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GRA

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GCC:
Study finds cobalt supply can meet demand for EVs and electronics batteries through 2030
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/02/20200220-co.html


A study by a team from MIT, with colleagues from Alfred University, UC Berkeley, and RIT, has found that supplies of cobalt—a critical material in some battery chemistries—is adequate in the short-term (up to 2030), but that the industry needs to invest in additional efficient refining and recycling capacity, so it can continue to meet demand. The paper is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Roughly 60% of mined cobalt is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The element is often recovered as a byproduct from mining copper and nickel, meaning that demand and pricing for those other metals affects the availability of cobalt. Half of the current supply of cobalt is incorporated into cathodes for lithium-ion batteries, and many of those batteries are used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles.

Demand for these vehicles and their batteries is growing swiftly: In 2018, the global electric car fleet numbered in excess of 5.1 million, up 2 million from the prior year, according to the International Energy Agency.

To determine potential cobalt supply and demand through 2030, the researchers analyzed variables, including electric vehicle demand; cobalt mining, refining and recycling capacity; battery chemistry trends; socioeconomic and political trends; and the feasibility of substituting other materials for cobalt. These variables could be affected by political instability in DRC, policy decisions favoring electric vehicles, disruptions in China (which refines around half of the cobalt supply), and fluctuations in copper and nickel prices.

They found that cobalt demand is estimated to range from 235 to 430 ktonnes in 2030. This upper bound on cobalt demand corresponds to 280% of world refinery capacity in 2016.

They estimated supply from scheduled and unscheduled production as well as secondary production to range from 320 to 460 ktonnes. Their analysis suggests:

The price of cobalt will remain relatively stable in the short term, given that the range suggests even a supply surplus;

Future cobalt supply will become more diversified geographically and mined more as a byproduct of nickel (Ni) over this period; and

For future demand to be met, attention should be paid to sustained investments in refined supply of cobalt and secondary recovery.

The authors received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under the US Department of Energy.
 
GCC is kind of preaching to the choir.
Good source for news after its happened.

Impending peak lithium if we don't see a big change in lithium brining tech or railroad some nimbys.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-lithium-albemarle-exclusive/exclusive-top-lithium-miner-seeks-to-monitor-water-scarcity-in-parched-chile-salt-flat-idUSKBN20407Z

This tech would impact the lithium mining industry about as much as fracking did for the gas and oil industry.
 
GCC:
President and CEO of Nemaska Lithium steps down after bankruptcy filing
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/02/20200224-nemaska.html


The President and CEO of Canada-based Nemaska Lithium stepped down on 20 February. The company field for bankruptcy protection in December 2019. . . .

Earlier in 2019, Nemaska had raised the estimated investment needed for its Whabouchi project (a combination of an open-pit and underground mine) to $1.5 billion from $1.1 billion. (Earlier post.) Prices for lithium have been falling steadily due to oversupply from mine expansions and a fall off in EV purchases due to a cut in government subsidies for Evs in China.

Nemaska intended to operate the Whabouchi mine in Québec, Canada, one of the richest lithium spodumene deposits in the world, both in volume and grade. The produced spodumene concentrate would thereafter be processed at the Shawinigan plant using a unique membrane electrolysis process for which Nemaska holds several patents.
 
SFGATE:
Who's greener? Mine fight pits electric cars against flower
https://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Who-s-greener-Mine-fight-pits-electric-cars-15113326.php


The rare Tiehm's buckwheat stands less than a foot tall (30 centimeters) in Nevada's rocky high desert. . . .

To the Australian company that wants to mine lithium beneath the federal land where it grows, the perennial herb is a potential roadblock to a metal badly needed for electric vehicles and the global push to reduce greenhouse gases.

To environmentalists determined to halt the open pit mine, it's a precious species that exists nowhere else in the world.

And to plant ecologists, it's a scientific challenge to try to grow the wildflower from seeds in a greenhouse.

Whose mission is a nobler shade of green depends on who you ask.

The competing interests appeared to find some common ground earlier this year at the remote site about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Reno. Ioneer Ltd. has spent millions exploring the site, which it says is one of the world's biggest undeveloped lithium-boron deposits.

