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  • Lithium ion battery metals renewable energy storage wind photovoltaic solar

    New Battery Deal idea floated to Congress

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jun 8, 2023

    In addition to dealing a major blow to the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic has shined a spotlight on a chink in the United States' economic and security armor – an overreliance on foreign countries for the minerals and metals that lie at the frontend of American supply chains. "The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how delicate our supply chains are and that should be a wakeup call for all of us," Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Chair Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska,...

  • Sila Nanotechnologies Coatue Management LLC Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

    Silicon battery tech firm raises $590M

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

    Considered by market experts to be the largest single fundraising in the history of lithium-ion battery supply chains, Sila Nanotechnologies raised US$590 million during a financing that closed on Jan. 26. "Raising way over half a billion dollars is an incredible achievement but is exactly the level of investment innovators in the battery supply chain should be receiving," said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores. Aptly located in Silicon Valley,...

  • General Motors Tesla EVs Deborah Wahl Caspar Rawles battery metals lithium-ion

    Electric mobility metals inflection point

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

    January 8, 2021 may go down in history as the inflection point for the transition from the fossil fuel powered vehicles that transported humanity through the 20th century to the electric vehicles that will carry us into the future. This tipping point for global transportation offers a spectrum of challenges and opportunities to sustainably mine, refine, and recycle the minerals and metals needed to build this electric mobility future. Entering 2021, Tesla Inc. was celebrating...

  • Mercedez Benz Daimler AG Rio Tinto Jadar Serbia jadarite lithium-ion battery

    Rio Tinto commits $2.4B for lithium mine

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 12, 2022

    With the goal of producing 58,000 metric tons of the lithium carbonate needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy each year, global miner Rio Tinto has committed US$2.4 billion to the development of Jadar in Serbia, one of the world's largest greenfield lithium projects. "Serbia and Rio Tinto will be well-positioned to capture the opportunity offered by rising demand for lithium, driven by the global energy transition and the project will...

  • Schlumberger New Energy NeoLith lithium brine extraction low-carbon Nevada

    Schlumberger delves into lithium mining

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    Best known for delivering technological solutions to the oil and gas sectors for more than 100 years, Schlumberger has formed Schlumberger New Energy, a new division focused on low-carbon and carbon-neutral energy technologies. One of Schlumberger New Energy's first projects in the United States is the development of a pilot plant to extract lithium from brine in Nevada. Unlike the evaporation process traditionally used to extract lithium from brines in South America, the...

  • Wind solar renewable energy electric vehicle EV supply chains

    Biden tackles critical metal supply chains

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    The American clean energy revolution envisioned by the Biden administration is going to require a massive supply chain upgrade – from the mines feeding rare earths, battery metals and other materials into the front end, to the manufacturers that will utilize these mined materials to build the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure needed for a low-carbon future. In a move that demonstrates the newly elected administration's hopes that a transition to...

  • Volkswagen AG Group Components pilot plant Salzgitter Germany lithium-ion

    Volkswagen jumps into battery recycling

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    Though Volkswagen does not expect any appreciable quantities of spent lithium-ion batteries for at least another decade, the German automaker has already constructed its first plant to recover more than 90% of the raw materials from these cells. Operated by Volkswagen Group Components, an independent entity formed by Volkswagen in 2019, this pilot plant that recently opened in Salzgitter, Germany aims to recycle more than 90% of the battery raw materials such as lithium, nicke...

  • Lithium spodumene refinery to hydroxide for lithium-ion batteries

    Tesla secures Texas Terafactory lithium

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    Just a week after Tesla Battery Day 2020, where CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric automaker's massive lithium-ion battery ambitions, the iconic electric automaker has cut a deal to buy some of the lithium it will require for this plan from a mine in North Carolina and has begun moving ahead with a Texas refinery to transform the raw lithium concentrates into the form needed for its batteries. These two moves will shorten Tesla's North American mines-to-electric vehicle...

  • Lithium ion battery scrap cathode material recycling

    Lithium-ion recycling firm ups capacity

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    American Manganese Inc. Sept. 4 announced further improvements to the design and capacity of its RecycLiCo pilot plant, which recovers cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese, and aluminum from lithium-ion cathode material. In addition to the growing opportunity to recycle spent lithium-ion batteries, scrap from the rapidly increasing number of battery megafactories provides an immediate source of cathode material in need of recycling. According to recent forecasts by Benchmark...

  • Critical minerals independence day fireworks Washington DC Capitol

    Reclaiming critical mineral independence

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    Recycling metals from spent lithium-ion batteries and rare earths from outmoded computers play a vital role in the United States reclaiming its critical mineral independence, according to Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. "Until our country can start mining and refining more of these materials or develop commercially viable substitutes, we must recycle as much critical mineral and REE content as we can from existing products," Brouillette penned in an editorial recently...

  • First Cobalt refinery Ontario sulfate electric vehicles EV lithium ion batteries

    Critical step for Ontario cobalt refinery

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    First Cobalt Corp. has taken a critical step toward its goal of supplying North American and European electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturers with 25,000 metric tons of battery grade cobalt sulfate per year. With an initial investment of only US$56 million, First Cobalt's already established refinery in Ontario could be churning out enough cobalt for the batteries powering more than 500,000 EVs annually by 2022. "This is an important milestone in our efforts to...

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk Gigafactory lithium-ion battery cobalt mine deal

    Tesla heads to the mines for its batteries

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 1, 2022

    Tesla Inc. needs an increasing amount of lithium, graphite, nickel and cobalt for the lithium-ion batteries that power its growing lineup of electric vehicles. With its own rapid expansion, coupled with every major automotive brand in the world adding increasing numbers of EV models to their lineups, securing sustainable and ethical supplies of the lithium, cobalt, graphite, and nickel that go into the batteries that power these zero-emission automobiles has become crucial....

