Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles – Page 13

More headwinds expected for miners as First Quantum faces shutdown in Panama – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 30, 2023)

November 30, 2023

Miners will need to focus more on building trust with local communities to retain their licence to operate, analysts say

As First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s lucrative copper mine faces a shutdown in Panama, some analysts warn that such events may occur more often as the energy transition away from fossil fuels focuses government and public attention on certain key metals.

Going forward, analysts say, miners will need to focus more on building trust with local communities to retain their licence to operate in their respective regions, especially in Latin America, which has abundant reserves of copper and lithium and whose leaders routinely gauge public opinion on mining-related issues.

Electric-Car Makers Can Stop Worrying So Much About Lithium – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – November 29, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium’s price slump over the past year has been as dramatic as its climb — and it’s probably not finished yet. The battery material’s benchmark price in China is now down about 80% from its November 2022 record high. At that time, lithium miners were enjoying soaring profits and carmakers were bemoaning surging costs.

Now, lithium’s sharp decline, together with steep drops for nickel and cobalt, are driving battery prices to all-time lows, according to BloombergNEF.

OPINION: First Quantum’s Panama saga shows Canada must treat copper, a vital metal, more seriously – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Globe and Mail – November 30, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Heather Exner-Pirot is director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Copper is the metal of electrification. It’s essential for power transmission, batteries, renewables and more. Most net-zero scenarios require a doubling of production for the red metal, an unlikely task made impossible without greater dependence on Chinese supplies.

Events in Panama this week with Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd. show how a world opposed to more copper extraction will fail to displace fossil fuels.

The Salton Sea has even more lithium than previously thought, new report finds – by Sammy Roth (Los Angeles – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.latimes.com/

Want to produce a huge amount of lithium for electric vehicle batteries — and also batteries that keep our homes powered after sundown — without causing the environmental destruction that lithium extraction often entails? Then the Salton Sea may be your jam.

Companies big and small have been swarming California’s largest lake for years, trying to find a cost-effective way to pull out the lithium dissolved in scorching hot fluid deep beneath the lake’s southern end. Now a new federal analysis suggests even more of the valuable metal is buried down there than we previously understood.

Canadian critical minerals miner Foran raising $200-million, a rare financing for a junior company – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – November 28, 2023)

November 30, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Foran Mining Corp., a Canadian company with a promising copper and zinc project in Saskatchewan, is raising $200-million to fund its next stage of development, a rare financing for a junior miner in a tough market for share sales.

Foran, which is based in British Columbia, is selling up to $190-million worth of new shares at $4.10 apiece through a private placement, as well as $10-million worth of “flow-through” shares that carry a special tax treatment.

A bumpy road for metals and mining – by Alex Brinded (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining – November 27, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.iom3.org/

Post London Metal Exchange Week 2023, Wood Mackenzie hosted a briefing on the risks and opportunities for metals and mining amid accelerated energy transition pressures.

‘The current metals super-cycle, which is a major component of the global energy transition, could stall due to a gloomy global macroeconomic environment, geopolitics and a lack of investment in new production facilities,’ according to analysts from Wood Mackenzie.

Speaking at a briefing in London, Nick Pickens, Research Director of Global Mining at the firm, highlighted that US$200bln of new mining projects are required by 2030, as well as more efficient and creative methods of recycling existing scrap metals.

Three of Canada’s major critical mineral projects are in Sudbury – by Staff (Sudbury Star – November 22, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

They are Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, Vale’s Copper Cliff Deep project and KGHM’s Victoria Mine project

The federal government has launched a $1.5-billion fund for critical minerals infrastructure, while simultaneously highlighting close to 500 projects nationwide that are generating jobs and growing a greener economy. The funding announcement this week coincided with the release of an annual report on major projects underway across the country in the fields of energy, forestry and mining.

Three of the big mining projects are in Sudbury: Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, with an estimated capital cost of $1 billion to $2.5 billion; the Copper Cliff Deep project being pursued by Vale, pegged at $750 million to $1B; and a revived Victoria Mine project being undertaken in the Whitefish area by Polish company KGHM, at a projected cost of $1B to $2.5B.

Trudeau’s green energy policy means more mining – by Lorrie Goldstein (Toronto Sun – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://torontosun.com/

A typical electric vehicle and its battery requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle

One of the many ironies of the Trudeau government’s clean energy strategy is that it means dramatically increasing the number of mining operations in Canada and approving them far more quickly than in the past.

