Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 82

Albemarle says ‘not impossible’ to meet surging lithium demand – by Nick Lazzaro (S&P Global – February 17, 2022)

February 18, 2022

https://www.spglobal.com/

The lithium industry may be able to narrow the gap between tight supply and expanding market growth by 2030, even as demand forecasts continue to rise and analysts warn of a large deficit, Albemarle executives said Feb. 17.

“I think you’re seeing that we’re getting through some of those growing pains,” CEO Kent Masters said during a call with analysts. “It is a stretch, and it does require some new technology and operating in some places where historically the lithium industry hasn’t done that, but it’s not impossible.”

Kinshasa is already Africa’s biggest city – could cobalt make it the richest? – by Jason Mitchell (Mining Technology – February 15, 2022)

February 17, 2022

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

Kinshasa has had a turbulent past but has started to prosper as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s economy expands at more than 6% a year.

Kinshasa – the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Africa’s greatest megacity – is poised to benefit from the massive copper and cobalt boom under way in the country.

In terms of population, it is the continent’s largest city with 17.1 million people living in the greater area, only slightly smaller than the Netherlands (17.7 million). It is projected to become the world’s biggest city with a whopping 35 million inhabitants by 2050, 58 million by 2075 and 83 million by the start of the next century.

Cobalt Powerhouse Doubles Down on Nickel – by Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – February 16, 2022)

February 17, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Specialty metals refiner Umicore SA is enjoying record profits as battery materials boom, but the company is racing to avert a slowdown in sales as its cobalt-heavy chemicals fall out of favor with carmakers.

The Brussels-listed company, which has been refining cobalt for more than 100 years, says the burgeoning electric-vehicle industry is switching to high-nickel batteries far faster than expected. Now Umicore is racing to do the same.

Between a rock and a hard place: The energy transition is sparking America’s next mining boom (The Economist – February 19, 2022)

February 17, 2022

https://www.economist.com/

About 16m years ago, a supervolcano that straddled the borders of what is now Oregon and Nevada erupted, forming the McDermitt Caldera. The volcanic activity pushed lithium-rich rock up near the Earth’s surface, creating the largest known lithium deposit in the United States.

Today, the same terrain around the Montana Mountains is carpeted with sagebrush, and coyotes are heard more often than people. But that may soon change. Lithium Americas, a Canadian company, has plans to build a mine and processing plant at Thacker Pass, near the southern tip of the caldera in Nevada. It would be America’s biggest lithium mine.

Britishvolt secures $54 million from Glencore for UK gigafactory – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 15, 2022)

February 15, 2022

https://www.mining.com/

Electric vehicle (EV) battery start-up Britishvolt, which has the ambitious plan to build a recycling gigafactory in the UK, has secured a £40 million ($54 million) cornerstone investment from partner Glencore (LON: GLEN).

The miner and commodities trader’s backing is part of Britishvolt’s £200 million Series C fundraising led by Bank of America, which launched Tuesday, the company said.

The China lithium question: a clash of the West’s corporate and strategic interests (Yahoo Finance/South China Post – February 13, 2022)

February 15, 2022

https://finance.yahoo.com/

The deal went through swiftly – and almost immediately prompted calls for a national security review. Just three months after Chinese-state-owned Zijin Mining Group announced its US$960 million plans to buy Canadian miner Neo Lithium, the proposal was signed, screened and delivered.

At a corporate level, the deal made sense. Neo Lithium’s biggest mine operation is in Argentina, where Zijin already has interests and plans to build a lithium carbonate plant. Canadian officials also said carmakers in North America were unlikely to use lithium produced so far away.

Column: Lithium supply crunch Part II – this time it’s for real – by Andy Home (Reuters – January 15, 2022)

February 15, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The lithium supply crunch has arrived in full force. The price boom of 2016-2017, it’s now clear, was just the dry run. This is the real deal.

Back in November 2017 the spot price for battery-grade lithium carbonate in China peaked at 175,000 yuan per tonne. Fastmarkets currently assesses it at 400,000-430,000 yuan, up 47% on the start of the year and eight times higher than it was at the start of 2021.

