The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Considered by market experts to be the largest single fundraising in the history of lithium-ion battery supply chains, Sila Nanotechnologies raised US$590 million during a financing that closed on Jan. 26. "Raising way over half a billion dollars is an incredible achievement but is exactly the level of investment innovators in the battery supply chain should be receiving," said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores. Aptly located in Silicon Valley,...
January 8, 2021 may go down in history as the inflection point for the transition from the fossil fuel powered vehicles that transported humanity through the 20th century to the electric vehicles that will carry us into the future. This tipping point for global transportation offers a spectrum of challenges and opportunities to sustainably mine, refine, and recycle the minerals and metals needed to build this electric mobility future. Entering 2021, Tesla Inc. was celebrating...
While thermoelectric generators are proving useful in a growing number of modern applications, ranging from electric vehicles to spacecraft, a new potential use for the technology has emerged that could give a whole new meaning to the phrase, "personal electronic device." Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new, low-cost wearable device that uses tiny thermoelectric generators with liquid metal wiring to transform the human body into a...
Coating high-touch public transit surfaces with a layer of copper is a highly effective way to kill bacteria on busses, subways, trains, and other metropolitan transport, according to the results from a five-week pilot carried out on TransLink busses and SkyTrain cars in Vancouver, British Columbia. Funded by Teck Resources Ltd., a Vancouver-based mining company, the copper-surface pilot is a first of its kind in North America. Based on sample-testing, the trial concludes...
With solar panel production driving up the demand for tellurium, Rio Tinto plans to recover roughly 20 metric tons of this critical mineral per year from its Kennecott copper mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the rarest stable elements on the periodic table, tellurium is almost always recovered as a byproduct of refining other metals it is associated with. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements...
Already, the leading United States producer of the uranium that fuel's emissions-free nuclear energy, Energy Fuels Inc. has entered into an agreement with Canada-based Neo Performance Materials to produce rare earth products from natural monazite sands that are a byproduct of heavy mineral sands mined in the southeastern U.S. Under an agreement announced on March 1, Colorado-based Energy Fuels will process these monazite sands into a mixed rare earth carbonate in Utah for use...
German-based global specialty chemical leader Altana has expanded its pigment, powder, paste and pellet expertise to the 3D metal printing world with the acquisition of TLS Technik GmbH. Altana, headquartered in Wesel, Germany, has roughly 47 production facilities and 65 service and research laboratories worldwide, which allows them to offer its innovative, and environmentally compatible solutions for coating manufacturers – such as paint and plastic processors; printing a...
The American clean energy revolution envisioned by the Biden administration is going to require a massive supply chain upgrade – from the mines feeding rare earths, battery metals and other materials into the front end, to the manufacturers that will utilize these mined materials to build the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure needed for a low-carbon future. In a move that demonstrates the newly elected administration's hopes that a transition to l...
Understanding that diverse and reliable supplies of critical minerals and metals are vital to the renewable energy, electric vehicles, and high-tech sectors, the European Union has set in motion a plan for more resilient supplies of these raw materials that will ensure Europe's ambition for a green and digital future. "We import lithium for electric cars, platinum to produce clean hydrogen, silicon metal for solar panels. 98% of the rare earth elements we need come from a sing...
Future technology may involve sci-fi transformation techniques like the recently discovered ability to transform metals to semiconductors and vice versa, using the power of the laser. A group of researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and the Humboldt-University of Berlin have discovered that a laser can convert a semiconductor to a metal and reverse it back in roughly the time it takes light to travel the width of a red blood cell. As most of the...
Appia Energy Corp. says recent testing shows that the rare earths-enriched monazite mineral at its Alces Lake project in northern Saskatchewan also hosts gallium, a semiconducting metal that will melt in the palm of your hand. An electron microprobe study conducted by the Saskatchewan Research Council successfully demonstrated that monazite from two separate high-grade rare earth zones and trends at Alces Lake – Ivan and WRCB – contain similar concentrations of gallium oxi...
Physicists at the University of Sussex have combined the properties of the modern 2D material, graphene, with the ancient art of paperfolding, origami, to create the tiniest microchips to date. The researchers have utilized the nanomaterial to behave like a transistor by creating kinks and folds in the structure of graphene. When done, a strip of graphene crinkled in a particular fashion, behaves like a microchip, and is around 100 times smaller than conventional microchips....