What’s driving the need for a mining boom is the Trudeau government’s edict that 60% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in Canada must be electric by 2030, increasing to 100% in 2035, along with 35% of new medium and heavy-duty vehicles by 2030 and, where feasible, 100% by 2040.

Mining tycoons battle over lithium’s ‘corridor of power’ in Australia – by Nic Fildes and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

Local billionaires disrupt consolidation as industry positions itself for boom in mineral vital to electric cars

The vast tracts of desert in Western Australia, which have yielded gold, nickel and iron ore to prospectors in decades past, have now become a major battleground for miners of lithium, a key raw material for batteries as the world transitions to greener energy.

A struggle for control of the resource has been ignited this year as multinational companies have clashed with Australian mining billionaires over a series of takeover attempts in two of the remotest parts of the state.

Will the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund have impact? The miners behind 3 northern projects hope so – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Sudbury – November 22, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Companies say the money could help accelerate production timelines for priority metals

The long-awaited Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF) launched on Monday, and several northern Ontario mining companies are hopeful their projects will be selected by Ottawa.

With $1.5 billion available over the next seven years, there is a lot of money at play. Up to $300 million is available in the first call for proposals, which ends in late February. The program has two streams. One focuses on pre-construction and project development, and the other looks at infrastructure deployment.

Electra Battery Materials waiting on funders to help launch Temiskaming cobalt refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 23, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto plant developer looks to lock up US$60 million to start supplying North American battery manufacturers

Electra Battery Materials will continue to hold off on completing the last phases of construction its Temiskaming cobalt refinery until it can secure the remaining US$60 million to finish the job.

“We’ll be very careful before we press start,” said Trent Mell, the company’s president-CEO in a recent conference call and webcast on its third-quarter performance. Most of the refinery’s remaining equipment, ordered and fabricated overseas, has arrived on site but won’t be installed until project financing comes through.

Tearing up the Earth for EVs and a fossil-fuel future – by John Chilibeck (Sudbury Star – November 24, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Study shows hundreds of new mines would have to open to find metals needed to meet Canada’s and other countries’ targets for more electric vehicles

The world will have to open 388 new mines within the next decade to meet government objectives for electric vehicle purchases, an unlikely scenario given how difficult and time-consuming it is to site such operations, warns a new study.

The Fraser Institute report, released Thursday, raises a daunting question: are mining rules too stringent, particularly in Canada and other rich countries, to electrify much of our energy needs and get vehicles with traditional combustion-fuel engines off the road?

First Quantum warns of arbitration as Panama weighs copper contract – by Valentine Hilaire and Elida Moreno (Reuters – November 26, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

Nov 26 (Reuters) – Canada’s First Quantum intends to start arbitration against Panama, the Central American nation’s trade ministry and the company said on Sunday, as Panama’s top court considers annulling a copper contract that opponents call unfair.

On Oct. 20, Panama’s government approved a contract for First Quantum to operate the copper Cobre Panama mine. It included a 20-year mining right with an option to extend for another 20 years. In return the miner agreed to pay Panama $375 million a year.

Opinion: Liberals’ unrealistic EV targets are completely out of sync with global metal supply – by Kenneth Green (Financial Post – November 23, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Making all the batteries required will mean opening hundreds of new mines and that will take considerable time

Governments around the world are mandating a shift away from vehicles powered primarily by internal combustion engines and toward vehicles powered primarily with electricity stored on-board in batteries. The timelines for the electric vehicle (EV) transition are beyond ambitious. Here in Canada, Trudeau government targets require that 35 per cent of all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold must be electric by 2030, rising to fully 100 per cent by 2040.

But these government EV transition timelines depend in turn on timelines for producing the metals necessary to manufacture battery-electric cars. Current EV technology requires large quantities of lithium, nickel, manganese, cadmium, graphite, zinc and other rare-earth elements in both the batteries and drive systems.

Canada uncorks $1.5B critical minerals fund – by Colin McClelland (Northern Miner – November 20, 2023)

November 22, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

The Canadian government is looking for critical mineral projects to back with a $1.5 billion fund. The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund is organized to support clean energy and electrification projects as well as transportation and infrastructure construction that helps get the minerals to market.

First off from a $300-million pool, applicants can seek up to $50 million per project, while provincial and territorial governments can apply for as much as $100 million for each project. Applications are being accepted until the end of February.