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  • A pumpjack pumps oil from a well in an American Southwest desert.

    Critical minerals from fossil fuel waste

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Aug 6, 2024

    DOE funds R&D for recovering critical metals while creating clean water from fossil fuel waste. The Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is providing $17.5 million in funding for research and development projects focused on producing clean water and critical minerals from oil, gas, and coal production wastewater. Fossil fuel production and use produces wastewater, either pumped up with oil and gas or from the waste streams of production or...

  • University of Texas Research scientist Estibalitz Ukar sitting on a rock.

    Groundbreaking CO2 capture mining tech

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    University of Texas scientists develop CO2-injection tech that breaks rocks and stores carbon. University of Texas at Austin researchers may have made a literal groundbreaking discovery for mining the nickel and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries – storing more carbon dioxide than is needed to produce these lithium-ion battery metals while also using the CO2 as a rock conditioner that makes the mining and processing less energy intensive. Many nickel-cobalt d...

  • Rendering of CTR’s planned Hell’s Kitchen geothermal power-lithium facility.

    Hell's Kitchen heats up with $1.4B deal

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    CTR signs MOU to purchase six geothermal power plants from Fuji Electric Corp. With the signing of a contract for $1.4 billion of geothermal power facilities built by Fuji Electric Corp. of America, Controlled Thermal Resources takes one enormous step toward its goal of producing large quantities of low-carbon lithium for electric vehicles and electricity at its Hell's Kitchen project in the Salton Sea area of Southern California. "Today marks the beginning of a clean energy...

  • Elemental symbol for nickel, between copper and cobalt on the periodic table.

    BC nickel project receives Canada support

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    FPX Nickel obtains $725,000 federal grant to advance low-carbon nickel development at Baptiste project. In support of a potential low-carbon domestic source of the nickel and cobalt needed for lithium-ion batteries, Natural Resources Canada has awarded FPX Nickel Corp. with C$725,000 (US$526,000) to accelerate demonstration of the technical and commercial viability of producing these electric vehicle battery metals from the company's Baptiste project in central British...

  • Rendering of a Viper system storing nearby solar and wind energy.

    An innovative take on battery mining

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    Economical Energy intends to mine cavities to house renewable energy storage systems. An Australian startup has come up with an idea for energy storage mining that does not involve the production of lithium, cobalt, nickel, or any of the battery minerals and metals that have captured headline news over the past couple of years. Instead, Economical Energy proposes mining out a cavity that will house an innovative underground energy storage system that will keep the power on...

  • Golden Gate Bridge disappears into low clouds over San Francisco Bay.

    Bridge to the US lithium battery future

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    Li-Bridge alliance unveils blueprint to build resilient US lithium battery supply chain. A wide chasm lies between where the United States is today and securing the lithium battery mineral resources and manufacturing capacity required to achieve ambitious visions of a green energy future where electric vehicles are charged with low-carbon energy. An alliance of America's national laboratories and more than 40 companies representing the entire lithium battery supply chain have...

  • A row of Chevrolet, Hummer, Cadillac, and BrightDrop electric vehicles.

    GM investing $650M in Lithium Americas

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    The largest-ever investment by an automaker into a battery materials mining company. To strengthen its domestic supply of the materials going into the batteries for its expanding lineup of electric vehicles, General Motors is investing $650 million toward the development of Lithium Americas Corp.'s Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. Considered to be the largest known lithium deposit in the United States, Thacker Pass hosts 16.1 million metric tons of lithium...

  • Rending of the completed Tesla Gigafactory Nevada in the desert near Sparks.

    Giga-expansion of Gigafactory Nevada

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 3, 2024

    Tesla's 140 GWh plant will produce batteries for 1.5M EVs per year; need globally significant mineral supplies. Tesla Inc. set the standard for giga-scale lithium-ion battery manufacturing with the startup of its 35 gigawatt-hour-per-year Gigafactory in Nevada in 2016. Now, the pioneering company is setting a new benchmark for electric vehicle battery production with a massive 100 GWh expansion of its world-changing factory. The news that Tesla has committed to investing heavi...

  • Rock hammer on a pile of rare earths-enriched rocks at Sheep Creek in Montana.

