The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Benchmark forecasts that $1.6 trillion for minerals, battery materials, gigafactories, and recycling will be required by 2040. As the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) accelerates the buildout of lithium battery gigafactory capacity in the United States, battery supply chain experts at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimate that at least $1.6 trillion of investment into the battery supply chain is needed to meet demand by 2040 – almost triple the $571 billion estimated to meet d... Full story
Megamerger would reshape global energy metals sector. The proposed merger between BHP Group Ltd. and Anglo American plc would create a $200 billion mining behemoth that would control 10% of the global production of copper, a metal that has experienced a 23% price spike since early February on supply concerns. "As part of its strategy to expand its copper assets, BHP intends to acquire Anglo American realizing the significant growth potential for copper in the future, as...
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...
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...
Invests in Nouveau Monde Graphite and locks up 85% of the zero-carbon lithium-ion battery anode material to be made in Canada by NMG. General Motors and Panasonic Energy have entered into a deal with Canada-based Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) for a supply of low-carbon graphite anode material produced in North America for the lithium-ion batteries powering their electric vehicles. As part of a larger deal that spurred a total of $87.5 million in new investment and sent NMG...
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecasts more than 1.6 million metric tons of fluorspar per year will be needed for lithium-ion batteries by 2030. While Elon Musk has not yet implored the mining sector to "please mine more fluorspar," the demand for this mineral critical to lithium-ion batteries has been rising with the adoption of electric vehicles and is expected to continue its upward trajectory through the end of the decade. "While cobalt, nickel, and lithium hog the... Full story
Company to build Oklahoma refinery that will provide a domestic supply of battery-grade lithium for EVS. Marking a major milestone on its quest to curb America's reliance on China for a battery material critical to transitioning to low-carbon energy and transportation, Stardust Power Inc. has finalized a deal valued at $490 million that will list the emerging domestic lithium refiner on the Nasdaq stock exchange. "Stardust Power aims to solve one of the largest challenges of t...
In-Q-Tel, GM, and TechMet support Series B financing for lithium battery cathode materials tech company. In-Q-Tel, a strategic investor that connects the intelligence community for the United States and its allies to technological solutions, has joined General Motors, TechMet Mercuria, and others in supporting Mitra Chem's $60 million Series B round of financing to advance a battery materials platform that will curb the United States' reliance on other nations for its...
Nouveau Monde Graphite to buy 100% interest in the Lac Guéret graphite deposit. In a strategic move that positions Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. to further ramp up its capacity to offer a reliable and environmentally sound supply of graphite for the lithium batteries powering electric vehicles, the Canadian mining and processing company has acquired full ownership of Mason Resources Inc.'s world-class Uatnan graphite project in Quebec. Uatnan is a road-accessible project about 1...
GM-backed tech, battery materials company ships initial iron-based cathode samples to global EV and battery makers. One month after closing a $60 million Series B round of financing led by General Motors, Mitra Chem has already shipped multiple samples of commercial-grade lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP) cathode active material to major global electric vehicle manufacturers and battery makers. Led by Vivas Kumar, an engineer who previously served as a senior manager on...
Every electric vehicle rolling off an assembly line increases the demand for graphite by an average of around 160 pounds. With more than 30 million EVs expected to hit global highways each year by 2030 and upwards of 45 million by 2045, the transition to e-mobility will require up to eight times more graphite than was mined globally during 2022. While graphite has not received the attention of other EV battery ingredients such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel, this highly... Full story
There is nearly a $1 trillion chasm between where the United States' lithium battery supply chain is today and where it needs to be by 2035 in order to build the envisioned green energy future where electric vehicles are charged with low-carbon energy. Roughly 40% of this investment will need to go toward ensuring there is a plentiful supply of cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, and other battery materials. Simon Moores, CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and one of the... Full story
Heavy investment in mining required to ensure enough raw materials are fed to EV battery gigafactories; key to energy future. Benchmark Minerals Intelligence cautions that the gigafactories being erected around the world will be "about as useful as grain silos" unless hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in ensuring that there are plentiful supplies of the cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel, and other raw materials these factories require to manufacture the...
Leading the lithium rush, the Pilgangoora project in Western Australia's mine-friendly and resource-rich Pilbara region is sporting one of the largest hard rock lithium deposits in the world. Nearly all the lithium produced at Pilbara Minerals' gigantic Pilgangoora processing plant is sold to China for processing into lithium carbonate and hydroxide. But Pilbara Minerals, along with a few of Australia's more daring mining companies, is working to break China's grip on lithium...
To seize upon a once-in-a-century opportunity to leverage Canada's already world-class mining sector to supply the minerals and metals needed to build the clean energy future, Ottawa has unveiled a strategy backed by a $3.8 billion (US$2.8 billion) investment to bolster the resiliency of critical mineral supply chains in the northern nation. Ottawa began positioning Canada as a major player at the front end of the emerging green energy supply chains with a 2021 list of 31... Full story
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...
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
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
By 2030, batteries will likely need more than 5x all the graphite mined in 2021 While shortages of the lithium and nickel needed for electric vehicle batteries has dominated news headlines over the past year, the massive demand for graphite has largely been overlooked. As the primary ingredient in the anode side of lithium-ion batteries, graphite is the single largest element in lithium-ion batteries and the mining sector's inability to keep pace with skyrocketing demand of... Full story
RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc., in partnership with Kemetco Research Inc., has announced over 99% lithium recovery from its lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cathode materials process during bench-scale tests. Since 2016, RecycLiCo has facilitated up to 100% extraction of valuable battery materials from nickel-rich, manganese-rich, cobalt-rich, and now LFP cathode chemistries. As all these battery chemistries contain lithium, which has seen a more than 350% increase in pr...
At a time when American automakers are looking for potential domestic supplies of the graphite that makes up nearly half of all the materials that go into the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, Graphite One Inc. offers up details of its plans to develop a mine at its Graphite Creek project in Alaska and processing facility in Washington that would produce roughly 75,000 metric tons of advanced graphite products per year. Earlier this year, S&P Global Platts... Full story
As the price of lithium has skyrocketed over the last 18 months, the demand for lithium-ion batteries is more intense than ever. Battery makers, including Panasonic, LG Chem and CATL, have to budget for the rising cost of lithium, a metal that's crucial to the batteries that go into electric cars, as they expand their production over the coming years. With every bull market, however, there are bear prognosticators who bet on the price of lithium to decline with the market... Full story
The International Energy Agency warns that traffic jams threaten the clean energy future. Not on global highways congested with electric vehicles, nor in lines of these EVs waiting to top off their batteries with low-carbon electricity at charging stations. Instead, this gridlock is more likely to happen in automotive and battery factories that cannot find plentiful and affordable supplies of the minerals and metals needed. "Prices of many minerals and metals that are essentia...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has thus far focused the automaker's efforts on manufacturing electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that power them. This could change as a shortage of the minerals and metals critical to lithium batteries threatens to slow production and drive up the costs of EVs. "Price of lithium has gone to insane levels!" Musk tweeted on April 8. "Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve." In a... Full story
