WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration celebrated Earth Day on Monday. They announced $7 billion in solar grants that could make the upfront cost of installing residential rooftop solar panels low-cost or free for low-income neighborhoods. The money will be distributed to 60 different nonprofit, state, city, and Tribal agencies.
Read more at: https://theblackwallsttimes.com/author/britny-cordera/
India is in talks with several countries seeking partnerships for technical help on lithium processing, said four sources familiar with the matter, to bolster its nascent lithium mining and electric vehicle industries and avoid relying on China.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-seeks-overseas-help-lithium-processing-avoid-relying-china-2024-04-25/
TMC the metals company Inc. announced on April 23 that the world’s first nickel sulphate derived exclusively from seafloor polymetallic nodules has been recovered. The sulphate was generated during bench-scale testing of a hydrometallurgical flowsheet in partnership with SGS Canada.
Undertaken on samples of nickel-cobalt-copper matte produced by TMC in 2021, the extractive metallurgy team at SGS tested TMC’s flowsheet that processes high-grade nickel matte directly to nickel sulphate without making nickel metal. The process produces fertilizer by-products instead of solid waste or tailings.
NEW DELHI: India has reached out to key critical mineral producers to bring in processing technology into the country, officials said. The move comes close on the back of the government rolling out auctions of critical mineral mines.
“Talks are on with the United States (US), Australia, and United Kingdom (UK), South Korea, and Japan for processing technology. Brazil and Argentina are also positive about collaborating with India,” a senior mines ministry official told ET.
According to another official aware of the plan, agreements with countries are being lined up and will soon be signed.
While India is going ahead with auction of mines holding critical minerals, there are no facilities for their beneficiation.
“We want to target India’s first critical mineral beneficiation and processing plant in the next 3-5 years,” the official quoted above said. “We want to ensure that development of critical mineral processing and extraction happen in parallel.”
India is taking another step in its quest to find valuable minerals hidden in the depths of the ocean which could hold the key to a cleaner future.
The country, which already has two deep-sea exploration licences in the Indian Ocean, has applied for two more amid increasing competition between major global powers to secure critical minerals.
Countries including China, Russia and India are vying to reach the huge deposits of mineral resources – cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese – that lie thousands of metres below the surface of oceans. These are used to produce renewable energy such as solar and wind power, electric vehicles and battery technology needed to battle against climate change.
The UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 31 exploration licences so far, of which 30 are active. Its member countries are meeting in Jamaica this week to discuss regulations around giving out mining licences.
Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68613351
Canada, citing the need to shun Russian energy, on Monday signed an agreement with Germany that it said would accelerate work towards the commercial-scale trade of clean hydrogen fuel.
The two nations inked a memorandum of understanding that commits them to backing transactions between Canadian
hydrogen producers and Germany’s industrial manufacturing and energy distribution sectors.
“Canada is working with European allies to displace imports of Russian oil and gas and fight climate change with clean Canadian hydrogen. Canada can be a world-leading producer and exporter of clean hydrogen,” the federal natural resources ministry said in a statement.
Nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia (INCO.JK), opens new tab is exploring a potential investment in a high-pressure acid leaching plant in Sulawesi island, with an estimated cost of 30 trillion rupiah ($1.91 billion), its investment ministry said on Monday.
The plant, named “SOA HPAL”, will be the company’s third such project to turn nickel ore into mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) – a material used to make electric vehicle batteries, according to presentation material shown by Indonesia’s Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/indonesia-says-nickel-miner-vale-build-another-2-bln-hpal-plant-2024-03-18/
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is providing a shot of energy into America’s flagging electric-vehicle industry.
The Biden administration is offering a $2.26 billion loan to help Lithium Americas Corp. develop a Nevada lithium deposit that’s the country’s largest.
The conditional loan from the US Department of Energy will provide the vast majority of the capital needed to fund the first phase of development, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement Thursday.
Read more at: https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ev-lithium-mine-nevada-10f84b74
America had no nickel-cobalt refineries of its own.
The promise of the largesse doled out by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Joe Biden’s signature bill to catalyse America’s clean-energy transition. Subsidies for electric cars attracted $110bn in investments in green manufacturing and battery-making within a year of the IRA’s passage in 2022. But as firms boosted production it became clear that China’s grip on the world’s mineral mines and refineries could prove perilous for its political foes. If China decides not to export refined metals tomorrow, as it has threatened to do, dozens of brand-new American gigafactories could soon sit idle.
