Vulcan Energy Resources will collaborate with DuPont Water Solutions,a leader in water filtration and purification, to test and to scale up Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) solutions for Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium extraction process. (Earlier post.) DuPont will leverage its portfolio of proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) products to assist Vulcan... Read more →

Evonik has introduced the silicon-carbon composite material Siridion Black as a new anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Siridon Black features an amorphous Si/C structure with a unique carbon concentration gradient for superior stability and a high specific capacity of more than 3,300 mAh/g. The Si/C composite increases the energy density... Read more →

Kobe Steel, Ltd. (KOBELCO) has successfully demonstrated technology that can reduce CO2 emissions from blast furnace operations by approximately 20% by combining the Midrex’ HBI technologies and the blast furnace operations of Kobe Steel. The demonstration test was conducted for a month at a large blast furnace (4,844 m3) of... Read more →

The International Seabed Authority is currently developing regulations to govern the exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources of the international seabed (known as “the Area”). This governance framework will include a financial mechanism for the distribution of any benefits that might arise from seafloor mineral exploitation, as required by... Read more →

China has increased its production quota for rare-earth metals by close to 30% for the first half of this year, according to a report by the Nikkei. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Natural Resources jointly announced that the production quota for the first half of... Read more →

Adamas Intelligence has released its 4th biannual ‘State of Charge: EVs, Batteries and Battery Materials’ report. This latest report covers the global EV market’s performance over 2020 H2 and its implications on the ever-evolving battery and battery materials supply chains. Among the findings of the latest report: In 2020 H2... Read more →

Mining major Rio Tinto has secured a new commercial freight shipping service connecting Western Australia’s Pilbara region to the major international shipping hub of Singapore. Rio Tinto owns a world-class, integrated network of 16 iron ore mines in the Pilbara region. The vessel capacity of the freight service will be... Read more →

On 19 February, LME cash prices for copper hit a nine-year peak of US$8,806.50/t. This is the highest level since 1 May 2012 when copper traded at US$8,528/t. Total visible copper stocks (LME + COMEX + SHFE + Chinese bonded warehouses) amounted to just 560kt at the end of January,... Read more →

The University of Birmingham is working with Bentley Motors and others on a three-year research project to deliver a sustainable source of rare earth magnets for electric and hybrid vehicles. The £2.6-million (US$3.6-million) RaRE (Rare-earth Recycling for E-machines) project is funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and... Read more →

Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, unveiled its strongest automotive aluminum product to date: Novelis Advanz 7UHS-s701. The technologically advanced, ultra-high-strength material is now available commercially to the global automotive industry. The 7xxx alloy provides the highest T6 strength among current aluminum alloys and has significantly... Read more →

Heat resistance, good long-term use properties and weld resistance are the basic prerequisites for components in current and future powertrains. Whether in the internal combustion engine or in the hybrid or electric vehicle, reliable and technically flawless materials are indispensable in a demanding environment. BASF is expanding its product portfolio... Read more →

Rio Tinto, Paul Wurth S.A. and SHS-Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KGaA (SHS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the viability of transforming iron ore pellets into low-carbon hot briquetted iron (HBI) (a form of Direct Reduced Iron, DRI), a steel feedstock (earlier post) using green hydrogen generated from... Read more →

Valin ArcelorMittal Automotive (VAMA), a 50/50 joint venture between ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel company and Valin Steel, a leading Chinese steelmaker, has begun construction on a new continuous hot-dip galvanizing line at its facilities in Loudi, Hunan, which will enable the production of highly corrosion-resistant steel. The coating line,... Read more →

Canada-based Mangrove Lithium closed a $3-million financing from BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice. Mangrove is the developer of a modular platform for the cost-effective production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Its electrochemical innovation simplifies existing processes and can directly refine input streams from brine, hard-rock, clay and geothermal assets. Mangrove’s modular solution... Read more →

Boston Metal, an MIT spin-off working to commercialize molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) for emissions-free metals and alloys production, announced that Vale and Energy Impact Partners have joined its Series B fundraising, closely following a $50M close announced in January. MOE is an electrometallurgical technique that enables the direct production of... Read more →

Australian rare earths exploration and development company RareX Limited entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the leading global rare earths producer, China-based Shenghe Resources Holdings. Shenghe, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, has a market capitalization of approximately US$4.6 billion. It is a leading producer of rare... Read more →

