The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News – January 24, 2024
DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk said the department is trying to be creative when it comes to supporting domestic mines critical to America's electric vehicle supply chains.
Core from drilling through a high-grade lens at Graphite Creek, considered to be the largest deposit of graphite in the U.S.
While the U.S. Department of Energy is investing billions of taxpayer dollars into establishing robust battery material processing and battery manufacturing capacity in the United States, the federal agency has done little to support domestic mines that would feed critical minerals into domestic electric vehicle supply chains.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, believes DOE is putting the domestic battery materials processing cart before the battery minerals horse as part of a White House strategy that is resulting in the minerals for America's clean energy future being mined anywhere but China – or the U.S.
"You've got an administration that is approaching how we deal with this with one hand deliberately tied behind our back – and we are talking about the critical minerals that go into this," Murkowski said while questioning Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk during a Jan. 11 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on EV supply chains.
While Turk reiterated DOE's commitment to strengthen the reliability and resilience of America's EV supply chains, he indicated the department's hands were also tied when it comes to supporting domestic battery materials mining projects such as Graphite One Inc.'s Graphite Creek project in western Alaska.
"We are trying to be as creative as possible with the tools and the authorities that we have got," Turk said in response to Murkowski's statement that potential future mining projects such as Graphite Creek are not eligible for DOE's battery supply chain loan program.
Murkowski and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., both of which helped to author the domestic mining provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act – which appropriate billions of dollars to establish domestic EV supply chains – contend that the Biden administration is not implementing the domestic mining sections of these laws the way Congress wrote them.
"The Biden Administration didn't write this bill and, quite frankly, it seems like some of the people implementing the law haven't even read it," Manchin said during his opening remarks during the EV supply chains hearing.
"We explicitly wrote in provisions in this infrastructure law to include mining, and we didn't think there was any wiggle room there," Murkowski added.
Murkowski contends that DOE's heavy investments in processing segment at the middle of domestic EV material supply chain are directly and indirectly bolstering foreign mining projects at the expense of similar projects on American soil.
The Alaska senator pointed to the more than $320 million in loan guarantees and grants DOE has awarded to Syrah Resources Ltd. to build a graphite anode plant in Louisiana. While this facility will provide American lithium-ion battery makers with a domestic supply of anode material, the raw graphite will come from Syrah's Balama mine in Mozambique.
Last year, Syrah was also approved for another $150 million loan from the U.S. Development Finance Corp. for the Balama mine.
"When it comes to a country like Mozambique, which doesn't exactly have good labor standards, it doesn't exactly have good environmental standards, then it is all okay," Murkowski said.
She asserts that putting a "Made in America" stamp on Mozambique graphite due to it being processed in Louisiana comes at the expense of developing graphite mines on American soil.
Murkowski is especially troubled by DOE's lack of support for Graphite Creek, which the U.S. Geological Survey has deemed to host the largest known graphite deposit on American soil and "among the largest in the world."
Graphite One, which is advancing the project, has received a $37.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to support the company's plans to establish a domestic graphite supply chain that includes a mine at Graphite Creek along with an advanced graphite materials processing and recycling plant in the U.S.
Even though graphite has not been mined in the U.S. for more than 60 years, DOE has yet to invest in Graphite Creek or any other domestic graphite mine projects.
Murkowski says that with DOE's Vidalia loan guarantees, along with the loans directly in support of Balama, 10 to 20 times more taxpayer dollars are going into supporting graphite coming out of Mozambique than into Graphite Creek in Alaska.
"How can you tell me that the administration is really committed to domestic sourcing when we are not putting our resources there?" she said of the nearly $500 million federal agencies have invested in Balama and the Louisiana plant.
While Turk agrees that more should be done to support domestic battery materials mining, the Deputy Energy Secretary contends that processing and manufacturing are important segments of America's EV battery supply chains that often pose the greater risk.
"Right now, China absolutely dominates the graphite processing market," he said in response to Murkowski's questioning.
Turk, however, agrees that the most secure place we can source battery materials such as graphite "is here in the United States."
The Deputy Energy Secretary, who visited Graphite One's Alaska mine project last summer, said he "came away quite impressed with what they are doing."
"We are particularly excited, and we are trying to connect the dots with our loan program. We've got a second round of funding coming through our battery manufacturing grant program," he told the Alaska senator.
Turk said that the $700 million loan DOE committed to ioneer Ltd. for the development of a mine and processing facility at the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada is an example of how the department could connect the dots of Graphite One's proposed domestic graphite anode material supply chain.
"We are trying to be creative, a lot of times it's the mining and the processing piece – Rhyolite Ridge is an example of what we are trying to do, using our authorities," he added.
Both Murkowski and Manchin, however, believe that such creativity would not be necessary if the White House interpreted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act the way they were written by Congress.
"We should all be concerned when an administration tries to implement a law that Congress didn't pass," Manchin said. "When it comes to EVs, this administration is implementing the Build Back Better approach they wanted, not the Inflation Reduction Act law that passed."
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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