Even with subsidies, mining and refining in America are not for the faint of heart. Regulations can make both activities uncompetitive. But the maths flipped in refiners’ favour in December 2023 when the tax agencies charged with implementing the IRA made it more protectionist. Their new rules clarified that companies selling electric cars made with materials processed by firms with at least 25% Chinese ownership are ineligible for subsidies. For makers of batteries and cars this was bad news—their inputs got pricier overnight.
Read more at: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/02/29/a-millennial-is-building-americas-first-nickel-cobalt-refinery
Australia’s richest person, Andrew Forrest, has called on the London Metal Exchange to differentiate between “dirty” and “clean” nickel, after his privately-held metals business announced it would be forced to shut mines.
The LME should classify nickel based on its carbon emissions so customers are “able to make a choice” on the sustainability of their products, the mining tycoon told reporters in Canberra on Monday. Some companies are using batteries from cheap nickel mined in Indonesia, known for their higher emissions footprint and questionable environmental standards, Forrest added.
Read more at: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/billionaire-forrest-calls-on-lme-to-identify-clean-nickel-1.2039116
Australia classified nickel as a “critical mineral” on Friday, opening the way for the crisis-hit industry to access billions of dollars in cheap government loans, as its prime minister prepared wider policy support for the green energy industry.
Australia wants to build a battery chemicals industry to reap more value from its mineral wealth, but the nickel sector is facing thousands of job cuts after a jump in Indonesian supply saw prices plunge 40% in a year.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/australia-lists-nickel-critical-mineral-unlock-billions-support-2024-02-16/
Mining firm Canada Nickel Co. Inc. plans to develop a nickel processing plant in Ontario that would cost US$1 billion and be North America’s largest once completed.
The plans aim to fill a gap in North America’s electric vehicle supply chain, which broadly lacks the infrastructure to process and refine key materials like nickel, copper and lithium. The vast majority of metals that are extracted from mines in the region are shipped to China for processing, before returning to North America for domestic auto manufacturers.
Read more at: https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/canada-nickel-plans-1-billion-ev-nickel-plant-ontario
The US Department of Defense plans to develop a program to estimate prices and predict supplies of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals, a move aimed at boosting market transparency but one that throws a new, uncertain variable into global metals markets.
The program, which received little attention after it was announced on a Pentagon website in October, is part of Washington’s broader efforts to jumpstart US production of critical minerals used in weapons manufacturing and the energy transition.
US output lags market leader China partly because attempts to build new American mines can be heavily influenced by commodity price swings.
The Pentagon’s work is being run by its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) division, which was formed in response to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite and helped develop the Internet and the mRNA vaccine for Covid-19.
DARPA and the US Geological Survey plan to hire one or more private contractors to develop an artificial intelligence-backed model that would construct a metal’s “structural price” based on where and when it is produced, as well as labor, supply and other costs, according to documents seen by Reuters that describe the program, including a slide deck that DARPA presented last November to prospective contractors.
In an effort to counter China’s dominance over critical minerals, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced legislation to address “information gaps” and establish a divestment process for American companies.
The Critical Minerals Security Act of 2024 would require federal agencies to submit to Congress a report on all critical mineral and rare earth element resources around the world. The report would be due within a year of the bill’s enactment and every two years thereafter.
The assessment must include which resources are under the control of a “foreign entity of concern” – China, Iran, North Korea or Russia – and which are under the control of the United States or its allies and partners.
While the US dollar reigns supreme in global finance, especially in commodities markets, China sees an opening to elevate the yuan: the shift to renewable energy.
That’s according to Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a China scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, who pointed to developments in key resources that are critical for green technologies like EV batteries and wind turbines.
“These policymakers and scholars see the ongoing energy transition as an opportunity for the nation to raise the global standing of the renminbi in commodities markets; to them, there’s no guarantee that the US dollar’s dominance in our current fossil fuel-powered global economy will persist in a decarbonized world,” Liu.
Read more at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-sees-transition-green-energy-213001879.html
Canada on Thursday formally gave the giant Arctic territory of Nunavut control over its reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, cobalt and rare earth metals, a move that could boost exploration and development.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a devolution agreement in the Nunavut capital Iqaluit with Premier P.J. Akeeagok, granting the territory the right to collect royalties that would otherwise go to the federal government.