After a decade of meticulous planning, Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. has received a Quebec government environmental decree to begin developing a mine at its Matawinie project that has been designed to offer lithium-ion battery manufacturers a carbon neutral source of graphite. "I founded Nouveau Monde 10 years ago, and today's decree is a huge milestone for us all," said Nouveau Monde Graphite President and CEO Eric Desaulniers. "With this green light to launch our Matawinie...
X-MAT recently announced a collaboration with the Battery Innovation Center, to determine further improvements of X-MAT's electrode fabrication technology, which dramatically increases the storage capacity of graphite recovered from recycled batteries With lithium-ion battery markets projected to increase by 25% annually, resulting in 14-fold growth by 2030, X-MAT has long prepared for the necessity of battery recycling and has sought to further refine its X-BATT technology....
The United States depends on foreign countries for more than 50% of its supply of 28 out of the 35 minerals, metals and groups of elements deemed critical to the nation's economic wellbeing and national security, including 100% import-reliant for 14 of them, according to Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021, which was published by the U.S. Geological Survey on Feb. 1. The list of critical mined commodities for which the U.S. is fully reliant on foreign nations for its supply...
As two of the 35 minerals and metals considered to be critical to the economic and national security of the United States, beryllium and aluminum are fundamental to many sectors for their natural properties and even more so when they join together to create beryllium-aluminum alloys. Most, if not everyone, has heard of aluminum. As the second most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust after silicon, its unique lightweight properties, malleability and durability have...
Though Volkswagen does not expect any appreciable quantities of spent lithium-ion batteries for at least another decade, the German automaker has already constructed its first plant to recover more than 90% of the raw materials from these cells. Operated by Volkswagen Group Components, an independent entity formed by Volkswagen in 2019, this pilot plant that recently opened in Salzgitter, Germany aims to recycle more than 90% of the battery raw materials such as lithium, nicke...
While it may not be new news it is still awesome, Sandvik AB of Sweden, machined and 3D printed the world's first all-metal smash-proof guitar, and had Yngwie Malmsteen do what heavy metal rock guitar legends do – shred power chords and smash amps. In 2019, the advanced metals and specialty alloys division of Sweden-based Sandvik AB had the idea to design and 3D print an indestructible guitar and who better to attempt the destruction than Swedish rock legend Malmsteen, who p...
Among a growing number of facial masks infused with minerals that innovators around the globe have brought to the market in recent months to help stop the spread of the coronavirus infection, SonoMask is one touted by its makers as being the only mask proven to neutralize the virus and provide nearly 100% protection. Engineered by an Israeli company, Sonovia Ltd., the mask resulted from researchers applying antimicrobial technology developed in 2013 to produce a reusable face...
Australia-based rare earth elements producer Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. has secured a contract for additional Pentagon assistance in funding its plans to develop a U.S.-based rare earths separation facility in Texas. "As the only non-Chinese commercial producer of separated rare earths products to the global marketplace, Lynas is delighted by the opportunity to develop a light rare earth separation facility in the United States," Lynas Rare Earths CEO Amanda Lacaze penned in a...
With graphite being a vital ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries storing clean but intermittent wind and solar energy, as well as powering the burgeoning electric vehicle sector, the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) has designated Graphite Creek as a high-priority infrastructure project. This designation means the world-class graphite project in western Alaska qualifies for Fast-41 – short for Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface T...
Rio Tinto's titanium and iron facility in Quebec will soon be producing scandium, a critical metal used by the aerospace, defense, and high-tech sectors. This will make the global mining company the first commercial scale producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America. A metal that is often associated with rare earths because they tend to be found alongside the 15 lanthanide elements and have similar chemical properties, scandium has traditionally been used in lightw...
COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems is in the final stages of developing and building electron beam 3D metal printing systems that will allow space robots to print parts in the vacuum of space, as well as future lunar and Martian outposts. "Producing large metal parts autonomously to verifiable specifications and quality in-space will be an enabling part of man's permanent presence on the Moon and further missions to Mars," said COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems President...
In its push to get "everybody in" on its transition to electric vehicles, General Motors is working closely with SolidEnergy Systems to accelerate the development of a next-generation Ultium battery to power safer, more affordable, and longer-range GM EVs. This coming iteration of the Ultium battery is expected to be lithium-metal, which promises to have twice the energy density, charge faster, and last longer than the state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries currently powering...
A 12-kilogram (26.5 pounds) sample of rare earth carbonate from Vital Metals Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in Canada's Northwest Territories takes the Australian mining company one step closer to its goal of commercially producing REEs this year. "Production of our bulk sample for REEtec is another important step towards reaching full production at Nechalacho," said Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins. Produced from a bulk sampling program at Nechalacho, this first bag of...
