The Elements of Innovation Discovered

Articles from the September 28, 2022 edition


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  • View across South Saskatchewan River; the Saskatoon city skyline at night.

    A rare earth supply chain master link

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 16, 2023

    Summit spotlights Saskatoon as an emerging rare earths hub in North America Saskatoon, a small city in the heart of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, is emerging as the master link in a North American rare earth supply chain with connections in Canada, Australia, Europe, and the United States. This city of just over 300,000 people on the Canadian Prairies is not gaining notoriety as a major North American rare earth hub due to rich deposits of this suite of 15 enigmatic... Full story

  • Handshake with images of wind turbines and charging electric vehicle.

    NioCorp cuts critical metals finance deal

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 16, 2023

    Proposed merger with GXII would provide Nasdaq listing, access to cash for Elk Creek. To fund the development of a mine at its Elk Creek project in Nebraska that produces niobium, rare earths, and other metals critical to American industry, NioCorp Developments Ltd. is merging with GX Acquisition Corp. II, a blank check corporation with nearly US$300 million in the bank and a Nasdaq stock exchange listing that will make access to additional capital possible. In fact, NioCorp... Full story

  • Aerial view of Electra’s hydrometallurgical cobalt refinery in Quebec, Canada.

    LG inks two Ontario battery metal deals

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Mar 14, 2023

    When Ontario unveiled its critical minerals strategy earlier this year, the idea was to leverage the rich mineral endowment in the northern reaches of the province and the established manufacturing in the south to attract investment from some of the biggest names along the electric vehicle supply chain. With LG Energy Solution, one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery companies, inking two deals to source battery-grade cobalt and lithium from the province, it seems that...

  • Technician tests the chemicals inside Lithion Recycling's demonstration plant.

    GM adds new link to domestic supply chain

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 27, 2022

    Playing the long game, General Motors Co. announced a strategic investment with Quebec-based Lithion Recycling Inc. to support the automaker's pursuit of an eventual circular battery ecosystem using Lithion's advanced battery recycling technology. Touting a battery recovery rate of over 95% and utilizing the clean and green infrastructure already established in Quebec, Lithion's operations will supply GM with recycled materials that have little environmental impact – s...

  • Fleet Space Centauri satellite used for mineral exploration in low-Earth orbit.

    Discovering US nickel with space tech

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 27, 2022

    To speed the discovery of nickel needed in enormous quantities for the lithium-ion batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution, Talon Metals Corp. is piloting Fleet Space Technologies' ExoSphere satellite-enabled geophysics system. Fleet's ExoSphere system utilizes a combination of lightweight earthbound geophones, edge computing, and a constellation of low-earth-orbit nanosatellites to quickly and efficiently scan the Earth for potential mineral deposits buried...

  • A laboratory-scale device using laminar co-flow to isolate pure magnesium salt.

    Magnesium battle between EVs and cattle

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 27, 2022

    Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Washington have dicovered a simple way to extract what could be considered one of the most critical minerals to the United States and European Union, magnesium. Since ancient times, Mankind has extracted salts from the ocean. While table salt is the easiest to obtain, seawater is a rich source of different minerals, and scientists have long been exploring the possibility of isolating specific...

  • A view from inside the cab of an autonomous Cat mining truck.

    Self-driving Cat trucks speed past milestone

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 27, 2022

    Autonomous Cat mining trucks surpass 5 billion metric ton mark Accelerating at an accelerating rate, Caterpillar Inc.'s mighty mining trucks have now autonomously hauled 5 billion metric tons of material at mines around the globe. This self-driving milestone comes just nine months after the "Yellow Iron" manufacturer reported that its trucks equipped with Cat MineStar Command for hauling surpassed the 4-billion-metric-ton mark. Currently, more than 550 mining trucks are...