Nunavut is home to some of the minerals critical for battery production. Canada has pledged billions in incentives to woo companies involved in all levels of the electric vehicle supply chain as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/web/canada-to-give-mineral-rich-arctic-region-of-nunavut-control-over-its-resources/
Vale Base Metals chairman Mark Cutifani is undertaking a unit-wide asset review that will likely find more potential at the company’s operations in Sudbury, Ontario; Thompson, Manitoba; and Voisey’s Bay and Long Harbour, Newfoundland; Olson said.
Vale also may have an announcement soon on the Bécancour nickel sulphide processing project it’s advancing to supply 25,000 tonnes of nickel a year to General Motors, she said. That deal, announced just over one year ago could be worth about C$762 million per year.
“There’s just a clarity and a certainty in regulation and Canada is a mining country and with that comes a lower risk, and equally you have the wonderful benefit of renewable and clean power,” Olson said. “Canada has a great opportunity to further establish itself as a leader in our industry with community and Indigenous rights leaders.”
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/future-minerals-forum-vales-us10b-for-canada-targets-existing-potential/
Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law on Jan. 3, US President Joe Biden has directed the House Armed Services Committee to submit a report on the domestic processing of seafloor polymetallic nodules.
The Pentagon will deliver a report assessing deep-sea mining by March 1.
Last month, 31 members of Congress wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense and the Pentagon urging the Department of Defense to “explore every avenue to strengthen our rare earth and critical mineral supply chains”, emphasizing “the importance of evaluating and planning for seabed mining as a new vector of competition…”
In November 2023, a bipartisan coalition led by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reintroduced a resolution urging the US Senate to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They argued that sitting out risks letting the rest of the world dictate maritime agendas, from seabed mining to critical subsea infrastructure.
Read more: https://www.mining.com/pentagon-to-deliver-report-on-domestic-seafloor-mining-by-march/
China, the world’s top processor of rare earths, on Thursday banned the export of technology to extract and separate the strategic metals, in a further step towards protecting its dominance in several strategic metals.
The commerce ministry sought public opinion last December on the potential move to add the technology to its “Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export”.
It also banned the export of production technology for rare earth metals and alloy materials as well as technology to prepare some rare earth magnets.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-bans-export-rare-earths-processing-technologies-2023-12-21/
Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo are to decide the fate of a nation that could drive the global energy transition and help shape the fight against climate change.
Congo will soon be the world’s second-biggest copper producer and accounts for about 70% of cobalt production, two metals key to the electric vehicle and renewable-energy industries. There are rich seams of gold, and largely untouched oil and gas.
It’s also home to about two-thirds of the second-biggest tropical rainforest, which sucks in hundreds of million of tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide every year.
Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-12-19/cobalt-rich-congo-votes-with-crucial-role-in-climate-change
The European Union has set targets to dig up, recycle and refine lithium, cobalt and other metals it needs for its green transition, but a shortage of new money, crippling energy costs and local opposition could put them beyond reach.
The bloc will likely need to find ways to trim demand, find substitute materials and forge partnerships that break China’s stranglehold on mineral supplies.
The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), due to enter force in early 2024, says the bloc should mine 10%, recycle 25% and process 40% of its annual needs of 17 key raw materials by 2030.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/eu-sets-critical-mineral-goals-faces-struggle-hit-them-2023-12-18/
China is the most likely candidate to first meet its entire demand for the three most important raw materials for batteries – lithium, cobalt and nickel – through recycling, new research has found.
According to a study by a team at the University of Münster, the race to achieve a complete circular economy for key battery metals will see Europe arriving in second and the US in third place.
In detail, the results show that China is expected to be able to employ recycling to meet its own demand for primary lithium for electric vehicles from 2059 onwards; in Europe and the US, this will not happen until after 2070.
When it comes to cobalt, recycling is expected to ensure that China will be able to meet its needs after 2045, at the earliest; in Europe, this will happen in 2052 and in the US not until 2056.
Finally, for nickel, China can probably meet demand through recycling in 2046 at the earliest, with Europe following in 2058 and the US from 2064 onwards, according to the report.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/china-likely-to-beat-europe-us-in-meeting-battery-metals-demand-through-recycling-study/
Chinese firms producing and processing battery materials see new US rules aimed at limiting Beijing’s grip on the electric-vehicle industry as less stringent than feared, allowing them to preserve a key role in the global supply chain.
