The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Metal 3D printing tech developed for fusion energy gains popularity. Metal 3D printing company Seurat Technologies has received orders for 25 tons of metal printed parts. In addition to surpassing the capacity of its pilot facility, the company says this level of interest demonstrates a historic shift for a metal printing technology born from the quest for fusion energy. Founded in 2015, Seurat Technologies was the product of the development of a new kind of metal 3D printing...
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
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
Recycling hub will offer supply of critical battery materials in US After advocating for Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. to develop its zinc-air energy storage systems manufacturing plant in New York, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, paid a visit to Li-Cycle Holdings Corp.'s Rochester lithium-ion battery recycling facility in his home state. You can read about Sen. Schumer and Zinc8 at NY Sen. Schumer calls Zinc8 with an offer in the July 11, 2022, edition of... Full story
Sheep Creek rare earths project in Montana hosts 13 US critical metals With the transition to electric vehicles charged with low-carbon energy shining a spotlight on America's need for secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals, the Sheep Creek project in southwestern Montana has emerged as a potential high-grade domestic source of nine rare earths and four other metals that have been deemed critical to the United States. High-grade rare earths were found at Sheep... Full story
Elk Creek demo plant recovers magnesium-calcium carbonate with 99% purity. As an initial step toward the ultimate goal of producing niobium, rare earths, scandium, and titanium at a future Elk Creek Mine, NioCorp Developments Ltd. announced that its demonstration-scale processing plant in Quebec, Canada has produced a high-grade calcium-magnesium carbonate from ore obtained from its critical minerals project in Nebraska. The idea behind removing the calcium and magnesium from... Full story
From its X-MAT subsidiary that turns coal into clean and efficient building materials to its X-BATT subsidiary that recycles spent lithium into new batteries, Semplastics has made a name for itself by reimagining waste streams as useful products. Now, this Florida-based company has added to its ranks an approach that benefits everything across the board. DioQuest, the latest Semplastics enterprise, will employ a patent-pending process aimed at sequestering carbon dioxide and... Full story
SABERS research team at NASA are developing solid- state batteries for electric aircraft. Knowing that the electrification of air transportation requires batteries that are lighter, store more energy, and are safer than the lithium-ion batteries being used for ground transportation, a team of researchers at NASA are advancing new battery technology that achieves this trifecta. While range anxiety and concerns about the durability and fire hazard are on the minds of those... Full story
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...
Great Plains states, CO-WY border to be scanned for critical minerals. In its ongoing quest to identify domestic sources of the 50 minerals deemed critical to America's economy and security, the U.S. Geological Survey is investing $6 million to scan northern Great Plains states and mountains spanning the Colorado-Wyoming border for 40 of these minerals essential to powering everything from household appliances and electronics to clean energy and advanced technologies. This...
Rio Tinto, Ottawa to invest C$737M in lowering GHG emissions, upping critical minerals output in Quebec. Mining giant Rio Tinto and the Canadian government have committed to investing up to C$737 million (US$537 million) into significantly reducing the greenhouse gas emissions at Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT), a metallurgical complex in Quebec that produces titanium, scandium, steel, and other metal products critical to electric vehicles, 3D printing, and aerospace. "Rio...
Branching into the edge field of quantum computing, Volkswagen Group has partnered with Canadian quantum technology company Xanadu to answer a single question: can quantum computers help design batteries? As the known world and its elemental makeup have been thoroughly dissected, humanity has reached the point where it is slightly cumbersome to discover new ways to utilize the elements on the periodic table. Existing classical methods have been the cornerstone of...
In a massive leap toward establishing a domestic lithium-ion battery supply chain, the White House has awarded $2.8 billion in grants to companies advancing 20 battery materials manufacturing and processing projects in the U.S. and launched an initiative "to mobilize the entire government in securing a reliable and sustainable supply of critical minerals used for power, electricity, and electric vehicles." To be administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, the grants are to... Full story
Rio Tinto, Scania are reimagining mining with more agile and efficient self-driving truck. Will the automation and electrification of mining trucks shrink the size of equipment used to dig up and haul ore and waste rock at mines around the globe? Rio Tinto believes it could and has teamed up with Scania to develop more energy-efficient and agile autonomous haul trucks at the Channar iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. "Rio Tinto is excited to partner...
In another example of global automakers heading to the very front end of global supply chains to source the materials they need to transition to electric mobility, General Motors is making up to a US$69 million strategic investment into Queensland Pacific Metals, an Australian company that is developing a refinery that will produce the nickel and cobalt needed for EV batteries. "The collaboration with Queensland Pacific Metals will provide GM with a secure, cost-competitive...
In a move that demonstrates automakers need all the battery materials that can possibly be produced by the global mining sector, Stellantis has entered into a preliminary agreement to buy battery-grade nickel and cobalt from a future mine developed at GME Resources Ltd.'s NiWest project in Western Australia. NiWest is an advanced stage nickel-cobalt project that lies less than 20 miles away of Glencore's Murrin Murrin operation, the largest nickel-cobalt mine and refinery in...
Tellurium, a rare byproduct of mining copper and gold, may be the secret ingredient to longer-lasting lithium batteries that allow electric vehicles to travel more than twice as far on a single charge. With the support of industrial partner Fenix Advanced Materials, researchers at the University of British Columbia Okanagan are developing solid-state lithium-tellurium batteries that could deliver such advantages to EVs. Earlier this year, a UBC Okanagan research team...
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...
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...
Lack of domestic critical mineral supplies weakens US clean energy ambitions The White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are becoming increasingly aware that a lack of secure supplies of critical minerals and metals may be the kryptonite that weakens America's economy, national security, and clean energy ambitions. "The more we dive into this topic of critical minerals, the more I'm certain Superman isn't the only one who can be brought to his knees by rare minerals,"... Full story
Tesla and other automakers clamor for nickel suppliers with low CO2 footprint Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 2020 appeal to "please mine more nickel" served as a rallying cry for mining companies with projects positioned to deliver this critical battery metal into global markets. Going into 2022, however, the electric vehicle trailblazer's words were echoing in nearly empty warehouses as the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs are demanding more nickel than global miners can supply.... Full story
General Motors, Stellantis, and Tesla moving further up battery supply chain With the batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution demanding more lithium than miners can produce, the price of this lightest metal in the universe rocketed more than 1,000% over the span of two years. This has prompted automakers such as Tesla and General Motors to become more directly involved in the mining and refining of the lithium-ion battery namesake. "Price of lithium has gone to... Full story
Develops strategy to be the world's critical minerals supplier of choice Understanding that the renewable energy and electric vehicle revolution offers a "generational opportunity for Canada and its world-class mining sector," Ottawa is leveraging the nation's wealth of critical minerals to become a powerhouse that feeds raw materials into resource-hungry clean energy and technology supply chains. "Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy will position Canada as the global supplier... Full story
Electric Vehicles require six times the minerals than their fossil fuel forebearers With even the most basic models boasting sophisticated driver-assist, navigation, infotainment, diagnostics, and other advanced digital systems being fed power from oversized versions of the lithium-ion batteries found in your laptop or smartphone, electric vehicles are becoming personal computers that you can drive. While this puts a whole new spin on the term mobile computing, riding around i... Full story
Supply, demand, and risks to the US supply chain define criticality Metaphorically speaking, critical minerals are not set in stone. Instead, the criticality of these basic building blocks of modern society shifts with the demands for any given mineral, the ability of the mining sector to keep pace with that demand, and the geopolitics of where that supply comes from. "Mineral criticality is not static, but changes over time," said Steven Fortier, director of the National... Full story
