The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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As part of its commitment to reduce its environmental footprint and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Toyota Motor North America is collaborating with Redwood Materials Inc. to create a sustainable, closed-loop battery ecosystem for its electrified powertrains. Toward this goal, Toyota and Redwood will explore a series of end-of-life battery solutions for Toyota's proposed battery ecosystem. The mission focuses not only on the collection, testing, and recycling of batteries...
An updated feasibility study for developing a mine at Elk Creek confirms that the proposed niobium-titanium-scandium mine in Nebraska also boasts one of the richest stores of rare earth elements in the United States. According to the new report released by NioCorp Developments Ltd. on May 19, Elk Creek hosts 632,900 metric tons of total rare earth oxides, 970,300 metric tons of niobium oxide, along with 11,337 metric tons of scandium oxide and 4.2 million metric tons of...
In a landmark deal that is expected to further solidify Quebec as a major North American hub for the enormous quantities of graphite needed for the lithium-ion batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution, Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. has agreed to invest in advancing Mason Graphite Inc.'s Lac Guéret graphite project toward development. Under an option and joint venture agreement announced on May 16, Nouveau Monde will invest up to C$5 million into the equity of Mason...
To help shore up domestic supplies of the cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, and other materials that go into lithium-ion batteries, the U.S. Department of Energy has directed $3.16 billion from the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to bolster supply chains. This multi-billion-dollar funding comes a month after President Biden authorized the Pentagon to utilize the estimated $750 million of available Defense Production Act Title III funding to establish and...
The supply chain repercussions of Russia's war with Ukraine have policymakers in Washington, DC concerned about securing supplies of antimony, which is critical to renewable energy storage technologies and national defense. Antimony is a metalloid, which means it falls between metals such as zinc and solid nonmetals like sulfur, with some interesting properties that make it a strategic material for the U.S. military. "Antimony is a key ingredient in communication equipment,...
To further support its strategy to establish Saskatchewan as a major hub for North America's rare earth supply chain, the provincial government is investing an additional C$20 million (US$15.5 million) into the rare earth processing facility that Saskatchewan Research Council is developing near Saskatoon. In the fall of 2020, the Saskatchewan government invested an initial C$31 million (US$24 million) for SRC to build the first facility in North America capable of upgrading...
To further secure supplies of sustainably produced lithium for the batteries powering the electric vehicles manufactured by Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, and its other European brands, Stellantis has expanded and extended its partnership with Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd., which is advancing the Zero Carbon Lithium project in Germany's Rhine River Valley. To produce the zero-carbon lithium promised by the project's name, Vulcan will draw lithium-enriched...
The U.S. Department of the Interior is distributing more than $74.6 million to 30 states for critical minerals investigations under the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI. These investments, which include $64 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aim to help improve the understanding of domestic critical mineral resources, a key to securing a reliable, domestic, and sustainable supply of minerals and metals critical t...
It seems that cutting-edge computer technology, like truth, is stranger than fiction. In this strange new world of computational science, diamonds push past the reasonable and into the incomprehensible realm of quantum computing. Such a diamond-based quantum computer developed by German-Australian startup Quantum Brilliance can run at room temperature, allowing it to work in tandem with conventional supercomputers at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Australia....
Global mining and metals company Rio Tinto has entered into a strategic partnership that includes a roughly US$10 million (C$12.5 million) investment in Nano One Materials Corp., a British Columbia-based company that has developed a technology equivalent to the "Instant Pot" of lithium battery cathode materials. While there has been a lot of buzz about the hundreds of factories being constructed around the globe to manufacture the lithium batteries needed for the electric...
The rare earth magnets that help wind turbines transform a breeze into low-carbon electricity and then convert that energy to horsepower in the motors of electric vehicles will soon be made in Oklahoma. On June 9, USA Rare Earth LLC announced it bought a 309,0000-square-foot building in Stillwater, an Oklahoma city that boasts a growing high-tech economy, to house its rare earth elements processing and magnets plant. "Oklahoma has long been on the cutting edge of energy...
The United States Department of Defense is investing US$120 million to fund a heavy rare earths separation facility to be owned and operated by Lynas USA LLC, a subsidiary of Australia-based Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. This facility is to be built alongside a light rare earths separation facility that is being co-funded by the Pentagon and Lynas. "The U.S. Government's selection of Lynas for this strategic contract reflects our proven track record in Rare Earths production," said...