Washington’s move, which seeks to cut China out of US tax credits and curb the country’s control over joint ventures, created uncertainty at the end of last week, with questions swirling around the status of Chinese-owned battery-material operations outside the mainland, and over the impact on the wider car and battery industry.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/web/china-metals-firms-see-us-rules-unlikely-to-upend-supply-chains/
Norway has secured a parliamentary majority to go ahead with plans to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration, despite environmental groups and the fishing industry’s warnings that the move would risk the biodiversity of vulnerable ecosystems.
The country’s minority centre-left government and two large opposition parties backed on Tuesday a government’s proposal announced in June to position the country as a frontrunner in commercial-scale deep-sea mining.
The move by the European country, where vast oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest nations, has as goal to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/norway-lawmakers-back-deep-sea-mining-in-arctic-ocean/
Congo’s state mining group Gecamines said it will push to secure the rights to buy copper and cobalt at mines it has holdings in, as it attempts to build its own stocks and trade the metals.
To do so, Gecamines needs to amend some terms of its joint venture agreements in Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the world’s top supplier of battery-grade cobalt and the third largest copper producer after Peru and Chile.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/congos-gecamines-push-copper-cobalt-trading-share-2023-12-01/
The Department of Defense announced today a $3.2 million agreement with South Star Battery Metals Corporation (South Star) to support domestic production of Coated, Spheronized, Purified Graphite (CSPG) at their BamaStar Graphite Project (BGP) in Coosa County, Alabama.
“This is another example of the critical importance of the Defense Production Act investment authorities,” said Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, ASD(IBP). “As one of our first awards to a Canadian company in the battery materials sector, this award exemplifies our combined commitment to strengthening our battery material supply chains and global approach to industrial base resilience.”
The agreement with South Star, entered into under Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III authorities and utilizing funds appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act, will enable the company to perform a bankable feasibility study. The study will cover the entire process from mining to final production of CSPG, exploring both economic and environmental, social, and governance criteria. Upon successful completion of the bankable feasibility study, South Star plans to construct a downstream battery-grade processing facility in the southeast United States that would take concentrates from the BamaStar mine site and transform it into CSPG. This will be used as feedstock for domestic lithium-ion battery anode production, contributing to a more complete U.S.-based graphite anode supply chain.
Read more at: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3600429/dod-enters-agreement-to-expand-domestic-graphite-supply-chain/
Indonesia plans to introduce nickel tracing and push local producers to reach global mining standards to help the country move closer to securing a critical minerals deal with the US.
Each ton of nickel ore sales will be tracked using the SIMBARA portal starting next quarter, Septian Hario Seto, a deputy at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said in an interview. Top producers will also be encouraged to get certifications from global entities like The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, he added.
International certification will ensure the companies’ environmental, social and governance practices are recognized, said Seto, who oversees investment coordination and mining at the ministry. “It is for our own interest, regardless of the deal with the US,” he added.
Indonesia is seeking a critical minerals agreement with the US to help realize President Joko Widodo’s goal of building an entire electric-vehicle supply chain onshore by taking advantage of the country’s nickel riches. Jokowi, as the leader is known, met with US President Joe Biden earlier this week and agreed to continue efforts to potentially reach such a deal.
Read more at: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/indonesia-to-trace-nickel-in-bid-for-us-critical-minerals-deal-1.1999819
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – The United States and Indonesia on Monday will discuss how to advance a potential minerals partnership aimed a stimulating trade of the electric vehicle (EV) battery metal nickel, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Next steps that could move the countries toward formal negotiations on the partnership will be discussed when Indonesian President Joko Widodo visits the White House for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday, according to one of the people.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-indonesia-discuss-potential-deal-ev-minerals-sources-2023-11-12/
JAKARTA, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Mining company Vale will sell a 14% stake in its Indonesian nickel miner Vale Indonesia to bring the holding by overseas firms below the maximum limit, Indonesia’s mining minister said on Friday.
Share divestment is a condition Indonesia requires to extend the operation permit for Vale Indonesia. Vale’s current contract is due to end in 2025.
Under Indonesian rules, foreign investors are required to divest 51% of their stake to local buyers after a certain period of operation.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/vale-will-divest-14-stake-vale-indonesia-minister-2023-11-10/
Supply shortages caused by Indonesia’s crackdown on illegal nickel mining have forced the country to import large quantities of ore from the Philippines to keep smelters operating. Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel producer, has in recent months pursued a corruption investigation across the government that has led to delays in the issuance of quotas for nickel mining.
