The Elements of Innovation Discovered

Articles from the December 6, 2023 edition


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  • An instrument held up to pink and beige bands of underground mineralization.

    US Critical Materials separation tech

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Feb 16, 2024

    USCM is working with INL scientists to develop cutting- edge tech for the separation of rare earths and other critical minerals. Expanding into a critical segment of America's rare earths supply chain, US Critical Materials Corp. is working with Idaho National Laboratory to develop new technologies to separate this suite of notoriously tightly interlocked technology elements. While the United States has no shortage of potential domestic rare earth supplies, and even has one...

  • Lithium-ion batteries with Neocarbonix branding on the label.

    Nanoramic collab with RecycLiCo a success

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 16, 2023

    Following a recent strategic collaboration at the beginning of August, RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. and Nanoramic Laboratories announced the results of their testing, demonstrating both companies' technologies can be used to support the goal of optimizing the complete life cycle of lithium-ion batteries. With Nanoramic contributing its Neocarbonix lithium-ion battery electrodes and RecycLiCo providing its proprietary lithium-ion battery recycling process, the...

  • A teaspoon-sized 100-milligram sample from asteroid Bennu.

    Bennu sample begins new exploration era

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 15, 2023

    After seven years and nearly 4 billion miles, mission returns with sample of asteroid that may offer secrets of the universe. After seven years hurtling through the solar system, NASA's OSIRIS-REx space mission ended in a resounding success as its precious cargo tore through Earth's atmosphere to touch down in the Utah desert. Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the initially $800 million Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIR...

  • Mud pots from geothermal waters bubbling to the surface on the Salton Sea shore.

    Plenty of Salton Sea lithium for US EVs

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 15, 2023

    The Salton Sea geothermal reservoir in Southern California could produce up to 3.4 million metric tons of lithium, which is plenty to make batteries for enough electric vehicles to replace all cars currently on U.S. highways, according to a comprehensive analysis carried out by the U.S. Department of Energy. The analysis, funded by the Geothermal Technologies Office and conducted by DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, confirms the region's significant potential to...

  • Rendering of an eVinci installed at an industrial site during the winter.

    Canada's first eVinci microreactor coming

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 13, 2023

    Saskatchewan is investing C$80M to build a 5 MW "eVinci battery" demo in province. Saskatchewan is investing C$80 million to become the home to Canada's first eVinci, a microreactor the province considers to be ideally suited for delivering zero-carbon electricity to communities, mines, and other off-grid industries. Designed and built by Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, eVinci is essentially a 5-megawatt battery that can deliver electricity and heat for around eight years...

  • Satellite photo showing the lights around US population centers at night.

    Reviving North Carolina's lithium trade

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 13, 2023

    The world's leading lithium producer, Albemarle, is working to revive the Kings Mountain mine in North Carolina, which has been dormant since the 1980s and historically contains one of the nation's largest lithium deposits. Kings Mountain boasts one of the few known hard rock lithium deposits in the United States, and a miner there is expected to produce enough of the namesake metal in lithium-ion batteries to support the manufacturing of approximately 1.2 million electric...

  • Stacks of servers in a dark-lit, blue-colored data center.

    GNoME AI unleashes millennia of materials

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 13, 2023

    In an earth-shattering revelation, researchers at Google DeepMind announced a materials science breakthrough that gives mankind an unprecedented number of new pieces to the puzzle that is the universe we live in and unlocks a transformative course for all of technology as we know it. Utilizing artificial intelligence, the DeepMind team employed a new tool that uses deep learning to dramatically speed up the process of discovering new materials. Called Graphical Networks for... Full story

  • President Joe Biden at a GM auto factory in Michigan.

    DOE redefines foreign entity of concern

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 1, 2023

    Reinterpretation of FEOC widens pool of potential critical mineral sources eligible for federal tax credits, funds. The Biden administration needs help understanding the meaning of "foreign entity of concern" (FEOC) as this term relates to investing billions of taxpayer dollars into bolstering the supply chains for materials critical to electric vehicles and renewable energy. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act allotted billions of dollars for... Full story