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is expected to be the source for approximately 69% of mined cobalt in 2020—i.e., a significant quantity of the world’s supply originates from areas ranking poorly in terms of corruption and working conditions, notes critical materials supply chain intelligence company Roskill. Cobalt producers within... Read more →

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has released a report by Roskill that analyzes the EU’s nickel requirements for EV batteries within the context of the global market over a twenty-year forecast horizon to 2040. Against this demand backdrop, Roskill critically assessed the EU’s internal supply capabilities and identified... Read more →

Aluminum maker Constellium SE is in the advanced planning stages of an investment to increase its recycling capacity in Europe. This project will be focused on using recycled material to provide slabs for Constellium’s automotive and packaging businesses in Europe. This strategic initiative is expected to add a minimum of... Read more →

In its second quarterly update to its Lithium: Outlook to 2030, 17th Edition report, Roskill maintains the view that future refined lithium supply will remain tight, with a period of sustained supply deficit in the mid-2020s. Further additions to lithium production capacity for mined and refined lithium products will be... Read more →

Rio Tinto has launched START, a sustainability label for aluminum based on blockchain technology. START will help customers meet the demand from consumers for transparency on where and how the products they purchase are made. It aims to empower end-users to make informed choices about the products they buy, enabling... Read more →

In its new report Rare Earths, Outlook to 2030, Roskill forecasts that rare earth magnet applications will account for ~40% of total demand by 2030, raising the potential for a tight supply-demand balance for key magnetic rare earth elements, as well as providing the opportunity for new production capacity to... Read more →

The BMW Group will begin sourcing aluminum produced using solar electricity with immediate effect. This marks an important milestone on the road to the company’s goal of lowering CO2 emissions in its supplier network by 20% by 2030. Producing aluminum is extremely energy-intensive. Generating the electricity needed to produce primary... Read more →

Teijin Limited and its joint development partner Applied Electric Vehicles (Applied EV) have achieved a major milestone toward their shared vision for zero-emission future mobility. By utilizing Teijin’s lightweight, highly efficient material technology and expertise in composites manufacturing, Teijin and Applied EV have delivered a production-ready one-piece structural shell for... Read more →

DeepGreen Metals, which is exploring for deep-ocean polymetallic nodules as a lower impact and more cost-effective alternative to land-based mining (earlier post), announced an upward revision to the nodule resource reported within the NORI-D exploration contract area held by its subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources, Inc. The nodule resource is now... Read more →

Australia-based Lynas Rare Earths Limited entered into an agreement with the US Government to build a commercial Light Rare Earths separation plant in the United States, through a wholly owned subsidiary, Lynas USA LLC. This collaboration with the Department of Defense is sponsored by the Title III, Defense Production Act... Read more →

Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs has set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030. This goal represents combined Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) greenhouse gas emission reductions on a mass basis (metric tons per year) compared with 2017 baseline levels. Achieving this goal would bring the... Read more →

Constellium, in partnership with Novelis, launched Alumobility, a non-profit organization focused on providing innovative implementation-ready solutions to advance the adoption of aluminum automotive body sheet. This global ecosystem of the leading aluminum and technology partners expects to drive value for automakers and consumers by helping to fulfill the promise of... Read more →

ArcelorMittal is investing €13 million in its Saint Chély d’Apcher plant in France, which specializes in iCARe electrical steels for the automotive sector. The investment means the plant will be able to produce cutting-edge non grain-oriented (NO) iCARe electrical steel grades, through production upgrades and new production capabilities, to meet... Read more →

Essen-based energy company STEAG, Duisburg-based steel producer thyssenkrupp Steel and Dortmund-based thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers, specializing in electrolysis technology, are working on a joint feasibility study. The study deals with the construction of a water electrolysis plant at the STEAG site in Duisburg-Walsum by thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers, the structuring... Read more →

Norwegian-based broad energy company Equinor, gas transmission system operator OGE and steel producer thyssenkrupp Steel Europe have concluded their joint feasibility study started in October 2019 and will continue their cooperation on the topic going forward. The three partners’ goal was to evaluate the possibility to supply thyssenkrupp Steel’s Duisburg... Read more →

Canada-based Graphite One Inc. announced that it received notice on 15 January 2021 that its Alaska-based Graphite Creek Project has been designated a High-Priority Infrastructure Project (HPIP) by the US Government’s Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Committee (FPISC). The approval is the culmination of a process that began with the nomination... Read more →

Shin-Etsu Chemical has developed innovative silicone thermal interface materials for applications in electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). With the electrification of automobiles, the demand for heat dissipation measures for lithium-ion batteries and for various other electronic control systems are increasingly becoming more sophisticated and diversified. With the... Read more →