More than 53,000 tonnes of nickel ore and concentrates were shipped in May and June from the Philippines to Indonesia’s Morowali region, where Tsingshan, the world’s largest stainless steel producer, runs a large nickel smelting complex, official Indonesian customs data shows.
Read more at: https://www.ft.com/content/557478a8-0ec5-4495-9102-fb8781ba7451
The Australian government will double the amount of money on offer to support critical minerals projects, aiming to attract American miners and processing companies to establish operations in Australia.
The A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) boost will increase the capacity of Australia’s Critical Minerals Facility to finance mining and processing projects for materials.
Part of the appeal for Australia of expanding its critical minerals footprint is to plug an anticipated fiscal shortfall amid waning demand for fossil fuel exports in a decarbonizing world. Australia’s lithium shipments were worth A$20 billion ($12 billion) in the 12 months through June, with government forecasts showing the sector’s earnings could rival that of thermal coal exports by 2028.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/australia-doubles-critical-minerals-fund-to-attract-investors/
China is upping the critical minerals stakes by curbing exports of graphite, a key raw material in electric vehicle batteries.
The West can’t say it wasn’t warned.
When China announced restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium in July, former Vice Commerce Minister Wei Jianguo was quoted in the China Daily as saying it was “just the start” if the West continued to target China’s high-technology sector.
Restricting the flow of two metals used in the manufacture of silicon chips was “a well-thought-out heavy punch” in reaction to the US Chips Act, Wei said.
The Biden administration has since tightened restrictions on the flow of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, announcing on Friday a new raft of measures aimed at closing previous loopholes.
China is responding in kind, this time taking aim at the West’s electric vehicle (EV) ambitions.
Read more at: https://www.mining.com/web/column-china-ups-critical-minerals-heat-with-graphite-controls/
Tesla’s decision to set up its electric-vehicle facilities in neighbouring Malaysia was a blow to Indonesia’s efforts to lure investments for building an end-to-end EV supply chain ecosystem.
Indonesia’s nickel “downstreaming” policies aim to use the country’s vast nickel reserves and ore production to add value to the EV industry by processing raw ore into higher-grade nickel intermediates. These higher-grade nickel intermediates are essential components used in the production of stainless steel and nickel cobalt manganese-based (NCM) EV batteries.
In terms of attracting investment, Indonesia’s nickel downstreaming policies have produced results. In 2020, the Indonesian government banned the export of raw nickel ore to attract investment, largely in nickel smelters. A year later, the country received downstream investments and commitments from Chinese companies totalling some US$30 billion. As of July 2023, there were already 43 nickel smelters operating, 28 under construction and 24 in the planning stage.
There’s been no shortage of metals industry turmoil in the early years of the electric-car age, from ups in lithium prices that Elon Musk described as insane, to downs for cobalt springing from battery-chemistry shifts.
One of the world leaders in battery materials that will be supplying the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Stellantis sees potential for more tumult ahead, unless a serious CO2 problem is resolved in the country home to far and away the most mined and refined nickel.
Indonesia’s nickel industry is highly carbon-intensive, with one of its major industrial parks alone relying on roughly as much coal-fire energy capacity as all of Mexico. Mathias Miedreich, chief executive officer of Belgium’s Umicore, believes Chinese companies that are active in the space still lack sensitivity as to how much polluting is taking place within this part of the supply chain.
Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel Company, joins BNN Bloomberg to updates on his plan to build a sizeable nickel mine in Ontario. He says the nature of the rock means the mine can act as a carbon sink while strategic-mineral tax subsidies will boost the economics of the project.
If Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford Mine Project becomes a reality by 2027, Timmins will have the second largest nickel mine in the world.
“Crawford is the world’s largest sulphide discovery in many, many decades,” said Selby, in an Oct. 12 conference call with mining analysts.
“We are unlocking, what we think is, a world-class, potentially the largest nickel sulphide district, globally.
With an average grade of 0.22 per cent nickel, Crawford will be a low-grade, big tonnage open-pit operation that will ramp up production in three phases and physically expand twice over four decades.
The company is a third of the way through the regulatory permitting process and a financing plan to be put in place for the US$1.7-billion project.
Selby said they are less than 21 months away from making a final construction decision.
