South Africa-based mining and metals group Sibanye Stillwater has increased its effective shareholding in Keliber Oy to 84.96%. (Earlier post.) Keliber is a Finnish mining and battery chemical company that aims to start the sustainable production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, utilizing its own ore, in 2024. (Earlier post.) At the... Read more →

The United States this past week convened Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) partners and key minerals-rich countries to discuss priorities, challenges, and opportunities in responsible mining, processing, and recycling of critical minerals. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened the meeting, held in New York City on the margins of the... Read more →

Koch Minerals & Trading, LLC (KM&T), a diverse global trading, logistics and investment company and subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc. (KII), is making a $252-million investment in Compass Minerals, a leading global provider of essential minerals, to support phase-one development of its previously identified 2.4 mMT lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE)... Read more →

Rio Tinto and Volvo Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a strategic partnership where Rio will supply responsibly sourced low-carbon products and solutions to Volvo Group and the companies will work towards decarbonizing Rio Tinto’s operations through piloting Volvo Group’s sustainable autonomous hauling solutions. The multi-materials... Read more →

The Western Watersheds Project (WWP) has petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the rare Kings River pyrg (freshwater snail) under the Endangered Species Act. The pyrg is only known to live in 13 small isolated springs around Thacker Pass in Humboldt County, an area where Canada-based Lithium... Read more →

The Metals Company (TMC), an explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules (earlier post), announced that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has completed its review of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Environmental Monitoring and Management Plan (EMMP) submitted by TMC subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), and... Read more →

Ionic Mineral Technologies (Ionic MT), a US-based advanced battery materials technology company, emerged from stealth mode to debut its halloysite-derived nano-silicon, Ionisil, which can be used as a drop-in replacement for graphite in lithium-based batteries. Nano-silicon can unlock significantly longer range and faster charging for electric vehicles (EVs). Halloysite’s naturally... Read more →

BHP Group, Caterpillar, and Finning International announced an agreement to replace BHP’s entire haul truck fleet at the Escondida mine—the world’s largest producer of copper concentrates and cathodes located in the Antofagasta Region, northern Chile. This agreement is part of a strategic equipment renewal process developed by Escondida. The new... Read more →

Canada-based rare earths processor Neo Performance Materials (earlier post) will acquire from Hudson Resources an exploration license covering the Sarfartoq Carbonatite Complex in southwest Greenland. The project hosts a mineral deposit that is enriched in neodymium and praseodymium, two essential elements for rare earth permanent magnets used in electric vehicles,... Read more →

Mexico has formed a state-run company called Litio para Mexico (LitioMx) to mine the country’s lithium. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made the announcement in a decree issued in the DOF (Diario Oficial de la Federación). Litio para Mexico will begin operations within the next six months. The mission for... Read more →

Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG) and the Government of Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote e-mobility in the country and to explore opportunities across Canada’s automotive and battery supply chain. Both parties will investigate opportunities for Canada to contribute to Volkswagen’s global and regional battery supply chains. PowerCo,... Read more →

Canada-based Taseko Mines Limited said that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has publicly issued a draft Underground Injection Control (UIC) permit for Taseko’s Florence Copper Project in Arizona. The public comment period for the draft federal permit will last 45 days, ending on 29 September, with a virtual public... Read more →

Vancouver-based Ceylon Graphite Corp. announced the renewal of the Industrial Mining Licence for the Malsiripura, M1 mining project in Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon until 1972) from the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB). The Licence grants exclusive rights to mine graphite from within the M1 mining area. With the... Read more →

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have developed a sustainable lithium recovery process which can selectively leach and recover lithium with formic acid before recycling valuable metals. With their method, lithium can be 99.8% recovered from layered oxide cathode materials with 99.994% purity. In addition, this lithium recovery process is... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) (DE-FOA-0002794) on the development and implementation of a $675-million Critical Materials Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercialization Program. The program will address vulnerabilities in the domestic critical materials supply chain. Critical materials, which include rare-earth elements, lithium, nickel, and... Read more →

The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate passed last week, revamps the electric vehicle Federal tax credit of $7,500 (earlier post). Among the changes are an extension of the tax credit through 2032, the removal of the unit-sales cap of 200,000 per OEM, and a new mandate for qualified cars... Read more →

Russia-based Udokan Copper, the developer of Russia’s largest new copper deposit, outlined scenarios to cut the carbon intensity of copper production up to 75% by 2035, bringing the company closer to its ultimate goal of climate neutrality in the long run. The mine is part of the Udokan Ore Region... Read more →