China-based battery maker CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd) and its subsidiary Shenzhen Dynanonic signed an agreement with Jiang’an county government (located in south-west China’s Sichuan province) to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials plant with a production capacity of 80 tpy. The construction of the plant is... Read more →

The 2021 Nissan Rogue is the company’s first global model built using a “closed-loop” recycling system for aluminum parts. The system helps reduce CO2 emissions compared with using parts made with primary alloys from raw materials. It also promotes the use of materials that don’t rely on newly mined resources,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding more than $50 million in funding for 15 projects focused on field validation and demonstration—as well as next-generation extraction, separation, and processing technologies—for critical materials. Critical materials are used in many products important to the US economy and energy technologies, such as... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has announced $28.35 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects under the Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002404, Advanced Processing of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications. The US imports more than half... Read more →

The US Forest Service has published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Rio Tinto’s and BHP’s Resolution Copper mine project in Arizona (earlier post). The publication comes after more than seven years of public and 11 years of tribal consultation. This reflects a delay from the July 2020 target... Read more →

Constellium SE is leading a new R&D initiative in France, Project ISA3 (Intégration de Solutions Aluminium pour Alléger les Automobiles (Integration of Aluminium Solutions to Lightweight Automotive vehicles)). In partnership with Groupe Renault, ESI Group, Institut de Soudure (Welding Institute), and the University of Lorraine, this ~€7 million project will... Read more →

After developing an innovative new process to extract scandium from the by-products generated during the production of titanium dioxide, Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) announced that it will become North America’s first producer of high-quality scandium oxide with a new plant under construction at RTFT’s metallurgical complex in Sorel-Tracy,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding an additional $47 million in funding for seven projects as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. Three of the projects (Sila, 24M and Ionic Materials) are scaling up... Read more →

Bridgestone Corporation has developed an optimization system for Pará rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations. The system utilizes big data to contribute to higher yield at these rubber farms. The natural rubber currently used to produce tires is sourced from the Pará rubber tree, which primarily grows in Southeast Asia. Natural... Read more →

Tenaris, Edison and Snam have signed a letter of intent to launch a project aimed at decarbonizing Tenaris’ seamless pipe mill in Dalmine, Italy through the introduction of green hydrogen in some production processes. Tenaris, Edison and Snam will collaborate to identify and implement the most suitable solutions for the... Read more →

Neo Lithium has engaged Worley to complete a comprehensive DFS on its flagship, high-grade lithium brine project, 3Q, in Catamarca, Argentina. The development strategy focuses on production of 20,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate with the flexibility to expand production to 40,000 tonnes per year after phase one is... Read more →

Albemarle Corporation will expand capacity at the company’s lithium production facility in Silver Peak, Nev., and begin a program to evaluate clays and other available Nevada resources for commercial production of lithium. As global demand for electric vehicles (EV) grows, North American automotive manufacturers are seeking to regionalize their supply... Read more →

SQM (Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A.) reached a long-term agreement to supply lithium products to LG Energy Solution (LGES). As pat of the agreement, which runs from 2021 to 2029, SQM will supply battery-grade lithium carbonmate and lithium hydroxide for the production of high-quality cathode materials for EV... Read more →

On 29 December 2020, Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group announced thatits subsidiary, Yahua Lithium, had signed a five-year supply agreement with Tesla. The total value of the contract is reported to be US$630-880 million, with Yahua Lithium to provide battery-grade lithium hydroxide to Tesla from 2021 to 2025. Roskill observes that... Read more →

The EU says it could be self-sufficient in EV batteries by 2025. However, despite Europe’s fast-expanding capacity of Li-ion battery production, its cathode materials production capacity is struggling to keep up. Roskill’s analysis suggests that by 2025, Europe will still have to import 56% of the cathode materials used for... Read more →

AUDI AG is the first automobile maker to be awarded the Chain of Custody certificate of the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative (ASI). This certifies that Audi can comply with the materials flow chain for sustainably produced aluminum in accordance with the ASI standard and can also input correspondingly certified material to... Read more →

ArcelorMittal Dofasco announced a coating addition of its Nº 5 Hot-Dipped Galvanizing Line in Hamilton (Ontaria, Canada) to Aluminum Silicon (Alusi) for the production of ArcelorMittal’s patented Usibor Press Hardenable Steel for automotive structural and safety components. Alusi is a steel covered on both sides by an aluminum (90%) and... Read more →