Read more at: https://www.timminstoday.com/local-news/canada-nickel-aims-to-build-worlds-second-largest-nickel-mine-in-timmins-7675840
Qatar Chamber hosted the Qatar-Burundi Business Forum recently to explore ways to enhance commercial and economic co-operation between the private sectors of both countries.
Qatar Chamber first vice-chairman Mr. Al-Kuwari said Qatari businessmen are keen to explore Burundi’s investment climate and opportunities. He said Burundi is rich in natural resources, such as nickel, uranium, copper, gold, and platinum, among others. Additionally, the country offers arable land.
The North American lithium industry is likely about to get a $1 billion injection. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is currently in talks with Canadian mining company Lithium Americas over a massive round of funding for its Nevada project. If the deal – the terms of which are currently being finalized – is inked, it would fund over half and as much as 75% of construction costs for the massive Thacker Pass project, thereby kickstarting the United States’ lithium era in earnest.
Read more at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/doe-eyes-historic-1-billion-160000457.html
The latest buzzword in battery materials sounds like a concept borrowed from astrophysics.
But “black mass” is just a very literal description of the intermediate product from recycling either spent electric-vehicle batteries or scrap from battery plants. It’s a dark, powdery cocktail of metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel that’s emerging as a commodity in its own right.
There’s growing interest in battery recycling as the global electric-vehicle industry expands, and as carmakers and Western governments aim to build supply chains that bypass China.
Mentions of black mass in company earnings have grown — including recent instances from commodities trader Glencore and chemicals giant BASF. Three market researchers — Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Fastmarkets and S&P Global — have launched regular price assessments of the material since April.
Read more at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2023/08/29/tech/hyperdrive-ev-industry-black-mass/
Aug 15 (Reuters) – The mining industry faces “considerable challenges” meeting larger-than-expected demand for copper, nickel and other electric vehicle metals fueled by a U.S. climate law, S&P Global said in a report on Tuesday, ahead of the legislation’s one-year anniversary.
The landmark U.S. Inflation Reduction Act offers tax breaks for EVs, solar panels and other renewable energy products made from metals extracted in the United States or countries with U.S. free trade deals. Metals from “foreign entities of concern” including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran will be banned in 2025. That has sparked a race among manufacturers to lock down supply.
Demand forecasts for various EV metals have increased 12% to 15% since U.S. President Joe Biden signed the IRA last August, the report said.
“The energy transition is really heating up the pressures on mineral supplies, and the IRA is adding a lot to those challenges,” Dan Yergin, S&P Global’s vice chairman and a co-author of the report, said in an interview.
Analysts are saying the deal is part of a larger strategy by Vale Base Metals to grow the value of its nickel and copper holdings in anticipation of the growing demand for battery electric vehicles.
Vale has confirmed it is selling off part of its newly formed Vale Base Metals unit in two separate agreements; 10 per cent of the company going to Saudi Arabia’s Mining Co (Ma’aden) and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), and three per cent being sold to U.S. investment firm Engine No. 1. The entire deal is valued at $3.4 billion according to a report from Reuters.
Read more at: https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/vale-base-metals-confirms-partial-sell-off-to-saudis-and-the-us-7340328
It may not be too late for Washington. Reinvesting in Congo should be a bipartisan no-brainer. It insulates American supply chains on critical components.
Congolese, like many Africans, are frustrated with China. When Beijing invests, it brings its own labor, builds exclusionary compounds that deny trickle-down benefit to the local market, and ships the profits back to China.
Read more at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/if-the-us-is-serious-about-countering-china-why-does-it-ignore-africa/ar-AA1egwhC
The parent company of Tata Steel UK told Fastmarkets that it will produce nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries at the site in Somerset in southwest England.
The gigafactory will provide UK-produced batteries for its Jaguar Land Rover subsidiary in Birmingham, central England, and for other vehicle manufacturers in the UK and across Europe, Fastmarkets understands.
The company said that production is expected to start in 2026 and the gigafactory will maximize its use of renewable energy.
Read more at: https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/uk-gigafactory-produce-cobalt-lithium-based-batteries
In southeastern Norway lies Europe’s biggest plant for recycling used or defective electric car batteries, turning them into a powder, or “black mass”, made up of nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium and graphite.
These so-called critical minerals — essential components in many clean energy technologies — will be reused to make new batteries, key cogs in the transition to a decarbonised economy.
