The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Mining giant BHP and Toyota Australia have teamed up to convert the Land Cruiser 70, a rugged and retro Toyota workhorse in Australia, to an electric truck that will retain the toughness for which this vehicle is renowned but without the exhaust that comes with the typical 4.5-liter diesel V8 engine. Available in SUV and pickup versions, the Land Cruiser 70 has been produced in Australia since 1984 and is a popular vehicle in the mines there. An electric Land Cruiser 70 is... Full story
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,... Full story
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... Full story
The U.S. Department of Energy March 18 announced $30 million in funding to support scientific research of domestic supplies of the critical minerals and metals needed to produce clean energy technologies. Under the Biden administration, and following an executive order signed in February requiring greater coordination among federal agencies on supply chain issues, the Department of Energy has prompted possible funding toward national laboratories, universities, industry, and...
Syrah Resources Ltd. has installed the furnace at its Vidalia plant in Louisiana, the final component needed to begin upgrading graphite mined at its Balama operation in Mozambique into the active anode material for lithium-ion batteries in the United States. The anodes in lithium-ion batteries are packed full of graphite that has been rolled into potato-shaped spheres and coated in a hard carbon shell that must be thermally treated. With the installation of the furnace at...
With the current global shift toward sustainability, organizations, cities, and even countries are priming themselves to embrace the change. In particular, Canada's Ontario has unveiled plans to develop its first-ever critical minerals strategy and has already made good headway to set the province as a focal point for delivering valuable materials to the entire world. "By developing this strategy, we will strengthen Ontario's position as one of North America's premier...
Canada thinks about critical minerals differently than the United States and European Union. While its Western counterparts have put together shopping lists of the critical raw materials that are in high demand by technologies important to their economic and security interests, but supplies may not be readily available, Canada's newly released list is more akin to a catalog of 31 critical minerals and metals it has in stock to meet the global needs of a world transitioning to...
The future of automated underground mining – where drones self-navigate through a labyrinth of underground mine workings and send back high-accuracy 3D data that can be used to guide autonomous mining equipment – is closer than you think. Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions (formerly Sandvik Mining and Rock Technologies) and Exyn Technologies Inc. offered Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention attendees a glimpse of the mining autonomy horizon in a vide...
Already, the leading United States producer of the uranium that fuel's emissions-free nuclear energy, Energy Fuels Inc. has entered into an agreement with Canada-based Neo Performance Materials to produce rare earth products from natural monazite sands that are a byproduct of heavy mineral sands mined in the southeastern U.S. Under an agreement announced on March 1, Colorado-based Energy Fuels will process these monazite sands into a mixed rare earth carbonate in Utah for use...
Understanding that diverse and reliable supplies of critical minerals and metals are vital to the renewable energy, electric vehicles, and high-tech sectors, the European Union has set in motion a plan for more resilient supplies of these raw materials that will ensure Europe's ambition for a green and digital future. "We import lithium for electric cars, platinum to produce clean hydrogen, silicon metal for solar panels. 98% of the rare earth elements we need come from a sing...
Ford Motor Company Feb. 17 announced a US$1 billion investment to transform its century old German-based vehicle assembly facility in Cologne, one of the largest manufacturing centers and the home of Ford in Europe, into the American automaker's first electric vehicle facility there. The news comes after Ford stated weeks earlier it was investing at least US$22 billion globally in electrification through 2025, which is nearly double its 2018 EV investment plan. "Our...
Instead of the economies-of-scale strategy typically used to get a viable rare earths project into production, Australia-based Vital Metals Ltd. has taken a power-of-partnerships approach to rapidly begin supplying global markets with rare earth oxides from its Nechalacho project in Canada's Northwest Territories. Under this partnership strategy, Vital has contracted a local First Nations to do the mining. It will apply its own expertise to upgrade the ore to a REE... Full story
Recently, American Manganese Inc., inventor of the patented RecycLiCo closed-loop lithium-ion battery cathode recycling process was awarded the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label, joining the ranks of positive impact businesses to protect the environment and is awarded to serve as a label for clean and profitable solutions. "We are pleased that our RecycLiCo process was awarded the Solar Impulse Efficient Label," said American Manganese President and CEO Larry Reaugh....