Chile is the world’s top copper producer (27% of global production) and exporter. In Chile, copper is mostly found in sulfide ores, especially in chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), bornite (Cu5FeS4) and chalcocite (Cu2S). The continual exploitation of ore reserves leads to the necessity of mining ores from deeper parts of deposits, often... Read more →

Australia-based ioneer, an emerging lithium–boron supplier, signed a binding offtake supply agreement with the Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES) joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation, in which ioneer will supply PPES with lithium carbonate from its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada. (Earlier post.) PPES is... Read more →

General Motors announced two major Li-ion battery supply chain agreements, one with LG Chem for cathode active material (CAM), and one with Livent for the supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. GM now has contractual commitments secured with strategic partners for all battery raw material to support our goal of 1... Read more →

Lithium and battery technology company Energy Exploration Technologies announced a $450-million investment commitment from Global Emerging Markets (GEM). The proceeds from this capital investment will further the company’s commercialization efforts of its direct lithium extraction and refinery technologies. Created in 2018, EnergyX is a startup focused on providing efficient, sustainable... Read more →

Ford announced a series of initiatives for sourcing battery capacity and raw materials that light a clear path to reach its targeted annual run rate of 600,000 electric vehicles by late 2023 and more than 2 million by the end of 2026. The company detailed its global vehicle portfolio plans... Read more →

Ford Motor Company and Rio Tinto have signed a non-binding global memorandum of understanding (MOU) jointly to develop more sustainable and secure supply chains for battery and low-carbon materials to be used in Ford vehicles. The multi-materials partnership will support the transition toward a net-zero future by supplying Ford with... Read more →

The challenge of meeting Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 “will be short-circuited and remain out of reach” unless significant new copper supply comes online in a timely way, according to a new study by S&P Global that examines the growing mismatch between available copper supply and future demand resulting from the... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the finalists in the $4-million American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize, a competition supporting innovations that help lower the costs and reduce the environmental impacts of extracting lithium from geothermal brines. Demand for lithium—a critical material used in batteries for electric vehicles, grid-scale electricity... Read more →

The Metals Company (TMC) announced that its Australian subsidiary, The Metals Company Australia Pty Ltd., has entered into a research funding agreement with a consortium of institutions led by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to create a framework for the development of an ecosystem-based management and monitoring plan... Read more →

The Audi Environmental Foundation, a subsidiary of AUDI AG founded in 2009, has joined forces with the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology to research new ways of mining high-tech elements. As depletable resources, metallic raw materials are needed for many future technologies, including electromobility; indium and germanium, cobalt, lithium,... Read more →

A recently completed resource report has validated Galvanic Energy’s Smackover prospect as one of the largest lithium brine resources in North America, with sufficient lithium to produce enough batteries for 50 million electric vehicles. Oklahoma-based Galvanic Energy is a geoscience-driven resource exploration company that employs innovative, proprietary discovery methods to... Read more →

Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO) has ordered a full fleet of Epiroc battery-electric equipment for use at the Onaping Depth Project in Ontario, Canada. The nickel and copper mine is located below the existing Craig mine and is being developed to start production in 2024. The order also includes... Read more →

Using naturally occurring and engineered proteins and bacteria, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators will separate and purify rare-earth elements for use in the defense sector. Under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource (EMBER) program (earlier post), the team was awarded... Read more →

Finland-based lithium producer Keliber has completed a four-phase pilot-scale test program and verified the behavior of the ore from the company's largest deposit, Rapasaari, at all stages of the production process. A similar pilot-scale test program has previously been carried out using ore from Syväjärvi, the mine where quarrying will... Read more →

South Africa-based mining and metals group Sibanye-Stillwater acquired an initial 30.29% shareholding in Keliber Oy as announced on 23 February 2021, by way of a phased equity investment. Keliber is a Finnish mining and battery chemical company which owns the Keliber project, an advanced lithium hydroxide project located in the... Read more →

Ford has executed a definitive binding full-form offtake agreement with Australia-based Liontown Resources for the supply of up to 150,000 dry metric tonnes (DMT) per annum of spodumene concentrate—a source of lithium essential in key EV battery chemistries. The spodumene concentrate will come from Liontown’s flagship 100%-owned Kathleen Valley Lithium... Read more →