But the Center for Biological Diversity withdrew its lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in January after Ioneer ended its exploration activities and agreed to provide the group notice before resuming any work at Rhyolite Ridge in rural Esmeralda County.

Still, Ioneer remains committed to the mine it says is expected to produce 22,000 tons (19,958 metric tonnes) of lithium carbonate needed for electric car batteries like the ones Tesla makes east of Reno, create 400 to 500 construction jobs and 300 to 400 operational jobs.

And environmentalists insist the legal battle is just beginning.

“The storm is brewing on the horizon,” said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the center's petition, filed in October, to add the flower to the federal list of endangered species. And the Nevada Division of Forestry announced this week it would soon start gathering public comments to help determine whether to take its own action to protect the plant.

“If you look at a map of the lithium deposits and a map of the buckwheat, there's really no way to build the mine without wiping out the buckwheat," Donnelly said. "We fully anticipate a fight for many years to come."

The company acknowledges Tiehm's buckwheat hasn't been documented anywhere else on earth, but denies the mine would lead to its extinction.

Company officials say they've been researching the plant since 2016, going to great lengths to ensure its protection and examining how it's fared during previous mining operations at Rhyolite Ridge, near the small town of Tonopah, over the past 80 years.

They recently spent $60,000 for a yearlong study at the University of Nevada, Reno. Scientists there are growing hundreds of seedlings in a greenhouse to determine whether it's feasible to transplant them into the wild to bolster the limited population, an estimated 43,000 plants covering a total of 21 acres (8.5 hectares). . . .

University researchers are doing their best to replicate the harsh desert conditions with poor soil quality at the greenhouse where they planted 3,276 Tiehm seeds in January.

“We torture them. We want them to know life is hard, starting now," said Beth Leger, a UNR plant ecologist. . . .

She and her graduate assistant Jamey McClinton hoped as many as 600 would germinate, but were pleasantly surprised when 900 had sprouted by mid-February. . . .

“We know they are very tolerant of horrible soil. That's unusual,” Leger said. "What we don't know is how it will grow in other kinds of soil."

Leger, who also serves as director of UNR's Museum of Natural History, said those who dismiss the flowers as weeds unworthy of all the fuss don't understand the value of biodiversity.

“Weed is a human construct. A weed is a plant that grows anywhere a human doesn't want it,” she said, adding biodiversity is “magic” and a safeguard against future loss.

The research funded by Ioneer is examining the possibility of transplanting plants as well as growing new ones from seedlings to be planted at or near the mining site.

As far as transplanting, Leger said, “I don't think it's an awesome idea. . . .”

But Donnelly said the new research appears to be aimed at finding an alternative site "to keep the species alive so Ioneer could destroy its habitat.”

He acknowledged a difference between transplanting plants and growing them from seeds, but said it's "beside the point, really.”

“A species is more than a set of genetic material. A species is inextricable from its habitat," Donnelly said. "To allow a species' habitat to be wiped out and put it someplace else, is functionally allowing it to go extinct.”
 
GRA said:
SFGATE:
Who's greener? Mine fight pits electric cars against flower
https://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Who-s-greener-Mine-fight-pits-electric-cars-15113326.php


The rare Tiehm's buckwheat stands less than a foot tall (30 centimeters) in Nevada's rocky high desert. . . .

To the Australian company that wants to mine lithium beneath the federal land where it grows, the perennial herb is a potential roadblock to a metal badly needed for electric vehicles and the global push to reduce greenhouse gases.

To environmentalists determined to halt the open pit mine, it's a precious species that exists nowhere else in the world....

I tend to favor preservation, but I have to say I don't understand fetishising a species that is barely hanging on to one small parcel of land when it seems the rest of the planet has already marked it for extinction. Surely we've done a lot to damage a lot of species. But some are just doomed all on their own.
 
Last time I checked there was only 1 strip mine where lithium appears to be the main mineral.
I say preserve some plants and seeds and kill the rest.
At least 99.99% of all species that have ever existed are extinct, it's perfectly natural.
 
GCC :
UN report highlights urgent need to tackle impact of EV battery production boom


https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/07/20200704-un.html


Demand for raw materials used in the production of electric car batteries is set to soar, prompting the UN trade body, UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), to call for the social and environmental impacts of the extraction of raw materials, which include human rights abuses, to be addressed urgently.