  • Lithium-ion batteries revolutionize energy

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 1, 2022

    The advent of the lithium-ion battery at the close of the 20th century has dramatically changed how we live, work and play. This revolutionary transformation, which began by allowing us to put our phones in our pockets and computers under our arms, has expanded to almost every facet of our life – from robot vacuums dutifully keeping our floors clean to zero-emission cars travelling our highways. While we might not think too much about it, when you add up all the laptops, tab...

  • General Motors low carbon renewable lithium EVs CTR

    CTR drills toward clean lithium and energy

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Nov 16, 2021

    With the goal of delivering renewable energy to electrical grids by the end of 2023 and near-zero-carbon lithium for General Motors electric vehicles the following year, Controlled Thermal Resources has launched drilling at its Hell's Kitchen geothermal project in Southern California. "We are very pleased to kick start our drilling program and we are on schedule to deliver the project's first 50MW (megawatts) of baseload renewable power in late 2023 and an estimated 20,000 ton...

  • Critical Minerals Alliances EV electric vehicles GM partnership Rio Tinto

    Soaring critical energy minerals demand

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Nov 2, 2021

    Global governments and industries are setting increasingly ambitious targets for the phasing out of fossil fuel-burning automobiles in favor of electric vehicles charged with green energy. Achieving these grand climate objectives, however, is going to require an equally bold strategy to ensure there are plentiful supplies of the new generation of energy minerals and metals critical to building this revolution in the way the world generates and uses energy. The World Bank...

  • Graphite One Alaska Nouveau Monde Nevada Matawinie project Quebec Canada

    EV revolution drives graphite demand

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Oct 26, 2021

    The global transition to electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy sources is powering enormous demand for graphite, the single largest ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. "Graphite demand increases in both absolute and percentage terms since graphite is needed to build the anodes found in the most commonly deployed automotive, grid, and decentralized batteries," the World Bank penned in a 2020 report, "The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition." According...

  • World Bank copper new oil low-carbon EV electric transition Goldman Sachs

    Renewable revolution energizes copper

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 28, 2021

    Considering the almost unfathomable quantities that will be needed to power the global shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility, copper is the most critical of the minerals and metals that have not been deemed critical by the United States or the European Union. How much demand will it take to push an abundant and widely produced metal like copper to the level of criticality? A doubling of current demand would likely be sufficient, and many analysts are forecasting...

  • nickel Tesla Battery Day Critical Minerals Alliances Elon Musk Nickel West BHP

    Miners answer Musk call for more nickel

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 21, 2021

    "Please mine more nickel," these four words from Tesla CEO Elon Musk reverberated across the global mining sector and raised awareness of how fundamental nickel is to the lithium-ion batteries powering hundreds of millions of electric vehicles to come off Tesla and traditional automaker assembly lines over the next two decades. "Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way," Musk implored...

  • Controlled Thermal Resources Hell's Kitchen California geothermal energy Tesla

    Titans forge critical lithium alliances

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 14, 2021

    The lightest of all the metals in the universe, lithium has emerged as the namesake for the batteries powering electric vehicles down global highways and storing renewable energy for those EVs to plug into. This is on top of the countless laptops, tablets, smartphones, wearable electronics, power tools, household appliances, electric bikes, scooters, toys, and the seemingly endless list of electric devices made possible by lithium-ion batteries. "Lithium consumption for...

  • Critical Minerals Alliances cobalt DRC First Cobalt Tesla EV electric vehicle

    Solving the critical cobalt conundrum

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 8, 2021

    The envisioned green future where every North American is driving a battery-powered electric vehicle charged with renewable energy could be undermined by cobalt, a somewhat scarce and controversial metal that makes lithium-ion batteries better. "Cobalt is considered the highest material supply chain risk for electric vehicles in the short and medium term," the U.S. Department of Energy penned in an April report. This risk has automakers, lithium-ion battery manufacturers, and...

  • Tesla nickel CEO Elon Musk BHP Group Australia battery metal lithium-ion

    Tesla, BHP strike revolutionary nickel deal

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Aug 3, 2021

    Answering Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk's call for new supplies of nickel that are mined "efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way," Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Group has struck a deal to supply the electric automaker with this fundamental lithium-ion battery ingredient from its Nickel West operation in Western Australia. "We are delighted to sign this agreement with Tesla Inc., and to collaborate with them on ways to make the battery supply chain more sustainable...

  • Tesla Gigafactory 1 lithium ion battery cell plant Sparks Nevada

    Keeping pace with the EV revolution

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    From mines to gigafactories, it is going to take a massive and coordinated effort to scale up the entire North American lithium-ion battery supply chain at a pace that meets the growing demands of the accelerating electric vehicle revolution. "To replace more of the gasoline cars that are on the road, to benefit from the promise of electrification across all vehicle types and all consumer classes, requires the supply chain to be built out in a bigger way and faster way than...

  • High grade core from Graphite Creek Stax deposit near Nome Alaska

    Stacking uses for Alaska STAX graphite

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jun 27, 2020

    The adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy is driving increased demand for graphite, a major ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. Graphite, however, is high on a list of 35 critical minerals and metals not mined in the United States. Graphite One Inc. would like to shift America's reliance on foreign countries such as China for its graphite needs by developing a mine at Graphite Creek, a world-class deposit of graphite with some properties that make it uniquely...