The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Lithium Nevada receives Department of Defense grant to accelerate the domestic production of battery-grade lithium carbonate. To help meet growing demand for the batteries powering America's energy transition and military hardware, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Lithium Nevada Corp., a subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp., $11.8 million to accelerate the extraction and processing of lithium carbonate at its Thacker Pass mine project in Nevada. "It is critical that...
New titanium alloys combine strength and ductility, offering potential advancements for aerospace and biomedical industries. In a breakthrough that could transform multiple industries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, in collaboration with ATI Specialty Materials, have developed new titanium alloys that break the conventional tradeoff between strength and ductility, potentially revolutionizing applications from aerospace to biomedical equipment. Titanium...
Westinghouse Electric creates LEU+, a middle-ground to more efficient and safer nuclear fuel. Marking a pivotal milestone that aligns with years of United States government planning to secure domestic nuclear energy resources, Westinghouse Electric Company announced that it has produced its first batch of Low Enriched Uranium Plus (LEU+) fuel pellets, a development that not only marks a significant technological achievement but also strengthens America's push to reduce... Full story
DOD awards Electra Battery Materials $20 million to help bring online enough North American cobalt supply for 1 million EV batteries. As part of its mission to shore up reliable and sustainable supply chain minerals and metals critical to America's economy and security, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded Electra Battery Materials Corp. $20 million to complete the construction and commissioning of North America's only refinery capable of producing cobalt sulfate,... Full story
Deep sea mining has a new discovery to contend with. Deep sea mining has brought many abyssal research theories to light, including the vibrancy and delicacy of the sunless seafloor ecosystem, the amazing accretion of desirable minerals over millions of years into priceless little nodules that have been suggested could nearly eliminate land-based battery mineral mining in its entirety, and a new mystery – dark oxygen – defying previous theories about the origins of life on...
Study shows that trolley assist for trucks would halve CO2 intensity of what is expected to be one of the world's cleanest sources of nickel. A recently completed engineering study has found that a trolley assist system for haul trucks would significantly reduce the carbon intensity of nickel produced at Baptiste, a project in central British Columbia being advanced by FPX Nickel Corp. that is already shaping up to be one of the cleanest sources of future nickel on the...
Funding to support additional research in extracting rare earth elements from coal byproducts, enhancing sustainability and domestic supply. As part of ongoing efforts to bolster domestic supplies of critical minerals, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has announced an additional $10 million investment aimed at lowering costs and reducing the environmental impact of producing rare earth elements and other critical minerals from coal...
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential building blocks for the world's electronics and a host of developing energy transition technologies. Found in smartphones, computers, screens, and batteries, they are essential in everything from smartwatches to wind turbines. This suite of 15 elements, however, are notoriously challenging to separate. Conventional processes are often chemical-heavy and energy-intensive, requiring multiple extraction and purification steps, which are sl...
Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund invests in recycling REEs from hard drives. Signaling its commitment to a circular economy, Microsoft has made a notable endorsement by strategically investing in Cyclic Materials, a promising startup in advanced metals recycling. Announced July 16, this move by Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund highlights the tech giant's interest in sustainable innovation, particularly in recycling rare earth elements (REEs) from computer hard drives....
Decades-long clash continues over Colorado's uranium mines with implications for economy and national security. Mining near the Grand Canyon has been an embattled topic for decades, with an outcome that has implications for American jobs, the future of green energy, the economy, and national security. Uranium fuels nuclear power, a sustainable, efficient, plentiful and practically carbon-free energy. Miners like Colorado-based Energy Fuels Resources Inc. and the current...
US Department of Defense recognizes potential of critical energy metal; National Science Foundation offers First Tellurium grant opportunity. Tellurium is a rare element with some powerful properties that are being leveraged in American-made solar panels, solid-state batteries that could significantly extend the range of electric vehicles, and thermoelectric generators that convert temperature variations into clean electricity. Recognizing tellurium's criticality to clean ener...
A few investors have been buying up cobalt amid battery metal slump. While sustainable domestic mines like Jervois Idaho Cobalt Operations in the U.S. fight to stick to opening targets and investors struggle with problematic environmental and social costs of battery metals from overseas, a glut of overproduced cobalt has driven prices down, and savvy investors are buying up physical material for when demand surges or geopolitical issues come to a head. Anchorage Capital...
BASF withdraws investment plans for Chile amid global slowdown of EV sales. A worldwide slowdown in electric vehicle sales has left lithium prices languishing at pre-2020 levels, quashing investments in bringing new supplies of the battery metal to market. The oversupply of lithium, in particular, is stifling new investment in the Lithium Triangle, a region of the Andes spanning parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The triangle's lithium is concentrated in arid salt pans...