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, with academics at Imperial College London, have developed a bismuth leaf that may one day be able to produce clean hydrogen from water and sunlight, overcoming some of the basic challenges of producing this emerging green energy fuel. Hydrogen fuel is expected to play a critical role in the transition to decarbonization and in reaching many countries' goals of net-zero emissions. With most hydrogen currently supplied from fossil...
Researchers at the University of New South Wales Sydney and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology recently made a groundbreaking discovery in the use of platinum. By adding just a pinch of this high-priced precious metal to gallium, they created a liquid-metal catalyst with the potential to significantly extend the Earth's reserves of this valuable metal. Platinum is generally very effective as a catalyst but is only used when it is absolutely needed at the industrial...
Semplastics, parent company of X-MAT and X-BATT, was awarded over $200,000 by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop novel high-capacity composite anodes for the upcycling of spent graphite from end-of-life-lithium batteries. This funding comes just a week after Semplastics announced that it had received a U.S. patent for electrode fabrication technology that dramatically increases the storage capacity of graphite recovered from recycled batteries. "Battery recycling is the...
Another major automaker has gotten in line to purchase future supplies of low-carbon lithium that Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. will be cooking up from geothermal brines at its Hell's Kitchen project in the Salton Sea area of Southern California. On June 2, Stellantis signed a binding offtake agreement with CTR for up to 25,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year for the batteries going into Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and other electric vehicles it wil...
In a major step toward achieving its mission to help accelerate the mass adoption of electric vehicles by providing an alternative to the graphite anode materials typically used in the lithium-ion batteries that power them, NEO Battery Materials Ltd. plans to invest US$20 million (C$25 million) to build and expand a silicon anode plant in the province of Gyeonggi, South Korea. As an anode material, silicon has demonstrated the potential to have up to 10 times more storage...
The ability to design and manufacture parts from metals or polymers into nearly any shape imaginable has been the dream of production companies for years, with one tech company taking it a step further – a robot arm that adds a precision to additive manufacturing the likes that have only been seen in science fiction. Simply named, Meltio is a joint venture that came together in 2019 between Additec, a Las Vegas-based technology company that specializes in 3D printing, and S...
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...
In a significant step forward for the electric vehicle industry, Mercedes-Benz announced the next step in its partnership with Sila Nanotechnologies, to incorporate Sila's silicon anode chemistry in batteries for its upcoming Mercedes-Benz G-Class electric vehicles. Aptly located in Silicon Valley, Sila Nano has developed a silicon-based anode battery technology that is expected to enable lighter, safer, and higher energy density batteries for EVs, longer-lasting portable...
As part of a wider initiative to recover critical minerals as byproducts at its current mining operations, Rio Tinto is now producing the tellurium used in thin-film photovoltaic solar panels at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah. "We are proud to deliver a new domestic supply of tellurium to support the manufacturing of solar panels and other critical equipment here in the United States," said Rio Tinto Copper Chief Operating Officer Clayton Walker. This key ingredient...
Manganese X Energy Corp. is rapidly advancing plans to become a North American producer of manganese, an oft-overlooked metal critical to lithium-ion batteries. The company recently published a preliminary economic assessment that outlines a financially robust mine at its Battery Hill project in New Brunswick that would produce an average of 68,000 metric tons of battery-grade, high-purity manganese sulphate sulfate monohydrate (HPMSM) annually for 47 years. This long-lived...
How much rock must be moved to produce the metals in an Apple iPhone, Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle or any other product that requires mined commodities (i.e., nearly everything)? Apple teamed up with the United States Geological Survey to develop a "rock-to-metal ratio" that makes it easier to answer that question. Metals are essential to every aspect of modern life. Even a bowl of oatmeal requires these fundamental building materials to grow, ship, and process this...
The rumors are true, Tesla Inc. will be buying nickel for the lithium-ion batteries powering its vehicles from Vale's Canada operations. "We are pleased to have the leading electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla among our customers," said Vale Executive Vice President of Base Metals Deshnee Naidoo. A Brazil-based mining company with operations around the globe, Vale is the world's largest nickel producer. Under a long-term contract confirmed by both companies, Vale will supply...
Lithium-ion battery recycling company Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. has entered into a strategic partnership with Glencore plc, with an initial investment of $200 million toward improving the electric vehicle supply chain. "We are thrilled to have Glencore as a long-term strategic investor and global commercial partner," said Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhar. "Bringing our complementary capabilities together will accelerate the path to a circular economy for critical materials in the...