Investors bet on tech revolution to disrupt global mining (Financial Times – February 10, 2022)

February 11, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

A group of investors is betting that the $1.6tn global mining industry is set to undergo the sort of digital disruption that upended the media, music and automotive industries.

T Rowe Price, Bond Capital and a dozen other investors have raised $192mn for a Bill Gates-backed start-up called Kobold Metals, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to find new deposits of critical metals needed for batteries and clean energy.

Lithium’s Feast-or-Famine Future Keeps EV Makers Guessing – by Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – February 8, 2022)

February 10, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium’s vital role in electric-vehicle batteries means automakers, miners and investors are racing to figure out how much supply the world will need in the coming years — and also how much it’s going to get. The problem is the predictions vary wildly.

The metal’s price has surged fivefold in the past year, reflecting mounting worries about availability. For years, batteries and EVs have become cheaper to make as the technology improved and production stepped up. But now there’s a risk that rising costs of raw materials — and lithium in particular — could hobble the transition just as momentum picks up.

The White House wants to transition to a green economy, which is tricky without mines – by Dan Kraker (NPR.org – February 8, 2022)

February 10, 2022

https://www.npr.org/

The Biden administration recently canceled a proposed mine. While environmentalists celebrated, it shows how hard it is to build a domestic supply of the minerals needed to switch to a green economy.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

The transition to a low-carbon future will require a lot of metals like copper, nickel and lithium to build everything from solar panels to electric car batteries. The Biden administration’s recent decision to block a proposed mine in Minnesota shows just how tough it could be to develop a domestic supply for those metals. Dan Kraker of Minnesota Public Radio reports.

Global graphite production up in 2021 as China cements its top producer status – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – February 8, 2022)

February 9, 2022

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in 2021, global production of natural graphite was estimated to have increased by 4% to 1,000,000 tonnes from 2020 production of 966,000 tonnes.

With 820,000 tonnes of natural graphite mined in 2021, China was the world’s leading graphite producer, producing an estimated 82% of total world output.

‘Gone ballistic’: lithium price rockets nearly 500% in a year amid electric vehicle rush – by Royce Kurmelovs (The Guardian – February 9, 2022)

February 9, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/

Lithium prices have “gone ballistic” as surging electric vehicles sales worldwide create massive demand for the critical component of lithium-ion batteries.

According to figures from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), the price of the lithium-rich raw material spodumene rose 478.3% between January 2021 and January 2022.

U.S. lawmaker calls Chinese takeover of Canadian lithium firm ‘very alarming’ – by Andy Blatchford (Politico.com – February 4, 2022)

February 7, 2022

https://www.politico.com/

A Florida congressman says he’s pressing the Biden administration on Canada’s decision to skip an extended national security review of a Chinese state-owned company’s takeover of a lithium mining firm.

“It was quite surprising to me to hear of this acquisition, given there’s a clear national security nexus and I would think there’s clear national security concerns,” Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) told POLITICO. “Not just any acquisition — but from a Chinese state-owned firm is, again, very surprising and very alarming.”

Mexico Declares Lithium Too Strategic for Private Investors – by James Attwood and Maya Averbuch (Bloomberg News – February 2, 2022)

February 7, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is ratcheting up nationalistic rhetoric around the country’s untapped lithium deposits, signaling private capital isn’t welcome in the industry.

Unlike other metals such as gold and silver, lithium is a strategic mineral like oil that belongs to the nation, AMLO, as the populist president is known, told reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday, announcing plans to create a state lithium company.

Mining Majors Are Treading Carefully As Battery Metals Boom – by Irina Slav (Oil Price.com/Yahoo Finance – February 5, 2022)

February 7, 2022

https://finance.yahoo.com/

A World Bank report recently forecasted that we would need more than 3 billion tons of metals and minerals to limit the rise in global temperatures by 2 degrees by 2050. That’s more than 3 billion tons in raw materials for solar, wind, and battery storage.

The World Bank is not the only one. The International Monetary Fund reported in December that the future demand for metals and minerals may well top the current global supply. The IMF also said that “The needed ramp-up in mining investment and operations could be challenging.”