    Kingly rare earth grades at Sheep Creek

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Feb 15, 2024

    Assay lab results affirm high-grade nature of critical minerals deposit in SW Montana. If "grade is king," then US Critical Materials Corp.'s Sheep Creek in Montana wears the crown when it comes to rare earth projects in the United States. The mining sector mantra "grade is king" alludes to the idea that a mine capable of producing one kilogram of rare earths for every 11 tons of ore dug up will be more profitable and have a smaller environmental footprint than a mine that mus...

  • Artistic concept of battery storing wind and solar-generated electricity.

    US green energy storage hits headwinds

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jan 10, 2024

    Supply constraints slow installations; WoodMac expects li-ion batteries to dominate energy storage in US over next five years. The transition to clean electricity generated from intermittent sources such as solar and wind is energizing the energy storage sector in the United States. Supply chain constraints, however, are acting as an insulator to growth of battery installations that ensure the balance between energy supply and demand. According to the fourth quarter 2022 U.S....

  • A Welcome to Louisiana road sign at the border of the Bayou State.

    Louisiana welcomes Ucore rare earths plant

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 2, 2023

    Offers $15 million incentive package for REE separation plant to spur job creation, new opportunities in Gulf Coast state. Louisiana welcomes Ucore Rare Metals Inc. to the Bayou State with an enhanced financial incentive package for establishing the company's first rare earths separation and oxide production facility at a newly selected 80,800-square-foot in the central part of the state. The rare earths that are produced at Ucore's Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex are in...

  • Tesla's massive expanded Gigafactory in Nevada.

    Evolving EV market shifts mineral demand

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

    Less nickel, cobalt, and manganese in LFP cells offset by larger batteries in electric vehicles. A global rise of lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) batteries for electric vehicles has provided a lower-cost option that is helping to enable the adoption of EVs by the masses and is taking some of the demand pressure off lithium-ion battery metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Adding more affordable but shorter-range LFP batteries to the mix, however, does little to relieve t...

  • Silhouette of two underground miners collecting data from a mine face.

    FaceCapture tech coming to Hecla mines

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

    It is not miner's faces that will be recognized by the new technology being deployed by Hecla Mining Company. Instead, Mine Vision Systems' FaceCapture system will be used to map the mine face at two of the company's underground operations in North America. First introduced at the MINExpo 2021, MVS's FaceCapture technology quickly and accurately captures detailed and dense images of underground mine faces that are georeferenced to laser-based surveys to generate reliable 3D...

  • A hand holds an instrument against bands of pink and cream mineralization.

    Deeper look at Sheep Creek rare earths

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

    Latest lab results show high grades extend to depth at REE property in SW Montana. Assay results confirm that high-grade rare earth mineralization identified on the surface at US Critical Materials Corp.'s Sheep Creek project in southwestern Montana continues underground. In early February, the company reported that 52 Sheep Creek surface samples tested by Activation Labs, a Canadian analytical laboratory renowned for its rare earth analysis, returned an average grade of 9%...

  • Industrial complex lights reflect off pond at Energy Metals’ White Mesa Mill.

    Energy Fuels acquires rare earths project

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

    In a move that secures high-quality feedstock for its growing rare earths product line, Energy Fuels Inc. has paid $21.9 million to acquire Bahia, a large heavy mineral sands project in Brazil. "Energy Fuels has achieved yet another important milestone for our expanding rare earth business through our acquisition of the Bahia project," said Energy Fuels President and CEO Mark Chalmers. Monazite concentrates produced from the heavy mineral sands at Bahia will be shipped to the...

  • A view of the ends of various-sized copper cables for electrical transmission.

    A push to add copper to US critical list

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jun 8, 2023
    1

    US business and political leaders call on USGS to expediently add copper to list of critical minerals. Copper is essential to a global economy that favors low-carbon electricity powerlines over fossil fuel-filled pipelines to deliver future energy needs. But does the green energy demand make the red metal critical? So far, copper has not been elevated to the official list of minerals and metals deemed critical to the United States. A surprisingly broad spectrum of politicians...

  • A roughly one-by-two-inch flat, rectangular TEG generator being tested in a lab.