Countries combine interests in security, defense, and the growing need for raw materials and processing for the oncoming energy transition. Australia is expanding its cooperation with India on critical minerals, batteries, and electric vehicles, batteries. Critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements are essential components in today's rapidly growing clean energy technologies, from adapting power grids to powering EVs. Both countries have...
Export-Import Bank of the United States invites USSM to apply for a $400 million loan to develop critical minerals mining, processing, and recycling hub in Missouri. In what is shaping up to be a major boost to its mission to provide the United States with sustainable sources of metals critical to the energy transition, U.S. Strategic Metals (USSM) has been invited to apply for a $400 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) to fund the development... Full story
Silicon Valley-based EV manufacturer to buy anode material from G1's coming graphite plant in Ohio. Toward its goal of creating sustainable mobility with cars that make the best possible use of the world's resources, California-based Lucid Motors has entered into an agreement to buy domestically produced graphite for the batteries powering its electric vehicles from a processing and recycling plant to be built by Graphite One Inc. in Ohio. "We are committed to accelerating... Full story
Canadian locals leery of U.S. military investment in Lomiko Metals graphite project in Quebec. Initially, when Lomiko Metals Inc., a mining company based in Surrey, British Columbia announced plans to build a graphite mine in Quebec's Laurentides region, there were fears regarding potential environmental harm, especially to nearby lakes, but objections increased after locals found out the Pentagon was also involved in the project. In May, Lomiko Metals received a grant of...
PyroDelta is developing a tellurium-based thermoelectric generator that could transform prop downwash into longer drone range. Can tellurium-based thermoelectric generators provide extra lift to drones? First Tellurium believes they can and a company it created to advance research and development of thermoelectric devices for clean energy generation is developing a prototype specifically for drone applications. Thermoelectric generators transform the differences in temperature...
Reports demonstrate how growing demand, international cooperation, and social change are shaping the mining sector for the better. The continuing surge in critical minerals demand, anticipated to easily double by 2040, has significantly impacted the global mining sector while several world powers struggle to slip out from under geopolitical pressures on the battery industry and develop domestic supply chains. Propelled by technological expansion, the rate of demand growth for...
High-grade REE concentrate previously destined for China is now on its way to Saskatchewan for further processing. As home to the first rare earths mine in Canada, Vital Metal Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories grabbed national headlines as the initial link of a burgeoning rare earth supply chain that would be completely independent of China. With this being hailed as a major milestone for Canada and its allies, Vital's announcement late last year that it...
Energy Fuels begins commercial neodymium-praseodymium production at White Mesa Mill; has sights set on world-class expansions. On the path to toward establishing its White Mesa Mill as a world-class hub for at least six of the metals critical to the energy transition, Energy Fuels Inc. is now producing commercial quantities of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), a pair of rare earths widely used in electric vehicle motors at the uranium production facility in southeastern Utah....
Increasing responsible sourcing demand puts a spotlight on mining sector. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a term that describes the subsistence mining sector, where locals work independently using low-tech methods of manual extraction, physical labor, and basic tools. Many rural communities are historically reliant on artisanal mining for their livelihoods. However, that same history also involves poor working conditions, human rights violations, predatory land...
Oak Ridge National Laboratory experiments demonstrate that critical metal can withstand prolonged reactor heat and radiation. Conventional nuclear reactors and next-generation modular and microreactors rely on thousands of sensors delivering data to sophisticated electronic monitoring devices for safe and efficient operations. Traditional silicon-based electronics, however, do not hold up to the heat and radiation emitted from the core and must be installed at a distance. New... Full story
Auto manufacturers take sides on the question facing the industry – are deep sea resources necessary to compete in the global EV race? A proposal to limit the use of minerals pulled from the seabed has been making its rounds in boardrooms from Tesla to GM, asking big names in the electric vehicle game to commit to a moratorium on minerals sourced from the deep sea. It lost in a landslide, with 78% of Tesla shareholders voting against the proposal and 6% in favor. While c... Full story
Georgia Tech researchers forge copper-infused, nanotextured stainless-steel material to stem rising tide of deadly infections. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a stainless-steel alloy infused with copper to prevent bacterial infections caused by surface contamination. The new metal has potential to be used to create an effective, scalable, and sustainable solution to the growing threat of deadly antibiotic-resistant microbes adhering to surfaces in... Full story
