The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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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...
As more and more companies answer the call to supply the materials needed to fuel the clean energy transition, American Battery Technology Company has been doing its part to establish a strong foundation to provide electric vehicle manufacturers and other renewable technology companies with critical battery metals for decades to come. Founded in 2011, ABTC (formerly known as American Battery Metals Corp.) began with a few mining claims out of Nevada. Spun out from a former...
Australia-based Magnis Energy Solutions has signed an agreement with Tesla for North American anode active material (AAM) production. This offtake agreement outlines Tesla's purchase of a substantial part of the output produced at the company's planned U.S.-based facility moving forward. Magnis is a battery tech and materials company focused on scalable lithium-ion battery manufacturing and is positioning itself to join the only graphite industry supply chain outside of China...
Green energy startup MGA Thermal and its long-duration energy storage solution rose above a field of dozens of quality applicants to win a $400,000 grant from Shell GameChanger, an initiative sponsored by the global energy giant to support startups and businesses on unproven early-stage ideas that have the potential to impact the future of energy. "I am excited that Shell can support MGA Thermal's pilot project and their ambitions to enable the storage of renewable energy. We...
Keeping with its goal to support companies' endeavoring to establish a domestic battery materials supply chain for electric vehicles and associated technologies that will require the same minerals and metals, the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program has conditionally committed to loaning Li-Cycle $375 million to expand its recycling efforts in the United States. As an industry leader in lithium-ion battery recovery and the...
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...
Loan will support US plant capable of producing EV battery materials at the giga-scale. Toward the White House's goal of zero-emission vehicles making up half of all car sales in the U.S. by 2030, the U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally committed to lend $2 billion to Redwood Materials Inc. to support the expansion and construction of a battery recycling and manufacturing complex in Nevada. Announced on Thursday via the DOE Loan Programs Office, Redwood will use the...
Electric vehicles are a major player in the decarbonization of the global transport sector. The industry is under pressure to seek the shortest, most profitable route to a renewable future, which puts its most expensive asset – battery production – at risk of potentially redistributing rather than neutralizing carbon usage. Nowhere is this pressure more acute than in the growing demand for a more sustainable and scalable battery lifecycle. Due to roughly 15 years of ope...
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...
As technology begins to enter the realm of 1990s-era science fiction, researchers from Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a miniature shapeshifting robot that can liquefy itself and reform – basically a prototype of Skynet's cool but terrifying T-1000 robot in "Terminator 2". With assistance from Sun Yat-sen University and Zhejiang University, this liquid metal robot is based on gallium that has been embedded with magnetic nanoparticles. Since g...
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...
Leaders tour Ontario spoke facility to witness ongoing battery recycling efforts. Shortly after receiving approval for a US$375 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. was visited by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Joined by Li-Cycle co-founders Ajay Kochhar and Tim Johnston, the group observed lithium-ion batteries being...
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%...
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...
Vulcan publishes feasibility study that checks off next milestone along path to 2025 production. With five offtake agreements with some of Europe's largest carmakers, such as Stellantis, Volkswagen, and Renault Group, as well as Umicore and Korea's LG Electronics, Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. has announced the results of its definitive feasibility study for phase one of the company's Zero Carbon Lithium project in Germany's Rhine River Valley. Aiming to become the world's...
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...
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...
In the emerging field of additive manufacturing, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N. M., have developed a material that could significantly reduce carbon emissions from electricity-generating power plants. The Sandia scientists, collaborating with researchers at Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University, and Bruker Corp., used metal 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, to create a high-performance metal alloy, or superalloy, with...
The U.S. Department of Energy has published a portfolio of research and development projects on the commercialization of aluminum-cerium alloy that offers a possible solution to the overabundance of the most abundant rare earth element. The clean energy transition depends on critical materials like rare earth elements that power wind turbine generators, electric vehicles, and other clean energy technologies, materials, and processes. Typically, REEs are found together in...
Tungsten alloys could endure extreme temps for carbon-free energy technology. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project recently reported hitting significant snags in its quest to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. Fusion entails forcing together the nuclei of light atomic elements in a super-heated plasma, held by powerful magnetic forces in a doughnut-shaped chamber called a "tokamak." By fusing the...
The challenge of reducing emissions from the mining industry as a whole is ongoing and especially vital for the metals needed in renewable power and de-carbonized transportation. Taking center stage in this push, the electric vehicle space is being tasked to evaluate the overall environmental impact of EV battery life cycles. Scalable solutions are needed by 2030 for the anticipated first wave of batteries soon reaching end-of-life to keep them out of the toxic waste stream....
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...
With the need for electric vehicle batteries continuing to grow, a solution to the demand for battery materials may come from an unexpected source – coal. Now, for the first time ever, X-BATT has built an 18650 battery using coal. After spending the better part of two decades supplying precision plastic-engineered components to a broad range of industries, Semplastics expanded with its X-MAT research, focusing on the recycling, reuse, and rediscovery of the vast stockpiles o...
Acquires land for EV battery factory in Lithium Valley. After months of searching for the ideal locale for a gigafactory capable of producing enough lithium-ion batteries for 650,000 electric vehicles per year, Statevolt has found a 154-acre site that can plug into the low-carbon energy and lithium being produced in the Salton Sea area of Southern California. "We have worked hard to find a suitable location to accommodate our vision and keep us near to our partners," said...
As part of its nationwide scan for domestic sources of critical minerals, the U.S. Geological Survey is investing just over $1 million to gain a better understanding of the potential for cobalt, nickel, niobium, rare earths, manganese, platinum group elements, and other essential metals in Missouri, Montana, and Minnesota. In 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior allotted more than $74 million to the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI, a partnership...