Cummins and Komatsu, a global provider of equipment and services for the construction and mining industries, have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of zero-emissions haulage equipment. Building on a legacy of diesel engine partnership across a wide variety of mining and construction equipment, Cummins and... Read more →

bp will acquire a 40.5% equity stake in and to become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), which has the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world. Based on the development of world-scale renewable power generation, AREH, in the Pilbara... Read more →

Op-ed by Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. The war over global dominance of the electric vehicle battery industry seems like it ended before it really got started. China is walking away as the winner and the US might as well wave the white flag because it may never catch... Read more →

Rio Tinto has delivered first ore from the Gudai-Darri iron ore mine as the company brings online its first greenfield mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia, in more than a decade. Gudai-Darri will help underpin future production of the company’s flagship Pilbara Blend product. Pilbara Blend products are known for... Read more →

Battery materials company Nano One and Rio Tinto have agreed to enter into a strategic partnership, with Rio Tinto providing iron and lithium products, collaboration and a US$10-million investment into Nano One. This partnership and funding will accelerate Nano One’s multi-cathode (multi-CAM) commercialization strategy and support cathode active materials (CAM)... Read more →

Rio Tinto and the Salzgitter Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together towards carbon-free steelmaking by studying optimization of Rio Tinto’s high-quality Canadian and Australian iron ore products for use in Salzgitter’s SALCOS (SAlzgitter Low CO2-Steelmaking) green steel project in Germany. (Earlier post.) Under the SALCOS... Read more →

Renault Group and Managem Group, a Moroccan player in the mining and hydrometallurgy sector, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at securing the supply of low-carbon and responsible cobalt sulfate for electric batteries. Under the terms of the agreement, Managem Group will supply 5,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate per... Read more →

Canada-based dynaCERT Inc. has sold seven of its HydraGEN on-board electrolysis units ( the HG1R, 4C and 6C units) which are to be installed in Peru, Argentina and Brazil in open-pit mines on various equipment, including Caterpillar 793 and 777 Haul Trucks and a large 4.5 MW diesel generator with... Read more →

Glencore International pled guilty in the Southern District of New York to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In addition, as part of a separate resolution, Glencore Ltd., pled guilty in the District of Connecticut to a commodity price manipulation conspiracy. Together, Glencore and Glencore Ltd., both part... Read more →

Seamless electrified ecosystem required from rock to road to secure the North American automotive industry Battery development and production is strategically important for the transition to clean-energy economy and to remain globally competitive Sustainable lithium mining and processing is an essential component of this ecosystem Canada-based Snow Lake Lithium has... Read more →

By Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. America’s electric vehicle (EV) industry seems to have hit a rough patch of pavement in recent months. Lithium prices continue to rise, and no new domestic lithium sources have yet to be established. Even Tesla, despite its substantial efforts to hold the line... Read more →

The Cobalt Institute’s Cobalt Market Report 2021, prepared by CRU, confirms the role of cobalt as one the key commodities of the green future, due to the rapid growth of the lithium-ion battery market and a strong global uptake of electric vehicles. In 2021, the cobalt market showed unprecedented demand... Read more →

Using new analytical methods, the research group “CritMET: Critical Metals for Enabling Technologies” led by Michael Bau, Professor of Geochemistry at Jacobs University in Bremen has studied the distribution of germanium and gallium in iron-manganese crusts from the deep sea. The results have now been published in two journals: Geochimica... Read more →

Canada-based battery materials company Euro Manganese (EMN) reported that the first shipment of the components of its demonstration plant to be sited in Chvaletice, Czech Republic is underway from China, where the components of the plant are being assembled. The first consignment was shipped on 30 April 2022 and the... Read more →

The lithium industry needs $42 billion of investment if it is to meet 2030 demand, according to analysis by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. This works out at approximately $7 billion a year between now and 2028 if the industry is to meet lithium demand by the end of the decade. Benchmark... Read more →

EnergySource Minerals announced a new round of investment led by Schlumberger New Energy and TechMet Ltd. The Schlumberger New Energy investment includes a strategic partnership to accelerate the deployment of the ILiAD (Integrated Lithium Adsorption Desorption) lithium extraction (DLE) platform and integrate it into the front end of the process... Read more →

Canada-based Northern Graphite Corporation has closed its previously announced acquisition of the producing Lac des Iles graphite mine (LDI) in Québec from a subsidiary of Imerys SA and the Okanjande graphite deposit/Okorusu processing plant in Namibia from a subsidiary of Imerys and its joint venture partner. All deposits have high... Read more →