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.
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.
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.
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.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Vanadium use to surge with battery growth
Energy storage has transformed the electricity industry with huge growth in the U.S., for example, of more than six times in the last few years. The demand is growing exponentially for the batteries used in portable devices, energy storage, and electric mobility. Both lithium and vanadium are reliable sources of energy storage.
Recently, the Biden administration announced it will spend more than $3 billion to support the domestic manufacturing of advanced batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage.
Changing tech trends in top auto market China reduce demand for nickel and cobalt
TOKYO — Prices for key metals used in electric-vehicle batteries have diverged, with lithium holding strong on brisk demand and tight supply while nickel and cobalt start to fall out of favor in the crucial Chinese market.
All of these materials are used in cathodes. These components make up about 40% of the cost of a battery cell, which itself accounts for a sizable chunk of electric vehicle production expenses.
LONDON — The London Metal Exchange’s (LME) suspension of its nickel contract in March has led to a sharp drop in metals trading activity. Total LME volumes slumped by 21% over the second quarter relative to the first three months of 2022.
Nickel was unsurprisingly the biggest casualty with the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) nickel contract also going into deep freeze. But the chill effect has spread through all the LME’s core base metals products in the last three months, suggesting an exit by institutional players unhappy with the exchange’s cancellation of nickel trades, a decision that is now being challenged.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Robert Friedland’s latest mining venture stumbled on its first day of trading, after launching into the most hostile stock market environment since the start of the pandemic.
Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Electric Inc. priced its initial public offering at US$11.75 a share, and raised US$169.1-million. Just over a week ago, as the company made its final rounds to investors in order to lock in orders, it had targeted selling its shares as high as US$12.50 apiece.
https://www.globalminingreview.com/
Piedmont Lithium has announced that the board of directors of Sayona Quebec Inc. (SYQ), which is owned 75% by Sayona Mining (Sayona) and 25% by Piedmont, authorised the restart of spodumene concentrate production at its North American Lithium (NAL) project located near Val-d’Or, Quebec.
The NAL restart will feature significant operational upgrades totalling approximately US$80 million aimed at improving product quality and plant utilisation. Long-lead equipment was ordered and detailed design engineering commenced in late 2021 based on our jointly planned timeline.
(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. no longer has any exposure to the nickel bet that rocked global metals markets earlier this year, after a drop in prices on the London Metal Exchange allowed the tycoon at the center of the squeeze to exit his positions with the bank.
JPMorgan emerged as a central player in the fallout from March’s nickel chaos because it was the largest counterparty to the massive short position held by Chinese entrepreneur Xiang Guangda’s Tsingshan Holding Group Co.
Tony LaMantia argues the case in favour of turning Canada into an EV mobility hub
The news that Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions are partnering on a Canadian electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility was transformative for the automotive industry in Canada.
It’s a CA$5bn (US$4.1bn) investment—the biggest single automotive investment in Canadian history. It will have an annual production capacity of 45 gigawatt hours and will create 2,500 jobs. It’s a pillar for the foundation of Canada’s EV ecosystem, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The energy transition has been set by politicians as the only way forward for human civilization. Not every country on the planet is on board with it, but those that are have the loudest voices. And even amid the fossil fuel crunch that is beginning to cripple economies, the transition remains a goal.
It is no secret that the transition—at the scale its architects and most fervent proponents envisage it—would require massive amounts of metals and minerals. What does not get talked about so much is that most of these metals and minerals are already in short supply. And this is only the start of the transition problems.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Imperial Oil Ltd. has joined a pilot project to extract lithium in Alberta, lending its energy expertise in the quest to recover the critical mineral from a once-prolific oil formation.
Calgary-based Imperial said on Thursday that it is investing $6.35-million to acquire warrants in E3 Lithium Ltd., giving it a window into plans to pump what the companies hope will be lithium-rich brine from the aquifer under the sprawling Leduc formation.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Avalon Advanced Materials making purchase offer on city property to start refinery construction by 2023
The developer of a much-anticipated lithium processing plant in Thunder Bay said he’s narrowed down his city-wide search to one property that fits the bill. But Don Bubar, president and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials, isn’t disclosing the specific site just yet as his company is in the process of making a purchase offer to the property owner.
Bubar delivered an update on Avalon’s Separation Rapids Project in northwestern Ontario and its refinery plans for Thunder Bay with an online presentation at the Emerging Growth Conference last week. “It’s all coming together pretty nicely,” said Bubar.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Wyloo Metals made a big splash last year with its battle against Australian behemoth BHP for control of Ring of Fire junior Noront Resources. The private, Western Australia-based company, owned by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang investment group, outlined its vision for Noront’s high-grade nickel-copper-PGM Eagle’s Nest project early on.
The miner plans to build a net-zero mine that would process the nickel in-province and create a ‘future metals hub’ while awarding $100 million worth of contracts to First Nations-owned businesses and establishing a training and employment centre for northern and Indigenous communities.