When it comes to the "Super Bowl" of electric vehicles, Norway is the undisputed world champion, a fact that does not sit well with Will Ferrell or General Motors. Behind the wheel of an all-electric Cadillac Lyriq, Farrell takes the EV fight to the "fish loving" Norwegians during a 60-second GM ad that aired during the first quarter of Super Bowl LV. "With GM's new Ultium battery, we are going to crush those lugers," Farrell vows on his way to enlist the help of Kenan... Full story
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...
Australia-based rare earth elements producer Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. has secured a contract for additional Pentagon assistance in funding its plans to develop a U.S.-based rare earths separation facility in Texas. "As the only non-Chinese commercial producer of separated rare earths products to the global marketplace, Lynas is delighted by the opportunity to develop a light rare earth separation facility in the United States," Lynas Rare Earths CEO Amanda Lacaze penned in a...
Early last year, the U.S. Department of Energy launched three separate award programs to fund domestic private companies in developing nuclear reactors in the United States. Congress appropriated US$230 million to kick off this series of investments and through a cost-sharing partnership the DOE, will award amounts to private companies while expecting to invest close to US$4 billion over seven years with the partners providing at least 20% in matching funds. "All of these proj...
In what may be an inflection point, not only for a legendary American automaker but for the future of automobiles around the globe, General Motors has set off on a new path, an all-electric path. Revamping, rehauling and rebranding, GM invites 'Everybody In' on its shift to an electric future. Announced Jan. 8, GM kicked off its newest 'Everybody In' campaign, setting an optimistic tone for the company's EV future focusing on three themes: • Exciting a new generation of b... Full story
5 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc.'s mission to be a carbon-neutral supplier of the graphite needed in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries. "This year will be an exciting year, as we produce our first anode materials and further the execution of our business strategy, which is set to build a company which is one of the world's largest high quality anode material producers," said Nouveau Monde Graphite President and CEO Eric Desaulniers....
President-elect Joe Biden's plans to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure and move the world's biggest economy toward greener policies is brightening the outlook for base metals, including tougher-than-nails tungsten. Many countries, including the United States, have designated tungsten as a critical metal after China, which accounts for 80% of annual global tungsten production of 85,000 metric tons, have placed restrictions on its exports of the metal. Tungsten is often...
Porsche has utilized metal 3D printing to produce a complete electric motor and gearbox housing that is lighter, stronger, and more efficient than the traditional cast housings used in its sportscars. "This proves that additive manufacturing with all its advantages is also suitable for larger and highly-stressed components in electric sports cars," said Falk Heilfort, project manager in the powertrain advance development department at Porsche Development Centre in Weissach, Ge...
Seeking to bring down the cost and carbon dioxide emissions of mining the graphite needed for lithium-ion batteries, Syrah Resources Ltd. has reached an agreement for the installation of solar power generation and battery storage at its Balama Mine in Mozambique. Currently, graphite is the primary anode material in lithium-ion batteries used to store renewable energy and power electric vehicles. These applications are expected to drive an estimated 500% increase in annual...
With net-zero carbon emissions from Canada's natural resource sectors being elevated to a national priority, Natural Resources Canada has teamed up with MiTRAQ to offer the Mining Energy Benchmarking Platform to promote energy efficiency and support a low-carbon future for Canada's mining sector. Unveiled on Dec. 14, the Mining Energy Benchmarking Platform enables analysis of power generation and consumption at mine sites and provides data-driven insight into energy use...
Word on the street, Apple is moving forward with its own line of electric vehicles and according to them, its "like the first time you saw the iPhone", the company hopes to have production up and driving by 2024. The tech company's automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, has been an open secret in the auto and tech world since its inception in 2014 and yet, progress has been haphazard at best, which included a layoff of nearly 200 people from the project's team in 2019.... Full story
The future of rechargeable batteries and the technologies they will power just got a lot more flexible, thanks to a recent breakthrough in screen-printable, high-capacity silver-zinc batteries by a research team from University of California, San Diego and ZPower, a California-based company formed in 1996 to build a better battery. Typical flexible batteries have a limited life cycle and low capacity, which limits their use to low-power, disposable electronics. These... Full story
