costs to develop the two proposed mines, which aim to produce metals used to make electric vehicles and other green technologies.

Sioux Narrows nickel deposit has mining potential – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 18, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Tartisan Nickel wants to put former Falconbridge mine back into production

A former Falconbridge nickel deposit near Kenora looks to have the legs and the economics to be put back into production.

Tartisan Nickel released a preliminary economy assessment (PEA) of its Kenbridge Nickel Deposit last week. The PEA study projects a nine-year mine with production of 52.6 million pounds of nickel and 30.7 million of copper over that span.

Canada to make electric vehicle, battery manufacturing pitch Japanese automakers (Canadian Press/Global News – July 5, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://globalnews.ca/

Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the convergence of Canada’s automotive and mining sectors is working to lure more companies to Canada to make electric cars and the batteries that power them.

Over eight weeks last spring, automakers and battery companies announced more than $13 billion in new investments in the electric vehicle manufacturing sphere in Canada, including batteries and their components, buses and electric cars.

USGS Scientists Help Address Conflict Mining (United States Geological Survey – June 27, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.usgs.gov/news/

The USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world.

The concept of conflict diamonds or “blood diamonds” emerged in the late 1990s when it became evident that several violent civil wars in Africa were connected to mining and trading of rough diamonds. In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey was asked by the U.S. Department of State to help address illegal diamond mining in Africa.

Since then, the USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world. USGS scientists help detect where illegal mining is likely taking place and develop realistic production numbers to determine a country’s true capacity for mining and exporting various resources.