UNCTAD predicts that some 23 million electric vehicles will be sold over the coming decade: the market for rechargeable car batteries, currently estimated at $7 billion, is forecast to rise to $58 billion by 2024.

The shift to electric mobility is in line with ongoing efforts to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. However, a new report from UNCTAD warns that the raw materials used in electric car batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries, raising a number of concerns.

For example, two-thirds of all cobalt production happens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 20% of cobalt supplied from the DRC comes from artisanal mines, where human rights abuses have been reported, and up to 40,000 children work in extremely dangerous conditions in the mines for meagre income.

In Chile, lithium mining uses nearly 65% of the water in the country’s Salar de Atamaca region—one of the driest desert areas in the world—to pump out brines from drilled wells. This has forced local quinoa farmers and llama herders to migrate and abandon ancestral settlements. It has also contributed to environment degradation, landscape damage and soil contamination, groundwater depletion and pollution. . . .
 
Not exactly a resource issue, but this seemed the best place for this. IEVS:
SK Innovation-LG Chem Clash Might Cause 'Catastrophic Supply Disruption'


https://insideevs.com/news/435110/sk-innovation-lg-chem-clash-supply-disruption/


Two South Korean manufacturers, LG Chem and SK Innovation are currently busy expanding EV battery manufacturing capacity in the U.S. as the demand from carmakers is strong. However, the dispute between the two may lead to "a catastrophic supply disruption," according to Volkswagen. . . .

"Last year, LG Chem sued smaller rival SK Innovation over alleged
theft of commercial secrets. SK Innovation defends itself, but there is a risk that the company might be banned from the U.S. EV battery market."

Reuters reports that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) made a preliminary ruling in LG Chem’s favor and the final verdict is expected in October 2020. Since SK Innovation is building two battery plants in the U.S. and has serious customers (Volkswagen and Ford), which are also preparing for EV production, it's not hard to imagine what will happen to those EVs if the battery project is ceased.

Billion-dollar investments and thousands of jobs are threatened by the ban, as there is no easy way to order batteries from someone else in volume right away.

Because of that, we can only guess that there is only one option in the case of loss - SK Innovation will be fined, but not banned.

The consequences of this case might have global repercussions.
 
ABG:
Judge wants study of what lithium mining is doing to fragile Atacama in Chile

Atacama supplies around one-quarter of the world's lithium


https://www.autoblog.com/2020/07/27/chile-atacama-lithium-water-study/


A top environmental judge in Chile renewed a call for a government-vetted water study to help stamp out lingering questions about sustainability that have cast a pall over Chile's lithium-rich Salar de Atacama.

Water — both fresh and saline, where the lithium lies — has long been a sticking point for miners at Atacama, one of the world's richest reserves of the ultralight battery metal. The flat sits amid the world's driest desert.

Mauricio Oviedo, president of the Environmental Tribunal of Antofagasta, a region home to all of the country's lithium production and much of its copper output, called the salt flat "highly fragile."

"If Chile wants to continue managing the Salar, it should have a model that would give us (all) greater certainty," Oviedo said in an interview with Reuters.

"To the court, it seems like commonsense if we want to do sustainable mining in the Salar that we effectively need to have all the elements on the table."

Oviedo first called for a study in December when the Antofagasta court he oversees tossed out a $25 million remediation plan honed over three years by Chilean lithium producer SQM, saying it had relied on questionable science.

The court cannot require a water study. But Chile development agency Corfo, which oversees lithium holdings at Atacama, has hired a third-party to conduct a hydrological survey of the Salar. That study has been repeatedly delayed since 2018.

Oviedo's decision reignited concerns over SQM's ability to ramp up output to meet fast-growing demand from the electric vehicle industry. Atacama, home to SQM and top competitor Albemarle, already supplies around one-quarter of the world's lithium.

Regulators required SQM to develop the disputed compliance plan after charging the miner with over-pumping lithium-rich brine from beneath the flat. The company has appealed the decision to scrap the program to the Supreme Court. A decision is pending. . . .

German automakers Volkswagen and Daimler this year joined the push for more sustainable lithium mining in Chile, a sign of growing supply chain concerns ahead of an expected electric vehicle boom.
 
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