    First Tellurium solid-state energy R&D

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

    Mineral explorer sees tellurium as solid-state clean energy solution, forms company to advance new tech. Before its use in thin-film solar panels, tellurium was an obscure semi-metallic element with few commercial uses. Today, this rare metalloid is a rising star of solid-state green energy that is helping to transform sunlight and heat into electricity, as well as a secret ingredient in solid-state lithium batteries with the potential to revolutionize electric vehicles....

  • Chess board representing trade maneuvering between U.S. and China.

    Rhetoric will not fill US mineral needs

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jun 5, 2023

    With the world-class deposits already found within its borders, the United States has the potential to be a major global producer of copper, lithium, and the other minerals and metals critical to the clean energy transition. Realizing this potential, however, will require reserves of political will in Washington, DC, that match the nation's domestic energy metals endowment, according to R Street Institute. "Despite political rhetoric and policies promoting the use of domestic...

  • Silver 2024 GMC Sierra Denali electric pickup plugged into a charger.

    GM, Samsung SDI to build $3B gigafactory

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated May 9, 2023

    In order to produce enough batteries for its expanding lineup of electric vehicles, General Motors is teaming up with Samsung SDI to invest $3 billion into building a 30 gigawatt-hour battery cell manufacturing plant in the United States. "GM's supply chain strategy for EVs is focused on scalability, resiliency, sustainability and cost-competitiveness. Our new relationship with Samsung SDI will help us achieve all these objectives," said General Motors Chair and CEO Mary...

  • Ripples expand across a crystal-clear placid mountain lake.

    Caterpillar, NMG strengthen partnership

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated May 9, 2023

    To build electric mining equipment with potential to offer clean energy benefits that will ripple far beyond the mining sector. Building off a collaboration that was first forged in 2021, Caterpillar Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to supply Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. with electric mining equipment that will lower the carbon footprint of producing the graphite critical to lithium batteries. In turn, the junior mining company will supply the global heavy...

  • The shape of a phoenix drawn into a pile of coal fly ash.

    Transforming a lump of coal into an EV

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 21, 2023

    DOE funds studies into processes for recovering rare earths and other critical minerals from coal waste streams and acid mine drainage. Looking to develop unconventional domestic sources of the rare earths needed for America's transition to low-carbon energy and transportation, while also providing forward-leaning job opportunities for the coal miners that powered the nation for more than a century, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing $16 million for the development of...

  • Corked bottle with image of Earth inside as the message washed up on a beach.

    Message in a bottle: More copper needed

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 19, 2023

    In a clarion call to current and future mining colleagues, IMDEX geoscience chief warns lack of copper may slow energy transition. As global governments and industries scramble to ensure there is enough lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths to build the collective vision of a future where electric vehicles are charged with zero-carbon renewable energy, the geoscientists charged with discovering the mineral deposits needed to meet global demand are much more...

  • Section of silvery grey core from drilling at Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska.

    Graphite One leverages national lab tech

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

    PNNL to verify G1 Graphite material for EV batteries; Sandia to explore innovative green tech to extract critical minerals. Toward its goal of establishing an all-American supply chain for the graphite that goes into the lithium-ion batteries powering the transition to electric vehicles charged with low-carbon energy, Graphite One Inc. is working with two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories for the testing of active anode material made from graphite sourced from...

  • Researcher works on battery foils in the PNNL advanced battery laboratory.

    Imperfect science of perfect batteries

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

    Material scientists look to bridge gap between perfect battery recipe in the lab and mass-producing cells in imperfect world. Researchers around the world are working feverishly to invent the perfect battery to power the burgeoning electric vehicle revolution. The perfect battery recipe baked up in the lab, however, has little use if it is too complex or expensive for the giga-scale needs of an automotive sector that is replacing 1.4 billion internal combustion engine...

  • Quebec backs Nouveau Monde anode tech

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

    Investing C$3.6M into sustainable graphite anode materials tech being advanced by the company. To further solidify Quebec as a vital link in North America's lithium-ion battery supply chain, the provincial government is providing Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. with up to C$3.6 million (US$2.7 million) to further develop technologies to sustainably transform mined graphite into battery-grade anode material for electric vehicles. "The funding announced today will boost our...

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