“The higher the quality of the components, the easier it is to use them for recycling,” said Gronvold, a laboratory technician at Hydrovolt, a joint venture between Norwegian aluminium giant Norsk Hydro and Swedish electric battery maker Northvolt.
The Hydrovolt plant opened last year in the port city of Fredrikstad.
Within the next few months, the site is expected to be able to process 12,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery packs per year, the equivalent of 25,000 electric car batteries.
Read more at: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/norways-quest-black-gold-used-055407493.html
Bolivia has signed lithium agreements with Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom and China’s Citic Guoan Group, the South American country’s government has said, as it looks to develop its huge but largely untapped resources of the battery metal.
The deals, which were announced on Thursday, envisaged a total investment of $1.4bn and followed a similar agreement in January with giant Chinese battery maker CATL, another potential win for Beijing in its efforts to lock in a supply of the metal used in electric vehicles.
Read more at: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/6/29/bolivia-taps-china-russia-in-bid-to-unlock-huge-lithium-riches
Exxon Mobil has agreed to develop more than 6,100 lithium-rich acres in Arkansas with Tetra Technologies Inc, the second move this year by the oil giant for control of assets needed to produce the electric vehicle battery metal.
Exxon’s rapid expansion into the lithium sector comes amid growing interest by traditional energy companies and others into emerging technologies that aim to boost global supply of the ultralight metal.
Tetra, which produces chemicals for water treatment and recycling, earlier this week said it had signed an agreement with a company known as Saltwerx to develop 6,138 acres of salty brine deposits in Arkansas that are filled with lithium and bromine, although it provided few additional details.
Saltwerx is a subsidiary of Exxon, according to two people familiar with the matter. Exxon acquired it earlier this year when it bought a neighboring Arkansas parcel of 100,000 acres from Galvanic Energy. Galvanic remains an independent, privately held company and is not affiliated with Tetra or Exxon.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/exxon-mobil-expands-lithium-bet-with-tetra-technologies-deal-2023-06-28/
“LFP is less expensive than cobalt and nickel, and all the minerals can be obtained here in North America (which means) much lower transportation costs and a more secure supply chain,” said Stanley Whittingham, professor at Binghamton University in New York and a 2019 Nobel laureate for his work on lithium ion batteries.
The addition of manganese, a staple ingredient in rival nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) battery cells, has enabled lithium iron phosphate cells to hold more energy than previously, providing EVs with more range — up to 450 miles (724 km) on a single charge, Toyota said recently.
A Chinese consortium led by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. plans to spend $1.4 billion to build lithium extraction plants in Bolivia, according to the country’s government, adding to a global rush to secure supplies of the battery material.
The group will build two facilities to make lithium chemicals with a combined production capacity of about 200,000 tons a year, Bolivia’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy said on Sunday. The investment could eventually grow to $9.92 billion, according to the statement.
Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-20/china-s-catl-leads-1-4-billion-lithium-investment-in-bolivia#xj4y7vzkg
SANTIAGO, June 14 (Reuters) – Chile and the European Union will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) soon to develop value-added lithium projects in Chile, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters in a joint press conference with Chilean President Gabriel Boric, von der Leyen said the two parties reached an agreement to develop a strategic association to develop lithium and strengthen supply chains.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/eu-chile-sign-mou-value-added-lithium-projects-2023-06-14/
Norway’s government is readying plans to open an area of ocean nearly the size of Germany to deep-sea mining as it seeks to become the first country to extract battery metals from its sea floor. The country’s energy ministry is racing to submit to parliament in the next two weeks a proposal to open the vast area to applications for exploration and extraction.
The plan would then face a parliamentary vote in autumn. But Oslo faces a battle with fishing businesses and environmentalists over the proposals, and risks opening a dispute with other nations as it pushes to enable mining close to Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic. Norway argues it commands exclusive mining rights over a larger area of water there than Russia, the UK and the EU contend it does.
Read more at: https://www.ft.com/content/44855d32-82c2-4f4c-b77c-1c21d3c1279f
The U.S. and the Philippines are in discussions over ways to prevent China from dominating nickel processing in the Southeast Asian nation, a key supplier of the metal that’s crucial for electric vehicle batteries.
One measure under consideration is a trilateral arrangement through which the Philippines would supply raw nickel material, the U.S. would provide financing, and a third country such as Japan, South Korea or Australia would offer the technology required for smelting and refining, according to people familiar with the matter.
Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/us-philippines-eye-partnership-to-cut-china-s-nickel-dominance
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