Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 87

FORGET GAS PRICES. THE BILLIONAIRE CLUB’S RUN ON COBALT SAYS EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR BATTERY-POWERED FUTURE – by WILLEM MARX (Vanity Fair – April 21, 2022)

April 22, 2022

https://www.vanityfair.com/

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and other masters of the universe are betting big on Greenland as mining in the Congo gets too dirty for even Elon Musk.

As the bankers from J.P. Morgan’s London offices stepped off the two-hour private flight from Johannesburg onto the hot runway, soldiers sporting sunglasses and semiautomatics watched them closely. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s brutal civil war had ended several years earlier, but peace remained tenuous, and the Lubumbashi airstrip was still heavily militarized.

It was the summer of 2006, the height of a period that became known as the commodities “Super Cycle,” in which a hardy vanguard of investors sought to sate industrializing China’s seemingly endless appetite for raw materials, particularly metals. Relying on low-cost financing, dealmakers at Credit Suisse, First Boston, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley scoured the world for once state-owned mining assets in need of fresh funds or those primed for privatization.

Musk’s tweets fuel mining industry’s hopes of a buyout by Tesla – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – April 19, 2022)

April 20, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

Elon Musk’s recent musings that high lithium prices may force Tesla Inc to make its own supply of the electric vehicle battery metal have fueled hopes by some that the billionaire entrepreneur will instead opt for a buyout of an established mining company.

The auto giant already has supply contracts for nickel, lithium and a range of other EV metals from suppliers across the globe. But it needs more, and industry analysts say Tesla may soon realize that building a mine or processing facility from scratch is not as easy as it sounds and the automaker should instead consider a buyout.

Australia Should Be a Green Mining Superpower: Expert – by Victoria Kelly-Clark The Epoch Times – April 19, 2022)

April 19, 2022

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Australia needs to start focusing on utilising its abundant natural advantages to take advantage of the global financial push for green energy, an expert has said. Director of Climate Energy Finance (CEF) Tim Buckley told The Epoch Times he believes that Australia has the potential to become a world leader in the green revolution that is now he says, inevitable.

However, the country is lagging behind. “Australia should be a renewable energy superpower,” Buckley said. “We should be a renewable mining industry superpower.”

How mining for clean energy could undermine Biden’s EJ goals – by Jael Holzman and Scott Waldman (E&E News – April 19, 2022)

April 19, 2022

Homepage

The Biden administration has said it is activating all the levers of government to advance environmental justice for people of color. However, one of President Joe Biden’s own policies for climate action might challenge his commitment to racial equity.

Earlier this month, Biden invoked a wartime law to free up federal funds for domestic mining activities for five metals sought by manufacturers of zero-carbon energy products: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and manganese. It was a move that, if successful, could help open mines across the country to support the production of electric vehicles and other technologies that are needed to reduce the country’s use of fossil fuels.

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

April 19, 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.

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

April 19, 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.

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

April 19, 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.

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

April 19, 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.

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

April 19, 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.

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

April 11, 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).

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

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.

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

April 8, 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.

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

April 8, 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.

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

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.

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

April 8, 2022April 8, 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.